Notes for Isaiah 36-37, 2 Chronicles 32, 2 Kings DIT 04 Module 2.1

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1 Notes for Isaiah 36-37, 2 Chronicles 32, 2 Kings DIT 04 Module 2.1 From The People's Bible Northwestern Publishing House, 1990 Verse in BOLD, commentary (explanation) in regular letters Isaiah 36: In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 2 Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the commander stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman s Field, 3 Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to him. The Way of Holiness in the previous chapter presented a wonderful hope. That highway would lead to a new and better Zion where there would be joy and singing. No lion or ferocious beast would be upon that road, and no unclean person would travel on it. What a contrast with the roads of Isaiah s day! The world was filled with danger, destruction, and death. Assyria had begun a military campaign against her rebels and enemies. Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, began his campaign in 703 B.C. in the north, continued through 702, and finally marched his forces into Judah in 701. The invasion of Judah was a thunderbolt that sent profound shock waves throughout the country. Jewish resistance could not oppose the Assyrian forces, and the defenses proved to be ineffective. The Assyrians marched triumphantly from one fortified city to another. Hezekiah had anticipated the attack of Sennacherib. Second Chronicles chapter 32 tells us that Hezekiah blocked off the spring outside the city of Jerusalem, stopped the flow of water throughout the land wherever he could, repaired the walls of Jerusalem, built towers on it, built another wall, and made many weapons and shields. In addition, Hezekiah dug a tunnel through the limestone of Jerusalem to bring water into the city. The tunnel, appropriately called Hezekiah s Tunnel, meanders 1,748 feet from Gihon Springs to the pool of Siloam. An inscription discovered in A.D by Arab boys describes the project. Jerusalem was prepared for a long and difficult siege. It had taken the Assyrians three years to conquer Samaria years earlier; Hezekiah was prepared for a similar siege. The strategy of the Assyrian campaign seems to be to isolate Jerusalem and then capture it. Sennacherib captured the fortified cities of Judah and set up camp near Lachish, to the southwest of Jerusalem. Second Kings chapter 18 tells of Hezekiah s message to Sennacherib: Withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand of me (verse 14). As a result of Hezekiah s negotiations, a large tribute was paid to the Assyrians. All the silver in the temple and in the treasuries of the royal palace were dispatched to Sennacherib at Lachish. Hezekiah even stripped off the gold from the doors and doorposts of the temple and sent them off to Sennacherib. But the only result of the payment was that it made Hezekiah and Jerusalem poor. The Assyrians did not keep their bargain but continued their attack. From Lachish, Sennacherib sent his field commander and a large army to Jerusalem. The time had come for the campaign to focus on Jerusalem in spite of Hezekiah s large payment. The road to Jerusalem and Mount Zion was anything but a Way of Holiness. The Assyrians occupied Judah and approached Jerusalem on the road to the Washerman s Field. Isaiah knew the place well. Over 30 years earlier he had met with Ahaz on the very spot where the Assyrian commander now stopped to parley with Hezekiah s delegation (see Isaiah 7:3). Isaiah noted this spot because of its ironic significance. King Ahaz had depended upon Assyria to defend Jerusalem against the combined forces of Israel and Aram. Ahaz chose not to trust in the Lord but to seek help from Assyria. Unfortunately, that decision eventually led to this invasion. During the 30 years since, Assyria had grown powerful and aggressive. She may have been an ally 30 years earlier, but now she was a powerful threat. Ahaz had opened the door for Assyria and actually set the

2 table for Sennacherib s invasion. When the Assyrian field commander stood at the very spot where Isaiah had spoken to Ahaz, it was the conclusion to a series of events that God, through Isaiah, had predicted. Isaiah s warnings had come to pass just as he had said: In that day the LORD will whistle for flies from the distant streams of Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria. They will all come and settle in the steep ravines and in the crevices in the rocks, on all the thornbushes and at all the water holes. In that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the River the king of Assyria to shave your head and the hair of your legs, and to take off your beards also. (7:18 20) So the field commander, sent from Sennacherib at Lachish, met with a delegation from Hezekiah. The title of the field commander was Rabshakeh, and, according to 2 Kings 18:17, two other military officers joined him on the road to the Washerman s Field Tartan (supreme commander) and Rabsaris (chief officer). The three of them, with the large army they commanded, clearly demonstrated Assyrian military and political power and success. Hezekiah s delegation also consisted of three officials the palace administrator, a secretary, and a recorder. These men no doubt had important offices, but in comparison to the Assyrians, they were no match a kind of David and Goliath meeting before battle. Isaiah 36: The field commander said to them, Tell Hezekiah, This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours? 5 You say you have strategy and military strength but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me? 6 Look now, you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces a man s hand and wounds him if he leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. 