Isaiah, 37:1-20

Have you ever had one of those times when the light at the end of the tunnel doesn't seem like it's all that cheery a prospect? We asked the question last week. Have you ever been faced with a seemingly overwhelming crisis in your life? Maybe more than one? Could more be coming your way? And so appropriate questions to ask in view of the passage we looked at here.

You may recall last week we introduced what was presented in chapter 36. And what it involved was Assyria, which was a large empire, had come to attack Judah because Judah was protesting being under Assyria and having to pay them tribute. And so now we continue into part two today. Just to reiterate in chapter 36, here is King Hezekiah, the king of Judah.

He's in the line of David. He was different from many of the kings in that he was a righteous king. He had actually sought to get a lot of the pagan idolatry out of the land. But here he was faced with a real ominous prospect. Sennacherib, king of Assyria, had come and attacked his nation. And he had been moving through the land, attacking various cities, and was moving towards and planning on coming towards Jerusalem.

This is a seal impression of King Hezekiah. By the way, there's over a hundred of these have been found in various places throughout Judah. So it's not something where, gee, I wonder if this guy ever existed. We've got well over a hundred of these and that's just the seal apart from any other record. And there are other records we'll make reference to. Here's a generalized attack route.

The Assyrian army came down along the coast. And then as they got into Judah, began working their way inward. And Lachish was one of the places that was mentioned last week. He's working his way toward Jerusalem. And as we read last week, Sennacherib had sent his kind of head of staff, Rabshakeh, to kind of make a final threat and had brought an army with them, even though they weren't quite ready to step into attack mode. Now, Rabshakeh had addressed the people in Hebrew, and his intent was not to just come and threaten the officials, but to get the people so that the people were unsettled, and if possible, to put a division between the people and their king. He wanted to scare them enough that they might possibly let loose of their allegiance to their king. So here's Rabshakeh. And as we pointed out last week, Bud was not there. Okay. Now, so here's King Hezekiah. He gets this message from the officials, his officials that had been out there and hearing Rabshakeh. And he hears it.

He tears his clothes. Now, I'm sure all the clothing merchants in Jerusalem were delighted to have him do that sort of thing. But that was not his point. It was a common practice among the Jews to tear clothing as an expression of grief. And so they would do that and Hezekiah did exactly that. He expressed his great grief at the words that were said.

Now, just so we get the location here, we have a picture on the right here that shows an artist's rendering of what Jerusalem would have looked like at that time. That oval would have been where Rabshakeh stood as he spoke to the Jews along the wall and to the officials that were out there.

You have the houses that are on the southern end and there are houses in that area now. And then you have the palace, which would have been kind of in the middle section, a little bit higher. And then on the very upper end of it, the temple. So those three areas within the walls.

Now here is verse two, and it says, Then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos. Here are these two, the three who had gone out to speak and listen to Rabshakeh, and the senior priests from the temple sent them off to talk to Isaiah. Isaiah, of course, is the one who's been writing this book all along, warning of this for decades, this problem that was coming on the horizon, and now it's here. And so he sent a talk to the prophet Isaiah. And by the way, this is something that has been found in Jerusalem. It's from Isaiah's time. And that little bit of writing on that rock says, belonging to Amoz, which is the name of Isaiah's father. So very interesting.

And Bud was not there. Okay. Hezekiah wouldn't have felt it necessary. Now notice he didn't go. But he wouldn't have felt it necessary for him to go because the priority was, I'm going to stay here and pray. You go ahead and convey the message to Isaiah and have him pray. And that would be appropriate. That would be fine. Because the priority, after all, is to get people praying where it counts. And this is, I think, something for us to take a note of.

James 5.16, in the last half of the verse, says this, The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. You know, we have in our church and a number of churches do have a prayer chain. And I think it's an appropriate thing. And matter of fact, if you have anything you need to have anybody pray for, my wife is the one to call. She'll go ahead and send it out on the prayer chain. It's a good thing.

