Theology in a Foxhole
Introduction: What to Do With Threatening Letters
A crisis does not create a man's character; it reveals it. A crisis does not give a man his theology; it shows you what his functional theology has been all along. When the pressure is on, what a man truly believes is squeezed out of him. When Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, sends his blasphemous and threatening letter to King Hezekiah, it is nothing less than a final exam on the first commandment. This is a pop quiz on the doctrine of God. The Assyrian war machine was the terror of the ancient world, a woodchipper for nations. And their king, speaking with all the arrogant confidence of a modern secularist, has just laid down the gauntlet. He says, in effect, "I have devoured the gods of all the other nations. What makes you think your god is any different?"
This is the perennial challenge of the unbelieving world to the people of God. The world sends us threatening letters all the time. They arrive in the form of a doctor's diagnosis, a pink slip from work, a cultural mandate from a godless government, or the sneering contempt of the intellectual elites. The message is always the same: "Your God is small. Your God is just another tribal deity. Your God is no different from the dead idols we have already conquered. We have reality on our side. What do you have?"
Hezekiah's response to this letter is a master class in biblical piety. It is a model for how Christians are to face down the giants and blasphemers of our own day. He shows us that the first move in any crisis is not strategic, but theological. The first question is not "What shall we do?" but rather "Who is God?" Hezekiah's prayer is not a desperate, fumbling cry for help. It is a reasoned, robust, confident appeal to the sovereign God of the universe, based entirely on who God is. It is theology forged in a foxhole, and it is the only kind of theology that will see us through the battles we face.
The Text
Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of Yahweh and spread it out before Yahweh. And Hezekiah prayed before Yahweh and said, "O Yahweh, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Incline Your ear, O Yahweh, and hear; open Your eyes, O Yahweh, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to reproach the living God. Truly, O Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands and have put their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. But now, O Yahweh our God, I pray, save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O Yahweh, are God."
(2 Kings 19:14-19 LSB)
The Piety of Place (v. 14)
We begin with Hezekiah's first action:
"Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of Yahweh and spread it out before Yahweh." (2 Kings 19:14)
Notice the sequence. Hezekiah receives the threat. He reads it. He understands the gravity of the situation. And his first move is not to his war council, not to his generals, not to the Egyptian embassy for an alliance. His first move is to the house of Yahweh. He understands that the central issue is not military, but covenantal. This is a spiritual battle before it is anything else, so he goes to the designated place of spiritual warfare: the temple.
And what he does there is a beautiful, tangible act of faith. He spreads the letter out before Yahweh. This is not for God's information, as though God needed to be brought up to speed. This is an act of transference. Hezekiah is, in effect, saying, "Lord, look at this. This letter has my name on it, but it is aimed at You. This is Your problem. This blasphemy is an assault on Your throne. I am Your servant, and this is Your city. I am casting this burden upon You." This is a literal enactment of what Peter would later tell us to do: "casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7). When the world sends you its threatening letters, this is the first step. Take the diagnosis, take the lawsuit, take the cultural blasphemy, and go to the appointed place, whether your prayer closet or the gathered church, and spread it out before the Lord. Make it His problem.
The Grammar of God (v. 15)
Having presented the problem, Hezekiah begins to pray. And his prayer is a lesson in what we call theology proper, the doctrine of God.
"O Yahweh, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth." (2 Kings 19:15 LSB)
Hezekiah does not begin with his fear. He begins with his God. This is the foundation of all true prayer. Before you talk to God about your problem, you must first remind yourself who you are talking to. Hezekiah stacks up four foundational truths about God that utterly demolish Sennacherib's premise.
First, He is "Yahweh, the God of Israel." He is not a generic deity. He is the covenant-keeping God who has a name and a chosen people. He has a history with us.
Second, He is "enthroned above the cherubim." This points to His transcendence and holiness. His throne is in the Holy of Holies, above the mercy seat. He is not a god made of wood and stone; He is the unapproachable King of Glory who dwells in majesty.
Third, "You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth." This is a direct refutation of Sennacherib's worldview. Sennacherib sees a world of competing tribal gods, and he thinks Yahweh is just the local deity of Jerusalem. Hezekiah declares the truth: Yahweh's jurisdiction is total. He is not just the God of Israel; He is the God of Assyria too. Sennacherib is a pawn on Yahweh's chessboard, an axe in the hand of the Lord (Isaiah 10:15).
