SPECIAL DAY: Sunday after 911
When You Pass Through the Waters
SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus
DATE: September 16, 2001
Introduction: As the astounding events of this past week continue to unfold, many thinking people are tempted to ask, “Where is God? Is He blind that He cannot see? Is He deaf that He cannot hear? Is He dumb that He cannot speak? Is he paralyzed that he cannot move? Where is God?”[i] In the 43rd chapter of Isaiah, the Lord speaks through His prophet:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When (not if) you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the Lord, your God.”
These are amazing promises which God gave to His chosen people, Israel. I happen to believe the same promises are good for us today. They are written for believers of all centuries to read, to meditate upon, and to gain comfort from in time of need. Of course, the deliverance we experience will not always be in the exact same form as Israel’s, for our trials are not the same as theirs. But just as they had waters and rivers and fires as obstacles in their paths, so we also have waters and rivers and fires that loom large in our lives. And just as God miraculously delivered them, He is also able and willing to deliver us. But we must remember that God’s deliverance is always in Histiming, according to His will, and in accord with our ultimate good, and it does not rigidly conform to our expectations, or even to our prayers.
We must understand that the Lord does not promise that Christians will be free from trial (in fact, some of our trials are self-inflicted), but He does promise to go with us in every trial. The captain of the airplane that hit the second of the World Trade Towers on Tuesday was Victor Saracini, a faithful member of the Evangelical Free Church in Yardley, PA., and good friend of Bill and Jacquee Jerome. Without doubt we will hear of scores of other committed believers who were victims of this terrorist conspiracy. Does that contradict Isaiah 43? I don’t think so. In Psalm 139 David is speaking to God: “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” We are immortal until our work on earth is done, and until those days recorded in God’s Book are completed, we cannot be overcome by the waters, swept away by the rivers, or burned by fire. And when those days are completed, God will usher us safely to our eternal home in heaven.[ii]
One of the most incredible illustrations of the truth of God’s pledge that “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you,” is found just a few chapters earlier in Isaiah 36 and 37. There are some fascinating parallels in this story to what we as a nation have experienced this week. I’m going to do something unusual today; I’m going to read an extended portion of Scripture–most of two chapters. I believe the simple reading of God’s Word has intrinsic value, and just listening to these chapters can, in itself, impress upon our minds the important truths found here. You can either follow along in your Bible or just close your eyes and listen.
Remember as we read that the northern Kingdom of Israel has been destroyed and taken into captivity to Assyria some 21 years earlier, Hezekiah is the godly king of the surviving but threatened southern kingdom of Judah, and Sennacherib is the ungodly king of Assyria, Judah’s archenemy.
In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. {2} Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the commander stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman’s Field, {3} (three of Hezekiah’s representatives) went out to him.
{4} The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah,
‘’This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours? {5} You say you have strategy and military strength—but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me? {6} Look now, you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces a man’s hand and wounds him if he leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. {7} And if you say to me, “We are depending on the LORD our God”—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem“?
{8} “‘Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them! {9} How then can you repulse one officer of the least of my master’s officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? {10} Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the LORD? The LORD himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.'”
{11} Then (the three representatives) said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”
{12} But the commander replied, presumably even louder, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the men sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own filth and drink their own urine?”
{13} Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! {14} This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you! {15} Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says, ‘The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’
{16} “Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, {17} until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
{18} “Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’ Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? {19} Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? {20} Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”
{21} But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”
{22} Then (the three representatives) went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what the field commander had said.”
“When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the LORD. {2} He sent (his representatives) and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. {3} They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the point of birth and there is no strength to deliver them. {4} It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the LORD your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives.”
{5} When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah, {6} Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. {7} Listen! I am going to put a spirit in him so that when he hears a certain report, he will return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.'”
(Verse 14) Hezekiah received (a letter of intimidation from Sennacherib) from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. {15} And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: {16} “O LORD Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. {17} Give ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God.
{18} “It is true, O LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands. {19} They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. {20} Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God.”
{21} Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, {22} this is the word the LORD has spoken against him:
(Verse 33) “He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. {34} By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city,” declares the LORD. {35} “I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!””
