Assyrian Crisis Essay Research Paper THE ASSYRIAN

Assyrian Crisis Essay, Research Paper THE ASSYRIAN CRISIS, A TIME OF GROWTH The Assyrian Crisis in Judah appears, from the surface, as a clip of great fortune for the people of Jerusalem. However, by analyzing the state of affairs with a more powerful lens, one can see the powerful spiritual infuence such an event could hold on a resident s divinity. If I were a Judean during this clip, my religion would hold faced the toughest trial of my life. Traveling into such a struggle with a state every bit strong as Assyria, I could non assist but be afraid. My castanetss would tremble at the idea of devastation of the Holy City of Jerusalem, of the people of Judah, and of my ain being. Although I would hold believed in God, I would still be filled with fright. This fright would intensify when I heard a courier for the male monarch of Assyria, as stated in Isaiah 36, mocking God, dissing His power and doubting His salvaging grace on Jerusalem. He goes on to seek and convice us, the people of Jerusalem, that Hezekiah is non trusty, and that we will non happen aid in Egypt because they are non dependable. Finally, cognizing the way of devastation that Assyria has already created, and their hungriness for more, in add-on to the courier s statement that the Lord has commanded Assyria to travel and destruct Jerusalem, my feelings of fright and uncertainty would uncontrollably well up inside me. We are, after all, merely human, and fright is a common feeling, despite where we stand with God. No adult male lives without fright, but though fear our religion is tested and strengthened. Upon hearing and sing the truth of Isaiah s claim that God will save Jerusalem and coerce the Assyrians back place, my religion in God would be fortified. In the times of fright, I would hold realized how weak, how immature, and how far I must travel in my religion and trust in God. But one time I heard Isaiah s prognostication, I would utilize it as a manner to make off with my fright. Knowing that God was traveling to salvage His Holy City, and that He was traveling to go on with His perfect program for world that dated back every bit far as the times of Abraham and held a hereafter for the reaching of the Messiah, I would cognize that my God follows His programs and maintain His promises. Through this, I would hold peace. I would shortly larn that I can swear Him in everything because as it says in Scripture, if God is for us, who can be against us? Bing a occupant of His Holy City, I would cognize that God was on my side everlastingly, and whatever uncertainty I of all time had i n God s promises or programs for my life would be washed off. Sing God spare my life, along with my metropolis, I could non assist but reconstruct all assurance that was lost in my Father. I would be able to follow Psalms 46:10, and be still, cognizing that He is God. What a comfort! What a sense of utter religion, arrant dependance, and arrant submission! Harmonizing to Isaiah 37:25-29, God had given Assyria the power that it had and allowed them to suppress who they did. But, upon recognizing the attiude and jeers of the Assyrians towards Himself, God sent them place and allowed their male monarch to be murdered. This transition would hold taught me, as a Judean, the other side of God: His choler. I had already experienced His grace and fidelity in salvaging my life and metropolis, but I now would larn that God s penalty is existent, that what we do against God will non travel unaccounted for. And sometimes, as with the male monarch of Assyria, the penalty is every bit dearly-won as one s life. This would learn me how nescient I would be if I were to mock my Father. Because of what He has so gracefully saved me from and due to the grounds of His power in penalty, I would larn to so grateful and so in debt to God, that there is no room or ground to diss Him. Furthermore, the grounds of God s grace as a lesson to my religion could be seen in two more instances. The first involves God promise to Hezekiah that the state of Judah will one time once more return the luxury it existed in. This involved an addition in harvests over the undermentioned old ages and a repopulation of the land. God s promise was fulfilled, and Judah shortly returned to their normacy. Associating this to my life, I could be assured that whatever tests I encounter, that God is ever in complete and entire control, and that He will reconstruct me. The 2nd grounds of His grace is seen in Hezekiah s unwellness. When Hezekiah turned to God in ardent supplication for healing, God responded to his supplication by leting him to populate for 15 more old ages. By God s response, I would hold learned that God has the power to alter the full class of our lives through our supplication life, and that I should neer waver to inquire God for extremist alterations, every bit long as I honor Him with those alterations. Hezekiah went on to talk of the significance of go throughing the joy of the Lord from coevals to coevals in Isaiah 38:19. As a lesson to me, I would hold used this to understand that the heritage of our religion has come to us because of faithful work forces and adult females who have carried God s message throughout the centuries. Recognizing this, I would see myself as the following torchbearer. The writers of 2 Kings write about the history of Israel, halfway between the decease of David and the decease of the state. Israel has been divided, and the two lands have begun to skid ito devotion and corruptness toward prostration and imprisonment. 