(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, so in Isaiah chapter 36, there's obviously a major shift in kind of the flow of Isaiah to this point. We've seen a lot of this prophecy and everything else going on for quite some many chapters in Isaiah, the preceding chapters. And now in chapter 36, it's kind of going back to like events that are happening right then, right? These are things that are just going on, it's literally recording events that are also recorded in 2 Chronicles as well as in 2 Kings. So the story sounds familiar to you, it could just be because you read it so many times. If you're reading through your Bible cover to cover, you're going to read this story in particular three times in one Bible reading because you're going to read it in 2 Kings, you're going to read it in 2 Chronicles, and you're going to read it here in Isaiah. So you know, any time you come across things multiple times, we really kind of should pay attention, I think a little bit more even, for this to be mentioned multiple times means it must be important, right? I mean, God, there's only so many, there's only so much that God preserves for us in His Word, and it's limited, so if you're going to retell a story two or three times, it's definitely, you know, the Gospels, there's four Gospels, right, it's all about Jesus Christ and His ministry and everything. That's extremely important, right, and there's four different witnesses, four different perspectives, but it's all the same, you know, a lot of the same events going on there being recorded, it's very important, we need to be paying attention to that. Obviously all the Word of God is important, it's all the Word of the Lord, but I think there's some things that definitely get highlighted more than others, and those are the things that we ought to be paying close attention to as well. So chapter 36 here, and if you remember from the beginning of Isaiah, it lists the time frame through which Isaiah is preaching and delivering the Word of the Lord unto Judah and Jerusalem here, and it said in verse number one, the vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, so it lists those four kings, and I'm just pointing this out so you're familiar with the lifespan of Isaiah, how long he's been preaching, and that we are specifically now looking at the 14th year of Hezekiah. So Hezekiah was the last king that's mentioned in those four kings, and when we went over chapter one, you know, however many weeks ago that was, 35 weeks ago, I don't remember what the years were, but we saw how long each king reigned for, so we could assume, I think pretty safely, that Isaiah's an older man at this point in his life, because he's already been preaching and delivering the Word of God for the past three reigns, you know, three previous kings, and now he's still, he's 14 years into King Hezekiah's reign, at this stage when we're going to be reading about these events that are happening here, so, you know, not some huge thing, but just something to consider where we're at in the life of Isaiah, but let's start here. I've got a lot of notes, because I really want to focus on Hezekiah, since he's the main character in this chapter, in chapter 36, and there's also, because of the other references, there's other details that we don't get in this story in Isaiah that are found in other places, and there's a lot for us to learn, so let's dig right in. Verse number one, I'm probably going to have to cut some things out, because I've got a lot of pages of notes here, but let's look at verse number one, it says, Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the defensive cities of Judah, and took them. And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lakish to Jerusalem unto king Hezekiah with a great army, and he stood by the conduit of the upper pool, and the highway of the fuller's field, then came forth unto him Eliakim, Hilkiah's son, which was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah Asaph's son the recorder. And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest? I say, Sayest thou, but they are but vain words. I have counsel and strength for war. Now on whom dost thou trust that thou rebellest against me? And we're going to find out a little bit later, we're going to turn back and look at the reference, but Hezekiah basically stops paying tribute, and just completely just cuts off the king of Assyria from any of the tribute, they had already gone and brought the northern kingdom of Israel captive, and Hezekiah's just like, no, we're not paying you, right, so he's just rebelling against this king of Assyria. And he's saying here, well, who are you trusting in that you're going to rebel against me? Like, who do you think you are, and who's going to come and help you that you're going to think you can just rebel against me without any consequences? Here, verse 6 says, Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed on Egypt, whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him. So he's saying, what, are you going to trust in Egypt? Oh, you think Egypt's going to help you? Because remember, even up to this point, Egypt was a more dominant nation. They had a stronger military. They had, at one point, obviously, that's where the children of Israel came out of from their bondage, when they really had a stronger hold on the area. But they were still someone to be reckoned with, a force. And basically, what Sennacherib here is conveying, or Rabshakeh is saying, is that don't think that Egypt's going to save you, because they're not as strong as you think they are. They're weak. If you're going to try to rest on them, it's like resting on a staff, it breaking, and then just splintering through and going through your hand and hurting you instead of helping you. He's saying, don't trust in them. Verse 7, but if thou say to me, we trust in the Lord our God, is it not he whose high place is and whose altars has Achaya taken away and said to Judah and Jerusalem, you shall worship before this altar? So he's saying, OK, if it's Egypt, Egypt's going to fail you, because they're not as strong as you think they are. They're weak. He said, the only other thing you might be trusting in is your God. And then he could proceed to tell them, well, what, do you think you're going to say you're going to trust in the Lord? And as we see later, he's going to mention all these other gods, and they weren't able to save their people. So who do you think your God is that he's going to be able to save you? And I'm going to get way more into that next week, because this story continues. So I'm not going to cover that too much. But we can see this attitude. Right away, we start to see this attitude, this pompous, lifted up Sennacherib. This is Rab Shiki. Sennacherib's the king of Assyria. He sends Rab Shiki, who's one of his generals or one of his military leaders, to go and talk to the people here, to talk to Hezekiah, and to deliver this message saying, basically, you better shape up, or we're going to just come in and destroy you and whatever. So what's interesting here, though, is this mindset. And this is common among the heathen. This is common among unbelievers, people who don't even understand. He says this, and we're going to look at this. Keep your place in Isaiah 36, of course, and turn back, if you would, to 2 Chronicles chapter 29. Now, before we even get into any more of that, I just want to say Hezekiah goes down in history as a great king. He's someone that feared the Lord, he loved the God, he did all kinds of great things for the Lord. So we're going to see a lot of great things that Hezekiah has done. And what happens here, we see Rab Shiki is mocking, saying, whoa, you think you're going to trust in God? He's like, the same Lord? Didn't Hezekiah just take away all these altars and all this stuff? And now you think you're going to trust in that God that Hezekiah took all this stuff away? He looks at that thinking, like, how stupid, you're going to be taking away altars to your own God. Now why is that God going to listen to you when you've