Episode Transcript
Good morning.
It's 10 o'clock.
Time for us to get started.
You know, 10 o'clock probably never meant anything to you, but what you're going to find yourself doing is if you're watching TV and you're talking or cooking, and somebody says 10 o'clock you're going to go sit down and be quiet somewhere, just like you do here.
2 Kings chapter 19.
And we are still in verse 23 where Isaiah is repeating the words spoken by the Lord against King Sinacrib.
Got a good crowd in here this morning and hopefully an online presence as well.
2 Kings 19 verse 23.
And we learned last week that as Isaiah tells us, Sinacrib threatened to cut down the tall cedars and also the fir trees.
And we looked at what those cedars and fir trees represented.
They represented the Lord's people.
They were cedars in that being saved.
Now not everyone in Israel was saved.
Not everyone in Judah was saved.
But this was a spiritual truth we learned because Israel and Judah represent the church.
And the church is made up of believers.
It's not made up of anyone else.
It's not made up of Baptists or Methodists or Pentecostals.
It's made up of believers regardless of where it is they assemble.
And so these cedar trees, these tall cedars represented the redeemed of the Lord.
And you may remember one of the characteristics of cedar trees is that they are firm.
They're seemingly incorruptible.
Now we know they're going to rot one day.
But that's what they're known for.
And that's the Lord Jesus Christ and His people because of Him are incorruptible.
This flesh will decay away or it will be changed in the twinkling of an eye.
In either case it won't go to be with the Lord.
But that spiritual man, that which makes you a Christian, is incorruptible and it's firm.
You're on a solid rock.
And then the fir trees we learned are associated with rejoicing in the Bible.
And I read you some scriptures.
So they represent the fir trees and the cedar trees represent spiritually the redeemed of the Lord.
Not just the earthly nation of Judah even though that's who Sennacherib is addressing here.
And the last phrase we studied in verse 23 was where Sennacherib said, "I will enter the lodgings of His borders."
I will enter the lodgings of His borders.
Sennacherib threatened to enter into the lodging of whose borders?
It said His borders.
That is the Lord's borders.
Now He's trespassing, isn't He, in the worst possible way?
And we noted last week that a lodging is not just a place to reside, but it is also something else.
Besides a place to reside, what else does a lodging represent?
It represents a place of rest.
Not just a place of residence, but a place of rest.
And we're now talking about an even more significant spiritual truth.
By cutting down the tall cedars, Sennacherib would be afflicting the Lord's people who are redeemed.
By cutting down the firs, He would be afflicting the Lord's people who rejoice.
By entering the lodgings of His borders, He would be afflicting the Lord's people who rest.
Let's put it this way.
Satan would first afflict you.
Now this is when you're lost.
Satan would first afflict you so that you would not be redeemed.
But if you are redeemed, He would afflict you that you may not rejoice.
And yet if you're redeemed and you rejoice, He would afflict you that you may not rest.
As is the case in our text, because He threatened to enter into the lodgings.
Now if somebody entered into your lodgings last night when you were sleeping, that would afflict your rest, wouldn't it?
You would have a problem, and hopefully they would have a problem if you had a problem.
These are three things Satan does to destroy humanity.
First, he afflicts people so they will not be redeemed.
He doesn't afflict them by terrifying them, at least not initially.
Now in fact, he's the great counterfeiter.
He makes it look pretty close to the real thing.
He tries to persuade them.
And he wants man to believe he's just fine like he is.
He doesn't need to do anything else.
He's not as bad as other people.
Or at least he's religious.
Or he hasn't done anything truly evil.
That's how Satan afflicts people that they will not be redeemed.
He influences man away from the gospel of Jesus Christ unto another gospel.
He afflicts man.
Here's a saying you hear from time to time.
He afflicts man by making him feel comfortable in his own skin.
Let me tell you, my skin is corrupted.
If all I had to be comfortable in were this body I'm living in, I'm in sad shape.
I've told you all before, but a lot of you don't remember it because I don't remember much either.
When I was 37, that's a long time ago, I looked down at my forearm and I saw a wrinkle.
And I called my dad and I said, "Dad, I've got a wrinkle in my forearm."
He said, "I was about your age when that happened."
Well, it hadn't gotten any better since then, I'll tell you that.
