Isaiah_36-37

The 4 chapter of Isaiah 36-39:8 contains – Hezekiah’s Challenge to Trust God!

The account is centered around three main episodes in the life of Hezekiah.  These are marked in Bold below:

1. HEZEKIAH’S CHALLENGE TO TRUST GOD (36:1–39:8)
2. Overcoming Sennacherib’s Threats against Hezekiah (36:1–37:38)

(1)  Challenging Hezekiah’s Trust for Deliverance (36:1–22)
The First Challenge: On Whom Can You Depend? (36:1–10)
The Second Challenge: Who Can Deliver You? (36:11–21)

(2)  Cutting Off the Blaspheming Assyrian King (36:22–37:7)

(3)  Sennacherib’s Final Warning to Hezekiah (37:8–13)

(4)  God’s Promise to Rescue Hezekiah (37:14–35)
Requesting God’s deliverance (37:14–20)
Promise to Defeat Proud Sennacherib (37:21–29)
God’s Sign of Survival and Promise of Protection (37:30–35)

(5)  Assyrians Defeated (37:36–38)

2. Hezekiah Delivered from Death (38:1–22)

(1)  Hezekiah’s Prayer for Healing (38:1–8)

(2)  Hezekiah’s Thanksgiving for Healing (38:9–20)

(3)  Concluding Comments (38:21–22)

3. Trusting Babylon Rather Than God (39:1–8)

 

These four chapters contain a theological account of Hezekiah’s reign while he was dealing with problems related to Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah in 705–701 BC. These chapters are somewhat reminiscent of the narrative report of events when King Ahaz refused to trust God while facing the crisis of the Syro-Ephraimite War in chaps. 7–8. A comparison of the sections exposes several similarities in the way these leaders behaved and also highlights some fundamental differences between these two kings, for in the end Ahaz refused to trust God, while at the last moment Hezekiah did trust God for deliverance from Assyria. The historical events and the dialogues (between the Assyrian general Rabshakeh and the people of Jerusalem, Isaiah and Hezekiah, Hezekiah and God), about whether the king should trust God or some other nation, provide the reader with an historical context for understanding many of the preceding chapters (13–35) and particularly God’s promises to destroy the Assyrians. (Quote: New American Commentary)   (Compare with account in II Kings 18:1-20:21. ^[1]

These four chapters  contain the account of Hezekiah’s reign while he was dealing with Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah in 705-701 BD.

 

2 Kings 18:13-18 (NLT)
¹³  In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria came to attack the fortified towns of Judah and conquered them.
¹⁴  King Hezekiah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I have done wrong. I will pay whatever tribute money you demand if you will only withdraw.” The king of Assyria then demanded a settlement of more than eleven tons of silver and one ton of gold.
¹⁵  To gather this amount, King Hezekiah used all the silver stored in the Temple of the LORD and in the palace treasury.
¹⁶  Hezekiah even stripped the gold from the doors of the LORD’s Temple and from the doorposts he had overlaid with gold, and he gave it all to the Assyrian king.
¹⁷  Nevertheless, the king of Assyria sent his commander in chief, his field commander, and his chief of staff from Lachish with a huge army to confront King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. The Assyrians took up a position beside the aqueduct that feeds water into the upper pool, near the road leading to the field where cloth is washed.
¹⁸  They summoned King Hezekiah, but the king sent these officials to meet with them: Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace administrator; Shebna the court secretary; and Joah son of Asaph, the royal historian.

 

2 Kings 18:19 (NLT)
¹⁹  Then the Assyrian king’s chief of staff told them to give this message to Hezekiah: “This is what the great king of Assyria says: What are you trusting in that makes you so confident?

 

Chapters 36-39 are not in chronological order.  In Chapter 38 it warns Hezekiah to prepare for his approaching death, but Hezekiah prayed that God would intervene.

 Hezekiah ruled 29 years and lived fifteen years after he was healed of the serious illness.

712-711BC – was the invasion by Sargon II in 712-711BC  – THEN Sennacherib during 705-701BC.

715bc – Hezekiah becomes sole king of Judah.  (He was coregent with father in 726bc – 715bc.)

734- 732 BC – was the “Syro-Ephraimite War of 734-732 BC.

We do read and learn of Hezekiah’s fallibility and was not the answer to all of Judah’s problems.  These evens do demonstrate God’s amazing grace in deliverance and it wasn’t due to Hezekiah’s behavior or that it deserved answering Hezekiah’s at the end pleading for God’s help.

