“The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life” ( Job 33:4).
Surely people who defy God aren’t thinking clearly. This isn’t just biting the hand that feeds you. It’s rebelling against the One who just gave you that heartbeat! Remember how Pilate boasted, “Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?” ( Jn 19:10). To which the Lord Jesus replied, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above” (v 11). In other words, you couldn’t get out of bed in the morning without My Father’s help. Or hear Daniel’s chilling words to Belshazzar: “The God who holds your breath in His hand…you have not glorified” (Dan 5:23). That seems very appropriate in light of the scene outside Jerusalem’s gates. Hezekiah, joined by the prophet Isaiah, cried out to God to do something. How could you defeat an army of 185,000 warriors (2 Ki 19:35)? God didn’t even have to show up. He just “sent an angel who cut down every mighty man of valor, leader, and captain in the camp of…Assyria” (2 Chron 32:21). From the Kings account, they went to bed at night and never woke up. Say, that’s enough to take your breath away, isn’t it! It certainly did with them. And Sennacherib, the proud Boaster-in-chief? In utter shame, he had to ride alone back to his homeland. There, in his glorious capital of Nineveh, he made his way to the temple of his make-believe god. After paying such an astronomical price, he still hadn’t learned the lesson, had he! Having brought such disgrace on his nation, and with no one to help, “some of his own offspring struck him down with the sword there” (v 21). And Hezekiah? He was “saved…from the hand of Sennacherib…and from the hand of all others, and…was exalted in the sight of all nations thereafter” (vv 22-23).