I am going to tell you a story of great pride and the destruction that followed. The story about the Assyrians is in 2 Kings 18. The Assyrian empire lasted almost 300 years. It was as large of the Persian empire. The Assyrians were brutal people. They conquered everyone around them. If those people did not surrender, they were slaughtered without pity. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire, located in the fertile crescent in the Middle East. This is the same Nineveh in the book of Jonah. About 700BC, Sennacherib was king of Assyria. He began to move south with an army of 200,000 men. Sennacherib destroy almost every city he attacked. No one could stand up to him.

Then he moved against the kingdom of Judah. At this time Hezekiah was king in Jerusalem. Hezekiah knew that he couldn’t defeat the Assyrians. He sued for peace with the Assyrians. Sennacherib sent an army of 185,000 men to lay siege to Jerusalem. The Assyrians cursed God and laughed at Hezekiah. Hezekiah humbled himself before God and prayed. He asked God for deliverance. The next morning no one expected what they saw. The Assyrians were dead to the last man. 185,000 men lay dead on the ground. Sennacherib ran all the way back to Nineveh. He was killed by his sons and Jerusalem was spared by the hand of God. This story is written not only in the bible, but in the Assyrian records as well.

The difference between Hezekiah and Sennacherib was the difference between humbling yourself before God and being prideful, thinking that no one can hurt you. In Micah 6:8, God writes what He requires of man. It says, “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”

Not only is this a story being prideful, but it shows part of the journey king Hezekiah took on his way home.

If you would like to know more, email through the comments.

Crain Blanchard.

Joseph1637@juno.com

Joseph1637.com