Welcome to the club and the book of second kings.

Last time in chapters 18 and 19, Hezekiah was crowned king of Judah and he did what was

right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father, David, had done. During his reign,

Assyria conquered Israel, and then Assyria attacked and conquered all the fortified cities of Judah.

Hezekiah prevented an attack on Jerusalem by paying them off with temple gold. That money

didn't hold Assyria forever, and they demanded Hezekiah surrender the city.

Well, this time Hezekiah turned to God instead for a word through his prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah said, hold. God will deliver them from the Assyrians. And Hezekiah then prayed, a prayer that was a great example of how to petition

God in trust, a prayer that Jesus later prayed. So before we get back to this imminent

Assyrian attack, let's talk about Isaiah because he is a really big deal. His name means

the Lord is salvation. And it's a fitting name in our story because he's going

to tell King Hezekiah that the Lord will save them. Now his prophetic role was to speak to

Judah during a time when Israel fell to Syria and Judah was at risk for falling to either

Assyria or Babylon. It was an intense period in the

history of God's people, and therefore Isaiah is intense. His ministry covered four kings,

Azariah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Now we'll read in future books that Isaiah's ministry began with King

Azariah, although he was not mentioned in Second Kings 15 when we read about those other kings,

but he's going to come into play in like chronicles. Isaiah is another power prophet. I'd put him in the

top five with, in this case six actually, Moses, Samuel, Elijah,

Elijah, Daniel, and maybe Jeremiah. Jeremiah's on the edge for me. Moses and Samuel were prophets

to Israel before the nation divided. Elijah and Elijah were prophets to the northern kingdom of Israel after the division.

And Isaiah, Daniel, and Jeremiah were the big prophets to Judah, the southern kingdom.

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