Isaiah 36 - The Enemy's Best Offer

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. 2 And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field. 3 And there came out to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.

4 And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours? 5 Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me? 6 Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 7 But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord our God,” is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar”? 8 Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. 9 How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master’s servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 10 Moreover, 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.” ’ ”

11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 12 But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”

13 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 14 Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. 15 Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying, “The Lord will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, 17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” Has 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 Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 20 Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’ ”

21 But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.” 22 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.

Target Date: Sunday, 10 November 2024

Word Study/ Translation Notes:

Trust -bit-taw-khone’; from 982; trust:— confidence, hope.

This is related closely to the word bâṭach, baw-takh’; a prim. root; prop. to hie for refuge [but not so precipitately as 2620]; fig. to trust, be confident or sure:— be bold (confident, secure, sure), careless (one, woman), put confidence, (make to) hope, (put, make to) trust.

Thoughts on the Passage:

The enemy will try, most of all, to stop your faith in Christ. If he can break you, he will. But for those who are secured in Christ, he must settle for making you ineffective by causing you to doubt God and fear anything else.

Will God put you into situation that are above your ability to win or succeed? Of course.

The battle is the Lord’s. The glory belongs to our God.

It is no spoiler to tell you that in a single night, God’s angel destroyed 185,000 Assyrians and forced their remainder to retreat. Judah, on its best day and with its finest warriors, could never have managed such.

Chapters 36-37 are almost identical to 2 Kings 18-19.

The Rabshakeh used several tactics:

5 – “You have no strength”

6 – “You have no friends” – no allies

7 – “You have offended God – He will not defend you”

And yet the very accusation of the Rabshakeh is that Hezekiah had torn down the abominable high places that God hated.

He had declared that only on one altar would sacrifices be made.

8 – “You have no skills to match mine”

10 – “God has sent me; He has spoken to me”

Most of the people you will meet in your life who say this are wrong.

Do you know how God speaks to you? When the Holy Spirit REALLY speaks to you?

He brings to you SCRIPTURE.

You may read it; you may hear it; you may remember it from when you memorized it. But the voice of the Holy Spirit will ALWAYS be the word of God IN CONTEXT.

It will always exalt Christ – never you. Never any man.

How many places do we see the enemy of your soul using Scripture OUT OF CONTEXT?

The temptation of Jesus.

The temptation of Adam.

The Pharisees.

16 – I will give you rest and peace for this life in slavery – forget trust in God”

18 – “I am greater than all gods”

In his second speech (vv. 13–21), the Rabshakeh used the word “deliver” eight times (in Hebrew).

For every possible defense the people might raise he has a ready answer, making it apparent that his purpose is not rational argumentation but demoralization.

1 -We must not wonder if, when we are doing well, God sends afflictions to quicken us to do better, to do our best, and to press forward towards perfection.

2 -Thus, this section is not placed here accidentally or haphazardly. It is located consciously to provide the climax to all which the prophet has said about the folly of trusting the nations. Several factors make it plain that a conscious contrast with Ahaz is intended. One of the most striking of these is that the place where the Rabshaqeh stood to blaspheme God (36:2) is the same place where Isaiah stood to urge Ahaz to trust God (7:3). It is because of Ahaz’s refusal to trust in that place that the Rabshaqeh would stand there (8:5–8). Furthermore, it is not just any nation which threatens to engulf Hezekiah, but Assyria, the very nation Ahaz chose to trust in place of God.

And the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field. 4 And say to him, ‘Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah. - Isaiah 7:3–4

The Lord spoke to me again: 6 “Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoice over Rezin and the son of Remaliah, 7 therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks, 8 and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.” - Isaiah 8:5–8

Nothing about this location is accidental - where the prophet had stood, now the enemy stands when the prophet is not heeded.

4 -Proud men love to talk big, to boast of what they are, and have, and have done, nay and of what they will do, to insult over others, and set all mankind at defiance, though thereby they render themselves ridiculous to all wise men and obnoxious to the wrath of that God who resists the proud. But thus they think to make themselves feared, though they make themselves hated, and to carry their point by great swelling words of vanity, Jude 16.

4 – The trust of Hezekiah is related in 2 Chronicles 32:

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, for there are more with us than with him. 8 With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people took confidence from the words of Hezekiah king of Judah. - 2 Chronicles 32:7–8

5 – The enemy accuses them of coming at him with mere words, but that is SPECIFICALLY the weapon he uses.

13 - Just like the Rabshakeh, your enemy will make many types of offers and use many types of tactics to encourage you to abandon your faith.

His words before were in Hebrew, not necessarily for the emissaries of the king, but for the men along the walls.

If they deserted, if they fled, they proved they were never of Israel to begin with.

What stranger or foreigner with no ties will defend another’s home?