But one of the things that we notice here is Hezekiah's priority is, let's get some righteous people praying here. That that was the thing. He wanted to see, you know, not just, hey, let's get everybody we can praying. But let's have righteous people pray that there is a focus upon that.

And it's explicit that he get Isaiah up to speed on what's happening. Get Isaiah praying, please. You guys go off and let Isaiah know what's happened. So here we have in verses 3 and 4, They said to him, thus says Hezekiah. So here they are talking to Isaiah.

This day is a day of distress and rebuke and rejection for children have come to birth and there is no strength to deliver. Perhaps the Lord your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master, the king of Assyria is sent to reproach the living God and rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard.

Therefore offer a prayer for the remnant that is left. Okay. So we have a bit of a question here. Okay. This phrase is children have come to birth and there's, you know, no strength to deliver. It is a Hebrew expression because if you think of it in those times, they didn't have any, you know, caesareans that they would perform or certainly not without great risk. And so you have that event where it's time to deliver, but it's not happening. That was dangerous for both baby and mother. It's bad news all around, right? And so that's what this expression is saying. It says, this is bad news all around. This is bad news for everybody. That's what he's saying here with this expression. A figure of speech.

Perhaps the Lord your God will hear the words. Now interesting, they're wanting Isaiah to pray for God to move in retribution against this fellow Rabshakeh. After all, Rabshakeh comes up to the wall, speaks in Hebrew. And by the way, the Jews' tradition was that God gave them the Hebrew language.

So here is this rank pagan coming up, and he used foul language to start with. But here's this rank pagan coming up and speaking this God-given language right to these people and telling them, don't trust God. The whole thing was just repulsive. They were very upset at this. And Rabshakeh had made God, in his speech, to be no different from those pagan idols. That just absolutely inflamed the Jews against what Rabshakeh said.

Hezekiah's message is respectful to Isaiah, that he makes a request, he doesn't demand, he could have as a king, but he doesn't demand, he's respectful. He also isn't presumptuous about God must do this and this. It is still laid in the realm of request. Perhaps the Lord your God will hear the words, the words which the Lord your God has heard. You look at that. Perhaps the Lord will hear, and then the next part is, the Lord has heard him, which is right. Have we got a problem? Is this an uh-oh? Is the Bible contradicting itself? What have we got happening here? Did he hear it or not? Well, guess what?

They're both figures of speech in the Hebrew language, both of them. The first one is a Hebrew expression that means to hear so as to take action. In other words, they want God to hear and then take action. That's the point of that first statement. The next one, the words which your Lord God has heard, is an acknowledgment that the Lord has indeed heard the words. Both of them are figures of speech because the Lord doesn't have an ear. But they're figures of speech used in different ways. They're not contradictory. They're both just different figures of speech.

Okay. And finally, the remnant that is left. You see, there had already been loss of life, and many in Judah had been taken away by the Assyrians. So, the remnants left has nothing to do with praying for the people that are left-handed. Okay? Alright. So you have this loss of life.

Hezekiah had requested that Isaiah pray on behalf of all those remaining. Because remember, many of the cities had already been attacked. There had already been those in Judah that had been hauled off, including, we saw some pictures last week, even pictures on the walls of the Assyrian palaces showed even the little kids being taken away, small kids. So this was something that, you know, pray for those, pray for them that are left. Isaiah has presented before this idea of a remnant, and he refers to this remnant here, for those that remain, for those that survive. And that's continuously presented. We'll see it again.

Then he says, Thus says the Lord. This is a phrase that is said from Exodus on down to the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi. It's said over 400 times in the Old Testament because it is a way of the prophet speaking and saying, this is God's message to you. It's a way of caring with authority, with directness. This is what God has to say to you. So here is Isaiah saying, from his own mouth, this is God's message to you.

I'm conveying it to you right now. Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard. Can you imagine that? Here is an army that goes in and they decimate cities. We have murals on the walls of the Assyrian palaces. where they did awful things. I won't even describe them. They did awful things to the people that they overcame and captured. Terrible, ghastly things. And they have been going from one city to the next and so far been successful.

