21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word that the Lord has spoken against him:
“She has despised you and mocked you,
The virgin daughter of Zion;
She has shaken her head behind you,
The daughter of Jerusalem!
23 “Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?
And against whom have you raised your voice
And [j]haughtily lifted up your eyes?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
24 “Through your servants you have reproached the Lord,
And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains,
To the remotest parts of Lebanon;
And I cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses.
And I will go to its [k]highest peak, its thickest forest.
25 ‘I dug wells and drank waters,
And with the sole of my feet I dried up
All the rivers of [l]Egypt.’
26 “Have you not heard?
Long ago I did it,
From ancient times I planned it.
Now I have brought it to pass,
That you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
27 “Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength,
They were dismayed and put to shame;
They were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb,
As grass on the housetops [m]is scorched before it is grown up.
28 “But I know your sitting down
And your going out and your coming in
And your raging against Me.
29 “Because of your raging against Me
And because your [n]arrogance has come up to My ears,
Therefore I will put My hook in your nose
And My bridle in your lips,
And I will turn you back by the way which you came.
Right at the beginning of this response we see something important. Isaiah tells the king, “This is what God says, because you have prayed to Me…” Now, if we look back through the prophecies that God gave Isaiah, we already know He is going to destroy Assyria. Everything in this passage was already the plan… before Hezekiah laid the letter out before God and prayed, and bared his soul, and his fears, and his despair.
God already had a plan, and so rightly He chastises the Assyrians. They claimed to have conquered the nations with their chariots and dried up the rivers of Egypt. Then God says, “Hold on a minute! Do you have any idea who you are talking to?” For He is the God who knows what we feel, what we need, and what we desire. God knows what we are going to do tomorrow, and He knows when we are going to pray, and what we are going to pray.
So I guess we all just go home and let God do his thing, right? Most certainly not, for those things happen (and will happen) because we obey God, because we talk to Him, and because we listen. Take the time to pray, and open up your heart, tell Him what worries you, what keeps you awake at night, and the doubts that threaten to cripple your faith.
Then, let Him be God in your life, know that He has it under control, listen for His voice and leading and move forward. Don’t let all those things hold you back, because they won’t hold God back, not for one minute. God was more powerful than Sennacherib and the entire Assyrian army, and whatever you face, God is still enough. Seek His face and find comfort in His unshakable arms. He’s got you.