already done this? But He was doing the right thing, right? And Rab Shiki has no clue that He was doing the right thing, because He's just looking at it from this unsaved, blind perspective of just, well, I mean, the more the better, right? I mean, He's taken away all the high places and all these altars and everything else. No, no, that was actually wickedness and bringing them punishment as Hezekiah was getting right with God. But Rab Shiki has no concept and no clue of what biblical, we'll call it Christianity, looks like. What biblical worship looks like of the Lord. There's no concept of that whatsoever. And you know what? That's how most unbelievers are today and most wicked people. It reminds me of the people that want to tell you, the unsaved people, the atheists that want to tell you how to be a Christian, right, to tell you why you're wrong. You don't even believe the book. You don't even read it. You get some talking point from someone else and you think you're going to tell me what I'm supposed to do, being a Christian? No, it's not the way it works. You have no comprehension of what this book is even talking about. Just as much as Rab Shiki had no comprehension that what Hezekiah did was actually righteous in the sight of the Lord and actually pleased God. That made God happy by getting rid of all that stuff. We're going to see that here. We're going to see a little bit about Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles chapter 29. Look at verse number 1. The Bible reads, Hezekiah began to reign when he was 5 and 20 years old. He was 25 years old when he started. He reigned 9 and 20 years in Jerusalem and his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that David his father had done. He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. So right from the beginning, Hezekiah's got a great start. He's got a great attitude. You know what? We hear from our presidents all the time, well this is what I'm going to do in the first hundred days. You know, you're talking about like getting masks on everybody or whatever. You know, these stupid things that presidents say these days. Well, what did Hezekiah do in the first days, in the first month, he's going, you know what we need to do? We need to fix up the house of the Lord. What he's doing, he's saying, we are a people who worships God. We are a people who worships the Lord and we need to make sure that that is at the forefront and if I'm going to lead this people, if I'm going to reign, we need to make sure that we have God's house in order. That was a priority for Hezekiah and you know what, that's why Hezekiah succeeded. That's why he did so well. That's why he is someone who is revered as a king and you know what, a lot of people loved him too. In the nation of Israel. Now verse number three says, or verse number four, excuse me, he says, and he brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them together into the east street and said unto them, hear me, you Levites, sanctify now yourselves and sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place for all fathers have trespassed and done that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord our God and have forsaken Him and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord and turned their backs. Also they have shut up the doors of the porch and put out the lamps and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place under the God of Israel. Remember, those lamps were supposed to be continually burning. These sacrifices were supposed to be going on day after day. They ceased. They stopped. He said, we need to get back to doing this. Verse eight, wherefore the wrath of the Lord was upon Judah and Jerusalem and He had delivered them to trouble, to astonishment and to hissing as ye see with your eyes. Hezekiah was able to see the true source of the problem with Judah and when he had his opportunity to ascend to be the king, he says, I'm going to fix this problem because I know what the real problem is. The real problem is the people weren't serving the Lord. The real problem is the people had just forgotten the Lord and were just going after their idols and everything else. He says, you know what? We're going to fix this. We're going to fix this by returning to the Lord. And any nation that starts to go and experience all these different problems, you know what you need to do? You need to return unto the Lord. If we had someone who is truly, you know, the Republicans and Democrats and these people want to get all bent out of shape on their politics and say, well, if we just had Trump in office, you know, things would be so much better. Look, things might be a little bit better than some other crook, but it's not going to ultimately fix anything or solve anything where a real core problem is as a country. Because if we were going to have someone right here say, you know what we need to do? We need to go back to the word of God. We need to go back to what our laws were founded on in this country. We need to go back to the righteousness that is found in God's word. And this needs to be our light to move forward. And you know, any righteous president or righteous politician is going to say, this is what we need to do. You know, I could get behind someone like that. I mean, I'd be all for Hezekiah. Like, Hezekiah is my man. You got a plan that's going to work. You've got the right plan. You're taking the right approach. And this is what we need. This is what the country needs. That is what the kingdom needed. And you know, that's what our country needs today. They don't need just these, you know, you say, oh, well, you shouldn't mix religion and politics. Look, God is real. The Lord is real in heaven, and He's a God that's of judgment, and He's going to judge and bring wrath upon a nation that forgets Him and just wants to toss His name around like it's nothing and just ignore that He exists and just go about doing your own thing. Guess what? Judgment's going to come. So if you don't recognize Him, if you don't pay respects, if you don't follow His word and listen to His word, then you're going to have destruction. You can't separate the two. So what Hezekiah is doing here, though, now is that he's going to Levites and going to the priests because they haven't been doing their job. I mean, the sacrifices haven't been done, the house of the Lord has been in disrepair, everything is being forgotten, and he's going, you guys need to get, you know, like, we're bringing you all back. And you know, you could tell what happened, and we're not going to go through all, there's a lot of chapters here, or a lot of verses, especially, there's multiple chapters about Hezekiah, but what he does is a lot of things have happened that have caused this great decline. One of the things were, you know, the people weren't tithing, so then the priests and the Levites, they can't be focused on serving the Lord full-time, so they start going off and doing this other work, after a while, things just stop being done, and then people are worshipping these other gods anyways, and before you know it, everything is just not being done at all. And Hezekiah's going, we're going to fix this now. Priests, Levites, you need to sanctify yourself, right, because they're supposed to keep themselves holy. And the holy people, because they're supposed to be serving the Lord, doing this stuff, they need to be dedicated, so he's saying, you guys get yourselves ready, get yourselves sanctified to service the Lord. And then he's, you know, basically, he's going to tell the people, look, we need to be feeding these people, we need to bring food back into the house of the Lord, so that they can do their job without having to worry about anything else, and get everything back on track, doing it the right way, repairing the house, building up the altars again, doing everything that needs to be done, and getting rid of all the abominations that had infiltrated and come into and filled the house of the Lord. This is what Hezekiah does, in a nutshell. Verse number seven says, and they also, they have shut up the doors of the porch and put out the lamps, have not burned incense, nor have burnt offerings in place, holy place unto the God of Israel. Verse number eight, wherefore the wrath of the Lord was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to trouble, to astonishment and hissing, as you see with your eyes. For lo, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that his fierce wrath may turn away from us. My sons, be not now negligent, for the Lord hath chosen you to stand before him and to serve him, and that you should minister unto him and burn incense. So he's trying to encourage the people here, and it goes on about who's there, jump down to verse number 15, and they gathered their brethren and sanctified themselves, and came according to the commandment of the king, by the words of the Lord, to cleanse the house of the Lord. And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the Lord, into the court of the house of the Lord, and the Levites took it to carry it out abroad into the brook Caidron. Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the Lord, so they sanctified the house of the Lord in eight days, and in the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end. Then they went in to Hezekiah the king and said, We have cleansed all the house of the Lord, and the altar of burnt offering, with all the vessels thereof, and the shewbread table with all the vessels thereof. Now fast forward to chapter number 30, we're going to flip forward just a little bit here, I'm trying to skip through some of this because he did a lot of different things. Just to get some highlights, verse number six, the Bible says, So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the command of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and He will return to the remnant of you that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria. And be not ye like your fathers and like your brethren, which trespassed against the Lord God of their fathers, who therefore gave them up to desolation as ye see. Now be ye not stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the Lord and enter into a sanctuary, which He hath sanctified forever, and serve the Lord your God, that the fierceness of His wrath may turn away from you. For if ye turn again unto the Lord, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that led them captive, so that they shall come again into this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away His face from you, if ye return unto Him. So what he's done here is he's sent messengers out into the kingdom of Israel, right? Because Hezekiah is the king of Judah, right? He's reigning in Jerusalem. Judah has not been taken captive yet. They don't get taken captive until the Babylonians come. The king of Assyria has come before that time and brings judgment against the northern kingdom of Israel, and they are already taken captive. So Hezekiah is now sending messengers out to his brethren, right? Because they're still all children of Israel, and he's sending them out saying, look, return to God. He could still have mercy on you. Look, I know bad things happen, and you've gone into captivity, but this is why you went into captivity. You need to turn back to God now, right? Get right with him. And Hezekiah's got this great zeal, and he's trying to turn everything around, and he's going to hold this great Passover that, you know, the like was never had in all the countries since Solomon. Like, he's going to have this great Passover feast, he's doing all this stuff, and he's entreating the northern, the people of the northern kingdom, just come and, you know, and come and worship here and get back and get right with God. Verse 10 says, so the post passed from city to city throughout, through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even unto Zebulun, but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them. This is why they were taken captive. I mean, look at the attitude of these people. Even after they've been destroyed and taken captive, they're still just mocking, worshipping the Lord, and saying, well, who, you know, yeah, that's real funny. You want us to come down there and worship and whatever? Like, you want us to go to church? Haha. Go away from us, preacher boy. You know, we're going to stay up here, and look, that's why God is judging you. Mock and ridicule you all you want, you're just going to continue your misery, trying to help you. And unfortunately, that's how a lot of people respond when you try to talk about, hey, why don't you come to church with me, why don't you, you know, oh, church, yeah, that's real fun. You know, whatever. Look. This is what a loving person, Hezekiah was loving. He was trying to help these people out. But you know what? Don't let these people discourage you, either. The ones that are just going to mock and ridicule when you're trying to help them, you're trying to do something good for them, let them mock. Let them laugh to scorn, right? Because here's what happens. Even though you come across a lot of people that laugh and scorn, look at verse number 11. Nevertheless, divers of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulah humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. Yeah, you had a lot of people out there that were mocking and ridiculing and making fun, but you know what? Some of the people humbled themselves and came. We go out and preach the gospel to people, and some people, you're going to find out, they're going to mock you. Oh, what are you doing carrying around a Bible? Oh, don't talk to me about Jesus. Oh, who do you, you know, all manner of people saying things against you, but you know what? You run across some people that are going to be humble and want to listen and get right with God. And that's why you go out and do it. Verse 12. was to give them one heart, to do the commandment of the king and of the princes by the word of the Lord. And this speaks volumes to how great it is to have a great leader like Hezekiah to bring the people together. I mean, look at how, obviously, in disrepair everything was until Hezekiah comes along and says, no, no, no, no, no, we're getting right with God, we're getting right with God right now, and starts commanding for things to be done, and people start following Him, and God gave them a heart so that they could all work together as one man. That's awesome. What a great work of God. See, God has been wanting to do a work like that, but He was just waiting for someone to step up and say, hey, this is what we're going to do. And Hezekiah was that man. He stepped up. He filled the gap. And because of kings like Hezekiah, that's why the children of Israel in Judah were able to last longer than the northern kingdom, because they had kings, like they had people they had these moments, these times of, you can call it revival or whatever, where they're going to turn around and seek the Lord. But we also can't forget, in turn if you go to chapter 31, that even through these times it still is kind of interesting, the more you read, you're still going to see a lot of the people still have a bad attitude. See, God has respect to the king or whatever that's trying to do what's right, but you see how the people end up just still being real fickle, and they might be behind you for a little while, but then they kind of fade out real fast. But even the one person that's saying, no, we're going to go this way, that can go a long way with God as far as Him withholding judgment and having mercy on people. Even if a lot of people are being not the best and they're rebelling against the Lord, if you still have some people that are saying, no, we're going to do what's right, God can stay His hand from that judgment and withhold for a long time. Look at the children of Israel in general with Moses and Aaron and Joshua and Caleb. Those guys were doing what's right, and then so many of the other ones were not, but how many times was the Lord going to destroy them, but they were entreated for, and He didn't, and He showed mercy for their