2 Kings 19: You Do the Possible, God Does the Rest

When the walls of life seem impenetrable and the armies of trouble lay siege to your peace, where do you find the strength to stand firm? Join us as we traverse the historic and spiritual battleground of 2 Kings 19, where King Hezekiah's unwavering faith against Assyrian threats echoes through time, offering powerful lessons for our modern-day struggles. Together, we examine that pivotal intersection of human effort and divine intervention, sharing not just the scriptural wisdom but intertwining it with the tales of perseverance that have marked my own journey—like the humbling days of planting Real Life Church in Bowling Green. Witness firsthand how doing the possible opens doors for God's hand to work the impossible.

This episode is a testament to patience and the pursuit of divine guidance, where my narrative parallels with Hezekiah's, illustrating the timeless faithfulness of God in our lives. We'll delve into the heartening stories of God's provision, from the miraculous support during our church's financial needs to the awe-inspiring tale of Elisha in 2 Kings 6, reminding us to seek and acknowledge the unseen miracles that surround us. As we wrap up this spiritual odyssey, I invite you to a moment of prayer and reflection, to open your eyes to God's omnipresent help, and be inspired to trust that when the world says 'impossible,' heaven whispers back, 'just watch.

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The More You Dig. The More You Find.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:24

Hello everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today. 2 Kings, chapter 19. And today's title is you Do the Possible and God Does the Rest. You Do the Possible and God Does the Rest, which is good, because we can't do the impossible anyway, right? Well, we're going to get into the second half of the story that we started yesterday, when King Sinakarab's chief administrators and all this are coming against the nation of Judah and the city of Jerusalem and they have laid waste to the place with all of this propaganda, and we're going to see what God does. And at the very end of this, I'm going to share with you a testimony of how God did this in my life. But before we do that, as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like share, subscribe to YouTube channel, leave us a comment down below. Let us know how you were interacting with God's Word. Also, on the podcast, make sure to leave us a five star review. It means the world to us when you do that and it helps us to get recognized by the algorithms and it encourages our team as well. Also, make sure you're joining us at the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook, and the more we dig, the more we find. And another aspect I want to give you is if you go to thebiblebreakdowncom, we have started a website where we are archiving all of these podcasts every single day, and the hope is is that eventually we're going to go back and we're going to fill all these chapters with extra commentaries and extra things, because we just want to help you to know God more. And the way we know God more is by reading his Word, because that's how he has chosen to reveal himself to us. And, once again, the more we dig, the more we find. And so, if you'd like to go there, you can go to thebiblebreakdowncom and you can even subscribe to a daily newsletter that will just send you the next chapter to your inbox every day. Okay, all right. Well, if you have your Bibles, open with me to 2 Kings 19.

Speaker 1: 2:07

As I said a minute ago, this is the end of the story that started yesterday. That is, king of Assyria has already taken over some area that's the nation of Israel. Now he's moved on to the nation of Judah and he's besieging Jerusalem in that area and he just goes on this propaganda campaign to fill the nation and the city with fear. He says, first of all, that God sent him, which that didn't happen. And then it doesn't really matter what God they worship, because they can't overwhelm him anyway, what God's have saved their nations, whatever, because they think that God is just some regional whatever instead of the King of Kings. So it's all this propaganda. And then they says here's the deal you either surrender to us or we're going to kill you. And that's kind of where it ended yesterday. Well, today we have that Hezekiah's different advisors have come to him, tell him the news and now we're going to see what he does about it. And then we see what God does about it as well. You ready, here we go.

Speaker 1: 3:05

Verse 1 says this when King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes and put on burlap and went to the temple of the Lord. He sent Elecheum, the palace administrator, and Sheba, the court secretary, and all the leading priests, all dressed up in burlap, to the prophet Isaiah, son of Amos. Now pause. Now you know that really long book in the Old Testament called Isaiah. That's the same guy, okay, so it's interesting how the Bible kind of works. The guy who ended up writing 66th chapter book is the same guy.

Speaker 1: 3:36

During this time, hezekiah and Isaiah were contemporaries, verse 3,. They told him this is what King Hezekiah says. Today is the day of trouble, insults and disgrace. It is like when a child is ready to be born but the mother has no strength to deliver the baby. But perhaps the Lord, your God, has heard the Assyrian chief of staff and sent. He was sent by the king to defy the living God and will punish him for his words. Oh, pray to those of us, pray for those of us who are left. After King Hezekiah's officials delivered the king's message to Isaiah, the prophet replied say to your master, this is what the Lord says. Do not be disturbed by the blasphemous speech against me from the Assyrian king's messengers. Listen, I myself will move against him. The king will receive a message that he is needed at home and he will then return to his land where I will have him killed with a sword.

