Prayer in Anxiety: A Story

4:6-7 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

A story in the Bible that wonderfully illustrates the truth of Phil. 4:6-7 is the story of King Hezekiah’s prayer. It is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. It is recorded in Scripture three times (Isaiah 36-37; 2Kings 18:13ff.; 2Chron. 32:9ff.). I have slightly edited and abridged it here from Isaiah’s version for clarity’s and for brevity’s sake.

The Anxiety
Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked Judah while Hezekiah reigned as king, seizing many cities along his way. When most everything was conquered except for the fortified capital city of Jerusalem, he sent one of his high officials, Rabshakeh, with a large army to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. When Hezekiah’s officials came out to meet him outside the city walls, Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What is this confidence that you have? Your counsel and strength for the war are only empty words. Now on whom do you rely, that you have rebelled against me? Do not think that you can trust in the Lord your God! Indeed, it is the Lord who said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.” ’ ”

Then Rabshakeh cried out with a loud voice in the language of the people of Jerusalem who were watching from the city wall, saying, “Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you; nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, 'The Lord will surely deliver us, this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their land from my hand, that would make you think that your God would deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”

But the people were silent and did not answer him, for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.” Then Hezekiah’s officials came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

The Prayers
When King Hezekiah heard all this , he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the Lord. H e sent for Isaiah the prophet, and said to him, “This day is a day of distress, rebuke and rejection. Perhaps the Lord your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the remnant that is left in Jerusalem.”

So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, and Isaiah told them to bring this message to the king, “Do not be afraid of what you have heard—those words with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Listen! I am going to put a spirit in him so that when he hears a certain report, he will return to his own country, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”

More Anxiety
Then Rabshakeh went to Libnah and wrote Hezekiah a letter saying, "Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be spared? Did the gods of those nations which my fathers have destroyed deliver them?"

More Prayer
Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord saying, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You alone are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and listen to all these words of Sennacherib, who sent them to reproach the living God. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have devastated all the countries and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, Lord are God.”

God Gives Hezekiah Peace that Surpasses Comprehension
Then Isaiah the prophet sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, this is the word that the Lord has spoken against him: “Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? And against whom have you raised your voice and haughtily lifted up your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel! Through your servants you have reproached the Lord! You have boastfully said, ‘With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains, to the remotest parts of Lebanon; and I cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses. And I will go to its highest peak, its thickest forest. I dug wells and drank waters, and with the sole of my feet I dried up all the rivers of Egypt.’ Have you not heard, Sennacherib? Long ago I did it, from ancient times I planned it that you should do all these things. And now I have brought it to pass, that you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps. This is why their inhabitants were short of strength. It is because of Me that they were dismayed and put to shame. I know everything you do, Sennacherib. I know your sitting down and your going out and your coming in. And I know your raging against Me. Because of your raging against Me and because of your arrogance that has come up to My ears, therefore I an going to put My hook in your nose and My bridle in your lips, and turn you back by the way which you came.” Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, "He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield, or throw up a siege ramp against it. By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city," declares the Lord. For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’ ”

God Fulfills His Promise
Then the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, all of these were dead. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons killed him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.

Great Father in heaven, God of the prophet Isaiah, thank You that You are there for Your people. Thank You that you are an ever-present help in times of trouble. Help me to remember this when I am anxious. As Isaiah spread out Rabshakeh’s letter before You in the temple, may I spread out my burdens and worries before You every day. Help me to trust You as Isaiah did, and to remember that You are bigger than the Sennacheribs and the Rabshakehs of my life. Please teach me to come to you with all my anxieties, Lord.