Now I want you to ask yourself this question, “Are my personal troubles, or my nation’s troubles, any greater than were King Hezekiah’s? And if God delivered him, isn’t it also possible that God will deliver me, and deliver my country?” No, I want to go a step further–shouldn’t I expect God to deliver me? Demand? No. But expect? Yes. My sermon has a very simple outline: “When crisis looms . . . the godly respond . . . and God delivers.”
When crisis looms . . . (36:1-22)
The year is 701 B.C. and King Sennacherib has brought his Assyrian armies against Judah and captured all the fortified cities around Jerusalem, even laying siege to the Holy City itself. The first fact that is apparent is that …
The enemy attacks with a devastating strategy. Sennacherib sends an envoy to a spot near the northern wall of Jerusalem to meet with three negotiators sent out by good King Hezekiah. Notice how these men operate in the same way Satan, the Enemy of our souls, operates today:
1. He undermines our confidence and self-worth. The Assyrian field commander demands to know the basis for their confidence that they can hold out under his siege. If they are relying on help from allies, it won’t be coming, for their allies are also threatened by King Sennacherib and they will protect their own interests first. If, on the other hand, their confidence is in their God, they are alsoin trouble, he claims, because Hezekiah has torn down His altars and high places. Well, Hezekiah had indeed torn down many false places of worship that his father Ahaz had built, but what the Assyrian apparently doesn’t know is that the Lord had actually ordered Hezekiah to tear them down. Nevertheless, the field commander’s argument could have been a convincing one with many of the common people, for they weren’t at all happy about Hezekiah’s religious reforms.
Having worked to undermine their self-worth and confidence, the envoy of the Assyrian king employs a second tactic the Evil One often uses against us:
2. He ridicules and humiliates us. He offers to furnish the inhabitants of Jerusalem 2,000 horses if they can only furnish the riders. Now surely this is not a bona fide offer, but rather a ploy to mock them and make them painfully aware of their own limited resources. In fact, he follows this offer up with a sneering comment to the effect that they are unable to offer reasonable opposition to even one Assyrian staff sergeant. I can’t help but compare this tactic with the blatant, in-your-face effort to humiliate our nation this past week. The action was clearly designed to intimidate and demoralize us and portray us as helpless against terrorism. But the enemy doesn’t stop there.
3. He employs spiritual deceit. He claims in verse 10 to be laying siege to Jerusalem to destroy it because the Lord God (i.e. Jehovah, Israel’s own personal God) told him to. This shouldn’t surprise us, because all kinds of people are constantly justifying their actions or viewpoints by appealing to some special revelation from God.[iii] Every cult does it. Saddam Hussein did it. Osama Bin Laden does it, claiming to be on a mission from God, a “Jihad,” a holy war.
The Assyrian commander employs spiritual deceit again a little later, verses 16 and following, when he urges the people to make peace with Sennacherib. “Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, until I come and take you to a land like your own–a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.” What he doesn’t say is that they would be slaves in that land. Doesn’t this just remind you of Satan, the Father of Lies? He promised Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, “You will be like gods” if they would eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He promised Jesus that he would give Him all the kingdoms of the world if He would bow down to him.
And Satan is still promising people the moon if they will just give him their allegiance. Radical Islamic terrorists are being promised by their spiritual leaders that they will receive immortality in paradise, with a harem of 70 virgins to enjoy for eternity, if they will sacrifice their lives for their cause. Instead I believe those terrorists woke up in the fires of Hell, and their spiritual leaders will receive even more severe judgment for orchestrating death and destruction in the name of God!
The undermining of our confidence and self-worth, ridicule and humiliation, spiritual deceit–these are the constant strategies of the enemy. Has the Enemy of your soul used these tactics against youlately. Have you been the victim of his lies? Maybe your marriage is in serious trouble. Perhaps you’ve been out of work. Maybe your finances have gone south. Perhaps fear has gripped your heart because of the tragic events of this week. Has Satan undermined your confidence and succeeded in convincing you that you are too weak and too sinful to expect God’s help? Has he ridiculed you, humiliating you and convincing you that you have no gifts God could use and no qualities He would want? Have you heard that “voice” in your head that whispers, “You are so stupid, you really messed up, you’re such a fool, a fake, and a hypocrite.” Has the Devil succeeded in deceiving you spiritually, distracting your mind from the truths of Scripture, making promises that are attractive but lead only to death and destruction? Has he created doubt about God’s love or doubt whether God really answers prayer?