But Satan says, "You're fine."
Even though our bodies show signs of exactly what God said would happen when Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
We were cut off from our source of life.
And so Satan would rather have you living by feelings than by faith.
Galatians chapter 1 verses 6 through 7.
Galatians chapter 1 verses 6 through 7.
"I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that call you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another.
But there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ."
There are two things Sennacherib is doing at the gates of Jerusalem.
He is calling Israel.
He wants them to give up their lives here and go subject themselves to the Assyrian government.
He's calling them and he is troubling them.
He's telling them as we've read some of these threats, none of these other gods have been able to deliver their people from me.
And if, as Paul wrote, if it's God who calls you into the grace of Christ, then it's Satan who calls you unto another gospel.
They're both calling.
That's how he afflicts religious people, to keep them from being redeemed.
And those religious people choose to heed his call rather than the gospel call.
Now the second thing Satan does to destroy humanity as we learn about this King Sennacherib and how wicked he is, is to afflict the redeemed.
He can't get their soul, but to afflict them so they will not rejoice in the Lord.
I reckon that has happened to every one of us who are saved.
And there are two ways it happens.
There are two things, two markers, if you will, that let you know you're not rejoicing in the Lord.
One, we find it in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse 13.
1 Thessalonians 4 verse 13.
"But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep," that means dead, "that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope."
Now what is the opposite of rejoicing?
It's sorrow.
It's sorrow in Christians just like these Thessalonians were prone to sorrow when they should be rejoicing.
In the case of the Thessalonians, Paul recognized that their confidence in the resurrection of the dead was shaky.
They weren't rejoicing in it.
Satan would have them sorrow over the souls who had died, those people who have died, rather than allowing them to be comforted by the truth of the resurrection of those believers one day.
Paul wrote these wonderful words of truth to these fir trees who were in sorrow.
You get that?
These are redeemed.
These Thessalonians are redeemed, but they're not rejoicing.
They're not rejoicing as a fir tree ought.
And he wrote in 1 Thessalonians 4, 14 through 18, and you've probably heard these words many times before, at a funeral.
"For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent or go before them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God.
And the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words."
Now all of that that you heard, I saw some of you smiling.
You know why?
Because those are words we rejoice over.
When we think about believers, our friends or family who have gone on before us, we don't say, "Oh, poor old Uncle Paul.
Oh, he's dead, dead, dead."
No, we rejoice that he's not suffering anymore.
He's with the Lord.
I think of my uncle, Ronnie Wood, my mother's brother, who had congestive heart failure.
And his last few days of teaching in a classroom, he retired and came back to teach again.
He loved it.
He's having to lay his head on his desk and just tell his students to just do their homework.
He didn't have the energy to sit up straight in his chair, but he loved teaching so much.
Well, I don't, I miss him, but I don't sit around and feel sorry for Ronnie Wood because he is in the presence of the Lord.
He doesn't have congestive heart failure anymore.
That's something over which I rejoice.
I don't sorrow.
I am a fir tree who can rejoice in that his body, which is far gone by now, it's turned to dust or whatever happens in that coffin in spite of all of man's devices to try to keep it from corrupting.
That one day that's going to be made into a perfect, glorious body.
Now that's not anything to sorrow over.
So what Paul was doing is saying, hey, fir trees, you're sorrowing over something that you should be rejoicing over.
And he said, this truth that I told you, you guys, you Thessalonians need to comfort one another with those words.
And that's what the children of Israel needed to do.
The children of Judah, those in Jerusalem, is to comfort one another in spite of Sennacherib calling them to come to Assyria and threatening to destroy them as he had conquered their sister nation Israel in the north.
The Greek word for comfort in that passage I read you from first Thessalonians.
The Greek word is parakaleo, which is the root word from which the word comforter comes with a capital C.
It's found in John 14, 16, where Jesus says, and I will pray the Father and he will give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever, even the spirit of truth.
So who do we need fir trees when Satan tries to extinguish our rejoicing?
We need the comforter.
We need the Holy Spirit and he speaks to us through his word.
You don't need to go anywhere else.
You don't need to say, well, I better I better go to one of Benny Hinn's meetings and see if I can get the Holy Ghost come down on me and make me feel better.
