Sennacherib and Hezekiah
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
AG: I recently read an article which focused on trash talking in sports. you know what I mean. Those snide remarks meant to psych out the opponent(s). To some it is part of the game and to others it is viewed as unsportsmanlike. one of the greats known as “The Louisville Lip” (Mohamed Ali) taunted George Foreman before the 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle”:
“I done wrestled with an alligator ,I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I’m so mean I make medicine sick”
TS: In this text, we go back in time many centuries to witness good ole trash talk! Sennacherib sends and envoy to the walls of Jerusalem to talk trash and try to demoralize the Judean people so they would give up before the fight occured.
RS: In our walk with Christ, the enemy often comes trashtalking. Satan inspired attacks today seek to demoralize and vilify us. The battlefield of spiritual warfare is in our minds. We are constantly being bombarded by those who would try to beat down our faith in God and His word and get us to turn from walking with Christ.
I. Hezekiah and the Assyrian Danger
I. Hezekiah and the Assyrian Danger
Prior to attacking Jerusalem, King Sennacherib of Assyria sends his military to threaten, ridicule, and intimidate King Hezekiah and his people
This is psychological warfare meant to rob Jerusalem’s citizens of their morale and will to resist.
A. Round One
A. Round One
1 The men from the king
In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.
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.
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.
Three of Hezekiah’s top officials- Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah- meet with Sennacherib's military commander.
2 The message to the king
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?
Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me?
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.
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”?
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.
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?
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.” ’ ”
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.”
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?”
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!
Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you.
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.”
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,
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.
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?
Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
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?’ ”
But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.”
This parley was held withing hearing of the walls of Jerusalem.
Judah’s representatives asked for the Assyrians to speak Aramaic rather than Hebrew which was denied. They wanted all to hear and understand their taunts
a what Judah can’t do
1 The cannot depend on Egypt:
The charge was that Pharoah was fickle, unreliable and weak
2 They cannot depend on God
They wrongly concluded that Hezekiah’s purging of idols was an insult to God
Thus they thought Judah’s God/gods would be angry and they would not assist them.
b What Judah should do:
SURRENDER
3 The misery of the king
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.
As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord.
Hezekiah tears his clothes and dresses in sackcloth
He goes to the Temple to seek God in his time of distress
4 The man of God and the king
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.
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.
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.’ ”
When the servants of King Hezekiah came to 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.
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.’ ”
Hezekiah’s Request
The king informs Isaiah of the danger and begs him to pray for God’s help
Hezekiah’s reassurance
Isaiah tells the king that God will deliver him and Sennacherib would soon have to flee and ultimate face defeat far away.
B. Round Two
B. Round Two
1 The Assyrian king to the Judean King
The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.
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,
“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.
Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered?
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?
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?’ ”
I will destroy you!
2 Judean King to the King of Kings
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.
And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord:
“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.
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.
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 of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed.
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.”
Please deliver us!
app: When Satan’s dart come at us, turn to God
We will be bombarded with message meant to push us off our game.
As Disciples of Jesus, we are to walk with Him
We are to live by God’s standards as written in His word and the conviction of the Holy Spirit to apply it.
Messengers of Satan
The world thinks that is foolish!
They say get with the times
Issue by Issue they attack the faith and come up with reasons to NOT trust God’s word.
Like Hezekiah, we must continue to look to God
Go to Him in our distress and seek Him in prayer
Notice what Jesus said after His disciples were unable to cast a demon out of an oppressed man: Matt 17:19-20
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”
He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
Faith
Paul in Eph 6:16
In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;
Trust God!
Keep faith in His word
Keep faith in His aid
The flaming arrows of doubt will bounce of the shield
II. Hezekiah and the Angelic Deliverance
II. Hezekiah and the Angelic Deliverance
A) God condemns Sennacherib
A) God condemns Sennacherib
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,
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.
“ ‘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!
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.
I dug wells and drank waters, to dry up with the sole of my foot all the streams of Egypt.
“ ‘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,
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.
“ ‘I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in, and your raging against me.
His Pride
The wicked king arrogantly ridicules the Holy One of Israel
Big Mistake! Ask Goliath!
2. his punishment
Sennacherib will be led back to Assyria with a hook in his nose and a bit in his mouth.
B) God consoles Hezekiah
B) God consoles Hezekiah
“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.
And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
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.
“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.
By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord.
For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”
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.
Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh.
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.
1 The Promises
“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.
And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
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.
“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.
By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord.
For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”
God assures the king of 2 things:
1st The land will soon enjoy abundant crops
In the third year, the people will be able to plant crops and vineyards
2nd The Assyrians will NEVER enter Jerusalem
God will defend the city
2 The Power
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.
Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh.
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.
That very night God’s angel destroys 185,000 Assyrian troops!
Sennacherib flees back to Nineveh, where he is killed by His own sons
God’s promise was fulfilled in a mighty way
APP: Faith in God is never in vain!
God always keeps His word
He is stronger than anything Satan can throw at us
The world may think we are the confused ones who are backwards in our thinking and clinging to our outdated Bibles. THEY are wrong!
What He has declared is the truth.
The Creator has given us the owners manual!
We are the ones who know reality, and they are the deceived ones. That is why we witness. We are attempting to rescue those who are perishing around us.
IL: When I was doing tech support, there were many issues where people wanted to argue with me. The procedure was to try to restart the computer first, and only if the problem continued were they supposed to put in a support request. I always laughed inwardly when they started arguing about restarting couldn’t fix anything and going on about how I was just stalling. I would calmly sit down, restart the computer and all would be well.
Their certainty that it wouldn’t help, didn’t change the fact that sometimes a computer needs to be rebooted.
The world things they are certain
God’s word is what is reality!
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
IL: In the 70’s, tennis player and self-proclaimed male-chauvinist pig, Bobby Riggs challenged the 2 best female tennis players to matches. He had boasted that the women’s game was inferior to the men’s and that even at 55 he could out duel a female player 25 years younger than himself
Billie Jean King accepted his challenge after he had defeated Margaret Court. They had their show down in the Houston Astrodome and before a television and live audience, she proceeded to beat him and take home the $100,000 prize in the “Battle of the Sexes”.
When Satan hurls flaming arrows, deflect them with the shield of faith and look to God for deliverance. The enemy may talk a good talk, but they can’t back those words up when they are going against God.