On Monday night, a friend at church was showing me the things she's been creating. Something went off in my head. She was making things from just regular materials, nothing fancy. She was just looking at pinterest. She'd never made them before. She just thought to herself, "Why can't I?" I went home with a new determination. I can do this.
Yesterday, off I went down to the barn. I had seen these beautiful ladders for years, just sitting there collecting dust. I knew there was beauty there, but I felt so limited by my lack of craftiness. Don't judge me, but I've never used sandpaper before. That's right. I thought only people with the superpower of craftiness could use sandpaper.
I brought the ladder up to the deck, found some sand paper and next thing you know, I was being crafty. Today I will actually use verathane on it, which will also be a first for me. Then, I will find a spot in the house for it and I will have achieved true craftiness. No one could be more proud than me. My husband saw what I was doing and just laughed. I must have been desperate as I usually make him do these types of things. He has the superpower.
Fear. It is a lie that takes many shapes and forms. Sometimes it is just something small, like "You can't do crafts!" Other times it is much bigger, such as, "You will never be out of debt." I have see how I have fallen for the lies and have become fearful yet am much better at overcoming the big fears, oddly enough, but I hadn't seen it in the small areas. Satan was determined to find some area to make me afraid, even if it seemed like an insignificant area.
But, if I don't keep my guard up in all areas, then I am bound to fall back into old patterns of thinking. Hezekiah, king of Judah, was a godly king. He was described as "doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord." (2 Kings 18:3) This was big news as so many kings before him did was what evil in the eyes of the Lord, or they tried to listen to God, but they tried to serve their other gods as well. Israel ended up being sent into exile as punishment for their evil ways. Hezekiah would not serve the King of Assyria. This made Sennacherib furious. He sent messengers to threaten him and Hezekiah's people. The fear tactics of the enemy began. He was determined to undermine Hezekiah's faith in the Lord and also to make the people question Hezekiah as well...
"On what do you rest this trust of yours? Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me?" (2 Kings 18:19, 20)
There's the lie - you have nothing to trust in, no one to save you. Words, strategies, prayer....nothing will save you.
The servants of Hezekiah asked the king's messengers to speak in a different language so that the common people wouldn't understand what they were talking about, but they refused. They wanted everyone to question Hezekiah's leadership. They were quite happy to speak in the language everyone knew so that all would be fearful. They put it quite crudely,
"Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and to drink their own urine?" (18:27)
Isn't that just like Satan? If we don't fall for one lie in one "language" he'll switch languages to make sure we hear it and understand it in another "language". I had stopped falling for certain lies he used to throw my way, so he found another way to get to me.
The messengers of the king of Assyria then were more direct,
"Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of my hand. Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying , 'The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.' (2 Kings 18:30, 31)
Sometimes I see my kids' faith start to falter. We keep telling them the Lord is our protector, provider, strength, and that He will get us out of debt if and when He wants to. Then, time will go by and they'll ask, "Will we really ever get out of debt? Nothing seems to be happening?" It's as if the king of Assyria sent messengers to them, "Don't believe your parents. They're telling you to trust in God, but you can't really. See, nothing is happening. Don't let them deceive you." So we constantly have to remind them that the enemy is even after them!
Satan longs to make us question God. From the beginning of time that has been his tactic. Hezekiah's servants went back to him devastated, though they put on a brave face and didn't answer the lies. I think that is critical - we, too, do not have to respond to the lies. "But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for the king's command was, 'Do not answer him.'" (vs. 36) I think that is a great strategy. Refuse to give Satan the satisfaction!
But, in truth, they were upset and ran back to Hezekiah to tell him everything they had heard. Hezekiah modelled the right response, he "...went into the house of the Lord." Isn't that what we should do? My "house of the Lord" is wherever I currently sit, stand, or walk when fear comes over me. More often than not, it is when I'm doing dishes or laundry. That is when I simply close my eyes and commit my situation to the Lord. Hezekiah had Isaiah, the prophet, to go and see. I have God's word, a wise husband, strong friends, a good church.
Hezekiah also didn't pretend he wasn't bothered or worried. He sent word to Isaiah, "This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace....It may be that the Lord your God heard all the words of the Rabshakeh, who his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words the the Lord your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left." (2 Kings 19:3,4)
He was distressed. He felt rebuked and disgraced. But once again, the Lord spoke to Isaiah and said the words we all need to hear, "Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me." (vs. 6) Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid because someone has questioned my faith in God. I don't need to be afraid, even if I doubt sometimes His goodness and faithfulness. It is going to happen all the time. People are going to make us question our source of strength.
Going to the bank a couple of weeks ago was like meeting with the king of Assyria. As we sat across from the banker, it was like negotiating with Pharaoh, discussing our slavery and how many bricks we needed to make without straw. He sat there so confident that we would be under his thumb for 20 years, more or less, while I wanted so badly to stand up and tell him, "No! We won't be ruled by you for the rest of our lives!!!" But, I just sat there and smiled, shaking his slimy, cold, fishy hand as we left. In a way, he was telling us what a privilege it was to have us under the bank's authority and not unlike the king of Assyria, I felt like he was saying, "Has any of the gods of the nations EVER delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? (these were all nations that Assyria had taken captive) Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?"
Isn't that it? We asked the banker what the penalty was to pay off the mortgage early. He was stunned. What do you mean? Who pays off a mortgage early? It took him a long time to make the calculation because that calculation just doesn't get made very often. Where are the gods that deliver people out of mortgages? They don't exist! Who among all the people who hold mortgages have ever been delivered from the slavery of the bank? But we asked anyway, because we want to believe it could happen as we don't serve the gods of the nations, but the God of the universe. I think it is funny that you even get penalized if you pay off your mortgage early!!!! The irony.
It ends like this. The king of Assyria makes one more attempt at defying the Lord. He sends a message again to Hezekiah, "Do not let your God in who you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given in to the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered?" (vs. 11)
Don't think you can pay off your mortgage. Don't be deceived. Do you actually know anyone personally who has done this? I didn't think so. And you think you shall be delivered? Think again.
Ahhh...the lies.
Hezekiah goes again to the house of the Lord. Seems to be the pattern for fear and when bad news comes! He took the actual letter from the king and spread it before the Lord, "O Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work, of men's hands, wood and stone, Therefore they were destroyed. So now, O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kings of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone." (15-19)
So, we praise God for who He is. We speak out loud what He has done in the past. We call out for His ears, His eyes, to be inclined towards us, to see us. We tell Him our fears (paying off a mortgage is impossible in man's eyes). We ask to be saved. Hezekiah even said, "please"! We ask that God would be glorified and that all would know that God is God alone.
The Bible is the perfect model for how to handle fear, how to pray against the enemy, how to petition the Lord for our desires. We don't need to be afraid, is the bottom line, nor do we need to be victims of the lies Satan tries to relentlessly send our way. Sennacherib wouldn't give up and neither does Satan. They key is staying in the house of the Lord, all day, prayerfully and reminding ourselves who we serve.
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