Speaker 1: 4:34

Meanwhile, the Assyrian chief of staff left Jerusalem and went to consult the king of Assyria, who had left Lake ish and was attacking Libna. Soon afterward, king Sinachar received word that King Turkaya of Ethiopia was leading an army to fight against him. Before leaving to meet the attack, he sent messengers back to Hezekiah and Jerusalem with this message. This message is for King Hezekiah of Judah Don't let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you with promises that Jerusalem will not be captured by the king of Assyria. You know perfectly well that the kings of Assyria have done whatever they have done, wherever they have gone, that they have completely destroyed everyone who stood in their way. Why should you be any different? Have the gods of other nations rescue them, such as the nations of Gozan, haran, rizef and the people of Eden who were at Tel Hazara. My predecessors destroyed them all. What happened to the king of Hamath and the king of Arpad? What happened to the kings of Seferveim, hina and Iva?

Speaker 1: 5:42

After Hezekiah received this letter from the messenger and read it, he went up to the Lord's temple and he spread it out before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the Lord. O Lord, god of Israel, you are enthroned between the mighty cherubim. You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone created the heavens and the earth. Bend down, o Lord, and listen. Open your eyes, o Lord, and see.

Speaker 1: 6:10

Listen to Sennacherib's words of defiance against the living God. It is true, lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations. They have thrown the gods of these nations into the fire and burned them, but of course the Assyrians could destroy them. They were not gods at all, only idols of wood and stone shaped by human hands. And now, o Lord, our God, rescue us from the power of all the kingdoms of the earth, for we know that you alone, o Lord, are God. Pause.

Speaker 1: 6:42

Isn't it good that somebody finally said that you know why Assyria was able to destroy all these other kingdoms? It's because our gods weren't real. Their hope was in something that couldn't save them, couldn't do anything. And Hezekiah is saying I can tell you exactly why they did Because these gods aren't real. You, lord, god, you, yahweh, you are real. That's why my hope is in you. And so he gives the Lord all the information.

Speaker 1: 7:11

And then look what happens next, verse 20,. Then Isaiah, son of Amos, sent this message to Hezekiah. This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says I have heard your prayer about King Sennacherib of Assyria, and the Lord has spoken this word against him. The virgin daughter of Zion despises you and laughs at you. The daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head in derision as you flee. Whom have you been defying and ridiculing? Against whom did you raise your voice? At whom did you look with such haughty eyes? It is the Holy One of Israel. By your messengers, you have defied the Lord, you have said.

Speaker 1: 7:50

With my many chariots, I have conquered the highest mountains, yes, the remotest peaks of Lebanon. I have cut down the tallest cedars and its finest cypress trees. I have reached its farthest corners and explored its deepest forests. I have dug wells in many foreign lands and refreshed myself with their water. With the soul of my foot, I have stopped up all the rivers of Egypt.

Speaker 1: 8:14

But have you not heard? I decided this long ago. Long ago I planned this. This is God talking, by the way. Long ago I planned it and now I am making it happen. I plan for you to crush the fortified cities into heaps of rubble. This is why their people have so little power and are so frightened and confused. They are as weak as grass, as easily trampled as tender green shoots. They are like grass spouting on a housetop, scorched before it can grow lush and tall. But I know you well, where you stay, when you come and when you go. I know the way that you have raged against me and because of your raging against me and your arrogance which I have heard for myself. I will put my hook in your nose and a bit in your mouth and I will make you return by the same road in which you came. Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah here is the proof of what I say is true this year you will eat only what grows up by itself. Next year you will eat what springs up from that. But in the third year you will plant crops and harvest them. You will tend vineyards and eat their fruit. And you who are left in Judah, you who have escaped the ravages of the siege, you will put roots down in your own soil and you will grow up and flourish.

Speaker 1: 9:37

For a remnant of my people was spread out from Jerusalem, a group of survivors from Mount Zion. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven's armies. And he will make this happen. And this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria. His armies will not enter Jerusalem. He will not even shoot an arrow at it. They will not march outside its gates with their shields, nor build banks of the earth against its walls. The king will return to his own country by the same road on which he came. He will not enter this city, says the Lord, for my own honor and the sake of my servant David, I will defend this city and protect it. Wow, isn't that amazing.

