Theological Commentary: Click Here
The flight
of the Assyrians before God is one of my favorite single acts of the Old
Testament. Here we have a massive army
with all the human power it wants. They
have the advantage of time and with an elongated siege can starve the Hebrew
people out if they want. There is no
reason that the Assyrians should have lost.
There is no
earthly reason, that is. God sends a
plague among the Assyrians and decimates their camp. The Assyrians turn tale and return home in
defeat. It is a great victory for God,
done simply because Hezekiah and the Hebrew leadership repents before their
God. It is proof that in the right
circumstances, the most powerful position a human can bring is on their knees.
As a part of
God bringing punishment upon the Hebrew people, Hezekiah is himself is told
that he will die. Once more we see the
power of repentance. He repents and God
decides to spare his life. He is granted
15 more years of life.
Repentance,
though, doesn’t have changing God’s mind at its core. Repentance is not a way for us to secretly manipulate
God’s action. Listen to Hezekiah’s
account. Hezekiah says, “It was for my welfare
that I had great bitterness.” Repentance
is for us, not for God.
God wants to
bless His people. He longs to be in
meaningful relationship with them. He
brings judgment because we are in error and are choosing not to self-correct. Even in the judgment, though, God would
prefer to be in positive relationship with us!
Therefore, when we repent we are not changing God, we are changing
ourselves so that we can experience God’s blessing instead of His wrath. It is not God who changes, it is us. Because we change, we alter the tactics that
God must use in His relationship with us.
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