Old Testament: 2Ki 18.17–25

To read the Bible in a year, read Second Kings 18–19 on May 17,In the year of our Lord 2022

By Don Ruhl 

The king of the brutal Assyrians (they were the ISIS of Hezekiah’s day), approached Jerusalem, and sent his leaders and a great army against Jerusalem, and a message to King Hezekiah and to the Jews, 

Then the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh from Lachish, with a great army against Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah…And when they had called to the king, Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to them. Then the Rabshakeh said to them, “…What confidence is this in which you trust? You speak of having plans and power for war; but they are mere words. And in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me? Now look! You are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem’? Now therefore, I urge you, give a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses—if you are able on your part to put riders on them! How then will you repel one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen? Have I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’” 

– 2 Kings 18.17–25 

This enemy assumed that Judah trusted in Egypt to win the war. The Assyrian king also blasted their trust in Jehovah God, and then claimed that the God of Israel told him to destroy Judah. 

Sometimes people just will not understand you and they will pass on misinformation about you. However, Hezekiah presented his case to the Lord, and He delivered them from the superpower of that day. 

Questions: 

• What do you do when someone does not understand you? 
• Have you or do you misunderstand others?