CHAPTER 36

(710 B.C.)

HISTORICAL INTERLUDE: ASSYRIAS INVASION OF JUDAH

¹Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the defenced cities of Judah, and took them. (This is the third time that the Holy Spirit records the facts relating to Hezekiah and the proposed attack by Assyria against Jerusalem, thereby denoting its significance. Its significance lies in the fact that this episode is a symbol of the future invasion of Israel by the Antichrist. As Sennacherib was stopped, so will the Antichrist.)

²And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem unto king Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fullers field. (Rabshakeh, seemingly, was the head of the Assyrian expedition against Jerusalem. He is there to demand the surrender of Jerusalem. The conduit of the upper pool is the same place Isaiah stood with Ahaz about 28 years before [7:3].)

³Then came forth unto him Eliakim, Hilkiahs son, which was over the house, and Shebna the Scribe, and Joah, Asaphs son, the Recorder. (Eliakim and Shebna were sent outside the city to meet with Rabshakeh; this is the same Shebna whom Isaiah prophesied against in Chapter 22.)

AN INSULTING MESSAGE TO HEZEKIAH OF JUDAH

⁴And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say you now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein you trust? (Of the three Assyrian envoys, Rabshakeh alone obtains mention in Isaiah, because he was the spokesman. He was probably chosen for such because he could speak Hebrew fluently.

He refers to the king of Assyria as the great king. This is meant to insinuate that no king anywhere in the world is as great as the king of Assyria. However, Rabshakeh is to find, to his dismay, that his king, Sennacherib, is subservient to another King, the LORD of Glory.

Rabshakeh chides Hezekiah about his trust being placed in Egypt. This tells us that trusting man rather than God exposes the Christian to the contempt of the world.)

⁵I say, sayest you, (but they are but vain words) I have counsel and strength for war: now on whom do you trust, that you rebel against me? (It seems that Rabshakeh had obtained a copy of the proposed agreement between Judah and Egypt, or that the very words had been verbally reported to him.)

⁶Lo, you trust in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. (When the Assyrian spoke of this broken reed, namely Egypt, he was speaking from knowledge instead of merely boasting.)

⁷But if you say to me, We trust in the LORD our God: is it not He, Whose high places and Whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, You shall worship before this Altar? (To destroy the fashionable materials and corrupt ceremonies of worldly religion is misunderstood by the world and accounted sacrilege. Rabshakeh was totally ignorant of the Ways of God and had misunderstood Hezekiahs destruction of the idol groves, thinking he had offended the God of Judah.)

⁸Now therefore give pledges, I pray you, to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you be able on your part to set riders upon them. (Rabshakeh continues to reproach Judah.)

⁹How then will you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my masters servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? (Judahs true weakness was her lack of dependence on God, not her lack of military preparation.)

¹⁰And am I now come up without the LORD against this land to destroy it? the LORD said unto me, Go up against this land, and destroy it. (Rabshakehs statements make it obvious that the Prophesy given by Isaiah some years before had been read or seen by him. Its use by him was a clever ruse to persuade the people to disobey Jehovah. When unconverted men quote the Bible in support of their projects or doctrines, they contradict themselves and expose their ignorance of the Scriptures and their hatred of God.

Neither Sennacherib nor his captain, Rabshakeh, believed in Jehovah. Their statements are made from the viewpoint of ego. They imagined themselves to be so high and mighty that if there is a God, they are His princely ones in the Earth.

Sennacherib misunderstood Isaiahs Prophecy. It was certainly true that God did ordain the Assyrians [without them being aware of such] to overthrow certain countries, which included the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and also to chasten Judah; however, He never gave them a commission to destroy Judah. So, in this, they were overstepping their bounds, and would face dire consequences.)

JUDAHS ANSWER

¹¹Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray you, unto your servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and speak not to us in the Jews language, in the ears of the people who are on the wall. (Rabshakeh spoke in Hebrew, desiring that the people hear his words, as well as their leaders, in order to weaken their will to resist. The request of the Jews will be ignored.

Incidentally, regarding the three Jews addressed here, Eliakim and Shebna stand in contrast. Eliakim is a Type of Christ; hence, he is symbolic of the Spirit. Shebna is a type of Satan; hence, he is a type of the flesh [Isa. 22:15-24].

Shebna strongly encourages seeking the help of the Egyptians, while Eliakim strongly urges trust in God. The majority in Jerusalem at that time followed Shebna, while a small remnant followed Isaiah and Eliakim [Isa. 1:9]. In fact, almost all the religious leaders of Jerusalem followed the carnal path of Shebna.)

MESSAGE TO THE PEOPLE

¹²But Rabshakeh said, Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words? has he not sent me to the men who sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own urine with you? (The language used by Rabshakeh shows his contempt for Judah.)

¹³Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews language, and said, Hear you the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. (Satan always cries with a loud voice. He also says it in the language that we easily understand.)

¹⁴Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you. (Rabshakeh claims to speak for the king, Sennacherib. Satan has plenty of envoys. Therefore, the people had a choice; they could believe Rabshakeh or Hezekiah.

If the people had not had strong spiritual leadership in the persons of Hezekiah and Isaiah, they would no doubt have acquiesced to Rabshakeh.)

¹⁵Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely deliver us: this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. (The words of Isaiah given to Hezekiah no doubt had come to the ears of Sennacherib. So now we have the Word of the Lord versus the word of Sennacherib.)

¹⁶Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me: and eat you every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink you every one the waters of his own cistern (in other words, the war will cease if you will make an agreement with me; this has ever been Satans ploy; the message is compromise, which is never of God!);

¹⁷Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. (Despite the golden promises, the plan was to take Judah captive into Assyria, as they had already taken Ephraim. This is Satans plan for the modern Christian, as well! He promises everything, but only gives captivity.)

¹⁸Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, 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? (The boast of Rabshakeh was not hollow, at least regarding the gods of the nations. As far as the Assyrians were concerned, this was a religious war. Their success in the religious character of their wars justified this boast.)

¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim? and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? (In this Passage, Rabshakeh boasts of his god, Asshur, over the gods of Hamath and Arphad. Sennacherib sees no distinction between the cities where Jehovah was worshipped, as supposedly in Samaria, than those which acknowledged other gods. As Samaria fell, which supposedly worshipped Jehovah, why should not Jerusalem fall? Therefore, he equates Samarias God with Judahs.)

²⁰Who are they among all the gods of these lands, that have delivered their land out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? (In this statement, Rabshakeh places Jehovah in the same category as the idol gods of other nations. That Jehovah would deliver Judah, there was no doubt! However, the manner in which He delivered them was because of this insult. He would humiliate them so greatly that Sennacherib would not recover. As well, Jerusalem would not suffer the loss of one single person or even an arrow being shot against its wall. So much for the god, Asshur!)

²¹But they held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the kings commandment was, saying, Answer him not. (There are occasions when faiths most effective reply to insulting language is the dignity of silence, and her best refuge is prayer.)

²²Then came Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the Scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the Recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh. (If one will notice, Shebna the Scribe was dressed in sackcloth the same as Eliakim. There the similarity ended. Eliakim wanted the Will of God, while Shebna wanted his place and position salvaged. This describes far too many Christians!)