Sennacherib's field commander delivers the most psychologically sophisticated threat in the OT: a speech designed to make Jerusalem's people despair before a single arrow is shot. He undermines trust in God, trust in Egypt, trust in Hezekiah's own religious reforms. He speaks in Hebrew so the people on the wall can hear. He offers attractive terms of surrender.
Hezekiah tears his clothes and goes to the temple. And then he sends to Isaiah. The prophet's answer: do not fear. The king will hear a rumor and return to his own land and fall by the sword.
Then Sennacherib sends a letter. Hezekiah goes to the temple and spreads the letter before the LORD, vayyifros otah lifnei YHWH. The prayer that follows is the clearest model of specific, embodied, costly intercession in Kings: O LORD God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made heaven and earth. Look, LORD, and hear. Read this letter. Now save us, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are LORD.
That night the angel of the LORD goes out and strikes 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. When the people rise in the morning they are all dead. Thread 1 is the prayer that moves heaven: the God who cannot stop reaching can also be reached, and the reaching of Hezekiah moves the specific divine response that saves Jerusalem. Thread 4 is the spread-out letter as genuine embodied faith.
Hezekiah spread the letter before the LORD: the most concrete prayer posture in Kings; he brings the specific threat into the specific presence; 185,000 Assyrians struck by one angel from one king's prayer.
וַיִּפְרֹשׂ אֹתָהּ חִזְקִיָּהוּ לִפְנֵי יְהוָה (vayyifros otah Chizkiyyahu lifnei YHWH): and Hezekiah spread it before the LORD: vayyifros (he spread out, laid open, Piel of paras; the deliberate laying out of the physical document before God; Hezekiah does not summarize the threat or describe it in prayer; he brings the actual letter and spreads it in the temple; the prayer posture is uniquely embodied and specific)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Isaiah 37:14-20 · James 5:16 · Psalm 91:11-12
Sennacherib's field commander delivers the most psychologically sophisticated threat in the OT: a speech designed to make Jerusalem's people despair before a single arrow is shot. He undermines trust in God, trust in Egypt, trust in Hezekiah's own religious reforms. He speaks in Hebrew so the people on the wall can hear. He offers attractive terms of surrender.
Hezekiah tears his clothes and goes to the temple. And then he sends to Isaiah. The prophet's answer: do not fear. The king will hear a rumor and return to his own land and fall by the sword.
Then Sennacherib sends a letter. Hezekiah goes to the temple and spreads the letter before the LORD, vayyifros otah lifnei YHWH. The prayer that follows is the clearest model of specific, embodied, costly intercession in Kings: O LORD God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made heaven and earth. Look, LORD, and hear. Read this letter. Now save us, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are LORD.
That night the angel of the LORD goes out and strikes 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. When the people rise in the morning they are all dead. Thread 1 is the prayer that moves heaven: the God who cannot stop reaching can also be reached, and the reaching of Hezekiah moves the specific divine response that saves Jerusalem. Thread 4 is the spread-out letter as genuine embodied faith.
Hezekiah spread the letter before the LORD: the most concrete prayer posture in Kings; he brings the specific threat into the specific presence; 185,000 Assyrians struck by one angel from one king's prayer.
וַיִּפְרֹשׂ אֹתָהּ חִזְקִיָּהוּ לִפְנֵי יְהוָה (vayyifros otah Chizkiyyahu lifnei YHWH): and Hezekiah spread it before the LORD: vayyifros (he spread out, laid open, Piel of paras; the deliberate laying out of the physical document before God; Hezekiah does not summarize the threat or describe it in prayer; he brings the actual letter and spreads it in the temple; the prayer posture is uniquely embodied and specific)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Isaiah 37:14-20 · James 5:16 · Psalm 91:11-12
Sennacherib's field commander delivers the most psychologically sophisticated threat in the OT: a speech designed to make Jerusalem's people despair before a single arrow is shot. He undermines trust in God, trust in Egypt, trust in Hezekiah's own religious reforms. He speaks in Hebrew so the people on the wall can hear. He offers attractive terms of surrender.
Hezekiah tears his clothes and goes to the temple. And then he sends to Isaiah. The prophet's answer: do not fear. The king will hear a rumor and return to his own land and fall by the sword.
