Sennacherib – Bully Beatdown

You better have a god that is bigger than your enemy.

2 Kings 18:13-17a 13 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 14 So Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I have done wrong. Withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand of me.” The king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. 15 So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the temple of the LORD and in the treasuries of the royal palace. 16 At this time Hezekiah king of Judah stripped off the gold with which he had covered the doors and doorposts of the temple of the LORD, and gave it to the king of Assyria. 17a The king of Assyria sent his supreme commander, his chief officer and his field commander with a large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem.

• The Mindset Of The Villain
  • They Can’t Be Bought
  • They Can’t Be Bargained With
  • Words Of Appeasement Were Not Enough

2 Kings 18:19, 26-35 19 The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: “‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours? 26 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.” 27 But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?” “Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’ 33 Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? 35 Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”

• They Feel Unbeatable
• What Do We Do When The Villains Back Us Into The Corner?

2 Kings 19:15-19 14 Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers, read it, then went up to the LORD’s temple, and spread it out before the LORD. 15 Then Hezekiah prayed before the LORD: LORD God of Israel who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are God—You alone—of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. 16 Listen closely, LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, LORD, and see. Hear the words that Sennacherib has sent to mock the living God. 17 LORD, it is true that the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands. 18 They have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but made by human hands—wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. 19 Now, LORD our God, please save us from his hand so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the LORD God—You alone.

• You Better Have A God That Is Bigger Than Your Enemy

2 Kings 19 HSCb 32 Therefore, this is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria: He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or build up an assault ramp against it. 33 He will go back on the road that he came and he will not enter this city. This is the LORD’s declaration. 34 I will defend this city and rescue it for My sake and for the sake of My servant David.”

• Villains Are Only As Undefeated As God Allows Them To Be