7 And if you say to me, We are depending on the LORD our God isn t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, You must worship before this altar? 8 Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses if you can put riders on them! 9 How then can you repulse one officer of the least of my master s officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 10 Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the LORD? The LORD himself told me to march against this country and destroy it. The speech of the Assyrian field commander is a masterpiece of military and political rhetoric. He intended to tell Hezekiah and Jerusalem how hopeless their situation was. He listed five arguments to demonstrate that Hezekiah had absolutely no basis for any confidence in being able to survive the coming siege. First, he said that the military strategy of Hezekiah was only empty words. Perhaps he knew of Hezekiah s preparations or at least expected that Hezekiah had fortified the city in anticipation of the Assyrian invasion and siege. From the Assyrian commander s perspective, whatever had been done to strengthen Jerusalem was not enough. In the face of Assyrian might, it was only empty words. Second, any alliance with any other power would be useless. Remember that some in Jerusalem had sought an alliance with Egypt. Isaiah had warned of such an alliance: Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help (31:1). The field commander explained the military and political reality of such an alliance. It was worthless. He called Egypt a splintered reed that could offer no help to Hezekiah and Jerusalem. Third, from Assyria s perspective, the Lord God of Hezekiah could not help them. The field commander knew that Hezekiah had completed a religious reformation earlier in his reign. He had purified the temple, celebrated the Passover, and destroyed the false worship of the Lord on the high places and altars throughout the land. But as a gentile commander of a military operation, he did not understand the worship of the Lord. He thought everyone worshiped like he did. In his world, everyone worshiped gods and depended upon those gods to protect and defend them. The more gods one had, the better. To this Assyrian mind, Hezekiah s destruction of religious worship centers

3 could only anger the Lord. So Rabshakeh said that they could not depend upon the Lord for help because Hezekiah had removed the Lord s altars. Fourth, the Jewish military forces were outnumbered. By Assyrian military standards, they were also poorly equipped. The commander taunted them with a bargain. He would give them two thousand horses if they could find enough riders, but even then they could not defeat even one officer in the Assyrian army. He was right. The preparations of Hezekiah had not brought one victory. Sennacherib had conquered all the Jewish fortified cities. Lachish was still holding out, but its fall was imminent. The best the Jews could hope for was to wait out the Assyrian attacks and hope to survive by sheer endurance. Finally, the field commander claimed that Sennacherib came on this campaign because the Lord had sent him. Years earlier, the Assyrians had been sent by God to destroy the Northern Kingdom. The Lord had foretold the coming of the Assyrian forces into Judah as well. It would seem strange that the Assyrian commander would know of Isaiah s prophecies or any of the other prophecies. Perhaps he simply concluded that the Lord had sent the Assyrians and had abandoned Judah just as the gods of the other defeated nations had deserted their followers. A common thought of all religions is that when bad things happen, a god must be angry with his people. The field commander s oration was blunt, bold, and arrogant. But it had the ring of truth. Even if he could not possibly understand the power of the Lord, the military situation was just as he described it The field commander saw this reality. Yet, what he could not see was the Lord and his power. The Assyrian walked by sight, not by faith. The delegation of Hezekiah perhaps found itself at a crisis of faith. Their senses told these men that the field commander was correct in assessing the situation. The Assyrian commander had even called into question their faith in the Lord and his deliverance. So often the situation is repeated in our lives too. The Lord promises to protect and save us, but all around us we see death, destruction, and danger. Will we believe what God has said and walk by faith, or will we believe what we see with our eyes? Believers answer the question by turning back to God, as Hezekiah did. He is an important example for believers. But before we get to the example of Hezekiah, things will get worse. Isaiah 36: Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall. 12 But the commander replied, Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the men sitting on the wall who, like you, will have to eat their own filth and drink their own urine? The field commander s comments had been spoken in Hebrew and had been loud enough for the people standing on the walls of Jerusalem to hear. The three men representing Hezekiah were concerned about the effects the field commander s words would have on the people in Jerusalem. They asked him to speak in Aramaic, the language of diplomacy, rather than Hebrew. The field commander was a well-educated man and was very perceptive. He understood why they made their request. His response was arrogant and crude. He didn t care what the delegation thought and offered a crude reminder of conditions he had seen in other military campaigns. As a seasoned veteran of other campaigns, he bluntly told Hezekiah s delegation that things would get worse. Conditions could deteriorate so far that those under siege would eat their own filth and drink their own urine. Isaiah 36: Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 14 This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you! 15 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says, The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water

