CHAPTER 37

(710 B.C.)

HEZEKIAH DISTRESSED; ASKS ISAIAH TO PRAY

¹And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the House of the LORD. (This Chapter is actually a continuation of the previous; therefore, the two constitute but one narrative. Whatever difficulties of faithlessness that had previously plagued Hezekiah have now been thrown off, and he is doing what he should have done all along. He is taking his difficulties to the Lord. The Assyrians are threatening his destruction, and he realizes there is no hope except in God.)

²And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the Scribe, and the elders of the Priests covered with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the Prophet the son of Amoz. (They should have done this at the beginning!)

³And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. (The Passage, the children are come to the birth... etc., was a proverbial phrase for a time of extreme difficulty. Judah was in sore trouble and was expecting deliverance; however, it seemed now as if she would not have enough strength to go through the crisis, but would perish through weakness.)

⁴It may be the LORD your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to reproach the Living God, and will reprove the words which the LORD your God has heard: wherefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left. (Notice the manner in this Verse in which Hezekiah couches his terminology. He doesnt plead with the Lord regarding the merit of Judah, but rather the blasphemy of Rabshakeh. He knows that neither he nor Judah have any merit with God. This attitude should be a model for us, as well.

The remnant that is left refers to the great number of Judaeans who have already been taken captive from the other cities of Judah, with only those who are in Jerusalem remaining.)

GOD PROMISES DELIVERANCE

⁵So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

⁶And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall you say unto your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words that you have heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. (The blasphemy of Rabshakeh was against the Lord, and would be answered in kind.)

⁷Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. (The words, I will send a blast upon him, rather mean I will put a spirit within him, i.e., I will remove from him the spirit of pride and arrogancy and instead will infuse into his heart a spirit of hesitation and fear. When the Lord takes a hand in a situation, this Verse gives us the proof of the ample provision that He has to do whatever He desires.

The blast was the sending of an Angel from Heaven, who would kill 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night. Sennacherib would give up his plans for the destruction of Jerusalem and return to his own land. Ultimately, he was killed by his own sons.)

ASSYRIAS ARROGANT ATTITUDE, MORE INSULTS TO GOD AND JUDAH

⁸So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish. (After Rabshakeh concluded his mission, not realizing the wheels he had set in motion, he returned to Sennacherib, for he found him attempting to destroy Libnah. It seems that this was the next stronghold on the way to Egypt.)

⁹And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is come forth to make war with you. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying (Tirhakah king of Ethiopia is among the most famous of the Monarchs belonging to this period; it seems this king had defeated Egypt and now ruled both Ethiopia and Egypt; the movement of Tirhakah provoked rather than alarmed Sennacherib, who had already defeated one Egyptian army a short time before; he was confident of success against any effort that the Egyptians might make),

¹⁰Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not your God, in Whom you trust, deceive you, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. (Sennacherib recognized Jehovah as a God, the God of the Jews, but put Him on the same par with the other gods of the nations, for whom he had no respect.)

¹¹Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly; and shall you be delivered? (In fact, Sennacherib at this time was the most powerful monarch on the face of the Earth; therefore, these boasts were not hollow threats!)

¹²Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Telassar? (He enumerates here areas which had been taken by the Assyrians.)

¹³Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? (Sennacherib, like Satan, delights in boasting of his victories.)

HEZEKIAH PRAYS TO GOD FOR HELP

¹⁴And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the House of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD. (This last message was sent to Hezekiah in a letter. In II Chron. 32:17, the word letters is used, signifying plurality and indicating an arrogant, insulting, and boastful letter. The spreading of the letter before the LORD did not imply on Hezekiahs part that God did not know its contents previously, but was designed thusly that Sennacheribs reproach of the God of Judah would be ever before the Lord.)