All Christians experience such attacks, and for some of you a crisis may be looming. You may feel that you are on the verge of completely succumbing to the pressure or doing something desperate. Please don’t! There are two ways to respond: try to fix it on your own or turn to God.
The temptation to respond with purely human resources is very strong. (11-20). Hezekiah tries that route and discovers, first …
1. Appeasement and compromise won’t avail. We find this in the parallel account of Sennacherib’s invasion in 2 Kings 18:13-16, which provides some details not found in Isaiah 36. There we learn that King Hezekiah was so fearful, he offered to buy Sennacherib off. In fact, he said to the Assyrian king, “I have done wrong. Withdraw from me, and I will pay you whatever you demand of me.” That turned out to include all the silver that was found in the temple of the Lord and in the treasuries of the royal palace. Hezekiah even stripped off the gold from the doors and doorposts of the temple of the Lord and gave it to the king of Assyria. If he thought that would satisfy his enemy, he was sadly mistaken. Here Hezekiah reminds one of Neville Chamberlain and his effort to appease Hitler in 1939, on the eve of W.W. II. One cannot compromise with unmitigated evil and come out ahead. Appeasement never satisfies the enemy—it only whets his appetite for more.
In Isaiah 36:11 we see a second example of a purely human effort.
2. Negotiation from weakness is futile. You recall that the three representatives of Hezekiah interrupt the envoy of the King of Assyria and, no doubt in whispered tones, beg him to please quit speaking in Hebrew and start speaking in Aramaic, which they, as government officials, could understand but the average person could not. The problem, of course, is that this conversation is taking place just outside the walls of Jerusalem, and the Assyrian field commander is speaking loudly enough so the curious citizens on the top of the wall can hear everything. It is striking fear into their hearts.
In essence the Jewish representatives are requesting that the negotiations be held in secret so that the citizenry won’t find out that Hezekiah is all out of trump cards. The envoy of Sennacherib, however, not only refuses the request, but stands up and speaks still louder in Hebrew. Kind of reminds one of Saddam Hussein, doesn’t it? Or Osama Bin Laden. Bullying. Obnoxious. Brazen. Repulsive. Evil.
Is it possible that someone here today is trying to counter the evil plots of our spiritual Enemy, the Devil, through similar purely human efforts? Have you tried appeasement by giving in, here a little, there a little? Or have you tried to negotiate from a position of weakness, begging the Enemy to take a lower profile so your friends and family won’t see how desperate your situation really is? You know something? If you try to fight Satan on his own turf, you’re bound to lose.
3. The silence of helplessness seems to be the only alternative. (21-22) It says, “But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, ‘Do not answer him.’” I believe there is another reason for their silence–they feel completely helpless and hopeless. There are times when words fail to describe the desperateness of a situation. You try to reason with unreasonable people. You try to help in a situation but your help is refused. You pray, but your prayers don’t seem to get past the ceiling. You seek counsel, but your counselor has no answers. Silence seems to be your only possible response. That’s how it is for the people of Israel as the crisis looms.
But thankfully godly King Hezekiah eventually responds as all godly people should, by going to the House of the Lord, by seeking a word from the Lord, and by fervently praying to the Lord.
When crisis looms the godly respond … (37:1-7)
By going to the House of the Lord. (1) Hezekiah first tears his clothes and puts on sackcloth and then goes into the temple of the LORD. I’ll say this much for him. He hadn’t done everything right. He had compromised; he had tried to fight the enemy through appeasement; he had leaned upon international alliances instead of leaning upon the Lord. But when things looked darkest, he knew where to go–to the Lord. My heart was encouraged Tuesday night when over 500 people gathered here in the sanctuary for prayer. And countless others of you were praying in your homes. We had another powerful prayer meeting at noon on Friday. Many more of you would have been here had we been able to get the word out.
