Daily Manna 23 October
KEY VERSE: 2 Kings 18:16 – “At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.”
TEXT: 2 Kings 18:13-25
13 And in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. 14 Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; turn away from me; whatever you impose on me I will pay.” And the king of Assyria assessed Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. 15 So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king’s house. 16 At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.
17 Then the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the [d]Rabshakeh from Lachish, with a great army against Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they had come up, they went and stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool, which was on the highway to the Fuller’s Field. 18 And when they had called to the king, Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to them. 19 Then the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: “What confidence is this in which you trust? 20 You speak of having plans and power for war; but they are mere words. And in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me? 21 Now look! You are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 22 But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He whose [g]high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem’?” ’ 23 Now therefore, I urge you, give a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses—if you are able on your part to put riders on them! 24 How then will you repel one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 25 Have I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’ ”
Read yesterday’s Daily Manna here
Throughout his administration, Abraham Lincoln was a president who knew he was not perfect, but never resolved to compromise his integrity. So strong was this resolve that he once said, “I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of power, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me”.
From the text, Hezekiah tried to placate the king of Assyria who came to invade the fenced cities of Judah. Instead of his usual approach of relying on the Lord and confronting the enemy, Hezekiah, in fear, settled for negotiation. In a desperate attempt to meet the conditions of peace, he sent to the king of Assyria all the silver found in the house of the Lord and the king’s treasury. Yet, the king of Assyria still came with a large army to invade Jerusalem. The emissaries sent to Judah by the enemy king did not acknowledge whatever was sent by Hezekiah; they instead boasted about the military might of their king and made irreverent remarks about God and His people.
After fourteen years on the throne, Hezekiah forsook his former approach of relying only on God to defend the nation in times of war. He appeared to have accepted a little compromise by negotiating his way out of the predicament. He forgot that the enemy would hunt for the precious soul and would not settle for any gifts. As believers, we must understand that the devil does not honour agreements. He cannot be trusted to stand by his promises. We must therefore avoid any form of compromise through negotiation with the devil or his cohorts. We must not return to the world or to Egypt for help. There is no agreement between light and darkness, and two parallel lines will never meet. Our God is more than enough to save us.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Satan’s agents cannot be trusted to keep promises.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Jeremiah 5-6
Thank you for studying today’s Daily Manna – A Little Compromise – by Pastor Enoch A.
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Daily Manna 23 October 2021
