Steven A. Bush - February 19, 2017
Hezekiah: Surrounded, Outmanned, and Outgunned
At the age of thirty-nine, King Hezekiah found his city of Jerusalem surrounded by the powerful army of Assyria. All the other cities of Judah had fallen. The northern ten tribes of Israel had already been conquered by this evil empire. Likewise many neighboring nations. The message from the Assyrian king was surrender or face cruel extermination. What would Hezekiah do? He went to the temple, laid the enemy's edict before the Lord, and cried out for help. Isaiah the prophet echoed the same. What would God Almighty do? Perhaps you've found yourself facing insurmountable woe. Or perhaps someday you will. What will you do? Will it be a life-threatening diagnosis? An addiction? Financial ruin? Divorce? Betrayal? What about sin and death? To whom will you cry out for help? Romans 8:35-39 says: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (ESV) Yes--Christ Jesus is always the answer!