Turn It Around
Dearly beloved of God, have you ever had a day when it seemed like the whole world was collapsing on you? King Hezekiah did.
Can you imagine having had the cities around yours captured by the enemy and now yours was surrounded and yours was the next to be attacked? That was King Hezekiah's dilemma.
Sennacherib the king of Assyria had him surrounded and taunted his men on the city walls telling them that they had captured so many nations and lands, and the gods they worshiped. Jerusalem was no different they said: wrong. He even sent Hezekiah a threatening letter.
What did Hezekiah do? He took the letter and spread it before the LORD and told Him that this king was speaking trash about Him, the Living God!
He said, God you show him that you are the LORD our God; save us out of his hand so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the LORD God, even You only!
God sent Isaiah the prophet to Hezekiah with His answer to Hezekiah’s prayer. You can read it in II Kings 19:20 ff.
God sent His angel and that night he smote 185,000 of Sennacherib’s warriors, “and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.” So Sennacherib went home, and while he was worshiping his pagan god, he was killed by two of his sons, which fulfilled what God had told him.
Quite a day, huh? But wait that’s not all. “In those days”, meaning during the same time that Sennacherib was besieging their city, Hezekiah was deathly sick. He was so sick that God sent Isaiah to him to tell him that he was going to die, and not live, so get your house in order.
What did Hezekiah do? He prayed to the Lord and before Isaiah was gone out of the middle court, God turned him around with another message for Hezekiah.
This time God told Isaiah to tell Hezekiah that He heard his prayer and that He would heal him, and add fifteen years to his life, and deliver him and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and He said, I will defend this city. He told Hezekiah that in three days he would go up to the house of the LORD. (I told you it all happened at the same time.)
God had Isaiah put a lump of figs on the boil and Hezekiah recovered. Not only that, God moved the sundial 10 degrees backward for him as a sign that it would happen as He had spoken.
Yeah, all of this fell on Hezekiah at the same time, but God delivered him from the enemy’s attack and from a deadly sickness…at the same time. That’s what you call turning things around, isn’t it?!
(You can read about it in II Kings 20 and Isaiah 38 and in the context that precedes them.)
Don’t faint, trust God, pray to Him, believe Him, and He will lift the weight off your shoulders as He did for Hezekiah. Our God is the Living God and He is able and willing to deliver us. Don’t be intimidated by the adversary.
“Casting all your care upon Him; for He cares for you. Be sober [sound minded], be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour; who resist steadfast in the faith [the right way of believing] ….” I Peter 5:7-9 a
Hezekiah’s heart was perfect toward God. If God would do this for Hezekiah because He was faithful and stood for God, He will do the same for us today, dearly beloved.
Our God is the One True and Living God; He does not change. He will turn your situation around for you as you believe Him according to His Word, dearly beloved.