Learning to Live with a Living God
The Old Testament is often associated with dust, confusing jargon, and complicated genealogies. The Leviticus jokes are endless, which is fitting, because that’s about how Leviticus feels to read. However, the Old Testament is a part of the scripture, and it is alive and active. The people of the Old Testament were humans, only different from us by the year on the calendar. It is as relevant for the modern day as the New Testament.
There is a section of 2 Kings that I came across, and I think the truths expounded in that saga are not unlike the truths we need to hear now. We are all learning how to live with a living God. It’s easy to live life when God is distant, ancient, and silent. But, that is not who God is, and in 2 Kings 18-19, we find two kings learning what it means to live with a living God.
The passage centers on King Hezekiah, the new king of Israel and he, unlike previous kings of Israel, desires to obey God. He overthrew the rule of Assyria, and desecrated all of the high places devoted to false gods. Time passes and soon, King Sennacherib of Assyria shows up, and he has been wiping out nations left and right. He’s come to conquer Israel and sends Hezekiah, and the people of Israel, a message.
“Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, “The Lord will deliver us.” Has any god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hands? 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?”- 2 Kings 18:32b-35 (NIV)
As a believer, I read that and I’m like, oh boy, you really don’t know who you’re messing with do you? But, I also resonate with this passage. Because, how often have I lived my life in the thought, “Nothing has stopped me before, I can do as I please. The Lord has no power in that part of my life. I am the author of my own ways”?
King Hezekian is obviously distressed by this king’s declaration of war, but read how he responds: “Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: “LORD, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, LORD, and hear: open your eyes, LORD, and see; listen to the words of Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God. It is true, LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. Now, LORD our God, deliver us from his hands, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, LORD, are God.” -2 Kings 19:14-19 (NIV)
King Hezekiah has faith. He does not hear King Sennacherib’s words and he does not doubt the power of the LORD God of Israel. No, he takes Sennacherib’s words before the LORD and says, “I know a lie when I see one, and I know who you are. So, God, set Sennacherib straight on who you actually are.”
How often do we do that as believers? When others rise against our faith, do we take it to God? Or do we take it upon ourselves to fight God’s battle for Him? As if He is a fragile and sensitive God who can’t handle the words of prideful humans. He’s not. He is powerful and capable.
After Hezekiah prays, the prophet Isaiah (the one with the book of the Bible named after him) sends a message to King Hezekiah, because the LORD God has an answer to Hezekiah’s prayer. It’s a message for King Sennacherib, actually. It’s a long reply, from verses 21-34, and for the sake of space I’ll only include a few verses.
“‘Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? And against whom have you raised your voice, and haughtily lifted up your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel! ‘Through your messengers you have reproached the Lord, and you have said, “With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains, to the remotest parts of Lebanon; and I cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses. And I entered its farthest lodging place, its thickest forest. “I dug wells and drank foreign waters, and with the sole of my feet I dried up all the rivers of Egypt.” ‘Have you not heard? Long ago I did it; From ancient times I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, that you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.” - 19:22- 25 (NASB)
“ ‘But I know your sitting down, and your going out and your coming in, and your raging against Me.‘Because of your raging against Me, and because your arrogance has come up to My ears, therefore I will put My hook in your nose, and My bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came.” -19:27-28 (NASB)
“‘Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, “He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield or throw up a siege ramp against it. By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he shall not come to this city,”’ declares the Lord. ‘For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’” - 19:32-34 (NASB)
“Then it happened that night that the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were dead.”- 19:35 (NASB)
The story ends, and the living God has the final word. This story begins as a normal ancient war, and ends as a testament to whom actually rules Israel.
What stood out most to me though, was the fact that God tells Sennacherib in verses 22-25 that Sennacherib is not responsible for conquering all those kingdoms. Sennacherib’s power was entirely given to him by God. “Now I have brought it to pass, that you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.”
I laid my Bible down and reflected on the concept for a while. Everything - and this shows us - everything is a part of God’s perfected plan. This pagan king, Sennacherib, has not been hidden from the eye or plan of God. Even more so, God communicates to Sennacherib through Isaiah. It’s such a powerful thought. Sennacherib was destroying “gods” left and right and believing he is the destroyer of gods, therefore greater than the gods. But, the living God was waiting and watching. Like a parent observing a small child who knocks down a tower of blocks. The child may have play time now, but nap time is around the corner, and that parent is going to step into that child’s life and say, “Enough. Time for bed.”
In the same vein, with King Hezekiah, the living God, does not respond to Hezekiah’s prayer by telling him how to march into battle. No, the living God says, “Sit down, Hezekiah. I’ve got this.”
A flash, and the Assyrian army lays slain in their sleep. The living God is more than capable to defend Himself.
This wraps back to the question: what does it mean to live with a living God? It means, living in the truth of all that He is, and not permitting lies to twist His image in our minds. It means, He invites us to surrender our lives and issues at His feet, with full faith that He will uphold His end of the conversation. Because, He will.
Living with a living God means learning to live with the God who moves, speaks, and changes everything. He does not change, cannot change, and yet He changes everything.
You cannot live with the living God and not allow Him to take up space in your life. He will change your life. He will ask for your time, challenge your opinions, and invite you to be apart of something more. Let Him take up His room in your life...your whole life.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mia Grace loves sunflowers, words, old hardcover books, and fountain pens. She adores Jesus Christ, and seeks to listen and obey him in her life. Her life verse is Isaiah 52:7, and her prayer is for every girl to grasp the height, weight, depth, width, and power of Christ's love for them.