Isaiah 36-37 gives a description of the destruction of Judah averted. This section has two scenes and some key players. The key players are Isaiah the prophet; Hezekiah, Judah’s king; Sennacherib, Assyria’s king; and Rabshakeh, Assyria’s field general (2nd in command), and of course God. In scene one, God is challenged by Assyria.
Ch.36 begins with a message from Sennacherib to King Hezekiah delivered by Sennacherib’s field general, Rabshakeh. The field general came with a large part of the army to the outer edges of Jerusalem. Rabshakeh stopped just outside the city at the upper pool and told the rulers of the city to come out to meet him because he had a message from Sennacherib. Hezekiah and Isaiah were not among the group of leaders who went to meet Rabshakeh. The message for them is that they must not take confidence in the following things: strategy and military strength, foreign alliances such as Egypt, and their God.
Rabshakeh was preaching the very same lessons that Isaiah had been preaching: “Don’t trust in your power. Don’t trust in Egypt.” But the Assyrians were about to make a huge mistake because they were going to shake their fists in God’s face. Remember the prophetic words from Deuteronomy 32:35 concerning Israel’s enemies: It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them.” Assyria’s foot would soon slip when they openly mocked the Almighty God.
This week in our continuing study of Isaiah we will look at Isaiah 36 and Assyria’s message to the people of Jerusalem. The audio will be uploaded to the website by 5:00 PM Wednesday.
Praying everyone is having a blessed week,
In Christ,
Gary T.