Today let’s look at chapter 37 of Isaiah. In our life little and big, various problems come upon us. How should we deal with such problems?
In today’s passage it is recorded how the King Hezekiah dealt with the dangerous situation of Southern Judah being threatened. At this time Hezekiah was facing a national high level crisis. “Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lacish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem.” (36:1,2) The field commander that King Sennacherib sent said this and that to shake them up and called out to King Hezekiah to surrender. What should they do? They were in a condition of despair thinking that they too would be destroyed by Assyria like the surrounding countries were. How did Hezekiah deal with the situation?

I. Hezekiah who entered the temple of God.
First please look at verse 1.
Vs. 1
When Hezekiah heard the commander’s prideful words, “he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the LORD.” (1) “Sackcloth” (1) was worn in morning. It showed sadness and repentance so it showed that he was of no worth, of self- humbleness. When the priest really prayed especially when they fasted and prayed they put on sackcloth. Hezekiah even though he was king, took off his royal clothes and “put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the LORD.” (1) The enemy had pressed upon him to that point. To do such a thing the enemy might take Jerusalem. Even so Hezekiah before God handed everything over to God, depended on God and went before the Lord. Even if the enemy tried to triumph over them, no matter what happened to them, he made up his mind to pray to the end. To pray time and fasting is important, but more than anything what is important is the kind heart that you pray to God with. God looks at the heart. Hezekiah poured out his heart before the Lord. The Lord will attach weight to such a heart. If you earnestly cry in prayer to the Lord, the Lord will know the meaning of the tears and surely will do a huge work.
Samuel tied the history of Israel from the age of the judges to the age of the kings that started with Saul. He was a vessel of God that was born from his mother’s, Hannah’s, crying in prayer.
Hannah’s situation was very complicated. Under one roof there was one husband and two wives. Moreover Hannah was barren. The other wife, Peninnah was blessed with children. Peninnah “kept provoking her in order to irritate her.” (I Samuel 1:6) Hannah’s pride as a woman was hurt. “In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the LORD.” (I Samuel 1:10) She was praying in her heart so her lips were moving, but her voice couldn’t be heard. Therefore, the priest, Eli, thought that she was drunk. He said to her, “How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine.” (I Samuel 1:14)
She replied, “Not so, my lord…I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD. …I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.” (I Samuel l: 15, 16)
Then she received through the Priest, Eli, the word of God. “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.” (I Samuel l: 17)
This is how the great Samuel was born. Trouble brings the tears of prayer. Such strong heartful prayer with an indomitable determination in the course of time surely calls for the mighty works of God.
How about you? When like Hezekiah you face a dangerous situation, do you go to the temple and direct your prayers to God? Do you tear your clothes “and put on sackcloth”? (1) Even when we are in such situations we make various excuses, and don’t try to enter the Lord’s temple. We don’t try to go to church. This too is also Satan’s clever plan. Satan attacks us using a whole bag of tricks to keep us from going to church. That is because he knows that if we go to church all schemes will not work. Therefore, at all costs he doesn’t want you to go. “Today I’m not feeling up to par so I’ll stay home.” “I thought I would go but unexpectantly guests came so I can’t go.” “My child feels feverish so I’ll give up going.” Satan uses various reasons to keep us from going. However, the real solution begins by you tearing your clothes, putting on sackcloth and entering the Lord’s temple and pouring out your heart before the Lord in prayer.
In Jewish history, the age of Isaiah was really horrible. They were threatened by other countries. Internal law and order and morality were confused, faith was forgotten, corruption and in the midst of desperate storms it was on the verge of ruin. However, it is the same in this age. In this age too each individual lives selfishly, forgetting about faith, the condition is such that it would not be strange for the Lord’s second coming to occur at any time. However, because of this more than ever we need to look to the Lord. Now especially when we are dismayed about everything we should put our hope only in the Lord and wait expectantly on the Lord. We can always receive blessings from everywhere. The key no matter where we sink depends on whether we seek in prayer God who can lift us up or deny Him.

