The availability of a man in touch with God is always invaluable to others. With the onset of trouble it carries a special significance. Hezekiah found himself faced with a great difficulty when Sennacherib king of Assyria had come up against Jerusalem. At first he tried to buy his way out of trouble, but now, at the end of his resources, he sent a deputation to Isaiah. Hezekiah described their circumstances in graphic language. It was a ‘day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy’. The critical emergency resulted in the king and the people feeling their utter weakness. Hezekiah illustrated it, as ‘children … come to the birth’ without ‘strength to bring forth’. Against that background the king made his appeal to the prophet, ‘Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that is left’, v. 4 JND.
Isaiah’s communion with God in prayer was well known to the king, and he knew it was no vain request that he made. He knew where to turn in such times of trouble and stress. For us that raises the question – do others around us know to whom to turn in times of difficulty? Are they aware that we are in touch with God? The reality and power of communion is to believe God is there. Isaiah practised the New Testament precept, that he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He rewards them that diligently seek Him, Heb. 11. 6. He knew the secret of prevailing power in supplication; it is a feeling of sympathywith those who are the subjects of the supplication. The prophet himself felt the desperate situation the king and the people were facing in Jerusalem. So we read, ‘The servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah’. Every crisis of the kingdom turns on the supplications of a man in touch with God; consequently Hezekiah’s conscious weakness found its answer in the supplication of the prophet.
The answer from God to Isaiah for the king was, ‘Be not afraid … I will send a blast upon him … I will cause him to fall’. Isaiah assured king Hezekiah that divine help was at hand.
God still answers prayer. He bares His mighty arm to help, and stand by His people today as He did in years gone by. He is ‘the same yesterday, and today, and forever’.