sake, for Moses' sake, for Joshua's sake, for Caleb's sake. For those people who are still wanting to do what's right, no, we've got to follow the Lord and we've got to do this. They were able to prevent the utter destruction of everybody else. We're in chapter 31, look at verse number 1, the Bible reads, now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah and break the images in pieces. Now, this is where we're picking up to the point that Rabshakeh is making fun of Hezekiah, saying, what, are you going to trust in the Lord? I mean, isn't Hezekiah the one who said to go out and break down all these images and stuff to your Lord? This is what he did. Now, when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah and break the images in pieces and cut down the groves and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin and Ephraim also and Manasseh until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession in their own cities. Now, this is awesome because I brought this up recently, when you read through the books of the kings in the Chronicles, so many times you read about these kings that were good and did right in the eyes of the Lord, but you see over and over again, but they still worshiped in the high places, right? They still had the grove. They still did this, but when Hezekiah comes, there's no more, but he still did this. He got rid of it. He's done with it. He said, you know what? We're done with this. This needs to go. So when he is being referred to, he's like, his part was righteous like David, his father, because David was kind of that standard of righteousness, of a righteous king that was being used and other people being compared to as kings, like, well, he was righteous like David, but he did this and this and this, right? Hezekiah, when he's being referenced here, he was righteous like his father, David, and that's speaking a lot because he was able to then kind of be real thorough in getting rid of all of this idolatry and everything else that was going on in the city and fully doing that which was right and not compromising. Now, let's keep reading here, verse number two, and Hezekiah appointed the courses of the priests and Levites. After the courses, every man according to the service, the priests and Levites for burnt offerings and for peace offerings to minister and to give thanks and to praise in the gates of the tents of the Lord. Jump down to verse number 20 in chapter 31. And thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah and wrought that which was good and right and truth before the Lord is God. And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God and in the law and in the commandments to seek his God, he did it with all his heart and prospered. That's awesome. I mean, this is exactly where I want to be. And then you get this rapture key who knows nothing about the Bible, knows nothing about the Lord, coming and mocking Hezekiah, oh, you think that your God is going to help you when you've already destroyed all the... Look, isn't it obvious that Hezekiah, if anyone's going to listen, if God's going to listen to anyone, is it going to be Hezekiah? Amen. Right? I mean, he's doing what's right. We just... I preached a sermon on Sunday about getting your prayers answered. Hey, it's all about getting your prayers answered, Hezekiah is right up there. If Hezekiah is going to pray unto the Lord for some help, guess what? The Lord's going to hear him and the Lord's going to help him. He's committed his ways to getting everything back right in the house of God and invested in it heavily, made all the laws go forth and directed the people and even invest his own money and make sure the sacrifice needs to be going on, everyone needs to get right. Let's try to get everybody back in and he's sending out messengers and posts going forth. Hey, come back to the Lord and bring this great revival back to God. And it says here that everything he did, he did it, you know, basically with the integrity of his heart. He did it with all of his heart. He truly trusted in the Lord and wanted things to go back right and you know what, he prospered and God blessed his efforts. Go back to Isaiah chapter 36 and in these three chapters, we just looked at a few, you know, some verses, chapter 29, chapter 30, chapter 31, you're going to see a lot more of the stuff that Hezekiah did. He's a great king and, you know, there's a lot of the Bible allocated to the stories of Hezekiah, I believe, because of how, you know, faithful he was to the Lord. Similar to David, you know, David has a lot of scripture dedicated to the stories revolving around him, Abraham, Moses, you know, these are some great pillars of the faith. Elijah, Elisha, there's lots of passages in scripture talking about these men. Why? Because they served God with all their heart. And then the ones who, yeah, they kind of served God, but they, you know, they still weren't quite, you know, completely faithful. They don't get as much reference, they don't get as much mention because they didn't end up doing as much for the Lord. So he continues on this mocking and ridiculing, rapture he does, in verse number eight. He says, now therefore give pledges, I pray thee, to my master, the king of Assyria, and I will give thee 2,000 horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them. So what's he saying here? He says, he's belittling them and saying, well, we'll lend you, you know, we're going to come and fight against you, and you know what, we'll lend you 2,000 horses, right? And what he's talking about, a pledge, you know, when someone's going to go into debt, you give a pledge, like something that, a collateral, right, you just give me a pledge, we'll give you 2,000 horses, I mean, if you're even able to put riders on them for the battle. He's mocking them, like, you don't have anyone that's going to fight, we'll even supply you with the horses, because they're so confident that they're just going to destroy you anyways, we'll even throw in, you know, we'll throw in some tanks and some guns, just to try to make it more of a fair fight, you know, just give us a pledge, and this is the way that he's treating them, right? He's mocking them about God, he's mocking them about being able to fight in this war. Verse 9 says, how then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? He's saying, you know, even the worst army that we have, the lowest servant, which would be like another king or governor that's underneath the rulership of the king of Assyria, it's like, we could send our B squad in, right, and you're not going to be able to stand against them. And so he's just continually just throwing these insults. Verse 10, and am I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said unto me, go up against this land and destroy it. So now he's just going to start invoking the name of the Lord, saying, well, you know what, you're going to trust him, he goes back and forth between Egypt and the Lord, you notice that, like, he doesn't know exactly what they're trusting on, well, if you're trusting on Egypt, you know, they're going to fail you. If you're trusting on the Lord, he's going to fail you. So he goes back and forth, kind of throwing out these insults, regardless of who they're trusting in or what they're trusting in, and he's saying, you know, oh, you're trusting God? Well, you know what, God's the one who sent me here to destroy you. So what do you think about that, huh? Blasphemous. And you know, this is so typical of the people who have no respect for the word of God at all. They say stupid things like this all the time. It's amazing for people who, you know, will claim they don't believe anything and they think it's stupid, they think it's a fairy tale, how much they use the name of Jesus Christ and how much they talk about it. Verse number 11, then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah unto Rabshaki, speak, I pray thee, unto thy servants in the Syrian language, for we understand it, and speak not to us in the Jews' language, in the ears of the people that are on the wall. So