The Living & Hearing God
5/8/26 Bible Thought (Isaiah 36-37)
Main Idea: There is no situation beyond the help of the living God.
A Look at the Text:
In today’s passage, we see a step out of prophecy and into narrative. Here, we get a clear glimpse of the Assyrian problem that the people of Judah faced.
Under the reign of the Assyrian king Sennacherib, the situation looked incredibly bleak in Jerusalem. Even more, the Assyrian messengers came with mockery. They taunted Judah’s appeal to Egypt (Isa. 36:3) and claimed that Yahweh would be of no help to them (Isa. 36:7, 13-18). They even taunted the soldiers of Jerusalem in their own language!
Every other nation had trusted in their gods, and they were promptly destroyed. Why would things be different for Judah?
The difference was in the nature of their gods.
The defeated nations served idols that were merely the products of their own hands (Isa. 37:19), whereas Judah served the living God (Isa. 37:4, 17). Hezekiah brought the situation before Yahweh and His prophet (Isa. 37:1,14-20). He pleaded with God for the sake of His own glory (Isa. 37:20).
In response, God issued a message from Isaiah:
“Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria…” (Isa. 37:21).
Because of Hezekiah’s prayer, God said that He would deliver them and save the city (Isa. 37:35). He sent His angel to rescue Jerusalem from the Assyrian host and their great and mighty king was later assassinated by his own sons (Isa. 37:36-38).
Bringing it Home:
This story shows us again that the God of the Bible is truly the living God. He would faithfully act on behalf of His people. He was not merely a product of their hands or imagination—He was the true Sovereign ruling and reigning over His creation.
With this, we see so clearly that there is no situation so dire that it is beyond God’s help. There is nothing broken beyond His ability to fix.
We merely have to go to Him in our times of need. God delights to hear our prayers and somehow, in the perfect counsel of His will, answers our prayers.
It is mind-boggling how God can factor our prayers into His plans, but we can rest assured that we don’t need to know how prayer works. Rather, we must simply acknowledge that prayer works.
The Lord, through His prophet, sent a message to Hezekiah that it was because of his prayers that God was going to act on Jerusalem’s behalf.
The eternal, all-knowing, and supremely powerful living God stoops down to hear us pray, lending His ear to us. That is a great privilege we ought never take for granted, but that we should be quick to use.
Challenge:
Do I ever believe praying isn’t worth it?
Let us rest assured that the living God both hears and answers our prayers when we ask according to His will (see 1 John 5:14-15).