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Isaiah
36
‐
39
Hezekiah
Introduction:
Chapters 36–39 bring to a close the first major section of Isaiah. This section has made the point continually that God’s people were not to trust in anyone other than their Lord.
As we have seen, Isaiah’s historical setting is in the latter eighth century BC at a time when the Assyrian Empire dominated the Near East. Isaiah continually warned the kings of Judah not to trust in alliances, and in particular, alliances with Assyria or Egypt. Rather, they were to place their complete trust in the Lord.
These last chapters occur during the reign of Hezekiah (729–686 BC), son of the wicked king Ahaz (735–715 BC). In this particular case, the apple fell quite far from the tree. Unlike his father, Hezekiah was true to the Lord. 2 Kings 18–19 are a parallel account to the record here in Isaiah.
Unlike Ahaz, Hezekiah “…trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. For he held fast to the LORD. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses. And the LORD was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him (2 Kings 18:5-7 / ESV).
Isaiah places this Hezekiah narrative at the end of the first great section of his
prophetic book (1-39) in order to draw a stark contrast between the faith of Hezekiah and the faithlessness of Ahaz. Facing the threat of war against a Syro-Ephraimite coalition (735-732 B.C.) to the north, Ahaz chooses to trust in the protection of Assyria rather than in the Lord—an error that would bring a stiff rebuke.
In Hezekiah’s case, he faces attack by Sennacherib, king of Assyria, who in 701 B.C. marches his pillaging armies into Judah bent on conquest. Unlike his father, Hezekiah heeds Isaiah’s counsel and places his trust and the fate of the nation in the hands of the Lord.
In chapters 36–37 Hezekiah exhibits great faith in the face of the destructive threats of Assyrian King Sennacherib against the city of Jerusalem. In the face of military attack Hezekiah turns to the Lord. And the Lord fights once more of Israel and destroys 185,000 Assyrian soldiers.
Despite his great faith, however, Hezekiah has his own shortcomings. Chapters 38–39 seem oddly out of place chronicling Hezekiah’s short-sightedness as he arrogantly
displayed all the nation’s treasures to the Babylonians. These same Babylonians would one day destroy Jerusalem and take all its treasures (and people) to Babylon.
Apparently, Hezekiah cannot see much beyond his own welfare. When threatened with a fatal illness, he cries out to the Lord and is granted an extra fifteen years of life. However, during these years of reprieve,
2 | P a g e Thinking he was gaining an ally, Hezekiah in reality, was opening the bank to a power that would one day prove more destructive and cruel than Assyria. Rather than being crushed by the realization of his own foolishness, Hezekiah tosses off the consequences by consoling himself that he would not see these events within his own lifetime. So, while Hezekiah is a study of faith, he also becomes a study of self-absorbed myopia.
Chapter 39 ends the first great section of the Book of Isaiah. These chapters span the history of Assyrian domination during the life of the prophet. The Hezekiah narrative is a fitting conclusion to the section in that it illustrates the faithfulness of the Davidic king in trusting the Lord for the protection of Jerusalem. Throughout these chapters, the Lord has been calling to His people and counseling them to return to Him and trust in Him.
In chapter 40, the frame of reference shifts from the 8th to the 7th century B.C. during which time Babylon, not Assyria reigned supreme.
I. (Chapter36)TheAssyrianchallengeagainsttheLord’speopleisinreality anarrogantchallengeagainsttheLordHimself.
A. (vs. 1‐2) Meet the Assyrian representatives—three highest officials? 1. Who are they?
a) The “Tartan”— Second to the king over the army (Akk.
Turtanu)
b) The “Rabsaris”— Maybe chief eunuch or officer
c) The “Rabshaqeh”— Perhaps the chief cupbearer to the king (Akk. Saqu means “to drink”). He would be the king’s personal advisor.
