ISAIAH 36-372008 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Isaiah 36-37

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2008.

Coming back to Isaiah, continuing chapter by chapter, we'll be looking at verses 36 and 37 today. And we're starting kind of a new section of the book of Isaiah. We've been studying in chapters 1 through 35 many prophecies of the prophet Isaiah. And he's been sharing to all kinds of nations, to all kinds of kings, to all kinds of people, to all kinds of people.

of judgment, messages of hope, promises of God, things that God had given him to deliver to those who they were addressed to. Now as we start here in chapter 36, chapters 36, 37, 38, and 39 are historical chapters. They're not Isaiah's prophecies, but it's a recording of a historical event that took place in

In the reign of Hezekiah, we also find this same event recorded in 2 Kings 18-19 and 2 Chronicles 32. And this historical event, or it's really two historical events that take place here in these two chapters. Once we get into chapter 40, we enter the final section of the book of Isaiah, which are really messages and prophecies of hope and comfort with the coming Messiah and the kingdom that he will one day establish.

But here we're looking at historical things that actually took place. And the background is this is a time when the nation of Israel had for many years been split into two nations. The northern part of the country remained the name Israel or kept the name Israel. And the southern part of the country where Jerusalem was, that was called Judah. It was the nation of Judah.

And at this time in the history, the nation of Israel, the northern part of Israel, had already been conquered by the nation of Assyria. Assyria was the world empire of the day and they were conquering all the lands there around Israel, south and north and east and west. They were conquering the whole territory and the known world at that time.

But they were unable so far to conquer the nation of Judah and specifically the city of Jerusalem. And so the background here is

The king, Sennacherib, is coming down and he's heading towards Jerusalem and he's intending to conquer Judah and make that the final piece of land that is to be conquered there in the region. I forgot to prepare the map to show you, but if you can picture Assyria, it's spread out over the whole Middle Eastern area and there there's just a little tiny pocket that

called the nation of Judah. Very, very small compared to all the land that Assyria had conquered. And yet they were unable to defeat them. And so here's his attempt now to conquer Judah, to conquer Jerusalem. And so we pick it up here in chapter 36. And it says in verse 1,

Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. Then the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem.

And he stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool on the highway to the fooler's field. Verse 3. And Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to him. So here what we have going on is the king of Assyria has been conquering and he has conquered now many of the cities in Judah.

They conquered Lachish, as they would pronounce it in Israel. Is Rosie here? If she can correct me. Okay. So...

They conquered Lachish, which was the next biggest stronghold next to Jerusalem. And so the last city to be conquered was Jerusalem. And so now Sennacherib, the king, sends an army, sends a big army, it says, there to Jerusalem. And they camp out there. And then some of the guys from Jerusalem, some of the leaders of King Hezekiah, come out to meet him. And they're going to be dialoguing. There's going to be an exchange that takes place. And basically what's happening is...

Sennacherib in sending this, the Rabshakeh, which is the title of his commanding officer, he's sending this commanding officer to Jerusalem to negotiate their surrender. Although the city of Jerusalem was the last stronghold of the nation, and although Assyria had a huge army and the city really would pose no threat to

And so they're coming to Jerusalem.

try to negotiate and convince the city of Jerusalem to surrender. Now as we look at these things this evening, I think it's very clear that there is parallels with this story and the attack that's taking place with the king of Assyria and his tactics and the same way that our great adversary works against us. The enemy will come against us in much the same way. It's much easier for him if we would just surrender rather than if we were to fight back.

If you think about Jesus in Matthew chapter 4 or Luke chapter 4 and his temptation, this was the same tactic that the king of Assyria is taking. Satan came to Jesus there as he was about to begin his ministry and he's trying to negotiate his surrender.

He's saying, why don't you just do this? We'll make it the easy way. You won't have to fight. There won't be this war that goes on. And you'll get what you came for. I'll give you all these kingdoms. I'll give you everything that you're coming here for. He's trying to deceive him. He's trying to trick him into surrendering so that it will be easier than having the actual battle. And the enemy often does that to us as well. He seeks to discourage us.

to defeat us or to make us think that we're defeated so that we just give up and we surrender and we stop fighting because it's much easier that way for him rather than for us to fight in the name of Jesus Christ and to stand in his strength and his spirit.