Why should you not be afraid? Why not be afraid? You have every reason from an earthly standpoint to be afraid. Well, as you say, here's the prophet after having the... and by the way, there is a massive army just outside the wall right here. Here, he says, don't be afraid.

Don't. Is there any human reason not to be afraid? No. From a human standpoint, it's perfectly reasonable that you'd be in absolute panic, right? But that's not what God has in mind. Do not be afraid. But this is what the Lord is often telling believers, isn't He? Don't be afraid. Here's the Lord speaking to the disciples. Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God.

Believe also in Me. This word believe is the same word that is often translated trust or have faith. It's the same word in the Greek. We have differences of nuance in English, but in the Greek it's the same thing. He's saying, trust Me. Believe in me. Trust me. Have faith. All those ideas are conveyed here. Trust me. Don't be troubled. Let not your heart be afraid.

How about Paul? And by the way, where was he when he was writing this? He was chained to a Praetorian guard under house arrest in Rome. And by the way, we also have some record of people who were similarly chained to a Roman guard. And it says like being chained to a wild beast.

Anyway, in the middle of that, Paul writes, be anxious for nothing. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." The Lord is often calling on saints, don't be anxious, don't be troubled, Don't be afraid.

And what Isaiah is telling these people right now is, from a human standpoint, completely unreasonable. Makes no sense at all. But it's exactly what the Lord has in mind to deliver. Do not be afraid because of the words that you heard. In view of all that's happened, this is amazing stuff.

But they're words that are radical. They are radically comforting. And isn't that what we need? Don't we need radical comfort? That is exactly what the Lord is pointing to. Radical comfort. A comfort that this world doesn't understand. And that's why when Hal walks into the hospital, they just have no idea what he's talking about. Why are you not panicking? Why are you not upset and afraid? Well, because there is a Lord here that you need to know that brings a peace that without Him can't be understood.

The servants of the king of Assyria blasphemed me. This is the Lord. The Lord is recognizing and saying, hey, I heard this. I know what's going on. They have blasphemed me. They have spoken out against me in ways that are vile and unacceptable. God acknowledged this. He didn't deny it. Rabshakeh and those who were with him had spoken insolently against the Lord. The servants of the king of Assyria blaspheme me. In verse 7, God tells them how He will respond to this blasphemy, how He will judge Sennacherib.

Now, this is interesting. Verse 7, Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land. Both the near term and medium term prophecies will be fulfilled. We'll see one of them is going to be fulfilled right away. The first part here, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land. This is the near-term prophecy that is going to be fulfilled. This is the one that's going to be fulfilled in very short order. And they will find out indeed, yes, Isaiah is indeed a prophet of God. This actually happened. This I will put a spirit in him, modern vernacular, he'll be spooked.

I recall one time, When I lived on the farm, I would go out morning and night, about 12 hours apart, and go out and milk the cows. Well, they're supposed to have cows in that section of the barn. One time I walked in and there was a horse in that section of the barn. Well, the horses, they kind of knew that they weren't supposed to be in there. So as soon as I opened the door, there's this horse there. and the horse has no way to get out other than running right over the top of me. So the horse just went right through the wall. Just boards flying everywhere. What happened? And it didn't make any sense at all. There wasn't a door there. There wasn't even a window there. It just went right through the wall.

The horse got spooked. This is what's going to happen to Sennacherib. He's going to go, and get scared and get spooked, just like the horse. And then I will make him fall by the sword in his own land. This is the medium-term prophecy. Once he gets back to his own land, he's going to fall by the sword. And we'll find out next week how that happens. So, let's take a look at the next ones. And Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria. So here's Rabshakeh, who's the servant of Sennacherib, fighting against Libna.

For he had heard that the king had left Lachish, that was the city mentioned last week, when he heard them saying concerning the Tirhaka, the king of Cush, he had come out to fight against you. He has come to fight against you. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah. So what's happening here? Here's Rabshakeh. He's already delivered his bad message to Jerusalem. He goes back to where his master, King Sennacherib, is fighting, and he's moved on from one city to the next. And at that same time, this Sennacherib is hearing a rumor that there is a king coming out of Egypt who is going to fight him.

