How can we rest when we are in such an uneasy situation?

 How can we rest 

when we are in such an uneasy situation?

 

 

“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” (2 Chronicles 32:7-8) (KJV).

 

 

“When I think about this, I am terrified; trembling seizes my body” (Job 21:6).  If I think about the situation I am in now, I cannot sleep.  I lost my appetite.  I'm discouraged.  It is out of my ability.  I don’t know what to do.  I am disturbed and my spirit grows faint (Ps. 77:3).  Prayer also does not come out; it is only a groaning (Ps. 38:8).  How can you rest in such an uneasy situation?

 

In 2 Chronicles 32:7-8, Hezekiah king of Judah gathered all the people in Jerusalem to comfort them.  All the people of Judah who listened to these words from King Hezekiah rested and were relieved.  I wonder how this was possible.  The reason for this is that the circumstances of King Hezekiah and the Jewish people were not in a state of relief when we rely on our understanding.  The situation they were in was a major crisis.  The great crisis was that Sennacherib king of Assyria invaded Judah and laid siege to the fortified cities, thinking to conquer them for himself (v. 1).  When we encounter this kind of big crisis, our instincts is to ask the question "Why did this great crisis come to us?"  Then, when God gives us grace, we come to God and pray, "What is God's will?", "Why is God giving (or allowing) this great crisis to us?"  However, it seems that most of the time we cannot know the will of God even if we ask these questions so many times.  So we ask ourselves, ‘But I was serving God faithfully, and why this great crisis came upon me?’  But we cannot understand the guidance of God with our own understanding.

 

In Hezekiah's view, he could have thought this way: ‘God, I had reformed Judah (ch. 31), but why did You give us this great crisis when all this was finished?’ (v. 1), ‘How could You let King Sennacherib invade Jerusalem (32:1-2) after I done all these things faithfully, such as I broke the pillars in pieces, cut down the Asherim and pulled down the high places and the altars (31:1), after I appointed the divisions of the priests and the Levites by their divisions, each according to his service (v. 2), after I renewed the tithing (vv. 5-6), after I did what was good, right and true before the Lord my God (v. 20)?, after in everything that I undertook in the service of God’s temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, I sought my God and worked wholeheartedly (v. 21) and after I did right in the sight of the Lord (29:2)’?  

 

As I was meditating on this Word of God, I came to think of one interesting point.  After King Jehoshaphat reformed Judah (19:4-20:1) the Moabites and Ammonites with some of the Meunites came to make war on Jehoshaphat (20:1-2), after King Hezekiah had so faithfully done reforming Judah (31:1-32:1), Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah, intending to make war on Jerusalem (32:1-2).  When I saw this pattern in the Bible, I asked: 'Why did God allow this great crisis to happen in the life of the kings who had done the right thing in the sight of God?'.  And I thought to myself, ‘I am sure there is God’s good, pleasing and perfect will (Rom. 12:2) for Job when he went through so many sufferings even though he was blameless and upright, feared God and shunned evil (Job 1:1, 8).’  Of course, in the case of Job, I think God's good and pleasing and perfect will was “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you” (42:5).  If we could actually experience God's presence, not just hearing about Him, through a great crisis and suffering in our lives, would we be willing to take on that great crisis and suffering?  If it is the God’s will, will we be able to endure any kinds of hardships and trust in God through faith even in that great crisis and suffering?  Maybe "After all that Hezekiah had so faithfully done" (2 Chron. 32:1) the reason why God allowed Hezekiah to suffer the great crisis might be that Hezekiah must trust in God with all his heart (Prov. 3:5).  The reason I think so is because what Sennacherib king of Assyria said through his servants whom he sent to Jerusalem to Hezekiah king of Judah and to the crowd of Judea in Jerusalem: "... What do you trust? "On what are you basing your confidence …?” (2 Chron. 32:9-10a) [“On what are you basing this confidence of yours?” (2 Kgs. 18:9)].  As Sennacherib said, what did King Hezekiah and the Jewish people trust?  It was God who was with them (vv. 7, 8).  They were not afraid or dismayed because they trusted Immanuel God (v. 7).  In particular, King Hezekiah, the leader of the people of Judah, relied on Immanuel God with all his heart, so he could gather the people of Judah and comfort them in the square at the Jerusalem city gate (v. 6).  And his comforting message was a sure word of trusting God entirely.  It is that ‘God, who is with us, is greater than the one with King Sennacherib and our God will help us and will fight our battles’ (vv. 7-8).  In fact, in 2 Kings 18: 5-6, the Bible says of King Hezekiah: “He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him.  For he clung to the LORD; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses.”  Therefore the LORD was with Hezekiah, and he prospered wherever he went (v. 8).

 

Since King Hezekiah trusted the God who was with him and the people of Judah, he was strong, courageous, fearless, and didn’t dismayed (2 Chron. 32:7).  That was why he was able to gather all the people in the city of Jerusalem to him in the square at the city gate and to speak to comfort them (v. 6).  As a result, all of them could rest themselves upon the words of King Hezekiah (v. 8).  In other words, all the people of Judah were able not to be afraid and dismayed, but rather to be strong and courageous, because they trusted God like Hezekiah (v. 7, note: 2 Kgs. 18:22, 30).  All of them trusted Immanuel God who would help them and fight their battles (2 Chron. 32:7-8) and who would deliver them from the hand of the king of Assyria (v. 11; cf. 2 Kgs. 18:32).  And because they rested themselves upon the words of King Hezekiah and had assurance of God’s deliverance, they didn’t fear King Sennacherib and his army but was strong and courageous (2 Chron. 32:7-8).  This reminds me Joshua 1:9 – “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

 

When I personally experience disappointment and uneasiness, the Holy Spirit often reminds me Psalms 43:5 and helps me to hold on to that God’s promise and pray to God: “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”  As I hold onto this Word and pray to God, this is how I pray: ‘James, Why are you downcast?  Why so disturbed within me?  Put your hope in God!’  At that time, the Holy Spirit restores and revives my soul and persuades me to look up to the Lord my Hope and not the discouraging and disturbed situation that I am in.   Our faithful Lord tells us who are discouraged and anxious: “Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid” (Mt. 14:27), “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven” (9:2), “Take heart   …  your faith has healed you” (v. 22).  I hope and pray that we may hear the voice of the Lord so that our hearts may be comforted and be strengthened to be bold for Him and His glory alone.