It does show the position we need to be in during difficult and seemingly inevitable times, however, God acts to protect his name.

Chapters 36-39 provide a narrative of Hezekiah’s deliverance but not an earned deliverance on his part.  This divine benevolence powerfully illustrates how God’s grace truly can overcome human depravity.  Hezekiah fails, but God takes center stage as the one who should be trusted.

Isaiah 36:1-10 (ESV)  The 1^st challenge: On whom can you depend?    Rabshakeh (Rob-Sha-Ka)

¹  In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.
²  And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field.
³  And there came out to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.
⁴  And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours?
⁵  Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me?
⁶  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.
⁷  But if you say to me, “We trust in the LORD our God,” is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar”?
⁸  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.
⁹  How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master’s servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
¹⁰  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.’”

 

V.1 – when:  “In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah…  (715bc he started to rule, thus it is now 701bc.)

Assyrian messenger questions Hezekiah’s sanity in trusting weak Egypt, raises doubts about the wisdom of trusting in a God who cannot protect his own altars from destruction and offers a gracious deal if they surrender.

V.3 – three officials go to the wall to hear the message.

V.4-10 – the 1^st speech  – rhetorical questions about trusting Egypt    We read in Isaiah 37:10-13 the written letter sent by Sennacherib.

 

V.4-5 – Rabshakeh magnifies Sennacherib’s royal power as “the great king”  – Proof: The conquest of some 46 fortified cities.  Rabshakeh (Rob-Sha-Ka)

V.6 & 7 – He could only think of 2 reason why the Hebrew people were led astray.  1) they might have trusted Egypt.  2)  that they trust their God after their king destroyed many altars and demanded they worship only at Jerusalem.

V.8-9 Other things he concludes to persuade them to surrender to them.  One was their military weakness demonstrated by offering 2000 horses knowing they could not find 2000 men to ride them.

V.10 – The final argument was to claim that God had told him to come up and destroy the land.  Note how this section was summarized in the New American Commentary:

Significantly, the line of thinking presented in Rabshakeh’s speech conflicts with aspects of Isaiah’s theology on several points, even though there is some general superficial agreement. Isaiah also thought the Hebrews were deluded with their “covenant with death” (28:15) and their priests and prophets were drunk and without understanding (28:7–8), so he concluded that their alliance with Egypt would bring shame and no help (30:3–5). While Sennacherib saw reliance on Egypt and trust in God as the two pillars of their false confidence, Isaiah viewed these two pillars as mutually exclusive sources of trust. Isaiah rejected military alliances as a solid basis for confidence and demanded that the government officials trust in God alone. Sennacherib also misunderstood the significance of Hezekiah’s reform movement when he destroyed pagan altars at the high places in Judah. Isaiah would approve of Hezekiah’s action and interpret this reform as a very positive move that would have caused God to favor Hezekiah (Sennacherib thought it would bring God’s anger). Finally, Isaiah repeatedly promised God’s judgment on Judah, but in the same breath he also predicted the deliverance of Jerusalem and the destruction of Assyria (26:16–27:1; 28:18–21; 29:1–7; 30:16–31; 31:8–9) which conflicts with the Assyrian claim that God brought them here to destroy Jerusalem. In a real sense, Sennacherib was putting a challenge to God, for Sennacherib falsely claimed that he was doing God’s will by defeating Jerusalem. Later when God acted and destroyed thousands of Assyrian troops, God demonstrated that Sennacherib was making false statements. Destroying Jerusalem was not God’s will. These contrasting theological differences suggest that this speech was not some creative or imaginative compilation that later editors derived from earlier sermons by Isaiah. These are not Isaiah’s teachings; these are the words of a self-deluded Assyrian king who thinks that God has no power and should not be trusted.^[2]

 

 

2 Kings 18:14 –  11 tons of sliver or 300 talents with weight of 75 LB each.

75 lb X 300 talents – 22,500 lbs.

22500lb /2000lb  = 11.25 ton

 

Matthew 18:24 =  10,000 talents X 75 Lb 750,000 Lbs.

750,000 lb  ? 2000lb = 375 tons   –

1 talent was what a person could earn in twenty years of labor.

 

 

Isaiah 36:11-21 (ESV)
¹¹  Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in 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.”
¹²  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?”
¹³  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!
¹⁴  Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you.
¹⁵  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.”
¹⁶  Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me and 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,
¹⁷  until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
¹⁸  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?
¹⁹  Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
²⁰  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?’”
²¹  But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.”

