CHAPTER 32

(710 B.C.)

SENNACHERIB, KING OF ASSYRIA, INVADES JUDAH

¹After these things, and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fenced cities, and thought to win them for himself. (After these things means after the great revival under Hezekiah. The king of Assyria then made war on Judah. He had already taken the ten Tribes into captivity, and now his heart was lifted up to take Judah also. In this, he overstepped himself, for he had been commissioned by the Lord, although unknown to him, to destroy the ten-Tribe kingdom only. God defeated the Assyrians purpose and delivered Hezekiah after testing his faith by permitting Judah to be tested.)

²And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem (according to II Ki. 18:13-16, Hezekiah had already given Sennacherib great quantities of gold and silver to stop the invasion; these bribes were not pleasing to the Lord; he came against Jerusalem anyway),

³He (Hezekiah) took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains which were without the city: and they did help him.

⁴So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water? (Hezekiah stopped the fountain which is now known as the Virgins Fount on the east of Ophel. Through the conduit he made [II Ki. 20:20], the water from this fount was brought down to the lower Gihon [Pool of Siloam]. Now the upper Gihon was simply covered over and hidden from the enemy on the outside, making the water supply of Jerusalem safe by means of the two Gihons.)

⁵Also he strengthened himself, and built up all the wall that was broken, and raised it up to the towers, and another wall without, and repaired Millo in the city of David, and made darts and shields in abundance (he took all possible means to make himself, the people, and the city strong to withstand the invaders).

⁶And he set captains of war over the people, and gathered them together to him in the street of the gate of the city, and spoke comfortably to them, saying,

THE MESSAGE OF HEZEKIAH

⁷Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him (great Faith in a great God would come against a great enemy and win a great victory; as ever, Faith is the ingredient; let all Believers know that whatever Satan brings against us, God has more for us than Satan has against us):

⁸With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah (our problem is that too often we attempt to defeat the flesh by the flesh; it cannot be done; our strength must be the LORD our God).

⁹After this did Sennacherib king of Assyria send his servants to Jerusalem, (but he himself laid siege against Lachish, and all his power with him,) unto Hezekiah king of Judah, and unto all Judah who were at Jerusalem, saying,

THE MESSAGE OF SENNACHERIB

¹⁰Thus says Sennacherib king of Assyria, Whereon do you trust, that you abide in the siege in Jerusalem? (In other words, the siege is going to be bad!)

¹¹Does not Hezekiah persuade you to give over yourselves to die by famine and by thirst, saying, The LORD our God shall deliver us out of the hand of the king of Assyria? (The emissaries of Sennacherib appealed to the people instead of to Hezekiah and his ministers of state, thinking to undermine their morale.)

¹²Has not the same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, You shall worship before one altar, and burn incense upon it? (This Verse illustrates the fact that wherever there is obedience to the teaching of the Bible, it will be misinterpreted by people of the world. The written Word commanded that there should be only one Altar in Israel; man approves of many. The emissaries of Sennacherib didnt know what they were talking about.)

¹³Know you not what I and my fathers have done unto all the people of other lands? were the gods of the nations of those lands any ways able to deliver their lands out of my hand? (This Passage portrays these emissaries boasting that their god was more powerful than all others, so it was vain to expect Jehovah to rescue the people, especially since He did not rescue their brethren in Samaria [II Ki., Chpt. 17].)

¹⁴Who was there among all the gods of those nations that my fathers utterly destroyed, that could deliver his people out of my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you out of my hand?

¹⁵Now therefore let not Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you on this manner, neither yet believe him: for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of my hand, and out of the hand of my fathers: how much less shall your God deliver you out of my hand? (The mighty Sennacherib was soon to find out just Who the God of Judah actually was!)

¹⁶And his servants spoke yet more against the LORD God, and against His servant Hezekiah (the Holy Spirit shows us here that the Lord is just as displeased with His servants being spoken against as Himself).

¹⁷He wrote also letters to rail on the LORD God of Israel, and to speak against Him, saying, As the gods of the nations of other lands have not delivered their people out of my hand, so shall not the God of Hezekiah deliver His people out of my hand (the emissaries of Sennacherib intended to intimidate the people of Jerusalem).

¹⁸Then they cried with a loud voice in the Jews speech (language) unto the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to affright them, and to trouble them; that they might take the city.

¹⁹And they spoke against the God of Jerusalem, as against the gods of the people of the Earth, which were the work of the hands of man (over and over again, Jehovah is grossly insulted! To be compared to the gods of other people, which were merely the work of the hands of man, not only showed the ignorance of Sennacherib, but as well brought the blasphemy to a higher pitch).

ISAIAH

²⁰And for this cause Hezekiah the king, and the Prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz, prayed and cried to Heaven (too many in the modern Church no longer cry to God; instead, they resort to psychology, which has the same source as witchcraft Satan).

²¹And the LORD sent an Angel, which cut off all the mighty men of valour, and the leaders and captains in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he was come into the house of his god, they who came forth of his own bowels (his sons) killed him there with the sword (with only one Angel, the Lord struck down 185,000 Assyrians in one night [II Ki. 19:35]; as a result, Sennacherib returned to Nineveh in shame; history records that he did not venture again even toward Judah; some years later, he was murdered by his own sons).

²²Thus the LORD saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all other, and guided them on every side. (What a beautiful statement! The Holy Spirit will lead and guide us into all truth [Jn. 16:13].)

²³And many brought gifts unto the LORD to Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah king of Judah: so that he was magnified in the sight of all nations from thenceforth (Judah became one of the most powerful nations on the face of the Earth, all because of Hezekiahs faith, and the Blessings of God).

HEZEKIAHS SICKNESS AND RECOVERY

²⁴In those days Hezekiah was sick to the death, and prayed unto the LORD: and He spoke unto him, and He gave him a sign (this was the sign of the sundial going backwards ten degrees, which was a miracle of unprecedented proportions; this means that the Earth literally went back on its axis, i.e., its rotation, which brought about a long day [II Ki. 20:8-11]).

²⁵But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up: therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem (someone has said that praise and prosperity are the greatest obstacles for a Christian to overcome; Hezekiah did not overcome them, but rather succumbed to them; this probably referred to him showing all his material riches to the Babylonians [II Ki. 20:12-15] instead of the riches of the God of Israel).

²⁶Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart (showing that pride was his sin), both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the LORD came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah (thankfully, Hezekiah repented, and the Lord healed him, giving him fifteen more years of life [II Ki. 20:1-7]).

HEZEKIAHS ACCOMPLISHMENTS

²⁷And Hezekiah had exceeding much riches and honour: and he made himself treasuries for silver, and for gold, and for precious stones, and for spices, and for shields, and for all manner of pleasant jewels;

²⁸Storehouses also for the increase of corn, and wine, and oil; and stalls for all manner of beasts, and cotes for flocks.

²⁹Moreover he provided him cities, and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance: for God had given him substance very much (in other words, the Lord was the Author of all this prosperity).

³⁰This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works.

³¹Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he (Hezekiah) might know all that was in his heart (man, even the most dedicated and consecrated Believer, will invariably turn aside if God leaves us even for a moment; Hezekiah would find that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? [Jer. 17:9]).

THE DEATH OF HEZEKIAH

³²Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his goodness, behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the Prophet, the son of Amoz, and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

³³And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the chiefest of the sepulchres of the sons of David: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honour at his death. And Manasseh his son reigned in his stead. (Concerning his burial, such was not said of any man before or after this. It must have meant that he was buried next to Davids tomb. Despite his failures, Hezekiah was one of the Godliest kings who ever reigned over Judah.)