19:1-4 In the previous chapter, the Assyrians delivered a bold and debilitating speech to the kingdom of Judah. The Assyrian commander arrogantly presented foreboding immediate future for those who would not submit to Assyria. King Hezekiah is informed of the message and panics. Hezekiah may be weak in faith, but he is not a faithless man. His response is to absorb the threat but also pray that God had listened to the speech and would be behooved to step in.
19:5-7 Servants of Hezekiah bring their prayer to the prophet Isaiah. After convening with God, Isaiah has a message from Him to Hezekiah:
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. Surely I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land."
God has magnanimously ensured that Judah will not be devoured by the Assyrians in the precise and impossibly way that only He can. God plans to draw the enemy out of the territory of Judah and then to eliminate him. God is both concise and thorough.
19:8-13 God provides promise. But His promises can only be received and relied upon by faith. The commander is removed from their immediate presence but his threats are not. Rabshakeh reiterates that the Assyrians have been successful against gods of many regions and have left those nations wailing in defeat.
This moment requires serious, steadfast faith. The Assyrians have indeed acquired many lands and have prevailed against the false gods of the people around them. The Assyrians have even prevailed against Judah's counterpart, Israel, but because of their corruption not because of any deficiency of God. Can you be convinced that your God has limits? The enemy will present deceptively compelling evidence to ensure that you can.
19:14 Hezekiah receives the awful letter from Rabshakeh and with it, he makes an interesting move. The king of Judah brings the letter to the house of the Lord and smooths the paper out before God. In effect, Hezekiah says to God: I have been presented with this letter by my enemy. I now present this letter-become-burden to you, for it is too heavy for me.
19:15 Hezekiah delivers a heartfelt plea and prayer to God:
“O Lord 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 the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste 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, I pray, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord God, You alone.”In this prayer, Hezekiah explains that he understands that the other nations have only fallen because of their reliance on false gods. Hezekiah acknowledges the true God's un-matchable, un-measurable strength.
19:20 God responds to Hezekiah's prayer, as He always does when we pour our hearts out to Him: Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard. Hezekiah brought his burden to God and God picks it up and claims it! Incredible. All we need to do is ask and trust Him to answer.
And God loves nothing more than to love us. He loves to swoop into our lives on a rescue mission with indignation and might. But more than that, He loves to not have to swoop in. He loves to be invited to dwell in our lives permanently, to never even witness our defenses broken because He was trusted to remain maintaining them all along.
19:21 God has responded to Hezekiah and now He has a rebuttal, a message for the evil enemy of Judah. The people of Judah remained silent while being tormented but God does not. He begins:
‘The virgin, the daughter of Zion,God finds it laughable that the Assyrians would assume any power against Jerusalem, the city which represents Him. Talk about a comeback! The Assyrians tried to humiliate Judah and their God and now God tears them to shreds.
Has despised you, laughed you to scorn;
The daughter of Jerusalem
Has shaken her head behind your back!
19:22 God continues:
‘Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?Do you know whom you have provoked? The Assyrians have taunted a giant, the creator of the universe. Though they boast of their might, they have never faced any entity with even a fraction of God's power. Oh, the ferocity with which God defends His children!
Against whom have you raised your voice,
And lifted up your eyes on high?
Against the Holy One of Israel.
19:23-25 God reminds the Assyrian's of their threats against Israel and Judah:
By your messengers you have reproached the Lord,
And said: “By the multitude of my chariots
I have come up to the height of the mountains,
To the limits of Lebanon;
I will cut down its tall cedars
And its choice cypress trees;
I will enter the extremity of its borders,
To its fruitful forest.
I have dug and drunk strange water,The Assyrians have expressed an intention to cut Judah down, to dry up its defenses. God reminds them that He is the one who has created the very ground they plan to tread on to do so. You must not have been informed, God speaks, I orchestrate the events of this entire universe.
And with the soles of my feet I have dried up
All the brooks of defense.”
‘Did you not hear long ago19:26 God explains that all events occurring have been allowed to occur by Him, have been foreseen by Him.
How I made it,
From ancient times that I formed it?
Now I have brought it to pass,
That you should be
For crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins.
Therefore their inhabitants had little power;19:27 God informs the enemies of righteousness that He knows their every move, their every hiding and resting place. He knows their hearts, too. He knows the anger they harbor, the corrupt intentions.
They were dismayed and confounded;
They were as the grass of the field
And the green herb,
As the grass on the housetops
And grain blighted before it is grown.
‘But I know your dwelling place,19:28 God is aware of the events of our lives - not only because He is omniscient but because He hears the cries of His children. Hezekiah presented the letter to God for God to read for Himself.
Your going out and your coming in,
And your rage against Me.
Because your rage against Me and your tumult
Have come up to 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 which you came.
God promises that He will thwart their attempts. He will capture them with a symbolic hook; they have no power, no freedom from His justice and control. He can stop their words, their actions. He can turn them around - when they intend to march forward, He will cause them to go backward.
19:29-31 God prophesies that the Assyrians will not be able to starve and stomp Judah. They enemy might expect that because Judah has not been able to plant for a future harvest, they will die at least of starvation, if not from an effort against the Assyrians. God ensures that they shall be provided for, by Him, and it will be a sign to the world of His presence and provision.
Planting and harvesting are strong metaphors throughout the Bible. God promises that if we sow good seeds, we will reap good fruits. If we live with faith and compassion, our lives will yield blessings. Hezekiah came to God in faith and humility and in doing so, he sowed a future of hope for the kingdom of Judah.
‘This shall be a sign to you:You shall eat this year such as grows of itself,And in the second year what springs from the same;Also in the third year sow and reap,Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.
And the remnant who have escaped of the house of JudahShall again take root downward,And bear fruit upward.
19:32-33 God's specific message concerning the king of Assyria:For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant,And those who escape from Mount Zion.The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.'
‘He shall not come into this city,
Nor shoot an arrow there,
Nor come before it with shield,
Nor build a siege mound against it.
By the way that he came,
By the same shall he return;
And he shall not come into this city,’
Says the Lord.
In a grand finale, God tells the enemy king that he: will not enter the city, will not shoot even a single arrow toward the city, will not have a shield against the city, plan or carry out any siege against the city. He will leave the the way he came and will not return.
19:34 Lastly, and though He does not have to, God explains His reasoning. God rushes in with strength and defense because of a faithful covenant King of David kept alive. For one faithful child, God will forgive and rescue a nation. Judah (and Israel) have a long way to go to restore their relationship with God. They broke it, neglected it, disrespected their covenant with God. But God remains faithful.
‘For I will defend this city, to save itFor My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’”
God explains that for His own sake, as well, He will defend. Because by defending us, God is defending His heart. He has chosen to love us and therefore He chooses to act on our behalf, whether we deserve it or not. Jesus, the messiah, has come through the line of David. God remains with this city because this city will host and protect that family to ensure that the messiah comes and saves the whole world.
God does not try to buy the trust and respect of Judah or Israel. He saves the city for selfless reasons. He saves the city for the sake of compassion and righteousness. If we chose to have the same motivations in life, we uphold our covenant with God.
God does not try to buy the trust and respect of Judah or Israel. He saves the city for selfless reasons. He saves the city for the sake of compassion and righteousness. If we chose to have the same motivations in life, we uphold our covenant with God.
19:35 God sends a host of angels to decimate the Assyrian army. It is fruitless and ridiculous for evil to assemble against righteousness.
19:36-37 Sennacherib, king of Assyria, is killed in a symbolic way: he dies while worshiping his false god. Indeed this man does not retain his live on earth because he did not follow the true and righteous God.
