For My Sake

This is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria: “He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city,” declares the Lord. “I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!” (Isaiah 37:33–35, NIV 1984).

My Musings – The best that any besieged nation can hope for is that “[God] will defend [it] and save [it].” In the case of Jerusalem, the capital of Judah, it was “for [His] sake and sake of David [His] servant.” Humanly speaking, the odds were against Judah. Israel had already fallen as had numerous other kingdoms. Now Assyria, a mightier nation by far, had its designs on Judah. They figured that the God of Judah would be like the “gods” of other nations. And wasn’t Judah’s God also Israel’s God? It fell. They expected the same of Judah. And Judah feared the worst.

But it was not Judah’s time to fall. “Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! So, Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.” (Israel 37:36–38, NIV 1984). While it is true that “unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain,” (Psalm 127:1, NIV 1984), it is also true that “[if] the Lord watches over the city, the [invaders march] in vain.” Assyria learned this the hard way.

Judah’s time did come many years later when it fell in captivity to the Babylonians. Restored seventy years later only to fall again many years later to the Romans. The Jewish state disappeared for nearly two-thousand years, with many Jews dispersing around the world. The Jewish state was reestablished in 1948 and many Jews returned to their God given homeland. The United Nations may have taken credit for it, but it was God that orchestrated it. The United Nations was merely God’s tool.

Once again (2024) a cloud has settled over modern Israel, as it often has since 1948. Hamas marched against them in vain. Iran attacked them with little effect. And woe to those who attempt more of the same. Because if what I believe is true, God once again “watches over [them].” The nation will not disappear again.

My Advice – Clearly God works on a global scale, but He also works on a personal scale. “The Lord watches over” those who are in Christ Jesus. “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31–39, NIV 1984).

On a personal scale means a personal relationship with Jesus. That’s how individuals become “more than conquerors.” Make that personal commitment.