Here's the route. And so here he had been at Lachish. He was headed towards Jerusalem, trying to work his way that direction. At the moment when Rabshakeh found him, he was at Libna, this place right here. And so here he is, he's trying to work towards Jerusalem, but that isn't going to happen here. So here's fighting against Libna, this is a picture of Libna, and Bud was not there.

Okay, now we have in 8 and 9, this is a clue about the fulfillment of the prophecy given this rumor in verse 7 that's going to spook him. When he heard them say concerning Terhaka, the king of Cush, he has come to fight against you. We have it by Assyrian historical record that at this point, Sennacherib started heading back home. All he had to do was hear this rumor and he got spooked and started heading back home.

But his troubles were not over. He was not going to be delivered from difficulty because he headed back home. What we'll find out later in this chapter is that that was a good decision as far as bad decisions go. When you've made a bad decision already, it's as good as you can get. but it's not going to help him.

So here's Sennacherib. He had attacked Judah. Here's Jehaka. And by the way, this is an historical character. We have a record of the fellow. It was Egypt and Ethiopia together, which were labeled Kush. And there's both Egyptian and Syrian writings about this guy. The thought that he was going to come turned Sennacherib back around to Assyria. That was all it took.

So here is the message to Hezekiah. Thus you shall say to Hezekiah, king of Judah, do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. So here's a letter that he's writing. So, what does he do?

He goes and offers the same stuff that he's heard before. The gods of these people haven't preserved them and nothing is going to preserve you. If you try to trust in your God, you're going to be in trouble. Where are all these other people who tried to stand on the strength of their gods? That's the letter. Hezekiah gets this letter. It's more of the same basic message. Don't trust God, you'll die. That's the bottom line. Don't trust God, you'll die. So he's making a threat to Hezekiah while he's running.

How about that? Does that sound like a bully or what? Okay. Think of this though in our own lives. Something comes into our life that looks like this train coming down the track at us. Where do we turn? Where do we run? When it feels like we're in the tunnel and the train is headed ever so quickly in our direction. Which response is God's will? What does God have in mind? What would God have us do when the light's getting closer and brighter and bigger? When the noise is getting a little louder? When the tunnel's not getting any wider?

Yeah. Okay. All right. Verses 14 through 16, Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Well, that's exactly what you'd expect them to do, isn't it? First part of this verse, any king would do that. Here's a letter, read it. So he's reading this threat letter. This is now, remember, the first threat is Rapshachah coming up to the wall. Now here is the next letter that is a threat letter. Hezekiah reads it. It's what happens after this point that's extraordinary. Because here's the pivotal decision. Just reading the letter, no biggie. Any ruler would do that. Now what do you do? What do you do next?

That's the pivotal moment. So here's Hezekiah. Think about it. Here's Jerusalem in his day. This is the picture of the artist rendering that we've shown before. Here is Hezekiah who is in the palace receiving this letter. Where does he head? He heads up to the temple just up the hill. Goes up to the temple. Here is a model of Solomon's Temple, courtesy of Harvard University. So here's the temple. We're privileged to have the curtain removed for the sake of the picture here, because there was a curtain in front of the Holy of Holies there.

Think about it. Our place, James 1, 2, and 4, we looked at last week, Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. That's the message to us as believers. Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials. We mentioned that it conveys the idea of ultimate joy. Ultimate joy. When, not if, when you encounter them. Are they going to happen? Yeah. What kinds? Oh, various. The word various is the word that we get, our word polka from polkadot. Little ones, big ones, all over the place.

Here's what Hezekiah did. He went up to the house of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. He brought this thing to the Lord. Lord, here is this thing and it's got my attention. Let me bring it before you. The last half of this verse reiterates a point of verse 1, but in fact it's a repeated event. Hezekiah went to the temple, but it's one of the most important parts of the entire passage.

This is a problem that wasn't going to go away. Have you ever had a problem that just stayed with you? It wasn't like, I've got a hassle and okay, now it's gone. Just because Rabshakeh went away doesn't mean the problem goes away. This thing's now coming back with a second wave.

