I am reading a book about "the 7 tipping points that saved the world." As I began to read the first tipping point, the book was giving names like Judah, Sennacherib, Assyria, and Lachish. I recognized them all from the Bible but couldn't pinpoint the story in my mind so I put down that book and began looking in the Bible for the story. I opened a Bible with archaeological helps in it and came across an article entitled "The Lachish Reliefs." It described 12 stone slabs that were placed in Sennacherib's palace in Nineveh. The slabs "vividly depict Sennacherib's victory over the fortified Judahite town of Lachish in 701 B.C." With this knowledge, I looked up the page at the story of King Hezekiah in 2 Kings 18. The story started out talking about Hezekiah's background and about his faithfulness to the Lord. In verses 6 and 7 it says, "He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow Him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. And the Lord was with him, he was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him." Then in verse 13, "In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah's reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them." The text went on to say that Hezekiah sent a message to Sennacherib that he had done wrong and asked him to withdraw. Then Hezekiah gave him all his silver and even stripped the gold off the doorposts of the temple of the Lord. At this point I whispered to myself, "This doesn't make sense." In the verses before it said that God was with Hezekiah and gave him success in whatever he did, but in the verses after it and from the Lachish reliefs it sounded as though Sennacherib had won. Then the thought occurred to me to read on. The story was not over there. As I continued reading I discovered that Sennacherib's men came and blasphemed God's abilities to Hezekiah's troops. Arrogantly stating that Judah didn't have a chance against their army. When Hezekiah heard about it he tore his robes, and prayed. The Lord sent word through Isaiah that He had heard his prayer, and Isaiah delivered to him the word the Lord had spoken against Sennacherib. In chapter 19:35, "That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning--there were all the dead bodies!" It continues in verse 36, "So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there." The last verse of the chapter describes the assassination of Sennacherib by his own sons.
It's easy for me to get caught up in what is going on in this moment, and sometimes what is going on in this moment does not seem good to me. Sometimes I stop before the story is over saying, "I don't understand." The thing I can bank on, if I will, is that God is faithful 100% of the time. It's us who aren't always faithful, who don't always hold up our end of the covenant. Don't stop before the end of the story. Stay faithful to God because He is worthy of that faithfulness.
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." ~Romans 8:28
