The War of Words

He had joined in the rebellion against the invading country and was determined not to serve him.Now he alone was left; all his allies had been defeated, and the war seemed un-winnable. He trusted God and believed that God would help him, because the words of God had come to him by His prophet, but still he was worried.

A military officer from the invading army was dispatched with several other officers to meet with him to discuss terms of peace. The message sent to him by the opposing king was threatening; it was meant to intimidate.

"How dare you rebel against me?!

"You see what we’ve done to all your neighbors and allies. There’s no way you can win this war! Who do you think is going to help you? What do you think you can say that can defeat me?

"Your army obviously is inadequate.  Hey, I’ll even help you out! I’ll give you 2000 horses for your army and all you have to do is come up with the men to ride them. And I’ve heard about your great faith in God, but come on, now.

"Do you really think He’s going to help you after everything you did wrong? You know what? God sent me here to destroy you! He’s not with you -- He’s with us! I suggest you sign these papers agreeing to our terms of peace now, before it’s too late."

Strong words, frightening content. And he was guilty because he, the king had, in fact gone against God and he’d seen his own people sinning against the laws of God. What if God really had changed sides? What if God really had sent this army to teach him a lesson?

He called for the prophet, the man of God, to pray again on their behalf, to be sure that God had meant what He’d said.

And God answered through His servant:

"Do not be afraid! Do not listen to the lies of your enemy concerning Me. Not one of the opposing army will make it into this city. Not one arrow will be shot out against you. Your enemy will go back the way he came because I, Myself will defend the city."

Of course, the battle was over before it even began. This is an account of an actual war, won -- without even fighting because the battle belonged to God -- as recorded in Isaiah 36 and 37.

{Other records were written in II Kings 18,19 and II Chron. 32.}

Sennacherib was the conquering Assyrian king from 705-681 BC. The historic attempts to explain the outcome (based on Hezekiah’s prayer to God) naturalistically have claimed that mice carrying a plague defeated the opposing Assyrian army (according to Zondervan’s Pictorial Bible Dictionary).

It is also a version of OUR war -- our fight of faith -- that we fight daily.

We hear and/or read the Words of God and then Satan tells us they aren’t true. We hear preachers or hear our own words speaking God’s words of faith and then hear lies from others or our own thoughts trying to convince us that God’s words aren’t relevant now or that they weren’t meant for us, or any number of other things that come against our faith in God’s word as truth.

It works something like this:

God: This is Truth; believe it and be free, be victorious against your enemies.

Enemy: God is against you; you can’t win. I’m bigger than you.

God: Don’t be afraid. He’s lying. I’ve already defeated him.

Enemy: Do you think WORDS will work against me? Hah!

God: I will win; no weapon formed against you will prevail because you are Mine.

Of course, when Satan tells you something won’t work to defeat him you’re pretty much on solid ground believing that it will! He lies! Of course he’s going to tell you it won’t work! And often all we have to do is STAND our ground.

Don’t let the passage of time defeat you. You WILL win. God’s word IS truth. Just hang on.

We can see parallels in our story between Satan coming against us -- represented here by the Assyrian king Sennacherib. We can see our roles in this story as the people chosen by God, represented by Jerusalem’s leader King Hezekiah. The war is one of words, as we see in Isaiah 36:5 (ESV):

“Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me?"

God’s words had been sent to King Hezekiah by way of the prophet Isaiah and the King was determined to believe that God would do what He said. Anytime we go against the world’s system based on the perceptions of the five senses we are, in fact, rebelling against Satan! And the spoken word of God -- the Sword of the Spirit -- is more than enough to defeat the enemy. Sennacherib continues his lies meant to deceive and frighten (Is. 36:10b):

"The Lord said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it’ ”

We often have trouble resisting the enemy, especially in the form of physical sickness, if we believe it is God’s will for us to be sick. This is a common deception used to keep us from standing against the enemy and defending ourselves! Sennacherib continues his bombardment of lies ."(Is. 36:14 - 16):

"Do not let Hezekiah deceive you! Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord! Make your peace with me and come out to me."

Whenever we operate out of fear we are more likely to want to negotiate with the Devil. And anytime we go with the enemy (and against God) we only end up signing our own death certificates. God will protect us if we don’t get involved with the circumstances!

"Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me."(Is. 37:6)

God's answer to us is always, FEAR NOT! Satan is defeated! All of the Scriptures are written as examples to us. And we know that Satan has no truth in him. At times you can use his own strategies IN REVERSE to see exactly what he’s doing. He lies and will pervert God’s truth to try to scare you and/or trick you into signing his peace agreement.

But don’t be deceived. His terms are death. There is no life in him. God is light / Satan is darkness. God is goodness / Satan is evil. God is faithful / Satan is fearful. Don’t even negotiate. Trust God -- the battle belongs to Him, and He always wins.