All Glory to God our Father. When we last left our story, King Hezekiah’s administrators, the ones he sent to talk to Rabshakeh the military commander, had come back to their King with bad news. So bad, in fact they had torn their clothes and probably wished that somebody else could deliver that bad news. And the King, after hearing what Rabshakeh said, tore his clothes, too.
We don’t have that custom in this day and age. It was typical back in that day to tear your clothing on being told something unpleasant and if it was really bad, you’d haul out your sackcloth and ashes and sit there in misery.
Sackcloth and ashes was used often in the Bible and is a symbol of debasement and or repentance. Someone wanting to show his repentant heart would wear sackcloth and either sit in ashes and or put ashes on top of their head. Sackcloth was a course material, usually made of black goat’s hair, making it quite uncomfortable. The ashes signified desolation and ruin.
I think a lot could be fixed in this day and age with the adoption of this old custom. Yup, I’m serious. The Lord looked on people wearing their repentance and quite often had mercy on those people. To do this, you have to be serious about whatever is troubling you when you choose an outward expression of grief and humility. God can see our hearts and he knows we are good at saying we are sorry, but saying it and showing it means we have truly accepted that we need to atone for whatever we did to affront God. The first mention of sackcloth in the Bible is:
Genesis 37:34
Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days.
Jacob’s sons hated their brother Joseph and knew that he was their father’s favorite. They hatch a plan and sold Joseph into slavery then told their father that he had been killed by a wild animals. And the amazing thing in this is God controls everything, and I do mean everything. Every detail. It troubles my mind to think about how all this works, but tiny details and connections matter to God. So much so that he took what the brothers, these sons of Jacob, what they had done and made it work out that it saved the father and his sons, so that those sons became the Tribes of Israel. And these Tribes of Israel fell away from God, all except Judah, and that was questionable at times. And here we are now in Chapters 36 to 39 of Isaiah, with Judah having a good King, a righteous King, destroying idols everywhere, making his people walk closer to God than they had for quite some time. And all those tribes of the brothers that had conspired against Joseph, when God had told Abraham that he would father a great people, these people, these tribes had just been swept up by Assyria. Assyria had been used by God as an instrument of Judgement on his wayward people. Isaiah told his people that this would happen, but they did not listen. God had told Isaiah in Chapter 6:9-10
He said, “Go and tell this people:
“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
10 Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”
Are we not the same as these people? Do we hear what is preached to us in Church, but our ears refuse to understand and accept what is said? Our eyes see but if you are watching TV and reading anything of the secular world, more than the Bible, is it a wonder that they don’t perceive the Word of God? The Lord said
Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Why wouldn’t you choose this over whatever the world has to offer? And yet we have so much unhappiness in the world, so much searching for meaning. Our Lord said His burden is light, and yet we yoke ourselves to depression and anxiety, witchcraft and everything else this world has to offer. You may scoff at the term witchcraft. But it is what the Bible tells is Astrology, Horoscopes, the belief in Luck and ends as idol worship. How many times have your said to someone “Good Luck”? Do you really want to place your faith in Luck, rather than the Lord? How many horseshoes have you seen over doorways of barns and outbuildings. Satan has wormed his way into our culture long ago and now it’s just a way of life for many.
We read about the Armor of God last week in Ephesians 6:10-18. I recommend that you mark that in your Bible and read it every day. Give it some serious thought, and while you’re at it, give your worries to the Lord. Why would you trust in the world or yourself? Can you change anything by worry? Does it give you pleasure to worry? It must be, seeing how often I keep hearing it. I was a very self sufficient man. I could, by my own hand, manage my life and the things around me, I thought this until the Lord humbled me. All those things I could do, those things I worried over. Gone, like tears in the rain. The Lord took from me what he could not use, and he is still taking from me. Everyday I can do a bit less. That prideful, rebellious man, is now someone who relies on the Lord, trusts in the Lord, more each day. My favorite verse is from 2 Corinthians 12:10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Place your faith in the Lord, not in flesh. Our God will provide your daily bread and much more. Keep in mind all the details and connections that our Lord handles. He knows what you need before you do. You really need to believe that.
He knew what Hezekiah needed before the King did. Hezekiah was worried, and rightly so. The entire Assyrian army was camped on his doorstep.
Let’s go to Isaiah 37 and I’ll go through what we find.
