xxxvii. 14. _And Hezekiah received the letter, &c._
The letter was an insolent cartel of defiance from the Assyrian king
Sennacherib, full as much of blasphemous defiance against God as of
insolence to God's servant. It represents the conflict between
Assyria and Judah as being a struggle between the gods of one nation
and the God of the other. The point of it is: "Don't let the God in
whom thou trusteth deceive thee, saying Jerusalem shall not be
delivered into the hands of Assyria. Thou hast seen what Assyria has
done to all lands, and is thy God any better than theirs?" So the
king of Judah, very simple and child-like, picks up the piece of
blasphemy and goes up to the temple and spreads it out before God. A
very _naïve_ piece of unconscious symbolism! The meaning of it comes
out in the prayer that follows: "Open Thine eyes, O Lord, and see,"
&c. It is for _Thee_ to act. That is the essential meaning of
Hezekiah's action.
I. It was an appeal to God's knowledge. For _his_ comfort it was
necessary to make this appeal. That which influences and agitates us,
we need in some way to spread before the Lord. When some great
anxiety strikes its talons deep into our hearts, we need to have the
truth made clear to ourselves. The Eyes up yonder see all about it. A
plain old piece of commonplace, but, oh! there is a deep, unutterable
consolation when a man realises this. "Thy Father which is in secret,
_seeth_ in secret."
II. It was an appeal to God's honour. His prayer was this in effect:
"Hear all the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to reproach the
living God. I say nothing about myself, but it is Thine honour that
is threatened. If this insolent braggart does the thing which he
threatens, then it will be said, 'Forasmuch as this Jehovah was not
able to save His people, therefore He let them perish;' those who
worship other gods will say, 'Jehovah is a name without
meaning'--_Thy_ name, which is above every name!" If a man has not
got something like that in his prayers, they are poor prayers. With
all humility, yet with all self-confidence, ask Him, not so much to
deliver you, as to be true to His character and His promises, to be
self-consistent with all that He has been; and let us feel, as we
have a right to feel, that if any human soul, that ever in the
faintest, poorest, humblest manner put out a trembling hand of
confidence towards His great hand to grasp it, was suffered to go
down and perish, there is a blight and blot on the fair fame of God
before the whole creation which nothing can obliterate. But the
feeblest cry shall be answered, the feeblest faith rewarded! Let us
grasp the thought that not only for our own poor selves--though,
blessed be God, He does take our happiness for a worthy object--but
because His honour and fair fame are so inextricably wound with our
well-being, He must answer the cries of His people (Ezek.
xxxvi. 22-24).
III. Let us take out of the account, not only what we ought to do
when we go to God in prayer, but the kind of things we ought to take
to Him. Every difficulty, danger, trial, temptation, or blasphemy by
which His name is polluted, should be at once spread out before the
Lord. But most of all the common things of everyday life! The small
boy, whom one of our writers tells of, who used to pray that he might
have strength given to him to learn his Latin declension, had a
better understanding of prayer than the men of the world can
understand (H. E. I. 3756, 3757).
IV. Another lesson: If you have not been in the habit of going to the
House of God at other times, it will be a hard job to find your way
there when your eyes are blinded with tears, and your hearts heavy
with anxiety. Hezekiah had cultivated a habit of trusting God and
referring everything to Him; so he went straight into the Temple as
by instinct, where he could have found his way in the dark, and
spread this letter before the Lord as a matter of course. It is a
poor thing when a man's religion is like a waterproof coat, that is
only good to wear when it rains, and has to be taken off when the
weather improves a little! If you want to get the blessedness of
fellowship with God and help from Him in the dark days, learn the
road to the Temple in sunshine and gladness, and do not wait for the
bellow of the pitiless storm and darkness upon the path, before you
go up to the Temple of God (H. E. I. 3877-3879).
V. What do we get by this habit of spreading out everything before
God?
1. Valuable counsel. I do not know anything that has such a power of
clearing a man's way, scattering mists, removing misconceptions,
letting us see the true nature of some dazzling specious temptations,
as the habit of turning to prayer. In ninety-nine cases out of a
hundred, the thing that perplexes us is that the steadiness of the
hand that holds the microscope is affected by the beating of the
heart and the passionate desires and wishes, and so there is nothing
defined and clear; it is all a haze. Firmness of hand, clearness of
vision, come in prayer to the man who is accustomed to take the
harassing "letter," and spread it out before the Lord (H. E. I.
3741-3743).
2. A very accurate and easily applied test. I do not wonder that as
many of us do not like to pray about our plans and about our
anxieties; it is either because the plans have no God in them, or the
anxieties have no faith. Anything we cannot pray about, we had better
not touch. And anxiety that is not substantial enough to bear lifting
and laying before God, ought never to trouble us. Test your lives,
your thoughts, your affairs, your purposes by this. Will they stand
carriage to the Temple? If not, the sooner you get rid of them the
better. And then, "In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer
and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests by made known
unto God; and," in spite of all the blatant Sennacheribs who have
poured out their insolent blasphemies, "the peace of God, which
passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts
in Christ Jesus."--_Alexander Maclaren, in Outlines of Sermons on the
Old Testament,_ pp. 81-85.