So now God heard Hezekiah's prayer, and he sends a message to Sennacherib saying,

Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel! By your messengers you have ridiculed the Lord. And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I have ascended the heights of the mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of its junipers. I have reached its remotest heights, the finest of its forests. I have dug wells in foreign lands and drunk the water there. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.’
“Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass, that you have turned fortified cities into piles of stone. Their people, drained of power, are dismayed and put to shame. They are like plants in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the roof, scorched before it grows up.
“But I know where you are 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.

That whole speech is pretty humbling. I'm surprised Sennacherib still tried to attack.But even after the 185,000 died and he went home, he still worshiped other gods. It says:

One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.

He's finally dead. But it's hard to believe his own sons killed him. He must have been a pretty horrible guy.

Sennacherib is attacking Jerusalem. He keeps sending these prideful messages and says things like “Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’ Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver them—the gods of Gozan, Harran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?” So obviously, this guy is pretty powerful, he's defeated a lot of places, he's a pretty scary guy, and he's about to attack you. I'd be freaking out. But that's not what Hezekiah did. And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: “LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, LORD, and hear; open your eyes, LORD, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.
“It is true, LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands. 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. Now, LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, LORD, are the only God.”
That is amazing! Honestly, if this were happening to me, praise would be just about the last thing on my mind. But Hezekiah started out his prayer with words of praise. That's just incredible. It lines up with the way book Lord Teach Me To Pray that Mom's reading out loud to us teaches about how to begin your prayer. But, man, that guys faith in God, is amazing.

“Now will I arise,” says the LORD. “Now will I be exalted; now will I be lifted up."

Some people might think when God said this that it's a sin, wanting all the glory for yourself like that. The pastor in Colorado talked about that once, and it always stuck with me. He said that what is sin for us, isn't always sin for God. Since he's God, it's okay for him to say, ' Now I'm gonna be lifted up, now I'm gonna be praised.' That's okay for God to say simply because he's God.

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the LORD. Yet he too is wise and can bring disaster; he does not take back his words. He will rise up against that wicked nation, against those who help evildoers. But the Egyptians are mere mortals and not God; their horses are flesh and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out his hand, those who help will stumble, those who are helped will fall; all will perish together.

So God's sayin here, ' You're relying on things that aren't me and that's bad. Those guys could be good guys. They could be wise and just and good and powerful. But they aren't God. God is always the one to turn to, no matter what.

O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago. You have made the city a heap of rubble, the fortified town a ruin, the foreigners’ stronghold a city no more; it will never be rebuilt. Therefore strong peoples will honor you; cities of ruthless nations will revere you. You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless is like a storm driving against a wall and like the heat of the desert. You silence the uproar of foreigners; as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is stilled.

God told Jeremiah to write this, to show the Israelites how to praise him. even inthe mist of sorrow and destruction, God still wants to be praised just as much, he's still God.

See, the LORD is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it; he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants— it will be the same

for priest as for people,

for the master as for his servant,

for the mistress as for her servant,

for seller as for buyer,

for borrower as for lender,

for debtor as for creditor. The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The LORD has spoken this word.
The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the heavens languish with the earth. The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws...

God was destroying the earth for a reason - because the people were sinful. Were not much better today. We need to be careful to do good lest we encounter God's wrath.

Raise the war cry, you nations, and be shattered! Listen, all you distant lands. Prepare for battle, and be shattered! Prepare for battle, and be shattered! Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted; propose your plan, but it will not stand, for God is with us.

I love how Isaiah is so confident about God being with them. He's not doubtful, he's putting his complete faith in God.

And if our God is for us then who could ever stop us, And if our God is with us then what could stand against?