What Are You Trusting In?

Then the Assyrian king’s chief of staff told them to give this message to Hezekiah: “This is what the great king of Assyria says: What are you trusting in that makes you so confident? . . . What god of any nation has ever been able to save its people from my power? So what makes you think that the LORD can rescue Jerusalem from me?” 2 Kings 18:19, 35

THE LORD HAD USED the Assyrian armies to deal with the people of the northern kingdom of Israel. Now the Assyrian king was threatening the southern kingdom of Judah. He sent his army to the walls of Jerusalem, where his warriors began to call out to King Hezekiah’s best men. After reminding them that the Lord had not rescued the northern kingdom from Assyria, they had a message for the king in the form of a question: “What are you trusting in that makes you so confident?”

Isn’t this the question that our enemy constantly hurls at us as parents? Our enemy mocks our confidence that God will save and secure our children. Our enemy points out all the young people around us who have fallen victim to his deceptions and false promises. Then he asks us why we think the Lord is going to rescue our children.

Hezekiah shows us what to do when we hear the mocking, taunting voice of our enemy. “When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes and put on burlap and went into the Temple of the LORD” (19:1). Hezekiah turned to humble prayer. We, likewise, must humbly pray for God to act. Next Hezekiah sought out a prophet who would speak God’s Word to him. So must we open God’s Word to hear him speak to us. Hezekiah’s main concern was that Yahweh would vindicate his own name. He prayed, “Now, O LORD our God, rescue us from his power; then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone, O LORD, are God” (19:19). In the same way, our hearts must be set on God glorifying himself through the salvation of our children.

Lord, I am trusting in you, the God who saves your people. You love to deliver your own. So I ask you to rescue ________ from the power of the evil one. Show yourself strong in the world by your saving power!