 

Isaiah 36:11-21 (NLT)
¹¹  Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Assyrian chief of staff, “Please speak to us in Aramaic, for we understand it well. Don’t speak in Hebrew, for the people on the wall will hear.”
¹²  But Sennacherib’s chief of staff replied, “Do you think my master sent this message only to you and your master? He wants all the people to hear it, for when we put this city under siege, they will suffer along with you. They will be so hungry and thirsty that they will eat their own dung and drink their own urine.”
¹³  Then the chief of staff stood and shouted in Hebrew to the people on the wall, “Listen to this message from the great king of Assyria!
¹⁴  This is what the king says: Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you. He will never be able to rescue you.
¹⁵  Don’t let him fool you into trusting in the LORD by saying, ‘The LORD will surely rescue us. This city will never fall into the hands of the Assyrian king!’
¹⁶  “Don’t listen to Hezekiah! These are the terms the king of Assyria is offering: Make peace with me—open the gates and come out. Then each of you can continue eating from your own grapevine and fig tree and drinking from your own well.
¹⁷  Then I will arrange to take you to another land like this one—a land of grain and new wine, bread and vineyards.
¹⁸  “Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you by saying, ‘The LORD will rescue us!’ Have the gods of any other nations ever saved their people from the king of Assyria?
¹⁹  What happened to the gods of Hamath and Arpad? And what about the gods of Sepharvaim? Did any god rescue Samaria from my power?
²⁰  What god of any nation has ever been able to save its people from my power? So what makes you think that the LORD can rescue Jerusalem from me?”
²¹  But the people were silent and did not utter a word because Hezekiah had commanded them, “Do not answer him.”

 

Rabshakeh (Rob-Sha-Ka)

V.11-12 – They requested he speak to them in Aramaic (the official language of international relations in this day.)    It might have been a test of their flexibility or willingness to really negotiate.  For those on the way to be spared the psychological assault that the Assyrian’s spokesperson would do in at least try to cause division among the Jews.  ALSO, he would show that he’d not treat Hezekiah at a higher level than a common soldier.

V.15 – He (Rabshakeh) (Rob-Sha-Ka) warning ends up questioning the almighty power of God and doubting the promises of God.  He was in essence calling God a liar.  He claimed that no one should trust in the promise that God would deliver Jerusalem.  He questions the whole theological relationship between God and his people in did God really elect them to be his people to abandon them to the Assyrians?  Question if God’s promises concerning Zion are without value?

V.16-17 – The people of Jerusalem would not know the practical answer as to how God would deliver them, they just had to trust that He would.

Isaiah 36:16 (ESV)
¹⁶  Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace (brakah H1293) with me and 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,

Isaiah 36:16 (NLT)  – Brakah – Salom (peace_
¹⁶  “Don’t listen to Hezekiah! These are the terms the king of Assyria is offering: Make peace with me—open the gates and come out. Then each of you can continue eating from your own grapevine and fig tree and drinking from your own well.

V.17 – the rewards to them would be…. Describes the future if they only surrendered.   1)go freely back to their homes & enjoy the prosperity   2) take to an even better place.  Effectively saying that only the Assyrians could deliver for them toward their future.

V.18-20 – their silence was in following Isaiah when he told them that they ‘should not listen’ to Rabshakeh.    That Isaiah would be using a deceitful policy.  (A showing pure human logic and explanation.  Reliance on self to solve the future and possible problems.)

New American Commentary states:  The logic of Sennacherib’s case claims that if these gods could not deliver those nations in past wars, why should anyone think that the God of Judah would be able to deliver Jerusalem from the Assyrians in this war? In these remarks, Sennacherib has made the serious mistake of equating God with the useless pagan wood and stone gods of these other nations, lifting Sennacherib up above all the gods of the nations, and claiming that God is unable to deliver Jerusalem. These ideas blaspheme the name of the only real, all-powerful God, who controls every aspect of human history. Although many people today would never say these kinds of things about God because it might seem to be a little too irreverent, they too have limited the power of God in their thinking and by their actions they raise questions about his ability to save.^[3]

V.22 –  The response given by the three representatives of Hezekiah.  “Silance”

Isaiah 36:22 (ESV)
²²  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.
 

