Isaiah 10:5-37
To fully understand what is taking place at this time we
must go to 2 Kings 18:13-36, my Cliff notes, the short version: when the King
of Assyria, his name is Sennacherib, came up against the fortified cites of
Judah and took them, King Hezekiah sent this message to the King of Assyria, “I have done wrong;
withdraw from me. Whatever you impose on
me I will bear.” So the
Assyrian king ask for three hundred talents of silver, now a talent is about 75
pounds, and he also required thirty talents of gold. Now unless you have a gold & silver mine,
where do you get that quantity of gold and silver? The answer is from the house of the LORD and
from the king’s house. And he gave it to
the King of Assyria, and he still sent a great army to Jerusalem. This is what the King of Assyria commanded
his spokesman to say; “In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against
me?”
Now one thing you never want to hear from an enemy is what
the spokesman for the Assyria kings said; “Moreover, is it without the LORD that I have come up
against this place to destroy it? The
LORD said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.” The spokesman is speaking in Hebrew and
Hezekiah’s men ask him to speak in Aramaic, so the watchmen on the walls would
not understand, but that backfired on them and he called out in a loud voice; “Do not let
Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of my hand.” And he goes on to tell the people do not let
Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD. And
then he tells them how good it is going to be for them in the land they will be
taken to. But like all who trust in what
is seen and not in the God of Creation, the arrogant spokesman told them what
he believed: “Has
any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the
king of Assyria?” The people
on the wall were silent, for the king had ordered them not to answer him.
When the representative of King Hezekiah arrived to report they had torn their clothes as a show
of mourning, such action was an expression of deep sorrow and heartfelt grief. If you keep reading
you know that the King sent for Isaiah the prophet, and King Hezekiah was hoping that God heard t
he proud words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria had sent to mock the living God.
Isaiah being the prophet of God spoke these words: “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD: Do not
be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have
reviled me. 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.’” (2 Kings 19:6-7 ESV)
We, like them, need a good examination of our hearts, and we also need to remember that our great and
mighty God does not require us to defend Him, but to trust and believe, and as we pray, to believe
and obey.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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