Abruptly transitioning from 33 years of happy marriage to widowhood was indescribably hard and bleak; I felt so very vulnerable in the months after Dan was killed.

 

I submerged myself in Bible study and scripture reading. Learning about real people who had faced real problems and found real answers from God soothed my soul and stiffened my spine.

 

One of my favorites, and someone I definitely plan to meet some day, is King Hezekiah of Judah. He was a good ruler sandwiched in between two evil horrors: his own father and son murdered some of their own sons by burning them to death as idol sacrifices.

 

Hezekiah’s turning out to be decent is in direct proportion to his trust in the LORD, the living God of Israel.

 

When I was hurting so badly, I loved to read how he, and others, desperately called on God for help; and how God miraculously answered their cries.

 

Assyria (modern day Iraq) had Jerusalem under siege and the situation was extremely dire for Hezekiah’s kingdom of Judah. But the Assyrian’s attitude, exhibited in their letter of threat, was one of the final straws because…

 

After Hezekiah received the letter

     from the messengers and read it,

     he went up to the Lord’s Temple

     and spread it out before the Lord.

 

And Hezekiah prayed this prayer

     before the Lord:

 

“O Lord, God of Israel,

     you are enthroned

     between the mighty cherubim!

 

You alone are God

     of all the kingdoms of the earth.

You alone created the heavens

     and the earth.  

 

Bend down, O Lord, and listen!

Open your eyes, O Lord, and see!

Listen to Sennacherib’s words of defiance

     against the living God.

 

“It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria

     have destroyed all these nations.

And they have thrown the gods

     of these nations into the fire

     and burned them.

 

But of course the Assyrians could destroy them!

 

They were not gods at all—

     only idols of wood and stone

     shaped by human hands.

 

Now, O Lord our God,

     rescue us from his power;

     then all the kingdoms of the earth will know

     that you alone, O Lord, are God.”  

 

2 Kings 19:14-19

 

 

I love Hezekiah’s prayer and I especially love God’s response…

 

“For my own honor

     and for the sake of my servant David,

     I will defend this city and protect it.”

 

That night the angel of the LORD

     went out to the Assyrian camp

     and killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers.

 

2 Kings 19:34-35

 

Prayer releases God’s power.