I've got this letter directly from Sennacherib, and it's kind of nasty, and it's no better than the threat that came from Rabshakeh. It's where we take the problem or who we take the problem to right now that counts, isn't it? Once we become aware of it, what do we do with it? What do we do next? Consider it all joy when you encounter those various trials. So here's this guy. Oh good, trials.

Hezekiah prayed to the Lord. He brought it to the Lord. He didn't just go up to the building and say, here, you guys pray over this thing. I'm busy. No, he brought it to the Lord personally. He communicated to the Lord about this not-so-small problem that he had. Think of it, as king, he didn't just hand it off. Say, you guys are the priests, you talk to God about this. He said, no, this is my place. I am the king.

I have a stewardship here. Think of the places where the Lord has given us stewardships, and you might have even several of them. Stewardships in your household. Stewardships over a family, and maybe even some family that's outside the household, but still a part of your heart's concern. Stewardships over people you work with. Stewardships over people you're going to school with. Neighbors.

There are lots of stewardship situations you're in, and we can bring those to the Lord too, just like Hezekiah did here. He had a stewardship over the nation of Judah, just as we have various stewardships, as the Lord has given us. It was the only thing that really made any sense. Take it to the Lord. Now, get this point. By the time Hezekiah started praying, the answer was already coming. Did you notice that?

When had Sennacherib gotten the rumor? When he sent the letter. Hezekiah wasn't being told about the rumor that was sending Sennacherib packing. He just got the letter. By the time Hezekiah began praying, the letter had already come, but the answer was already there, was already on its way. The answer was already coming.

The Lord is not limited by our time frames. Isn't that interesting? He wants us to come to Him and bring things to Him. He wants us to fellowship with Him. But we mustn't think in terms of just what are the human resources and options. The Lord has options we haven't thought of.

By the time Hezekiah started praying, the answer was already coming. Hezekiah could easily have begun by enumerating his intense needs. He could have listed these things. Lord, boy, let me tell you, we've got this problem, and that one, and that one, and let me lay it out. But what does he do? He could have sung the blues for the Jews. But that's not what he did. He didn't do that. What did he do? He talked about who God is and what He's done. Who God is and what He's done. That's what He started with. Isn't that neat? Big lesson point for us.

Hezekiah's prayer shouldn't be thought of as a formula. A lot of times, Christians are inclined to just, give me something I can memorize. The older you get, the less attractive that sounds. Believe me. We're inclined to think of some standard verbiage. You know, give me this standard verbiage to spill out. But that wasn't Hezekiah's point here. In fact, it's real interesting. This is recorded. I'm not sure who recorded it, but it's recorded for our benefit.

He began with who God is and what God's done. And that's a great place for us to begin. He isn't just buttering God up. Hey, I'll butter God up and then give Him the bad news, right? I give him my request. This is the very place to begin, because if anything is going to happen that is going to change the situation, or change me about the situation, the place to start is, who is God and what has He done?

The perfect place to begin. As believers, what does Paul begin telling just about every church that you look at? They've got problems, it doesn't matter what their problem is, he says you're in Christ. Here's the church at Ephesus, the last half, he's going to tell them all sorts of things that need to change. What's he going to start off with? You've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and thanks be to the Father. He's the one who did it. It's who God is and what He's done. That's the starting point. That's the place to begin.

O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth, who have made heaven and earth. Here God is the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, notice that, nation of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim. This has some recollection to Isaiah 6, where Isaiah himself was brought into the heavenlies, and some recollection of that. But it's also one other thing, where is Hezekiah right now?

He is up at the temple. And not being a priest, he couldn't go into it. But inside there, towards the back, behind that curtain that is drawn away for our benefit, there was the Ark of the Covenant. And what was placed on the top of the Ark of the Covenant? The cherubim. Right there. So there he is. There's the Ark of the Covenant right there in the temple. He's praying. He says, Lord, you're above that. this holiest of places, you're above the cherubim.