Isaiah 37:1-7 (ESV)
¹  As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the LORD.
²  And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz.
³  They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.
⁴  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 for the remnant that is left.’”
⁵  When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah,
⁶  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.
⁷  Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’”

 

Isaiah 37:1-7 (NLT)
¹  When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes and put on burlap and went into the Temple of the LORD.
²  And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the court secretary, and the leading priests, all dressed in burlap, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.
³  They told him, “This is what King Hezekiah says: Today is a day of trouble, insults, and disgrace. It is like when a child is ready to be born, but the mother has no strength to deliver the baby.
⁴  But perhaps the LORD your God has heard the Assyrian chief of staff, sent by the king to defy the living God, and will punish him for his words. Oh, pray for those of us who are left!”
⁵  After King Hezekiah’s officials delivered the king’s message to Isaiah,
⁶  the prophet replied, “Say to your master, ‘This is what the LORD says: Do not be disturbed by this blasphemous speech against me from the Assyrian king’s messengers.
⁷  Listen! I myself will move against him, and the king will receive a message that he is needed at home. So he will return to his land, where I will have him killed with a sword.’”

 

Ch. 37 – How does the Hebrews react to Rabshakeh’s message from Sennacherib? 

Their mourning, lamenting, and prayer for divine help would be appropriate responses for believers in a time of distress.   They must trust in God to deliver them.

Hezekiah hears the report, tares his clothes and puts on burlap and goes to the Temple.    Where else should he go?    It shows his compliance and trust in God.

1. 2 “to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. “ The first time that Isaiah is mentioned In this book that he is called a prophet.  Requesting Isaiah’s assistance would be the 1^st step in going the right direction.

V.4 – Isaiah gives instruction to Hezekiah on what to pray about.  Also states how God rebukes Sennacherib.  “and will punish him for his words”       Showing that God can hear and react to defend himself.

NAC quote:  It is important to notice that Hezekiah does not tell God what to do to reclaim his glory or when to do it, so his prayer is not a “please save me now” selfish prayer or a bargaining prayer that promises total dedication “if” God will act.^[4]

V.4 – The king asks for prayer on the divine intervention for the sake of those left and note it was not a request for prayer for himself.  “Oh, pray for those of us who are left…”

V.5-7 – Apparently Isaiah provides an immediate response to the Kind’s messengers so they could take a words of encouragement to their king.

There was not a mention as to when God would act, but that He would.  The three promises imply that Jerusalem will not be defeated, hence do not fear.

Note that the prophecy is about God’s defeat of Sennacherib.    It was not about the saving of Jerusalem.  Yes, Jerusalem was saved at this time, but that was not the prophecy.  It was that God would act against the claims and lies of Sennacherib.  A lesson for them and us is that God’s plans and purposes are centered around the establishment of his honor and glory, not them or us.

 

Isaiah 37:8-13 (ESV)
⁸  The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.
⁹  Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, “He has set out to fight against you.” And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
¹⁰  “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.
¹¹  Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered?
¹²  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?
¹³  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?’”

 

This episode raises the brief possibility of an Egyptian victory over the Assyrians, but these are dashed with another defiant threat from Sennacherib.

Note that God did not promise an Egyptian defeat to the Assyrians but did predict the death of the blasphemous Sennacherib.  (Isaiah 37:6-7)

V8-9 – The military action of the Assyrians.  Rabshakeh (Rob-Sha-Kay) left Jerusalem with his troops and went back to meet with King Sennacherib.  The king had completed his conquest of Lachishand turned his attention to the city of Libnah that was a few miles north of Jerusalem.  Libnah was smaller and would clear a pathway toward Jerusalem.

Not knowing the plans of the army the Hebrews might have thought relief has occurred.

1. 9b-13 – Sennacherib’s threatening letter to Hezekiah…

This message gives warning that the warning was not just from Sennacherib’s cupbearer, but Sennacherib himself to Hezekiah not to place his confidence in God.   Isaiah 14:24-27 the oracle concerning Assyria and God’s promise to beak them when they were in his land (V.25).

V.12 – Sennacherib argues the facts of history with their defeating so many cities before this one.  Sennacherib know that the basis for Hezekiah’s hope is in the promises of God.  Thus the reminder of where were the gods of the other cities he plundered.

Hezekiah must make a life and death decision:  Is God truly stronger than these other gods and is it his play to deliver Jerusalem from the Assyrians at this time? 

TODAY:  we ask similar question of:  Is God Able?  Is it God’s will?

Isaiah 37:14-20 (ESV)
¹⁴  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.
¹⁵  And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD:
¹⁶  “O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.
¹⁷  Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God.
¹⁸  Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands,
¹⁹  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.
²⁰  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.”

