Prayer Can Make a Difference

Isaiah 37:21b-22, 29, 35: "Because you (King Hezekiah) have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, this is the word the LORD has spoken against him . . . . I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came . . . . I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant."

In the fourteenth year of the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah (approx. 701BC), the mighty Assyrians swept across the Fertile Crescent to the Palestinian region and laid claim to its territories. After the Assyrians had captured the fortified cities around Jerusalem, King Sennacherib of Assyria sent a field commander with a vast army to the Judean capital in order to terrify its people into submission and defeat.

When the invading army arrived at Jerusalem, the field commander brazenly cried out, "On what are you basing this confidence of yours?" As a representative of the Assyrian king, the field commander made a mockery of Judah and its God; he decried any nation that would think it could overcome the mighty Assyrian army. Specifically he said, "Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?" (36:18). King Hezekiah tore his clothes in mourning at such blasphemy and prayed to the Lord that this seemingly insurmountable threat of military defeat and occupation might be thwarted. His prayer was earnest: "O Lord Almighty, God of Israel enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see, listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God . . . . Now O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God."

God responded to Hezekiah's prayer through the prophet Isaiah. He sent the prophet to proclaim that the LORD would intervene because Hezekiah sought the LORD for deliverance. The king knew that God alone would be his salvation; he did not rely upon his own abilities to remedy his own problems.

Later, God sent the angel of the LORD to destroy the army of Assyria, putting to death 185,000 of its troops. Sennacherib, having been overwhelmed at his misfortune, withdrew his forces and returned to Nineveh where he stayed until his unexpected death. Apparently, the king of Assyria was so devastated by his military demise that he went to seek answers from his own pagan god (which was no god in reality); and as he was worshipping in the pagan temple of his god, he was assassinated by his own sons. Within fifty years of the Sennacherib's invasion of Judah, the kingdom of Assyria would be invaded by the Babylonians, ultimately leading to its utter destruction. The once mighty kingdom of Assyria would soon be no more!

There obviously is a good word for us here. We need to remember that in our own life experiences, prayer is the only hope that we have against the seemingly insurmountable obstacles that we encounter. When the trying circumstances come our way like an invading army, we must run to the Lord and cry out for His protection and deliverance. What we find assuring is that God hears our prayers; in fact, He will be waiting for our response to Him in faith so that He can demonstrate His mighty power leading to our deliverance.

Let us not give up on praying to God. No matter how hopeless our circumstances seem to be, let us remember the incredible privilege that we have to lay our deepest concerns before the Almighty.