In our last study Assyria was besieging Jerusalem. Envoys had now come suggesting that it would be much better for the people of Jerusalem to simply accept they were beaten and avoid any more bloodshed and death by giving in and accepting the rule of Sennacherib.
Read 2 Kings 18:36-37
36 But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, ‘Do not answer him.’
37 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what the field commander had said.
King Hezekiah was faced with a truly daunting choice. Yes it was true, Assyria could easily destroy them. Yes it was true that no other nation’s gods had ever withstood the might of Assyria. Yes he could read in Deuteronomy 20:1-4.
1 When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. 2 When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. 3 He shall say: ‘Hear, Israel: today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be faint-hearted or afraid; do not panic or be terrified by them. 4 For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.’
But – could he now really trust the Lord for deliverance?
His first act was simply to ask Isaiah to pray.
Read 2 Kings 19:1-4
1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord. 2 He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3 They told him, ‘This is what Hezekiah says: this day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of birth and there is no strength to deliver them. 4 It may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the Lord your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives.’
Isaiah had received his commission from God in about 740bc ‘the year that king Uzziah died’ (Isaiah 6:1) and had been faithfully prophesying since. (In the middle of his book of prophecies, chapters 36-38 contain a section of historical narrative that mirrors 2 Kings 18:13 to 2 Kings 20:19. The following chapters then contain further prophecies which may well have then been directed to those who had by then been taken into exile.)
Read 2 Kings 19:5-7
5 When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, ‘Tell your master, “This is what the Lord says: do not be afraid of what you have heard – those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7 Listen! When he hears a certain report, I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.”’
Hezekiah could see no way to escape immediate destruction. In his desperation he had asked Isaiah to pray.
It seems that God answered even before Isaiah could do that. Don’t worry, he said, not only will Sennacherib simply go away, but he will actually be assassinated!
Read 2 Kings 19:8
8 When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.
While all this had been going on, Sennacherib and his main army had been fighting at Lachish. Obviously as the Field Commander, he felt he needed to go to join forces with his king who having subdued Lachish, was now fighting at Libnah. (Lachish was a powerful city near the border of Judah, near Philistine country. People are unsure where Libnah was, but one map suggests it was only 5 miles from Lachish. It was mentioned in passing in Numbers 33:20, and in 2 Kings 8:22 we read that they joined the revolt of Edom against being ruled by Judah.)
However it seemed that the skirmish over Libnah was short lived and Sennacherib soon returned to Jerusalem.
Read 2 Kings 19:9-13
9 Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the king of Cush, was marching out to fight against him. So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word: 10 ‘Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, “Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.” 11 Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? 12 Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver them – the gods of Gozan, Harran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?’
Sennacherib was concerned. He had committed his whole army to fighting in this obscure corner of his empire, leaving his main centres of Nineveh and Babylon unguarded. Which way will the Egyptians come, round the coast, or inland – the other side of the Jordan? Perhaps by simply issuing more threats Hezekiah might surrender and he could return home quickly.
Hezekiah knew nothing of this.
Read 2 Kings 19:14-19
14 Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: ‘Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.
17 ‘It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. 18 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. 19 Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God.’
Hezekiah had done all he could. Now he simply prayed that God himself would defend his own holy name against the ridicule of Sennacherib.
Read 2 Kings 19:20-37
20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. 21 This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him:
‘“Virgin Daughter Zion despises you and mocks you.
Daughter Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee.
22 Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
23 By your messengers you have ridiculed the Lord.
And you have said,
‘With my many chariots I have ascended the heights of the mountains,
the utmost heights of Lebanon.
I have cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of its junipers.
I have reached its remotest parts, the finest of its forests.
24 I have dug wells in foreign lands and drunk the water there.
With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.’
25 ‘“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.
26 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.
27 ‘“But I know where you are and when you come and go and how you rage against me.
28 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.”
29 ‘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.
30 Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above.
31 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.
32 ‘Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria:
‘“He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here.
He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it.
33 By the way that he came he will return;
he will not enter this city declares the Lord.
34 I will defend this city and save it,
for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.”’
35 That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning – there were all the dead bodies! 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.
37 One day, while he was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.
That was enough for Sennacherib. He quickly withdrew back to his capital city. But God would not be mocked. Look back at verses 27-28. Even though God had destroyed his army at a stroke, he still refused to accept the sovereignty of God.
To then go to deliberately worship a heathen god sealed his fate.
A few years later, in 671BC Esarhaddon conquered Egypt, thus making him ruler over the largest empire there had ever been.
For the last hundred years, a major part of the Assyrian empire had included Babylonia, but they had begun to revolt against Assyrian domination. To quell this, Sennacherib had completely destroyed their capital Babylon.
Esarhaddon rebuilt it, and before his death he appointed his two sons to succeed him, one in Assyria, and the other in Babylon.