they're trying to get them just to stop, because they're throwing so many insults. They want to keep the peace, right? Because they came to discuss these terms or whatever, they didn't come in battle yet, they came to bring a warning and decide what they were going to do. But he's saying, you know what, we know how to speak your language, so why don't you just speak to us in Syrian, and they don't all need to hear what we're talking about here. They were trying to absorb and take all the insults themselves, instead of maybe someone getting upset and starting a fight or doing something that they shouldn't have been doing right away. And then Rabshaki answers in verse 12, he says, but Rabshaki said, hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee to speak these words? Hath he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung and drink their own piss with you? So he doesn't care at all. He's not going to give them any respect. He's not going to go and try to talk about this civilly whatsoever. He just doubles down and says, basically, you know, he says, you know, am I not just sent to everybody? Look, whatever decision you make, they're going to have to suffer with it too. And first of all, I just want to get this out of the way. The Bible uses this language. Rabshaki says these things, first of all. It's quoted as saying this. This is what he literally says, that people are going to eat their own dung and drink their own piss with you. The fact that the Bible records this and keeps us here, one, it's truthful. But two, these words, while they may not be part of your normal conversation, or you would expect to be part of a normal conversation in this life, these are not swear words or bad words that are found in the Bible. If there's anything, anything that's in the Bible is going to be acceptable words to use in language. Like, there's not going to be anything wrong with using these words. You don't have to feel like you need to shelter your children's ears from hearing words like dung and piss. Or hell. I mean, I don't know. There's been a few occasions where I've gone out sowing and, like, I'm trying to give the gospel and one of the first things you talk about is hell, right? So I'm explaining that. And I've had a couple times where mom's like, oh, can you not say that in front of, you know, because there's like a little kid there or whatever. It's like, well, no, I, you know, it's not a bad word. It's a real place. It's a bad word in the sense that it's a bad place to go to. But you know, people need to know what hell is. And you know, you don't be rude in those situations. But my point is that you still have, you have to talk about hell. Like there's no, I'm sorry, you know, if you don't want to hear this. But this, you know, I have to talk about this. But the Bible tells us in Psalm, in many places, but in Psalm 12, 6 of us says the words of the Lord are pure words. As silver tried in the furnace of earth, purified seven times. God's words are pure. God is not, would not include anything in the Bible if it was going to like defile someone's mind or it was going to do some damage or was bad for someone to hear. It wouldn't even be in scripture. The Bible is suitable. It's not, it doesn't have an R rating or something that like you can't talk about these things in front of children. And you can see in plenty of places where the Bible uses subtleties and it uses other words to describe events that ought not to be talked about, but you need to know that certain things happen. So like when the Bible says that Adam knew his wife, that's language that anyone who needs to understand exactly what that means can understand it without getting graphic and detailed about the specifics of exactly what happened. And it makes it, God knows what's appropriate for all levels, for all ages. And when we come across words like this, the whole point I'm saying is don't be offended at the word of God for these words being in here. You don't have to make excuses for them. You don't have to ignore them or shy away from them. If you get offended by these words, you know what, then the reason for that is probably just because you've been told not to use those words. But it doesn't make them inherently bad or wrong. And I could go on and on just about language in general, but I'll say this much. We ought to use language that is going to provide a good testimony for ourselves. I don't think that four-letter words are even necessarily sinful. Those aren't curse words. A curse in the scripture, a curse is when you wish bad things. It's the opposite of a blessing. So when the Bible talks about not cursing, it's not talking about using a four-letter word instead of dung or something. That's not a curse. It could be a word that is deemed not very appropriate in common language, but that wouldn't be sinful and it's not a curse on someone. The Bible teaches not to curse. So if people use that language, it is what it is. But I'll say this because I don't think that believers should be using, I'll call it, dirty language because we ought to be respected and respectable. And if you want people to listen to you and hear what you have to say, then you need to watch the words that come out of your mouth. Because I'll tell you this much, if I hear someone drop in F-bombs and drop in all kinds of language, I don't care how smart they really are, I'm going to think they're an ignorant fool because that's how so many ignorant fools talk. I don't want to be even perceived as an ignorant fool, so I'm going to watch the words that come out of my mouth, even though they may not directly be sinful, we ought not to be going down this path and using that liberty and using that freedom, well it's not a sin so I could just say whatever blah blah blah. What's the point? Now you're going to end up offending someone. Are you going to cause your brother to stumble? Are you going to cause, you know, why? We ought to be careful with the words that we say. That's an entire sermon for another day. But when we see things like this, don't be offended by them. We can teach and preach this and read the Bible to your kids and it'll still be appropriate. Now why is he even saying this about them eating dung and drinking piss? Well because what their plan is they were going to do is to put up a siege against the city where they basically block all access of food, supplies, everything from going in or out and basically starve out the city. And what happens when people get starved out? Well they're going to start resorting to anything they can to survive of consuming, you know, obviously it's a terrible place to be in and he's trying to warn, like he's trying to tell them, look, this is what's going to happen to you and they need to hear it because they're going to be suffering with you. This is what Rapsakhi is saying here to the servants of Hezekiah. Now let's keep reading here in Isaiah 36, verse number 13, the Bible says, then Rapsakhi stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language. So now he, I mean, he has no respect for these guys that he's talking to whatsoever. They just got done asking him politely, hey, can you please talk to us in the Syrian language because we understand that and he doubles down and now he just starts yelling out basically so just everyone can hear him and he's definitely speaking in Hebrew so that they understand exactly what he's saying. He stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language and said, hear ye the words of the great king, the king of Assyria, thus saith the king, let not Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you, neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying the Lord will surely deliver us, this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria, hearken not to Hezekiah, for thus saith the king of Assyria, make an agreement with me by a present and come out to me and eat ye every one of his vine and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying the Lord will deliver us, hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria, where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad, where are the gods of Sifarvayim, and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who are they among all the gods of these lands that have delivered their land out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? So this is what he's saying to everybody, right, really loudly, basically saying don't trust, don't believe Hezekiah, he's gonna tell you to trust the Lord, but his main point is well who is the Lord anyways? Every other nation we've come across, they've all put their trust in their gods, and look what happened. What he's doing is he's demoralizing them, he's coming in showing no respect, trying to demoralize, trying to just beat them down and wear them down and make them afraid and make them scared so that they'll just give up. And this is, you know, this is what bullies do, and this is what people who, you know, I mean if they only had to trust in their own physical strength, then yeah, that would be a real frightful situation to be in, but since they have the Lord as their God, they don't have to be afraid, but this is what the enemy is gonna try to do, they're gonna try to instill fear in the people. And like I said, I'm gonna get into that, because that's very significant in the next chapter, the calling out of the Lord. I mean, that's very critical, that's a huge mistake that Rapski makes. He never should have said, no matter how he wanted to belittle or, you know, talk down to these people, he shouldn't have said these things for his own sake. Verse 21, but they held their peace and answered him not a word. So he's trying to get our eyes out of people, he's trying to discourage them, he's, you know, doing whatever. Nobody said anything. Everyone held their peace. And think about how infuriated you might be if you got someone like this just coming and saying, you know, God's not gonna protect you after they've just been working as one man to restore everything and get right with God and everything else. There's gonna be a lot of people here, I think, that had zeal for the Lord at this time, and they're gonna be hearing all this blasphemy going out of Rapski's mouth, but you know what, they held their peace. They knew it was right, they said, they didn't do it wise. It says, for the king's commandment was, saying, answer him not. So the king was wise, Hezekiah was wise, he says, you know what, no matter what he says, do not answer him. You know what this also shows? Hezekiah was a good leader, because even in the face of all this, they listened to him. They listened to the leader. They didn't just decide, well, what does Hezekiah know? We're gonna do our own thing anyways. No. This is similar to, you know, when the queen of Sheba came and saw Solomon and his men and all his servants and all the people that worked for him, and they were all happy. He was a good leader. He was able to lead all the people. They all loved him, worked for him, they worked real hard for him, and they enjoyed it, and everyone was happy. You know what, when King Hezekiah was doing everything that was right, people loved that. Yeah, we're preparing the house of the Lord, yeah, we're getting right with God, and to the point to where he's saying, you know what, don't say anything. No one said a word. They had respect unto Hezekiah, and you know, there's gonna be times, and to put it in modern-day terms of something that may be very applicable, you know, there's been, not with our church, but in other churches, they've faced their own battles. Now, they're spiritual battles, but what the enemy, what Satan, what the devil's gonna try to do, is try to get you to cross the line from the spiritual battle to the physical battle. He's gonna try to goad you, and try to incite you to do things that you're not supposed to do, that we shouldn't be doing. Okay, but he's gonna try to provoke you, and try to get you to do things that you shouldn't, and we need to, hey, right now, make sure that we understand, one, what the Bible teaches about these things, and two, to be able to follow the direction of the leader. You know, there's events that happened at Faithful Word Baptist Church, a very Baptist church, where they had all these protesters, and horrible people out there, trying to goad them, and incite them to violence, and doing things that get in their face, and try to provoke the people in any way they can, saying nasty, filthy things, you know, talking to women and children, and just doing whatever they could to try to get a rise out of the people who are just trying to serve the Lord, and just trying to do what's right. The children of Israel here, they're just trying to do what's right, they're just trying to serve the Lord. Leave us alone. We're not gonna pay your extortion fee, you know, get away from us, we're serving God, we're doing our thing over here, but they couldn't leave them alone. Well, there's the same thing with the wicked people who have been attacking a lot of like-minded churches that are trying to serve God and do the right thing, but here's the thing, you need to be able to, and all the men of God that I'm aware of have all instructed, don't get physical, right, because that's the right thing to do. Don't do it. And then, you know, sometimes people don't listen, and then you know what that does? It's gonna bring, just gonna bring more problems. You know, hopefully we don't ever have to face anything like some of these people have gone through, you know, I'm not looking forward to it, but you know if we do, it may come, you just gotta be ready for it. And be ready, and just be aware that we do, we are fighting a spiritual battle, we're not gonna back down, we're not gonna apologize for anything that we say or preach or believe, but at the same time, we're not gonna come to blows, or punches, or anything like that with people who are gonna oppose us. There's no point, it's not the battle. So these people here, they were willing to stand down and say, okay, we're not even gonna say anything, we're just gonna let this go. Verse number 22, Then came Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, that was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of rapture. So now they bring back all of the news. Now, we're gonna look at a few other things about Hezekiah. Turn, if you would, to 2 Kings chapter 18. I'm gonna see some other references of Hezekiah here. And in 2 Kings 18, we're also going to see some more information about something that happened here that we're gonna, I'm gonna spend a little bit of time analyzing and give you my thoughts on that. But let's start in verse number 1, in 2 Kings 18, the Bible says, Now it came to pass in the third year of Oshea, son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. Twenty-five years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Abi, the daughter of Zechariah. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father did. He removed the high places, and break the images, and cut down the groves, and break in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made. Now you say, well, I thought that was a good thing. I mean, Moses made the brazen serpent. It was a good thing when Moses made it. The problem was that a good thing turned into a wicked thing for the children of Israel. Why? Because it says here, for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it, and he called it in a huge tent. So instead of it being this, you know, this figure and this great symbol, actually, of Jesus Christ, you say, you know, there's a serpent on the staff, which I believe symbolized the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. And you say, well, why would a serpent represent the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross? Because he became sin for us. He bare the sins of the whole world in his own body. That's why, because he paid that point, and the other reason is because when people looked to that serpent, they were healed. That's literally what happened when he made that serpent on the staff. People would get, you know, bit by a stake or