2. (vs. 1) Date: 701 BC. This is the same year that the Judean city of Lachish was captured by the Assyrians as is depicted on the bas reliefs discovered in the excavations of Sennacherib's southwest palace at Nineveh and now on display in the British Museum. 3. (vs. 2) Meeting at the Upper Pool
a) This pool is associated with the Gihon spring
b) This is the same spot where Isaiah cautioned Ahaz about not making alliances with Assyria (Isa. 7:3)
4. (vs. 3) Judean emissaries
a) Eliakim the son of Hilkiah (who was over the household) (1) Confirms Isaiah’s previous prophecy
3 | P a g e b) Shebna the secretary
c) Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder
“If the order of the account in Kings is chronological, the appearance of the Assyrians outside the gates of Jerusalem must’ve been a rude shock. Hezekiah had thought he had bought the Assyrians off with tribute, but there they stood, with all the calm arrogance of those who had absolute power on their side.”1
B. (36:3‐6) Argument 1: “On what do you rest this trust of yours?” 1. No power on earth can help you.
2. You are trusting in Egypt.
a) The military strength of Egypt as an ally is also not enough to stand against the Assyrians.
b) Essentially, the Assyrian messenger is stating that there exists no power on earth that can rival Assyria and thereby defend Jerusalem.
(1) In essence, the Assyrians are correct. At that time there was no earthly power capable of standing against her armies.
(2) However, throughout these chapters Isaiah presents the arrogance of the Assyrians, who though they were to be used by God to discipline His people, nonetheless considered themselves to be greater than God.
(3) Concerning this Assyrian arrogance, Isaiah had already written:
(Isa10:13‐16/ESV)
13 For he says: "By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my
wisdom, for I have understanding; I remove the boundaries of peoples, and plunder their treasures; like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones.
14 My hand has found like a nest the wealth of the peoples; and as one
gathers eggs that have been forsaken, so I have gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved a wing or opened the mouth or chirped."
1
John Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah. Chapters 1-39, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1986), 557.
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15 Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself
against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood!
16 Therefore the Lord GOD of hosts will send wasting sickness among his
stout warriors, and under his glory a burning will be kindled, like the burning of fire.
C. (36:7) Argument 2: God is angry at you because you made your religion exclusivist.
1. The Assyrian representative (the Rabshaqeh) remarks that Hezekiah’s reforms closed the worship centers throughout the country and centralized the religion back in Jerusalem.
2. The Assyrian is trying to drive a wedge between the king and the people.
3. He is falsely charging that the Lord is angry with Hezekiah about his reforms.
4. Read 2 Kings 18—19 as background
D. (36:8‐10) Argument 3: Trust Assyria—the Lord sent me. 1. (vs. 8‐9) Trust Assyria—I will give you horses.
2. (vs. 10) God sent me—he smooth‐tongued Assyrian representative goes so far as to elicit the people’s trust with a claim that the Lord had actually sent him as a representative.
E. (36:11‐22) Argument 4: Come to the Promised Land of Assyria.
1. The Assyrian representative makes a direct plea in Hebrew to the people on the wall.
2. He offers a false hope of a Promised Land in Assyria.
3. The people have only to mistrust Hezekiah and make peace with the Assyrians.
4. A mistrust of the king is the same as mistrusting in the Lord. 5. The people choose to trust the king and the Lord by obeying the
king’s commands to remain silent.
“What the Rabshaqeh did in his speech was to reveal the essential nature of the issue which is always before the human race: shall we commit ourselves to God
5 | P a g e or to human might and glory? Furthermore, he threw down the gauntlet to God: if God was to be known as God he would have to reveal himself in events. Sooner or later, all the silver‐tongued, kid‐gloved temptations to trust ourselves alongwith God or inadditiontoGod will be revealed in all their ugly arrogance: there is no God but humanity.”2
II. (Chapter37)TheLord’sDeliverance
A. (37:1‐13) Assyria’s arrogance is against the Lord
1. The stage is now set for a confrontation between the Lord and Sennacherib, king of Assyria.
a) Isaiah had prophesied that the Lord would use Assyria for His purposes.
b) However, Assyria is not a righteous nation and believes that her military successes are her own doing.
2. Assyria’s challenges against the people of God, and the Davidic king, Hezekiah, in particular, are tantamount to bringing challenges against the Lord Himself.
