Sennacherib : The Man Who Built Nineveh

Sennacherib [Sĕnnăch'e rĭb]—the moon-god, sin (the moon-god) hath increased the brothers or destruction of the sword. A son of Sargon who succeeded to the throne after the murder of his father (2 Kings 18:13; 19:16, 20,36; 2 Chron. 32; Isa. 36:1; 37:17, 21, 37).

The Man Who Built Nineveh

This Assyrian king saw his boasted army destroyed in one night. He himself was slain by two of his sons in Nineveh in the Temple of Nisroch (2 Kings 19:37). Sennacherib’s great achievement in this area was the creation of Nineveh as a metropolis of the empire. It was he who built the wonderful palace of Konyungik and the great wall of Nineveh.

The Assyrian king’s invading hosts marching through Judah leaving destruction behind them were vividly described by Byron in The Destruction of Sennacherib:

You Have God's Powerful Spirit

When your life gets hard and you feel overwhelmed, you can tell yourself, "Well, at least I don't have it as tough as Zerubbabel." 

That man was the governor of Judea, whose monumental task it was to rebuild the shattered nation after the Babylonian armies' terrible destruction and after 70 years of neglect and abandonment. Judea was burned, broken, and choked with weeds. 

Zerubbabel was all too aware that he lacked both the people and resources to do this impossible job. The prophet Zechariah was commissioned to remind Zerubbabel that God always equips the people he calls. "This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the Lord Almighty" (Zechariah 4:6).

Do you know what that means for you? Since the Spirit is living in you, you have greater strength than you think. You are wiser than you think. You know what else? Zerubbabel got the temple rebuilt. 

      

Today's Grace Moment: 

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The importance of adding action to your plans

Dr. J.B. Gambrel tells an amusing story from General Stonewall Jackson’s famous valley campaign. Jackson’s army found itself on one side of a river when it needed to be on the other side. 

	Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. — James 1:23-24

After telling his engineers to plan and build a bridge so the army could cross, he called his wagon master in to tell him that it was urgent the wagon train cross the river as soon as possible. The wagon master started gathering all the logs, rocks, and fence rails he could find and built a bridge. Long before daylight, General Jackson was told by his wagon master all the wagons and artillery had crossed the river.

General Jackson asked, “Where are the engineers, and what are they doing?” The wagon master replied, “They’re in their tent drawing up plans for a bridge.”

Working on the Inside Out

“Kings and armies flee in haste;

the women at home divide the plunder.” — Psalm 68:12

I recently came across the following cartoon: Two rabbits are standing in a field. The first rabbit is standing next to a small green stem with a few leaves shooting off of it. The second rabbit, larger and more confident-looking than the first, is standing next to a much more elaborate display of greenery. Beneath the surface, the drawing reveals the first rabbit is standing next to a very large carrot – unseen, but about to poke its head out of the ground. The second rabbit is standing proudly next to a weed.

The caption reads “Success; it’s not always what you see.”


We live in a world that is overly focused on what we can see. Power, beauty, wealth, and the like. We often judge success by these outer elements. It’s no wonder that we tend to spend most of our time mastering the superficial arena of our lives. Almost everyone works OUT regularly, but how many of us spend time working IN? In Psalm 68 King David reminds us that our inner space is more important than our outer space.