Then Sennacherib sends a letter. Hezekiah goes to the temple and spreads the letter before the LORD, vayyifros otah lifnei YHWH. The prayer that follows is the clearest model of specific, embodied, costly intercession in Kings: O LORD God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made heaven and earth. Look, LORD, and hear. Read this letter. Now save us, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are LORD.
That night the angel of the LORD goes out and strikes 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. When the people rise in the morning they are all dead. Thread 1 is the prayer that moves heaven: the God who cannot stop reaching can also be reached, and the reaching of Hezekiah moves the specific divine response that saves Jerusalem. Thread 4 is the spread-out letter as genuine embodied faith.
Hezekiah spread the letter before the LORD: the most concrete prayer posture in Kings; he brings the specific threat into the specific presence; 185,000 Assyrians struck by one angel from one king's prayer.
וַיִּפְרֹשׂ אֹתָהּ חִזְקִיָּהוּ לִפְנֵי יְהוָה (vayyifros otah Chizkiyyahu lifnei YHWH): and Hezekiah spread it before the LORD: vayyifros (he spread out, laid open, Piel of paras; the deliberate laying out of the physical document before God; Hezekiah does not summarize the threat or describe it in prayer; he brings the actual letter and spreads it in the temple; the prayer posture is uniquely embodied and specific)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Isaiah 37:14-20 · James 5:16 · Psalm 91:11-12
Sennacherib's field commander delivers the most psychologically sophisticated threat in the OT: a speech designed to make Jerusalem's people despair before a single arrow is shot. He undermines trust in God, trust in Egypt, trust in Hezekiah's own religious reforms. He speaks in Hebrew so the people on the wall can hear. He offers attractive terms of surrender.
Hezekiah tears his clothes and goes to the temple. And then he sends to Isaiah. The prophet's answer: do not fear. The king will hear a rumor and return to his own land and fall by the sword.
Then Sennacherib sends a letter. Hezekiah goes to the temple and spreads the letter before the LORD, vayyifros otah lifnei YHWH. The prayer that follows is the clearest model of specific, embodied, costly intercession in Kings: O LORD God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made heaven and earth. Look, LORD, and hear. Read this letter. Now save us, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are LORD.
That night the angel of the LORD goes out and strikes 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. When the people rise in the morning they are all dead. Thread 1 is the prayer that moves heaven: the God who cannot stop reaching can also be reached, and the reaching of Hezekiah moves the specific divine response that saves Jerusalem. Thread 4 is the spread-out letter as genuine embodied faith.
Hezekiah spread the letter before the LORD: the most concrete prayer posture in Kings; he brings the specific threat into the specific presence; 185,000 Assyrians struck by one angel from one king's prayer.
וַיִּפְרֹשׂ אֹתָהּ חִזְקִיָּהוּ לִפְנֵי יְהוָה (vayyifros otah Chizkiyyahu lifnei YHWH): and Hezekiah spread it before the LORD: vayyifros (he spread out, laid open, Piel of paras; the deliberate laying out of the physical document before God; Hezekiah does not summarize the threat or describe it in prayer; he brings the actual letter and spreads it in the temple; the prayer posture is uniquely embodied and specific)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Isaiah 37:14-20 · James 5:16 · Psalm 91:11-12
Sennacherib's field commander delivers the most psychologically sophisticated threat in the OT: a speech designed to make Jerusalem's people despair before a single arrow is shot. He undermines trust in God, trust in Egypt, trust in Hezekiah's own religious reforms. He speaks in Hebrew so the people on the wall can hear. He offers attractive terms of surrender.
Hezekiah tears his clothes and goes to the temple. And then he sends to Isaiah. The prophet's answer: do not fear. The king will hear a rumor and return to his own land and fall by the sword.
Then Sennacherib sends a letter. Hezekiah goes to the temple and spreads the letter before the LORD, vayyifros otah lifnei YHWH. The prayer that follows is the clearest model of specific, embodied, costly intercession in Kings: O LORD God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made heaven and earth. Look, LORD, and hear. Read this letter. Now save us, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are LORD.
That night the angel of the LORD goes out and strikes 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. When the people rise in the morning they are all dead. Thread 1 is the prayer that moves heaven: the God who cannot stop reaching can also be reached, and the reaching of Hezekiah moves the specific divine response that saves Jerusalem. Thread 4 is the spread-out letter as genuine embodied faith.
Hezekiah spread the letter before the LORD: the most concrete prayer posture in Kings; he brings the specific threat into the specific presence; 185,000 Assyrians struck by one angel from one king's prayer.
