The Book Of Isaiah. Day 163, The Lord's Message To Sennacherib, Part Three

The Lord has something to say against King Sennacherib of Assyria. We have been studying this message for the past two days and now we are going to look at the third section. The Lord gave this message through the prophet Isaiah to King Hezekiah of Judah. We do not know whether Sennacherib ever heard of it but the Lord has been speaking the words as if they are being spoken directly to that wicked king.

"Because you rage against Me and because your insolence has reached My ears, I will put My hook in your nose and My bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came." (Isaiah 37:29) Sennacherib thinks he is the master of his own destiny but that isn't so. The Lord uses imagery that is very familiar to the king, for it was the practice of the Assyrians to line captives up in a row and drive a hook through their noses or lips to connect them all to each other, then they would march them wherever they wanted them to go, all chained together in a line.

We know that Sennacherib returned to his own land because he heard that the Egyptian army was marching toward his southern border. After dealing with that matter, he resided at his palace in Nineveh for a time with the intention to put together a new army (having lost 185,000 of his soldiers outside of Jerusalem and having lost some soldiers in his fight against the Egyptians) to come back against Jerusalem. But two of his sons conspired together to assassinate him while he was bowing in the temple of one of his false gods.

Now the Lord turns his message toward King Hezekiah and provides him with a sign to look for. This sign is the proof that what He has said is going to come true. Sennacherib will not return to make another attempt at a siege of the city. 

"This will be the sign for you, Hezekiah: 'This year you will eat what grows by itself, and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.'" (Isaiah 37:30) As we briefly discussed earlier in the book of Isaiah, the Assyrians had already invaded many regions of Judah. They had already destroyed several villages, towns, and cities. They had interrupted trade routes. They had interfered with agricultural pursuits. They would prevent people from tilling and planting, from reaping anything that had already been planted, from tending vineyards. They would run their horses and chariots over any crops that had already come up, thereby destroying them. These things are still going on in the countryside even though Sennacherib has had to postpone his siege of Jerusalem. 

The Lord will cause so many "volunteer plants" to come up this year and next year that the people will have plenty to eat even though they cannot go out to till and sow the fields or to do planting and pruning and tending of the vineyards. They will survive quite well by simply hunting and gathering. But by the third year the threat will be gone in the region of Jerusalem and they will be able to resume the normal cycles of planting and reaping. When the people have enough to eat this year and next year, and when they are able to go out and resume farming, Hezekiah will know that the Lord is not going to allow the Assyrian king to return.

Our text for today concludes like this: "Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above. For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this." (Isaiah 37:31-32) The Lord is going to protect the people of Jerusalem. They will not have to lift a finger against their enemy; He will do their fighting for them.