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Chapters 36 through 39 present the final narrative in this book. It covers the same events as 2 Kings 18 through 20, when Sennacherib’s army invades Judah and besieges Jerusalem. Remember Isaiah’s warnings against seeking help from Egypt; remember also the LORD’s promise to Ariel – Jerusalem - that He would lead Assyria to “encamp against you all around, and will besiege you with towers.” Today that promise is fulfilled.

In chapter 36 The Rabshakeh – Sennacherib’s general – approaches the walls of Jerusalem with a sinister question: “On what do you rest this trust of yours?” Is it Egypt? Is it Hezekiah? Is it the LORD?

Imagine the scene as his arrogance pours forth: his words are not for Hezekiah; they are for Hezekiah’s soldiers, for their families, for the people of Jerusalem. Against this siege, for how long will their food and water last? Unless Egypt comes to their aid, for how long will the walls hold?

Picture the men on the wall, listening as The Rabshakeh turns their God against them: “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’” This is not only a fight between nations or gods, this is a battle over who is really telling the truth about the LORD. Is it Isaiah and Hezekiah… or this general who has the Assyrian army standing behind him?

Assyria has Hezekiah right where it wants him, with nowhere to turn. Ironically, this is exactly where the LORD wants him as well. The political and spiritual turning point of the story comes early in chapter 37, as Hezekiah casts his lot and the LORD responds.

Our verse for this week is 1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Isaiah 36 and 37. Now let’s read it!

Isaiah 36 - 37

Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all of the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a large army. He stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool in the fuller's field highway. Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph the recorder came out to him. Rabshakeh said to them, "Now tell Hezekiah, 'The great king, the king of Assyria, says, "What confidence is this in which you trust? I say that your counsel and strength for the war are only vain words. Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? Behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt, which if a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. But if you tell me, 'We trust in Jehovah our God,' isn't that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, 'You shall worship before this altar'?" Now therefore, please make a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? Have I come up now without Jehovah against this land to destroy it? Jehovah said to me, "Go up against this land, and destroy it."'" Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Don't speak to us in the Jews' language in the hearing of the people who are on the wall." But Rabshakeh said, "Has my master sent me only to your master and to you, to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?" Then Rabshakeh stood, and called out with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and said, "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! The king says, 'Don't let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you. Don't let Hezekiah make you trust in Jehovah, saying, "Jehovah will surely deliver us. This city won't be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."' Don't listen to Hezekiah, for the king of Assyria says, 'Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and each of you eat from his vine, and each one from his fig tree, and each one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, "Jehovah will deliver us." Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? Who are they among all the gods of these countries that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?'" But they remained silent, and said nothing in reply, for the king's commandment was, "Don't answer him." Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh. When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Jehovah's house. He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. They said to him, "Hezekiah says, 'Today is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to give birth. It may be Jehovah your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Jehovah your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.'" So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. Isaiah said to them, "Tell your master, 'Jehovah says, "Don't be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Behold, I will put a spirit in him and he will hear news, and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land."'" So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish. He heard news concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, "He has come out to fight against you." When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, 'Don't let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, "Jerusalem won't be given into the hand of the king of Assyria." Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Shall you be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?'" Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to Jehovah's house, and spread it before Jehovah. Hezekiah prayed to Jehovah, saying, "Jehovah of Armies, the God of Israel, who is enthroned among the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Turn your ear, Jehovah, and hear. Open your eyes, Jehovah, and behold. Hear all of the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to defy the living God. Truly, Jehovah, the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the countries and their land, 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 have destroyed them. Now therefore, Jehovah our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are Jehovah, even you only." Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Jehovah, the God of Israel says, 'Because you have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, this is the word which Jehovah has spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you. Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel. By your servants, you have defied the Lord, and have said, "With the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon. I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypress trees. I will enter into its farthest height, the forest of its fruitful field. I have dug and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt." "'Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to destroy fortified cities, turning them into ruinous heaps. Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field, and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops, and like a field before its crop has grown. But I know your sitting down, your going out, your coming in, and your raging against me. Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore I will 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. "'This shall be the sign to you: You will eat this year that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs from it; and in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go out, and survivors will escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of Jehovah of Armies will perform this.' "Therefore Jehovah says concerning the king of Assyria, 'He will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither will he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it. He will return the way that he came, and he won't come to this city,' says Jehovah. 'For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake.'" Then Jehovah's angel went out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, went away, returned to Nineveh, and stayed there. As he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place.

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