9. (a) How did King Hezekiah show his trust in Jehovah? (b) When we are persecuted or reviled by haters of Jehovah, what is our proper response?

⁹ Jehovah’s servants today trust in him for the same reason that King Hezekiah did. He relied implicitly on Jehovah as his Sovereign Lord. Hence, at the height of the Assyrian threat, he prayed to Jehovah in these words: “O Jehovah of armies, the God of Israel, sitting upon the cherubs, you alone are the true God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You yourself have made the heavens and the earth. Incline your ear, O Jehovah, and hear. Open your eyes, O Jehovah, and see, and hear all the words of Sennacherib that he has sent to taunt the living God.” (Isaiah 37:16, 17)

10. (a) What did Hezekiah’s prayer reveal about his main concern? (b) How can we be like Hezekiah as we face up to the tests just before Armageddon?

¹⁰ Hezekiah’s prayer showed that he had no selfish motive in seeking deliverance from the Assyrian. He was not just trying to save his own skin. Rather, he was concerned that Jehovah’s name be sanctified and His sovereignty be vindicated. Thus, his prayer concluded with the words: “And now, O Jehovah our God, save us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Jehovah, are God alone.” (Isaiah 37:20) Similarly, as we face up to the tests that precede the final war of Armageddon, let us have in mind that our personal salvation is secondary to the sanctifying of Jehovah’s name. As our Sovereign Lord declared some 60 times by his prophet Ezekiel: “They will have to know that I am Jehovah.”​—Ezekiel 38:23.

11. (a) What mistake did Sennacherib make, and what did Jehovah say regarding this? (b) In view of the outcome to Sennacherib, what trust can we have?

¹¹ After Hezekiah had prayed, Isaiah informed the king about the word that Jehovah had spoken against Sennacherib. What a mistake that Assyrian blasphemer had made in reproaching the living God! Through Isaiah, Jehovah said regarding Sennacherib: “Whom have you taunted and spoken of abusively? And against whom have you lifted up your voice and do you raise your eyes on high? It is against the Holy One of Israel.” And it was the Holy One of Israel that acted that night! It took only one angel of Jehovah to strike down and make “dead carcasses” of 185,000 Assyrian soldiers, the cream of Sennacherib’s army. That proud king retreated in shame to Nineveh and some years later was struck down by his own sons while persisting in his idolatrous worship.