Don’t Pay Tribute
‘King Hezekiah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I have done wrong. I will pay whatever tribute money you demand if you will only withdraw.” The king of Assyria then demanded a settlement of more than eleven tons of silver and one ton of gold. To gather this amount, King Hezekiah used all the silver stored in the Temple of the LORD and in the palace treasury’ 2 Kings 18:14-15
King Hezekiah’s first response to the invasion of Sennacherib, king of Assyria was a huge mistake.
He buckled in and begged for mercy. It wasn’t long before he found out that his actions instead
of appeasing or assuaging his enemy, only empowered and emboldened him for a more aggressive assault.
There is an important lesson from this: begging the enemy only empowers him to do worse!
Why plead for mercy from an enemy that has got none
to give?
Whenever the enemy invades your territory, resist him by faith and cry out to God to send you help.
Do not panic and begin to negotiate or beg the enemy because whenever you do so, you only expose your weakness and strengthen the hands of the enemy against you.
Examine your life and see whether there is any area where you have surrendered and given up the fight, in the hope that it will make things easier. If there is any such area, change your strategy. Reach out for your spiritual weapons and get back into the fight trusting God to give you victory.