Fourth, "You have made heaven and earth." This is the ultimate trump card. This is the Creator/creature distinction, which is the most fundamental distinction in all reality. Sennacherib is a creature. His army is made of creatures. Their weapons are creaturely. But Yahweh is the Creator. He spoke all of this into existence from nothing. The fight is over before it begins. This is presuppositional prayer. It begins with the non-negotiable reality of the sovereign, creator God.
The Heart of the Matter (v. 16)
Hezekiah then makes his first petition, and it reveals what he believes the central issue to be.
"Incline Your ear, O Yahweh, and hear; open Your eyes, O Yahweh, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to reproach the living God." (2 Kings 19:16 LSB)
Hezekiah does not say, "Listen to how they threaten to kill us." He says, "Listen to how they reproach the living God." He understands that the primary victim of this crime is not Judah, but God Himself. The real offense is blasphemy. The military threat is just the context for the high-handed sin of insulting the living God. Hezekiah's primary concern is for God's honor. This is why the first petition of the Lord's Prayer is "Hallowed be Thy name." Our first instinct in prayer, when confronted with the wickedness of the world, should be a zeal for God's reputation. "Lord, they are mocking You. They are despising Your name. Vindicate Yourself."
Clear-Eyed Realism (v. 17-18)
True faith is not a blind leap in the dark. It is a clear-eyed assessment of the facts, interpreted through the lens of Scripture.
"Truly, O Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands and have put their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them." (2 Kings 19:17-18 LSB)
Hezekiah does not deny the facts. He says, "Truly, O Yahweh." He acknowledges the power of the Assyrian army. He is not sticking his head in the sand. But he immediately provides the divine commentary on those facts. Why was Assyria so successful? Why were the gods of the nations thrown into the fire? Because "they were not gods." They were artifacts. They were "the work of men's hands, wood and stone."
Sennacherib's great error was a category mistake. He put Yahweh in the same category as these idols. Hezekiah's prayer is built on the sharp, absolute distinction between the living God and the "no-gods" of the pagans. The idols are effects; Yahweh is the great First Cause. The idols are manufactured; Yahweh is the Manufacturer. This is the fatal weakness of every form of godless humanism. It is all the work of men's hands, and it will all end up in the fire. Hezekiah sees this with perfect clarity, and it is the basis of his confidence.
The Doxological Request (v. 19)
Finally, Hezekiah makes his ultimate request, and he states his ultimate motivation.
"But now, O Yahweh our God, I pray, save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O Yahweh, are God." (2 Genesis 19:19 LSB)
The petition is simple: "save us." But the purpose is profound: "that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O Yahweh, are God." Hezekiah is not just praying for his own skin. He is praying for a global outbreak of the knowledge of God. He wants the deliverance of Jerusalem to be a testimony. He wants God's salvation to be a sermon preached to all nations. He is asking God to use this crisis to make a name for Himself on the world stage.
This is the ultimate goal of all our prayers. "Lord, heal my body, so that I might be a witness to Your power. Lord, save my marriage, so that the world might see the truth of Christ and the Church. Lord, deliver our nation, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that Jesus is Lord." Our personal deliverance should always be a means to a greater end: the glory of God. Hezekiah wants God to answer his prayer in such a way that Sennacherib's question, "Who is Yahweh?" is answered decisively for the entire world to see.
Conclusion
And God did answer. That very night, the angel of Yahweh went out and struck down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in their sleep (2 Kings 19:35). Sennacherib went home in disgrace and was later assassinated by his own sons while worshipping in the temple of his "no-god" (2 Kings 19:37). God answered Hezekiah's prayer with terrifying precision, and He did it for the exact reason Hezekiah requested: to show the world that He alone is God.
We must learn this lesson. The threats we face are real. The letters from our modern Sennacheribs are intimidating. But they are all written on creaturely paper by creaturely hands. Our God is the one who is enthroned above the cherubim. He made heaven and earth. The idols of our age, whether they are the idols of secularism, scientism, or statism, are nothing but the work of men's hands, and they are destined for the fire.
So take your threatening letter. Go before the Lord. Spread it out before Him. Begin your prayer not with your problem, but with your God. Insist on the Creator/creature distinction. Make God's reputation your central concern. And ask Him to deliver you, not for your own comfort, but for His own glory. That is a prayer He delights to answer.