2 Kings, Chapter 19 - Spread It Out Before Hashem | Prophets of Israel Daily

[music] >> Shalom friends. Welcome to the Prophet of Israel daily. This is the second book of Kings chapter 19. My name is Ari Baruch. I'm here with Jeremy Gimpel. This series is brought to you by the Land of Israel Network at the landofisrael.com. So Assyria is the superpower of the world. Obviously not right now, but I'm saying where we are in our journey. Um 8 years ago it was it swallowed the northern kingdom of Israel. 10 tribes gone. Now Sennacherib, king of Asshur of Assyria, has come for Judea. Town after town has fallen. Jerusalem is all that's left. Yesterday Jeremy brought us to the wall of Jerusalem where Sennacherib's field commander, the Rabshakeh, shouted up uh to the people in Hebrew, "Don't let Hezekiah tell you that Hashem will save you. Which god of which nation has ever been saved from the hand of Asshur?" Right? He was like really going for it. And then the people on the wall said nothing. And chapter 19 opens here with verse one. Vayehi bishmoa Hamel Chizkiyahu vayikra et begadav. And it was said and and it was when Chizkiyahu heard, he tore tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of Hashem. No war council, no more payments. He already stripped the gold off the temple doors to pay Sennacherib. And Sennacherib came anyways. Because of why? >> Here's the This part of the story is critical for us to understand. Hezekiah is the second greatest king Israel ever had, second only to King David himself. Like what's going on? Why is Judea falling? City after city are being attacked and conquered. Where's the divine protection? And the answer is it's to point out that Hezekiah Hezekiah was the righteous king, but the Jews of Judea were now paying a price for the decades of immoral culture that the kings before them had already established and that they had adopted. And here we're about to watch a setup. This is not about Israel. This story and prophecy is about a king and a prophet. That's why it says Hezekiah tore his clothes and went to the temple to pray. A righteous king in his holy city Jerusalem. The Tanakh is bringing all of our focus to the relationship that Hezekiah had with Hashem, bringing all of our focus onto Hezekiah himself. >> Yeah, cuz there's a lot to focus on with Hezekiah. He was a very special king. So he sends his ministers also in sackcloth to the prophet Isaiah. Verse 3, "For the children have come to the birth stool and there is no strength to give birth." Mashber, that's the word that's used in the verse. In the Tanakh, a mashber is the birth stool where a woman sits at the very end of labor. In modern Hebrew, mashber means crisis, a word that we've become very familiar with. It's the same word. And I think Hezekiah is teaching us how to read a crisis. It's not the end of the story. It's the birth stool. The pain is real. Hezekiah says there's no strength left to push, but it's the pain of something being born. Our tradition calls the turbulence before the redemption "chevlei Mashiach", the birth pangs of Messiah. And Isaiah answers it, "Al tira, do not be afraid." And he calls in Hezekiah's mighty officers, "na'arei melech Ashur", the servant boys of the king of Ashur. From heaven, maybe the empire looks like a bunch of kids shouting at a wall. From down here on earth, it may be very intimidating, but in the eyes of Hashem, we all know what it is. >> Well, you know, Isaiah and Hezekiah, I mean, do we realize what we're learning now together? This is probably the greatest king and prophet duo in the Bible. Elijah and Elisha, well, they were a dynamic duo, but they didn't really overlap. They weren't partners. Hezekiah and Isaiah >> Jeremy, forgive me here. Jeremy, I'm sorry. Elijah and Elisha actually did overlap. Elisha was Elijah's student for years. He actually served Elijah right up to the chariot of fire. But that's a master and a student. A king and a prophet working together, you're 100% right. That's Hiskiau and Yeshayahu. It's a different thing. But go ahead. >> Yeah, I mean, they didn't overlap and like one was the leader and one was the student. And then the leader left and then he became the senior prophet. >> Okay. >> Here Hezekiah and Isaiah are really like partners in this amazing reality. And they were like a tag team in a wrestling match. It's like doubles in tennis. It's not like master and student. They really were the first team. >> Okay. Okay. >> the first they they were like Sherlock Holmes and Watson or like Iron Man and Captain America. I don't know pop culture, but I'm trying to make the point that the Bible is awesome and the characters are legendary if you read the stories right. And here's the key. You cannot learn the book of Isaiah without learning the ending of the book of Second Kings. Period. End of story. So get ready, friends. Isaiah is the very next book. And what we're doing now is we're learning the background of the entire lifetime of Isaiah. And I want to point out that there's the word that Rav Shakeh hammers