I hope to cover chapters 36, 37, and 38. We discussed some of these things as we covered the relevant prophecies and Isaiah includes these chapters as history with a special focus on Hezekiah. Again, Scripture shows history as His-story and these events are important because God says they are important and God stresses the portions that are key to the story.
In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah,Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh fromLachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army. And he stoodby the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field. And there came out to himEliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.
Isaiah 36:1-3
So here are the primary characters. Hezekiah had reigned as a co-regent with his father Ahaz for about 10 years prior to this time so the fourteenth year would be his fourteenth year as the only king. The year in question is 701BC. The king of Assyria was Sennacherib and had spent some time bringing Babylon into a reasonable submission and was working on other renegade provinces such as Judah.
Sennacherib sent the Rabshakeh or field commander up from Lachish (a pit with 1500 buried in it was found from a siege during this time) to Jerusalem. Hezekiah had tried to buy peace and Isaiah ignores that. To God it was pointless nervous fidgeting and certainly with the treachery of Assyria it was just a down payment prior to conquest.
These negotiations took place at the spot where Isaiah confronted the unbelieving Ahaz (7:3; 22:9-11). This is where the engineering solution to the problems of the city took place and God was not consulted.
The Jewish delegation included Eliakim as Hezekiah's top aid, Shebna as secretary, and Joah to record all that took place. Remember that Shebna was the top guy but Isaiah had prophesied that he would be demoted and Eliakim promoted (22:19).
And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says thegreat king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours? Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me?Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord our God,” is it not hewhose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar”? Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. How then can you repulsea single captain among the least of my master’s servants, whenyou trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.’ ”
Isaiah 36:4-10
The Assyrian Field Commander is a smart guy and apparently they had spies inside the walls. His argument is really to the point. First, he addresses their reliance on Egypt and calls them a pointy stick that will hurt your hand if you try to lean on it. Isaiah called them a dragon that never does anything. Secondly, he points out that Hezekiah reduced worship by requiring the use of the temple so God will be angry at him. Thirdly, he points out that they don't even have enough manpower to use a cavalry if the horses were a donation. And then fourthly, he says God is on his side.
Although they may not have has as short of an attention span as we do, these guys would know that Isaiah warned about trusting the Egyptians, he said God was displeased with them, they know they have no manpower, and maybe God is on their side.
The enemy of your soul may often argue that your plans are faulty, you haven't pleased God, you don't have the strength to do what needs to be done, and God isn't on your side. To which you can answer; true, true, true, and false. God will reform my faulty plans as I submit to Him. I haven't pleased God and I often sin but I have an advocate and I am righteousness and pleasing to God in Christ. I am weak in my own strength but I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. As for God being against me, Scripture says God is for me and then who can be against me?
The Jewish delegation realizes that these arguments make a bit of sense and so they want to control the flow of information to the people to simplify political control. They request that the field commander speak in Aramaic as the diplomatic language. It was after all the diplomatic language of the time. They request, unwisely, that he not speak Hebrew.
Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servantsin Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”
Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying, “The Lord will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with meand come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, untilI come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?Where are the gods ofHamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’ ”
Isaiah 36:11-20
This speech was designed to panic the population. He stresses the aspects of siege and starvation. The past successes and essentially says that the God who told him to take the city couldn't stop him. There is a crack in his argument. God told me to do this and God Himself can't stop me. That is not a smart position to take.
But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.” Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.
Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Help
As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophetIsaiah the son of Amoz. They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘ This day is aday of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace;children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer forthe remnant that is left.’ ”
When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me. Behold,I will put a spirit in him, so thathe shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, andI will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’ ”
Isaiah 36:21 – 37:7
Better late than never. Hezekiah was not like his father Ahaz. He showed sparks of wisdom from time to time. So in mourning he sought the advice of Isaiah. Notice the weak faith of the delegation before Isaiah who ask for a prayer for the remnant. Isaiah is ready to answer because He has already had God's word on this and simply tells them that Sennacherib would head home and die there. This was really old news but they hadn't listened the first time.
The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting againstLibnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish. Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king ofCush, “He has set out to fight against you.” And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered?Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, Gozan,Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’ ”
Isaiah 38:8-13
Notice the progression that exists as the enemy moves from “God sent me”, to “God can't stop me”, to the current verses in which they are told “don't let God deceive you.” First was a simple lie, then they attacked God's omnipotence, then they attacked God's character. They were heaping up sins for the day of judgment.
The king had beaten Egypt but he was responding to a rumor of Cush moving in. He had enough battle fronts and so he really didn't want another in Palestine. He attacks Hezekiah's faith.
Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel,who is enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth;you have made heaven and earth.Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hearall the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O Lord,the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.”
Isaiah 38:14-20
This is a good prayer. Hezekiah calls on the sovereign God to hear him and to “save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.” Remember how the Lord's Prayer starts? “Our Father, who art in heaven, hollowed be Thy Name” We need to remember that we pray “in heaven” not to say He is distant but to say He is enthroned. Then when we pray “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done” we'll remember we are praying for the further peaceful establishment of His kingdom on earth and for treasonous acts against His revealed will to stop.
Hezekiah had prayed like a wise king and God responded.
Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, this is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:
“‘ She despises you, she scorns you—the virgin daughter of Zion; she wags her head behind you— the daughter of Jerusalem.
“ ‘ Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes to the heights? Againstthe Holy One of Israel! By your servants you have mocked the Lord, and you have said, With my many chariots I have gone up the heights of the mountains, to the far recesses of Lebanon,to cut down its tallest cedars, its choicest cypresses, to come to its remotest height, its most fruitful forest.
I dug wells and drank waters, to dry up with the sole of my foot allthe streamsof Egypt.
Isaiah 37:21-25
God says that even the little girls in Jerusalem will not fear Sennacherib. God begins a series of accusing questions. Sennacherib had pushed the wrong button when he suggested that God was a liar and deceiver. All of his boasting in the accomplishments of Assyria was pointless and misguided.
“‘ Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass, that you should make fortified cities crash into heaps of ruins, while their inhabitants, shorn of strength, are dismayed and confounded, and have become like plants of the field and like tender grass, like grass on the housetops, blighted before it is grown.
“‘ I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in, and your raging against me. Because you have raged against me and your complacency has come to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, andI will turn you back on the way by which you came.’
Isaiah 37:26-29
Pride is a dangerous item. Here pride stops the Assyrians in their tracks. We take great pride in our accomplishments but here God says you only go where I let you go and you only do what I let you do. God can even say this to the king of a Godless nation. These verses sound like Psalm 139 but God's foreknowledge is only a terror to the wicked. It is a blessing to those who serve God.
O Lord, you havesearched me and known me!
Youknow when I sit down and when I rise up;
youdiscern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord,you know it altogether.
Youhem me in, behind and before,
andlay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge istoo wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
Psalm 139:1-6
His enveloping and omniscient attention should terrify the sinner and strike the saved with awe as we stand in the righteousness of Christ.
“ And this shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that. Then in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. And the surviving remnant of the house of Judahshall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
“ Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield orcast up a siege mound against it. By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord.For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and forthe sake of my servant David.”
And the angel of the Lord went out and struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived atNineveh. And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land ofArarat,Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.
Isaiah 37:30-38
God gives a sign to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He promises that the volunteer crops will feed them for 2 years and then they would be able to begin agricultural operations again. The Assyrians would never actually mount a siege against Jerusalem. God promises to have a remnant and a band of survivors upheld by His zeal and not by the zeal of mankind.
But to all who did receive him,who believed in his name, the gave the rightto becomechildren of God, whowere born,not of bloodnor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 1:12-13
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