Isaiah 36:21 - 37:20 - God's Defense

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.

37 As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore 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 secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz. 3 They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. 4 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 mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’ ”

5 When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me. 7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’ ”

8 The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish. 9 Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, “He has set out to fight against you.” And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. 11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered? 12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’ ”

14 Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: 16 “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. 17 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 mock the living God. 18 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, 19 and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. 20 So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.”

Target Date: Sunday, 17 November 2024

Word Study/ Translation Notes:

6 – young men - nah’-ar; from 5287; (concr.) a boy (as act.), from the age of infancy to adolescence; by impl. a servant; also (by interch. of sex), a girl (of similar latitude in age):— babe, boy, child, damsel [from the marg.], lad, servant, young (man).

7 – spirit - rûwach, roo’-akh; from 7306; wind; by resemblance breath, i.e. a sensible (or even violent) exhalation; fig. life, anger, unsubstantiality; by extens. a region of the sky; by resemblance spirit, but only of a rational being (incl. its expression and functions):— air, anger, blast, breath, × cool, courage, mind, × quarter, × side, spirit ([-ual]), tempest, × vain, ([whirl-]) wind (-y).

This could be understood that “something on the wind will be delivered to him”. It takes nothing away from the great sovereignty of God that He uses means to accomplish His ends.

God is not bestowing HIS spirit to the king of Assyria, but bringing “wind” upon him to lead him away from Jerusalem to his own judgment and death.

This word, in some cases, indicates anger as well; so the implication of the wind is that it IS God’s judgment.

Thoughts on the Passage:

Just as God sovereignly raises nations to judgment, so also does He sovereignly raise leaders to guide His people through difficult times. Hezekiah was put on the throne for such a time as this.

When God intends a great work, He provides His people the faith to trust Him in those times.

Where the king and his servants are faithful toward God, they can only do that because God Himself provides the faith to endure.

[From Isaiah 36 Notes]: 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 beyond 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.

Tearing the clothes – used in many times of deep distress:

They tore their garments when they heard blasphemy, as taking no pleasure in their own ornaments when God’s honour suffered.

a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; - Ecclesiastes 3:7

The priests’ garments had a border along the collar so it could not be torn.

Mourning -Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. - Genesis 37:34

Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them, and so did all the men who were with him. 12 And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. - 2 Samuel 1:11–12

Then David said to Joab and to all the people who were with him, “Tear your clothes and put on sackcloth and mourn before Abner.” And King David followed the bier. - 2 Samuel 3:31

Then the king arose and tore his garments and lay on the earth. And all his servants who were standing by tore their garments. - 2 Samuel 13:31

Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. - Job 1:20

Great fear - When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes 30 and returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone, and I, where shall I go?” - Genesis 37:29–30

And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.” - 2 Kings 5:7

When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and he cried out with a loud and bitter cry. - Esther 4:1

Sadness - Then they tore their clothes, and every man loaded his donkey, and they returned to the city. - Genesis 44:13

And the king asked her, “What is your trouble?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ 29 So we boiled my son and ate him. And on the next day I said to her, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him.’ But she has hidden her son.” 30 When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes—now he was passing by on the wall—and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth beneath on his body— - 2 Kings 6:28–30

And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. - Job 2:12

Mourning protest - And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes 7 and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. 9 Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” - Numbers 14:6–9

When Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she went into the house of the Lord to the people. 14 And when she looked, there was the king standing by the pillar, according to the custom, and the captains and the trumpeters beside the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets. And Athaliah tore her clothes and cried, “Treason! Treason!” - 2 Kings 11:13–14

Supplication before God - Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening, he and the elders of Israel. And they put dust on their heads. - Joshua 7:6

As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. - 2 Kings 19:1

And at the evening sacrifice I rose from my fasting, with my garment and my cloak torn, and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God, - Ezra 9:5

Humiliation - And Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the long robe that she wore. And she laid her hand on her head and went away, crying aloud as she went. - 2 Samuel 13:19

Repentance (humbling yourself) - And when Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly. - 1 Kings 21:27

When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. - 2 Kings 22:11

because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. 20 Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place.’ ” And they brought back word to the king. - 2 Kings 22:19–20

example of when this did not occur: As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the fire pot, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the fire pot. 24 Yet neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words was afraid, nor did they tear their garments. - Jeremiah 36:23–24

Wonder? - And Elisha saw it and he cried, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And he saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces. - 2 Kings 2:12

Against blasphemy/ sin - 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. - 2 Kings 18:37

For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. And in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost.” 3 As soon as I heard this, I tore my garment and my cloak and pulled hair from my head and beard and sat appalled. - Ezra 9:2–3

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13 and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. - Joel 2:12–13

This command, unique in the Old Testament, is to exercise repentance rather than making an outward show of fear or mourning.

