– Devotion by Jeremy Martin
The beginning of our 2Ki 19-20 reading today finds our hero Hezekiah fiercely beset by a vastly superior armed force. Please take a moment to read 2Ki 18:13-37 to refresh yourself of the specifics. If you recall, back in chapter 17, Judah’s sister nation Israel has already been taken captive previously and forced into exile. In 2Ki 18: 1-13, we see that Hezekiah the king of Judah was spared this fate because he trusted God, he clung to God, he didn’t turn away from following God and obeying His commandments. So he’s still in power but right now there’s a massive army surrounding him that has already conquered everyone else around, gathered en masse outside the gates hurling taunts at the city, and they seem prepared to hurl much more dangerous bits as well.
First, let’s get an idea of the scale of things. This large, technologically advanced force was at the time part of the most dominant military power in the near east. Aggadah literature describes the army as composed of “45,000 ‘princes’ in golden chariots, 80,000 armored warriors, 60,000 swordsmen, and numerous cavalry”, in the rabbinic tradition. So far in the campaign, Sennacherib has conquered 46 other fortified cities. This estimate of forces is also backed scripturally and apocryphally in 2 Ki 9:35, Judith 14:11-12, and Is 37:36. Conversely, the population of Jerusalem (per wikipedia) during Hezekiah’s time was a whopping “up to about 25000” people, total.
So on one hand you’ve got a city with (around) 25,000 men, women, and children in it, and on the other hand an advanced army of armored warriors and cavalry numbering well over 185,000 (not counting camp followers). Things are looking, not to put too fine a point on things, “bad” for our heroes. With this picture in mind, now add the leader of these forces shouting up to the nervous inhabitants the taunting insults detailed in 2Ki 18:13-37. We would probably be hearing a much different historical account if not for a couple tiny little details: firstly, the commander shouting up at the walls insulted God. Secondly, Hezekiah was a man who trusted God, who clung to God, who loved God and God loved him back.
It should be noted that according to the events listed in 2Ki 19:2-8 that it appears as if God miraculously diverts the first attempted attack and causes the army to go home, but that then after an unspecified (but probably short) time has passed, the commander sends threatening letters back to Hezekiah and heads back with his troops to “finish business”.
At this point, Hezekiah “tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the House of Yahweh” (19:1, LSB) and then prayed one of the most beautiful and humble prayers in scripture. Beginning in 2Ki 19: 14-19 (LSB translation): “Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of Yahweh and spread it out before Yahweh…and said “O Yahweh, the God of Israel, who is 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 Yahweh, and hear; open Your eyes, O Yahweh, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to reproach the living God. Truly, O Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands and have put 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. But now, O Yahweh our God, I pray, save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O Yahweh, are God“.
In our reading today of Ps 68, we see in v17 that “The chariots of God are myriads, thousands upon thousands…” (LSB). Rev 5:11 states that (concerning angels) “the numbering of them was myriads upon myriads, and thousands of thousands“. We don’t really have an accurate number of how many angels serve God, but a very conservative guesstimate would be “lots and lots”. If today’s reading of 2Ki 19:35 has been transmitted and understood accurately, God sent 1 (one) of these innumerable angels to the enemy camp and that angel killed 185,000 men. Pause, digest, consider. One angel, and he wiped out almost an entire army, the most powerful of the time. One angel out a large force of angels (out of Millions? Billions? we really have no idea, just “myriads upon myriads”). Just one angel.
**An interesting side note is that Hezekiah is described as “the best-attested figure in biblical history,” due to the extensive documentation of his reign in biblical texts and external sources (notably Assyrian inscriptions), per Wikipedia. This entire story is documented both biblically and through a number of extra-biblical sources. There’s a wonderfully deep hole full of information on that you can fall down into if you’re interested in that sort of thing. I did, but for our intents and purposes it is only important to note that although in agreement in general about the number of men killed, some of the sources do give different accounts of the manner that the men actually died (but in all fairness it never said how the angel of Yahweh killed them, just that he had).
This bible story has always fascinated me. What a fantastic, miraculous, wonderful thing. It happened so long ago though, and that sort of thing doesn’t happen these days, right? Wrong. Reports from the Yom Kippur war in 1973 describe an incident on the Golan Heights where a Syrian tank commander reportedly told Israeli interrogators that his forces were halted by a vision of a whole host of white angels standing on the missile line, accompanied by a white hand from heaven commanding them to stop. This encounter allegedly occurred during the “Valley of Tears” battle, where a small Israeli force held off a much larger Syrian advance. According to the account, the Syrian commander said he could not proceed due to the supernatural presence, which instilled fear and caused his troops to retreat. This story is cited in multiple sources, including religious and historical commentary, as a supernatural turning point in the war. Look it up.
As humans, our senses are finite and limited. God is not. In 2 Ki 6:16-17 we see another example of this when Elisha tells his servant not to worry, that those with them outnumbered those that were against them, and then “Elisha prayed and said, “O Yahweh, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And Yahweh opened the eyes of the young man and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around …” (LSB). We often forget that our God, the God Most High, the Creator of the heavens and the earth is the most powerful being that exists. Myriads upon myriads of beings far more powerful than humans serve him currently, and just one of His angels can wipe out an entire army. This is not a weak king; this is the creator, ruler, and owner of the universe who will bring about his willed purpose no matter what, and He is awesome. This makes it all the more humbling when we realize how ferociously He loves you, and all that He has done for YOU specifically, and what price He paid for your redemption. A very high price indeed.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
- Do you constantly keep in the forefront of your mind the incredible, unstoppable power of the Most High God, or have you allowed yourself to be deceived by your limited senses?
- Have you considered how silly pride is on our part, when we consider the magnititude of God?
- Have you seen, or felt, divine intervention directly in your life? When?
- Why do we worry, when we consider all of the above?
PRAYER
Lord God Most High, Mighty God, I humble myself before You. Forgive me, teach me, and open my eyes so that I can see. Open my ears so that I can hear You. Circumcise my heart and teach me to love you as fiercely as you have loved me, in Jesus name, Amen.