2 Kings relates the seamy narratives of the 12 male monarchs of the Northern Kingdom ( Israel ) and the 16 male monarchs of the Southern Kingdom ( Judah ) . For 130 old ages, Israel endures the sequence of evil swayers, until the are conquere vitamin D by Assyrian and led into imprisonment. The evil male monarchs were short-sighted, and they thought they could command their states fates by importing other faiths with their graven images, organizing confederations with pagan states, and cenriching themselves. Of all the male monarchs in both the North and South, merely two are called good. The good male monarchs had to pass most of their clip undoing the evil done by their predecessors. Because of their obeisance to God and the religious resurgences during their reigns, Judah stands for an extra 136 old ages. By composing about such events in the history of Israel and Judah, the writers of 2 Kings would hold been influenced by what happened in the Assyrian crisis with Hezekiah. Through much of the book of 2 Kings, the writers understood the convulsion and the effects of holding evil and good male monarchs in a state. With an evil male monarch, came evil workss of blasphemy and devotion, and wickedness perculated through the state. With a good male monarch, nevertheless, God was kept in the foresight, and He would bless the state with protection and endurance. The writers besides caught a glance of God s forbearance and the manner He speaks to His people through Prophetss. God told his people that if they obeyed him, they would populate successfully ; if they disobeyed, they would be judged and destroyed. Had had been patient with the people for 100s of old ages. He sent many Prophetss to steer them and warn them, but even His forbearance has bounds, as the writers wrote about. The writers of 2 Kings would respond to the Assyrian crisis with a great sense of apprehension and readying, because they wrote about so many incidents like it, and knew how a good and evil male monarch could impact the hereafter of his state. They would see the state of affairs as fundamentally an evil male monarch from Assyria vs a good, Devout male monarch from Jerusalem, and therefore the writers could easy think that those with God in head would be the masters, in this instance, the metropolis of Jerusalem. After seeing the crisis semen to cloture as they suspected, the writers of 2 Kings would hold their religion supported. They would be more confident in cognizing that God does, in fact, take favourites when it comes to esteeming or mocking Him. They would besides go on to see how He can be really gracious, or really barbarous, depending on how people treat Him. To the male monarchs that followed Hezekiah, the Assyrian crisis would render utile as a lesson on how to populate in God s eyes. They would be able to look back on the state of affairs and see non merely how Jerusalem was saved from such incredible odds, but besides blessed afterwards. They could besides look back and see the subplot of how Hezekiah overcame the odds of decease. By analysing such scenarios, the future male monarchs must inquire themselves why the metropolis of Jerusalem and Hezekiah lucky, and how they can acquire lucky excessively. The lesson they will larn, nevertheless, will surprise them when they discover that fortune was non involved. It was the mere fact that the metropolis of Jerusalem and Hezekiah s life were both saved because Hezekiah had his eyes fixed on God, and prayed fierily to Him. God, through His limitless power, turned away the mighty Assyrian ground forces, and through His grace and clemency gave Jerusalem back the luxury it one time had in the old ages after the crisis. Out of love, He besides gave Hezekiah 15 extra old ages to populate, despite being deathlike ailment. The power of supplication proved to be true. At the same clip, nevertheless, the future male monarchs would see the choler of God when He is blasphemied through the slaying of the male monarch of Assyria. At a glimpse, this may all look to be luck, but looking nearer would learn the male monarchs after Hezekiah to esteem God and maintain Him foremost in their lives and their state if they wish to be successful and safe. From the position of the apostle Paul, the Assyrian crisis would function as a contemplation of his life. Many similarites can be seen between Paul, the Assyrians, and Hezekiah, and through these, Paul would understand what it means to be with God or without Him. By reflecting on the Assyrian crisis, Paul would experience a great sense of peace and gratitude for God s salvaging grace. The male monarch of Assyria was a adult male who blasphemied God. He was a adult male who was on a mission of bid and conquer, and nil was traveling to acquire in his manner. Once he reached the metropolis of Jerusalem, he persecuted Christians at that place, including Hezekiah, the male monarch, with words of jeer and abuses directed towards God. By assailing the Christian religion in this manner, the male monarch of Assyria was seeking to turn out the Christian s God was merely like all other Gods, powerless. Similarly, Paul persecuted Christians by traveling to Damascus to capture them and convey the m back to Jerusalem. He hated the Christian religion and persecuted it without clemency. He, nevertheless, converted to Christianity subsequently and became an amazing tool of God s for distributing the Gospel. Populating such a life against God in his yesteryear, Paul could hold easy compare himself with the male monarch of Assyria. Paul would derive great peace and thankfulneess when he realized God s penalty to the male monarch of Assyria was decease, and that he escaped such penalty and was saved by God. Additionally, seeing the successes of Hezekiah, like returning Judah to the luxury it one time experienced, being saved from the Assyrians, and being given 15 excess old ages to populate after his unwellness, Paul would shortly recognize that the lone ground God was so gracious and merciful with Hezekiah was because he kept his eyes on Him. This would learn Paul that, if he were to be successful, he must maintain his focal point in life on God.