More on the Different Ways God deals with enemy armies

Warfare in Isaiah

Unnerving verse of the day: Isaiah 33:18 Your heart will meditate on terror: “Where is he who counts? Where is he who weighs? Where is he who counts the towers?”

33:22 For the Lord is our judge, The Lord is our lawgiver, The Lord is our king, He will save us—

34:4 …and the sky will be rolled up like a scroll…

Better minds than mine can explain the dire situation Jerusalem is in when Hezekiah prays for deliverance:

Isaiah 37:15- And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord saying, “O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, who art enthroned above the cherubim, Thou art the God, Thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. Thou hast made heaven and earth. Incline Thine ear, O Lord, and hear, open Thine eyes, O Lord, and see, and listen to the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to reproach the living God. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have devastated all the countries 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. So they have destroyed them. And now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that Thou alone, Lord, art God.”

Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, this is the word that the Lord has spoken against him: “She has despised you and mocked you, the virgin daughter of Zion, she has shaken her head behind you, the daughter of Jerusalem! Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? And against whom have you raised your voice, and haughtily lifted up your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel! Through your servants you hve reproached the Lord, and you have said, “With my chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains, to the remotest parts of Lebanon, and I cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses. And I will go to its highest peak, its thickest forest. I dug wells and drank water, and with the sole of my feet I dried up all the rivers of Egypt.’ “Have you not heard? Long ago I did it, from ancient times I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, that you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps. Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength, they were dismayed and put to shame, they were as the begetation of the field and as the green herb, as the grass on the houstops is scorched before it is grown up. BUT I KNOW YOUR SITTING DOWN, AND YOUR GOING OUT AND YOUR COMING IN, AND YOUR RAGING AGAINST ME.” (emphasis mine) “Because of your raging against Me, and because your arrogance has come up to My ears, therefore I will put My hook in your nose, and My bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came. Then this shall be the sign for you: you shall eat this year what grows of itself; in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. “And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of Mount Zion survivors. The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall perform this.” Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, “He shall not come to this city, or shoot an arrow there, neither shall he come before it with a shield, nor throw up a mount against it. By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come to this city,” declares the Lord. “For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.” THEN AN ANGEL OF THE LORD WENT OUT, AND STRUCK 185,000 IN THE CAMP OF THE ASSYRIANS, AND WHEN MEN AROSE EARLY IN THE MORNING, BEHOLD, ALL OF THESE WERE DEAD.

So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. (present day Iraq)

Neat, huh?? God warns, answers King Hezekiah’s prayer, and wipes out King Sennacherib’s army.

The difference in this story with the one I blogged about yesterday was that in this story we have dead bodies. How long did it take to bury 185,000??? The Bible says they were dead. Not just gone, as in left in haste when the lepers found tents full of food and clothing in 2 Kings 7:3. I had never pondered the difference in these two ways God dwelt with protecting Israel.

Our dear soldiers fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I want to repeat parts of this prayer for them:

Dear Heavenly Father, As Hezekiah prayed many years ago, You are the Lord of the Heavenly Armies, and You alone are THE GOD, and You alone, are enthroned above the cherubim, and You made heaven and earth. The Arab nations surrounding Israel still lob bombs into Israel, and send terrorists to murder people in Israel. You know and have known from eternity past what all the arabs are saying against Israel, and against the USA. Please deliver our soldiers from the terrorists so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, Lord, are God. Show the falseness of Islam, and reveal for all the world to see the evil in that religion. Destroy those who have hard hearts because they blaspheme You. And please destroy those in our country who would seek to undercut what our troops are trying to do in Iraq and Afghanistan. Please give our troops the equipment, funding, clarity, leadership, wisdom to bring peace to Iraq and Afghanistan by wiping out the terrorists. Please reveal where osoma is hiding and allow our troops to take him and his terrorists out. And what would You have our troops do about Iran? And Syria? Please keep us a friend and protector of Israel. Only You, Lord, can reveal to the arab peoples that Islam is a lie, and turn them from abusing their women and children. Your Will be done. In Jesus Name I pray. Amen.