Today’s passage: Isaiah 37:21-38
Helpful thoughts:
- The people of Jerusalem shake their heads at the king of Assyria because they know who he’s now up against. Sennacherib has reviled the Holy One of Israel.
- In verse 26, God informs King Sennacherib that the reason he has had any success was because of the the Lord’s sovereign will. The king of Assyria owed his success to the God of Israel.
- God has total control, he would lead the king of Assyria back to his home like people would their captives or animals (Verse 29).
- Proverbs 21:1 – The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.
- God uses leaders to bless and to judge a people (2 Samuel 24:1)
- The Lord did what He promised and Sennacherib certainly saw it come to pass, but he did not repent. Even though God told the king where his success came from, he continued to worship his false god to ask for more.
Questions to consider:
- What would true repentance have looked like for Sennacherib after having heard these truths from the Lord? What did he hear that should have ended his worship of Nisroch?
- Is there a leader on the face of this earth who works independently of God’s sovereignty? Regardless of who is in the oval office, who is on the throne?
- If Sennacherib’s greatest sin was rejecting and reviling God, what is the greatest sin of leaders and citizens in our day? What root sin is the cause of all of the problems we face today? What kind of “grassroots” movement does our country truly need (Matthew 28:18-20)?