He would rather us be convinced that we're defeated. And so Rabshakeh, you'll hear, he will be trying to convince them, you're surrounded, you're weak, you're small, your God's against you. He'll be saying all these things to convince them that they're defeated so that they would just give up. And in the same way, I want to encourage you this evening to be like Hezekiah and to not give up when the enemy comes against you, when those discouraging things come against you and when, well, the world tries to tell you that you're defeated.

You don't have to believe them because through Jesus Christ we are more than conquerors. We are victorious in Jesus Christ. We need to hold fast to Him and walk with Him and run the race that God has set before us and not surrender, not give up because we are not defeated. So here starts the negotiations in verse 4.

Then the Rabshakeh said to them,

Verse 6. Verse 7.

But if you say to me, we trust in the Lord our God, is it not he whose high place and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and said to Judah and Jerusalem, you shall worship before this altar? Verse 8. Now therefore I urge you, give a pledge to my master, the king of Assyria, and I will give you 2,000 horses if you are able on your part to put riders on them.

How then will you repel one captain of the least of my master's servants and to put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen? Verse 10. Have I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, go up against this land and destroy it. Here we have the Reb Sheka's speech to these envoys of Hezekiah who were sent out to meet him.

And his speech is essentially, why don't you guys give up? Surrender. You're defeated, you're beaten, you're conquered. Just admit it, confess it. We'll be nice to you. Just don't put up a fight. Let us take the city and there won't be a struggle. He starts out with a very good question. I think the one that's appropriate to you and I as well in verse 4. What confidence is this in which you trust? Now, what had taken place was several years prior,

Hezekiah had stopped paying tribute to the king of Assyria. Prior to that, they were paying tribute and so they were subject to Assyria. But Hezekiah rebelled in that he stopped paying his taxes. He stopped paying tribute to the king of Assyria. And there was a lot going on and Assyria was conquering many things. And so now it's several years later, they've got down back to Jerusalem and

And he asked the question, what confidence is this in which you trust? How come that you're rebelling against me? What has made you so confident that you're able to rebel against me? This evening I would ask us the same question. What is this confidence that you have? Where have you put your trust? Where is your hope? And where do you get your strength? The enemy will come to us and say, what is this confidence in which you have? How come you're rebelling against me? Our own flesh will tell us,

What confidence do you have? You can't deny yourself. You can't defy the flesh. What confidence do you have? How are you going to be able to fight this? You know our flesh. You know you skip a meal and your stomach, your flesh tells you you're going to die if you don't eat. Maybe that's only me. I know my stomach tells me that.

It's a lie. Your flesh says, what's this confidence that you have that you can just skip a meal? Or that you can do this, or not gratify that pleasure, or not follow that sinful activity? The enemy comes against us and says, what confidence do you think you have that you can live this way and not follow those ways any longer? What confidence is this that you have? Now, he'll go on to look at those confidences from the enemy's perspective. He says, first of all,

No one can help you. Verses 5 and 6, he looks at Egypt. He says, look, you talk about having plans for war, but you're trusting in Egypt. And Egypt is not going to be able to help you. He gives this picture of a staff or a reed that if you were to lean on it, the end is sharp and so it would pierce your hand.

And so you're leaning upon Egypt, you're relying upon them, but in the end, it's going to hurt you, they're going to injure you, and it's not going to be effective. So he's convincing them, no one can help you. And again, there's this parallel for us. In the struggles that we go through, in the battles that we face, remember Paul says in Ephesians chapter 6 that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood.

but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

We live in spiritual warfare, in a spiritual battle. And as the enemy comes against us and things surround us and circumstances come our way, it's a spiritual battle that's taking place and the message of that spirit, of the enemy, is no one can help you. There's no one that you can rely on. There's no one that you can trust. You can't trust an Egypt, which for us, Egypt is a picture of or a type of the flesh that

And you can't trust in the flesh. You are not going to be strong enough. You can't get yourself through this. No one can help you get through this. He goes on in verse 7 to tell them, not even God can get you through this. He says, 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? Now, if you remember, King Hezekiah, he was a good king. And so he started cleaning house in all of Jerusalem and Judah. And he got rid of all the false gods. Now, the Rabshakeh,

He just misunderstands and doesn't know that those idols and those things, those high places, those were two false gods. And so he sees all this and, you know, it's kind of the old concept. Well, if one is good, then many must be better. So now you only have one altar that you can come and seek the Lord at. But you used to have many and God used to be pleased with you because you had so many, but now you only have one. And so God's not pleased with you. But of course, we know that's completely opposite.

