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All right, so chapter 37 obviously is a continuation from chapter number 36, and it's really just kind of jumping right in the middle So when we see there in verse number one It says and it came to pass when Hezekiah heard it That he rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord So right from the from the beginning of this chapter here. We're just kind of starting off It's like well, what you know, what did he hear? Well, if you're here last week, or if you read the chapter earlier You remember chapter 36 was all about? Rab Shiki who came and and he came representing Sennacherib the king of Assyria and And him and his counter, you know a few guys with him they came and spoke with with a few people of Judah And they're basically just saying like look Give up now Just surrender and you know don't know who are you relying on you relying on Egypt you relying on the Lord You know and they started as blaspheme the name of the Lord and just you know talk all kinds of trash To the people who are sitting on the wall and everything else So they kind of made this big federal and it came in real proud real arrogant Just demean them talk down to them and just said okay Here's the way it's gonna be you know, if you just just give up now, we'll take you into another land You'll be able to plant vineyards and have some other stuff But like, you know, basically we're just gonna take you away and they say, you know, who's been able to stand before us Anyways, we've been able to conquer all these other lands and all the other gods and everything else. So now Hezekiah's counselors that come back and they bring him word and they tell him about What just happened and that's where we pick up here in chapter 37 That's what it says, you know when he hears it when he hears what happened. He hears what was done That he he rent his clothes which we do he's literally tears tears his clothes and Covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord and this is again Just giving a little bit more credit and praise Hezekiah as a righteous godly king because he responds the right way, you know, he hears this this bad news Here's man. There's trouble. These people are definitely looking for a fight and And what you know, we need to do something about this and his first place that he turns to is to the house of the Lord He humbles himself. He puts on sackcloth and ashes and rents his clothes and you know, he's the king and we've seen this before You know, sometimes Kings they don't want to humble themselves They're gonna figure out some other way to do things and use their own Strength and their own might and and you know, maybe try to hire someone else or whatever to try to get the job done But that's not what Izekiah does he humbles himself he goes into the house of the Lord to seek the Lord for the Lord's assistance and Defense to help them against this threat verse number two says and he sent Eliakim who was over the household and Shebna the scribe And the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth Unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amos so he sends them straight to the prophet Hey go to the man of God, right? We need to entreat the Lord and you know, these people that he sends are all also You know clothed in sackcloth. They're all mourning They're all taking this very seriously and humbling themselves before the Lord when they go to Isaiah and and you know Kind of explain the situation unto him and and entreat him to go Speak to the Lord for them and and get some assistance verse 3 says and they said unto him Thus Seth has a chi so they're speaking to Isaiah now the prophet This day is a day of trouble and of rebuke and a blasphemy For the children are come to the birth and there is not strength to bring forth So, I mean basically what he's saying is that that everything is coming to a head now But we don't have the strength to deal with this problem, right? Use an analogy of a woman who's in labor Right in the labors is real is real stressful or require strength from the mom to be able to to keep you know Pushing to have the baby come out and it's it's in a sense It's kind of like when you know a woman's in labor, but she's just so exhausted that she can't push Meaning, you know, hey You're not gonna be able to give birth to this child now because there's just no more strength left To be able to push the baby out. Hey, the time is now right time to push time to get that baby out But the strength has failed. So now you're gonna have a problem because you can't push the baby out That's what they're saying. The situation that they're in is like right now. They're saying hey, everything's coming to a head They're gonna come and attack us, but we don't have the strength to fight against this army They're there, you know all things considered which is our physical strength. They are going to defeat us Humanly speaking so they need God's help now The other thing they say is this is a day of trouble. Obviously, it's a day of trouble We could see that I think it's pretty apparent why it's a trouble us day for for the children of Israel here and of rebuke And of blasphemy now, I want to you know, focus on this this word blasphemy. I think a lot of people Oftentimes don't have the right understanding of what the word blasphemy means you hear people use it a lot You're kind of blaspheming in church settings. Obviously, you don't just use this typically day to day It's not part of your normal language You're like how dare you speak blasphemy like when you're at work or at the store or something like that? It's not it's not common language. You're hanging out with your friends. Although I mean your friends from church Maybe you do use this word a little bit more frequently, right? But it's because it's in the Bible and it's because we