Isaiah With Training Wheels: Ch. 36-37
Here, we are closing out the first section of Isaiah. The emphasis has been on Temporal Salvation, and the Messiah as the King of Jerusalem and all Israel. The primary antagonist and geo-political foe, was Assyria, even as the Prophet rebukes the Lord’s own people. But here we are at the end. The wicked have been destroyed, or carried away, and the Assyrian armies advance on Jerusalem itself.
But in spite of the fact the Lord called Assyria to punish the wicked, the Lord Jehovah, Jesus Christ, is the King of Jerusalem. And when Sennacherib challenges the Jerusalem, the Lord shows that he, indeed, is the actual king. Thus, this historical interlude is not placed at random. It is the capstone and the historical realization of everything before it. It is the Lord demonstrating his divine patience and ultimately, his power.
Leaders (36:1-3)
Trust: Trust Others? (36:4-6)
Trust: or Trust the Lord? (36:7)
Trust: Trust Others? (36:8-9)
Trust: or Trust the Lord? (36:10)
Message is to the ordinary man (36:11)
Message is to the ordinary man 36:12)
Trust: Trust Others? (36:13-14)
Trust: or Trust the Lord? (36:15)
Trust: Trust Others? (36:16-17)
Trust: or Trust the Lord? (36:18-20)
Leaders (36:21-22)
Even though this is all about geo-political actors, nations and peoples, armies and battles and history, the important people here are NOT the leaders. It is the common ordinary man and woman. It is all of us that have to make the choices that all of this depends on.
On the first level of the chiasmus, we see leaders impotent in the face of their problems.
On the second level, we see Rabshakeh giving the people of Jerusalem a choice, to trust in God, or trust in others – Assyria, Egypt, Hezekiah, etc.
On the inmost level, the audience of the message is made clear. It is for all of us, not our leaders, to make these decisions. We can’t pawn this choice off on them.
The following chiasmi also reflect the theme of trusting the Lord and the Lord’s dedication to his people. Be sure to notice the center of the chiasmus to see its emphasis. I bolded words in matched sides of the chiasmus.
36:1 Now it came to pass in the year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of came up against all the defenced cities of Judah, and took them.
2 And the king of Assyria sent 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 fuller’s field.
3 Then came forth unto him Eliakim, Hilkiah’s son, which was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, Asaph’s son, the recorder.
4 ¶ And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, [On what are you basing your confidence on?]
5 [Do you think empty words are sufficient counsel and strength for war:] now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?
6 Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken , on ; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him.
7 But if thou say to me, We trust in the Lord our God: is it not he, whose and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar?
8 Now therefore [make a deal], I pray thee, to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them.
9 How then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
10 [Have I come up to attack and destroy this land without the Lord’s approval?] The Lord said unto me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.
11 ¶ Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray thee, unto thy servants in [Aramaic]; for we understand it: and speak not to us in [Hebrew], in the ears of the people that are on the wall.
12 ¶ But Rabshakeh said, Hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?
13 Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and said, Hear ye the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.
14 Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you.
15 Neither 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.
16 Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make [peace with me and surrender]: and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his own cistern;
17 Until 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.
18 Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, The Lord will deliver us. Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim? and have they delivered out of my hand?
20 Who 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?
21 But they , and answered him not a word: for the king’s commandment was, saying, Answer him not.
22 ¶ Then came Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, that 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.
37:1 And 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.
2 And 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.
3 And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of , and of rebuke, and of : for the children are come to , and there is not strength to [deliver them].
4 It may be the Lord thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh,
whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to [mock] the living God,
and will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard:
wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.
5 So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6 ¶ And said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
7 Behold, I will a [spirit] upon him, and he shall hear a , and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
8 ¶ So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
9 And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is come forth to make war with thee. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
10 Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying,
Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
11 Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered?
12 Have 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?
13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?
14 ¶ And 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.
15 And Hezekiah prayed unto the Lord, saying,
16 O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the , thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth.
17 Incline thine ear, O Lord, and hear; open thine eyes, O Lord, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent to the Living God.
18 Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their ,
19 And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no , but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them.
20 Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord, even thou only.
21 ¶ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria:
22 This is the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning him; , the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.
23 Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.
24 By thy servants hast thou reproached the Lord, and hast 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 thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the height of his border, and the forest of his Carmel.
25 I have [dug wells in foreign lands], and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of the [Egypt].
26 Hast thou not heard long ago, [that I have ordained it; and that anciently that I have planned it? now have I brought it to pass, that you have laid waste defenced cities into heaps of ruins].
27 Therefore their inhabitants were [weak], 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 [scorched] before it be grown up.
28 But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.
29 Because thy rage against me, and thy [self-assurance], is come up into mine ears, therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.
30 And this shall be a sign unto , Ye shall eat this year such as groweth of itself; and the second year that which springeth of the same: and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof.
31 And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward:
32 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a , and they that escape out of mount Zion: the of the Lord of hosts shall do this.
33 Therefore thus saith 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 against it.
34 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord.
35 For I will this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.
36 Then the of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
37 ¶ So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
38 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping 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.
Notes:
36:2 Rabshakeh is also translated “Field Commander” or “Chief of Staff”.
37:22-33 This chiasmus forcefully makes the point that everything the King of Assyria thought he did because he was intelligent and competent, were because the Lord called him to do it. It was ALL part of the Lord’s divine plan. It was part of his plan to bring him this far, and it was part of his plan to turn him back and have him die in his own land.
37:26 “I ordained” is literately ‘I did’. This is an example of the grammatical prophetic perfect tense, which speaks of prophesy, as if it as already happened. Thus, in Hebrew, this is an example of the future having already happened
37:36 J Alec Motyer suggests we understand this Angel to be the Savior himself.
37:38 Notice, while Hezekiah sought the Lord in the temple and received blessings, Sennacherib was murdered in his own god’s temple.
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