The Prayer of Hezekiah 2 Kings 19:15-33, Isaiah 37:16-37
Lord God of Israel, enthroned in heaven, You alone are the God of all the nations of the world, You made all that is. Listen to us Lord, open Your eyes now and see how Sennacherib is attacking Your people. It is true that the Assyrians have laid waste to other nations, they have burned their gods, because they were no gods, just the work of men’s hands, only made of wood or stone. Now, Lord our God, save us from his power so that all the other kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone are God.
Isaiah, son of Amoz, gave the Lord’s reply: I have heard your prayer to Me concerning Sennacherib the king of Assyria and this is the Word I speak out against him:
The virgin daughter of Zion disdains you, she laughs you to scorn as you retreat. You sent messengers to threaten and taunt My people, your arrogance and confidence in your achievements constitutes blasphemy against Me.
Have you not heard? Long ago I did it all, in days gone by. I planned it, now I bring it about. All the fortified cities will crash into rubble, their inhabitants lose their strength and are put to shame, they are like grass on a rooftop, killed by a hot wind. I know all your actions, your hatred and rage against Me and I note your overbearing arrogance.
I shall put a ring in your nose and a halter in your mouth, you will go back to where you came from. You will not enter Jerusalem, you will not advance against it with a siege or shoot an arrow at it. I will shield Jerusalem and deliver it, for My own sake and for the sake of My servant, David.
That night, an angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 Assyrians and they lay dead in the morning. King Sennacherib broke camp and marched back to Assyria. Ref: REB.
This prophecy about the Assyrian attack on Jerusalem did happen in ancient times, even though Assyrian records downplay the event. It is a lesson for us today, in that God does see the hatred and arrogance of those enemies who conspire to attack Jerusalem now. Only as a means to punish His people’s apostasy and sins, are they allowed to prevail, as Assyria did with the Northern kingdom and Babylon did with Judah later.
Now, in our day, current events coupled with Psalm 83 and other prophecies tell us of another conspiracy brewing against the Land and its people. Once again the Lord will act, it will be the final fulfilment of the verses that say about cities destroyed and the inhabitants killed by a searing blast of wind. Isaiah 37:26-27 It will be the great Day of the Lord’s vengeance and wrath, a terrible judgement/punishment by a tempest of fire, that will clear and cleanse the Middle East and seriously affect all the rest of the world.
Isaiah 37:30-32 This will be a sign for you: the first year, you will eat what is left from the harvest, the second, what comes up self-sown, but in the third year, you will sow and reap – plant trees and vines and eat their fruit. The survivors left in Judah will strike fresh root in the Land and will display righteousness to the world. For a remnant will come out of Jerusalem, there will be survivors in Zion, the zeal of the Lord will achieve this.
This part of the prophecy must be still future, because Judah has not as yet ‘displayed righteousness to the world’. A remnant of the Jews will survive in Jerusalem – Isaiah 31:5, Isaiah 29:1-2, Zechariah 13:9, after the Day of the Lord. These survivors will eat what they can find for a year, then self-sown crops will spring up as the Lord sends rain, after that they will plant and reap their own crops. Very soon, the great call will go out to all of the Lord’s Christian people around the world to gather and settle into all of the holy Land.
Isaiah 11:11-12, Isaiah 66:20, Jeremiah 23:7-8, Jeremiah 30:10, Ezekiel 20:33-34, Micah 7:12
The Prophetic Word 