Any of your antagonists named, 'Sennacherib?'

Ran across something interesting the other day while reading my Bible. You can find it in 2 Chronicles 31:20-32:1. See if you see the same thing I did:

Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah; and he did what was good, right and true before the Lord his God.

Every work which he began in the service of the house of God in law and in commandment, seeking his God, he did with all his heart and prospered. 

After all these acts of faithfulness Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and beseiged the fortified cities, and thought to break into them for himself. [NASB]

Do you see it? It's right there in front of you. If you've missed it, read the text again. "After all these acts of faithfulness Sennacherib. . . " There it is.

Hezekiah accumulated a long list of faithful works for the name of his God. And God repays him by sending Sennacherib, his antagonist, the enemy of Israel. It seems so wrong, doesn't it? By our notion of justice, God should be sending boatloads of blessing on Hezekiah. Instead He sends boatloads of Assyrians. Definitely not the same thing.

But why? We aren't told why. Do you need to know why? Does God need to explain to you and I why He does what He does? Or does He get to be the sovereign of the Universe in our little lives, and do what He deems best for His own purposes?

Is God still good when I (or you) suffer for humanly inexplicable purposes? That's a question only faith can answer properly.

My faith is challenged when after a long period of obedience and submission to His will, God sends Sennacherib. Greatly challenged. But maybe that's the point. Maybe it's a new invitation to faith in God's faithfulness, His goodness, and His ultimate good purposes.

Maybe it is an invitation to faith in His Son Jesus, who after a lifetime of obedience to God was hung on the cross in a bloody, awful death.

The writer of Hebrews says that we should fix our eyes on Jesus, "the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross. . . " (Heb 12:2, NASB)

The difference between faith and stoic suffering is found in one word: hope. In the former, you know you're in the hands of a God who loves you, and is doing what is best.You know the story does not end on the cross, but continues through the door of the empty tomb. In the latter, in stoic suffering, you're trapped in the gears of the unfeeling, impersonal cosmic machine, grinding out an inexorable, and quite meaningless, end.

I'll take hope, thank you. And I can, because Jesus endured the cross for me.

Know anybody named Sennacherib?