The seventh year of King Hezekiah’s reign brought crisis to both him and his nation. A recorded in 2 Kings 17-18, the Assyrian king Sennacherib had already invaded the northern kingdom of Israel and had conquered it. After deporting nearly thirty thousand of its inhabitants, he sent his “supreme commander, his chief officer and his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem” and demanded surrender, pointing out that the gods of each of the other kingdoms Sennacherib had invaded had failed to withstand him and protect their peoples. Therefore, why should Hezekiah or the people of Judah think that their god, Yahweh would be able save them?

Hezekiah took the letter, with it’s insults and took it to the temple, then spread it out before the altar and prayed, “O LORD, 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, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God.”
The news was bad and realistically, Hezekiah knew that the situation was hopeless. His wisest course of action was an unpleasant one: to obey the king of Assyria and simply surrender. At least then, his people would be spared war, siege, starvation and the like.

The prophet Isaiah responded with an answer from God: fear not. The army of Sennacherib would be vanquished and all would be well: both Sennacherib and the people of Judah would see the power of Yahweh.

That very night, Sennacherib’s army died of a plague, forcing Sennacherib to withdraw.

Bad news is not always unexpected. When you can’t pay your car payment for several months, a call from the finance company informing you that they are repossessing the vehicle is bad news but not unanticipated.

But sometimes bad news comes out of the blue, as when you turn on the television and discover that terrorists have destroyed the World Trade Center in New York. Or when you wake up in the morning and discover that your baby died of SIDS. Or the phone rings and you learn that one of your friends is dead from a heart attack at the age of forty.

Hezekiah’s news from an invader shows us a helpful response to bad news: prayer.

Regardless of whether God answers as he did Hezekiah, or with a quiet “no”, as he does other some other characters in the Bible, the comfort in prayer is the knowledge that God is still there, going through the problem with you. For the believer, the answer is not as critical as the relationship. Simply having someone to talk to, to share, to bear the burden with you, is a comfort.

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