talk about things of God but blasphemy here and in just in general You know when people talk about blasphemy in the name of the Lord. Well, what was happening? What did we see happen of what? Rapture he was saying He was basically just mocking and ridiculing the Lord as if like who is the Lord the Lord basically the Lord's not even a god Like the Lord has no strength. The Lord can't save you all these things There is completely contradictory and that bring like disdain and dishonor Unto the name of the Lord that is blasphemy Against the Lord. It's not just your heresy is a little bit different. You could be teaching something that's heretical Not necessarily Blasphemy, it's not the way that that's intended to be used heresy is just you're teaching these false teachings and false doctrines and things That is completely wrong to be a heretic But blasphemous is really just just railing on the Lord God and saying things that are just completely You know disrespectful and and rail on God and if you think about it, you know In your understanding of the unforgivable sin that's mentioned in Scripture blasphemy against the Holy Ghost There's also a lot of people who kind of get confused about what that is, too Well, very plainly blasphemy of the Holy Ghost the Bible says, you know He had blasphemy at the Holy Ghost have never never forgiveness not in this world neither in the world to come right that there that you Never have forgiveness. It's something you cannot be forgiven of that's something that reprobates a person that causes a person be rejected that caused them to never be able to be saved that they're damned forever because They've committed sin that could never be forgiven They never get forgiveness for that for blaspheming the Holy Ghost now when you look in the context I didn't have this in my notes to turn back to that passage But just so you understand, you know, it's basically the same thing that was happening here about blasphemy against the Lord What was happening when Jesus said hey, you know, you could you could blaspheme me You could blaspheme the Father but you can't blaspheme the Holy Ghost You know You can't you can't say anything against the Holy Ghost and what what they were saying Was all the work all the miracles that Jesus Christ was doing when he's on this earth and then healing people and everything else They were trying to attribute that to Satan they're saying he do you know, he he casteth out devils by the prince of the Devils by Beelzebub and When they were making those statements and just trying to attribute the work of the Holy Ghost You know the Holy Ghost The power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus was operating through when he was when he was doing these performing his miracles and everything else He was doing in the service of God They were they were literally turning that on its head In in a similar fashion to Rabshiqui was doing here of just like well, who is the Lord? Anyways, I mean, what does he do? He can't say to you can't do anything and they're saying the same thing about Jesus with the Holy Ghost that that You know, this is just all of Satan. This is all the devil. This is just just devil to work here That's the unforgivable sin and it's you know people again have these kind of different ideas in their head of What that is and I think part of the reason and why is because some people don't understand that that's not the only thing That can cause you to be blotted out of the book of life You know people like to think well, that's the only thing That's the only thing that can cause you to be blotted out. It's not the only thing If you add to or remove from the Word of God Well, your name is gonna be blotted out then If you die without Christ, guess what your name is blotted out of the book of life You know, there's there's a few things if you take the mark of the beast. Guess what? You're blotted out Right, so you might if you in a roundabout way people try to say like well That's kind of blaspheming the Holy Ghost if you take it. No, it's not really it's not what blasphemy is It's not it's not exactly the same thing and and I just you know I just want to help you get a good understanding of what this word means Because it's a pretty simple word free straightforward and when you see that word blasphemy being used It's it's really just disrespectful and and you could just think about this story with rapture key and all things He was saying that's blasphemy and as we're gonna see later in this chapter 2 even God himself when he answers The request from Hezekiah from Isaiah ultimately from Hezekiah and he gives an answer a response He's gonna tell him that yeah this because of the blasphemy From Sennacherib because of this blasphemy. So God's going to acknowledge that. Yes. This absolutely is Blasphemy look at verse number four. Let's keep reading. We move on past that point verse number four it may be So this is still speaking You know Hezekiah servant speaking unto Isaiah for Hezekiah it may be the Lord thy God will hear the words of rapture key Whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God and will reprove the words Which the Lord thy God hath heard wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left. So it's they're asking Isaiah here, you know, please pray for us because you know what maybe God Heard all these words here that were spoken obviously they know God heard but they're you know, they're trying to use this as a to make a point like you know What God might stand up and defend his own name and and defend us? Because of all the blasphemy and the reproach that they said against the Lord and that's what they're looking to trust in is That God is going to defend them even for his own name's sake verse number five So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah and Isaiah said unto them thus shall you say unto your master thus saith the Lord? Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria blasphemed me So there you go right there He's saying you know Isaiah is is saying thus saith the Lord when someone says thus saith the Lord That's what God said unless they're a liar and false prophet Right, especially when you're reading the Bible reading the Word of God and they say thus saith the Lord This isn't a feeling that he had this isn't just some something that came out of his own heart that he's saying Well, this is what this is what I think God said. No, this is what God said and You know, we'll all be careful about that as well When you know, I hear this so many times and it drives me nuts people. Well, God told me to do this God told me really where did God tell you to do that? Now if if you're saying something like well God told me to pray You could find scripture where God's gonna tell you to pray God told me to preach the gospel Well, you could see where God told you to preach the gospel, you know, you can see some things like that You want to be careful on saying? Well, God told me to go here to this place. You'll get like real specific like Don't start putting words in God's mouth You know in one sense sure your God told in telling you to preach the gospel yes, God told you to to do all these things right and and But just just be careful with how far you want to take that but there's some people, you know, they just get a thought and An idea and just want to attribute that to God now Maybe God's leading you and maybe he's not The way that you know is if it lines up perfectly with Scripture But you'd never want to just assume and say well This is what God said because then you know God might reprove you and you can be found a liar When you start saying hey thus saith the Lord when the Lord hath not said And that's what the false prophets would would do and they would claim and that's what false prophets do today Thus saith the Lord, you know when just say whatever that's God didn't say So Isaiah here is speaking in the name of the Lord and is speaking the Word of God Which says thus saith the Lord and I love this answer be not afraid of the words that Dallas heard, you know And I think I think this can stand beyond just this simple context here when anybody is going to be reproaching the name of a living God when anyone is going to be an adversary and try to Intimidate and scare you and threaten you because that's what's happening here. They're threatening They're trying to intimidate and scare them into Surrendering into just you know giving up and and becoming tribute unto this wicked king And he's saying you know what you don't have to worry about the words You don't have to be scared don't fear and this this teaching of not being afraid is taught all throughout the scripture Be not afraid what man can do unto you, you know, we're supposed to fear him That's a little Caswell soul and body and health Yeah, we fear God, but we don't we you know, don't be afraid of their faces the Bible sold Think Jeremiah they you know, just you know, you're supposed to go and preach to rebellious household Don't you know, don't be afraid of their faces. Don't be afraid of these other people Don't be afraid what man can do unto you, you know The disciples said that that, you know, we're not supposed to fear man We're supposed to fear God and on and on on this is all throughout scripture and you're being remind Hezekiah is being reminded of this right here directly from the Lord Hey, don't be afraid of their words that thou has heard where the servants of King of Syria blaspheme me behold I will send a blast upon him and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land And I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. So he's gonna die This is prophesied and How awesome is this to receive this information this news before any of this even happens? It's but excuse me Especially against such a formidable foe and these are some of the reasons why we know that this is directly the Word of God Because these prophecies all come true All probably read in Scripture, you know, it's easy for us to look back and like yeah, of course that happened But don't forget these things were spoken and said, you know before they actually happened and These prophecies were made and then and then did of course 100% come true and there you know, the scripture has so many of these events that take place that happen and You know, they're recorded and written down people testify. Yes. This is true. This is what happened and You know, there's a good reason for the people, you know at first They might be a little bit intimidated a little bit scared and has a kind of saying know what God's gonna defend us We're gonna trust in the Lord, you know, even though Rapski was saying to the people Hey, don't let him deceive you don't trust in God. He's saying you know what we're gonna trust in God God said he's gonna do this and then right away. What happens is that? They have to leave right they were gonna come and invade but now they're not able to look at verse number eight So right after he gets his word Bob says so Rapski returned And this is after their first visit right it came and they're kind of threatening him Rapski returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libna for he had heard that he was departed from Lake ish So the king was a lake ish when he left and now he's gone to Libna to get in battle. He's in conflict He's fighting Verse 9 says any heard say concerning Terhaka king of Ethiopia He has come forth to make war with thee and when he heard he sent messengers at Hezekiah Saying this shall you speak as a kayaking of Judah saying let not thy God and whom thou trustest deceive thee Saying Jerusalem shall not be given in the hand of the king of Assyria. So even at this point I mean if you're king