וַיִּפְרֹשׂ אֹתָהּ חִזְקִיָּהוּ לִפְנֵי יְהוָה (vayyifros otah Chizkiyyahu lifnei YHWH): and Hezekiah spread it before the LORD: vayyifros (he spread out, laid open, Piel of paras; the deliberate laying out of the physical document before God; Hezekiah does not summarize the threat or describe it in prayer; he brings the actual letter and spreads it in the temple; the prayer posture is uniquely embodied and specific)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Isaiah 37:14-20 · James 5:16 · Psalm 91:11-12
Sennacherib's field commander delivers the most psychologically sophisticated threat in the OT: a speech designed to make Jerusalem's people despair before a single arrow is shot. He undermines trust in God, trust in Egypt, trust in Hezekiah's own religious reforms. He speaks in Hebrew so the people on the wall can hear. He offers attractive terms of surrender.
Hezekiah tears his clothes and goes to the temple. And then he sends to Isaiah. The prophet's answer: do not fear. The king will hear a rumor and return to his own land and fall by the sword.
Then Sennacherib sends a letter. Hezekiah goes to the temple and spreads the letter before the LORD, vayyifros otah lifnei YHWH. The prayer that follows is the clearest model of specific, embodied, costly intercession in Kings: O LORD God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made heaven and earth. Look, LORD, and hear. Read this letter. Now save us, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are LORD.
That night the angel of the LORD goes out and strikes 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. When the people rise in the morning they are all dead. Thread 1 is the prayer that moves heaven: the God who cannot stop reaching can also be reached, and the reaching of Hezekiah moves the specific divine response that saves Jerusalem. Thread 4 is the spread-out letter as genuine embodied faith.
Hezekiah spread the letter before the LORD: the most concrete prayer posture in Kings; he brings the specific threat into the specific presence; 185,000 Assyrians struck by one angel from one king's prayer.
וַיִּפְרֹשׂ אֹתָהּ חִזְקִיָּהוּ לִפְנֵי יְהוָה (vayyifros otah Chizkiyyahu lifnei YHWH): and Hezekiah spread it before the LORD: vayyifros (he spread out, laid open, Piel of paras; the deliberate laying out of the physical document before God; Hezekiah does not summarize the threat or describe it in prayer; he brings the actual letter and spreads it in the temple; the prayer posture is uniquely embodied and specific)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Isaiah 37:14-20 · James 5:16 · Psalm 91:11-12
Sennacherib's field commander delivers the most psychologically sophisticated threat in the OT: a speech designed to make Jerusalem's people despair before a single arrow is shot. He undermines trust in God, trust in Egypt, trust in Hezekiah's own religious reforms. He speaks in Hebrew so the people on the wall can hear. He offers attractive terms of surrender.
Hezekiah tears his clothes and goes to the temple. And then he sends to Isaiah. The prophet's answer: do not fear. The king will hear a rumor and return to his own land and fall by the sword.
Then Sennacherib sends a letter. Hezekiah goes to the temple and spreads the letter before the LORD, vayyifros otah lifnei YHWH. The prayer that follows is the clearest model of specific, embodied, costly intercession in Kings: O LORD God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made heaven and earth. Look, LORD, and hear. Read this letter. Now save us, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are LORD.
That night the angel of the LORD goes out and strikes 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. When the people rise in the morning they are all dead. Thread 1 is the prayer that moves heaven: the God who cannot stop reaching can also be reached, and the reaching of Hezekiah moves the specific divine response that saves Jerusalem. Thread 4 is the spread-out letter as genuine embodied faith.
Hezekiah spread the letter before the LORD: the most concrete prayer posture in Kings; he brings the specific threat into the specific presence; 185,000 Assyrians struck by one angel from one king's prayer.
וַיִּפְרֹשׂ אֹתָהּ חִזְקִיָּהוּ לִפְנֵי יְהוָה (vayyifros otah Chizkiyyahu lifnei YHWH): and Hezekiah spread it before the LORD: vayyifros (he spread out, laid open, Piel of paras; the deliberate laying out of the physical document before God; Hezekiah does not summarize the threat or describe it in prayer; he brings the actual letter and spreads it in the temple; the prayer posture is uniquely embodied and specific)
threads t1 · t2 · t4 · see Isaiah 37:14-20 · James 5:16 · Psalm 91:11-12