Or I need to go to this person or that person.
You don't need to go to any person.
Anybody who's made of flesh and blood can't help you unless they point you to God's word.
That's what the fir tree needs right here is to look in God's word and rejoice.
Not only does Satan try to afflict man so that he will not be redeemed.
Those are the cedar trees and afflict the redeemed so they will not rejoice.
Those are the fir trees.
But he also afflicts man that he will not rest.
That's the lodging.
Sinacar have threatened the cedars who are the incorruptible redeemed spiritually speaking.
He threatened the firs who were the rejoicing redeemed and now he threatens to enter their lodgings.
Those are the resting redeemed.
And I hope you're committing this truth to your inner man because you and I need it.
Our spiritual lodging is not a physical house.
It's a person.
It's the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are in him.
This morning I was in my house.
I was in my recliner.
But when I got in my pickup I wasn't in my house anymore.
But I was still in Jesus.
Psalm chapter 37 in verse 7.
Psalm 37 in verse 7.
When Satan tries to steal your rest.
David said, "Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him.
Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way.
Because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass."
Do you see by the words of this psalmist what robs many Christians of their rest?
They're consumed with the prosperity and wicked devices of unbelievers.
They're saying, "Lord, why is life so rough on me?
And these wicked people who openly deny you are millionaires and billionaires and they seem to have the life of Riley."
You younger ones wouldn't know what that is.
I don't even know what it is.
I just repeated it from people who are so old they did know what it was.
But it's the good life.
It's easy to get caught up in it.
Especially when our eyes and ears are bombarded with unholy things every day.
I was just talking to Brother Doug before the service about my new role at work.
And I have a supervisory role now.
And that one of the things on my little laundry list to make sure we clear up at the first meeting is, we don't use profanity around here.
So if you're on my shift, you better clean your mouth up.
And I'm not saying these guys are foul-mouthed or not.
I don't work with that crew.
They're a night crew.
But if they are, they get a chance to clean that up.
We're not going to have it.
I can't control what anybody else does.
But I can control that.
And our minds and our ears are saturated with all of these things that do nothing but rob us of our rest.
And you think, well, I'll go home and get away from it.
You know what happens?
You lie down and those things are trapped in your mind.
And you hear them over and over and you see them over and over.
And that's how Satan afflicts us in our rest.
It's not the only way, but it is a way.
And I saw a lot of heads nodding, so I know that it's true with you as well.
Judah was afflicted by this terribly wicked king of Assyria.
That king seemed to be prosperous.
He'd already conquered Israel.
So what would keep him from doing the same thing to Judah?
What Judah needed to do was what King David had already said and already written.
You know, they had his psalms in their hands.
But they needed those psalms in their hearts.
He wrote, "Rest in the Lord."
And we do that by studying his word.
We do it by praising his name and praying to him.
So if you're fretting, the Bible says don't fret.
If you're fretting because of the affliction of the devil, then you have probably spent more time fretting than you have reading your Bible or praying or praising God.
There's always a deficit when we do that.
You think of the number of minutes, if you break down the 24-hour day, how many minutes do we spend sleeping?
Well, we have to sleep a certain amount of time so our bodies can heal and recharge and our minds are clear and it helps our immune system.
And how many minutes a day do you spend eating and driving and walking?
How many minutes a day do you spend in God's Word?
And I can almost promise you that for the most part, the time you spend in God's Word or meditating on God's Word is less than a lot of the other things that we do.
So we get our minds just get overwhelmed.
How do you get it out of there?
Put God's Word in there.
God's Word will scoot that stuff out.
Put it, so to speak, in the back of your mind instead of the front of your mind.
Rest in the Lord.
Study his word.
Praise his name.
The music you listen to, let it be the Lord's music.
Even if you can't sing, you can't carry a tune in a bucket, it's okay.
God changes all that.
He does all the translation that's needed for your words of praise and your songs of praise to be acceptable in his ears.
What happens when Satan's devices afflict us?
Well, let's use the example of reading some bad news on the Internet.
Let's say you just read an article and it said our nation's capital has been overtaken by an enemy nation.
The normal response of most people would be to panic or to fret, and that person would probably begin reading more and more news.
"Oh, let's see what this one says."