But the enemy will come with these tactics and try to make you think, God can't help you. Look, you've upset him. You know, how many times has the enemy ever told you, oh, you blew it. God doesn't want to help you. Look at you. How can you even call yourself a Christian? God doesn't care about you. He doesn't want to help you through this situation. He doesn't want to help you face this difficulty or trial or pay that bill. God can't help you is what the enemy says. He goes on to say, you are weak. Look at verse 8 and 9.

Now, therefore, I urge you, give a pledge to my master, the king of Assyria, and I will give you 2,000 horses if you are able on your part to put riders on them. You're weak. You don't even have enough men to put on horses if I were to even give them to you. He goes on to say, how can you fight even the least of my master's captains? Just the least one, you know, the weakest group is stronger than, well, all of those that you have there in Jerusalem with you.

The enemy comes against him and says, you're weak. You can't do it. You don't have the strength. You don't have the ability. You're inadequate. In the same way, we get that same message, don't we? You can't fight. Why bother fighting? You know you're going to lose. You ever have that go through your head? Why bother resisting? You know you're going to give in. Why bother fighting? You know you can't do it.

Again, but it's not true. These are all lies of the enemy to convince us to try to get us to surrender so that we just give up and act defeated even though we are victorious in Jesus Christ. Finally, he says, even God is against you. Look at verse 10. He says, have I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, go up to this land and destroy it. So he says, no one can help you.

God is not going to help you. You are weak and cannot help yourself. Not only that, but God is actually against you because he's the one who told me to come and conquer you and take this land. God's against you. These are all things and tactics of the enemy that he will put into our heads, that he will try to convince us of, that we would give up and be defeated, even though in reality, by faith in Jesus Christ, we have overcome.

He says, God is against you. But of course, it's not true. We saw earlier in the book of Isaiah that God had promised that Assyria would come, that it would afflict Judah, but that it would not conquer Judah, nor would it invade Jerusalem. So it's a lie. It's very convincing. And I can imagine being in King Hezekiah's place or one of his messengers and thinking, he's right. Egypt really isn't going to help us. And

It doesn't look like God's going to help us. And we're weak. We can't even put men on 2,000 horses. And maybe God is against us. It's the tactics of the enemy to confuse us, to diffuse us, so that we do not walk in the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit, victoriously in Jesus Christ. Let's look at verse 11 and following. It says, Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to the Reb Shekeh,

Isn't that a lovely picture? Whenever a siege would take place, well, there would be very desperate times because...

There would be no entrance of food and people couldn't come and go. And so they would basically starve him out. And so in desperation, there's recordings of people and women in the Bible agreeing to eat one another's children and so on and so forth because under a siege, things would get very grave. It would be very disgusting. But you do what you need to survive. And so the people there, those who were meant out to meet the Reb Sheka, they said...

Okay, look, can you not speak to us in Hebrew, which was their language, the language that the Jewish people spoke? Instead, can you speak to us in Aramaic? Because we understand Aramaic, and you understand Aramaic, and so we can talk in Aramaic, and that way the people on the wall won't understand what is going on and the things that you're saying. They're trying to protect fear from the rest of the people so that the people on the wall and the people that can hear don't get so freaked out.

But of course, you know, if you're facing an enemy, are they going to be polite and cordial and fulfill your request? No. Look at verse 13. Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out with a loud voice in Hebrew and said, Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. Thus says the king, Do not let King Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you.

Nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us. The city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, Make peace with me by a present, and come out to me. And every one of you eat from his own vine, and every one from his own fig tree. And every one of you drink from 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, the Lord will deliver us. Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand?

Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their countries from my hand that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand? Here the Rabshakeh now raises his voice and calls out to all the people on the wall. He calls out to all who can hear. And he tells them, don't let Hezekiah deceive you. Don't let this king tell you that you'll survive this battle.

He calls out now to the common people and says, guys, you should surrender. Don't let them trick you. Don't let them deceive you. They're not going to be victorious. It's better for you to surrender now so that you don't have to face certain death. As he speaks to the Jewish people, to the people of Judah, he first of all says, you can't trust your leaders anymore.