¹⁵And Hezekiah prayed unto the LORD, saying (this is the answer!),

¹⁶O LORD of Hosts, God of Israel, Who dwells between the Cherubims, You are the God, even You Alone, of all the kingdoms of the Earth: You have made Heaven and Earth. (Hezekiahs prayer is very interesting and well worth our attention. It would be the same that we would pray today, with one exception. Now, we are admonished to pray to the Lord in the Name of Jesus [Jn. 16:23].)

¹⁷Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which has sent to reproach the Living God. (This is a conscious pleading of the Promise made to Solomon [II Chron. 7:15]. Hezekiah is calling to account this Promise, as we can also call to account the many Promises made in the Word of God [Mk. 9:23; Mat. 18:18; Jn. 14:14; 15:7].

Petition that is offered to the Lord without being based on the Word of God is a fruitless petition.)

¹⁸Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their countries (actually, this was fact which was impossible to deny),

¹⁹And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods but the work of mens hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them. (If one will notice, Hezekiah did not deny the existence or even the power of the Assyrians. Let it be known, like here, that the confession of existing problems does not show a lack of faith and that the denial of certain difficulties does not make them any less real.)

²⁰Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the Earth may know that you are the LORD, even You only. (Every petition that is made to the Lord, like Hezekiahs, should not be for deliverance or triumph over enemies for our own sakes, or the sake of others, but rather for the Glory of God.)

GODS ANSWER: SENNACHERIB WILL BE CRUSHED

²¹Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Whereas you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria (either Isaiah knew that Hezekiah was seeking the Lord concerning the Assyrian threat, or else the Lord revealed it to him; the Promise had already been given by the Lord through Isaiah that Sennacherib would not be successful in this venture [37:7], so it would seem that Hezekiah was showing a lack of faith by continuing to plead when the Promise had already been given; but not necessarily so!; in truth, our faith has to be constantly reassured; hence, David would repeatedly cry to the Lord for reassurance, despite the fact that the Lord had said that he would be king of Israel [I Sam. 16:1, 12-13; Ps. 13]):

²²This is the Word which the LORD has spoken concerning him; The virgin, the daughter of Zion, has despised you, and laughed you to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you. (The expression, virgin daughter, represents Jerusalem as a tender maiden, weak and delicate, yet still bold enough to stand up against Sennacherib and all his hosts and bid him defiance. Confident that the Lord will protect her, she laughs him to scorn. This is Gods answer to the boasts of Sennacherib, and, due to its source, it must be taken extremely seriously.)

²³Whom have you reproached and blas phemed? and against Whom have you exalted your voice, and lifted up your eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel. (This proclaims the fact that Sennacherib is fighting against God. It is a battle that he cannot hope to win!)

²⁴By your servants have you reproached the Lord, and have said, By the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the height of his border, and the forest of his Carmel. (In this Passage, the Holy Spirit is not claiming that Sennacherib has actually uttered these words with his mouth, but that he has thought them within his heart.)

²⁵I have dug, and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged places. (The Lord continues to proclaim the boasts of Sennacherib.)

²⁶Have you not heard long ago, how I have done it; and of ancient times, that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that you should be to lay waste defenced cities into ruinous heaps. (In this Passage, Isaiah, after speaking as the person of Sennacherib, breaks off without warning and returns to speaking as the person of Jehovah. In this Passage, Sennacherib is reproached by the Holy Spirit for not knowing what he ought to have known and might have known, if he had only listened to the voice of conscience and reason. The words, now have I brought it to pass, refer to the fact that all that Sennacherib had done, he had done as Gods instrument, by Gods permission even by His aid; however, Sennacherib had become so lifted up in his own pride that he thought his victories were due to his own ability, tactical designs, and military expertise.)

²⁷Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded: they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up. (God, having decreed the success of the Assyrians, affected them [in part] by infusing weakness into the nations that were their adversaries. Sennacherib thought it was his military prowess that effected his victories, when God now says the opposite.)

