Permit The LORD To Deliver You

As noted in my previous post, the devil has a multitude of weapons with which to tempt and lead us away from faith and trust in God and into misbelief, despair and eternal death. This is why the LORD Jesus instructs us to pray and to pray specifically, "deliver us from the evil one" (Matt. 6:13). The challenge is for us to allow the LORD to do the delivering, as indeed He always will. A Biblical story from 2 Kings 18-19 serves to illustrate this important fact about our prayers for deliverance. 

Hezekiah was a descendant of Israel's great King David and reigned over Judah toward the end of the 8th century B.C., during the time when the Assyrian empire was consolidating its control of Palestine and Syria. In spite of his father's pledged loyalty to Assyria, King Hezekiah led a rebellion against the Assyrians and gained the support of the Egyptians. Of course, Assyria under King Sennacherib (705-681 B.C.) returned to retake Judah. Sennacherib finally put down the rebellion in 701 B.C., overrunning Judah and taking 46 of its walled cities. 

Hezekiah sought to spare Jerusalem from capture by paying a heavy tribute of gold and silver to the Assyrians. This was in vain. The Assyrians demanded unconditional surrender and moved on the city. This is where the story really picks up. Sennacherib's emissaries came to Jerusalem, threatening Hezekiah and the people in the city, mocking their trust in the LORD, the God of Israel: 

And the Rabshakeh said to Hezekiah's emissaries, "Say to Hezekiah, 'Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours? Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me? Behold, you are trusting now in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. . . Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master's servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? Moreover, is it without the LORD that I have come up against this place to destroy it? The LORD said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it! . . . "Thus says the king (Sennacherib): ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of my hand. Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying, The LORD will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria’" - 2Ki 18:19-29 ESV

This taunt was Sennacherib's fatal mistake. It is always Satan's error and one we must take to heart again and again. Temptations to doubt, to follow the desires of our sinful hearts or the wishes of the sinful world will always come. We will be attacked. We cannot fight them alone. In that hour remember again the Apostle's instructions to put on the full armor: truth, righteousness, Gospel of peace, faith, salvation and the Word of God (Eph. 6:11-12). When the LORD arises to battle the devil must flee. And then remember this story as an illustration of what the LORD is able to do. 

By challenging the Lord of all creation, the Assyrian king found himself like an ant challenging an elephant. God's comforting words to King Hezekiah through the prophet Isaiah were these: 

"Say to your master, 'Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me. Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.'" - 2Ki 19:6-7 ESV

King Hezekiah prayed fervently for the LORD to deliver them. The LORD spoke further through Isaiah: 

"Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes to the heights? Against the Holy One of Israel! . . . "Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass, that you should turn fortified cities into heaps of ruins . . . But I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in, and your raging against me. Because you have raged against me and your complacency has come into my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came. . . . By the way that he came, by the same he (Sennacherib) shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the LORD. - 2Ki 19:22, 25, 27-28, 33 ESV

That night, an angel of the Lord struck down 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. Jerusalem was spared. The Assyrians had to retreat. When Sennacherib returned home to Nineveh, as he was worshiping in the house of the Assyrian god of agriculture, Nisroch, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place. - 2Ki 19:37 ESV

As we have seen, the LORD permits Satan and his forces to attack us. He puts us to the test. Will we or will we not put our entire trust in Him? If we learn to do that, then Satan and his forces will be defeated. The LORD Jesus taught us that when the devil attacked him in the wilderness at the beginning of his public ministry (Matt. 4:1-11)

Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written, "'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'" Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. - Mat 4:10-11 ESV

We have the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. We have the shield of faith and we have the sure promises of our LORD, promises that Satan sought to twist and misuse when he tempted Jesus. 

For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. - Psa 91:11-12 ESV