There in verse 14 and 15, he says, look, don't let him deceive you. You're not able to do this. They won't be able to deliver you. Don't let Hezekiah tell you, hey, trust in the Lord. That's not going to work. It's not going to happen. Don't let him tell you that God can save you. Don't believe him when he says those things the enemy says. And then he goes on to give him an enticing offer. There in verse 16 and 17. Sounds pretty good. Here's what you do. Just surrender.

Just surrender and then here's what will happen. You'll get to stay there and you'll get to eat from your vineyards and enjoy the fruits of your crop and the water that you've stored up in your cistern. You'll be able to drink that and you'll just be here for some time and then what's going to happen is my master's going to come and he's going to take you to land a lot like this one. It's very plentiful and wonderful and you're going to love it and so he's going to take you there and he's going to put you there and you'll be able to establish yourself and live...

He's not saying, look, surrender and we'll put you in chains and, you know, pierce your ear and pull you by the ear to get you and drag you all the way across the desert to Assyria. No, he says, nice and pleasant. Here's what's going to happen. And if you surrender, oh, things are going to be great. You'll be able to just enjoy what you've done here and then start afresh over there and you'll be settled and it's just going to be wonderful. And as I was reading this, it was reminding me of the serpent in Eve.

Similar type of thing, causing her to doubt what had been told to her. Did God really say, did he really say, you really think that's what's best for you, to not eat of that tree there in the midst of the garden? The knowledge of good and evil makes her enticing promises. Oh, the Lord knows. If you eat of that, oh, you're going to be wise, you're going to know good from evil, you're going to be just like God. Ooh, that sounds good.

You know, the enemy didn't tell her, yeah, if you eat that, you know, you're going to die instantly spiritually and you're going to be a slave to your flesh. No, he tells her all these enticing things, wonderful, great, oh, that's awesome. So she takes a bite. But then we know how the story goes. It's the fall of mankind as Adam and Eve partook of that fruit in which God had commanded it not to be partaken of. Here the enemy comes against Judah and he says, oh, it's going to be wonderful. Just surrender, just give up.

He finishes off saying, look, the Lord can't deliver you. All the nations that we've conquered, their gods, they said their gods would deliver them. And their gods haven't been able to deliver them. Your gods know different, the enemy says. You're going to be conquered. So might as well make it easy on yourself. Surrender now and you'll have all these wonderful things. And isn't that what the enemy whispers into our ear? Look, if you do this, oh man, things are going to be great. It's going to be awesome. It's not going to be bad.

You'll be okay. You'll be able to control it. You'll have lots of fun. Whatever, he says. It'll be alright. God can't help you in it anyways. You might as well go forward with this thought or that activity. Might as well pursue that route. Just give up. Just surrender. And it's so deceptive and it's so wicked. Because the reality is, when we disobey God and when we walk away from God...

Well, Jesus said, if anyone sins, he is a slave of sin. Paul talked about that in Romans 6 and 7, the slavery that we once had that we've been set free from, and don't go back to bondage under those things. It's slavery. But the enemy tells us, oh, no, it's going to be great. It's going to be wonderful. You don't have anything to worry about. And your God can't help you anyways. I mean, look at how many times you've fallen before. He didn't help you then. Look at all these things that happened to you. He didn't help you then. Just give in. Just surrender.

Verse 21 and 22. So the people answered him, not a word. Now, can I just say that this is a very wise response to the lies of the enemy.

I like what Pastor Greg Laurie often says, you know, when Satan knocks at the door, I send Jesus to answer. You don't have to answer. You don't have to wrestle. You don't have to win the argument when those things are plaguing. Be silent and trust in the Lord. Be silent and look to God. The people did not answer, but these three guys, Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah, come back to Hezekiah. Their clothes are torn. The sign of great mourning and lamentation.

They're very upset that these words that they had spoken, that the Rabshakeh had spoken, this threat that had plagued them or come upon them. And so they now go back to Hezekiah. We enter into chapter 37, verse 1. And so it was when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.

Then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. And they said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy, for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth.

It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left. So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. And Isaiah said to them, Thus you shall say to your master, Thus says the Lord, Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

Here in chapter 37, now Isaiah receives the news. And so he likewise tears his clothes.

He covers himself in sackcloth. And if you don't know what that is, picture, if you can remember a little bit a while back, potato sacks and that rough material. And that's what sackcloth essentially is. And so they would put this on to afflict themselves so that they would be in constant mourning. And he sends his messengers in sackcloth as well to Isaiah that he would pray. And I think this is an important thing to note in our response today.

to the armies that come against us, to the discouragements that we face, to the disappointments that we come up against, to those times that we're completely overwhelmed. Two things Hezekiah does. First of all, first and foremost, he goes to the house of the Lord. I don't think that means that we come to church necessarily, but that we go to the Lord. We go into the presence of God.