4 from his own cistern, 17 until I come and take you to a land like your own a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, The LORD will deliver us. Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? 20 Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand? The field commander sensed that Hezekiah and all Jerusalem could not successfully resist the Assyrian military force surrounding the city. He must have concluded that Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem could only hope that their God would deliver them. It was true; Hezekiah and all Jerusalem placed all their hope in the Lord. The second speech of the field commander attacked Hezekiah s faith in the Lord. The entire speech attempted to undermine the resolve of the citizens of Jerusalem by calling their faith into question. The speech divides into three parts. First, from the Assyrian commander s perspective, hope in the Lord was only a delusion used by the Jewish king to keep his people on the walls and ready to defend their city. He thought that Hezekiah was deceiving his people. It was religious fanaticism at best, according to the Assyrian mind. Defeat would bring death and slavery. In the second part, the field commander proposed a realistic offer of peace; actually, it was an offer of surrender. If the citizens of Jerusalem would surrender and come out, they would eat from their own vines and fig trees. But there was a catch until I come and take you to a land like your own. The Jews would be deported even if they surrendered, but, again from the Assyrian perspective, that was better than being dead. At least that was the implication of what the commander said. Besides, he promised that the new land would be like Judah, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. The third part of this speech returned to Hezekiah s faith in the Lord. The field commander reminded the people on the wall that no god had previously delivered anyone from Assyrian military power. The places he cited as examples were nations that had all fallen over the past years. Sennacherib had not defeated all of them, but his predecessors had. Hamath had been conquered in 720 B.C.; Arpad, in 740. Sepharvaim is unknown. But, significantly, he cited Samaria, which had fallen in 722. All past victories! What possible hope could Jerusalem have? Trust in the Lord was no better than the trust other nations had in their gods. Rabshakeh considered such faith as foolishness. Likewise, the unbelieving world always considers faith in the Lord to be the height of folly. Isaiah 36: But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, Do not answer him. 22 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what the field commander had said. As powerful as the speech of the field commander was, it produced no response from the people on the wall. They remained silent in obedience to Hezekiah s command. In a way, their silence demonstrated faith in the Lord. They chose to trust the Lord rather than pursue the offer of surrender given by the field commander. Sometimes it is better to remain silent in the face of arrogant unbelief. The delegation of Hezekiah returned to the city in disgrace. They tore their clothes as a sign of their deep emotion. They were distressed by the blasphemy of the Assyrian field commander. He had defied their God, just as Goliath had defied the living God. They understood that the Assyrian threat was real and ominous. No doubt, that disturbed them greatly. Finally, they had accomplished nothing. Sennacherib had the gold and silver of Jerusalem. He could not be convinced to break off the attack. Instead, he had boldly sent his forces to Jerusalem to continue the campaign against Hezekiah. The situation was desperate and grim. It is no wonder that they tore their clothes. 1 1 Braun, John A.: Isaiah Milwaukee, Wis. : Northwestern Pub. House, 2000 (The People's Bible), S. 380

5 The Lord Delivers Jerusalem Isaiah 37: When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the LORD. 2 He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3 They told him, This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the point of birth and there is no strength to deliver them. 4 It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the LORD your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives. Hezekiah knew what to do. His nation was faced with extinction at the hand of a powerful foreign army. He had done his best in preparing for this invasion and trying to placate Sennacherib with a large sum of money, but his best effort wasn t enough. The Assyrian commander wanted total surrender, and even then it meant deportation of Jerusalem s population to another part of the Assyrian Empire. Hezekiah turned to the Lord for help. Ahaz had turned to Assyria and abandoned the Lord and his prophet Isaiah (chapter 7); Hezekiah turned toward the Lord and his prophet Isaiah. He also tore his clothes, making the same statement his delegation made. Then he entered the temple and sent for Isaiah. Those who came to Isaiah all wore sackcloth, an outward sign of this serious situation. Hezekiah called it a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace. The triple designation underscored the difficulty. Indeed, it was a day of national disgrace for Hezekiah and his people, but Hezekiah was more concerned about the words of the field commander that had ridiculed the living God. The field commander had sneered at Hezekiah s reforms, taunted the king for his faith, and scoffed at the Lord as if the living God were just another idol. It was all distressing to Hezekiah, as it would be for any believer. Yet Hezekiah knew what to do. He