All Glory to God our Father. Today we have a major change in our reading of Isaiah. There are 66 chapters in the book of Isaiah and ironically, there 66 books of the Bible. Isaiah is considered the most revered prophet of the Bible and there are no such things as coincidences in God’s world. Our Sovereign Creator:
Genesis 1
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
In reading those 3 verses, the very beginning of the Bible and the Living Word of God, we find the basis for Faith. When we accept that God created the Heavens and the Earth with just a Word, we also must accept that God is in control of every event, every moment, every breath of all of His creation. There are no such things as luck, good fortune, karma or as I’ve mentioned, coincidences. Our Father is in control. We must have Faith in God as Isaiah did. So much so that he was given a vision of Heaven with our Lord Jesus sitting on the throne. And Isaiah, knowing he was in the presence of the most Holy One, fell to his knees.
Isaiah 6
5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
Isaiah became a mighty prophet for our Lord and spoke boldly to the people of Judea. The first 35 chapters of Isaiah is quite poetic. Lots of smiting of ungodly people in an artful prose.
We come now to the 36th chapter and there is a very noticeable change. We have a story here that is referenced in other parts of the Bible and in historical records.
2 Kings 18 & 19
2 Chron 29 & 30
Archaeologists had been digging on these sites for years and never really knew who these things they had dug up had belonged to. Finally, after finding some crucial clay tablets, they realized they had unearthed the records of the Assyrian Empire. Much to the astoundment of all non believing researchers. For the longest time, this among other things, they kept claiming the Bible was wrong because they couldn’t find anything of the Assyrians. So, naturally the Bible was wrong, not them. All things come in accordance to God’s will.
Isaiah is divided up into 3 parts. Books 1 through 35 are of Judgement. They deal with the Tribes of Israel and Judah, and the Judgement by God of these peoples, who were in rebellion and worshipping false gods. The Assyrians just swept up the Northern Tribes of Israel and they never returned.
We find now the Assyrians trying to capture Jerusalem and this is the story in Books 36 through 39. The writing style is more direct and clear. Think of it as the 7th inning stretch before we head back into the Books of 40 to 66. The writing style goes back to poetry and talk of God’s Grace and Salvation.
Let’s start out with a brief overview of the story, Chapters 36 to 39. I will begin with the idea that Sacred and secular history are not the same. There are great spiritual truths that are hidden here that are seen only with the eyes of Faith. The Holy Spirit must teach us the divine purpose in the recording of this and all scriptural history. This account records a tremendous change in the history of the world. Here we see the transfer of the world power from Assyria to Babylon. Babylon is known as the first great world empire and it denotes the time of the Gentiles. Babylon was also known as a real menace to God’s people. This is a record of a Son of David beset by enemies and who went down to the verge of death, but was delivered out of it and continued to reign. Does this not sound like the story of Jesus, 600 years before Jesus’s birth.
In this story we have 3 miracles:
- The Death Angel slays 185,000 Assyrian soldiers.
- The Sun retreats 10 steps on the stairway of Ahaz.
- Hezekiah is healed with his contrition of his sin.
And we have 2 important letters:
- The first was from the Assyrian King that Hezekiah took directly to God in prayer and his people were delivered.
- The second was from the King of Babylon which flattered Hezekiah, who did not take that letter to God in Prayer and led to the undoing of the Southern Kingdom.
Let’s begin. Turn to Isaiah 36. I will read and render my commentary at the same time. You can follow along in your Bibles and see how this unfolds.
Isaiah 36
Verse 1 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 Launderer’s Field, 3 Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to him.
King Hezekiah was a good king. His name means “God has strengthened,” Hezekiah was 25 years old when he began his reign and zealously began to set things right. He reopened the Temple in Jerusalem and brought back the passover as a national holiday. King Hezekiah made sure that idols were smashed throughout the land and ended any pagan worship. Apparently the bronze serpent that Moses had made in the desert Number 21:8-9 was being worshipped by some people. Hezekiah smashed the serpent and led his people as a God fearing King.
And now he was feeling quite pressured by powerful King Sennacherib. Hezekiah had watched as the Tribes of Israel were being swallowed up, one by one, and was very concerned that he would be next.
The Assyrian King sent his military commander and army from a town South and East of Jerusalem. Lachish is about 37 miles from Jerusalem, so a days travels for a battle tested army. Which means Hezekiah is pretty much surrounded. The field commander stopped near the aqueduct of the Upper Pool and a couple of Hezekiah’s Court officials went out to see what he had to say.
Verse 4 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 counsel and might for war—but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me? 6 Look, I know you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. 7 But 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”?
Here we have a man, absolutely confident of his power. He had already subdued everyone else in the neighborhood and now he is trying to intimidate his next conquest by belittling them and mocking their supposed alliance with Egypt and more importantly the Jew’s Lord. Those high places mentioned refer to the asherah poles. Asherah poles were wood poles (sometimes carved, sometimes not) or trees planted by the “high places” where pagan worshipers sacrificed. They were used to worship the pagan goddess Asherah. After the construction of the temple under King Solomon, there were those who would instead worship Asherah on a high place and were considered blasphemous to the Lord, worshiping a different God in different ways and in different places than how He prescribed.
