AUGUST 2 "A WISE ENEMY"

 Hezekiah and his people are faced with an onslaught of verbal and mental assaults. What Hezekiah faces and what we must face, almost on a daily basis, is a constant barrage of assaults in our minds, that target our God and our faith in him to take care of us.  The problem is, that the enemy does not present STUPID arguments. The enemy provides arguments that are both very reasonable and very persuasive.  As we have heard before, the best lies are those that are mixed with truth.  Rat poison is 99% actual rat food. This is what makes it so irresistible for the rats to consume. We see also in our text that our enemy speaks our language, he knows our culture and how best to affect us.  Verse 18 "Then they called out in Hebrew to the people of Jerusalem who were  on the wall, to terrify them and make them afraid".  It's all about fear and intimidation. Every terrorist, worth his salt and weight, embraces this spirit.  The ruthless leaders of History all embraced and embodied this spirit. How many of God's people have fallen in this kind of predicament?  The answer is....more than we can count. We are definitely engaged in a war, a fight and if our stance in the ring is to merely stand there and take as many blows and hits as we can, hoping and praying our opponent will have mercy on us, run out of energy or get fed up of pounding on us.....well, the end result will probably be us eventually knocked out, falling straight to the mat, right on our faces, out for the count!
     Never should we consider verbal or mental arguments against our faith as "is this logical?" or "could this happen?" These considerations are irrelevant.  Think of this, as the Children of Israel stood at the edge of the Red Sea, with the Egyptians quickly catching up to them, with the Israelites cornered by the sea, it was very logical and reasonable to think that they would all be slaughtered right there. However logical or reasonable that may have seemed, however much fear that put in the hearts of the Israelites, we know that they were not slaughtered there, that the sea opened up for them to cross through and it was the Egyptians that were consumed there, as the water closed in on them and drowned them all.

     If we sit and listen to the lies of the enemy and consider if his arguments are reasonable and logical, we will all be given in to discouragement, fear & intimidation. Our stance needs to be, "I don't care how reasonable or logical this assault, this lie is that has been embedded in my mind, I chose to believe against it.". 
It doesn't take logic and reason to serve God, it takes FAITH. It takes more than faith, it takes an aggressive faith, an aggressive posture.
     Imagine people who try to fix and solve everything themselves and it seems when they don't know what else they can do they say, "I guess all we can do is pray".  Imagine referring to prayer as, "all we can do..." As if prayer is the religious, ceremonious, cop out.  Perhaps for religious people it is, but for those that know their God and his great exploits, prayer is not "I guess all we can do" but rather, prayer "is the most powerful thing we can do".  It is King Hezekiah's prayer that turns God's attention towards this whole matter. It doesn't matter how logical the enemy's arguments are or how persuasive he is, none of that matters when God gets involved. Verse 21 "and The Lord sent an angel, who annihilated all the fighting men and the leaders and officers in the camp of the Assyrian King".  This is what God can do! And it only came when Hezekiah brought the blasphemies of his enemy before God and basically said, "Lord, you deal with this guy, it's your name he is blaspheming, I leave this with you".
     Never listen to reason with the enemy of your soul.  Never give him a speaking platform in your mind or through some of his ponds. We don't care what he has to say nor do we care what his mouth pieces have to say. It doesn't matter if it's logical or reasonable our God is more than able and often moves beyond reason, beyond the natural. Don't give an ear to the enemy or those that speak on his behalf and you will find yourself much more poised to believe God in hard circumstances. Give him a platform to speak, listen to his arguments and persuasion and you will find yourself defeated mentally, spiritually and then physically. Who are you gonna listen to today? Your choice.....