Speaker 1: 10:18

When Sinacharib had sent this message from the king, god sends a message back and he says who do you think you're talking to? Excuse me, excuse me, you almost can see God kind of tilting his ear going. You were talking to me. Well, guess what, dear little one, you think you're in charge, but actually you're my puppet. Everything you've been doing, I'm the one who's ordained it. I am so in control you have no idea. And then he looks at Hezekiah and he says Don't worry, because this is what. Imagine. They don't have modern technology and modern communication like we do.

Speaker 1: 10:56

Because what could a variable have happened is, when the Assyrian army goes back to where they're from, hezekiah doesn't know. Are they staging to come back again? Are they gone for good? What's going to happen? And that's why Isaiah tells Hezekiah the reason why you're going to know they're gone for good is for this year you're going to plant whatever, just sprouts up by itself. The second year you're going to plant whatever sprouts itself from that, but in the third year you're going to have your own crops. So the fact that you're going to make it that far. You're going to see that that means they're not coming back again. That was the way he was going to know. Alright, and then watch what happens here at the end, verse 35.

Speaker 1: 11:32

That night, the angel of the Lord went out to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. When the surviving Assyrians woke up the next morning, they found corpses everywhere. Then King Sinakarub of Assyria broke camp and returned to his own land. He went home to his capital of Nineveh and stayed there. One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god, nishrash, his sons, adramalek and Assyras, killed him with their swords. Then they escaped to the land of Herat and another son, ursh Haddan, became the next king of Assyria.

Speaker 1: 12:11

Wow, what an amazing chapter. I mean, when it starts, you've got nothing but defeat. The Assyrian king is so confident, he's so arrogant, he thinks he's got it. All the Hezekiah can do is turn to God, turns out that's all he needed, and God answered strongly and did exactly what was needed, and God brought him the victory.

Speaker 1: 12:34

Now remember yesterday we said the first step when you encounter something bigger than yourself is to wait, not be so careful to respond right away Now, if you know anything about me, you know that I am not all about waiting, I'm all about responding and all that kind of stuff, and so sometimes it doesn't come natural to pause. And I'm not talking about a perpetual state of pause, we're not paralyzed in fear, we're just saying first, I want to hear from the Lord, and that's what Isaiah told him to do and that's what Hezekiah did. Is that, when they didn't know what to do, they went before the Lord, and he even showed how Hezekiah just unrolled the note in the letter in the presence of the Lord and said God, I don't know what to do. I've done everything I know to do. I tried to make peace with him and it didn't work. Now I've got to leave it in your hands.

Speaker 1: 13:22

Turns out, god knew exactly what to do. Can I tell you there's going to be times in your life when you're not going to know what to do. You've done everything you know to do and it still looks like an impossible situation. Two things. Number one take a deep breath, wait for just a moment, take it to the Lord, ask God and then do what he says. Do whatever God may speak to you. In your spirit, you may be reading God's Word and, all of a sudden, an idea you never thought of came comes to pass. God may send you something in the mail. God may speak. There's a thousand different ways that God can speak to you, but the first thing you do is take a deep breath. God is still with me, god is still for me. And then you take it to Him and trust God to help you take the next step. And let me tell you how this worked out in my life.

Speaker 1: 14:09

When my wife and I moved to Bowling Green in, you know 2011 to Plant Real Life Church, we had cashed out everything we had and we had enough money that we thought we could live on until the church launched, and then we were going to figure it out from there. We had about nine months and then, from there, we were going to take our next step, and so we had thought we had planned things so very well. But as you know how that goes, when you plan things, things never go according to how they were planned. Right, there was a lot of stuff that we had to buy, a lot of stuff that the church couldn't afford because we were still trying to launch it, so we paid for it out of the money we had saved and we got to the place to where we were only about four months in and we ran out of money and I was trying to find a place to work and all this kind of stuff. I couldn't find anything to make it work. And we were getting to the place where we were about to run out and we didn't know if we were even going to make it to the first day of real life church because we had ran out of finances. And we really got to the place where we had no more options and, on a crazy set of circumstances, a friend of mine who still lived where I come from, in Alabama, had heard of a church about two hours north that had recently had their worship leader transition away and they needed a music pastor.

