A friend recently shared how someone accused her of something that didn’t resonate. Then a few weeks later, it happened again. We talked about the concept that if someone says you have a tail, you can be like, “What? You’re crazy.” If a 2nd person says it, then it’s time to see if something’s amiss. And if there’s a 3rd? Well, you’d better turn around to see if you’ve got a tail!😬
There are moments, however, when accusations simply don’t ring true, especially when it’s whispering words from the enemy. So, what then?
Sometimes the best way to handle false accusations is with silence. That’s what King Hezekiah instructs his people to do when the king of Assyria comes to conquer Judah.
The Assyrian commander in chief begins his speech in Hebrew so the people on the wall will hear & understand. He asks, “What are you trusting in that makes you so confident?”
The Israelite chief of staff immediately asks him to speak in Aramaic, but the Assyrian leader begins to SHOUT his message in Hebrew, reminding them of the many nations who’ve fallen to him because their gods didn’t save them.
He ends by asking, “What makes you think the Lord can rescue you from me?”
I’m sure the people trembled because other nations HAD fallen, but the very next verse tells us that the people remain silent, because the king had commanded them not to answer.
King Hezekiah doesn’t reply either, but turns his words elsewhere. He takes the threats directly into the throne room of God. confessing who God is, what He’s done & even agrees to the truth that other nations have fallen BECAUSE, “their gods weren’t gods at all-only idols…shaped by human hands.”
THEN he asks for God’s rescue so that everyone would know that He alone is God. That very night the angel of the Lord enters the Assyrian camp & slaughters 185,000 of them! When the army awakens to corpses everywhere, they immediately return home! What a rescue story, right?
The enemy is the king of lies & loves to threaten us with accusations about health, family, finances, faith & future. We need not reply under orders of the King of kings! Our silence speaks to our trust in Him & allows Him to orchestrate a rescue story worth telling!
2 KINGS 18:13-19:37
ACTS 21:1-17
PSALM 149:1-9
PROVERBS 18:8
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