"Oh, it's terrible."
And reading more news and just get consumed with reading all the bad news and fretting over that bad news.
Maybe they start surfing social media and other people's comments.
"Well, what does this person think?"
Now, you don't even know who that is, but you're reading comments.
"Oh, people are saying it's really, really bad."
"Oh, it must be."
And you find yourself fretting and anxious.
You're trying to see how worried everybody else is and whether you should be more worried.
What are people's predictions?
And you know that reaction is so natural, but it's so wrong, isn't it?
Every one of us have done that, I'll promise you.
When Satan afflicts you, and here we're talking about your arrest, but in any way, when he afflicts you, you should do just like Hezekiah did back in the first verse of this chapter that we've been on.
If you look back up there in verse 1, chapter 19, verse 1, it says, "And it came to pass when King Hezekiah heard it."
Now, what did he hear?
He heard bad news.
He heard the same bad news that we see on the news feeds just about every day.
Bad news.
It says, "When Hezekiah heard it, he rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord."
And we spend a lot of time talking about the significance of him going into the house of the Lord.
And again there in verse 14 of this same chapter, "After he had received the threatening letter from Sennacherib's men," that's bad news, that's Satan trying to afflict, it says, "And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers and read it, and Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord."
So rather than going from house to house, or military post to military post, talking about this terrible news and seeing what everyone else thought about it and how worried they were, Hezekiah went straight to the Lord.
Now, you just try that one time.
It doesn't matter how you are afflicted, how you're troubled.
Just try that one time.
You hear the news, you read the news, something happens, you go straight to the Lord.
Say, "Lord, before I talk to anybody else, I need to talk to you.
And even more, I need to hear from you.
I need to look at what Your Word says about this, and it'll put everything in perspective."
Hezekiah, instead of doing all that, he knew the one who redeemed him.
He was a cedar.
He knew the one in whom he rejoiced.
He was a fur.
And he knew the one who gave him rest.
He was secure in his lodging.
He was not going to let his rest in the Lord be shaken.
And neither should we.
Listen, the more chaotic this world gets, the more dangerous it is to live in this country.
We are not a nation at rest by any means, and we haven't been for some time.
But in all of that, in all the chaos, and in all the danger, the more that happens, the more at rest God's people should be.
I think Brother Fulton said it a few months ago.
He's preaching about all these terrible things that are happening.
He said, "On one hand, it is terrible, but on the other hand, it's exciting.
Because this world is going down just like God said it would, and all that means for Christians is our redemption draweth nigh."
He's coming back.
We don't know when.
But he's coming back, and things are getting worse and worse.
Let others panic and fret, because we have rest in our lodging place.
Jesus Christ.
Sennacherib also threatened to enter.
Back in your text, 2 Kings 19.23, if you've just joined us, look down toward the end of the verse.
He said, "And I will enter into the lodgings of his borders and into the forest of his caramel."
Sennacherib will enter into this place.
Now, what is the forest of his caramel?
Well, we'll spend some time looking at that.
But once again, the possessive pronoun is "his," the forest of his caramel.
That means that this place belongs to the Lord, just like the lodgings belong to the Lord, just like the furs and the cedars belong to the Lord.
He's messing with the Lord's people, His chosen people in an earthly sense, but His church in a spiritual sense.
And although Sennacherib is long gone, that spirit that reigned in him is still alive today.
It is that spirit of Antichrist, as the Bible says, and it is in the world.
But this is the Lord's caramel.
The word "caramel" means a fruitful field, a fruitful field.
It's a masculine noun.
"Carmel" is also a locative noun, meaning it's a noun that describes a place.
And you've probably read about Mount Carmel.
That was a famous place where Elijah went up against the prophets and priests of Baal.
And they called upon their gods to bring down fire from heaven and devour sacrifice.
And, of course, it didn't happen.
And Elijah prevailed, and God prevailed.
He showed them He was God.
But in our text, "caramel" describes a plentiful field, a plentiful field.
In entering the forest of His caramel, Sennacherib would afflict the Lord's people in their riches.
He's tried to afflict them in their redemption.
He tried to afflict them in their rejoicing, in their rest, and now in their riches.
You know, these riches were not always financial.
In fact, the best ones aren't.