After the construction of the temple under King Solomon, there were those who would instead worship Asherah on a high place and were considered blasphemous to the Lord, worshiping a different God in different ways and in different places than how He prescribed.
This military leader was trying to say that the Jew’s God was in the very place of those asherah poles that Hezikiah had torn down. Where the Assyrian army had been fighting and conquering the other tribes, he found “high places” where Jehovah had been worshipped, which Hezekiah had desecrated. Now where are you going to find help?
Verse 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.’”
Rabshakeh, who is the name of this military commander, continues his mocking tone and pretends to bargain with them, doubting they would even have 2000 men to ride his generous gift of horses. Adding to the taunt that the least of his captains would command more horsemen than that.
Verse 10 is interesting in that Sennacherib, the King of Assyria was noted for making claims of Divine sanction for the wars in which he is engaged. Isaiah also taught that it was Jehovah who brought the King of Assyria into Judah, and used him as an instrument of Judgement.
Isaiah 7:17
The LORD will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house such days as have never come since the day that Ephraim separated from Judah, the king of Assyria.
And the empty prideful boast that the Lord himself told him to march against this country and destroy it.
Verse 11 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.”
It is interesting that the Jewish officials did not have much confidence in their people. Possibly knowing themselves so well and how rebellious they had been, they thought it better to keep negotiations in a more foriegn language. Obviously these guys were new to being a diplomat, thinking they could have the opposing side cooperate with a statement like that.
And it backfired.
Verse 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 people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”
Military men have always had a frank way of speaking. He is saying that the inhabitants of not only the wall, but of the city, will bear the brunt of what will happen if King Hezekiah does not surrender. Famine and slavery or death is what he is speaking of. This has always been the way of war, even unto this day. If you look at Syria now, today, they are experiencing this very thing. You must remember that these people are the descendants of Ishmael and will always be in contention with each other.
Genesis 16:11-12
And the angel of the Lord said to her,
“Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael,
because the Lord has listened to your affliction.
12 He shall be a wild donkey of a man,
his hand against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.
And that has held true since this scripture was written.
Verse 13
13 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 each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your 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.’ Have the gods of any nations ever delivered their lands 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 have been able to save their lands from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”
Appealing directly to the people on the wall and by extension the people of the city. Don’t listen to your King, listen to me. I will give you peace and fruit from your own trees, water from your own wells. Forget that mandate from God Himself telling me to destroy this country. You can’t possibly believe your Lord will save you. To Rabshakeh, one god is as good as another and none of them have stood up to him so far. How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?
Verse 21
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.
Tearing your clothes was a sign of distress and angst. These boys went back to their King and gave him the bad news. And the King, hearing the bad news, also tore his clothes.
So, you ask, what does this really mean to me? You’ve heard me going on and on about this story and how cool it is that we can find actual references to it in our history books. That’s nice and all, but you personally don’t find history all that exciting and could I just get to the point?
Why yes I can. What does this look like to you? A powerful man shows up at your doorstep, making demands, threats, taunting you and even bargaining with you. Saying that if you listen to me and do things my way, it will be better for you and that God you pray to isn’t really going to help you anyway. Let’s make a deal so you can really start enjoying your life instead of following a bunch of rules that this “God person” says you must do and aren’t a lot of fun.
Am I ringing any bells here? Didn’t Eve hear the same message? Or perhaps when it’s time to drive your friend into town for some grocery shopping because she can’t drive anymore and you sort of felt bad about that, but she talks a lot and is SO thankful to you that it gets annoying. You’d rather stay home and watch some trashy TV show and maybe not go to Church this next Sunday because the Pastor doesn’t say anything interesting anyway.
This to me speaks very directly of satan. Does he not whisper to us, taunt us, bully us? Put little inconvenient questions in your head. Little doubts.
That one sin that nobody knows and you really feel bad about it. Jesus said that when you believe in Him, accept Him, all your sins are forgiven. Are they really, are you sure about that? I know that I have had those thoughts pushed at me. It is one of the most persistent, nagging feelings that you still have to ask for forgiveness, over and over again for something that God has already forgiven and forgotten. The Scripture says in:
Isaiah 43:25
I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.
And in:
Hebrews 10: 14-18
14 For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,
16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
Has that answered the question of your sins being forgiven? When satan comes knocking, put on the full armor of God:
Ephesians 6:10-18
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
So, go out into the world fully informed of God’s Love and fully armored against the desires of evil. The sword of the Spirit is the word of God. READ YOUR BIBLES! And if you truly believe in Christ, satan has no purchase in your life. The Lord has put His Laws in our hearts and in our minds. Go forth and do His works.