as a kay you got to be thinking like God's already working Right because he's saying he's a no don't don't you think that God's protecting you here because it's other war There's other threat of war is popped up with Ethiopia. So it's gonna distract them from going and invading Judah because now they've got someone else that's coming and their thing is gonna come and invade them and attack them So they've got to deal with this other threat before they could come circle back around and come back and try to conquer Judah so when he know he sees this happening, he's going no no, no, no, don't you think that this is from your God? Don't be deceived. Don't you know, we're still coming back. We're gonna get you, you know, this is just just a little speed bump We're gonna go take care of these people. We're come back and deal with you But hezekiah has already heard back from from Isaiah and what God said to him verse number 11 behold Excuse me verse number 10 No, we read verse number 10 Excuse me verse number 11 behold thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly and shalt Thou be delivered. He's continuing on here. I meant to stop after verse 11 So he's saying what you think you're gonna be delivered You've already heard we've defeated everyone else and and you think you're gonna be delivered Yeah, because none of those other gods were able to save because they were no gods But they trust in the living God in the true God. So yes, they will be delivered verse number 12 have the gods of the nations Delivered them which my fathers have destroyed as goes and and he's got to list off all these different nations Gozan and Haran and Rizeph and the children of Eden which were in telaser Where is the king of Hamath and the king of Arphad and the king of the city of sephir vam? Hina and Iva and hezekiah received the letter From the hand of the messengers and read it and hezekiah went up under the house of the Lord and spread it before a lord so again Hezekiah receives its word It's basically the same just a repeat of the threatenings that that was already made to them in person now that gets in a letter form Saying no, okay. We're still coming and Hezekiah he goes straight to God Straight to the Lord straight to his offender here God look this is what he's saying We need your help verse 15 and hezekiah prayed unto the Lord saying Oh Lord of hosts God of Israel that dwells between the cherubims thou art the God Even thou alone of all the kingdoms of the earth Thou hast made Heaven and earth. I'm going to park it on this phrase here. Just this understanding Hezekiah is preaching Excuse me is praying to God But not the just the God of Israel right he is the God of Israel, but he's not just the God of Israel He's not just the God of the Jews. He's not just the God of one small group of people He's the God of the whole earth. He's the God of the whole universe. He's the God of all the kingdoms He is the God and People need to understand this and even to this day There are many people who will reject religious and although that's just the God of the white man or whatever It's like the white man The Christianity Jesus Christ is not the God of the white man Just because there's a lot of white Christians and Evangelists doesn't mean he's the God of the white man. I mean think about this Jesus was a Jew Okay, I Guarantee you he was not Blonde hair blue eyes, you know white guy like you see me standing here today He was probably some shade of brown. I Mean, we don't know exactly What he looked like but we know that he wasn't unique in his look because Judas needed to identify him To the people who wanted to arrest him, you know, he had to go in and be like, well, you know, which one's Jesus Well, that's because he looks like the rest of them. He became flesh and looked like any other Jew of the time That's what he physically looked like but we physically looked like doesn't even matter Because the God of everything the God that made everything is the God of every one of every people regardless of The color of your skin. He's not the God of the white and you know, I've heard this in the past I've gone out soul winning I just heard a testimony from brother Mo When he was out preaching a gospel that he literally just had somebody tell him You know trying to argue with him saying that all as you know, it's a god of the white man most Persian right if you don't know right he came from a Muslim country and He is a Christian he's a believer right he's preaching the gospel Jesus Christ and he's got this This this young man that he's speaking to he's loving him He's trying to trying to share the gospel with them, but he wasn't having it and the reason why race and I'm noticing more and more these days Race is becoming much more of an issue and to be honest with you In my personal experience in this country growing up, you know, I'm what year are we in 21? I'm 44 years. Sorry. I have to do the math every time I'm 44 years old okay, you you would think we should think as the United States progresses beyond slavery Beyond, you know, even the civil rights era era and you own all these different events that have taken place historically in this country You would think that race should become less and less and less and less of an issue It should be less important in the minds of people in this country Because we're getting farther and farther removed and and in my opinion Many people have already moved past that that thinking and then mentality now, you're never gonna completely Abolish, you know racism or racist thoughts. It's always going to be around There's always going to be people who will cling to that But it's because it's being so politicized lately and just brought up so much more it's it's troubling and I think part of the reason for that is literally just to try pitting people against one another and Just fomenting