Isaiah 36 When Facing A Crisis Series

Isaiah 36

When Facing a Crisis

What Are You Leaning on? Vs. 1-6

Who Are You Listening to? Vs. 7-10

Where Are You Finding Your Strength? vs. 11-17

What Are You Saying? Vs. 18-22

Intro:

Every year down in Peru tens of thousands sea lions gather to mate and give birth

When the mother sea lion gives birth she hasn’t eaten for months

After her cub has grown a bit she leaves him to go find food

She can be gone for over a week

During that time the cub must fend for himself

What makes it so dangerous is that the male sea lions will try to eat the cub and the adolescent sea lions treat the cub like a play toy

They pick the cub up by the back of the neck and fling him all over the place

It is all part of the process of grooming the sea lion for being out in the ocean on its own

If it survives that time it will be ready to be on its own

Crises often come when circumstances seem to be at their best.

Hezekiah had led the nation in a great reformation, & the people were united in the fear of the Lord.

They had put away their idols, restored the temple services, and sought the blessing of their God.

But instead of receiving blessing, they found themselves facing battles! “

After all that Hezekiah had so faithfully done, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded

Crises come, whether schedules permit it or not; and sometimes crises seem to pile up.

How do we handle them?

What life does to us depends on what life finds in us.

A crisis does not make a person; it shows what a person is made of

Read Isaiah 36:1-4

Transition:

Except for David and Solomon, no king of Judah is given more attention in Scripture than Hezekiah.

Eleven chapters are devoted to him in 2 Kings; 2 Chronicles, and Isaiah

He began his reign about 715 B.C.,

He restored the temple facilities and services of worship, destroyed the idols and the high places (hill shrines where people falsely worshiped), and sought to bring the people back to vital faith in the Lord.

He led the people in a nationwide two-week celebration of Passover

2 Chron 31:21“And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to see His God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered”

After the fall of the Northern Kingdom in 722 B.C., Judah had constant problems with Assyria.

Hezekiah finally rebelled against Assyria; and when Sennacherib threatened to attack, Hezekiah tried to bribe him with tribute.

It was a lapse of faith on Hezekiah’s part that God could not bless.

Sennacherib accepted the treasures but broke the treaty and invaded Judah in 701 B.C.

The account of God’s miraculous deliverance of His people is given in chapters 36–37

But first Hezekiah has a crises on his hands

We learn a lot from him how to handle ourselves when a crises happens

First we need to start by asking ourselves four questions

What Are You Leaning On? Vs. 1-6

So Israel is in the midst of a Crisis

Even though Hezekiah has done all of these Godly things Assyria still invades

Crisis make us ask some very hard questions

The first question Israel has to ask is “What are you leaning on?”

They had leaned on Egypt for help but that had failed

They had tried to bribe Assyria but they didn’t keep the treaty

Now Assyria is standing at the gate, literally, of Jerusalem

The Assyrians had ravaged Judah and were now at Lachish, about thirty miles south.

Now Sennacherib sends a military official with a large army to intimidate Israel into surrender

Rabshakeh is not the guys real name. It was a military title

He was the field general to the army

He comes with a large army and stands by the upper pool by the highway

Why is where he stands so important?

The pool is where Israel got its water to survive

The highway was on the way to one of the fields where they grew food to eat

This strategic place is showing Israel that Assyria will cut of everything necessary to survive

Everything Israel had trusted in had failed them

Crisis’ will expose and wipe out anything and everything that is not stable

Any crutch that we leaned on in the past will be knocked out from under us

If we lean on money, or positions, or friends they will all fail us

You will often hear people say “You find out who you’re true friends are when you go through hard times.”

While that is true sometimes God may even remove good friends to get your attention