 

Hezekiah did not surrender and Sennacherib did finish his conquest of Libneh so now the main army is encamped around Jerusalem to make preparations to besiege it with ramps, battering rams, and various other methods of attack.  (Read ahead to the prophecy:  Isaiah 37:33 (ESV) …
³³  “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 or cast up a siege mound against it.

 

What is the focus?  It is prayer and God’s answer to demonstrate his power and plans for the nations.

Quote NAC:  The king’s prayer and Isaiah’s answer from God focus on the power of Israel’s God, his plans for the nations, and his defeat of the Assyrians. There is no explanation of how God will defeat Sennacherib and the massive Assyrian army or any indication about exactly when it will happen. Prophecies (both in the Old and New Testament) tend to focus the audience’s eyes on the God who will do it, rather than on how and when it will happen. Believers need to worry more about trusting God and glorifying his name, rather than trying to figure out the answers to all the how and when questions. God purposely keeps the details of his ways mysterious, for knowing the how and when can have a negative influence on some of the dynamics of trusting God.^[5]

V.14-15 – Hezekiah receives the messages from Sennacherib and he takes them into the temple and unrolls the scroll for God to see.  It would be as a witness to the blasphemy of Sennacherib and to support the prayer that God to rebuke the one who ‘ridiculed the living God’.  (Isaiah 37:4)

The prayer represents a style that one might use when in trouble and mirrored in the Psalms. 

1. A) an invocation V.16
2. B) a petition to hear (V. 17-19) including the rationale for the petition
3. C) a final petition for divine deliverance (v.20)

V.16 – one confesses who God is as alone over all the kingdoms of the earth

V.17-19 – the first petition contains five imperative verbs that function as requests for God to listen, hear, and see.

¹⁷  Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God.
¹⁸  Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands,
¹⁹  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.
V.18 – Hezekiah recognizes the truth in the claim of Sennacherib of military superiority many cities.

V.19 – the Uniqueness of God

V.20 – Hezekiah demonstrates his personal relationship and faith in God by boldly asking for God to demonstrate his power.  It is not for self-preservation but that God will demonstrate to the world who controls it.   That others would recognize his divinity and power.  Similar prayer by Elijah when he called upon God to demonstrate his divinity by sending fire from heaven.  (! Kings 18:36)

²⁰  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.”

It wasn’t a prayer for God to prove Himself to him and Jerusalem for they already knew that.

Isaiah 37:21-29 (ESV)  – Defeat to the Proud Sennacherib
²¹  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,
²²  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.
²³  “‘Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes to the heights? Against the Holy One of Israel!
²⁴  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.
²⁵  I dug wells and drank waters, to dry up with the sole of my foot all the streams of Egypt.
²⁶  “‘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,
²⁷  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.
²⁸  “‘I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in, and your raging against me.
²⁹  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, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came.’

 

V.21 – Shows how God value’s prayer.  His prayer prompted God to reveal His will to him.  (Remember, it was prophesied before this that the Assyrians would be destroyed and Jerusalem would continue to stand for now.

V.22-25 – What God will do to Sennacherib and why.  The proud and blasphemous claims of Sennacherib past conquests and his claiming he has power to ascend to the heights.  Thus, it would be hopeless for you people to trust your God.

V.26-28 – God’s message the rebuts Sennacherib’s claims.  God clearly states that He controls history.  ? “Have you not heard?”   (Like when speaking to Jonah and other past conversations recorded in the Bible.)  (Most fitting as Sennacherib was from Nineveh. )    The statement:  “I am”  – as was originally establish when appearing before Moses at the bush.

V.29 – “Because you have raged (H7264) against me…”

Quote:  NAC –  God announces the plans he will accomplish concerning the future life of Sennacherib. Everyone hearing Isaiah’s prophecy can be assured that this plan will work because God is fully aware of where the Assyrian king sits, when he comes and goes, and what he says that blasphemes the name of God.¹³³ Divine sovereignty is based on a full knowledge about the life of the people God controls. Divine sovereignty does not turn people into obedient robots, but allows some human freedom to choose to love or hate God, for the Assyrian king proudly chose to “rage against me.” Rage is an uncontrollable anger that expresses itself in a strong physical action that goes beyond what is reasonable. God’s accusation is that because of Sennacherib’s rage and self-confident arrogance, a divine punishment will fall. How this will happen is unclear, for God does not identify any human forces that will force Sennacherib to return home. Using figurative language related to the control of horses or the leading of helpless captives into exile, God describes how his nose hook and mouth bridle will lead Sennacherib back home. …^[6]

 

Isaiah 37:30-35 (ESV)
³⁰  “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.
³¹  And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
³²  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.
³³  “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 or cast up a siege mound against it.
³⁴  By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the LORD.
³⁵  For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”

 

V.30-32 – 1^st message is a sign for Hezekiah that of the three-year plan for the people to have food.  It was assuring them they would survive after Sennacherib leaves for they would have stripped the land of the existing food while there.  During the time of the siege the people in Jerusalem would have been consumed in building defenses and not food growing.