When we face difficulties, when we face trials, when we face hardship, when we're overwhelmed, the first thing we need to do is we need to go into the presence of God. We need to seek Him and spend time with Him personally between ourselves and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But not only does He do that, you know, we're not lone rangers as Christians. He knows it's a big battle. He's

aware that it's more than he can handle. And although he's seeking the Lord and it's him and Jesus, well, him and Yahweh at that point, at that time, it's him and the Lord, yet he seeks out prayer and godly counsel. He sends his guys to Isaiah. Isaiah had been around for a while. He was a prophet. He'd had interactions with Hezekiah many times in the past. So he says, guys, we need to have Isaiah pray for this situation, for this whole thing.

We need to know what the Lord is saying. And Isaiah will be able to share with us what the Lord wants us to do. So they send him to him. And Isaiah responds saying, Don't be afraid. The words that you've heard, they were spoken in blasphemy against God. God's going to take care of it. They're not going to come into the city. They're going to return. By which they came. There's going to be a rumor and he's going to return. He's going to go away. He's not going to come and attack the city.

It was God's response and there's more to come in this story. But here we see Hezekiah's response, which is the response that you and I need to have. First and foremost, we need to go into the presence of God. But it's not unholy, it's not ungodly, it's not unspiritual to seek out prayer from others and godly counsel. That we would hear from God what He desires for us to do. God has designed it in such a way that we need one another. We need each other in the body of Christ.

And so as you struggle with those things, as you're overwhelmed, reach out, seek out those who would be able to pray with you and give you biblical counsel and encouragement with the things that the Lord would say. Well, as we go on now in verse 8, we find God's word fulfilled through the prophet Isaiah. He says, Then the Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libna, for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish.

And the king heard concerning Tirhaka, the king of Ethiopia,

He has come out to make war with you. So when he heard of it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah saying, thus you shall speak to Hezekiah, king of Judah saying, do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by utterly destroying them and

So what did Isaiah say would happen?

God said, I will send a spear from him, he shall hear a rumor, and return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by his sword in his own land. Part of this is already being fulfilled. He hears a rumor. There's this king of Ethiopia down there, southern of Egypt, and he's come up to attack you. And so they've retreated from Jerusalem so that they could focus now on this new battle that is going to take place. But Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, he wants to make sure that they don't think that this is a victory.

He wants to make sure that they don't think this is God's deliverance. So he sends them this letter. Don't be deceived. Don't be tricked. Don't think that God did this for you. And once again, he goes down the list. I beat all these kings. We've conquered all these gods and these peoples. You're no different. We're going to come back. It's a temporary delay, but we're going to come back and we're going to defeat you. And so Hezekiah takes the letter. He reads it. And I like the way it says he takes it to the house of the Lord and spreads it out before the Lord.

He just kind of rolls out the scroll and says, Lord, look at what they're saying about you. Lord, look what they're proclaiming falsely about you. Verse 15, Then Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, the one who dwells between the cherubim, you are God, you alone of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear.

Open your eyes, O Lord, and see and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them. Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord God.

You alone. Hezekiah prays this beautiful prayer, this awesome prayer, in response to this letter from the king of Assyria. He says, Lord, only you are God. You're the God who created the universe. All these other nations and gods that they've conquered, they're not gods. They were the works of men's hands. They were idols of gold and silver, and they weren't gods. And so, of course, they weren't able to save them. But,

But Lord, you are God. You're not dead. You're not a false God. You are the true and living God. And he's speaking all these words against you, essentially saying, look, Lord, here you have it. Lord, you defend yourself. You fight for your name. There's an importance for you and I to be able to walk with God in such a way so that when things come against us, we're able to say the same thing.

You know, if what you do and the way that you live is in response to what God has spoken to you, then when those situations come where the money for the bills isn't there, or this situation is not going to be handled, or this project is not going to be completed, or this is going to happen if this and this and this doesn't take place, if you've been living in obedience and in response to what God has spoken to you because you walk in daily relationship with Him, then there's no worry.

