36:1. “Now it
came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king
of Assyria came up against all the defended (fortified) cities of Judah, and
took them.”
Chapters 36 through 39
form a new section of this book in which are presented the events that
culminated in God’s miraculous destruction of the Assyrian host recorded in
2 Kings 19. Because of Israel’s blatant sin, which included idolatry, the
Lord used the Assyrians as His instrument of chastisement to bring His
erring people to repentant obedience.
36:2. “And the
king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem unto king Hezekiah
with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the
highway of the fuller’s field.”
Assyria means a step;
Rabshakeh, chief cup-bearer or commander; Lachish, walk of
a man; Jerusalem lay or set ye double peace; and Hezekiah,
strengthened by Jehovah. (Rabshakeh, incidentally, is a title, not a
proper name).
The meaning of Assyria
a step, would remind us that no man, however great, can take one step
without God’s direction or permission; Rabshakeh may have been a great man
in Assyria, but he was simply God’s unwitting instrument; Lachish, meaning
walk of a man, stands in marked contrast with Jerusalem, the city
which God has appointed to be the governmental center of the millennial
earth.
Relative to the last
sentence of this verse, Jennings in his Studies In Isaiah has
written, “It was the coming of a Virgin-born Child who is, and ever will be
in Himself, ‘the conduit of the upper pool,’ or, as we have seen, the same
Hebrew words with equal correctness may be rendered: ‘The channel (conduit)
of blessing (pool) from the Most High (upper). Surely this must be a bad
strategic spot for an enemy to take, notwithstanding the weak faith of the
House of David.’”
“... the fuller’s field”
was a place where cloth was “fulled,” i.e., cleansed and thickened by a
special process in manufacture; and some have seen in the mention of the
conduit of the upper pool and the fuller’s field, a symbolic picture of the
believer’s standing in Christ, his life being lived in the immediate
vicinity of “the pool” i.e., the Scriptures as the means of cleansing and
refreshment; the fuller’s field representing that same believer’s place here
on earth: his life is to be kept clean, the method of cleansing being
obedience to the written Word, see Psalm 119:9, “Wherewithal shall a young
man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.”
36:3. “Then
came forth unto him Eliakim, Hilkiah’s son, which was over the house, and
Shebna the scribes, and Joah, Asaph’s son, the recorder.”
Eliakim means God will
establish; Hilkiah, the portion of Jehovah; Shebna, who built;
tarry, I pray; Joah, Jehovah is brother; Asaph, a gatherer.
All of these meanings have a good connotation, indicating that however
imperfect these men’s lives may have been, they were believers, and still
entertained a measure of reverence for Jehovah.
36:4. “And
Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king,
the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?”
The allusion was to
Israel’s expectation of receiving help from Egypt, her foolish confidence
being duplicated by many professing Christians today, for Egypt represents
the world of business and pleasure, and few will deny that all too many
believers also foolishly put their trust in that same world, rather than in
God; but it is as powerless to aid a believer as was Egypt to assist Israel.
36:5. “I say,
sayest thou, (but they are but vain words) I have counsel and strength for
war: now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?”
The NEB translation of
this verse reads, “Do you think fine words can take the place of skill and
numbers?” and Taylor renders it, “What are Pharaoh’s promises worth? Mere
words won’t substitute for strength.”
36:6. “Lo,
thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt: whereon if a man
lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt
to all that trust in him.”
This disparagement of
Egypt was justified, for she and Israel together were no match for the
powerful Assyrian war machine, nor is the world capable of assisting the
believer against the machinations of Satan, the arch enemy of men’s souls.
The Christian’s sure Resource is always God, and God alone.
36:7. “But if
thou say to me, We trust in the Lord our God: is not he, whose high places
and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and said to Judah and to
Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar?”
This was a lie. The
altars that Hezekiah had removed were those which foolish Israel had set up
in self-will, without God’s authority.
36:8. “Now
therefore give pledges, I pray thee, to my master the king of Assyria, and I
will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set
riders upon them.”
“... give pledges” means
“make a wager with ...” i.e., he invited Hezekiah to enter into armed
contest with Assyria, and so confidant was he of Israel’s defeat, that he
would even give them two thousand horses, if they could furnish riders for
them. His great mistake - which has been repeated by many another since
that day - was that he was leaving Israel’s God out of the equation.