And even this happens under the sovereign will of God; it is sometimes His good will to separate the true sons from the false, the disciples from the betrayer.

No one can hide from His perfect knowledge; He knows your heart better than you do.

13 -And they shouted it with a loud voice in the language of Judah to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten and terrify them, in order that they might take the city. 19 And they spoke of the God of Jerusalem as they spoke of the gods of the peoples of the earth, which are the work of men’s hands. - 2 Chronicles 32:18–19

Josephus -But the general understanding what he meant, and perceiving the fear that he was in, he made his answer with a greater and louder voice, but in the Hebrew tongue; and said, that “since they all heard what were the king’s commands, they would consult their own advantage in delivering up themselves to us; (9) for it is plain that both you and your king dissuade the people from submitting by vain hopes, and so induce them to resist; but if you be courageous, and think to drive our forces away, I am ready to deliver to you two thousand of these horses that are with me for your use, if you can set as many horsemen on their back, and show your strength; but what you have not, you cannot produce. (10) Why, therefore, do you delay to deliver up yourselves to a superior force, who can take you without your consent? although it will be safer for you to deliver yourselves up voluntarily, while a forcible capture, when you are beaten, must appear more dangerous, and will bring farther calamities upon you.”

21 – The king’s command: “Do not answer him.”

No reply they would make would improve Judah’s chances of victory. They would not win by cleverness or bravado.

We sometimes think we WILL win in this way.

Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed; he will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving might of his right hand. 7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. 8 They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright. - Psalm 20:6–8

What reply could these men have made? Was there any word or speech they could make that would have made the Assyrian general say, “Oh, I see what you mean. Perhaps we should be going now.”

We see the same command in Jude to avoid these evil disputations:

Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” 10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. - Jude 8–10

And in 2 Peter:

and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, 13 suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. - 2 Peter 2:10–13

We must never think that our hasty words are the Spirit’s instant response; more often, it is a parade of our own folly and pride.

If we do not answer in faith, we, too, must stay silent.

If we do not answer with the accurate message of the Scriptures, we, too, should remain mute.

If we answer to defend ourselves OR GOD, we must be doubly sure to swallow those words forever and not compound the sin of having them form in our heart in the first place.

And if the intent of our words is NOT to call a straying child home, we are out of our league and our charter.

How would these men, if given permission, have answered the taunts of the Rabshakeh?

He was accurate in his assessment of their military might.

He could look and see the fear forming in the hearts and faces of those who watched and listened.

If they had disputed, they could have spoken nothing but lies.

If they had engaged in this dialogue, it gives permission to the men on the wall to doubt God or decide for themselves on the merits of the arguments.

We, as fleshly people, are easily swayed by unrighteous and unfaithful arguments that agree with the desires of our flesh.

If they had disputed, it turns the instruction and promises of God into a DEBATE, an issue.

It is the very sin the church has committed for the last 60 years in failing to call the voluntary killing of an unborn child murder.

We called it “abortion”, and instead of upholding the Law of God, we fought for a position.

Now, the enemies of the cross don’t even call it that – they call it “reproductive rights”.

Men and women, I don’t care WHAT political party you support: murdering unborn children is a sin, a crime, and an abomination before God that He will judge.

To turn the Law of God into a debate, to present His commandments and promises as your opinion, is the definition of “taking the name of God in vain.”

To take God’s promises and explain the wisdom and love behind them.

And those who present God’s commands and promises as merely their beliefs cheapen the gospel while they puff up themselves.

Those who do may feel righteous; but they have fallen from grace.

If the goal of your defense is the honor of God, you are wrong.

If it is anything but the salvation of your hearer(s), you have stepped beyond your calling.

It is like a child sent to a playground to invite the other kids to a party.

He arrives, but then gets into a fistfight with the very ones he came to bring in.

I grow weary of hearing that Jesus’s refutation of the Pharisees gives us the example and warrant to be nasty or worldly in our arguments with others.

Jesus did not become smug. He didn’t dispute with the Pharisees because they were smug, or confident, or even because they were wrong.

He opposed them because they were TEACHING others those errors.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. - Matthew 23:15

But when they came to Him by night, or invited Him to their home, He spoke with them.

And even when Jesus DID oppose them, it wasn;t to defend God’s honor but to correct THEIR error, correcting it for them and for their disciples.

Sermon Text:

This morning we begin to look at the next section of the book of Isaiah.

Depending on your translation and its layout, you may notice something a bit different about the next few chapters: they are not poetry.

For most of the book to this point, the text has been written in Hebrew verse.

But for the next 4 chapters, Isaiah shows us three separate historical events in the form of three tales:

What becomes of the Assyrian invasion.

Hezekiah’s sickness.

And Hezekiah’s most foolish choice.

This week, we will look at the beginning of the story that tells us what happened with the Assyrian invasion. That will take most of chapter 36.

