This is the third time we see this story, and it will continue into the next chapter. It must be important for us to get.

In this chapter the king of Assyria has sent messengers to Jerusalem to play psychological warfare. They point out how no gods have been able to deliver anyone out of the hands of the king of Assyria. They even say that the Lord God told the king of Assyria to go and destroy the land of Judah. They are promised a good life if they surrender and suffering if they don’t.

What do you do? Let’s try to apply this. You likely won’t be in this situation, but we are in a war and there will be battles. Satan wants you to abandon the Lord’s ways and give into his temptations. He tempts us to sin, to doubt, and to fear.

Do we allow ourselves to think that we can’t wait on God can’t rely on Him, and so look to our own understanding of the situation?

Can you think of a time you were tempted to doubt or to fear? Let’s look at fear. Think of a specific situation where you were tempted to fear. If you can’t, then say tempted to worry.

What did you do?

Did you try to do whatever you could to alleviate the threat or did you turn it over to God to be your defense and comfort?

Can you trust in what you know about God and what He’s taught you and told you personally and not be swayed by the words of the world, even those in the church, who are saying something different about who God is?

When we were being told there was a threat of death and we should mask and keep away, I kept to what I knew. I was to love others, not treat them as a threat, and I was to fear God not anything else. I got together with others, offered hugs, didn’t mask or wipe anything down, and I never got sick, neither did anyone in my home.

When the church was saying it’s God’s will for us to mask because it’s loving, I questioned whether I was in the wrong, but I came around to sticking with my decision that it was most loving to show love and not fear. I didn’t want to encourage the notion that there was something we should fear by doing actions of protecting.

What do you do when there is a threat? You need to know God.