The Book Of Isaiah. Day 162, The Lord's Message To Sennacherib, Part Two

King Sennacherib of Assyria sent a threatening message to King Hezekiah of Judah, stating that after he quells the current rebellions against him in other regions he will return to lay siege to and eventually conquer Jerusalem. In yesterday's study we began looking at the Lord's message to Sennacherib. It could be said that this is a message about Sennacherib since we don't know whether he ever heard it. But the Lord provides these words to King Hezekiah through the prophet Isaiah to encourage the king and the people of Jerusalem.

Sennacherib bragged about all the territories he and his predecessors have already conquered. While it's true that he has subjugated or even completely destroyed a number of cities, he did not do these things outside of the Lord's will or control, which the Lord points out in our first segment of text today.

"Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass, that you have turned fortified cities into piles of stone." (Isaiah 37:26) The kings of Assyria didn't do these things on their own. If the Lord had not allowed it, they could never have become a nation in the first place, much less have conquered other nations. As the Apostle Paul phrased it in Romans 13:1, "There is no authority except that which God has established." The prophet Daniel said the same thing about the Lord being in charge of kings and leaders: "He deposes kings and raises up others." (Daniel 2:21)

It has been the Lord's practice throughout history to administer correction or judgment upon nations by allowing other nations to trouble or conquer them. In the case of Assyria, for example, he allowed that heathen nation to be an instrument of judgment against other heathen nations. But in time He will allow another nation (the Neo-Babylonian Empire) to be an instrument of judgment upon Assyria. Next the Lord speaks of how these corrections and judgments have affected the idolatrous nations that have already fallen prey to the Assyrian Empire.

"Their people, drained of power, are dismayed and put to shame. They are like plants in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the roof, scorched before it grows up." (Isaiah 37:27) The Lord compares these nations to weak and tender plants that cannot take the heat. In contrast, later in Chapter 37 the Lord will speak of how He intends to cause the people of King Hezekiah's nation to flourish.

The last segment we will study today is an ominous and very personal word for King Sennacherib himself. We know that he was obliged to break camp at nearby Lachish, first to quell an uprising at Libnah and then to meet the forces of Egypt that were coming against Assyria from the south. After that he will go home to his palace at Nineveh, intending to regroup and plan another campaign against Judah, for by then he will have lost a vast number of soldiers camped within the borders of Judah. If Sennacherib believes the God of the people of Judah is real at all, he no doubt thinks His arm is too short to reach him in Nineveh. It was common for ancient idolatrous cultures to believe that the various gods had authority over only certain regions or over certain aspects of nature. But the Lord can see Sennacherib in Nineveh just as easily as He can see him in Judah and He can reach him just as easily as He can reach him in Judah.

The Lord says: "But I know where you are and when you come and go and how you rage against Me." (Isaiah 37:28) If Sennacherib truly understood who he is dealing with, these words would have him shaking in his boots. 

Tomorrow's text will include another prophecy against Sennacherib before moving on to a message of hope for King Hezekiah.