and causing more problems than needs to be. I mean even literally today I was at work and And I was I was in you know in the in the shipping area of the facility I work at and They had some radio playing and it was like a hip-hop station Okay. Now I don't normally listen to hip-hop or even the radio that much for that matter, you know, but I Was shocked. I mean my job like dropped I was back to I was walking back up to my to my desk Why where I work and I heard on the radio this statement And I was like, are you kidding me? Like like this is what's really being broadcast now and this is just an illustration of how far things have gone in this in this Racist culture that's being created again and And I imagine imagine if it's a first of all, I'm gonna say it make this statement What do you think would happen if you heard if you turn the radio on and you heard, you know? By white by from white people support white businesses, what do you think would happen if you heard that statement? You'd be like Talk about cancer. I mean that person whoever would make that they would be blasted and probably lynched Seriously But that's not what they said instead they said by black By black businesses support black-owned companies everything and I'm going Why? Why? Why is it? Why is this race such a big? Why are you focused on the race of the person if you like a business? Why don't you support the business that you like for what they do what they support what they you know, whatever? Why does the color of the skin matter? You're perpetuating it. You're making it worse by saying no. No, I'm I'm not gonna bite you Okay, I'm not gonna buy you because you're from your buy from you cuz you're white Well, I'm gonna buy from you cuz you're black Is that what things are gonna boil down to you're literally gonna be focusing on the color of the skin? Oh, but we've been oppressed everything look You know how long it's been since you've been oppressed as a people. I'm sorry. I'm not buying the systemic racism garbage and We as Christians, you know, the world does what the world does but as Christians we're not supposed to be seeing through that lens anyways Because we serve the god of all the kingdoms of the earth We serve a god who has a house is supposed to be a house of prayer and all nations We have a god that when we get to heaven, we're gonna see every nation under heaven represented in the kingdom of God That's who we serve We should not be looking at people and judging people I mean go back not and I am not so Marxist Lucas Luther King, you know supporter at all But even the words of Martin Luther King jr. You know, the whole point was to not have people judged based on the color of their skin And yet today and this is what I'm told. There's supposed to be this progress of people's thoughts just in general You know we live And our church is located one of the most culturally diverse places as far as you know skin color ethnicity where people come from and People have been getting along great as far as my perception goes since I've been living here. It seems just fine But now I hear these things being promoted in the media and it's not just that one radio station you see it on CNN You've got that that that devil woman Joy Reid who's making everything about I think that's her name. She makes an everything about race. It's some CNN whatever I mean, that's a Garbage Source of information. It was all it's all propaganda and it's designed to pit people against one another and you know what? I'm not buying it Now people commit an act of violence Against somebody because of the color of their skin that's wrong. No matter who's perpetrating it and And we ought to be condemning all of it Because it's all wrong and it's all wicked and not lifting up one against another Regardless if it's just based on skin color It's such a stupid thing to be you know get all worked up about and upset about You know, you're just saying that because you're a white man you have white privilege look Whatever man I love The same people I want to say. Oh, you can't judge don't judge me. Oh Yeah, well, you're just white. I'm glad that that answer works for you Because you know how much I've been working, you know, what what opportunities I've had, right? whatever You know, you know what I've witnessed, you know, I've witnessed I've witnessed people of all different skin colors be successful in this world I've seen people of all different skin colors work really hard and Be honest and have integrity and and be blessed in this world. I've seen it all So so, how do you explain that? What what what are they doing? No It's people by large people who don't want to work people just want to complain people who want to look at all the wrong things in this world instead of being thankful and being content with what God's blessing you with and looking to your creator and looking to your maker and looking to God that's gonna satisfy your needs and Trusting in him and relying on him instead of doing that you're going. Oh, well, I wish I had this Oh these people look how come they have the money and I want that, you know Stop focusing on everybody else and what anyone else has why don't you just focus on what you can do to be a better Christian? And stop worrying about what anyone else has Stop getting involved in everyone else's business and do your own business and you have opportunity and you can be blessed But nowadays you've got I mean since things have gotten so crazy you got people you got white people apply apologizing for being white Why I Don't expect an apology from anybody based on the color of their skin. Well, that's so stupid You know, you should apologize for if you do something wicked to someone else You Apologize for that because you actually did something not gonna pop. I'm not even gonna apologize and you know, I'd How far back you're gonna