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Book of the Bible: II Kings

Topic: Prayer

Type: Bible Story

Summary: The Assyrian army surrounds Jericho and King Hezekiah, mocking the one true God. When Hezekiah turns to God in prayer, something amazing happens. This short dramatic piece teaches a great lesson and is very engaging for children.

Did you know that one of the best methods of learning is REPETITION? If you didn’t know that, then I’m here to tell you that one of the best methods of learning is REPETITION! Oh, one more thing…it’s a proven fact that one of the best methods of learning is REPETITION. Do you get the point? Well, the truth is that even God uses this tool when He has a lesson that He wants us to learn. Take for example, the story of Hezekiah & the Assyrian Assault. It’s told in II Kings AND in II Chronicles AND in Isaiah! God must’ve wanted us to learn a mighty important lesson! Let’s see if YOU can figure out what that lesson is.

Now King Hezekiah was a descendant of King David, and he was a GOOD king who loved the LORD and ruled over the land of Judah with wisdom, encouraging the people to follow the LORD and be obedient to His commandments. However, even those who do right sometimes encounter troubles…and in the 14th year of Hezekiah’s reign, he came against the BIGGEST problem that he had ever faced – and his GREAT TROUBLE was King Sennacherib! He was the king of , the mightiest empire in the world, and nearly every country in the world belonged to him, but he had his eye on adding one more—the Kingdom of Judah—and he had gathered an army of nearly 200,000 soldiers and surrounded the city of . Now Jerusalem was a walled city, and Sennacherib knew that without food or supplies going in and out, they could just wait for the white flag of surrender from Hezekiah, but to hurry the surrender, King Sennacherib sent his Top Bully, Rabshakeh, to shake up the citizens of Jerusalem. Now Rabshakeh had a booming voice so when he yelled to the men on the walls of the city, the whole city could hear his sneers and jeers!

RABSHAKEH: Let not Hezekiah deceive you! For he shall not be able to deliver you. Surrender! And King Sennacherib will give you food to eat and water to drink, but hearken to Hezekiah and you’ll starve to death! Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely deliver us! The gods of the other nations we destroyed were not able to deliver them, and your God will not be able to save you!

No one in Jerusalem answered Rabshakeh, but they all heard him and they were shaken up, and they all wondered what good King Hezekiah would do. Well, when Hezekiah heard the blasphemous words of Rabshakeh, he rent his kingly robes and put on humble sackcloth and went into the house of the LORD to pray to the LORD AND he sent a special messenger to Isaiah the prophet and asked him to pray as well.

Meanwhile Rabshakeh was writing a letter to Hezekiah…an insulting, Scoffing, SCORNFUL letter that suggested that Hezekiah was a FOOL to trust in His powerless God, and that his foolishness would surely bring utter destruction to Jerusalem and every inhabitant in it. This letter was thrown over the wall and hand-delivered to Hezekiah.

Hezekiah opened the letter and read the degrading, Demeaning, DEROGATORY words…and then turned and went again to the house of the LORD, and spread out that letter before the LORD…and prayed as he had never prayed before:

HEZEKIAH: O LORD God! See all the words of Sennacherib, which Rabshakeh hath written to shame the living God. It’s true, LORD…the kings of Assyria have utterly destroyed all the nations, and have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou alone art the LORD God who made heaven and earth and rules over all the kingdoms of the earth - even Thou only.

Now the Bible tells us in the New Testament that the “effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” but in the Old Testament, he demonstrates that truth, because no sooner had Hezekiah finished praying than God spoke – not to Hezekiah – but to His servant, Isaiah, the prophet. And Isaiah sent this message to King Hezekiah:

ISAIAH: Thus saith the LORD, I HAVE HEARD YOUR PRAYER. The king of Assyria shall not come into this city, nor even shoot an arrow into it. By the way that he came, he shall go and never return, for I, the LORD God, will defend this city and save it.

And that night, while the mighty army slept outside the walls of Jerusalem, the Angel of the LORD visited the camp…with DEATH, and when the sun rose the next morning 185,000 soldiers lay stone dead. And Sennacherib with all of his boasting and blasphemy departed – knowing that Hezekiah’s God is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Wow! What a story! It’s no wonder that God made sure that it was recorded in three different books for us, so we don’t miss the marvelous truths revealed in it. There’s lots of lessons to learn, but I’ll just point out three: First of all, when troubles come, PRAY! (and troubles will come to you just like they came to good King Hezekiah, but now you know the proper way to handle them – PRAY!), Secondly, when people make fun of you, your faith or your God, PRAY! (and people will mock you if you’re really trying to live for Him, but you don’t need to defend yourself; the same God who heard Hezekiah can hear us and defend us if we’ll just…PRAY!) and finally, you’re not alone in the battle, so share your needs with other Christians who know how to join with you to PRAY! Notice how King Hezekiah asked Isaiah to PRAY. He wants us to do the same as we face the challenges in our life. So remember our points: PRAY! PRAY! PRAY! Sounds repetitive, but it’s was GOD’S WAY back in Hezekiah’s day…and it’s GOD’S WAY today…so PRAY!