Not a good idea – in 652BC Babylon again rebelled while Assyria was struggling with many internal problems.
By 609bc Babylonian and Median armies had together managed to destroy Assyria. Babylonia was now completely independent and their king Nebuchadnezzar now headed a new super-power.
We will come back to him later, but for now we need to return to Hezekiah and the events in Judah.
Read 2 Kings 20:1-2
1 In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, ‘This is what the Lord says: put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.’
2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 3 ‘Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.’ And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
Hezekiah naturally felt that was a bit unfair of the Lord – but his reaction was good: he prayed. Not for healing, but simply that the Lord would remember him. In those days people could have no confidence in the cleansing blood of Jesus, and the resurrection he provides – their ultimate destination could only be hoped and prayed for.
Read 2 Kings 20:4-6
4 Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: 5 ‘Go back and tell Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, “This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord. 6 I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.”’
‘On the third day’. That rings bells! And notice not ‘and you will regain your throne’ but rather ‘you will go up to the temple of the Lord.’ Obviously he would at least want to give thanks!
Not only was the prophecy that he would live another 15 years, but it would be a time of peace as during that time Assyria would not return to attack.
Read 2 Kings 20:7
7 Then Isaiah said, ‘Prepare a poultice of figs.’ They did so and applied it to the boil, and he recovered.
No, we don’t know what the serious disease was – possibly smallpox, or plague – but it was recognised as incurable. However ‘a poultice of figs’ was a well-known cure-all, and seems to have been part of this cure.
Read 2 Kings 20:8-11
8 Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, ‘What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the temple of the Lord on the third day from now?’
9 Isaiah answered, ‘This is the Lord’s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?’
10 ‘It is a simple matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps,’ said Hezekiah. ‘Rather, let it go back ten steps.’
11 Then the prophet Isaiah called on the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.
There have been many fanciful propositions as to how this could have happened. I’m sorry – it simply comes down to a miraculous intervention by God himself!
Read 2 Kings 20:12
12 At that time Marduk-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of Hezekiah’s illness.
Really? We now know quite a lot about the Assyrian and Babylonian empires; their spread and ambitions. Looking at the map, it is obvious that Judah was an anomaly and sooner or later would have to be assimilated into the Babylonian world. But there was something about it. Why had the Assyrians not taken it? What were the strange rumours that were around about it and its God?
It would have taken between one and two months to travel the 1000+ miles involved – not a minor exercise, but worth sending some spies – and news of Hezekiah’s illness and miraculous recovery would have been a good enough reason.
Read 2 Kings 20:13-14
13 Hezekiah received the envoys and showed them all that was in his storehouses – the silver, the gold, the spices and the fine oil – his armoury and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.
14 Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, ‘What did those men say, and where did they come from?’
‘From a distant land,’ Hezekiah replied. ‘They came from Babylon.’
Unfortunately in those days there were no useful maps. Merchants travelled over long distances, using ancient trails, but most normal people would not venture far from their own village. So foreigners ‘from Babylon, a distant land’ wearing strange luxurious clothes, would be a spectacle. Up to then no-one had ever considered that far off Babylon could pose a threat.
Read 2 Kings 20:15
15 The prophet asked, ‘What did they see in your palace?’
‘They saw everything in my palace,’ Hezekiah said. ‘There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.’
Pride can be so dangerous. To have been singled out for a visit by these noble visitors was too much for Hezekiah, so he eagerly showed them everything.
Read 2 Kings 20:16-20
16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, ‘Hear the word of the Lord: 17 the time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. 18 And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’
19 ‘The word of the Lord you have spoken is good,’ Hezekiah replied. For he thought, ‘Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?’
20 As for the other events of Hezekiah’s reign, all his achievements and how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? 21 Hezekiah rested with his ancestors. And Manasseh his son succeeded him as king.
Verse 19 has been a bit of a stumbling-block. Was Hezekiah simply grateful that he was assured that his kingdom would continue prosperous for many years, or was he simply displaying an attitude that ‘well, at least I’ll be alright’?
Interestingly, 2 Chronicles 32:25-26 has: ‘25 But Hezekiah’s heart was proud and he did not respond to the kindness shown him; therefore the Lord’s wrath was on him and on Judah and Jerusalem. 26 Then Hezekiah repented of the pride of his heart, as did the people of Jerusalem; therefore the Lord’s wrath did not come on them during the days of Hezekiah. ’ And 2 Chronicles 32:31 has ‘
31 But when envoys were sent by the rulers of Babylon to ask him about the miraculous sign that had occurred in the land, God left him to test him and to know everything that was in his heart.’
As we read of the machinations of men and Nations, we get glimpses that throughout it all God is carrying out his own purposes, and is still doing so today.
(If questions arise concerning 'My free will' and 'God's will' see two studies starting HERE)
