2 Kings
19:8-12, 14-19 - Sennacherib’s Threat and Hezekiah’s Prayer. Then the Rabshakeh returned and
found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he heard that he had
departed from Lachish. 9 And the king heard concerning Tirhakah
king of Ethiopia, “Look, he has come out to make war with you.” So he again
sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “Thus you shall speak
to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust
deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of
Assyria.” 11 Look! You have heard what the kings of Assyria
have done to all lands by utterly destroying them; and shall you be delivered? 12 Have
the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed. 14 And
Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and
Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. 15 Then
Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said: “O Lord God of Israel, the One
who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the
kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 Incline
Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words
of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. 17 Truly,
Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, 18 and
have cast their gods into the fire; for they were not gods, but the work
of men’s hands—wood and stone. Therefore, they destroyed them. 19 Now
therefore, O Lord our God, I pray, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms
of the earth may know that You are the Lord God, You alone.”
King
Sennacherib wrote a letter suggesting that God could not stand against
him. King Hezekiah, upon receiving the
letter, took it and spread it out before the Lord in prayer (V. 14).
This is one example where a physical act seems to parallel the
establishing of spiritual authority in the invisible realm. In other words, a physical act becomes
prophetically symbolic of a reality that impacts the invisible as action is
being taken in the invisible realm.
In
Hezekiah’s case, a physical act of trust – spreading his case (letter) before
the Lord – established a foundation for faith upon which Hezekiah prayed. The king was convinced that God would hear
his prayer. The Lord sent an angel that night who destroyed 185,000 enemy
troops (2 Kings 19:35; Isaiah 37:14-20,
36).
Other
physical acts of people recorded in Scripture include:
Vocal
praise and shouting - 1 Samuel 4:5 And
when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted
so loudly that the earth shook & 1 Kings 1:40 And all the people went up
after him; and the people played the flutes and rejoiced with great joy, so
that the earth seemed to split with their sound.
Lifting
hands and bowing heads - Nehemiah 8:6 And Ezra blessed the
Lord, the great God. Then all the people
answered, “Amen, Amen!” while lifting up their hands.
Groaning
in prayer
- Romans 8:23 Not only that,
but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within
ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
Shaking
or trembling
– Acts 16:29 Then he called for a light,
ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas & Hebrews 12:21 And so terrifying was the
sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”
Intense
weeping - Ezra 3:13 so that the
people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the
weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound
was heard afar off & Lamentations
1:16 “For these things I weep; My eye, my eye overflows with water;
Because the comforter, who should restore my life, Is far from me. My children are desolate Because the enemy
prevailed.”
Many
instances of prostrations –
Deuteronomy 9:25 “Thus I prostrated
myself before the Lord; forty days and forty nights I kept prostrating myself,
because the Lord had said He would destroy you & 1 Chronicles 29:20 Then
David said to all the assembly, “Now bless the Lord your God.” So all the assembly
blessed the Lord God of their fathers, and bowed their heads and prostrated themselves before the Lord
and the king.
Prompted
by faith and prayer/passion, these are more than superstitious or repetitious
actions. They address the invisible as
real and by doing this we gain victory.
The last
point I want to make is about coming to the altar at church service. Altars are
a memorial to the place where God meets us.
As it was with Hezekiah, it is a physical place of trust where we can
send a message to the invisible realm.
Altars
represent the occasion and place where we have had a personal encounter with
God. We may not always be able to make a physical altar, but there can be one
established in our hearts. When we celebrate communion, we are celebrating the
grandest altar of all--the Cross of Calvary upon which the Son of God was laid
forth as the sacrifice: To reconcile all humankind to God; and to make possible
the infusion of our lives with meaning, the forgiveness of all sins and the promise
of eternal life.
Altars
appear throughout the Bible in many different forms. They are:
A place
of encounter – The
Lord met Jacob in a crisis and the next day he built an altar at that place
(Genesis 28).
A place
of forgiveness – The brazen altar of the tabernacle sacrifice was offered as
an advance testimony that there would be a once-for-all sacrifice in God’s Son.
A place
of worship –
The most common altar built by people to acknowledge their praise to God was
the altar of incense, the holy place where priests would offer worship to the
Lord on behalf of the people and themselves.
A place
of covenant –
An altar was built where the covenant was made between the Lord and Abraham,
and the land was sealed as a timeless promise to Abraham and his offspring
(Genesis 15).
A place
of intercession – The prophet Joel called for intercession by leaders* on
behalf of the people and their devastated economy. (*If you know Jesus, you’re
a leader!)
A place to humble ourselves – A
man’s pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor
Proverbs 29:23
A place of surrender and submission – 1
Peter 5:7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Job 11:13 “If
you would prepare your heart, and stretch out your hands toward Him;
A place of sacrifice –
Matthew 27:50-51 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and
yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two
from top to bottom… The veil was the thick curtain between the Holy Place
and the Holy of Holies. The fact that it
was torn in two from top to bottom indicates that this was not an act of
man. Jesus’ death opens the way to the
presence of God and puts an end to the OT temple and sacrificial systems.
God has a
place of “altaring” for us. There is a
place of “altaring” and a price of altering. Altars have a price--God intends
that something be “altered” in us when we come to altars. To receive the
promise means we make way for the transformation. Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
Numerous
times during the year, I am moved to come to the altar do just as described
above during praise and worship or towards the end of service. The majority of the time, I am alone at the
altar. It is not to bring attention to
myself, but to call on the Lord and pray.
And He is there to meet and hear me (James 4:8 Draw near to God and He
will draw near to you}. God will meet
you at the altar if you make the effort.
Every
human heart has areas where the war between the flesh and the spirit rages
which are contrary to each other (Galatians 5:17). When we surrender areas of
our lives to the control of the Holy Spirit, we are in effect laying that area
on the altar before God. It can help to
visualize Abraham’s altar where he offered his son Isaac to the Lord (Genesis
22:9). We can ask the Lord what areas of our lives He is requiring that we
offer to Him. We can symbolically lay that on the altar and let go. God will
meet you at the altar if you surrender to Him.
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ;
it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I
now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
Himself for me.
God’s
blessing to you all,
Tony
Sanchez 5-15-16
