In Second Kings, chapter nineteen, verse nineteen, Hezekiah’s prayer for the glory of God and the vindication of His ways and purposes in history manifests the highest desire of all who love the Lord. Moses, in Exodus thirty-two, verse twelve, Numbers fourteen, verses thirteen through sixteen, and Deuteronomy nine, verses twenty-six to twenty-nine, and David in Psalms fifty-nine, verse thirteen, and chapter eighty-three, verse eighteen, exhibited this desire in their prayers. Hezekiah draws the prominent possible contrast between Jehovah and the idols. Sennacherib had placed them upon a par as in Second Kings eighteen, verses thirty-three through thirty-five, and chapter nineteen, verses ten to thirteen.
Hezekiah insists that the idols are “no gods” and are “nothing” – at any rate, mere blocks of wood and stone shaped by human hands. But Jehovah is “the God of all the kingdoms of the earth” and “the Maker of heaven and earth as in verse fifteen, the one and only God in verse nineteen – answering to his name, self-existing, all-sufficient, the groundwork of all other existence. And he is “our God” – the God of Israel, bound by covenant to protect there against all enemies.
Hezekiah prays for a signal vengeance on Sennacherib, not for his own sake, not even for his people’s sake, so much as for the vindication of God’s honor among the nations of the earth – that far and wide Jehovah is a God who can help, the Ruler of the world, against whom earthly kings and earthly might avail nothing. Even thou only. It would not satisfy Hezekiah that Jehovah receive acknowledgment as a mighty god, one of many. He asks for such a demonstration as shall convince men that He is unique, that stands alone, that He is the only mighty God in all the earth.
We as believers must be so identified with God that our main concern is to uphold His reputation and honor, as in John seventeen, verse six. Our chief prayer should be, ‘Hallowed by thy name,” as in Matthew six, verse nine.