Number two, God is singularly sovereign over all the kingdoms of the earth, the Gentiles. Here's the Jews, here's the Gentiles. God is creator of everything, Genesis 1-1. Unlike all these idols that are made from things on the earth, this is the one who made everything on the earth.

We have the Gentiles, Isaiah writes about, and Israel, Isaiah writes about. Isaiah is writing from a time before the cross, therefore, I've graded out here for this, for the Church, is not revealed yet. Paul revealed that and wrote about it, for example, in the last part of Ephesians 2 and into the end of Ephesians chapter 3. So here is Hezekiah up at the temple, praying, bringing this before the Lord. Hezekiah uses anthropomorphisms. Those are big words that are not intended to describe diseases, but they're intended to describe speaking in human terms.

Lord, incline your ear. The Lord doesn't have one of these. And open your eyes. He wants to bring it to the Lord's attention. And it's not that the Lord doesn't know about these things. The Lord does. But he wants to share his concern and his heart with the Lord, to bring it before the Lord, because he has a relationship with Him. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have devastated all the countries in their lands.

He is not denying anything that's true. You know, when we talk to the Lord, we don't have to cook up some phony story. The Lord knows what's true. And He doesn't elaborate on it. You notice that. He just says, this is reality. This is what's real. We can talk to the Lord in real terms. We can lay things out before Him just as they are. Cover it up. No need to put a nice cover on it. No. Tell it like it is. Exactly the way it is. Tell it like it really is because that's what's true. And the Lord knows it's true anyway.

He isn't denying the letter's claim that things have been destroyed wherever the Assyrians have been. But there's a reason for that. They've cast their gods of all these other places that they've destroyed They're not gods, they're the work of man's hands. Hezekiah is recognizing, yeah, he's defeated them and cast their gods into the fire and just wrecked them and destroyed them, but those are not real gods anyway. Those are just creations of man's hands, wood, stone. Yeah, they've been wrecked, they've been destroyed. All the idols of the other nations, every single one of them, gone.

See, this is what people were trusting in. Would you trust in these? Do you think these would help you? If you were in a panic, would you go scrambling for these guys? That doesn't help you? Here, try that. Does that help? Make you feel better? Maybe that. There you are. Now are you comforted? See, that's what they were doing.

Hezekiah says worthless. He knows it. Verse 20, And now, O Lord our God, deliver us from the hand of all the kingdoms of the earth, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, Lord our God. He appeals to the God of Israel to deliver Judah so that the Gentiles may know. How about that? So that the Gentiles may know.

This is a revealing and a declaring of God's glory. God, as part of Your eternal purpose, I appeal to you here. It's not just because I, Hezekiah, would sure not like to be run through. It's not just because it would sure be nice if I looked like I was a hero. But Lord, on the basis of Your glory, on the basis of Your eternal purpose for everything that's been made, on that basis, Lord, I appeal to You.

In James 1.12, blessed is the man who perseveres under trial. Once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. The Lord has laid out in front of us trials. Hezekiah went through one. We certainly are going to run into different ones, but yeah, when we encounter various trials, various ones, but the Lord has a purpose in them, an eternal purpose for those trials. Yes, and Bud will be there.

Romans 8, 18 gives us a sense, how do we measure these trials? What should be our perspective? For I consider that the sufferings of this present time, and Paul was not foreign to those sufferings, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us, in us. That's what these trials are about. Not just, here, look at some glory, but that the glory is revealed in us, shared with us. The sufferings of this present time, put them on a scale. Sorry, doesn't even begin to measure with the glory that's to be revealed in us. What the Lord has in mind for these very trials.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you as we look at these passages, as we look at these words, we learn things about prayer. We learn things about a relationship with you. We learn things about the trials that are in our lives, that have been, and that will be until the day we see you face to face. And we learned, Lord, how marvelous and how wondrous your grace and power and glory are. And we pray, Lord, that you would indeed be teaching us the truths that come out of this passage. And we thank you that you have blessed us so abundantly because you love us. In Jesus' name, Amen.