go, you know, I could think of my ancestors we My answers weren't slave owners, but I mean maybe if I go back hundreds of years, maybe at some point they were You know what there's a lot of black people who have ancestors that were slave owners, too Oh, you don't want to talk about that though, right? Yeah, you go back to Africa There was already, you know, how a lot of the slaves that came to this country Weren't just captured and like man I wrestled him down to the ground and we got him and put him on the boat and we're taking to America They were sold because they were already slaves in Africa by other tribes It's a fact It was wrong Let's say it's right but I mean facts are facts You Want to go back in history and try to write all these wrongs look No, Christian should be should be involved in that garbage We need to worship the god of all the kingdoms of the earth Has a chi understood this, you know, the children of Israel the nation of Israel Should have understood this and for a while they did God's law Definitely allows for people of all nations to become and integrate and assimilate with Israel It doesn't matter where you're from and the law was supposed to be paid as the law is for one born in the land It's also for the stranger God's law applies equally to everybody It's ridiculous, let's keep going here verse number 17 I Was inclined nine year Oh Lord and here open nine eyes Oh Lord and see and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which Had which hath sent to reproach the living God of a truth Lord the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations in their countries and Have cast their gods into the fire for they were no gods but the work of men's hands would in stone therefore They have destroyed them. So he's saying, you know, okay, you know God listen to all these words It's an record Sennacherib saying and of course, it's true. Yes. They have defeated these people and yes, they did destroy their gods Is it because they weren't gods? Yeah, of course It's it's easy for you to go in and destroy the gods of these nations because literally all they are are carvings They're wood and stone and you could smash them to pieces and there's going to be no repercussion for it because they're not really God But What's an acrib didn't realize and didn't understand is that there is a God in heaven and it's the Lord and that you can't just get away with You know destroying the things of God with no repercussion like you could with any other false God that's out there Verse 20 now therefore Lord our God save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know That thou art the Lord even now only His desire saying you know what God we want We want your name to be exalted above all other gods and that all the nations of the world would know. Hey, you're God Isn't that what we want today? Go ye therefore into all nations Right aren't we supposed to teach and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and let people know that who God is who Jesus is Preach the gospel to every creature No different God what God doesn't want an isolated people just to be like, okay I'm gonna be your God and you're gonna be my people and that's it God wants his name spread abroad far and wide and that's why God has intervened many times and performed a miracle so that all the Nations would know that he is God So that his name would be spread abroad And that the world would know that there is a God in heaven that's why he did we did in Egypt with Pharaoh That's why he raised Pharaoh up to be in the position he was in that's why all of those events happened so that he would get the honor and glory and that the whole world would speak about the power and might of the Lord and Just continue on throughout history and God's deliverance and God's saving through on you know unimaginable odds Saving a small group of people to show how strong he is in his might and that you cannot attribute Those victories to anyone else. It has to be a work of God and In this situation, it's another situation because the king of Assyria had so much strength and so much power It doesn't matter any other force in the world that came against him. He's going to destroy and saying God we need you and Why don't you use this God he's blaspheme to reproach your name Why don't you show the world God who you are and and make your name be? Published abroad so that every nation of the world would know there is a Lord in heaven There is a creator of heaven and earth and it's the Lord God Almighty Verse number 21 then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah saying thus saith the Lord God of Israel whereas thou has prayed to me against nekrib king of Assyria. This is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him The virgin the daughter of Zion had despised thee. So you see this is God now speaking About Sennacherib right or like to him or about him The virgin daughter of Zion despised thee and laugh thee to score and the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at thee Whom is thou reproached and blasphemed and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high even against the Holy One of Israel He's saying do you know who you've been reproaching you've been reproaching the Holy One of Israel and he's saying basically that Jerusalem's laughing at you Right, they think you're a joke Because do you know who you've been reproaching you've been reproaching the Holy One of Israel you've been reproaching Jesus Christ That's why I believe the Holy One of Israel, you know time and time again You're gonna see that reference very frequently if not all the time is a reference to Jesus Christ himself Verse 24 by thy servants Hast thou approached the Lord and has said by the multitude of my chariots And I come up to the height of the mountains to the sides of Lebanon