II. Pray (Vs. 2-4)
Next please look at verses 2 to 4. I will read verse 2.
Vs.2
Here King Hezekiah “sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth to the prophet Isaiah.” (2) This means that he didn’t just pray himself, but he sought prayer support from Isaiah, his counselor who always guided him.
What he said to Isaiah is in verses 3 and 4.
Vs. 3 & 4
What an expression! “When children come to the point of birth and there is no strength to deliver them.” (3) I don’t think anyone can understand the pain of labor unless he has had a baby. However, it is said that it hurts the most, and the most agony is just before the baby is born. At that time the pain reaches its peak. It would be o.k. if the child is born, but even though the baby has “come to the point of birth,” (3) he can’t be delivered. In other words, the pain that has reached its peak continues on at its peaked level. “There is no strength to deliver.” (3) It is even a more vivid description than that of the pains of childbirth.
“This is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace as when children come to the point of birth.” (3) However, “there is no strength to deliver.” (3) Hezekiah realized that he was completely helpless. Those who realize their helplessness say like the end of verse 4, “Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives.”
When we meet struggles, of course it is important to pray, but at the same time, it is important to have our prayer friends pray for us. We need to ask others to pray for us. Now we have phones and computers so it is not necessary to send a messenger like Hezekiah sent to Isaiah. All we have to do is push a button and we can ask for prayers.
There is no reason to be embarrassed to ask your friends or the pastor to pray for you. When we realize that “there is no strength to deliver.” (3) then we are able to say, “pray”. (4) Such a person is really humble.
Humanly speaking Paul was a strongperson. He was intellectually, spiritually, and in gifts too, also educationally, and by authority God gave him as an apostle, and by the special commission that God gave him, he was an outstanding person and by such strengths he spread the Gospel and was able to move forward. Paul by moving people’s hearts he sought, aspired, and pleaded to give strength to all the believers. He sent a letter like this to the brothers in Rome.
“I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.” (Romans 15:30) Paul said, “join me in my struggles by praying to God for me…that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and together with you be refreshed. ” (Romans 15:30-32) Paul said, “join me in my struggles by praying to God for me.” (Romans 15:30) He thought that through prayer he would have victory over the struggles and would be able to complete his commission. Therefore, he was able to say “join me in my struggles by praying to God for me.” (Romans 15:30) However, that is not something that is easy to say. That is because we can’t show our weaknesses. Even though among the apostles he was specially called, he wasn’t supported by the prayers of others, he wouldn’t have enough skills. Therefore, he wrote letters to various people and asked them to pray for him.
Therefore, we too must not make excuses to each other. I want to ask you, “Please pray for me.” Please pray that I can fulfill God’s ministry to this church, and faithfully fulfill the commission that God has given me, and in the midst of various trials, only by the strength of God powerfully fulfill this work. Before when Israel fought the Amalekites at Rephidim, “Aaron and Hur held his hands up.” (Exodus 17:12) Please pray that my arms won’t be lowered. Also let’s pray for each other. If so those prayers one by one will gather together like drops of water and in the course of time reversely will be like a huge sea that repels all evil. I believe this.

III. Do not be afraid of those words (Vs. 5-13)
Lastly let’s look at Isaiah responded to Hezekiah’s request. Please look at verses 5 to 13. First I’ll read to verse 7.
Vs. 5-7
In response to Hezekiah’s words, Isaiah spoke the Word of the Lord. That was, “Do not be afraid of what you have heard-those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.” (6) “What you have heard-those words” are the words of the field commander especially those of 36:18 to 20 where he especially blasphemes the God of Israel saying that the Lord can’t save Jerusalem from the hand of Assyria. More than making fun of King Hezekiah and the people of Judah, he blasphemes the Lord, the God Israel that they trusted in. We too must be careful. When we criticize someone there are times when we are blaspheming God. More than criticizing the person we are criticizing God, we are blaspheming God. Also we shouldn’t be fearful of such words. “Do not be afraid of what you have heard-those words.” (6) The Lord gave King Hezekiah words filled with encouragement. He is saying not to be fearful of the words of the field commander.

We’ll never know how much these words encouraged King Hezekiah. For him I’m sure that God’s Words probably led to the solution of all that problems that he faced. That’s because fear is what really makes our lives weak. When we fear, we lose strength. The strength of our bodies is all soaked up. We can’t stand up. We become weak and fragile. We are like a balloon that has lost air; we are deflated. We can’t stand up. We may not be able to live. That is how much fear makes us weak. To Hezekiah God said “Do not be afraid.” (6) and encouraged him.
That’s not all. The Lord showed Hezekiah concretely how He was going to work. As verse 7 says, The Lord is “going to put a spirit in” the field commander so “when he hears a certain report, he will return to his own country, and there” God” will have him cut down with the sword.”
This will actually happen. This is recorded in verses 8 to 13. In verse 8 it says, “the field commander…withdrew.” The field commander and the army had surrounded Jerusalem, but the field commander heard a rumor and “withdrew”. That rumor was as it says in verse 9, “Tirhakah, the Cushite king of Egypt, was marching out to fight against him.” Cush is Ethiopia. King Tirhakah was Taharqa who was a pharaoh of the Ancient Egyptian 25th dynasty and king of the Kingdom of Cush. This Egyptian army marched out to fight against Assyria. At this time Assyria was divided into 2 groups so their military strength was weak. Therefore, the field commander was afraid that if Tirhakah, the Cushite king was to attack, that they might lose so he withdrew for a while from Judah and joined forces with King Sennacherib. However, this was nothing more than a rumor, but the field commander really took it seriously and feared it and withdrew. It happened just as the Lord had told Hezekiah it would. After that the Assyrian King, Sennacherib sent people from Libnah to King Hezekiah to shake him up but, in the end the Lord miraculously entered history and in one “night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp.” (II Kings 19:35) Therefore, Sennacherib king of Assyria withdrew and returned to his own country. There he was killed by his own two sons. This is recorded in II Kings 19. In other words, it happened just as the Lord had said to Hezekiah.
The Lord didn’t just say, “Don’t fear”, but in reality God fought with them and brought victory. Therefore, there was nothing to fear. We have to “fear him who, after the killing of the body has power to throw you into hell.” (Luke 12:5) We must fear Him. If he is with you, you have nothing to fear. The words of God that Isaiah spoke to Hezekiah showed Hezekiah this. When Hezekiah realized his own sin and weaknesses and bowed himself before God, he was able to hear the Word of God. Then that led him to a perfect solution.

Are you listening to the Word of God? Like Hezekiah are you tearing your clothes, putting on sackcloth, and bowing to God? Are you desiring to hear the Word of God and humbly listening to it? If you come before God in that way, God will speak His word to you. Then he will set you free from the problems that you are facing. He will save you from dangerous situations. I pray that you will always depend on the promises of God and experience God’s salvation.