First of all, when Hezekiah had cleared away the high places, it was not an attack on God. Someone like Sennacherib would not have been able to understand that. For him, it would have sounded ridiculous to demand that everyone go to one place to worship their God (it would have sounded ridiculous to say that there was only one God!). But that is exactly what Hezekiah had done and it was this that pleased God more than anything that any of the kings before him all the way back to David had done. None had been so faithful as Hezekiah because none had gotten rid of the high places. None had turned wholly, completely, faithfully to the Lord. Surely, this is not to say that Hezekiah was perfect – you can see that he wasn’t from the way he took gold from the Lord’s house to pay Sennacherib instead of trusting God. But when he stumbled, he always turned back to the Lord in faith. And that Lord that he turned to was the only real God. That was the God of armies, the God of power, the God of grace and forgiveness and love. That was the God who had promised to be with His people in His temple. The God who had promised to send a savior. That was the God Sennacherib was messing with – not the false, worthless, empty Gods of the nations. This was his fatal error – it would cost him his life. For God lives. God reigns. And He lives and reigns all things for you His people – so trust in Him, turn to Him, find Him where He has promised to be found – not in the way you feel, not in signs or dreams or eastern philosophies; find Him in His Word – that is His temple. That is where Jesus is. Amen.

In Christ
Pastor Ude