Hezekiah’s Prayer For Deliverance

Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the LORD: “O LORD, God of Israel, you are enthroned between the mighty cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone created the heavens and the earth. Bend down, O LORD, and listen! Open your eyes, O LORD, and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words of defiance against the living God. . . .

2 Kings 19:15-16, 19

When King Hezekiah ruled in Jerusalem, the Assyrians were the scourge of the peoples around them. Their king, Sennacherib, scoffed at Judah’s faith in God. He taunted them with arrogant claims that their God would be as powerless against the advancing Assyrian army as had been the gods of every other nation the Assyrians had conquered. When Hezekiah went to ask for God’s help, he appealed, in a sense, to God’s “pride.” He asked God to clear his own name and to prove Sennacherib wrong in his predictions.

There may be instances when, with all humility and holy fear, we can ask God to intervene on our behalf in order to defend the holiness of his name. At those times, don’t be afraid to ask God to defend his reputation by saving you.

• O God, defend the honor of your name and rescue me . . .