Even though God richly blessed many of His people, such as Abraham and Solomon, who had earthly riches that could not be numbered, Jacob, and so on.
The Psalm 112, verses 1 through 3, Psalm 112, verses 1 through 3, the psalmist wrote, "Praise ye the Lord.
Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in His commandments.
His seed shall be mighty upon the earth.
The generation of the upright shall be blessed.
Wealth and riches shall be in His house."
You remember the word "logy"?
There you go.
"And His righteousness endureth forever."
Those priests and prophets literally entered, the priests and prophets of Baal literally entered the Lord's caramel.
God created that place.
He created Mount Carmel.
And it was there that Baal's priests and prophets would try to overthrow the Lord's caramel by having their gods, which were no gods, bring down fire.
And that would have made their God the victor if this false god could have done it, or their gods could have done it, and the Lord God couldn't have.
But what happened when they entered the Lord's caramel?
They abused themselves.
The Bible says they cut themselves.
They made a spectacle.
They did all this dancing around and hollering, and their God failed to send down fire from heaven.
Now you picture the God behind those priests.
That was none other than the God of this world.
He's the same God who's behind Sennacherib who has entered the Lord's caramel.
Now what happened?
What did God do to those priests and prophets who entered the Lord's caramel in Elijah's day?
He first showed them who was God.
And then he commanded Elijah to take away every one of those prophets and priests of Baal and to slay them by the brook Kishon, and he did it.
Here's the takeaway.
Although Elijah was outnumbered, he never wavered just because the prophets and priests of Baal had entered the Lord's caramel because he knew God would prevail.
And that's where Hezekiah is and those who are faithful with him.
Now going back to the word "caramel" as it's used in our text, it's not a mountain in this case.
It's a masculine noun that means a plentiful field.
And as we learned from the psalmist a moment ago, the riches in wealth that we have are in our house.
He said, "Wealth and riches shall be in his house."
Not your earthly house.
You know, our earthly house, how many of you have only lived in one house your whole life?
That's about right, isn't it?
You moved on from where your parents raised you, and some of you may have bought a house and sold a house and bought a house and sold a house.
So you've had a lot of houses.
And none of them are yours right now except the one that you live in, or if you happen to own a house that someone else lives in.
But things change.
Those houses break down just like our bodies break down.
So if you're counting on the physical wealth you have in an earthly house, you're going to be disappointed.
And Satan can take every bit of the riches and wealth that you have in your earthly house if the Lord permits him to.
But he cannot touch one ounce of the wealth and the riches you have in your spiritual house.
He can't touch them.
Acts 17, verses 28 through 29.
Acts 17 verses 28 through 29.
Speaking of Jesus, Luke wrote, "For in him we live and move and have our being.
As certain also of your own poets have said, 'For we are also his offspring.'
For as much then as we are the offspring of God..."
Now, there's your key.
You born again?
You're the offspring of God.
"For as much as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead," that's the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, "we ought not think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's device."
In those two verses alone, we are taught that wealth and riches that God gives us are like God.
They're eternal, he's eternal.
They're not gold, they're not silver, they're not stone.
They're not graven by art and man's device.
In fact, if man had anything to do with giving us those riches, then they are corrupt.
Not they will be, they are corrupt, which means they're also temporary.
"Sennacher may enter into a physical location the forest of the Lord's Carmel, but he can never take from God's people the wealth and the riches that we have in Jesus.
When the stock market crashes, your earthly riches vanish, but your riches in Christ are unaffected because they're eternal, they're priceless, they never lose their value."
What is their value?
It's priceless.
So Christian, you need to turn your eyes to those riches.
Soon enough, you will lose everything that you have.
Now that's a sobering thought, isn't it?
You'll lose everything you have.
You will die and you'll leave everything and everyone you know behind.
But in the forest of the Lord's Carmel, your riches and wealth will never fade.
Now how about that?
That's better than insider trading, isn't it?
Because we know the good news ahead of time.
Just like Sennacherib tried to prevent Judah's deliverance, Satan would try to prevent your redemption, and if you're redeemed, he would try to prevent your rejoicing, and if you rejoice, he would try to prevent your rest and your enjoyment of God's riches.
And now in verse 24, Sennacherib tells of his past exploits.