3. (vs. 1‐2) Hezekiah has only to trust in the Lord for his deliverance and the Lord will respond.
a) Hezekiah puts on sackcloth as a sign of repentance.
b) He further sends his high officials, also covered in sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah.
4. (vs. 3‐4) Hezekiah correctly sees the picture as a challenge not simply against him, but against the God of Israel. Note a parallel passage when David faced Goliath (1 Sam. 17:26, 36).
5. (vs. 5‐7) Isaiah responds on the Lord’s behalf
a) (vs. 6) The Lord says that His people should not be afraid of the king of Assyria, who has reviled God Himself.
b) (vs. 7) God will supernaturally send a rumor causing Sennacherib to return home and one day would be killed. 6. (vs. 8‐13) The Rabshaqeh returns with further threats.
2
John Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah. Chapters 1-39, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1986), 561-62.
6 | P a g e a) (vs. 10) Do not trust the word of your God that says Jerusalem
is safe.
b) (vs. 11) Assyria has devoured all lands
c) (vs. 13) The gods of these nations have not delivered them— the implication is that the Lord will not deliver Jerusalem either.
B. (37:14‐20) Hezekiah’s prayer
1. (vs. 14) Hezekiah displays his trust in the Lord by spreading out Sennacherib’s threatening letter before Him.
2. (vs. 15‐20) Hezekiah correctly understands that the challenge laid down by the Assyrians is one where the Lord will need to respond in order that all the nations of the earth will know that He alone is God.
a) Hezekiah recognizes that God’s deliverance is first and foremost for the sake of His own glory.
b) The issue is not solely one of personal deliverance, but the reputation of the Lord throughout the whole world.
c) God’s glory has been challenged by the arrogant Assyrian king. d) Hezekiah’s eyes of faith correctly saw that this challenge was
an opportunity for God to defend and advance His kingdom and glory, and not simply a way to save a people. It’s the same kind of mindset that the Lord instructed us to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done…”
C. (37:21‐38) God delivers when all appear lost
1. The Lord saves Jerusalem first and foremost for His own sake and then the sake of His servant. “For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David” (Is. 37:35 / ESV). 2. The Angel of the Lord kills 185,000 Assyrians while they are
encamped at Lachish, a city in Judah.
3. Sennacherib himself is eventually killed by his own sons while worshipping in the temple of his God in Nineveh.
4. Hezekiah and the people were backed up to a place where they had to believe in the miracles of God for deliverance.
a) The Lord brought them right to the edge in order to put them in a place where a miracle had to occur.
7 | P a g e b) It seems that God’s glory is best revealed when it is impossible
for man to help himself.
5. It’s interesting that one of the greatest challenges to the faith has concerned this area of the miraculous.
a) I wonder sometimes if our faith does not grow well in the soil of our society’s unbelief in the miraculous.
b) There has been a sad and powerful challenge over the last couple hundred years of western thought against the notion of miracles.
(1) Voltaire (18th c): Miracles would show God’s weakness
that He would have to resort to such action that His natural laws could not accomplish.
(2) David Hume (18th c): Taking Kant’s rational religion to an
extreme, Hume argued that miracles cannot happen because they donot happen. Huh???
(3) Friedrich Schleiermacher (19th c): believed that there
really are no such things as miracles. The things that Jesus did were a result of His God‐consciousness where He simply understood the connections better between the physical and spiritual forces.
(4) Ludwig Feuerbach (19th c): one of Hegel’s students
challenged the miraculous as irrational and a result of our psychological need to have them.
(5) Antony Flew (20th c): believes that one simply cannot
know for sure that miracles occur due to an inability objectively to observe, test and confirm their reliability. 6. One of the lessons highlighted in Isaiah’s Hezekiah account is that
the Lord desires to save His people through their faithful obedience. a) Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem exhibited this faith and
did not resort to schemes of self‐reliance.
b) Ahaz, on the other hand, provides an illustration of the Davidic king who refused to trust in the Lord and resorted to his own strategies of protection through political alliance with the enemy.
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III.(Chapter38)DespitehisfaithbeforetheAssyrianthreats,Hezekiah’sown arrogancewillcauseIsraelfutureproblemswiththeBabylonians.