turned to the Lord. Hezekiah asked Isaiah, God s prophet, to pray for the remnant that still survived. The idea of a remnant is prominent in the message of Isaiah. Already in the first chapter, Isaiah wrote, The Daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a field of melons, like a city under siege. Unless the LORD Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah (verses 8, 9). In chapters 10 and 11, Isaiah again referred to the remnant. Perhaps Hezekiah had these references in mind. If he did, he must have thought of the people in Jerusalem as the remnant, since the other fortified cities were all captured. On the other hand, Hezekiah may not have had these passages in mind at all, and he was merely referring to the remaining population of Jerusalem as the remnant that has survived the attack of the Assyrians. The full explanation of what Isaiah meant by the remnant will emerge in the second part of his prophecy. Isaiah will explain that the remnant would be the faithful whom God brought back from Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem and reestablish Judah. The returning remnant was a vital part of God s plan to bring the Savior into the world, who was to be born an heir of David and come from David s city, Bethlehem. This historical account fits so well into Isaiah s structure that it seems strange that so many questions arise because of it. Isaiah chapters 36 to 39 have a parallel in 2 Kings chapters 18 to 20. At first that seems to suggest that Isaiah borrowed the passage from the history of the kings. Although the 2 Kings passage and this one in Isaiah are different in some places, one can sense the hand of Isaiah in both accounts. Because the history in Kings mentions the aqueduct of the Upper Pool on the road to the Washerman s Field (2 Kings 18:17; compare with Isaiah 36:2; 7:3), it is not difficult to conclude that Isaiah wrote this account. If he did, then either Isaiah himself was the chronicler for Hezekiah, or a later writer added it to the account in Kings. Besides the reference to the Upper Pool, chapters 36 and 37 form an appropriate conclusion to the first part of Isaiah, as they bring to a close the Assyrian period. The inclusion of two ideas support Isaiah s authorship. The road (or highway) and the remnant both point to Isaiah s authorship here and bolster the position of these chapters as a bridge between the two halves of Isaiah s prophecy.

6 Isaiah 37:5 8 5 When King Hezekiah s officials came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, Tell your master, This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7 Listen! I am going to put a spirit in him so that when he hears a certain report, he will return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword. 8 When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah. Two events took place. The first took place within Jerusalem. There God s prophet issued reassuring words to his faithful king. Isaiah had anticipated the coming of the king s officials. The Lord had given the prophet a message of comfort these men needed to hear: Do not be afraid. In every crisis of faith, believers need to hear these words. They were not words that Isaiah spoke to the officials just to make them feel better or to bolster their courage. They were the words of the LORD the God of free and faithful grace. He would stand behind them, and because of that, there was nothing to fear, even if everything looked dark and hopeless. Psalm 46 captures the same thought: God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea (verses 1, 2). Isaiah went on to promise that the blasphemy of the Assyrians would not go unchecked. The king of Assyria would hear a report that would cause him to return to his own country. There he would die. In place of the great arrogance communicated by the field commander, God would instill in Sennacherib a different spirit a spirit of fear and apprehension. The second event took place south and west of Jerusalem, in the camp of Sennacherib. Apparently, the Assyrian king had been successful at Lachish. Sennacherib was so proud of his victory at Lachish that the wall reliefs in Nineveh, his capital, that commemorate his victory there reach nearly 70 feet in length. But Sennacherib s success only darkened the skies over Judah and Jerusalem. Lachish had fallen, and Sennacherib moved on to attack Libnah. The Assyrian strategy was working; soon Jerusalem would stand alone, and all the territory of Judah would be under Assyrian control. But for Assyria there was one small problem Egypt. Isaiah 37: Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the Cushite king of Egypt, was marching out to fight against him. When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word: 10 Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria. 11 Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? 12 Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my forefathers deliver them the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, or of Hena or Ivvah? The report that Tirhakah was marching out to fight against Sennacherib was not the report Isaiah had promised. This report only strengthened Sennacherib s resolve to conquer Jerusalem. He wanted to end this campaign quickly. His message to Hezekiah was more of the same rhetoric. New names are added to the list of people the Assyrian kings had defeated. These peoples gods had not saved them; how could Hezekiah hope that his God would save him and Jerusalem? The report that Isaiah had promised would come later. (That report seems to have been a report of a rebellion in Babylon that demanded the immediate attention of the Assyrian king.) Isaiah 37: Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: 16 O LORD Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 17 Give ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God.