But I’m amazed how often people run away from the Lord in time of trouble. They quit reading God’s Word, they pull away from their Christian friends, they stop coming to church. What a tragedy, because they are moving away from the only source of help at the very time they need it most. By the way, we could learn a lesson here from little children. What does a little child do when his mother takes him to the doctor for a shot? Does he reject his mother because she has brought him to that wretched place? Does he blame his mother because of the pain? No, as a matter of fact, a child generally grabs hold of his mother and squeezes her tightly because her love is the one secure thing in the world. We need to learn to seek the Lord in time of trouble, as Hezekiah did! But why do we only turn to Him as a last resort? Oh, that He would be the first one that we (and our nation) would turn to—not just in troubled times but every day!
By seeking a word from the Lord (2-5). He sends for the prophet Isaiah. I would say that the parallel action God would have us take today is to go to His Word. The prophet of the Lord in those days was roughly equivalent to the Bible in ours. Both made known the will of the Lord.
Several things stand out in the message Hezekiah sent to Isaiah the prophet. First, he doesn’t try to whitewash the seriousness of the crisis. In fact, he uses a triple description of the disaster–it is “a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace.” Wow, does that ever describe September 11, 2001! The simile which follows is a picturesque one: “It is as when children come to the point of birth and there is no strength to deliver them.” What greater trauma is there than this? The very life of a child is threatened before he or she has ever seen the light of day.
Second, Hezekiah’s main concern does not seem to be his throne or even his own survival, but rather the honor of God and the innocent people who may lose their lives. That same attitude was beautifully modeled by the Lord Jesus Christ. He endured very harsh treatment without ever going to His own defense, but when His Father or His Father’s house or innocent children were treated with disdain, he could get downright angry. That’s a good habit for us to get into. We should save our greatest anger and righteous indignation for those things that are an affront to our God or that turn the innocent into victims, while learning more about turning the other cheek when we are personally offended.
By fervently praying to the Lord. The last threatening message from Sennacherib comes by letter, so Hezekiah simply takes the letter and spreads it out before the Lord, presumably on the altar. Now I believe this is a symbolic gesture. Surely, he doesn’t think he has to spread it out in the temple for the Lord to be able to read it. Rather he is acting out an attitude of his heart. He is in effect saying, “God, this is your problem–I’m giving it to you.”[iv] And then he opens his heart to God in prayer.
Many Christians seem to be completely ignorant of the power of prayer. We talk so much about it and do so little of it. Hezekiah’s prayer begins where prayers ought to begin–with an acknowledgment that all things are completely under divine control. God was not surprised by Sennacherib’s invasion, nor was He surprised this week by the cowardly sneak attack on the World Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon. Why He allowed it I cannot say, but I know He is Lord of heaven and earth, and nothing happens without His knowledge or permission.
Hezekiah’s prayer also includes a realistic and accurate appraisal of the crisis he is in. He says, “It is true, O Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire.” God does not expect us to gloss over our difficulties or whitewash our problems. He wants us to be honest with Him. We’re in trouble. Our leaders don’t know what to do about it. We’ve run out of options. But that’s not a bad place to be, if we will turn to the only source of wisdom and help, namely God Himself.
And please don’t overlook the fact that God answers Hezekiah’s prayer. Here’s how Isaiah puts it: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib, king of Assyria, this is the word the Lord has spoken against him.’” Now I don’t know how you read that, but it sure looks to me as though God is promising to act as a direct result of Hezekiah’s prayers. I think theological speculation sometimes results in drastic harm to the simple truths of God’s Word. I’ve heard people wax eloquent on the fact that since God is absolutely sovereign, and since His will is going to be done no matter what man may do, prayer can’t really change anything.
Now their premises may be correct, but their conclusion isn’t. I’m not sure how God’s sovereignty always fits into the activity of prayer, but I do know that we are commanded to pray, not just for the exercise of it, but because the Bible tells us that God listens to it and acts upon it. That, friends, is what God says right here. Don’t ever let anyone take away from you the confidence that God answers prayer.