whatever, and they looked at it, and then they'd be healed to be cleansed, right? So when they should have died, they didn't die, they received life. But anyhow, what they did was instead of just, you know, having that artifact, having that thing, just as a piece of history, they turned it into an idol and started worshiping it and, you know, offering it. Everybody's like, whoa, whoa, hold on a second. Can't do that. Now you've turned something of God into an idol, and it's wicked and wrong, so you know what? They said it's best just to get rid of it then. And that's fine. That's what they did. So that's one of the things that Isaaciah did. He had the sense enough to know, hey, it's best just to get rid of this thing. Verse 5, he trusted in the Lord God of Israel so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him. So it was a great compliment, right? A great testimony of how much he was, Isaaciah was trusting in the Lord God of Israel. And we're going to get to the point where here real quick, but I want to make sure that we understand, it says that he trusted the Lord God of Israel, kind of like no one else has. This was one of the major strong points of Isaaciah. Verse 6, for he claved to the Lord and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses. And the Lord was with him, and he prospered whithersoever he went forth, and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not. And this is what the cause is for Rabshiqui coming, is because he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and he stopped doing anything, the service, payments, whatever they were supposed to be doing, he just stopped it altogether. Verse 8, he smote the Philistines even on the Geza, and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. And just for the, I've already explained this to the context though, is that Israel was taken captive shortly before these events that occur in Isaiah 36. So that's another thing to consider if you're looking at it through the lens of the people of Judah and Jerusalem, when the king of Assyria shows up, they've already taken the northern kingdom captive. They've already been destroyed, they've already been taken over, as well as many other places have as well. So they're facing a formidable foe, right? It's not just some, you know, random country that might be more on equal strength as far as physical might would be, or you know, military might. It's someone who's already been conquering other nations and doing so pretty decisively. Verse number 9 here, and it came to pass in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea, son of Elah, king of Israel, that Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up against Samaria and besieged it. So this is in the fourth year, not the fourteenth year. Where we started in Isaiah is the fourteenth year. This is ten years prior to the events of Isaiah chapter 36. So it says here in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, Shalmaneser is a different king, notice too, because it's not Sennacherib. It's Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up against Samaria and besieged it. This is talking about when he's taking Israel captive ten years prior. Samaria is in the northern kingdom of Israel. Verse 10, and at the end of three years they took it. Even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is the ninth year of Hoshea, king of Israel, Samaria was taken. And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Helah and in Hebor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed His covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and would not hear them nor do them. This is why they were taken captive, the Bible's telling us, because they rejected the Lord, essentially. Verse 13, now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah did Sennacherib, king of Assyria, come up against all the fenced cities of Judah and took them. This is where we pick up to the same timeline as Isaiah 36. And there's a little bit more information right here that's not recorded in Isaiah, and I think this is kind of interesting. Look at verse number 14, the Bible says, Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish. So this is before they show up, because when they show up, he sends Rab Shiki and those other guys, they show up outside of Jerusalem. Prior to that, Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, because he was in Lachish and like some other battle. And before he comes here, he sent this letter saying, I have offended, return from me that which thou puttest on me will I bear, and the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold. So he's basically saying, okay, look, I'm going to give you what you want, I don't want to fight. So he's going to back down. Just tell me what you want so you can leave. Verse 15 says, And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king's house. So he's paying personally, but then he also has taken silver out of the treasures of the house of the Lord. Now, if that was all that was done, you know, I think you could easily argue and say, you know what, it's better than shedding blood, just give him money, right? If that's going to just make it go away, he's making this decision for the people, instead of getting into a battle, he's saying, you know what, we'll just pay him off. But the problem I have with what Hezekiah does here is that not only is he taking out the treasury of the house of the Lord, it says in verse 16, at that time, that Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria. So now he's starting to kind of dismantle parts of the house of the Lord to pay this wicked king off to not come and come into battle. Now, I think it's just a decision name. I don't think this is like a total lapse of faith in Hezekiah because of how much we've already seen the Bible talk about his faith and how faithful he was and how much he trusted in the Lord and all the good things he did. Now, he shouldn't have done this. I still think it's wrong for him to do this and he should have just stood up to him, but I think when we kind of look at it, he's probably just trying to do what's best of not getting into a battle. And we're going to see just as we continue on here and we'll turn to one more passage and then we're done. But let's keep reading in verse number 17, the Bible says, and the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rhapsoris and Rabcheki from Lake Isha king Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem. So what happens? He pays them off. Did it work? No. Just like a bully. He takes the money and then he still comes anyways. He still comes with the army. Obviously, Hezekiah shouldn't have done that. I'm not trying to make it right, I think, but what I'm saying is all things considered, there's a lot of people who've made some really poor decisions and bad choices as far as even some of the great men of God. I don't want to just bring Hezekiah down too low for making that decision. It was a wrong decision. It was a wrong decision. You should have stood strong and not paid him off because what's a bully going to do? They're going to keep on coming after you anyways. You're going to trust in the Lord, then you don't need to pay this. But I honestly think that he was just trying to keep the peace and unfortunately he ended up going and still taking from the house of the Lord. But you know what? God still didn't think that that was so horrible that He had to judge them either. Even though it's wrong, it's not like God just said, okay, well you took the gold off the doors, now forget it. I'm not going to protect you. Because think about it, do you think God really cares that much about the money? If we were to be facing something and I was just like, you know what, someone came in to rob us, I was just like, here you go. Right? Just don't hurt anybody. If someone came in and threatened our lives and I gave them, here's the debit card. But that's God's money, I know. But is it really, I mean, it's money. You see what I'm saying? It's not that big of a deal. And Hezekiah didn't go to the