7 18 It is true, O LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands. 19 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. 20 Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God. Together with the news that Lachish had fallen, the letter from Sennacherib brought a new wave of fear to Hezekiah. But he again did what a believer must do. He turned to the Lord and prayed. Hezekiah expressed a deep faith in the Lord. It took a great faith to understand that the gods of all the other nations were only idols made of wood and stone. Many in Judah had worshiped such idols. But Hezekiah knew the truth, and he based his prayer on that truth. In addition, Hezekiah asked for deliverance so that the name of the Lord God of Israel would be glorified. The king of Judah was offended by Sennacherib s repeated insult of the Lord. The Lord graciously answered Hezekiah s prayer. Isaiah 37: Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word the LORD has spoken against him: The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises and mocks you. The Daughter of Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee. 23 Who is it you have insulted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel! 24 By your messengers you have heaped insults on the Lord. And you have said, With my many chariots I have ascended the heights of the mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of its pines. I have reached its remotest heights, the finest of its forests. 25 I have dug wells in foreign lands and drunk the water there. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt. 26 Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass, that you have turned fortified cities into piles of stone. 27 Their people, drained of power, are dismayed and put to shame. They are like plants in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the roof, scorched before it grows up. 28 But I know where you stay and when you come and go

8 and how you rage against me. 29 Because you rage against me and because your insolence has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came. 30 This will be the sign for you, O Hezekiah: This year you will eat what grows by itself, and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 31 Once more a remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above. 32 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this. 33 Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria: He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. 34 By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city, declares the LORD. 35 I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant! God answered Hezekiah through his prophet Isaiah. The response taunts Sennacherib in much the same way he had taunted Hezekiah. The taunt would not come from powerful military commanders but from the Virgin Daughter of Zion and the Daughter of Jerusalem women. Those who were powerless in ancient warfare would despise and mock the mighty Assyrian forces. Isaiah was clear about the reason for this. The Assyrians had insulted and blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, and Sennacherib s messengers had heaped insults on the Lord. It is often difficult to determine who the speaker is in Hebrew passages. Often, the speaker changes with little indication. Verse 24 introduced the words of Sennacherib s boast. In verse 26 there is another speaker this time it is the Lord himself. Have you [Sennacherib] not heard? The Lord went on to tell the Assyrian king that he had planned Sennacherib s great exploits long before: In days of old I planned it. In other words, the Lord was the God of history. All world events are under his control, and all events carry out the plans he has made. God does not operate on a whim but rather has everything planned. Because Sennacherib was so arrogant, God would lead him about like a wild animal with a hook in its nose. Sennacherib would return to Nineveh a humbler man than the arrogant one that began the campaign against Jerusalem. Then Isaiah turned his attention to Hezekiah and reassured him. The difficulty with the Assyrian invasion would not disappear quickly. For two years Judah would suffer because of the invasion, but in the third year things would return to normal. The invasion had destroyed one year s crop and made it impossible for farmers to sow a new crop. Judah s only source of food for two years would be what grows by itself and what springs from that. But in the third year agriculture would return to normal. Isaiah also clarified the idea of the remnant for Hezekiah. A faithful remnant would grow in Jerusalem. The faithful would send their roots down and bear fruit. What an interesting picture of believers. They would quietly cling to the Lord in faith, sink their roots into the gracious promises of God, and draw strength and comfort from God s promises so that they might bear fruits of faith. God

9 was not about to let his promises fail. Even if his people must be decimated by enemies or carried off later as captives by the Babylonians, yet enough would remain for him to fulfill all of his promises. This promise was much more important than the Assyrian invasion, for it involved the promise of God to send the Messiah, who would come as a child from the stump of Jesse. The phrase the zeal of the LORD Almighty occurs here; in 2 Kings chapter 19, which records this same hymn of Isaiah; and in Isaiah 9:7. It is a stamp of assurance at the end of God s promises. It will be done; God will see to it. This promise of God involved the redemption of all the world through the Messiah, but God did not forget about the situation in Jerusalem. Hezekiah was assured once again that Sennacherib would not take Jerusalem. As a matter of fact, he would not even shoot an arrow into the city. God would defend Jerusalem, but not because it deserved to be saved and not because Hezekiah was such a good and faithful king. God would save Jerusalem purely because of his grace, for my sake. That is, God would save Jerusalem just because he is God and is gracious. Isaiah had identified the many sins of Jerusalem and its people in the first part of his prophecy. Later history would reveal a continued unfaithfulness and perversion among the people. But by grace, God would deliver Jerusalem here. God included his servant David as a reason for the deliverance. In 2 Samuel chapter 7, God had promised that the Messiah would come from David s family. So it would happen. God pledged to graciously grant deliverance because of his promise to David. Neither David of old nor Hezekiah of this time deserved God s gracious deliverance, but the Lord would give it just the same. The angel of the Lord Isaiah 37: Then the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning there were all the dead bodies! 37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. 38 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king. All came to pass as Isaiah said it would. One hundred eighty-five thousand proud Assyrian soldiers died in a single night. Sennacherib broke camp, withdrew, returned to Nineveh, and stayed there. God had filled him with a timid spirit. The destruction of a significant portion of his forces caused him to withdraw. Perhaps he also heard a report that a rebellion was brewing in Babylon. Some commentators find evidence for such a rumor in the records of Assyria. Whatever the reason, the Assyrians limped back to Nineveh because of the Lord Almighty. Sennacherib did not die as soon as he returned to Nineveh. His two sons assassinated him almost 20 years later. What is interesting here is that Sennacherib was worshiping in the temple of his god when he was killed. Again, we note Isaiah s contrast. Hezekiah went to the temple of the Lord and prayed. The Lord responded with a great and glorious deliverance. Sennacherib went to the temple of Nisroch to pray, but his god was not able to protect him even during the act of prayer. The LORD is God; he alone is God. All other gods are only worthless idols.

