They Say They Heard from God (2 Kings 18:22, 25)

2 Kings 18:22, 25

22 But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord our God,” is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem”? … 25 Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.’

        There are lots of people out there in the world who claim to understand the truths of God, to have special words from God, or to know what God wants them to do. One thing we do not want to do is assume, just because someone speaks about God or claims to have heard from God, that they actually have a leg to stand on.

            When the king of Assyria sent officials to intimidate the people of Judah under the reign of King Hezekiah, a very interesting exchange took place. The Assyrian official made 2 claims regarding the Lord. First, he claimed that Hezekiah had displeased the Lord by taking down his high places of worship and demanding that the people worship only in the temple in Jerusalem. Second, he claimed that the Lord had told the king of Assyria to go up against the land and destroy it. Neither of these two claims should have had any impact on Hezekiah. The man had nothing to stand on.

            The key to recognizing the falsehood in the man from Assyria is in his claim that Hezekiah had broken down God’s places of worship, his high places. God had commanded clearly in his word that Judah was to worship him and offer sacrifice in the temple in Jerusalem. God had not authorized the setting up of high places. The high places were places where Israel had perverted the worship of God by combining it with the practices of pagan religions.

            Here is the point that grabs me. When we follow God, we are going to face opposition. Sometimes, people will even say that they know what God wants, and that God does not want us to do certain things or condemn certain acts. They will say that they have heard from God. They will say that obeying the clear commands of God is somehow dishonoring to God. But we must stand on what is clear. We must trust in and obey the Scripture. Hezekiah did, and he was right before God even when the man from Assyria claimed otherwise.