14 Then Hezekiah took the [g]letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord and [h]spread it out before the Lord. 15 Hezekiah prayed to the Lord saying, 16 “O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 17 Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to reproach the living God. 18 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have devastated all the countries and their lands, 19 and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. 20 Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, Lord, [i]are God.”
In the previous passage, we may have questioned Hezekiah’s faith, as he said (to Isaiah via his messengers), “Perhaps the Lord your God will hear…” That’s certainly not very personal, but at times that was the common approach. For instance, when it came to sacrifices, the people had to take their offerings and animals to the priests, and King Saul’s rebellion (centuries earlier) included such a mistake.
Yet, the people of Israel often prayed to God, during meals, and Sabbaths, and many of the other festivals. So as this story unfolds, we see Hezekiah isn’t content to have his relationship with God be “by proxy”. Rather, he goes to the house of the Lord himself and shows God the very letter that has caused him distress. He lays it all out before God and asks Him to deliver Israel from the overwhelming threat of Assyria.
The end of Hezekiah’s prayer is the best though, as he doesn’t ask for his own safety, or that of the people, just so they can be secure and comfortable. Rather, he asks God to deliver them so that God himself will be glorified, and that “all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, Lord, are God.”
To reiterate, the first lesson then is that God is not far off, and we should not feel unworthy to approach God with our needs. No doubt, we are unworthy, and yet God invites us to come to Him as sons and daughters, even His own heirs and children. Jesus himself taught us to pray, starting with “Our Father…” instead of, “Oh great and mighty God, somewhere up in the heavens…”
The second is just as important, which is to check our motives when we pray. Or rather, “leave them at the door”, and seek His motives instead. As Jesus continued, we should pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done…” Do our prayers reflect a desire to see God glorified, or are they just to make our lives easier?
At times, those two things do go together, but our primary focus must always be on glorifying God. Not that He needs to be puffed up, but because we need to focus on ourselves less, and more on how much others need God also. As the writer of Hebrews wrote, “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”