Because then it's, well, Lord, you told me to do this. You put me here in this place. You brought me here. And so, Lord, it's your name that's on the line, not my name, because everybody knows I've just been doing what God has told me to do, what you have told me to do, Lord. And so your name is on the line. Lord, would you provide? Would you handle that situation? Would you take care of those things?

Now, where we get in trouble is, we don't always like to wait and listen on the Lord. We're not that patient. And so we just run off and do our own things. And then we have all these problems. And of course, then we call out the Lord. But it's our name that's at stake and not necessarily His. But Hezekiah knew what God had said. He had responded to the king of Assyria in obedience to God, saying, we will not serve you. We're not going to pay you tribute. You're not going to conquer us. And so when he threatens God,

Hezekiah says, Look, Lord, you said. It's you that they're coming against. God, it's you that they're threatening and blaspheming against. Now, therefore, Lord God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord, you alone. I want my life to be a testimony of that, that he is God, he alone and no other. This is a prayer that Hezekiah prays and God responds to it through his servant, the prophet Isaiah. Verse 21 says,

Notice, here's why God responded. Because you came to me, because you looked to me, because you relied upon me and trusted in me. God loves us to trust in him. Because you looked to me, here's what I'm going to do. This is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him.

The virgin, the daughter of Zion, has despised you, laughed you to scorn. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head behind your back. Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel. God responds to the king of Assyria. And what does he say? Well, you said, king of Assyria, that they couldn't put men on 2,000 horses. But here's what I say.

The young ladies of Jerusalem are going to laugh at you. They're going to laugh you to scorn. They're going to shake their head behind your back. You can't believe how foolish they were. I can't believe how they rejected God in such a way. God goes on to say, who do you think you're blaspheming and reproaching? It's not the people of Israel. You've come against the Holy One of Israel, the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Verse 24,

Verse 26. Verse 28. Verse 28.

As God responds to the king of Assyria, I'm glad I'm not in his shoes. God says,

You've made all these lofty claims and you think you have such a great army. But don't you know how long ago I made it? I'm the creator. I am far greater than you are or ever could be. Now God says, look, the power that you have, I gave it to you. I appointed you for this. God was using Assyria for judgment on those nations. And he was allowing Assyria to conquer them so that they would be

receiving the judgment that was deserved for their rebellion against God. Those nations that were conquered, those cities that were conquered. And so God tells us here, the reason why you were able to defeat all these people is because I gave you the ability. I allowed you to. I enabled you to. I'm the creator. I'm God. But you rage against me.

You're fighting against me. God had instructed or promised and commanded that Assyria would not take Jerusalem and yet in its pride, Assyria tried anyways in defiance of the Lord, in rejection of God. So God says, I'm going to turn you back by the way in which you came. Verse 30, he now directs

God continues speaking, Verse 33,

Here as God is responding, He tells them,

This year, you're going to be able to eat that of which it grows. Now, because of the siege, because of the battles, they weren't able to plow and to sow and reap. So they're just going to be able to eat what grows naturally. And the second year, the same thing. But the third year, they're going to be able to sow and reap. They're going to be able to be able to plant and reap the fruit of that. They're going to continue on is what the Lord is saying.

The remnant that is there. Now, Jerusalem now is the remnant because all the rest of Judah had been conquered. And all of Israel had been conquered. So the Jewish people were now only in the city of Jerusalem. All others had been conquered. It's recorded in the Chronicles of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, that when he came against the land, he took captive 200,000 of the Jewish people.

So those that were left were just those there in the city of Jerusalem. It was a remnant. It was just a few more than we have here this evening. But compared to the nations around them and compared to what the nation once was, it was a very small few that were left. But the remnant will take root downward. They're going to bear fruit. They're going to make it through this circumstance. But he goes on to talk about Assyria. He says they won't come into the city forever.

They're not going to shoot one arrow over the wall. They're not going to build a siege mound. They're not going to come against them. They're not going to be successful. Instead, they're going to go back the way that they came. He says, I will defend it for my own sake, honoring the name of the Lord, but also for my servant David's sake. Again, it's just a beautiful testimony of David. The man after God's own heart, Larry's been sharing with me a little bit about that, how it means he's a man who pursued God's heart, who desired to know and obey and

be in obedience with the heart of God. And as a result, even here many years later, God is defending this city for his own sake, but also for his servant David's sake, because he was a man of God. Well, we find the fulfillment of this in verses 36 through 38. It says, Then the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000 people.

Verse 38.