and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof And the choice first trees thereof and I will enter into the height of his border and the force of his Carmel I have digged and drunk water and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged places So This is this is Sennacherib thinking, you know all lifted up and puffed up in himself thinking how great he is for destroying these nations look at verse 26 hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it and Of ancient times that I have formed it Now have I brought it to pass that thou shouldest be to lay waste defense cities into ruinous heaps Therefore their inhabitants were of small power they were dismayed and confounded They were as the grass of the field as a green herb as the grass on the housetops and as corn blasted before it Be grown up God's saying It's not because of you. It's because of me That these nations were able to fall before you Don't you know that I've been the one lifting up and bringing down in the past. Don't you know that that's me doing this It's not you Verse 28, but I know thy abode and I going out and I coming in and I rage against me Because thy rage against me and thy tumult has come up into mine ears Therefore will I put my hook in thy nose and my bridle in thy lips and I will turn thee back by the way By which thou camest He's saying I'm gonna get you under control I just think of that that hook just going in his nose and God just yanking him back You know that that rabid dog that now is turning against his master and he's going I don't think so He's putting that in that hook into his nose and just that that reference to the hook in the nose It also reminds me of the references to Leviathan that we read about earlier. Remember I spent quite a bit of time going over that Where in job you saying you know who can you know? You think you could put your your hook in and and and draw them out and catch the spears and everything Because Satan I believe is also behind the power of The king of Assyria as well just as he is influenced in in all of these In the world today even in general even right now, there's spiritual wickedness in high places and you know, we're wrestling against principalities and fly in in powers not against against flesh and blood and But God's basically saying here, you know that he's used him to make all these things happen to bring down these other nations But now he's going to be brought down Now I'm going to take you and and and put you down essentially It's what is what he's saying verse 30 and this shall be a sign unto thee ye shall eat this year Such as groweth of itself in the second year that which springeth of the same and in the third year So ye and reap and plant vineyards and eat the fruit thereof now When you take this slowly kind of go through it It's a little it makes a little bit more sense and and you know, hopefully it just makes sense to you Anyways, the only thing that gets a little confusing because he's saying like you and you and you But the use is a different object depending on who he's talking about because now he's talking to Israel basically saying, you know It's a Judah that okay You're gonna this is the sign that God's gonna do all these things and he is gonna take care of Sennacherib the king he's gonna make sure that he's that he's You know that he puts his hook into him and any and he takes him down and everything else he's gonna do this and he says here's what you're gonna what's gonna happen is that you're gonna eat of the fruit, you know through Latin and the reason I say is because You know, they can't just go out and go back to their agriculture and farming like they would in safety Right. So they're when they're in fear of the enemy coming and attacking They're gonna stay more defensed and more inside the walls. They're not gonna be able to do as much of the production and the true Work on On the land they're gonna be able to go out and obviously bring their food in because you're gonna eat of what's growing This year in the next and then he says And then in the third year basically within three years, you're gonna be in security You're gonna be in safety is ultimately what he's saying here, you know first couple years You're gonna you're gonna just eat of what's what's growing and then the third year you're gonna sew you're gonna reap You're gonna plant vineyards and you're gonna you're gonna receive of that verse 31 and the remnant that is escaped at the house of Judah Shall again take root downward and bear fruit upwards and then you're gonna be blessed again Then you're gonna be able to be fully established in your land verse 32 for out of Jerusalem Shall go forth a remnant and they that escape out of Mount Zion the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this therefore Thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria He shall not come into the city nor shoot an arrow there Nor come before it with shields nor cast a bank against it by the way that he came by the same shall he return And shall not come into the city saith the Lord For I will defend the city to save it for mine own sake and for my servant David's sake So God's saying he's not gonna he's not gonna make it. He's not gonna be treading foot in this city I'm gonna take care of him. He won't hurt you. He's not gonna harm you and I love what he says here He says I'm gonna do it for my own sake why because they blaspheme his name He'll says and for my servant David's sake now how many times throughout scripture Do you see God referring back to David and God keeping promises and God doing things because of David's sake now? Why am I pointed out let that sink in how much influence one person can have over God's actions, and what he's going to do David's service to the Lord you know Was so meaningful and so impactful that God continues to go back and say you know what I'm gonna keep