And in response to Hezekiah’s prayer, God promises both destruction on the enemy and deliverance for Hezekiah and his people. We do not have the time this morning to examine these promises in any detail, but I would like to read verse 28 and 29 because I think they apply (in our own day and time) to how God might deal with international outlaws. In the face of what we have experienced this week, we may be tempted to throw up our hands and consider the situation hopeless. Or we may be tempted to bomb the smithereens out of all our real and imagined enemies. But instead, ask yourself why God’s control over Osama Bin Laden should be any different than his control over Sennacherib? Listen to what God says, addressing the Assyrian monarch:
But I know where you stay and when you come and go and how you rage against me. Because you rage against me and because your insolence has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came.
I believe we should put our faith and trust, not in the FBI or the CIA or even our military; I believe we can and should ask almighty God to come to our aid and deal with these terrorists. Vengeance is mine, said the Lord, I will repay! That doesn’t mean He can’t or won’t use our military as one of His tools, but we would be wise not to go into this effort without Him.
When crisis looms, the godly respond … and God delivers. (37:36-38)
I didn’t read the epilogue of our story earlier. Listen to it now:
“Then 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! {37} So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.
{38} One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons…cut him down with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.”
There are three wonderful truths we can gather from this account:
The promises of the Lord are sure and certain. The reason the Epilogue is given is to show us that God keeps His Word. Earlier in our text God said that Sennacherib would hear a rumor and head back home. But just in case he decided not to pay attention to the rumor, God sent the Angel of the Lord to encourage him by decimating his fighting forces, reducing them by 185,000 in one night. And then I especially like verse 38. It says, “And it came about,” or “One day,”indicating that some time has elapsed. The fact is nearly twenty years passed before the events of verse 38 when Sennacherib was put to death by his sons. That reminds me of what Peter said, “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
But the delay in fulfillment makes this no less a fulfillment of the promise of God that He would judge this vile, boastful monarch and his evil empire. We so readily get into the rut of thinking that for a prayer to be answered or for a promise of God to be fulfilled, it must be answered or fulfilled according to our timetable. It doesn’t. God is on His own perfect timetable. Second…
The judgment of the Lord is terrible and thorough. Men sometimes ridicule our faith and blaspheme our God, but they will not do so with impunity or indefinitely. They may get by with their skepticism and their agnosticism and their atheism and their terrorism for many years and seem to prosper despite it, but while the wheels of God’s justice grind slowly, they grind exceedingly fine. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. Third…
The grace of the Lord is available. I close with Isaiah 30:18. If you don’t have this verse underlined in your Bible, please underline it. “The Lord longs to be gracious to you, and He gets up early in the morning in order to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; how blessed are all those who long for Him.” Whenever you are tempted to think that God doesn’t know about or care about the deep waters you are going through or the swift rivers you need to cross or the flames that are licking at your feet, go back to Isaiah 30:18 and believe Him when He says He is not hiding His face from you, not playing games with your welfare; rather He is anxious to meet your needs. He loves you so much. And the needs He wants to meet above all others are your need for forgiveness of your sins and for a personal relationship with Him through faith in His Son, Jesus. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Friend, you are included in “whoever.” Won’t you put your faith in trust in Jesus today?
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[i] These words are borrowed from R. G. Lee’s great sermon, Payday Someday.
[ii] Another way to wrestle with the dilemma of promises that seem to be universal but evidently are not, is to assume that some of the promises God makes to His people are intended corporately but not necessarily individually. By that I mean, God’s protection is offered to His people as a Body, but not necessarily to every member of His Church. In other words, the family of God as a whole will stand, even though some believers will fall. Even in Isaiah’s day, there were surely examples of believers succumbing to trial and tragedy.
[iii] Even some Christians carelessly use the phrase, “God told me to do such-and-such.” I am troubled by that kind of language, or it is often an attempt to place our behavior beyond the evaluation of others. It is far more honest to say, “I have a strong impression, which I believe is from the Lord, that I should do such-and-such.” Such an approach at least admits that we are fallible and could have misread God’s intention. In this case Sennacherib’s field commander is simply lying.
[iv] I believe all of us need altar experiences like this from time to time in our lives. Frankly, some of us are so cerebral about our faith that we assume we can accomplish important changes just by thinking about them. But friends, sometimes we need to act it out; sometimes we need to allow the Spirit of God to move us out of our comfortable pews and take a public step of faith. It wouldn’t hurt some of us to go the altar from time to time to do business with God.