He's trying to build a case for himself so that Israel will be intimidated.
Verse 24, now we hear this from Isaiah, "As though Sennacherib has already said it, I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.
I have digged and drunk strange waters."
Now what does this mean?
Well listen to the other English words that are translated from the Hebrew word that is translated "digged."
The other ways it's translated are "cast out," "destroyed," and "break down."
All those words carry the idea of destruction.
Now let me read you the verse where this Hebrew word is first used in the Old Testament so you'll understand what Sennacherib is saying.
Sennacherib is not going to foreign countries to dig wells for the people so they can have water.
Numbers 24, verse 17, "I shall see him but not now, I shall behold him but not nigh, there shall come a star, capital S, out of Jacob, and a scepter, capital S, shall rise out of Israel," now that's Jesus, "and shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of Sheth."
It says he will destroy, that's the same Hebrew word as the word for "digged," or we would say "dug," D-U-G, not D-O-U-G, in our day.
And then look at the word "drunk," he said, "I have digged and drunk strange waters."
Sennacherib claims to have executed his will by bringing strange waters such as Israel's waters up from the ground, perhaps he dug wells to do so, whatever he did up there in Israel.
He also claimed to have drunk those strange waters, and if he did it in a way that destroyed them, that means that he made sure Israel couldn't drink those strange waters, or they weren't strange to them, they were strange to Assyria.
So that probably means his army and he have watered themselves with waters belonging to other nations, those would be strange waters.
The waters of Assyria would be familiar waters to him.
Other nations' waters are strange waters.
And how this pertains to our text is shown in 2 Kings 1817, which we have studied.
2 Kings 1817.
So this is backing up in time.
"And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabseres and Rabsheka from Lachish to King Hezekiah, with a great host against Jerusalem.
And they went up and came to Jerusalem.
And when they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the Fuller's Field."
So we've read that the Assyrians were standing by the source of water that belonged to Judah.
And to the Assyrians, this pool, this reservoir, and conduit, the way the water got there, those were strange waters, and that's where they were standing.
Now, let's look at how King Hezekiah responded to that act.
And this all occurs before what we're studying here in chapter 19 today.
But the description that we don't have in chapter 19 is found in 2 Chronicles 32, verses 2 through 4.
2 Chronicles 32, verses 2 through 4.
You see, 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles are a little bit like the Gospels, where you may read an account in Matthew, Luke, and John, but not in Mark, like the birth of Jesus.
You won't see that, the birth of Jesus in Mark and in John.
You'll see it in Luke and Matthew.
It doesn't mean it didn't happen.
It's just you get some different accounts, and then you get a lot of stories that are the same, as you'll find in not only 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles, but in Isaiah, chapter 37, that's gone right along with what we're studying.
Now, here are the same events that we're reading about in 2 Kings, but we get a little more detail.
"And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacher was come, and was purposed to fight against Jerusalem," Now, remember, they're standing at the conduit in the upper pool.
"He took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains, which were without the city, and they did help him.
So there was gathered much people together who stopped all the fountains and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, 'Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water?'"
Now, that passage, what's described there, those events would have taken place in 2 Kings, chapter 18, if you pulled them out and plugged them in.
Now we understand that Sennacher was bragging that he had digged strange waters.
He said, "You guys," I'm paraphrasing here, "y'all can cut this water off to this pool and this conduit, but I've been to other nations and I've dug those same strange waters.
I'm going to get them."
And he further said there in verse 24, "And with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places."
And next week we'll come back and look at what that means.
Boy, time gets away in a hurry, doesn't it, Brother Doug?
All right, let's pray.
Father, thank you for every single person who came today and every one of the precious souls who tuned in on the internet.
And Lord, thank you for your truth.
Your Word is precious to us.
Father, it's just about all we have in this wicked world, but we rejoice in it because it's all we need.
And as your spirit teaches us your Word and as your people rejoice in your Word and rest in your redemption, as we celebrate the wealth and riches you've given us regardless of what the world has taken from us, help us to continue in that mind, having the mind of Christ, not seeing the Godhead as gold, silver, stone, as graven by man's devices, but one who is eternal in the heavens, one whose riches are eternal because the one in whom they are found is eternal.
And it's in His name we pray.
Amen.
