In yesterday's study we found King Sennacherib of Assyria, camped at Lachish, sending his field commander to the gates of Jerusalem to relay a message to King Hezekiah of Judah. Hezekiah sent three of his men to meet the commander and hear his words: Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah.
This is how the message begins: "The field commander said to them, 'Tell Hezekiah: This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours? You say you have counsel and might for war---but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me?'" (Isaiah 36:4-5) In yesterday's study we looked at a portion of 2 Kings 18 in which we were told that Hezekiah rebelled against paying tribute to the king of Assyria. That segment of Scripture stated that Hezekiah trusted in the Lord and that the Lord has caused all of his work as king to be successful.
Sennacherib refers to himself as "the great king" in this message. He is ridiculing the strength of the king of Judah (whom the Lord has prospered) and next we find him ridiculing another king (Pharaoh of Egypt) and then the Lord Himself---the King of kings.
"Look, I know you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. But if you say to me, 'We are depending on the Lord our God'---isn't He the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Jerusalem and Judah, 'You must worship before this altar?'" (Isaiah 36:6-7)
It's true that the people of Judah hoped the nation of Egypt would be a valuable ally with them against their common enemy, Assyria, and it's true that at one point an envoy bearing gifts was sent to Pharaoh to ask for his help. But when Pharaoh marched his army out against a contingent of the advancing Assyrian army, he was soundly defeated and had to retreat to his own country from which he was quick to send much tribute and gifts of appeasement to the king of Assyria. So King Sennacherib is not wrong when he states that Egypt won't save Judah from Assyria. But he is very, very wrong when he states that the Lord God won't save Judah from Assyria!
Sennacherib displays his ignorance of the Jewish faith when he says that Hezekiah tore down the Lord's altars in Judah and Jerusalem. The altars Hezekiah tore down were the idolatrous altars of his late father. He also tore down many of the old "high places" that their ancestors had used for worshiping the Lord prior to the construction of the temple and the altar there. After the temple was constructed, the Lord no longer authorized the use of the high places. It was too easy for each person to customize his or her religion that way or to mix heathen theology with their worship of the Lord. It was important for the people to form a body of believers who assembled together at a central location to make offerings to the Lord and to hear the word of God read aloud and to be told what is the proper way to worship Him.
But Sennacherib doesn't understand any of this. He thinks Hezekiah offended the Lord and many of the people by removing all these sites from the landscape and ordering the people to worship only at the altar in Jerusalem. I think Sennacherib is also insinuating that this was a power play---that Hezekiah wanted to force the people to come to his capitol city to worship at the same altar he used in order to control them better.
The king of Assyria is saying, "Why are you trusting in the Lord? He's angry with you! You have acted against His wishes in tearing down all these altars. He won't lift a finger to help you." But then the king goes even further. He tells a lie intended to shake the faith of Hezekiah and all the people within earshot. Through his field commander he claims the Lord Himself told him to come and take the city.
The field commander says, "Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses---if you can put riders on them! How then can you repulse one officer of the least of my master's officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the Lord? The Lord Himself told me to march against this country and destroy it." (Isaiah 36:8-10)
The commander makes fun of the army of Judah, stating that even if he supplied it with two thousand horses, there aren't enough soldiers to ride them. He says that even if Pharaoh sends chariots and horses, the soldiers of Judah aren't skilled enough to fight the soldiers of Assyria. As if that isn't insulting enough and demoralizing enough, he attempts to completely destroy the people's confidence in the Lord by saying, "Who do you think put it in my mind to attack Jerusalem? The Lord Himself is against you! He will give you into my hands!"
The king of Assyria is a liar. The field commander is a liar. And Satan is a liar. Haven't we heard his lies---lies that claim the Lord is angry with us and isn't going to help us, lies that claim the Lord has covered His ears to our cries for help? No one can speak for the Lord except the Lord, which is why it's vital to our faith to know what the Scriptures say. What are the Lord's promises to those who trust in Him? What does He say He will do for the one who loves and serves Him? This is why we have the expression of "standing on the promises of God". We must know His promises in order to stand on them. We have to know what God says about Himself and what God says about His children in order to stand on that firm foundation when lies are coming at us.
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