10 2 Chronicles 32: After all that Hezekiah had so faithfully done, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah. He laid siege to the fortified cities, thinking to conquer them for himself. 2 When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that he intended to make war on Jerusalem, 3 he consulted with his officials and military staff about blocking off the water from the springs outside the city, and they helped him. 4 A large force of men assembled, and they blocked all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land. Why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water? they said. 5 Then he worked hard repairing all the broken sections of the wall and building towers on it. He built another wall outside that one and reinforced the supporting terraces of the City of David. He also made large numbers of weapons and shields. 6 He appointed military officers over the people and assembled them before him in the square at the city gate and encouraged them with these words: 7 Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater power with us than with him. 8 With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles. And the people gained confidence from what Hezekiah the king of Judah said. As we have said, the Chronicler forcefully sets the invasion of Sennacherib within the context of Hezekiah s faithfulness, a faithfulness our writer so lovingly described in the previous chapters. Was this invasion a test from the Lord? It seems so. This one he would pass; a later one he would not (see 32:31). Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded by this time (about 701 B.C.) merely the report of the Assyrian king s arrival would have been enough to turn most near-eastern kings into quivering bowls of gelatin. The Assyrians were ruthless empire builders. They had great military power, and they were not shy about using it. As Luther often remarked, it is precisely when God seems hidden that people have the greatest opportunity to exercise faith in his promise. That is exactly what God s faithful king did. The faith in Hezekiah s heart was revealed by the actions he took in his life. Realizing that he was no match for the Assyrians in the open field of combat, Hezekiah immediately set about strengthening the defenses of Jerusalem. To hold off a more powerful enemy for any length of time, ancient cities required a few basics. Among these were water to drink, food to eat, walls to defend, and willing defenders to patrol. In addition, the more a defending city could deny its adversary these same resources, the better its chances of survival were. With this in mind, Hezekiah dealt first with Jerusalem s water supply. He blocked all springs outside the city to deny their use to his enemy. These may well have included a number of channels and conduits in the Kidron Valley that distributed water from the Gihon spring. It is likely that the project mentioned later in verse 30 is also to be dated to this same period of time: Hezekiah blocked the upper outlet of the Gihon spring and channeled the water down to the west side of the City of David. Many interpreters feel that because the king wanted to ensure a steady water supply for his city if besieged, he rerouted waters from the spring. When he had finished, the waters from the spring flowed through a tunnel carved out of the rock and emptied themselves into a reservoir located within the city walls. Over a hundred years ago, bathers in the pool of Siloam discovered an ancient Hebrew inscription at the entrance to such a tunnel giving details of how the workers had finally broken through the last few yards of rock. Many scholars date this Siloam inscription to Hezekiah s time. The Gihon spring became a river that refreshed the city of God (see Psalm 46:4). Not content with simply securing the water supply, the king proceeded to tackle the matter of Jerusalem s walls, working hard to repair all the broken sections and erecting towers at strategic points. Verse 6 informs us that, as a final step, he organized and equipped his military forces like other great kings before him (most notably David). Thus he had met most of his city s requirements to withstand a siege. Water, walls, and defenders were all present and accounted for. We can only assume that he had not neglected to acquire an adequate amount of food as well. The rhetorical question asked by his men when blocking off the springs pretty much sums up the spirit of the first five verses: Why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water? In other words, Why should we make it any easier for the enemy? Here we might take up the discussion of a

11 question posed by the comparison of this crisis with a similar one from the life of king Jehoshaphat. Hezekiah worked diligently to get ready for the siege he knew was coming. When the lives of Jehoshaphat and his people were under the threat of imminent attack, the king made no physical preparations at all to defend himself. All he did was gather the congregation of Israel, go to the temple, and express in prayer his utter dependence on God (chapter 20). We might well want to ask the Chronicler, Which is the better response to trouble: prayer or work? His answer is, of course, Both. Depending on the circumstances and the personalities involved, sometimes a king might throw himself into a whirl of activity, praying all the while. At other times another king might simply wait for the Lord to accomplish the victory. Either way, the chief thing is to depend on the Lord s mighty power. By his preparations Hezekiah had no intention of denying the Lord. In fact, as a true, evangelical king, he later