Isaiah 37:14-20

3. THE PRAYER

TEXT: Isaiah 37:14-20

14

And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up unto the house of Jehovah, and spread it before Jehovah.

15

And Hezekiah prayed unto Jehovah, saying,

16

O Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, that sittest above the cherubim, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.

17

Incline thine ear, O Jehovah, and hear; open thine eyes, O Jehovah, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, who hath sent to defy the living God.

18

Of a truth, Jehovah, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the countries, and their land,

19

and have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them.

20

Now therefore, O Jehovah our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art Jehovah, even thou only.

QUERIES

a.

Why spread the letter before Jehovah?

b.

Why say God sits above the cherubim?

c.

Why cast the nation's gods into the fire?

PARAPHRASE

Hezekiah took the letter from the Assyrian messengers and read it for himself. Then, taking it to the Temple, he presented it before the Lord and prayed, saying, O Lord of hosts, Great God of Israel enthroned upon Thy Mercy Seat here in this Thy Temple, Thou art the Only God, King of all kingdoms, and Omnipotent Creator of the universe. Please turn Thine ears to hear my pleas and direct Thine eyes, O Lord, to see what I have to present to Thee. See, Lord, this letter of Sennacherib; it is a mocking defiance of Thy sovereignty. Admittedly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have conquered and destroyed all those peoples listed in the letter. Yes, they have thrown their gods into the fire and proved they were not gods at all but just pieces of wood and stone carved into images by men's hands. Of course, men can destroy gods like those. In view of this, my prayer to Thee, O Living God, is that Thou wilt save us so that all the world may know that Thou art the Only God.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 37:14-16 PRAISE: Unlike Ahaz, when threatened by the Syrian-Israeli coalition, who went to the king of Assyria for help (see comments on Isaiah 7:10-16), Hezekiah turned immediately to the Lord for help from his enemies. Hezekiah did not spread the letter before the Lord because he believed God would not know what it said had he not taken it to the Temple. His concept of God was not that of mysticism or paganism, as his prayer demonstrates. Hezekiah believed in a God who was omnipotent and omniscient.

Hezekiah's prayer ranks alongside the great prayers of the Bible as a model men today would do well to follow. It is brief, compared to the grand prayer of Daniel (ch. 9), but equally as reverent and believing. All praying should begin and end with praise to God. Jesus taught, Pray this way, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.. The holiness, majesty, righteousness, faithfulness, and sovereignty of God should be our first concern in prayer or evangelism or worship. Our salvation, our blessedness, our development into His nature all depends upon who He isnot upon what we are or what we want. Of course, we cannot be saved or blessed unless we want it, but we could want it forever and never have it if God is not Who He Is. Too much prayer is focused on petition and not enough on praise. Too much asking has a tendency to make our wants sovereign. Let us first pray, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth just like it is in heaven..

The cherubim were the angel-like figures with wings, one on each end of the ark of the covenant, within the Holy of Holies in the Temple. They hovered over the mercy seat and were symbols to represent the place where God's presence dwelt. Hezekiah, of course, did not think his God was a provincial God like those of the pagans, restricted to houses made with hands. He was merely reiterating his belief that Jehovah God was present where God said He would bein His Temple. He was affirming his faith that God was with the nation in their extremity.

Isaiah 37:17-19 PETITION: Hezekiah refers to God anthropomorphically. That is, he refers to God as having human attributes (ears, eyes, etc.). This is true of both Old and New Testaments. Human attributes are the highest forms or symbols within man's experience by which he may express nonexperienced attributes! Anthropomorphism is an attempt to express the non-rational aspects of God's being in terms of the rational. Biblical anthropomorphism is quite different from pagan concepts of their gods. The anthropomorphism of pagan religions describes their gods in forms of man and animals, trees, stars, or even a mixture of elements. To regard Jehovah God solely as Absolute Being or The Great Unknown is to refer to him or it, but if man is ever to think of God as personal, one with whom he can fellowship, man must think of God as Thou, and man can only conceive of Thou in anthropomorphic symbols. Hezekiah is praying, not to an Idea, but to a Person.

Note also Hezekiah's preciseness in prayer. He does not pray a generalized prayer for delivery from a general enemy. He prays the Lord to take action on the very words of Sennacherib. Specific prayer for a specific need. But what is the need? Hezekiah focuses on the fact that Sennacherib has defied the living God. The primary need, as Hezekiah sees it, is not physical deliverance but vindication of the sovereignty of Jehovah God (see Isaiah 37:20). Hezekiah is well aware of the power of Assyria. He is a realist and no foolish optimist. The kings of Assyria have done all they brag about. They have laid waste the major portion of the inhabited world. They have even wreaked havoc and desolation in their own land (Mesopotamia) (cf. Isaiah 14:20). This characterizes the Assyrians as a people thriving on war and desolation. They cared not that their warlike nature brought destitution even to their own land! One concept thoroughly established by the Assyrian conquests was the demonstration that the gods of all the nations conquered by them were not gods at all. When the Assyrians conquered a nation they took that nation's gods (idols and images) and threw them into the fire and burned (wood and metal and stone) and melted them. The Assyrians proved that the gods of other nations were powerless. But what about the gods of the Assyrians?

Isaiah 37:20 PURPOSE: Hezekiah's primary purpose was not for himself, not even for his country, but for the glory of God. Hezekiah is concerned for the honor of God. He prays that the power, sovereignty and uniqueness of Jehovah be vindicated before the eyes of the world. He is not willing that Jehovah be considered just another one of the provincial gods of the nations. God repeats over and over in the Old Testament that He acts for his own sake, and the men of faith in the Old Testament always prayed that God would act for his own name's sake (cf. 2 Samuel 7:21; 1 Kings 8:41; 2 Chronicles 6:32; Psalms 6:4; Psalms 31:16; Psalms 23:3; Psalms 31:3; Psalms 25:7; Psalms 25:11; Psalms 44:26; Psalms 79:9; Psalms 106:8; Psalms 115:1; Psalms 143:11; Isaiah 37:35; Isaiah 42:21; Isaiah 45:4; Isaiah 48:9; Isaiah 48:11; Jeremiah 14:7; Jeremiah 14:21; Ezekiel 20:9; Ezekiel 20:14; Ezekiel 20:22; Ezekiel 20:44; Ezekiel 36:22; Daniel 9:17; Daniel 9:19). This is the most important concept of the Bible. All of man's hopes in this world or the next rest upon the vindication of the Absoluteness of God's Person. Our every motive, desire, aim, prayer, action and concern must be that God will first act for His own sake. If His Word is not verified and confirmed and established, we are lost! The faith, once for all delivered to the saints, is the veracity, sovereignty, mercy, faithfulness, holiness of God as demonstrated and manifested in the Incarnate Son of God, who was Immanuel, God with us. (see special study, The Faith Once Delivered For All Time, p. 248.)

QUIZ

1.

How does Hezekiah's reaction when threatened by enemies compare with the reaction of Ahaz (Isaiah 7)?

2.

Why is Hezekiah's prayer great?

3.

What is anthropomorphism and why is it necessary when speaking of God?

4.

How does Hezekiah express his realism about Assyria?

5.

What is the primary purpose of Hezekiah's prayer?

6.

Why is this purpose so important in our relationship to God?