again and again in chapter 18. And it shows up again in Sennacherib's letter here. Don't let your God in whom you trust deceive you. Trust. Bitachon. And there are two sides here. One is political. Sennacherib doesn't want war. He wants surrender. He knows that if he breaks the trust, the walls come down on their own. But on a spiritual level, trust is arguably the most important spiritual muscle a king has to flex. And although he started off a little bit shaky trying to buy his security with politics and money, Hezekiah becomes the ultimate king of trust. Hebrew has been telling us for 3,000 years, bitachon, security and trust are the same word if we only learn the lesson. >> Right. Right. Yeah, I always think about it. Emunah is sort of belief in an intellectual way and trust is where you're you're able to integrate that and infuse that into your very essence to where it you have less cortisol flowing through your veins as a consequence of that faith. And we're going to see that with Hezekiah. Then word comes that the king of Cush is marching on Sennacherib. He has to move, but he doesn't want Hezekiah to think he got away. So he sends a letter. Gozan, Haran, Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, where are their gods now? You think yours is different? And this is what Hezekiah does with it. Verse 14. Vayikach Hizkiyahu et hasefarim miyad hamalachim. And Hezekiah took the letters from the hand of the messengers and read them. And he went up to the house of Hashem. And Hezekiah spread it out before Hashem. I I love that verse. He doesn't crumple it up or hide it in a drawer. He reads it, all of it, and then walks up to the temple and lays it out flat. Master of the world, read it with me. You know, I think every one of us gets letters like this, a diagnosis, a news alert, makes your stomach drop. And Hezekiah puts it before Hashem. Literally, and that's what we do. He he he shows us how to do it. And he prays. And his closet prayer is honest. It's honest. I just love this so much. Verse 17 starts out with the word omnam, truly. Truly Hashem, the kings of Assyria destroyed those nations. Truly they threw their gods in the fire. He doesn't argue with the facts. He just adds what Sennacherib couldn't see. They were no gods. Wood and stone, of course they burned. Sennacherib thinks the God of Israel is just one more name on this list. And then the request. Verse 19. Va'ata Hashem Eloheinu hoshi'enu. Hoshi'enu na miyado. And now Hashem our God, save us please from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you Hashem are God alone. Not save us because we deserve it. Save us so the world will know. What happens to Jerusalem is never only about Jerusalem. The whole world is watching to see whether the God of Israel keeps his word. Sound familiar, Jeremy? Right? Yesha Yeshayahu answer opens with Jerusalem laughing. Shaking her head behind Sennacherib as he leaves. The army is still outside the walls and Isaiah already sees it's back. "You boast that you cut down the cedars of Lebanon." Hashem tells him, "Haven't you heard? I planned this long ago. You think you're writing history? You're a tool in my hand. I'll put my hook in your nose and lead you back the way you came, like a bull dragged out in the field." Then Isaiah gives gives Hezekiah a sign. And um as a farm as farmers, Jeremy, I mean that's one of the things I fancy myself an aspiring farmer. This one gets me. But chapter uh 19:29, "Eat this year what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs up from that, and in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards and eat their fruit." With an army camped in your field, nobody plants. So, for 2 years you'll eat whatever comes up on its own, and the third year you'll plant vineyards again. And stay long enough to eat from them. Verse 30. "And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward." Roots downward, fruit upward, in that order. Anyone who's planted a tree on these hills, and I just planted here a new lemon tree and a clementine tree. Did I tell you that, Jeremy? You need to come bless it. For the first few years it looks like nothing's happening. The roots are pushing down into even into the rock around the rock. Before you even see fruit, you can't skip that part. >> You know, Ari, I just want to point out a couple of words in this chapter about the people of Judah. Hezekiah asks that Yeshayahu pray for the reet, the remnant that's left. Meaning Judea has been devastated, and he's praying for the survivors. And Isaiah answers that the plata, the survivors, will take root again, Sherit Pleta. About 80 years ago, Jews walked out of the camps of Europe. And they were sitting in displaced persons camps with nothing. And they needed a name for themselves. They chose this language directly from the Bible, Sherit HaPleta. They were the surviving remnants. And out of the ashes of Auschwitz, they reached right back into the words of Hiskiahu in Yeshayahu. After 3,000 years, after the liberation from Auschwitz, there was