We may seek God in the depths of terror or sadness, but unless those things do the work of God in bringing us to repentance, we have squandered the pain we endure.

The terror that is most appropriate is our fear before the holiness of God in His terrible judgment; the sadness we need is the mourning over our sin.

1 - Rabshakeh intended to frighten Hezekiah from the Lord, but it proves that he frightens him to the Lord.

Hezekiah went into the house of the Lord – the temple – to pray.

Rather than seeking Isaiah himself, he sent his advisors to plead with Isaiah. Hezekiah, the king, went to make supplication to God Himself.

God repeatedly had told them HE is their refuge and rest. He is their hope.

1 - He is the king; if the nation is under judgment from God, then it is he who must be the first to repent of his own sin. Furthermore, he knows that repentance which saves face by hiding away from public view is not worth the name.

3 -When we are humiliated in our attempts to secure our lives and treasures, we risk people accusing God of failure. Indeed, we may even believe God has failed us. But by betraying our faith in Him, we are the failures.

All the foolishness of their attempts to strengthen themselves by cultivating outside help is now revealed for what Isaiah had always said it was—foolishness. Even more seriously, God himself has been brought into contempt. This is a principle of life: the believer who lives a slipshod life, refusing to trust God in any deep way, will bring reproach upon God in the eyes of the watching world. They will associate that believer’s defeats with inability on God’s part. So, many years after these events the Babylonians were to say of exiled Judah that their God could not deliver them (Ezek. 36:19). Of course this was not the case, but the watchers never make a distinction.

3 - This kind of admission of helplessness is frequently a necessity before divine help can be received. So long as we believe that we only need some assistance, we are still treating ourselves as lords of the situation, and that latent pride cuts us off from all that God would give us. Only when we have admitted our complete bankruptcy are we able to receive what he has for us. This is what Hezekiah did.

4 – the Lord YOUR God – this is indeed in the singular third person, not in the plural or the second person.

This does not necessarily mean the king did not count himself as one of God’s people – since this is a message delivered, the point is to engage Isaiah’s help.

This could also simply be framed by the messengers indicating the request from the king to the prophet, so no implication of the relationships external to the message is easily derived.

The message does seem to indicate that the messengers (and perhaps the king) consider themselves outside the confidence of God.

6 – young men – literally “lads” - Isaiah shows God’s complete disdain for the threats of the enemy, portraying them as the blustering of schoolyard boys.

The Assyrians are, in the estimation of God, but ill-behaved juveniles, capable of pain but incapable of making any threats against Him.

7 – God does not reveal here the great deliverance He intends for Jerusalem. He responds only to His holy judgment regarding the blasphemy the king of Assyria has committed, which is the concern brought to Isaiah.

The messengers had not asked about deliverance from the Assyrians, but about how God would respond to the blasphemy against His name.

The holy name of God is of far greater importance to Him than the disposition or the inconvenience of the temporal things of this world.

7 – All the verbs in this prophecy are in the w-qatal (waw+perfect) tense. (With my limited understanding of Hebrew) Thus it appears that the action is not necessarily future, but accomplished or ongoing, although time in Hebrew is quite tricky to lock down.

Young’s Literal Translation: Lo, I am giving in him a spirit, and he hath heard a report, and hath turned back unto his land, and I have caused him to fall by the sword in his land.’ - Isaiah 37:7

7 – in his land – the fate of Sennacherib was not to be decided on the battlefield of Judah, as so many other judgments on other nations had been. His judgment would come when he felt safest, in the heart of his empire, in the presence of his unspeaking, unseeing idol, betrayed and struck down by his sons. (37:38)

The king of Assyria would not be delivered into the hand of Hezekiah; but the idolatrous king would not be delivered out of God’s hand.

9-13 – This was not a new embassy to Hezekiah from Assyria, but a flashback of the reason the Rabshakeh had been sent in the first place.

