Isaiah 36:1-22--Sennacherib Invades Judah

Isaiah 36
English Standard Version

Sennacherib Invades Judah
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.

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.

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You may remember this story from our study together in both 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles.  Sennacherib is the king of Assyria (the country that Judah has been fearing an invasion from).  Sennacherib would be used to judge the people of Israel (Samaria), but he would not be permitted to take Judah--the LORD had prophesied that Babylon would be the one to punish Judah in the time He had set forth.  The people of Judah had nothing to fear from Assyria and needed only trust in the LORD.

The Assyrians sent a large army the cut off Jerusalem and was causing a great famine within the city.  They taunted the people speaking to them in Hebrew.  While they correctly identified that the LORD was upset with Judah for trusting in the king of Egypt, they incorrectly said that the LORD was upset about them tearing down the high places where the people worshiped idols.  The Assyrians assumed that the LORD was the golden calf that the people of the northern kingdom worshiped (for they made the golden calves for themselves saying "this is the LORD who led you out of the land of Egypt."  They ascribed the works of the invisible God to idols made by the hands of men and worshiped them like the pagan nations around them instead of coming to the LORD by the way He prescribed in the Law.  This confused the other nations around them.

The Assyrian spokesman taunted them to come out and fight on his terms--he'd even give them horses if they could find horsemen to ride them so that it would be more of a fair fight for them, but it would nto at all be a fair fight, for the LORD would fight for His people in a way that would destroy the Assyrians and make them turn tail and run  and be afraid to come back into Judah and Jerusalem.

The Assyrians promised in their own way the blessings of the LORD's covenant if they would just give up Land and their identity as a people (like Satan tempting Jesus to get all the kingdoms of the world if He would bow down and worship the devil).  Thankfully, Hezekiah and the people of Judah did not heed the worlds of Assyria and listened to the voice of the LORD spoken by the prophet Isaiah.  Though Sennacherib threatened that the LORD would not be able to stop him as no gods from the other kingdom he had conquered were able to stop him, Sennacherib made an error putting the LORD in the same category as these demons who were created, and the LORD is the Uncreated One.  The LORD spoke everything into existence, including all the things that men worshiped instead of Him (including these demons).  The people of God stood slant and did not answer them, for the LORD was going to answer from them.  They did not need to give a response.  Though they were afraid, they needed only to stand firm and put their trust in the LORD.  He would deliver them once more with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.