Speaker 1: 15:17

Well before I became a senior pastor that's exactly what I was, and so that particular gentleman contacted me and said hey, would you like to come work with us? Well, my first answer was no. I'm trying to plan a church here in Bowling Green, right, but at the same time, it was a skill set that I had. I didn't want to say no to an open door that God may have opened for us, but I was really weary of it, and so I put it before the Lord, much like Hezekiah does. God, I don't know if this is what you want me to do. It sounds very different than what I had planned when I moved to Bowling Green, but I don't know. I just know I need your help, and so this is what I did.

Speaker 1: 15:51

Before I went, met with this pastor, I said God, I can't stay in this other city. I'm trying to plan a church in Bowling Green. I'm only going to be able to go, and so the only thing I can offer this guy and what I need from him is impossible, because all I could do I could go on the weekends, and that was it. I needed Monday through Saturday in Bowling Green to build our launch team and do us kind of stuff, so I can only give him Saturday afternoon and Sunday. But then also I needed to support my family, and so there was a certain dollar amount that I needed for us to go to pay our bills, and I had that number written down to the dollar that I needed, and I just put it before the Lord.

Speaker 1: 16:30

And on my way to meet with this guy, halfway, I had told myself God, this will be a complete miracle because I'm going to need these exact hours that I can work and I'm going to need this exact money. Those things are ridiculous. I do not need those things, nobody would agree to that. But this is all I can do. So I'm just going to put out there. So it's much like, much like with Hezekiah. God, I don't know. I'm trusting in you. How about this?

Speaker 1: 16:56

I get to our meeting place, I go sit down with this gentleman. Immediately, super kind guy, just immediately knew that this is a great guy and we sat down and before we said anything else, this gentleman said he said, brandon, I know that God sent you to Bowling Green and I know that you are there to plant that church. I don't want to take you away from what God's doing in your life. If you're willing to come and help us, I want our church to see what we're doing in your life as an investment into the kingdom of God. So this is what I want to do. And you know what he did. He immediately said I only want you to work these certain hours and we're going to pay you this amount of money. I hadn't told him any of that, but it was the exact time I could give and it was the exact amount of money that I needed.

Speaker 1: 17:42

It was a complete miracle. It took everything I had not to break down into tears in that moment. The answer was yes, I'd be glad to. And you know, it was even more amazing. Not only was I able to go and support my family through that, but God worked such a healing in my heart during that process.

Speaker 1: 18:00

I had moved to Bowling Green tired and weary, just from a long season of ministry. And going to that church and spending time with those people and just growing some community with those people, it healed some places in my heart that I didn't know was broken to the point that when it came time for us to have our first service at Real Life Church, it was. It was bittersweet because I had grown to love those people, and so it started off as an impossible situation. I done everything I knew to do that was possible. But then, when I got to the end of my rope, I got quiet God, I'm trusting you. And then, when God opened the door, I walked through it and it was him doing all of the impossible. Can I tell you that's exactly what God can do in your life. Here's the challenge In order to have a testimony, you have to have a test.

Speaker 1: 18:47

Unfortunately, testimonies only come from the on the other side of a bad situation. I don't know what you might be going through in your life, but can I tell you from personal experience God is fateful. When you do the possible, god always does the impossible. So what about you? What season are you going through right now? Are you going through a place of difficulty, of uncertainty, where maybe it's a financial situation, like I was in, or maybe it's just a directional issue, maybe it's a relationship issue? Can I tell you?

Speaker 1: 19:20

Here's your first step is to pause, take a deep breath and remember who you're serving, remember that God is bigger than us, and then lay it out before the Lord and say God, I'm going to do every single thing possible, but there are some things that are bigger than me and I'm asking for you to do the impossible and watch what he does, because I'm right here, living proof, to say God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly. Above all, we could ask or think according to his power that's working within us. Let's pray, god. Thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, that you are with us and you are for us. Thank you, god, for your miracles. Thank you, god, for the thousand miracles that we don't even know about, the way that you made for us, even when we didn't know. I pray, god, that you will strengthen your people. You'll encourage us to take next steps with you, to take a deep breath and remember how good you are and then, when you open the door, to take every next step. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen and don't forget.

Speaker 1: 20:17

In 2 Kings, chapter 6, there was a moment when Elisha and a young man were surrounded by an enemy army and the young man was afraid, and so Elisha said this in verse 16 and 17. He says don't be afraid, for there is more on our side than on theirs. And then Elisha prayed oh Lord, open his eyes and let him see. And the Bible says that God opened the eyes of these young man and all around that small army was a vast heavenly host ready to defend him. My prayer is that the Lord will open your eyes to see that God is with you more than you can imagine. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for 2 Kings, chapter 20.