It is my intention to look at the finale of that story next week, beginning with the final verses of 36 and all of chapter 37.

You might be interested to know that these two chapters are almost identical with 2 Kings 18-19. An briefer account of all four of these chapters in Isaiah can also be found in the 32nd chapter of 2 Chronicles.

I hope you will go home and read these passages this week, noticing the details in each of the accounts.

Because this is a REALLY big move of God.

An argument can easily be made that the deliverance of Judah from the Assyrian threat was possibly the greatest deliverance of God for His people since the exodus from Egypt.

Before we begin looking at the passage, though, I want to make sure we all know what has happened up to this point.

Like when you binge-watch a television show, and the episode begins with “Previously in Israel…”

Previously in Israel…

The good king Hezekiah is reigning in Judah.

Now when the Bible, particularly the books of Kings and Chronicles, call a king “good”, they mean one thing: He put down the idolatry of the people.

If not suppressed, the people would go to the tops of hills, to groves or gardens called “high places”, build an altar to a god, sometimes Yahweh, sometimes other gods.

And they would worship and sacrifice there, violating the Law of God.

“Good” kings tore down these high places so everyone would come to the temple in Jerusalem to worship God; “Evil” kings allowed or even built high places.

Hezekiah’s father was an evil king: Ahaz.

Ahaz didn’t trust God; he was truly evil.

Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done, 2 but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even made metal images for the Baals, 3 and he made offerings in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom and burned his sons as an offering, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. 4 And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree. 5 Therefore the Lord his God gave him into the hand of the king of Syria, who defeated him and took captive a great number of his people and brought them to Damascus. He was also given into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with great force. - 2 Chronicles 28:1–5

So when Ahaz was attacked by the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and Syria - God had brought them there because of Judah’s idolatry – Ahaz reached out to the most powerful nation in the world – Assyria.

He stripped the valuables from the temple of God and ordered an altar to an idol built and installed in the temple of God.

And so Assyria conquered Syria and Israel – but they didn’t stop there.

They kept right on invading Judah, the rest of Ahaz’s life and the first fourteen years of Hezekiah’s reign.

That brings us to chapter 36:

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. 2 And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field. 3 And there came out to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.

Now someone may be saying to yourself: “Wait a minute! I think I recognize that location: the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field”

“I know I have seen that location somewhere before.”

And you would be right.

This location is EXACTLY the location where Isaiah took his son to meet the evil king Ahaz and warn him NOT to call on Assyria for aid.

And the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field. 4 And say to him, ‘Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah. - Isaiah 7:3–4

It is no accident that the very place where God had made a great warning to the king of Judah is the place where the great enemy stands and makes his terrifying declaration.

I feel certain the Rabshakeh (which is an official title, not a name) had no idea of the significance of the location – he probably simply found it a convenient place to be heard.

It seems, from the description, to be nearby the king’s house, and at a high place outside the walls of the city.

But just as at the first encounter here the evil king did not heed God’s command, it would be vital for the good king to ignore the commands from here made by the enemy.

Consider for a minute the locations where the enemy, the Satan, made his temptations of our Lord:

The wilderness, where the Spirit had sent our Lord.

The top of the temple, where God is to be honored and worshipped.

And a high place – where he tempted our Lord to bow in worship to him, telling Jesus it was a shortcut to accomplishing His mission.

The enemy has no problem standing in the place a prophet has stood.

He has no qualms in walking into the temple and adding an altar to a false god.

He can preach a finer, more eloquent sermon than any pastor.

He will accuse us, if possible, before the very face of God.

He will twist and manipulate with more skill than you or I will ever recognize.

And that is just what we see the Rabshakeh do.

He makes seven arguments to the king, his servants, and, it turns out, to the men standing guard on the wall, to convince them to abandon their trust in God.

Seven tactics, seven opportunities to make someone doubt, fear, or desert his post.

And it turns out that these are some of the most useful tools in our enemy’s toolbox as well.

Well-used and kept razor-sharp, these seven arguments and threats have kept many a believer from being effective in putting away sin, living in sanctification, or carrying out the good works God had prepared beforehand that they should walk in.

The first is undoubtedly the oldest temptation known to man: he just denies the word of God.

5 Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me?

What he is asking is who are they trusting in?

If they replied that they trust in the LORD God, he would certainly have asked where were HIS horses and chariots?

It is the questions of the serpent in the Garden: “Has God said…? And you’ll not surely die!”

He whispers: “Can you REALLY trust in God, really cast yourself on Him? What if He lets you fall?”

“What if He doesn’t give you everything you ask for?”

“What if you aren’t spared difficult times and tragedies?”

My dear brothers and sisters, know this: God is faithful and good even if you fail; even if you don’t get everything you want in life; and even if you live through crushing trials.

