Hezekiah’s Prayer

I think a decent amount about this idea of revival. When I read the Bible, there are definitely acts where God steps into a person or group of people’s lives in a great and miraculous way. There’s also something that comes even before these acts, and it’s humble and God centered prayer. In order for anything to happen, especially something as big as a revival, we need to live in ways that are just as big, though in different aspects. We need to be living in a right relationship with God. Daily looking to the cross and who we are in Christ. The second is a strong and mighty prayer life.

This prayer comes from 2 Kings 19, where Hezekiah, a king who was in right standing with God, was being attacked and feared not only for his life but also for his entire kingdom. The enemy sent messengers to spook him and it was definitely working. So he goes to the temple of the Lord and spread out these threat letters before the Lord.

And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said: “O LORD, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. So now, O LORD our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O LORD, are God alone.”
(2 Kings 19:15-19 ESV)

We can see that first off, Hezekiah  goes down before the Lord in praise and worship. He recognizes and realizes that God is bigger than himself or anything that’s going on. He might perish in the next day or two, but God is forever. He will go on to be Lord of the universe no matter what happens. He is enthroned above the cherubim, higher and more honored than all the kingdoms on earth.  He is the creator of all, he is the creator of both heaven and earth and all that is in it.

Secondly, we see Hezekiah’s request that God both hear and see the threats that his enemy has sent him. He brings it before God because it’s not just a threat but also a letter mocking not only Israel, but the Lord God who is sovereign over Israel.

Third, he recognizes that everything else that people worship is just the work of men’s hands, just wood and stone. They are nothing to us, and nothing to God. He is more powerful than anything we could ever come up with.

Fourth and finally, he appeals to God to save him and his people from his enemy. But that’s not just an ends to a means.  The end is not just to be saved, but the goal is the glory of God. He asks God to save them, so “that all the kingdoms of earth may know that you, O LORD, are God alone.” Everything that we pray and ask for must be so that God’s glory would be revealed and that all of the earth may know Him and that He is God alone. We pray for revival not in and of itself, but we pray for revival so that the entire campus and the world may know that our God is God alone.

God hears Hezekiah’s prayer and responds in verses 20-34. And in verses 35-37 we see how God carries out his words and answer to Hezekiah’s prayer.

And that night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at Nineveh. And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.
(2 Kings 19:35-37 ESV)

Let us pray with the same mindset and heart as Hezekiah.

Praise God. Request His presence. All else is folly. Ask Him to move so that He may be glorified.