Isaiah Part 4: The Historical Pivot 4.2
Isaiah • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 6 viewsFocus: Historical events that serve as a bridge between the Assyrian crisis and the future Babylonian exile, anchoring the prophecies in history. • Weeks 15-16: Chapters 36–39 - Sennacherib and Hezekiah ◦ Discuss the account of Sennacherib's invasion and God's deliverance (Chs 36-37), resolving the Assyrian crisis that dominated the first half. ◦ Cover Hezekiah's illness and his interaction with Babylonian envoys (Chs 38-39), which anticipates the Babylonian crisis that shadows the second half. This section serves as a "structural pivot" or "border-crossing" for the whole book.
Notes
Transcript
Prayer
Carol, Jamison
Cheryl, granddaughters best friend, Morgan, gymnast fell and severed her kidney. 9 years old.
Susan, friend, Tom surgery heart, Jan 6th
Gordon, Will Swain tumor behind his eye; Carol Jones, who needs surgery on tumor in chest (blood pressure high so she can’t do surgery)
Patti, aunt Carol who fell and broken collarbone, in rehab facility.
Suzanne, Lori Drotts hysterectomy on the 19th
Claud Vanderwalt, back surgery
Camille, girlfriend’s daughter in law, Erin
Debra, friend who’s going through a rough time and relocating to Sacramento, Judy
Bing, friends in the Villages, dealing with upcoming surgery for dog.
Faye, pray for Faye, CAT scan, neurosurgeon, relief from this brain bleed
Patti, Christmas Concerts
We’re in the middle of this incredible drama in the center of the book of Isaiah. King Hezekiah—a faithful King of Judah to YHWH—is confronted with impending take over and seige of Jerusalem. The Assyrians have already taken some Judah’s fortified cities, it is, apparently, only a matter of time before Jerusalem falls. The confrontation centered on the General—the Rabshakeh—and Hezekiah’s attendants. And we left off with Hezekiah going to Isaiah for counsel and Isaiah affirming Hezekiah’s faith and urging him to be strong and wait in the Lord.
The General now reports back to his master, the King of Assyria—
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?’ ”
Up until this point, all we’ve had were the words of the General—The Rabshakeh. But this passage has this effect, now we hear from the King Himself. In case we thought the General was the bad guy and he didn’t faithfully represent the King—King Sennacherib—we see the King of Assyria Himself taunting Hezekiah and, in effect, taunting YHWH.
The King is busy battling elsewhere, but takes the time to dictate a new message to Hezekiah: 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…”
So he starts by going after what Hezekiah trusts in. “Oh, I see that you trust in your God…but don’t let your God deceive.” Again, the strategy of the enemy is this: he wants Hezekiah to distrust God. So it is with us and our enemy—Satan wants to disrupt and diminish our trust in the Lord. And look at v. 11. Isaiah 37:11 “11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered?”
This is the second part of his strategy: he’s appealing to Hezekiah’s rational judgment. Look at what’s right in front of you. Look at the evidence! None of the other gods of the other nations helped or saved them. And you will be the ones that are delivered? NO!
What’s the problem with looking at the evidence? With this approach? Well I often talk about how our emotions will deceive us—this is true! It’s not always about how we feel in a given moment or season in our life. Think of how Hezekiah was feeling as an enemy army was coming up to their gates?
But also, it’s not just our emotions that are deceptive—our current circumstances are not to be trusted either. The way things are right now, right in front of me, is not an accurate representation of the bigger picture. Think of a trial that you’ve walked through—if in the midst of you, you just simply believed that nothing would ever change, how would that have affected you? There’s always the possibility and potential for redemption, restoration, and rescue in God. There’s always the possibility for change. The only thing that never changes? God Himself.
Think of our weather—the Tule Fog that has settled into the valley, we’ve haven’t seen the sun in weeks it feels like! You might be lead to believe the sun will never come out again, if we thought our current reality was our permanent reality.
Think of the most hopeless moment in all of human history: the cross. The Son of God was killed, there was seemingly no hope. In only three days something so extraordinary happened that it completed changed the paradigm for what humanity thought possible—someone was dead and then they were alive.