It would take time as the 1^st year there would be a short supply of grain to plant.  That planting would have to supply food and more grain for the next planting and some three seasons before plenty is found.

Point is that the remnant from Jerusalem will survive and take root and prosper.

V.33-35 – “Therefore”  –  another ‘verifiable sign” was given them from God and showing He was in control.  He states that No arrow will be shot or a Siege engine used against them.  It also would mean that when Sennacherib did return he wouldn’t be there long.

V.35 – WHY would God do this?  “…for my own sake and the sake of my servant David”…  There is nothing in the Davidic promise that guarantees God’s protection for the city of Jerusalem.  Thus, the city was preserved as Hezekiah did follow the ways of David by trusting God.   Demonstrating that God will only act in accordance to those kings that follow in the Davidic ideals.

There is a paradox here between God’s plan and human involvement.  One needs not minimize the need for human’s to place their trust in God even if God’s plans will be carried out as He sees fit.

 

Isaiah 37:36-38 (ESV)   –  Assyrians Defeated
³⁶  And the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
³⁷  Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh.
³⁸  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 of Ararat, Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

 

? – Why was Hezekiah so faithless for so long a time and depending upon the Egyptians to help?

? –  Was Jerusalem really delivered because of Hezekiah’s faith, or would it have been destroyed if he had not prayed in faith?

Quote from New American Commentary:
Long before Hezekiah’s prayer of faith God had made known to the prophet and Hezekiah that God “will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria” (38:6), that God would “crush the Assyrians in my land” (14:24), that “your many enemies will become like fine dust, the ruthless hordes like blown chaff, suddenly in an instant” (29:5), that “the voice of the Lord will shatter Assyria” (30:31), and that “Assyria will fall by the sword that is not of man” (31:8). Thus the history of the believer’s life is first and foremost determined by the plan and will of God (14:26–27), not by some act of faith that puts God under obligation to act in a certain way. Many godly men and women of great faith have died throughout the centuries, not because they lacked faith, but because it was the sovereign plan of God for them to give their lives at that time.

The story of Hezekiah does provide great encouragement for believers to trust God, but trusting God does not assure anyone that all their prayers will be answered with a miraculous work of divine deliverance. People should have faith in God because he alone is God, he is holy, he is a living God, and he is the creator of the heavens and the earth who rules over all the kingdoms of the earth (37:15). Faith is a commitment to trust the will of God for whatever he may ask one to experience; it is not a key that will force God’s hand to unlock his treasure house. Faith enables people to walk in a way that honors and glorifies God, but in practical terms it daily echoes the profound words of Jesus in the garden, “not what I will, but what you will” (Matt 26:39).^[7]

 

 

 

^[1] Smith, G. V. (2007). Isaiah 1–39. (E. R. Clendenen, Ed.) (pp. 600–601). Nashville: B & H Publishing Group.

^[2] Smith, G. V. (2007). Isaiah 1–39. (E. R. Clendenen, Ed.) (pp. 600–601). Nashville: B & H Publishing Group.

^[3] Smith, G. V. (2007). Isaiah 1–39. (E. R. Clendenen, Ed.) (pp. 606–607). Nashville: B & H Publishing Group.

^[4] Smith, G. V. (2007). Isaiah 1–39. (E. R. Clendenen, Ed.) (p. 611). Nashville: B & H Publishing Group.

^[5] Smith, G. V. (2007). Isaiah 1–39. (E. R. Clendenen, Ed.) (p. 617). Nashville: B & H Publishing Group.

^[6] Smith, G. V. (2007). Isaiah 1–39. (E. R. Clendenen, Ed.) (p. 626). Nashville: B & H Publishing Group.

^[7] Smith, G. V. (2007). Isaiah 1–39. (E. R. Clendenen, Ed.) (pp. 634–635). Nashville: B & H Publishing Group.