1 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 moment 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.”
So, Hezekiah’s got trouble. He tears his clothes and dons his sackcloth and heads to the Temple. I would call that a good start. Shows you are serious about this, willing to be humble and uncomfortable. And if he’s going to get his sackcloth on, all his government officials are going to do it, too. What a breath of fresh air that would be for our government to follow this old custom. Instead of lowering the flag to half mast, mandate that everybody put on sackcloth and get serious about praying.
The city of Nineveh did it, much to Jonah’s disgust.
Jonah 3:6-10
6 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:
“By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
And Jonah told God that he’d rather die than see these gentiles repent.
Keep your place in Isaiah 37 and let’s go read Jonah 4.
1 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”
9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”
10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
We are quite often ungrateful and still have the Love of God.
God’s children in Judah had been ungrateful and more and yet the Lord still loved them. Hezekiah’s officials go to the Temple and confer with Isaiah, asking him to put a good word in with God. They were hoping that God would preserve the remnant that they were.
Verse 5
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! When he hears a certain report, I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.’”
Isaiah has good news for Hezekiah. Do not be afraid, he told them. I tell you this also, do not be afraid. Do not be afraid of this world. Do not be afraid of the arthritis in your bones. Do not be afraid of where your next meal comes from. Faith, Faith in the Lord that he will provide. God is the same now as He was back then. He does not change, which is hard to understand in our fallen condition. Satan is always whispering to us, but the armor of God and the Holy Spirit indwelling us, will keep him at bay. You just have to trust in the Lord, as Hezekiah did. God told him that the Assyrian King’s underlings have blasphemed the Lord and Sennacherib will hear something that will make him want to return to his own country, where he will meet his end with a sword. In this we must keep in mind that we ourselves should never seek justice. The Lord our God is the Great Judge.
Verse 8
8 When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.
9 Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the king of Cush, 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 given into the hands of 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 predecessors deliver them—the gods of Gozan, Harran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?”
Rabshakeh finds out his King has left him to go back home. Then he delivers a stern warning to Hezekiah to not get comfy with him being gone for long. Oh, and that god you depend on is not going to help you when I get back. After all, how much help where these gods to all the other people I and my predecessors have destroyed? Where are those people now?
Let us read together the rest of Chapter 37
14 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 “Lord Almighty, the 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, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.
18 “It is true, 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, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Lord, are the only God.”
21 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:
“Virgin Daughter Zion
despises and mocks you.
Daughter Jerusalem
tosses her head as you flee.
23 Who is it you have ridiculed 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 ridiculed 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 junipers.
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[d] before it grows up.
28 “But I know where you are
and when you come and go
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, 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 kingdom 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!”
36 Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand 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 Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.
Hezekiah goes to the Temple and prays to the Lord and lays it all out.
16 “Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. What a great verse. It follows closely with the Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
After acknowledging that the gods of other people were only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands, Hezekiah boldly goes forth and asks God for deliverance.
Isaiah then tells of the end of Sennacherib and how the Angel of Death will put to death 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. And one day while Sennacherib was worshipping to his god made of wood or stone, he was killed with a sword by his 2 sons.
Also interesting is that Jonah was in Nineveh around 790 BC, about 100 years before Sennacherib meets his end, in the same city. I can’t stress enough that God is in control of all things. Even small things, like why am I here talking to you. A little more than a year ago it was Pastor Pete, and I was still in rebellion. My wife asked me every Wednesday to come to Bible study. Nope. Until God told me Yup, you’re going to Bible study. Pastor Pete then leaves to go minister to a town near the arctic circle or so it seems. Next up in the land of details and connections is Pastor Delroy takes over Bible Study. I am no longer in rebellion and listen in wonder as Delroy spends 6 weeks in studying Psalms 23. Then summer comes, this summer, and Delroy and Patty want to take the summer off.
I am not saying it was like me in Isaiah’s place, standing before our Lord, hearing this scripture:
Isaiah 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
No, it was more like Charlotte asking me if I would teach Bible study this summer. The Lord works in mysterious ways. If Pastor Pete had not left, I would not be here. And another mysterious thing is Delroy and Patty did not take the summer off.
What God has planned for you, you can resist, you can fight it and boy howdy I did. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. And remember this.
John 15:9-11
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”