Isaiah 37:8-38 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
There are so many lessons we can learn from today’s passage, Isaiah 37:8-38. Let’s go!
Isaiah 37:8-13 (NIV)
8 When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.
9 Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the Cushite king [of Egypt], was marching out to fight against him. When he heard it, he 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 handed over to 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 forefathers deliver them–the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar?
13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, or of Hena or Ivvah?”
On verses 8-13: More trash talking from Assyria, this time from King Sennacherib personally. Sennacherib’s message is similar to tone to that of his field commander in chapter 36, except that instead of bringing up four points to shake Hezekiah’s confidence, Sennacherib focuses on one point: he tells Hezekiah, “do not let the god you depend on deceive you”. In other words, Sennacherib goes one step further than the field commander by directly attacking the God that Hezekiah worships. Sennacherib accuses the LORD of deceiving Hezekiah into thinking that Hezekiah can get out of this alive. As we will see, God will take issue with Sennacherib’s pride-fueled blasphemy.
Isaiah 37:14-20 (NIV)
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:
16 “O LORD Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.
17 Give ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God.
18 “It is true, O LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands.
19 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.
20 Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God.”
On verses 14-20: There is a lot we can learn from the way Hezekiah responded to Sennacherib’s attempt to intimidate:
– The first thing Hezekiah does is go to God with his burden (v14). Likewise, whenever you are burdened, feeling intimidated or tempted to give into fear, look to God first. Give your burden to Him.
– As powerful as Assyria was, Hezekiah reminded himself that God is even greater. He says in verse 16, “you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.” Hezekiah refused to allow Sennacherib to reduce the LORD to some tribal idol. Hezekiah reminded himself that the LORD is God over all the earth and over every kingdom. Likewise, when you’re tempted to give into fear, remember that God is greater than your problem.
– Hezekiah faced the facts (v18-19). He acknowledged that Assyria had laid waste to every nation they had faced so far. God-pleasing faith does not deny reality; rather God-pleasing faith faces the facts, including the most important fact of all which is that with God all things are impossible.
– Hezekiah cries out to God for help (v20). When you’re in a crisis, ask God for help. God, who rises to show you compassion, is listening and will help you.
Isaiah 37:21-22a (NIV)
21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,
22 this is the word the LORD has spoken against him:
On verses 21-22: Before we look at what exactly the LORD had to say about Sennacherib, notice what prompted the LORD’s response: “Because you have prayed to me” (v21). It was Hezekiah’s prayer that prompted God’s response. If there is any lesson we can learn from Hezekiah in Isaiah 36-39, it’s the difference that prayer makes.
Isaiah 37:22b-29 (NIV)
22 …”The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises and mocks you. The Daughter of Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee.
23 Who is it you have insulted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!
24 By your messengers you have heaped insults on 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 pines. I have reached its remotest heights, the finest of its forests.
25 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.’
26 “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.
27 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.
28 “But I know where you stay and when you come and go and how you rage against me. 29 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.
On verses 22b-29: Sennacherib’s biggest weakness was that he thought he was greater than the LORD and believed that all his success was the work of his own hands. Through Isaiah God calls Sennacherib out on this and says plainly that the reason why Sennacherib was so dominant was because God planned it to be that way. God is sovereign, not Sennacherib. Likewise, one of the biggest mistakes we can make is to become full of ourselves and think that we don’t need God, that we can accomplish anything and everything by our own strength, smarts and experience. The fact is we can accomplish nothing without God.
Because Sennacherib kept raging and rebelling against God, God promises to put Sennacherib in his place and cause him to retreat (v28-29). What can we learn from this? God hears every word that is spoken against Him, and one day He will call every careless speaker to account.
Isaiah 37:30-32 (NIV)
30 “This will be the sign for you, O 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.
31 Once more a remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above.
32 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.
On verses 30-32: God promises to Hezekiah that Judah will not be completely wiped out but that a remnant from Judah will survive and eventually bear fruit (v31-32). God offers Hezekiah a sign that this will take place. He says that Hezekiah will know that God’s promise has been fulfilled when His people continue to eat, plant, bear fruit and harvest in the land of Judah (v30).
Isaiah 37:33-35 (NIV)
33 “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.
34 By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city,” declares the LORD.
35 “I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!”
On verses 33-35: God promises to defend the city of Jerusalem and save it, for God’s own sake and for the sake of King David, Hezekiah’s ancestor.
Isaiah 37:36 (NIV)
36 Then the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning–there were all the dead bodies!
On verse 36: Making good on His promise, that same night God strikes down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers, such that Hezekiah and his soldiers don’t need to lift a finger. This miraculous, incredible deliverance is one of the greatest miracles in all the Bible. It’s also a picture of the Gospel: when death was knocking on our door, when we were facing certain destruction because of our sin, when there was nothing we could do on our own to defeat our enemy, God did all the work of rescuing and delivering us. God sent Jesus Christ to defeat our enemy, to conquer sin and death for us. We didn’t have to lift a finger. God did it all for us.
Isaiah 37:37-38 (NIV)
37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.
38 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.
On verses 37-38: Sennacherib himself withdraws from Jerusalem. While at home worshiping his own god Nisroch, Sennacherib is struck down with the sword by his sons. The one who had accused the LORD of deceiving Hezekiah (v10), the one who treated the LORD like any other lifeless idol, the one who believed that the LORD could not deliver Jerusalem from his hand (v12-13), this same one is struck down even while he is worshiping his own god. In dramatic fashion the LORD shows that He alone is the one true God.
You can rant and rave against God all you want, but in the end God always has the last word and the final victory.
Father, thank You for every lesson we can learn from Your Word. Thank You that You are faithful to every promise You make, You are greater than every problem, and You are listening to our prayers. Thank You that just as You saved Hezekiah and Jerusalem by Your mighty hand without them having to do anything except trust You, so You saved us from sin and death by Your mighty hand without us needing to do anything but trust You. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
