Churches are tested.  Families are tested.  And we are tested.

There’s nothing like a fierce battle that comes out of the blue and knocks you off your feet!  You weren’t expecting this, but suddenly with a phone call or conversation, your world is turned upside down. 

Not only did the day of praise come for Hezekiah, but the day of battle came.  Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came and laid siege against Jerusalem in one of the most well-known stories of the Bible.  Rabshakeh, an Assyrian leader, shouted insults and threatenings.  He was going to take them into slavery.  Nobody could deliver them.  No one had been able to stop them, and neither would Hezekiah. 

Hezekiah had seen how they had taken Samaria down.  This enemy was bigger than he was.  He ordered his people not to even talk to the enemy!  In great distress, and yet in childlike trust, Hezekiah came to God.  He spread the letter from the enemy out to God.  And God answered!

The angel of the Lord came and killed 185,000.  The Assyrian army was crushed.  God’s people were delivered!

But today, I don’t want to forget the order that it happened.

The whole story with the mighty victory with Sennacherib happened after all of Hezekiah’s obedience.  Obedience, obedience, obedience!  Hezekiah did not start to seek God the day the enemy appeared.  He started way earlier and had already built a level of obedience and trust.  He had built a foundation of faith underneath him.

In Deuteronomy 11, God tells them to “keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land.”  There is a strength and confidence that comes from walking with God in obedience.  God wanted them to have the power to go in and take ground.

I don’t know how all of God’s plan works, but I know that when we obey, we connect ourselves as branches to the sap of the tree.  Everything that ever happened in the Bible happened as the people obeyed.  There is example after example of those who started questioning God and got habits of disobedience.  Not totally trusting. 

Today I want to walk in obedience trusting for victory over tomorrow’s enemy!