I made this promise to David and I'm gonna keep that promise You know David served me, and I'm gonna keep you know. I'm gonna do this for his sake too And and you know there are few men in the Bible where God had that regard you know for Moses sake for Abraham Sake for Isaac's sake and for David's sake you're gonna see Multiple places in Scripture, why don't you be that Christian? Why don't you be that servant that minister of the Lord where you can serve God so much and in such sincerity and such truth And and give of yourself to the Lord so where God's gonna say you know what I'm gonna you know for Peter's sake I'm gonna I'm gonna allow this or this to happen or whatever you know even after you pass on Because you've had such an impact and because God had regard for the work that you've done It's good the eyes of Lord run to and fro throughout the earth Seeking for a man that he can show himself strong in he wants to show himself strong He wants to he wants the whole world to know about him All of these people that have lived in the past were human beings Nothing supernatural about them all decisions that were made by them Verse 36 then the angel of the Lord went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians 104 score and 5,000 when they arose early in the morning behold they were all dead corpses God you know oftentimes God will use man in Battle and bring a victory and bring a deliverance that way this time he sends an angel An angel Lord to go and smite and the angel of the Lord to go and kill 185,000 people Another reason why it doesn't matter how many people that are in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000 people Another reason why it doesn't matter how many people the enemy has How strong they seem how real mighty and powerful they appear? Because God is capable of doing anything He is able to deliver thee as a famous song goes He is able to deliver thee He is able to deliver thee Right I mean God is able Now I got that song stuck in every single one of your heads You know what for good reason because it's a great chapter that demonstrates that if God's able to send an angel to kill 185,000 people just in in a night they woke up well They didn't wake up right some people woke up and like wow is 185,000 dead people just bodies dead corpses laying on the ground And that was enough verse 37 so Sennacherib king of Assyria departed yeah, you think I Think I'm gonna go home now Never step foot in Jerusalem. Oh You think that your God is gonna protect you Yeah, yeah now. What do you think Sennacherib? 185,000 dead overnight Went return and dwelt in Nineveh verse 38, and it came to pass as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his God That a dramelech and Shereze are his sons smote him with the sword and they escaped in the land of Armenia and Esar had in his son reign in his stead Well isn't that a fitting end? Sorry Sennacherib. I guess your God can't save It's worshiping in the house of his God, maybe you should have taken notice to who you blasphemed and Who you weren't able to conquer You could conquer every other false god But not the Lord because he's the true God. He's the real. He's the God of all kingdoms God of all the earth the Lord of Lords and God of gods There's only one God and that's who we should worship. You know what as we go into this The holiday Christmas right we're celebrating the savior of the world Savior of the world you know I love our church even even this small group of people that we have Look around you look at what we're comprised of We have this small microcosm, that's that there's so many people are representative of different ethnic backgrounds And You know what praise God for that, but doesn't you know it wouldn't matter it wouldn't matter You know I'd be just as happy if we had a church full of white people They had a church full of black people they had a church full of Hispanic people I would just say praise God for people who want to serve the Lord And you know people are gonna call me racist Because of the things that I say because because I'm shocked that people would actually say We should be promoting a business based on the color of your skin You know what you all know the truth And I mean the world's gonna gonna hate anyways they're gonna try and take and spin whatever But you know what we need to stand strong, and I'm not I don't care. What people gonna say I'm not afraid to speak the truth in The cancel culture, and you know you ought not to be either I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna walk on eggshells Because wicked people want to intimidate you and try to push a narrative of being racist Not gonna have it I'm gonna celebrate this Saturday, and this is the you know what the rest of this week The birth of the Savior of the whole world Every people every kind at every tongue I Praise God that's power is that word of prayer Dear Lord, we love you. We thank you so much for for who you are. Thank you for loving us Thank you for all that you do Lord. Thank you for providing your words to us and that you preserve them to us I pray that you please help us to learn all that we need to learn and that you would just open up the Scriptures to us help us understand more and more Lord Also, help us to be motivated to serve you more and more that we would be able to understand the importance of the tasks that you've given us in this lifetime and not to put them off and and help us to seize every opportunity that we have to preach your word and to lead people to the truth of the gospel Jesus Christ Lord equip us and And build our church help us to have more laborers here The harvest truly is plenty us and laborers are feud Lord. Please please send laborers Into into our church here that we could that we could harvest the area that we have to work with here We love you is in Jesus name we pray. Amen