Faithfulness and Frustration

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If you’re going to be serious about matters of faith, get ready to experience times of frustration. For faith will be tested in many diverse ways if it is to be proved. Hezekiah is a righteous king in Judah, leading the people back to God from the pagan ways of the foreign nations. He led them back to unity and back to the Passover celebration. He also caused the nation to prosper and grow strong. And you would think that those efforts would be rewarded with peaceful prosperity in perpetuity. Nope. 

Look at the very next chapter:
2 Chronicles 32:1 (ESV) After these things and these acts of faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them for himself.

Sometimes great renewals of faith are followed by troubling times of frustration. Yet Hezekiah gives no voice to the frustration at all. Instead he models whole-hearted courage and astute leadership. He first stops up the springs of water to make the siege of Assyria far less appealing. He then appoints commanders and readies the military. Finally, he encourages the people himself with his own words:

2 Chronicles 32:7-8 (ESV) “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, for there are more with us than with him. [8] With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God, to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people took confidence from the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

Notice the hope of Hezekiah. He may have engaged in strategic battle planning but he put his ultimate hope in the Lord His God. He knew that the Lord would fight their battles. Yet even after this, more frustration abounds. Sennacherib sends messengers to taunt Israel and demean the efforts and words of Hezekiah. 

2 Chronicles 32:15 (ESV) Now, therefore, do not let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you in this fashion, and do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you out of my hand!’”

I can think of few things as humiliating as being mocked in front of those you lead by your enemies.
2 Chronicles 32:18 (ESV) And they shouted it with a loud voice in the language of Judah to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten and terrify them, in order that they might take the city.

Hezekiah has every reason to be frustrated here. He is belittled, attacked and vilified even after his faithfulness to the Lord. But at no point do we see this man yield to that frustration. Here, when all the odds stand against him, he commits to the frustration killing act of prayer:

2 Chronicles 32:20-21 (ESV) Then Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed because of this and cried to heaven. [21] And the LORD sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty warriors and commanders and officers in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he came into the house of his god, some of his own sons struck him down there with the sword.

I wonder who reading this needs to pray instead of complain? I wonder who needs to let the frustration cause you to overflow with bold and unhindered petition to the Lord who will hear you! Hezekiah’s prayers are heard, and the Lord delivers Israel in miraculous fashion. Then the results follow:

2 Chronicles 32:23 (ESV) And many brought gifts to the LORD to Jerusalem and precious things to Hezekiah king of Judah, so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations from that time onward.

Hezekiah was exalted. Consider that for a moment. His faithfulness established his stature among the nations and people paid notice. I wonder if there’s a lack of notice for the Christian faith today because of how many of us fall into frustration in times of testing and trouble instead of falling to our knees in prayer. 

No, the Christian life is not a promise of peace and perpetual prosperity and yes, even after your faithfulness will come trials of frustration. But there’s one who can answer you in those times. He hears when we call and if we know this, then we are never alone.


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