Isaiah’s Prophecy and Jerusalem Spared

Text: 2 Kings 19:21-36

Reflection and Question: The king of Assyria has defeated the kingdom of Israel and threatens to lay siege to Jerusalem with a huge army. After the king of Israel, Hezekiah, prays for God’s deliverance from this danger, Isaiah responds with a poetic reminder of the eternal power of God and the promise that Jerusalem will be saved. And the narrator reports that Jerusalem was saved, not in battle this time, but during the night by the striking down of the whole Assyrian army. These kinds of things don’t happen every day — or do they?

Prayer: Holy God, as in ancient times, You know our rising up and our sitting down, our going out and our coming in. And You have destroyed armies in a night even as You have renewed the house of Judah to rise again. Sustain us now, we pray. Amen.

This meditation is based on the Daily Lectionary Year 1 from the Book of Common Worship for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (1993).