prepared the hearts of his people for combat by telling them, Be strong and courageous. There is a greater power with us than with him. With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles. Hezekiah realized, just like Jehoshaphat before him, that the battle was the Lord s. Our problem is that we sometimes fall into the habit of thinking there is only one form for piety to take. The idealist looks at the pragmatist and says, You have no faith! The pragmatist looks at the idealist and says, You re tempting God! Is it possible that the Lord has placed both the idealist and the pragmatist into one body of faith so that each one might learn from the other? The Chronicler says, Of course! Both must find rest for their souls in the words and promises of God. The pragmatist must be on his guard so that he doesn t start to depend on all his actions and practicality to save him. God can win the victory with or without his work. The idealist must be on his guard so that he doesn t grow carelessly confident and think that his sinful flesh has somehow disappeared and therefore requires no further discipline (see 1 Corinthians 9:25 27). After all, why make it easy for the enemy? Hezekiah s sermon and stirring declaration of faith to his people on the brink of war deserve a closer look. Other generals through the centuries have encouraged their troops by pointing them toward glories to be won or toward the proud traditions of their people that they should want to emulate. Some might minimize the strength of the enemy while magnifying their own army s skill and power. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged, Hezekiah says, just like any earthly general would. With almost the exact same words, Moses also encouraged his people when they were poised to enter the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 31:6). So also Joshua spoke to his troops and David to his son (Joshua 10:25; 1 Chronicles 22:13, 1 Chronicles 28:20). But the basis of Israel s courage was entirely different, just as its objective in battle was different. In every case the Israelites were encouraged to be strong because the Lord was with them (Deuteronomy 31:8, 23; Joshua 1:9; 1 Chronicles 28:20). He had chosen them as his people and had promised to glorify his saving name in them. Therefore, the objective of Israel s troops in battle was never to win glory for themselves but rather to carry out God s commands (Joshua 1:7, 18; 1 Chronicles 22:13; 28:20). Knowing that the Lord was with them, Israel had every reason to be confident. It came down to a simple comparison. On the one hand, there was the king of Assyria and the vast army accompanying him (no minimizing of the enemy s strength here: the Hebrew word for Assyria s army might just as well be translated horde ). On the other hand, there was the LORD our God to help us. In a masterful understatement, the king reminded his troops what this meant: There is a greater power with us than with [the Assyrian king]. Why? Because no matter how numerous, no matter how terrifying and bloodthirsty the Assyrians might be, they were and would remain the arm of flesh, while Israel was protected by the Lord s mighty hand and his outstretched arm (see Deuteronomy 5:15). There simply was no comparison between the two powers. Apart from Christ, we lie under the compulsion of many furious tyrants. We are hounded by our sinful flesh and harassed by the unbelieving world. We must constantly be on guard against either the devil s enticements to sin or his accusations of guilt. If we or our enemy should ever fail to take the Lord s power into account, we would be trapped like a bird in a cage (a proud boast Sennacherib once made regarding Hezekiah). But Christ has trampled our enemy underfoot, carried everything

12 that condemns us to the cross, and overcome all the world s fierce enmity. By depending on his strength, we win the victory over everything that threatens. This leaves one key question to be answered. How can believers who are under attack know for certain that the Lord is with them? The Lord himself has given us a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel which means, God with us. (Matthew 1:23; see also Isaiah 7:14). God himself became a human being to rescue us. That is why we who live in the city of God always enjoy the most perfect peace, even though the entire world may explode into chaos around us. God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. (Psalm 46:1 7) As did the people of Jerusalem, so we also find comfort from the words of our King. Sennacherib Mocks God and His Word 2 Chronicles 32: Later, when Sennacherib king of Assyria and all his forces were laying siege to Lachish, he sent his officers to Jerusalem with this message for Hezekiah king of Judah and for all the people of Judah who were there: 10 This is what Sennacherib king of Assyria says: On what are you basing your confidence, that you remain in Jerusalem under siege? 11 When Hezekiah says, The LORD our God will save us from the hand of the king of Assyria, he is misleading you, to let you die of hunger and thirst. 12 Did not Hezekiah himself remove this god s high places and altars, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, You must worship before one altar and burn sacrifices on it? 13 Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the other lands? Were the gods of those nations ever able to deliver their land from my hand? 14 Who of all the gods of these nations that my fathers destroyed has been able to save his people from me? How then can your god deliver you from my hand? 15 Now do not let Hezekiah deceive you and mislead you like this. Do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or the hand of my fathers. How much less will your god deliver you from my hand! 16 Sennacherib s officers spoke further against the LORD God and against his servant Hezekiah. 