a state of Israel. Survivors were planting its fields and defending its borders. The remnant of the house of Judah took root again. The Sherit HaPleta made it back. And now we're the ones eating the fruit of the land of from the trees that they planted. >> Amen. So beautiful. Yeah, and then Isaiah promises Sanhedrin won't shoot a single arrow into this city. Hashem will defend it for his sake and for the sake of David his servant. And then verse 35, "Vayehi balayla hahu, vayetze malach Hashem, vayach bamachaneh Ashur. And it was on that night an angel of Hashem went out and struck the camp of Assyria, 185,000. And they rose early in the morning and behold, they were all dead bodies." No battle. Not one arrow from the wall. Jerusalem went to sleep surrounded and woke up free. And our tradition says that night was the night of Pesach, of Passover. At the end of the Seder, we see we sing "Vayehi b'chatzi halayla" and it happened at midnight. And one of its lines is about this very night. The blasphemer who raised his hand against Jerusalem, his army turned to corpses in the dark. We've been singing about Sanhedrin at our Seder tables for centuries, millennia. You know, and Sanhedrin, what happens to him? He goes home to Nineveh. And while he's bowing in the temple of his god to Nisroch, two of his own sons walk in and cut him down, strike him down with the sword. Now put the two kings side by side. Hiskiahu, with the enemy at the gates, walks into the house of God and walks out saved. Sanhedrin after mocking every God in the region walks into the house of his God and that God can't even protect him from his own children and in his own sanctuary. Wood and stone just like Hezekiah said. You know, I just want to point out this was one of my mother's favorite stories in the Bible. She loved this story of Hezekiah and you know, can you imagine what the Seder night was like in Jerusalem cuz Jewish tradition has it that this redemption happened on the Seder night. That's why we say it on Seder night. And so imagine you're inside the walls of Jerusalem. This massive army is outside your walls and every family sitting around their table talking about the time that God saved and redeemed Israel so many years ago and every family's praying together for Hashem to save them again. The sages say that Hezekiah was so great that Hashem was ready to make him the Messiah and usher in the final redemption and this war with Sanhedrin would have been the final war of Gog u Magog but we weren't so great. Why didn't we merit? Why? Because after the salvation the sages say King Hezekiah didn't sing a song to God. He didn't lead Israel in song. Moses sang at the sea, Deborah sang after Sisera and after 185,000 fell in a single night Hezekiah the righteous king who prayed so beautifully before he didn't lead the nation in song and the sages say the redemption was pushed off. And so we've had our own nights. Hundreds of missiles and drones from Iran. Most of them were blown out of the sky by this incredible technology. A 12-day war a thousand kilometers away, enemies on seven fronts and the next morning the Jews are arguing about the politics and arguing about the news. It's like this chapter teaches us to pray when we're in need. Hezekiah Hezekiah does that. Obviously. But the sages of Israel are leaving us with a lesson that when Hashem saves you all he wants for us is to sing. Make our salvation into a song. That is such a deep lesson in life. >> Yeah, and maybe that's the song this chapter is still waiting for it. You know, Hezekiah sat on the mashber, the crisis, the birth stool, and said, "There's no strength left." He spread the letter out before Hashem. I can't tell you those words really, really strengthen me. We all have our things. I'm like, "That's just what I need to do. Just spread it out before Hashem." And Hashem answered, "You don't need the strength. Kinat Hashem ta'aseh zot. The zeal of Hashem will do this." That's how verse 31 ends. And my friends, a lot of us feel like we're sitting on that birth stool, the threats, the letters from the nations, the feeling that there's nothing left to push with. I think Hezekiah would tell us, "That's what birth feels like." So, spread it out before Hashem, my friends. Put your roots down in this land, even when nothing seems to be growing above the ground, and when morning comes, and the camp outside the walls is empty, sing. Sing to Hashem. Khazak u'barukh, my friends. Um if this journey through the prophets of Israel is speaking with you, walk it with us. You could become a friend of the network. You could have access to all of our content. You could join the fellowship live. You could join the Judaean Academy, which is super unbelievably exciting, and where it's still developing and unfolding. [music] We just I just did a session last week. It was so great. Come to the landofisrael.com. See what fits right for you. There's free trials. [music] There's all sorts of great things happening, and we look forward to having you with us. Shalom, shalom.