Daily Devotions
Isaiah
"He sent messengers to Hezekiah"
Text: Isaiah 37:9
OTHER BATTLE THREATS
Assyria had other battles to fight. The king and the Rabshakeh had to attend to other urgent matters. But this did not stop the Rabshakeh to send a letter to King Hezekiah.
“Then the Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah,
for he heard that he had departed from Lachish.
And the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia,
‘He has come out to make war with you.’
So when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
‘Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying:
‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying,
‘Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”
Look! You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands
by utterly destroying them; and shall you be delivered?
Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed,
Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?
Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad,
and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?'”
Isaiah 37:8-13
1. Trouble from a small city state, Libnah.
a) Libnah was quite near Lachish that had been conquered by the Assyrians.
b) When the Rabshakeh and the Assyrian king had laid siege to Jerusalem,
Libnah seized the opportunity to fight against the Assyrians.
c) Sennacherib had gone to attend to this problem personally.
d) The Rabshakeh went to the aid of the king.
2. Trouble from Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia.
a) The Ethiopians were in league with the Egyptians.
b) They sought to engage the Assyrians too.
3. The Assyrians were now fighting three battles at the same time.
a) Libnah
b) Ethiopia
c) Jerusalem
4. The cunning Rabshakeh.
a) He was determined to intimidate Hezekiah.
b) Though he was not physically present in Jerusalem, he sent a message to Hezekiah through his servants.
5. The content of the letter to Hezekiah.
a) The Rabshakeh once again mentioned how Assyria had conquered many nations.
b) He warned Hezekiah not to believe that Jerusalem, Judah would be delivered.
c) He listed a number of nations he had conquered and destroyed.
d) Once again, he mentioned that the gods of these nations had not been able to defeat Assyria.
e) Could the LORD now deliver Jerusalem?
i) He mocked the LORD here.
ii) He despised the power of God.
iii) He asserted that Assyria was far stronger than the LORD God of Judah.