Reflections on Isaiah 37

Isaiah 37 (Contemporary English Version)
1. As soon as Hezekiah heard the news, he tore off his clothes in sorrow and put on sackcloth. Then he went into the temple of the LORD.
   
2. He told Prime Minister Eliakim, Assistant Prime Minister Shebna, and the senior priests to dress in sackcloth and tell me:
   
3. Isaiah, these are difficult and disgraceful times. Our nation is like a woman too weak to give birth, when it's time for her baby to be born.
   
4. Please pray for those of us who are left alive. The king of Assyria sent his army commander to insult the living God. Perhaps the LORD heard what he said and will do something, if you will pray.
   
5. When these leaders came to me,
   
6. I told them that the LORD had this message for Hezekiah: I am the LORD. Don't worry about the insulting things that have been said about me by these messengers from the king of Assyria.
   
7. I will upset him with rumors about what's happening in his own country. He will go back, and there I will make him die a violent death.
   
8. Meanwhile the commander of the Assyrian forces heard that his king had left the town of Lachish and was now attacking Libnah. So he went there.
   
9. About this same time, the king of Assyria learned that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was on his way to attack him. Then the king of Assyria sent some messengers with this note for Hezekiah:
   
10. Don't trust your God or be fooled by his promise to defend Jerusalem against me.
    
11. You have heard how we Assyrian kings have completely wiped out other nations. What makes you feel so safe?
    
12. The Assyrian kings before me destroyed the towns of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and everyone from Eden who lived in Telassar. What good did their gods do them?
    
13. The kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah have all disappeared.
    
14. After Hezekiah had read the note from the king of Assyria, he took it to the temple and spread it out for the LORD to see.
    
15. Then he prayed:
    
16. LORD God All-Powerful of Israel, your throne is above the winged creatures. You created the heavens and the earth, and you alone rule the kingdoms of this world.
    
17. Just look and see how Sennacherib has insulted you, the living God.
    
18. It is true, our LORD, that Assyrian kings have turned nations into deserts.
    
19. They destroyed the idols of wood and stone that the people of those nations had made and worshiped.
    
20. But you are our LORD and our God! We ask you to keep us safe from the Assyrian king. Then everyone in every kingdom on earth will know that you are the only LORD.
    
21. I went to Hezekiah and told him that the LORD God of Israel had said: Hezekiah, you prayed to me about King Sennacherib of Assyria. Now this is what I say to that king: The people of Jerusalem hate and make fun of you; they laugh behind your back.
    
22. (SEE 37:21)
    
23. Sennacherib, you cursed, shouted, and sneered at me, the holy God of Israel.
    
24. You let your officials insult me, the Lord. And here is what you have said about yourself, "I led my chariots to the highest heights of Lebanon's mountains. I went deep into its forest, cutting down the best cedar and cypress trees.
    
25. I dried up every stream in the land of Egypt, and I drank water from wells I had dug."
    
26. Sennacherib, now listen to me, the LORD. I planned all of this long ago. And you don't even know that I alone am the one who decided that you would do these things. I let you make ruins of fortified cities.
    
27. Their people became weak, terribly confused. They were like wild flowers or like tender young grass growing on a flat roof or like a field of grain before it matures.
    
28. I know all about you, even how fiercely angry you are with me.
    
29. I have seen your pride and the tremendous hatred you have for me. Now I will put a hook in your nose, a bit in your mouth, then I will send you back to where you came from.
    
30. Hezekiah, I will tell you what's going to happen. This year you will eat crops that grow on their own, and the next year you will eat whatever springs up where those crops grew. But the third year, you will plant grain and vineyards, and you will eat what you harvest.
    
31. Those who survive in Judah will be like a vine that puts down deep roots and bears fruit.
    
32. I, the LORD All-Powerful, will see to it that some who live in Jerusalem will survive.
    
33. I promise that the king of Assyria won't get into Jerusalem, or shoot an arrow into the city, or even surround it and prepare to attack.
    
34. As surely as I am the LORD, he will return by the way he came and will never enter Jerusalem.
    
35. I will protect it for the sake of my own honor and because of the promise I made to my servant David.
    
36. The LORD sent an angel to the camp of the Assyrians, and he killed one hundred eighty-five thousand of them all in one night. The next morning, the camp was full of dead bodies.
    
37. After this, King Sennacherib went back to Assyria and lived in the city of Nineveh.
    
38. One day he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, when his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, killed him with their swords. They escaped to the land of Ararat, and his son Esarhaddon became king.

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When Isaiah first prophecied that the Assyrians would come to destroy Judah, Ahaz was king of Judah. It was because of his lack of faith, described in chapter 7, that Isaiah prophecied of the Assyrian assault that would be coming, "The LORD will bring on you, your people, and the house of your father, such a time as has never been since Ephraim separated from Judah--the king of Assyria is coming." (7:17) Thirty-three years later when the Assyrians arrived, Hezekiah was king. He was a godly king who had already begun reform to turn Judah back to God. In previous chapters we have read much about God's anger at the godlessness of His people. Now we read in this chapter of His compassion and mercy when His people are responsive to Him.

Chapter 36 gave the account of the Assyrian army surrounding Jerusalem and the Rabshakeh's boasts to Jerusalem's leaders of Assyria's greatness and Judah's inability to defend herself against them. For that matter, of God's inability to defend Judah against Assyria. In this chapter we read of King Hezekiah tearing his clothes in distress when his envoy brought its report from the Rabshakeh. Then Hezekiah did something king Ahaz had been unwilling to do. He went to the house of the Lord to seek His help. In addition, He sent his envoy to the prophet Isaiah to ask him to pray for them.

Isaiah prayed and the Lord's response was not to be afraid. "Look! I am putting a spirit in him and he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword." (37:7) The Lord Himself would take care of the king of Assyria who thought he was greater than God. The arrogance of this king comes through once again when he received the rumor and learned of his need to withdraw and return home. He sent a message to Hezekiah saying "Don't let your God, whom you trust, deceive you by saying that Jerusalem won't be handed over to the king of Assyria. Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries; they destroyed them completely. Will you be rescued?" (37:10-11) He didn't deny there was a God. He just thought this God to be ineffective against him.

But this God, whom he mocked, also had a message for him. In God's message to Sennacherib, He first raised the question, "Who have you raised your voice against and lifted your eyes in pride?" As for Sennacherib's boasting of his chariots and great accomplishments, God asks, "Have you not heard? I designed it long ago; I planned it in days gone by." All of Sennacherib's accomplishments came from God, the one he mocked as being impotent against him. Thus, God's further message to Sennacherib was that, "Because your raging against Me and your arrogance has reached My ears, I will put My hook in your nose and My bit in your mouth; I will make you go back the way you came." Sennacherib and all the nations would learn that God was the God of all people and not just the Israelites and that this God was not impotent as were the gods they worshiped.

Then God acted against Sennacherib and his great army that God had helped him assemble. An angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. With this, Sennacherib had no choice but to return home. Twenty years after his return from the attempted assault against Judah, he was assassinated by his own sons. All of this occurred because King Hezekiah prayed to God "about Sennacherib king of Assyria." (37:21) We can do no better than to place every situation in God's hands. We are fortunate when the odds against us are overwhelming, for then we more readily recognize our need to turn to God and then gain the opportunity, as did Hezekiah, to see God do great things on our behalf.