Now it came to pass as he was worshipping in the house of Nishrak, his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sherezer struck him down with the sword and they escaped into the land of Arafat. Then Esarhaddon, his son, reigned in his place. Here we have the beginning of the end for the Assyrian Empire.

Soon after, the Assyrian Empire, the Babylonian Empire, rises to power, conquers them, and begins again to take all of the lands that Assyria had taken. And really it starts here. The crushing defeat, not by a battle, not by a great army, but by the angel of the Lord.

In Isaiah chapter 31, God promises that this is going to happen, that they're going to be defeated, but not by man, not by the sword of man. They're going to be defeated by God. So it tells us the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp 185,000 of the Assyrians. Now it doesn't really tell us when exactly this takes place. And so there's some difference of opinion, whether it was immediate or sometime as they were in battle somewhere else.

But whatever the case, God fulfilled his word and 185,000 were killed. And so what happens is Sennacherib, the king, he goes back the way he came, back to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. Then verse 38, there's a time gap there between verse 37 and 38. There's about 20 years that takes place before Sennacherib is actually assassinated by his sons. But he's there worshiping his God and his sons put him to death and his other son takes the throne.

The defeat of Assyria and fulfillment of God and His word. Now I shared at the beginning, there's a parallel. Spiritual truths that we can see in this historical account. That just as the Rabshakeh came against Judah and the city of Jerusalem, so the enemy also comes against us and sends his messengers against us saying, you can't do it. You're weak. Your God can't help you. No one else can help you. In fact, God is against you.

You're not going to be successful. You might as well just surrender and give up. Why bother living the Christian life? Why bother pressing forward in obedience to God? You can't do it. Just surrender. Just give up.

He goes on to tell us, you can't trust your leaders. You can't trust those who are counseling you and encouraging you. They don't know what you're going through. They don't know really what's going on. They don't know how bad it hurts and how much you need this or how difficult that is. You can't trust them. They don't know. They don't know. He sends his messengers to give us enticing offers. Well, if you just disregard God in this area, things are just going to be wonderful.

You don't have to live so difficult. You don't have to fight. There doesn't have to be fatalities and difficulties. Just have it easy. You'll have this wonderful time. The enemy sends these lies, this wickedness to us, seeking for us to give up. When in reality, we turn to the next chapter and we find it's the enemy who is defeated.

And we may not see it come to completion now. It's 20 years later till Sennacherib is actually put to death, but he's defeated there when God says he is in the same way. In Jesus Christ dying upon the cross, he has conquered sin and death. He's defeated the enemy. The enemy no longer has power over us. I've heard it many times shared this way. God's removed his teeth. All he can do is bark.

He can shout at us. He can bark at us. He can try to intimidate us and scare us. But in reality, the enemy has no power over us. We are victorious in Jesus Christ. You are able to live in obedience to God. You are able to walk the Christian life. You are able to walk in the Spirit and not gratify the lust of the flesh. You are able. Don't let the enemy tell you otherwise. Don't let your flesh tell you otherwise. Don't let the people around you tell you otherwise. You are able by the power of God.

through the shed blood of Jesus Christ there upon the cross. And the enemy doesn't give up easily. Just like Sennacherib sent back a message, Hey, don't think that just because I've gone away or this worked out okay, that God has delivered you. No, I'm going to come back. Like Hezekiah, we just need to continue to trust in the Lord. We're His children. His name is upon us. He will fight for us for His sake, for His name's sake. When the enemy comes against us,

It's the Lord who reproaches. It's the Lord who blasphemes. And we need to stand in the strength of God. The enemy can't defeat us. All he can do is hope that we surrender. That's why he threatens. That's why he lies so cleverly. Tries to convince us that we're beaten already so that we give up because it's the only way that he can win. But if we get up, if we go into the presence of God,

If we continue in relationship with the Lord, even when we fall, even when we stumble, even when we blow it, even when events happen and things take place that we think, man, it's over. If we'll get back and walk with God and spend time with Him, the enemy is defeated. Because the only way that he can win is if we give up. And we say, I don't want to fight. I don't want to do it. I can't do it. He's convinced us. We're defeated already, so we give up. But the reality is,

The reality is you will not lack anything that you need. Romans chapter 8 tells us if God gave his own son for us, how much more will he give us everything that we need for this life? God will give you everything you need. Keep trusting in him. Keep walking with him. Don't give up.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.