36:9. “How
then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s
servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?”
From his wrong
perspective, he pointed out the futility of Hezekiah’s resistance to
Assyria’s demands, thinking that Israel had no other help than that of
Egypt; but as noted already Israel’s safety was in the hands of her
omnipotent God, and not in the hand of Egypt or any other nation on earth.
We would enjoy a fuller measure of peace if we remembered that our times are
also in His hand, and that “all things work together for good to those who
love God,” Romans 8:28.
36:10. “And am
I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord
said unto me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.”
This was a lie designed to
further intimidate the people, for God had given Rabshakeh no such command.
36:11. “Then
said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray thee, unto
thy servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and speak not to
us in the Jews’ language, in the ears of the people that are on the wall.”
Fearing that the people
would be panic-stricken by the Assyrian’s demand, the Jewish leaders asked
him to speak to them in his own language, Aramaic, which they also
understood.
36:12. “But
Rabshakeh said, Hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee to speak
these words? Hath he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, that
they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?”
Rabshakeh responded by
asking whether the Jewish leaders mistakenly imagined that they alone, and
not all the people, were to hear the words of the Assyrian king, his message
being that unless the city surrendered it would be besieged until the
famine-stricken people would be reduced to eating and drinking their own
excrement and urine, the language of course being hyperbolic to dramatize
the certainty of their being ultimately compelled by famine to surrender to
the besiegers.
36:13. “Then
Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and
said, Hear ye the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.”
The king of Assyria may
have been a great man in the eyes of men, but in the sight of God he was
similar to all other men in that he needed to be born again in order to be
saved from hell and fitted for heaven.
36:14. “Thus
saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to
deliver you.”
Hezekiah was indeed a mere
man, and therefore unable to deliver Israel, but Hezekiah’s God was the
omnipotent Jehovah Who could and would deliver His people and vindicate His
servant.
36:15.
“Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will
surely deliver us: this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the
king of Assyria.”
Rabshakeh’s continued
diatribe reflects the natural man’s attitude towards God. He may give token
acknowledgement of His existence, and may even go through the ritual of
offering Him worship, but he has no real faith in His sovereignty over men’s
lives.
36:16.
“Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an
agreement with me by a present, and come out to me: and eat ye every one of
his vine, and everyone of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of
his own cistern:”
36:17. “Until
I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and
wine, a land of bread and vineyards.”
This was the command to
acknowledge their surrender by bringing out a lavish gift, but few will
question that the invader would then plunder them of everything in spite of
his implied promise to simply transfer them to another land as fertile as
their own.
36:18.
“Beware lest Hezekiah persuade your, saying, the Lord will deliver us. Hath
any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the
king of Assyria?”
36:19. “Where
are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? where are the gods of Sehparvaim? and
have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?”
Rabshakeh
failed to take account of the fact that Israel’s God was very different from
the so-called gods of the nations. They were the impotent creations of
man’s own hand, but man himself is also a created thing, the product of
God’s hand, and it is axiomatic that the creature can never be greater than
its creator. Those so-called gods were weaker than the men who had made
them, and who then bowed down to worship them. Jehovah is the eternally
self-existent, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Creator of all
things.
36:20.
“Who are they among all the gods of these lands, that have delivered their
land out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?”
Clearly
Rabshakeh in his fatuity imagined that this God of the Israelites was no
different from the gods of the nations he had already conquered. He was
soon to learn otherwise.
36:21.
“But they held their peace, and answered him not a word; for the king’s
commandment was, saying, Answer him not.”
Undoubtedly
God had endowed Hezekiah with the wisdom not to enter into any discussion
with the Assyrians, for He Himself was about to make the enemy aware of His
omnipotence by slaying 185,000 of them while they slept,
see 37:36. How much more convincing was this display of His power than
anything Israel might have said on His behalf! His might was far more
dramatically demonstrated in those deaths than in anything the Israelites
might have said.
36:22.
“Then came Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and
Shebna, the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah
with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.”
These leaders,
in whom we might have expected to find greater faith, were obviously as weak
and fearful as their fellows; and unfortunately the same timidity is
exhibited by all too many of those who take the place of leaders amongst
God’s people today. The “Martin Luthers” have always been rare.