point of desecrating the house of the Lord. He didn't tear down the altar. He was building it up. He took some of the gold off the doors. He took some of this stuff to try to just keep the peace from someone who's trying to extort them. Right? This is why I'm saying I don't think it was like that major of some major sin that Hezekiah had. I still think he was trusting the Lord. He was just trying to find the most peaceful way out of this and just saying, hey, if it's just money, here you go. And it's not like he only took from the house of the Lord. He gave all his money. Right? He took his own and then needed more, so he's adding unto that. And I'm assuming that there probably wasn't much wealth in general anyways in the land of Egypt. So what's he going to, you know, try to lay a tribute, but this was the easy way to get that taken care of. Anyways, that's what I think about that, you know, about this whole situation, because this is the only thing that comes up. Every other account in every other place, we're seeing this good, good, good, good, good about King Hezekiah. And obviously, we see, you know what, that it still didn't work anyways. And that just shows the what he's up against, that they're just looking for a fight. It doesn't even matter, so why even try to pay him off? And that's something for us to learn, you know, that, yeah, you may be able to satisfy someone, but you probably won't if they're really wicked. Like, if there's a really wicked person, they're just going to keep coming back to you. And the bully, that's what they're going to keep doing. And then, of course, verse 18 just kind of picks up with the rest of it, because these few verses here are not in Isaiah chapter 36, but then it just kind of sort of picks up, and the rest of it is. Last place is 2 Chronicles chapter 32. Last place, I just want to read through this, because we've gone so much in depth with King Hezekiah here, and he's such an interesting character in Scripture. I encourage you to read all these chapters in full. There's a lot of great content here. Verse number 1 of 2 Chronicles chapter 32 says, Before I continue on any further with this, I just want to show you, I also don't think Hezekiah was like some coward either. He was just trying to make a wise choice. Maybe it wasn't the best one, but he trusted, and it wasn't even that he didn't trust in the Lord either. He fully trusted in God. I think he was just trying to make the best choice he had in front of him with that, with the whole money thing, because we're going to see him here too. He's getting ready for the battle. He said, okay, they're going to come and fight against us, so why should we let them besiege us and just have all these resources outside of the city, so he stops the waters that were flowing around, so that they couldn't just sit out there as long as they want to, and just keep drinking and having all their supplies right there outside of the city, so they would definitely just starve them out. He said, let's not make it easy on them. Let's make it hard on them to keep a supply chain flowing, because it costs money, let's face it. If a king's going to send out troops in an army to besiege and just spend months or years outside of someone, that's going to cost a lot of money to just keep feeding these people, keep them out there. So he's trying to make it really difficult, because if you could last longer, then they're just going to have to cut their losses and say, we can't keep funding this. We're going to run out of our own funds. We've got other things to do, whatever. That's kind of the thought there. Let's keep reading here. Verse 4. So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water? Also he strengthened himself and built up all the wall that was broken and raised it up to the towers and another wall without, and repaired Millo in the city of David, and made darts and shields in abundance. And he set captains of war over the people and gathered them together to him in the streets of the gate of the city and spake comfortably to them, saying, and look, we're going to close on these two verses, verses 7 and 8. Here's how he's encouraging his people. He's ready for the fight. He's not lost faith in God. He's not like, not trusting the Lord. On the contrary, look what he says. He says, Be strong and courageous. Be not afraid, nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him. For there be more with us than with him. With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles, and the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah. With a statement so bold and so profound as this, this is why I'm saying, like, I don't think that that thing with the money was him, like, being a coward or having a lapse of faith. I think he's just trying to make the best decision he could because you don't go from being a total coward to making a statement like this, saying, don't be afraid of how many people they have coming against us because we have more than they do because we've got the Lord on our side. So they've got an arm of flesh. We've got God. I mean, these are great statements that, you know, people love. I mean, I love to see this. I love to hear about this. But it means a lot more when it's really happening. When the rubber hits the road, I mean, he's literally talking to people. He knows what they're going to be facing. See, I could preach about this, but we don't have in our heart of heathen coming around and surrounding us and bringing weapons and, like, our lives are literally in danger. It's a lot easier for a person to say, oh, yeah, man, I've never backed down. I'm going to trust the Lord. He's my strength. He's my rock. He's my shield. He's my defender. Hey, amen, amen, because those are all good things. But you know what it means a lot more when the person is literally being faced with the enemy and he's still able to stand strong and say that. It takes a lot of courage and guts and faith to be able to rely on God in that manner when it's real. This is why I think Hezekiah gets so much credit. And that little bit, hey, that happened, and it's in there for a reason. It's in there, I think, to teach us, too, that, you know, they weren't interested in the money. You're just kind of throwing it away. And the reason why I'm going into so much detail on that is because when I first was reading about that, I was thinking how horrible, like, man, Hezekiah, how could you do that? You totally, but after thinking about it more and just kind of reading all this about Hezekiah, I don't think it was quite as bad as I originally thought. Maybe you never really thought that, but when I've been studying the Bible and looking at it, I kind of really was disappointed. Like, how could you do that? Because other kings in the past have done some, you know, really bad things with Natriel. They're hiring out these other nations to come and help them and everything else, right? Like, King Asa did that. Some other kings that were good kings ended up totally having, like, these lapses of faith and not trusting in God and just trying to seek an arm of flesh. Hezekiah did not do that in this instance. It may not have been the best choice, but it wasn't like some of the other people who literally were, like, failing God in their faithfulness. That's about right. That's our word of prayer. Dear Lord, we love you. We thank you so much for your word. I pray that you would please bless our church. Bless us all. Lord, help us to understand more from your words. Help us to gain the truth and the knowledge that's going to help us to make right choices. Lord, I pray that you please help us to remain faithful in the face of adversity and that we would be able to stand strong in our faith. Lord, strengthen us, and God, just bless our church. We want to bring honor and glory unto your name, as King Hezekiah was able to, dear Lord, and as many others have been able to. I pray that you would please be able to use us mightily to just proclaim the truth and to bring glory and honor unto you and your son, Jesus Christ, in His name we pray. Amen.