It reveals that all his bluster and blasphemy were, like the mouths and heads of his idols, hollow and tenuous. The message commanded by the king here is the summation of the message delivered in ch. 36.

When we fear our enemies, we tend to overestimate their position and their terror. The enemies in this world are not all-powerful; only God is sovereign in this world.

14 – On the basis of v. 14, many commentators consider the preceding verses (10-13) to be the text of a subsequent letter from the king of Assyria. I don’t consider this a necessary deduction. Verses 10-13 could be a flashback to the embassy of the Rabshakeh, recorded or received by the secretary Shebna.

The root of the word from “secretary” in 36:3 and the word “letter” in 14 is the same.

It would be entirely expected that an embassy from the king of Assyria would contain the heart of the message of the Rabshakeh in written form. There is no reason to believe that the letter was WRITTEN subsequent to the encounter at the wall; it could simply have been received and read subsequent to that encounter. (see PAGEREF v.7 \h 7 above)

14 – This is the same action as is summarized in v. 1. This is the substance of Hezekiah’s plea to God while his advisors were making their plea to Isaiah.

Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. - Philippians 4:5–9

Defend the Bible? I would as soon defend a lion! Unchain it and it will defend itself. – C.H. Spurgeon

A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God’s truth is attacked and yet would remain silent. – John Calvin

What god needs defending? An idol. It is the idol who cannot see, cannot hear, cannot defend himself.

But the living God, the Creator of all things, the omnipotent Sovereign of all things needs no one to defend Him, to ward off the attacks of the evil, the blind, the men of dust.

Sermon Text:

Last week we began looking at chapters 36 and 37 of Isaiah. They are the account of the last meeting of the Assyrians and the people of Judah, God’s people.

You may remember that almost all of chapter 36 is the monologue of the general of the Assyrian armies, known by his title, the Rabshakeh.

In that monologue, he came to demoralize the people of God, breaking their trust in God for their deliverance.

They had been holding onto that hope for many years, while city after city in Judah had fallen to the Assyrian army.

And now, only miles away from Jerusalem, the Assyrians stood ready to surround Jerusalem itself and force it to surrender by siege.

This was a particularly long and cruel type of warfare, where the people in a city were slowly starved to death by the army on the outside.

I won’t review the threats, the blasphemies, and the lies about God, he uttered – we looked at them in some detail last week, and they are easily understood by reading chapter 36.

I would like to begin this morning looking at the rather unexpected response of the men of Judah in verse 21:

But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.”

Do not answer him?

That doesn’t sound very courageous.

It certainly doesn’t sound like the response of God’s people to a man who is breathing threats and spreading fear in your ranks.

If we are honest with ourselves, it sounds rather cowardly.

Didn’t this Assyrian know who he was talking about, who he was dealing with?

Why would the king make this kind of rule for his emissaries?

We know the Bible shows the good and the bad of the people who are written about in its pages – so did Hezekiah make a mistake?

Did his nerve fail?

And even worse, did it fail just at the time God needed him the most?

Please let me set your mind at ease: No, his nerve had not failed him. In fact, his faith was never stronger than in this moment.

Not that having great faith prevents you from having great fear – you can have both at the same time.

Only a fool would look at what the Assyrians had done and the threats they were making and not be uneasy, even frightened.

You can have great pain and great faith.

You can have great disappointment and still have great faith.

Because faith isn’t about how you feel – it is about who you trust.

And who you trust ESPECIALLY when things are not going the way you want them to go.

When things are spinning completely out of your control.

Faith is crying out to God in those times when you feel broken or crushed or bruised or scared or hopeless.

God, at His good pleasure, uses those very times of trial to bring us to greater faith in Him.

The more we see His faithfulness to us, the more reason our hearts have to trust in Him.

The more we have gone to Him in prayer for our needs, even our most basic needs, the more excuse our hearts have to tell our brains when we begin to fret to trust God for everything.

Not everything we do in faith is easy. Just because we do something in faith, even with great faith, it doesn’t mean we will not struggle.

We see that in Hezekiah’s response in 37:1:

As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord.

Now, there are a lot of times in the Bible where people tear their clothes, and it is never because they are happy and hopeful.

In fact, the act itself never suggests positive feelings; it never comes from an attitude of happiness.

We see people tearing their clothes for all sorts of things:

When they lose a family member and are in mourning.

