The Prayer of Hezekiah and Amendment 3

 By Gretchen Garrity

A Missouri amendment on November's ballot, Amendment 3, is an extreme attempt to enshrine abortion up to birth in our Missouri Constitution. The amendment's language is also couched so that "reproductive rights" may include irreversible transgender surgeries, as well as immunity from repercussions resulting from botched abortions, and "transition" surgeries. It is worded so that parental rights are in danger, and the creation and destruction of millions of embryos is justified. It is hard to see how this amendment could be any more radical or extreme.

Ashur, Assyrian "Father of the gods."

In the book of 2 Kings, Chapters 18-19, it is related how God delivered Jerusalem from the Assyrian King Sennacherib and his army. At that time, Hezekiah was king in Judah.

King Hezekiah was one of the few kings in Judah who did what was right in the Lord's eyes. Not only did he destroy the high places (places of idol worship), but he repaired the Temple, re-instituted the biblical feasts, reformed the priesthood, and fortified Jerusalem.

At one point, in order to keep peace, Hezekiah began paying tribute to the nation of Assyria, which had become very strong and warlike. Eventually, King Sennacherib was emboldened enough to come against Jerusalem. As he surrounded the city, he sent messengers to the people of Jerusalem, boasting of his military prowess and urging the citizens to surrender.

"Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you from his hand; nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, "The LORD will surely deliver us; this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: 'Make peace with me by a present and come out to me...that you may live and not die...Has any of the gods of the nations at all delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria...Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?"

When Hezekiah heard of the terrible blasphemy and affront to God he went to the temple and sent messengers to enquire of Isaiah the prophet.

"Thus says Hezekiah: "This day is a day of trouble, and rebuke, and blasphemy; for the children have come to the birth, but there is not strength to bring them forth...Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left."

King Hezekiah understood the situation he and his people were in. The northern kingdom, Israel, had been destroyed, and Judah alone was left--the remnant. The reference to children coming to birth expressed the deep danger Jerusalem was in--as a child ready to be born but the exhausted mother has no strength left to deliver the baby, thus both may die.

FIGHTING AMENDMENT 3

The temptation for the pro-life movement and citizens is to be exhausted by the relentless attack on our children, born and unborn. The victory of overturning Roe V. Wade, and the outlawing of abortion in Missouri is in grave danger. It seems as if Missouri is on the verge of full-scale war on the innocents. Amendment 3 is the Assyrian king seeking to demoralize the citizens and get them to surrender.

Back to Isaiah. The prophet told Hezekiah's messengers, "Thus says the LORD: "Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. Surely I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land."

When Sennacherib hears that the citizens of Jerusalem refused to surrender to Assyria, he next sends a letter to Hezekiah. In it he boasts of all his military conquests. He again insults God saying, "Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying "Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Look! You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands by utterly destroying them..."

Hezekiah responds by taking the letter and going up to the house of God. He spreads the letter before the LORD and prays. Ending a beautiful and heartfelt prayer, Hezekiah says, "Now therefore, O LORD our God, I pray, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the LORD God, You alone."

Hezekiah, who had overthrown idol worship in Judah, understood that the attack upon Jerusalem and its citizens was ultimately an attack on the LORD. It was an attempt to dethrone Judah's God and install the Assyrian gods, of which there were about 20 major deities of that nation.

Missourians are facing the same thing with Amendment 3. The abortion and transgender cults are built on a hatred of life and of the natural law. Their ruling spirits are akin to the cults of the ancient world, though now they incorporate technological aspects and act as if murder is a human right.

From: JSTOR.org

 Hezekiah again hears from Isaiah. "Thus says the LORD God of Israel: "Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard." What follows is God's assurance not only that Jerusalem will be saved, but that the remnant in Judah will prosper. About the king of Assyria, the LORD says, "He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor build a seige mound against it. By the way he came, by the same shall he return; and he shall not come into this city, says the LORD. For I will defend this city, to save it for My own sake and for My servant David's sake."

Soon after, Scripture confirms Sennacherib's defeat. An angel of the LORD entered the camp of the Assyrians one night and killed 185,000 soldiers. Sennacherib beat a retreat, and a few years thereafter was killed while worshiping in the temple of his false god. He was killed by his own sons.

AMENDMENT 3 IS THE LETTER OF SENNACHERIB

The proposed constitutional amendment, Amendment 3, is the "letter" that Christians must lay before God as we reach out to Him in prayer. The abominations that are being proposed in Amendment 3 are an affront to the LORD. They seek to destroy His creation, desecrate His laws, defeat His preeminence as the One living God.

Amendment 3

 Amendment 3 seeks to worship at the altar of mammon. According to a Federalist article: "Both the abortion and reproductive technologies industries are multibillion-dollar businesses, profiting from the creation and elimination of millions of human beings. Contrary to what many think, in-vitro fertilization (IVF) is not simply about creating new life; it often involves sacrificing millions of little lives so adults can attempt to have the exact babies they want when they want them."

According to journalist Jennifer Bilek, "What we’re witnessing in the gender industry is a castration cult. Castration cults have been seen throughout history and we are experiencing another one. What I am going to call transsexual transhumanism is a castration cult amped up on technology, transhumanist ideology, and fueled by profit. It has been introduced to the culture by forcing and controlling new language that obscures its origins in fetish and the sexual objectification of women."

 Most Americans decry abortion up to the point of birth. Most Americans disagree that minor children have the right to make irrevocable decisions about their reproductive faculties. Most Americans know the transgender movement is an attack on humanity.

Opposing Amendment 3 is an issue that Missourians of all denominations and political parties can unite on. Let us go up to the house of the LORD and lay it before Him. 

"Now therefore, O LORD our God, I pray, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the LORD God, You alone."