The Assyrian King’s mistake here is assuming that his prosperity would never change as well as equating YHWH with the false gods of the other nations.
Let’s continue on and read Hezekiah’s prayer for deliverance:
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.”
What is King Hezekiah’s response to the continued threats from Sennacherib? He goes straight to the Lord. He lays down the message in front of God and says: “LORD, look! Look at his lies and his mocking words. And Hezekiah is acknowledge something about God in his prayer:
“You are God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth, you have made heaven and earth.” Compare that statement in his prayer to v. 18-19: “Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work (or creation) of men’s hands, wood and stone.”
His prayer then is rooted in good, strong theology of who God is: He is one, he is the only God, all the Kingdoms of earth are his, not just Judah, but all the nations. And He created all things. The gods of the other nations that Sennacherib said were so weak? Hezekiah says of them that they are no gods at all and that they are a creation of man, not the other way around. And the nations that they purportedly reign over? It’s actually YHWH who reigns over those other nations.
Hezekiah’s desire is for Salvation but look what motivates this hope: “that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the LORD.” God, he’ saying, now is a chance to show your supremacy and sovereignty over all the nations and all the peoples of earth. Yes, salvation would benefit Hezekiah and his people, but he can also be motivated by a desire to see God glorified. God show your glory! Save us! Both of these things can be our desires and can be true.
Let’s continue on:
21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him: “ ‘She despises you, she scorns you— the virgin daughter of Zion; she wags her head behind you— the daughter of Jerusalem. 23 “ ‘Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes to the heights? Against the Holy One of Israel! 24 By your servants you have mocked the Lord, and you have said, With my many chariots I have gone up the heights of the mountains, to the far recesses of Lebanon, to cut down its tallest cedars, its choicest cypresses, to come to its remotest height, its most fruitful forest. 25 I dug wells and drank waters, to dry up with the sole of my foot all the streams of Egypt. 26 “ ‘Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass, that you should make fortified cities crash into heaps of ruins, 27 while their inhabitants, shorn of strength, are dismayed and confounded, and have become like plants of the field and like tender grass, like grass on the housetops, blighted before it is grown. 28 “ ‘I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in, and your raging against me. 29 Because you have raged against me and your complacency has come to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came.’
Through Isaiah, God has a strong rebuke of Sennacherib, the King of Assyria. And God seems to say that it is “because [Hezekiah] prayed to [YHWH].” You prayed, now I’m responding, here’s my rebuke.
And God’s rebuke of the Assyrian King centers squarely on this: this king has blasphemed against “the Holy One of Israel.” He has mocked God.
Sennacherib boasts of his military conquest, the forests he’s cleared and the lands he’s conquered. But look at how God talks about Himself and his position here. Have you not heard, God asks, that I knew about this from long ago—I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass: your destruction. God is saying, you might be in the midst of some prosperity and success, but I’ve been planning your destruction and demise since the beginning of time!
Look at v. 28—Isa 37:28
28 “ ‘I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in, and your raging against me.
Your sitting down and your going out and coming in—these are expressions that refer to the totality of this pagan King’s life—his coming in refers to the days of his birth, his going out refers to the future of his death. All of this is under the sovereign hand of God! And God sees his raging against Him. Nothing we do is done in secret. This expression here is especially important, it’s the language of Psalm 2.
Psalm 2:1 “1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?” Psalm 2 is a messianic Psalm, one that talks about rescue from the nations that rage against God. It does not end well for those who set themselves against the Lord. And this is where we start to make things really clear: Sennacherib is not some ignorant guy who just doesn’t know any better, as if he had never heard of God before. No—he is specifically taunting the Lord God. He is raging against God—he is set against YHWH and there will be consequences for this.
Isaiah 37:29 “29 Because you have raged against me and your complacency has come to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came.’”
Because of this, God says, I will turn you around and put and end to this taunting.
God is acting on his sense of justice and he’s responding to the plea of this faithful King. He’s reminding Hezekiah: you can trust me, I will take care of this. Let’s finish the chapter and see how this whole crisis resolves:
30 “And this shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that. Then in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 31 And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 32 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. 33 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. 34 By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord. 35 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”
36 And the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 37 Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. 38 And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of Ararat, Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.