He is good and loving and merciful to you and me, and if I never had another happy day upon this earth, I have already received much more grace than I ever deserved, and my hope still remains for eternity.

This temptation works best when we don’t care what God wants, when we lose sight of His goodness, and see only what we want.

Because when we are seeking for treasures here on earth, our heart is here also.

The second attack? You have no friends – you are all alone.

6 Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.

Who is there to help you? Who has your God sent to you for support?

We all feel alone sometimes – even when we are around people.

And the enemy tells us not to trust other people – they will hurt us.

Maybe not willingly – maybe by accident – but they will betray us and break our hearts.

What does our Lord say to this?

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. - John 15:12

If you get your feelings hurt, it’s way too easy to keep your distance, withdraw.

There have been times in my life where I didn’t even want to go to church because someone there had said something bad about me, something unfair.

But their unloving act did not excuse mine.

Because church is not about what I get out of it, but what I bring to it.

My presence, my participation, my worship, are an offering to God from my gratitude for His grace in Jesus Christ.

Love is not something I demand to receive;

Love is what I OWE.

His third attack: You have offended God, and He is angry with you. He will not defend you.

7 But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord our God,” is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar”?

We have plenty of sin that the enemy is very aware of. He is, after all, called “the Accuser”.

And how better to keep you from crying out in repentance to God for your sin than to convince you that God doesn’t want to hear from you – that He is angry toward you.

Does that worry you? That God looks down on you, thinking whether or not to squash you like a bug?

What can you hang your hope on if you think that?

Do you tell youself “I did pretty good today. I didn’t sin as much.”?

Do you live your life each day trying to earn the right for another happy day, like God dispenses His goodness in payment for ours?

NO!

God doesn’t make deals with you like: “If you will be good today and not fall to that familiar temptation, I will give you something.”

Like a parent who says they will buy their child a treat if they don’t act up in church.

Nothing could be farther from the truth with our heavenly Father.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. - Romans 8:1

None. Nada.

No wrath. No anger. No guilting you. No threatening.

Why?

Because the wrath of God was COMPLETELY satisfied by Jesus Christ while He was on the cross.

And because it was, we have a loving Father, Abba Father, who DELIGHTS in us and is at peace with us.

If you are in Christ, you will NEVER see the anger of God AT ALL.

The fourth attack: You are not up to the challenge!

8 Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. 9 How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master’s servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

He is saying: you are so ill-equipped.

God hasn’t given you ANYTHING to contend with my REAL weapons.

What good is preaching against all the guns and swords and evil of this world?

Your weapons aren’t even “REAL” – they are, at best, spiritual.

This is where so many today fall: they think we need to pick up the discarded weapons of this world and use them for God’s glory.

That we should be BETTER debaters, more powerful voters, more solid defenders of God.

If someone offends us, we should be MORE offensive back.

Turn the other cheek, go the extra mile? – “ludicrous”! They scoff.

“No one would respect me if I did something that weak.”

Christian, you have the great power of the indestructable life.

Not that your body is indestructible – your LIFE is:

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. - 2 Corinthians 4:7–10

Our lives, and everything that comes into them, whether we are equal to the task or not, is for the glory of God alone.

Spoiler alert: even after this mouthpiece of Assyria made this threat, God delivered Judah by slaying 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in a single night – without a single Judan soldier drawing a sword.

The fifth attack: “God sent me; He speaks through me.”

10 Moreover, 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.” ’ ”

Most of the people you will meet in your life who say this are wrong.

Do you know how God speaks to you? When the Holy Spirit REALLY speaks to you?

He brings to you SCRIPTURE.

You may read it; you may hear it; you may remember it from when you memorized it. But the voice of the Holy Spirit will ALWAYS be the word of God IN CONTEXT.

It will always exalt Christ – never you. Never any man.

How many places do we see the enemy of your soul using Scripture OUT OF CONTEXT?

The temptation of Jesus.

The temptation of Adam.

The Pharisees.

The sixth attack: “I will give you rest and peace.”

16 Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, 17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

You hear the offer – I will make your life easy.

Tried on Jesus – used on us also.

But notice the end – you will be taken into captivity.

But you’ll be smiling, happy slaves of the king.

You will have everything you want.

And the seventh: I am greater than all gods.

19 where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 20 Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’ ”

What god can save you from ME?

Can your God beat science, or logic, or philosophy, or politics?

Can your God deliver you from MY wrath?

Yes. Yes He can.

Nebuchadnezzar will ask this twice –

Once of the three men, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah as he cast them into the furnace.

Once of Daniel, when he consigned him to the den of lions for the night.

In each case God was faithful and preserved them.

Other martyrs, just as faithful to God as these four men, were not preserved from death:

Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— 38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. - Hebrews 11:35–38

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. - Hebrews 12:2–3