Siege

The following historical fiction is inspired by the following:
1)      2 Kings ch. 18-19, 2 Chr ch. 32, and Isaiah ch. 37
2)      Sometimes we feel like we are under siege even when we are seeking to do God’s will
 
Under Siege

The moon and sun battered one another in their eternal pre-dawn battle.  Piercing red and orange advanced on the cool, pale blue shadows as two silhouettes walked along the parapets of the Holy City.

“The people are starving,” Hezekiah lamented.  His fist tightened around the scroll.  “Sennacherib insults the God of heaven and earth, yet he camps outside ready to destroy this city!”

“My King, you have been up all night praying to our Lord and God, please come and rest,” the commander beckoned.

Hezekiah did not acknowledge his companion.  He watched the darkness, searching the depths of its mystery.  His heart mirrored the murky mist surrounding the city.  Where would he find resolve?  Where would he turn as all others turned to him?  Standing atop the wall of a doomed place and people…

Oh, but he had prepared!  Not one, but two mighty walls to repel the invaders; as well as a storehouse of armor and weapons, gleaming in the hands of his army.  He had done everything possible to overcome, yet the very ground he relied on was crumbling beneath him - faith.

He looked down at the parchment, slightly crumpled, and unrolled it.  Isaiah’s bold strokes played across the page.  The words marched along like soldiers in procession.  He read the reply with a mixture of fear and hope.  That very night he had prayed with the son of Amoz for deliverance; a miracle.

His eyes hungrily scanned the letter for what the Lord would say to him.  The words of God rumbled as he read:

"This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, this is the word the LORD has spoken against him:

"The Virgin Daughter of Zion
      despises and mocks you.
      The Daughter of Jerusalem
      tosses her head as you flee.

Who is it you have insulted and blasphemed?
      Against whom have you raised your voice
      and lifted your eyes in pride?
      Against the Holy One of Israel!

By your messengers
      you have heaped insults on the Lord.
      And you have said,
      'With my many chariots
      I have ascended the heights of the mountains,
      the utmost heights of Lebanon.
      I have cut down its tallest cedars,
      the choicest of its pines.
      I have reached its remotest heights,
      the finest of its forests.

I have dug wells in foreign lands [c]
      and drunk the water there.
      With the soles of my feet
      I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.'

"Have you not heard?
      Long ago I ordained it.
      In days of old I planned it;
      now I have brought it to pass,
      that you have turned fortified cities
      into piles of stone.

Their people, drained of power,
      are dismayed and put to shame.
      They are like plants in the field,
      like tender green shoots,
      like grass sprouting on the roof,
      scorched before it grows up.

"But I know where you stay
      and when you come and go
      and how you rage against me.

Because you rage against me
      and because your insolence has reached my ears,
      I will put my hook in your nose
      and my bit in your mouth,
      and I will make you return
      by the way you came.

"This will be the sign for you, O Hezekiah:
      "This year you will eat what grows by itself,
      and the second year what springs from that.
      But in the third year sow and reap,
      plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

Once more a remnant of the house of Judah
      will take root below and bear fruit above.

For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant,
      and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.
      The zeal of the LORD Almighty
      will accomplish this.

"Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria:
      "He will not enter this city
      or shoot an arrow here.
      He will not come before it with shield
      or build a siege ramp against it.

By the way that he came he will return;
      he will not enter this city,"
      declares the LORD.

"I will defend this city and save it,
      for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!”

Hezekiah lifted his eyes to the spreading light of day.  A figure stood a stones-throw from the wall.  He held a sword in his hand as he turned and walked into the haze that covered Sennacherib’s camp.  The rays of the sun followed the figure like an advancing army.  Their light melted the mist and revealed the tents and fortifications of the Assyrians.  The warmth of the sun hit Hezekiah and heated the dark cloak on his back. Though, he did not feel the pleasant touch the sun should bring, instead a chill spread throughout his body.  Before him thousands of bodies lay fallen from one end of the horizon to the other.  A handful of servants huddled around the last fighting man, the king.

Sennacherib staggered to his horse with their help and was lifted into his saddle.  He glanced towards the city to see the man with a sword standing in the gap between himself and the wall of Jerusalem.  The man lifted a bloody blade and nodded to Assyria’s great king.  Then the figure was gone.  At that point the king knew he had seen the angel of the Lord.
Hezekiah watched as the remnant of the Assyrian horde galloped away in their horror.  He fell to the ground and worshipped the Lord.

“The Daughter of Jerusalem
      tosses her head as you flee…”

Hope you are encouraged to seek the Lord in your own sieges.  This may not connect with all of you.  I was inspired by the idea of being really pushed to trust, even when faithful.  This story represents the last time Israel was faithful before the exile.  I want to be like this generation and not the next one, who let Jerusalem fall because of faithlessness.