²⁸But I know your abode, and your going out, and your coming in, and your rage against Me. (Sennacherib, even though an unwitting instrument in the Hands of God, still, could have known all he needed to know about God, if he had only taken the time and the trouble to learn. Verse 26 says so! So, for not taking the time to learn about God and, therefore, to understand the secret of his victories, he would incur the Wrath of God.)

²⁹Because your rage against Me, and your tumult, is come up into My ears, therefore will I put My hook in your nose, and My bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came. (Sennacherib proposed the shocking cruelty of this Verse for Hezekiah and his people, but, figuratively, he was made to suffer it himself.)

³⁰And this shall be a sign unto you, You shall eat this year such as grows of itself; and the second year that which springs of the same: and in the third year sow you, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof. (Agriculture had been impossible for the two prior years, because of the invasion of the Assyrians. But now God encourages the remnant of His People to go out of the city into the country and till the ground, for He promised that the Assyrian king should never return to injure them. Therefore, it seems that the acute danger lasted for about two years.)

³¹And the remnant that is escaped of the House of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward (the Blessing of God is now upon Judah; in a short time, she recovered her ancient vigor so that under Josiah she was able to extend her dominion over almost the whole of the old Israelite territory [II Chron. 34:6, 18]):

³²For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they who escape out of Mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of Hosts shall do this. (The remnant speaks of those who escaped the incursion of the last two years. In fact, many had died or had been taken captive.

The phrase, the zeal of the LORD of Hosts, is used by the Holy Spirit to insure the fulfillment of what has been promised. Gods People will be blessed and grow strong once again.)

³³Therefore thus sa ys the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it. (Sennacherib had planned all along to lay siege against Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit through Isaiah says that no siege will be laid against the city.)

³⁴By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, says the LORD. (This Promise assured Hezekiah that he would not be confronted with this enemy.)

³⁵For I will defend this city to save it for My Own sake, and for My servant Davids sake. (Hezekiah is told here by no less than the Holy Spirit that he could not boast that the beauty or fervor of his prayer purchased the victory, for God told him that He would deliver the city, not for Hezekiahs sake, but for Davids sake, i.e., for the Messiahs sake.

The phrase, I will defend his city, literally means I will cover over this city, as a bird covers its young with its wings.)

THE FULFILLMENT OF GODS PROMISE

³⁶Then the Angel of LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they (those in Judah) arose early in the morning, behold, they (the Assyrians) were all dead corpses. (The scene of the account was probably about 25 miles from Jerusalem. Word would have come quickly to Jerusalem concerning the dead bodies that were lying everywhere.

This great Miracle instituted by the Lord ranks in the same category as the opening of the Red Sea and the destruction of the Egyptian army, as well as the opening of the Jordan and the falling of the walls of Jericho!)

³⁷So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. (In this Passage, the Holy Spirit, and with short shift, dispenses with Sennacherib. The word departed has the same meaning as a dog leaving with its tail between its legs. He went back to his capital, Nineveh.

He lived for some 18 or 20 years longer after this and made other military expeditions elsewhere; however, he made no further expeditions toward Jerusalem, or even toward Egypt. The Jews had peace so far as the Assyrians were concerned.

In his military life, he tackled many little tin gods; however, when he faced Jerusalem, he faced the God of the ages, his Creator. It was to be an experience he would never forget!)

³⁸And it came to pass, as he was wor shipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia: and Esar-haddon his son reigned in his stead. (Ancient history records that Sennacherib bequeathed his throne to his youngest son, Esar-haddon. In order to gain the favor of his god, he promised to sacrifice the two elder sons to that divinity, so-called. These sons, doubtless prompted by fear on the one hand and by jealousy on the other, murdered their father in December of that year. But six months later, they were obliged to flee to Armenia to escape the vengeance of Esar-haddon.

Sennacherib had the opportunity to accept the God of Israel, but instead he attempted to destroy Gods People. In turn, he was destroyed himself.)