Joel M Bradshaw

10“Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. 11Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered? 12Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?–2 Kings 19

“Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?” (Exodus 15:11)

1. Moses asked a key question after his God delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt.
2. Those famous 10 plagues were direct attacks at specific members of the Egyptian pantheon of gods and goddesses.
3. Who was like Yahweh, indeed, among the gods?
4. Assyria was a feared conquerer of nations, and King Sennacherib was threatening Judah’s King Hezekiah.
5. But Sennacherib made the threat a theological matter.
6. To the Assyrian, Yahweh was just one god among many, and a weak one at that. He proclaimed that Israel’s god would simply join the list of all the other impotent deities who were powerless to defy mighty Assyria.
7. You either view the God of the Bible like Moses or like Sennacherib. Yahweh is either alone in His category, or simply one more added to a long list. What theological perspective best describes you? How does this affect your prayers, especially as you face harder moments?–JMB