When they have a great terror that has come upon them.

When their sadness is overwhelming.

When they see the depth of their sin and repent.

To make an urgent prayer to God.

For anyone who is interested, in my notes for this sermon, I have compiled all the instances I could find for someone tearing their clothes. You are free to read them online.

But this is not a message how we should tear our clothes or why we should.

So I won’t give all the references here.

If you don’t want to check me, trust me when I say that anyone tearing their clothes is an expression of tremendous grief and a ton of pain weighing on their mind.

And that is just what the Rabshakeh, the enemy, wanted to do – he wanted to fill the king and the people with grief and fear.

Except these people had one thing all the other lands, including the northern kingdom called Israel, didn’t have: they had a God who is worthy of our faith.

The northern kingdom, formerly called Israel, had left behind the true God a long time ago to worship idols.

But we know the good king Hezekiah had faith in God because even in his grief and fear – he went into the house of the Lord.

While he sent the three emissaries who had talked with the Rabshakeh to ask Isaiah for help and counsel, the king himself went to pray directly to God.

The fine commentator, Matthew Henry, puts it this way:

Rabshakeh intended to frighten Hezekiah from the Lord, but it proves that he frightens him to the Lord.

Is it really a bad thing if God brings difficulties and fear into your life if it drives you closer to Him, more dependent on Him?

No one will suggest it is a FUN place to be, but God is more concerned with making you into a holy person than He is that you live a carefree life.

But the important thing each of us must remember is that if we are followers of Jesus Christ, God’s purposes and His providence will ALWAYS be for our benefit, not always for our comfort.

You won’t always be the one to overcome; you won’t always be the one who stands tall at the end of the contest.

There are times when your head and your heart will be bowed, when your feelings are torn and raw, and when your cries to God will come from a throat hoarse with grief.

But if, at those devastating times, you are crying out to God in faith, you will find Him the sure refuge for your soul.

In verses 14-20, we see what Hezekiah did and said when he went to the temple to pray.

He carried the letter from the king of Assyria with the summary of the threats the Rabshakeh delivered.

And he laid it out before the Lord there.

Not because he was informing God of anything – not at all.

He was taking it to the One who could DO something about it.

The king humbly laid his petition out before God – literally.

And the prayer he prayed was not just about delivering the nation from the hand of the Assyrians;

It was a prayer that God would AVENGE the blasphemy of His name.

He began by praying this way:

“O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. 17 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 mock the living God.

We don’t really pray that way all the time, do we?

We kind of cut to the chase, get to the meat of our request.

I think for many of us, we suspect this is just Hezekiah trying to butter God up a bit, put in a little bit of praise about God so He will be more inclined to hear my petition.

But do you really think our God who is THAT powerful and wise cannot see through us if we are just trying to flatter Him?

No – this is not flattery or a pretend praise;

This is much more important.

I would suggest that all our prayers should begin first with praise and thanksgiving.

Even the model prayer begins thus: Our Father in heaven, may your name be hallowed, set apart.

In the first chapter of Luke, we see two prayers in the form of songs: Mary’s prayer and the prayer of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist.

In neither prayer is there a REQUEST for anything – they are all praise and thanksgiving.

I would suggest to you that it is a perfectly full and acceptable prayer to offer simply praise, adoration, and thanks, without a single request or petition.

But it should be a rare occasion where our prayers contain ONLY petitions.

Certainly at the point of a great need, when things are moving quickly, we might cry out to God,

But if in our daily prayers where we have plenty of time, if we do not spend time in praise, we are missing something really important.

What we miss is WHY we are asking God for something in the first place.

In verse 20, Hezekiah makes his petition to God, but look how he asks it:

So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.” - Isaiah 37:20

Make no mistake, Hezekiah isn’t asking in this way because he thinks God will be more inclined to save them if he makes this kind of argument.

By taking time to praise God, he now understands the situation from God’s point of view, and not just from his.

Please allow me to make a comment on this request: FINALLY!

Finally, Hezekiah, who is a good king, has heard the message Isaiah has spent literally half his book teaching him: you don’t need any other alliances or any other weapons when your trust is in God.

Hezekiah isn’t pleading to the Pharaoh;

He isn’t grovelling back to the king of Assyria for mercy.

He isn’t trying to find another strong ally to help him fight.