A. Hezekiah is not without warts.
1. These chapters form a bridge to the next major section and record Hezekiah’s shortcomings when appropriating faith to save his own life.
2. God spares Hezekiah’s life, but later Hezekiah seems more
concerned with the piece of his own life in the future despair caused to the nation by his foolishly showing the Babylonians the royal treasures.
B. The Lord saves Hezekiah
1. Hezekiah cries to the Lord for healing from a life‐threatening illness. 2. Hezekiah recounts his faithful obedience to the Lord.
3. The Lord grants to him another 15 years of life.
4. Hezekiah proclaims the goodness and healing of the Lord.
IV.(Chapter39)Hezekiah’sselfishheartisexposed,whichstandsincontrast tohisprevioushumilityandfaithintheLord.
A. Hezekiah foolishly displays the treasures of Jerusalem to the Babylonians, who at that time were perceived as potential allies.
B. Having trusted the Lord for defense against the Assyrians, Hezekiah foolishly and arrogantly tips his hand to the Babylonians.
C. Isaiah informs Hezekiah that one day the Babylonians will bring more destruction than the Assyrians had caused.
D. It’s amazing sometimes how our great acts of faith can be followed by the folly of a sinful heart.
(Isa39:6‐8/ESV)
6 Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which
your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD.
7 And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will
father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."
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8 Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD that you have spoken
is good." For he thought, "There will be peace and security in my days."
Conclusion:
Chapter 39 ends the first major section of the Book of Isaiah. These chapters are set in the historical time-period of Isaiah’s life when the dominant political and military power was the Assyrian Empire.
God’s message throughout is that He has become angry with His faithless people who traffic in sin, deny justice to the poor, and trust in foreign alliances rather than in the Lord. King Ahaz is the embodiment of this faithlessness. Rather than heeding Isaiah’s counsel to trust the Lord in the face of war with Israel and Syria, he piously chooses not to ask the Lord for a sign, but behind the scenes casts his lot with Assyria—the very nation that captures the northern tribes and will soon seek to add the southern tribe to its empire. A sign is nonetheless given to Ahaz—the sign that a virgin will bear a child. God will deliver His people from the Syro-Ephraimite coalition, but will ultimately deliver His people through a faithful Davidic King—the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
The Assyrians become God’s instrument of judgment against His people. Yet, even the Assyrians will be held in check by the sovereign Lord, who will judge them for their arrogance. In fact, the Lord of Israel is also the Lord of the entire earth who will bring all nations into account and submission.
Throughout the first 39 chapters we are also given glimpses of the future where the Lord God will reign from Mount Zion. He will restore justice and righteousness through His chosen Davidic King—the Messiah. So, throughout the passages are sprinkled glimpses of the coming Messiah who will be born of a virgin and called “Immanuel””—God with us.
In the future “Day of the Lord,” God will bring severe judgment on His people and all the nations; but He will restore peace throughout the world. Isaiah faithfully records the plight of the remnant that God will protect and rescue from such certain judgment. In that day, the Lord will march out against the nations as well as against His cosmic and primordial enemies—Leviathan the gliding serpent—or Satan. The Lord will destroy Babylon, representing the center of the rebellious kingdom, and through His Messiah will establish His reign throughout the earth.
Isaiah skillfully lays out these themes in this first major section. In doing so, he paints a contrast between Ahaz, the faithless king, and his son, Hezekiah, who remains faithful to the Lord even in the midst of apparent disaster. As a result of Hezekiah’s faith, the Lord spares Jerusalem and sends the Assyrians scampering toward home.
Sadly, Hezekiah’s faith is not enough to prevent his foolishness in displaying his wealth to the Babylonians, who he perceives as a potential ally, but who in the near future will wreak havoc and destruction in Judah, eventually taking her citizens captive.
10 | P a g e As Isaiah closes out the first section of his great work, the Lord’s hand has been seen in the deliverance from the Assyrian threat, but the ominous destruction of Babylon is appearing on the horizon. Isaiah 40-55 will focus on this Babylonian period, which is about a century after the lifetime of the prophet.