{"id":6383,"date":"2015-03-02T00:05:18","date_gmt":"2015-03-02T08:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=6383"},"modified":"2015-03-01T23:50:40","modified_gmt":"2015-03-02T07:50:40","slug":"why-so-worried","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/03\/02\/why-so-worried\/","title":{"rendered":"Why So Worried?"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><em>Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: \u201cThis is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. This is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: <\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2018The Virgin Daughter of Zion <br \/>\ndespises you and mocks you. <br \/>\nThe Daughter of Jerusalem <br \/>\ntosses her head as you flee. <br \/>\nWho is it you have insulted and blasphemed? <br \/>\nAgainst whom have you raised your voice <br \/>\nand lifted your eyes in pride? <br \/>\nAgainst the Holy One of Israel! <br \/>\nBy your messengers <br \/>\nyou have heaped insults on the Lord. <br \/>\nAnd you have said, <br \/>\n\u201cWith my many chariots <br \/>\nI have ascended the heights of the mountains, <br \/>\nthe utmost heights of Lebanon. <br \/>\nI have cut down its tallest cedars, <br \/>\nthe choicest of its pines. <br \/>\nI have reached its remotest parts, <br \/>\nthe finest of its forests. <br \/>\nI have dug wells in foreign lands <br \/>\nand drunk the water there. <br \/>\nWith the soles of my feet <br \/>\nI have dried up all the streams of Egypt.\u201d  (2 Kings 19:20-24)<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Why so down cast, oh my soul?  Hezekiah was trapped in his city, besieged by a superior force.  Hezekiah could see no hope; defeat seemed inevitable, both because he could count the number of forces against him and because he knew what Sennacherib had already done.  In his march south, the Assyrian army had defeated every city, every nation that he had gone to war against.  When Sennacherib had sent his message demanding surrender and boasting of his might, his boast was not an empty one.  It was based on firm, empirical evidence.  He had a stellar resume, an impeccable and flawless track record.  Hezekiah had no reason, humanly speaking, to hope.<\/p>\n<p>But Hezekiah had prayed to God anyway, spreading the insulting letter he had received from Sennacherib out on the altar to show it to God.  So God took a look and told him not to worry.  In fact, God\u2019s response to Sennacherib\u2019s arrogant letter was arrogance doubled, laughing and mocking at the enemy.  Sennacherib was, in fact, doomed.<\/p>\n<p>God is never afraid; so it\u2019s a wonder that we ever are.<\/p>\n<div class='kindleWidget kindleLight' ><img src=\"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/plugins\/send-to-kindle\/media\/white-15.png\" \/><span>Send to Kindle<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: \u201cThis is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. This is the word that the LORD has spoken against &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/03\/02\/why-so-worried\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6383"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6383"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6385,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6383\/revisions\/6385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}