He is going to God, who has been calling to him through Isaiah all along.

Do we pray to God in this way? Do we pray daring prayers, prayers that only God can accomplish?

Or do we pray that God will bless OUR plans?

Do we set up EASY things for God to take credit for?

If it was me, I would have been hard-pressed not to pray something like this: “God, please let the Egyptians hurry up and come to our rescue. And if they do, You will get all the glory.”

We do that, don’t we?

We make our plans, we gather our resources, and then we ask God’s blessings on it.

And when we do, we need to be very careful because prayers like that very rarely come from faith.

You see, that is the difference between serving a living God, like we do, and worshiping an idol.

Idols can’t save. They can’t move. They can’t see. They can’t hear. They can’t answer prayers.

So idols need a LOT of help from the people who bow down to them.

The Assyrians had cast all those false gods into the fires and burned them to ash.

But our God IS a consuming fire.

Idols need a lot of help.

They have to be preserved, saved from invaders.

They have to be carried when they need to be protected.

But our God sits above the angels of heaven, declaring His sovereign will from the first day until the last of eternity.

One of my favorite non-Scriptural stories is in a set of writings known as the apocrypha.

They are kind of “fan-fiction” for Bible fans, written after Malachi and before the New Testament.

One of the stories in it is called “Bel and the Dragon”.

It is a fictional story of one of the exploits of Daniel, kind of like he is a Sherlock Holmes.

It’s a story of how this one idol, Bel, in Babylon would, every day have food offered in front of this stone idol, and after the offerings were made, the room would be sealed and guarded.

The next day, when the people entered, the food would be gone from this locked room.

And the priests were telling everyone that the statue came to life and ate the food.

So Daniel was called in to investigate;

So right before closing time, he took one of the sacks of four from the offering and dusted the floor all around the idol.

The next morning, when the door was opened, there were men’s footprints from a secret door behind the statue.

Idols need a LOT of help – even in getting rid of the food they are offered.

They need a lot of help in everything.

They have to be defended.

And that brings us back to the command the king gave to his servants about how to respond to the Rabshakeh: Do not answer him!

Asking Egypt for help had been Hezekiah’s answer.

Seeking weapons and chariots all around had been Hezekiah’s answer.

Strengthening the defenses of the city had been Hezekiah’s answer.

And he had NEVER stopped to listen to God’s answer.

Up until RIGHT NOW, Hezekiah had tried to protect God; now he was seeking God’s protection.

No more arguments, no more strategies.

Now his single hope was in whatever the sovereign plan of God had ordained.

You see, God, even today, doesn’t need you or me to defend Him.

He is entirely capable of defending Himself far better than we can.

The church is NOT God’s Defense Force.

We are not the constabulary of heaven here on earth to compel people to bow before Him.

It is not the cleverness of our arguments that will bring people to Christ; it is the sovereign exercise of His Holy Spirit and our clear proclamation of the gospel.

Can we be sad, even mourn, when people blaspheme the true God? Of course.

There is a quote attributed to John Calvin: A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God’s truth is attacked and yet would remain silent.

Another is attributed to Charles Spurgeon: Defend the Bible? I would as soon defend a lion! Unchain it and it will defend itself.

I would suggest these are talking about the same thing:

preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. - 2 Timothy 4:2

The response of the church, of believers, to the offenses against God of the world is to pray for His name’s sake and preach the truth of His word.

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. - 1 Corinthians 1:17

Finally, we see the specific promise of God delivered through Isaiah:

Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me. 7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’ ”

Verses 8-13 are a flashback to this very thing, when the Rabshakeh returned from his trip to Jerusalem to a quiet location.

It is a memory of the reason for his trip, and the proof of the hollowness of his threats in the face of our sovereign God.

The message through Isaiah: Sennacherib, the king of Assyria will not be struck down in battle.

Hezekiah will not be the one to strike the fatal blow against him.

He will be judged, but God will do it so that there will be no doubt as to His judgment.

His judgment would come when he felt safest, in the heart of his empire, in the presence of his unspeaking, unseeing idol, betrayed and struck down by his sons. (37:38)

This idolatrous king would not be delivered into the hand of Hezekiah; but he also would not escape the hand of the Lord.

God’s judgments are sure. That is why we must lay hold of the grace He has given through Jesus Christ, the only way anyone will be saved.