Hezekiah’s Prayers, Part Three

Where Is the Prevailing Power?

O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth.  Isaiah 37:16

In the prior post I have already given an introduction and considered the first phrase of “O LORD of hosts”  in King Hezekiah’s prayer.  The consideration of that first phrase centered on its significance of “Who Commands the Host.”  The significance of King Hezekiah’s second phrase, “God of Israel,” is the subject of this post.

The name Israel had its beginning in another time of great challenge, but this time it was during the life of one of the nation’s patriarchs, Jacob.  As most Bible students know, God called Abram away from Ur, the land of his kindred, to dwell in a different land  that he would inherit by God’s promise.  Furthermore, that promised land wherein Abram would only dwell in with tents would eventually be inhabited by a promised seed from heretofore childless Abram.  Abraham, as he was renamed by God, being one hundred years old had his promised son, Isaac.  In the course of time, Isaac’s wife bore him twins, Esau and Jacob.  While the LORD had revealed prior to the twins’ birth that the elder would serve the younger, Jacob’s early life was one befitting his name’s meaning of supplanter.  It was not until late in his life that his sowing to the wind became an unmanageable whirlwind harvest.

Jacob, following along with his mother’s plotting, deceived his father to gain the blessing Isaac intended for Esau.  After that event his brother Esau purposed to kill him.  As a result of this, he fled to his mother’s kindred.  Jacob’s turbulent time there has now come to a necessary close, and he is returning to the land of promise.  However, his return is not unnoticed as his brother Esau is reported to be heading his way to meet Jacob with a sizeable group of men.  This report causes Jacob great concern.  Though Jacob is worried, God is not.  For God now has his full attention, and seemingly for the first time in his life Jacob realizes what has been missing despite all that had been gained–his full dependence upon God and God’s full blessing upon him.

Jacob knew that God had promised him His blessing, the same blessing the Lord had given to his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac.  It is also true that God’s blessings were operating in Jacob’s life, but because of his self-dependence they were not anything like they should have been.  Jacob’s early life exhibited an attitude that his cleverness was quite able to help him fend for himself.  But there are great griefs that always accompany gaining the promises of God by carnal means rather than faith (Proverbs 10:22).  Now on the eve of his certain to occur but uncertain as to what will occur meeting with Esau, the need for God’s blessing on his life was the only thing on his mind.

Having made what he knew were just feeble preparations for the next day’s events, Jacob purposely sent others ahead so that he might continue to plead with God in prayer until the answer he had to have would be granted.  We are not given any details about the Angel of the Lord’s coming to speak with Jacob other than to know that He did.  However, once He was there, Jacob was not going to let Him go until his need was met saying, ”I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.“  Jacob literally wrestled with Him until the breaking of day.  After the Angel disabled Jacob’s physical strength by shrinking the sinew of his thigh, He announced a change of name.  In Genesis 32:28 we read these important words, ”And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.“  Shortly thereafter, the sought after blessing was given to Israel by God.

The God to whom King Hezekiah was praying was the “God of Israel.”  He was the same God with whom his forefather Jacob wrestled to obtain a blessing.  He was the same God that changed Jacob’s name to Israel which according to the Lord signifies the fact that he, Israel, was a prince with prevailing power with God and with men.  It was the blessing of God upon him that made that true.  As an Israelite, King Hezekiah’s own claim to that promise of prevailing power with God and men was as good as Israel’s himself and to it he fled in prayer for deliverance in the day of his and the nation of Judah’s great trouble.  Though it appeared to the eyes of men that power belong to the King of Assyria, the truth is that power, prevailing power, was the birthright of God’s people.  Sin had made them a defeated people, but repentance and faith in God would make them a prevailing people.

We today as believers under a better covenant with better promises than what King Hezekiah had will still certainly face our own great challenges.  It may never be a murderous brother or an armed host, but it does not have to be either of those two things to genuinely bind, hinder, or afflict us.  Like King Hezekiah, we have One to whom we belong.  One who was more greatly blessed by God than Jacob of old.  Furthermore, we are assured that the power that God the Father gave to the Lord Jesus Christ has been made available to us through Him.  “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the  power  that worketh in us,” Ephesians 3:20.  Yet, if the truth be known, more times than not we coward under oppressive circumstances instead of grasping hold in full assurance by faith that prevailing power belongs to Christ and those that are His own.

It can be stated with complete confidence that God’s will for our lives cannot be thwarted by powerful people or overwhelming circumstances.  However, this does not mean that He will always cause His will to merely unfold before us without great tests or abiding trials.  For as the Apostle Paul heard from God, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness,” to which he joyfully responded, ”Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:9-10.

Let us pray in faith as those that have the prevailing power of Christ upon us.

Read Hezekiah’s Prayers, Part 4

Read Hezekiah’s Prayers, Part 2

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