17 The king also wrote letters insulting the LORD, the God of Israel, and saying this against him: Just as the gods of the peoples of the other lands did not rescue their people from my hand, so the god of Hezekiah will not rescue his people from my hand. 18 Then they called out in Hebrew to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to terrify them and make them afraid in order to capture the city. 19 They spoke about the God of Jerusalem as they did about the gods of the other peoples of the world the work of men s hands. The proud king of Assyria sent his messengers to Hezekiah, while he himself was occupied with the siege of Lachish. A busy man indeed! No doubt his sending of messengers was all part of his campaign of psychological warfare, useful for sapping the enemy s will to resist. He, the great Assyrian king, did not need to come in person. His lackeys were good enough. Nazi Germany s Josef Goebbels did not invent propaganda; a glance at the king s message here tells us that Goebbels

13 couldn t even claim to have perfected it. Sennacherib had managed to do that long before him. It s all here: the distortions, the half-truths, and the big lie. On what are you basing your confidence? the king asked the people of Jerusalem, Hezekiah s little sermon? He s lying to you when he says that the LORD will protect you. Sennacherib then goes on to try to drive a wedge between the Lord s people and their king. His words in verse 12 are saying, in effect, Why should the LORD have any special regard for Hezekiah? Didn t I hear somewhere that he was the fellow who pulled down all the LORD s altars on the high places and who insisted that the LORD must be worshiped in one place and in one place only? As an idolater himself, he found it impossible to believe that the Lord would have insisted on such a thing. After all, from his perspective the more altars there are, the merrier any god must be. By this same logic it would follow that Hezekiah had offended the Lord, the God of Israel, in pulling down those altars and hence could make no special claim to speak for him. Given Judah s unholy habit of putting up those altars in the first place, we can see how this argument might have carried some weight with a people under siege. Under pressure, people often revert to the old ways, the old superstitions. Besides, the king goes on, don t you read the papers? Aren t you aware of who you re dealing with? We Assyrians have pretty much mopped up the place, and none of the other gods of the other nations has ever done them any good. Why should you think your god is any different? The Chronicler briefly alludes to events described more fully in 2 Kings (compare verses with 2 Kings 18:26 37 and 2 Kings 19:9 13). As far as the Chronicler is concerned, however, the issue is already crystal clear: the king of Assyria had lumped the God of Jerusalem together with all the rest of the earth s gods. It was the worst kind of blasphemy to put the living God into the same category as the work of men s hands. Sennacherib had taken his stand against the Lord and against his anointed one. That s the way it is in every conflict between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. We can expect that the devil will try to drive a wedge between us and our King. He does this by mocking God s Word, by ridiculing God s promises, and by heaping up our sins so high above our heads that we cannot see the Savior who died for them all. The devil also tries to separate our King from God himself. He insinuates that the God we worship is really no different from the god anyone else worships. Many ways, many paths Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Animist we all get there in the end. Why be so strict about the one Name and the one Way? We might let Luther give the answer, both to Sennacherib and to anyone else who speaks such proud blasphemies against our God and King: I will hear and know of no other God, but I will [instead] look and listen solely to this Christ. And if I hear Him, I already know on what terms I am with God; and I need no longer torment myself, as I did before, with any anxiety about atonement and reconciliation with God. For in this picture all wrath and terror vanish, and only grace and comfort shine forth. 29 God Answers at Break of Day 2 Chronicles 32: King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz cried out in prayer to heaven about this. 21 And the LORD sent an angel, who annihilated all the fighting men and the leaders and officers in the camp of the Assyrian king. So he withdrew to his own land in disgrace. And when he went into the temple of his god, some of his sons cut him down with the sword. 22 So the LORD saved Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of Assyria and from the hand of all others. He took care of them on every side. 23 Many brought offerings to Jerusalem for the LORD and valuable gifts for Hezekiah king of Judah. From then on he was highly regarded by all the nations. From the nature of our discussions up to this point, a victorious outcome seems assured. The Chronicler has previously given us examples of God s people being faced with overwhelming odds and still gaining the victory (see 20:1 30). When the Lord s name as the Savior-God has been called into question, he has acted to vindicate the trust his people had placed in him. I will be exalted 29 Luther s Works, American Edition, Vol. 24, p. 98.