{"id":25565,"date":"2023-03-15T22:00:34","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T05:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/isaiah-35_1-10-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-03-07T21:31:25","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T04:31:25","slug":"isaiah-36_1-37_7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/isaiah-36_1-37_7\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Will You Listen To?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isaiah 36:1-37:7 \u00a0 \u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Isaiah 36:1-37:7.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!\u00a0 Isaiah 36-39 is a small but dramatic section of history sandwiched between large sections of prophecy from Isaiah 1-35 and Isaiah 40-66.\u00a0 Isaiah would have had first hand knowledge of the events that he writes about in Isaiah 36-39, since he figures as an important character in all these events.\u00a0 Isaiah\u2019s writings of these events would also make it into the royal annals of Israel, as shown in 2 Kings 18-20.\u00a0 In addition to describing some important history, Isaiah 36-39 teach us many valuable lessons for us today.<\/p>\n

Isaiah 36:1-3 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the commander stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman’s Field,
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to him. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-3:\u00a0 Over and over Isaiah had prophesied that the Assyrians would lay waste to much of Judah (e.g. Isaiah 7:17-20; 8:7-8) and that an alliance with Egypt would not help them (e.g. Isaiah 31:1-3).\u00a0 Here in 701 B.C., we see Isaiah\u2019s prophecies coming true as Sennacherib king of Assyria captures all the fortified cities in Judah (46 of them, according to King Sennacherib\u2019s own records).\u00a0 Now all that remains is the capital city of Jerusalem.\u00a0 So King Sennacherib sends his field commander with a large army to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Upon arriving at Jerusalem, Assyria\u2019s field commander stands on the aqueduct of the Upper Pool.\u00a0 This is significant because decades earlier in Isaiah 7, King Ahaz of Judah, fearing an attack by Assyria, stood on that same aqueduct, probably worrying about the water supply.\u00a0 There Isaiah, together with his son, met King Ahaz to encourage him with God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 However, King Ahaz pushed God and Isaiah away.\u00a0 In response Isaiah told King Ahaz that one day the Assyrians would attack Jerusalem (Isaiah 7:17).\u00a0 Sure enough, about 30 years later in 701 B.C., the Assyrian field commander stands on the same aqueduct, ready to attack Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

God\u2019s Word is true.\u00a0 If God says it will happen, you can count on it to happen.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Isaiah 36:4-10 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah, “‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours?
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0You say you have strategy and military strength–but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me?
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Look now, you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces a man’s hand and wounds him if he leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And if you say to me, “We are depending on the\u00a0LORD\u00a0our God”–isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar”?
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“‘Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses–if you can put riders on them!
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0How then can you repulse one officer of the least of my master’s officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the\u00a0LORD? The\u00a0LORD\u00a0himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.'”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 4-10: \u00a0Before attacking the people of Jerusalem with their swords, the field commander tries to beat the people of Jerusalem down with his words.\u00a0 In a trash talking tirade for the ages, the field commander tries to shake the confidence of King Hezekiah and his army.\u00a0 Rudely referring to Judah\u2019s king as \u201cHezekiah\u201d rather than King Hezekiah, the field commander gives four reasons why King Hezekiah should just surrender rather than fight against Assyria.\u00a0 To paraphrase those four reasons:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0 First, \u201cyou can\u2019t rely on Egypt!\u201d (v6).<\/p>\n

–\u00a0 Second, \u201cthe LORD is not going to help you.\u00a0 The LORD is angry at you after you removed his altars from the high places!\u201d (v7)<\/p>\n

–\u00a0 Third, \u201cyou don\u2019t have enough soldiers or weapons to fight with!\u201d (v8-9)<\/p>\n

–\u00a0 Fourth, \u201cGod told us to destroy this place\u201d (v10)<\/p>\n

While some of what the field commander was saying was off base, what made the field commander\u2019s trash talking intimidating is that some of what he was saying was true.\u00a0 Judah\u2019s alliance with Egypt had proved useless.\u00a0 Judah was severely outnumbered and outgunned.\u00a0 And God has said that Assyria would bring much destruction to Judah.\u00a0 However, God also promised to rescue Jerusalem, and that is the promise that Hezekiah was hanging onto.<\/p>\n

Isaiah 36:11-20 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the men sitting on the wall–who, like you, will have to eat their own filth and drink their own urine?”
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you!
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the\u00a0LORD\u00a0when he says, ‘The\u00a0LORD\u00a0will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0until I come and take you to a land like your own–a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The\u00a0LORD\u00a0will deliver us.’ Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand?
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the\u00a0LORD\u00a0deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 11-20:\u00a0 Not wanting the soldiers defending Jerusalem to be more disheartened, Hezekiah\u2019s top officials ask the field commander to stop speaking in Hebrew, which the Jerusalem soldiers could understand, and to speak in Aramaic instead.\u00a0 But the field commander refuses and begins to shout in Hebrew in the hearing of all the soldiers in Jerusalem.\u00a0 He tells them not to trust Hezekiah (v14-15), to make peace with the Assyrian king Sennacherib (v16-17) and to remember that so far no god has been able to deliver their nation from the Assyrians (v18-20).<\/p>\n

The fact that the Bible records the Assyrian field commander going on and on trash talking this way, insulting God and blaspheming, suggests to me that\u00a0we can talk, boast, blaspheme and criticize all we want, but God will always have the last word.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By the way, in verse 19 the field commander mentions how Assyria had conquered Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel.\u00a0 This happened about 20 years before in 721 B.C.\u00a0 The field commander thinks that Samaria worshiped the gods of Hamath, Arpad and Sepharvaim (v19).\u00a0 Either he was mistaken or it goes to show how idolatrous Samaria was at that time, so much so that outsiders thought that Samaria actually worshiped the gods of Hamath, Arpad and Sepharvaim.\u00a0 How about you?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When others who know you well say that you worship?\u00a0 Jesus, or someone\/something else?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Isaiah 36:21 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 21:\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes the best thing you can do when the other side is trash talking and trying to intimidate you is to say nothing at all and to hold your ground.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Isaiah 36:22-37:1 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then 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.
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the\u00a0LORD. \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 36:22-37:1:\u00a0 I love Hezekiah\u2019s first response to Assyria\u2019s threats:\u00a0 he goes to the temple of God in desperation.\u00a0\u00a0When you\u2019re afraid or not knowing what to do, the best thing you can do is go to God.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Isaiah 37:2-4 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the point of birth and there is no strength to deliver them.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0It may be that the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God will hear 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\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 2-4:\u00a0 In addition to praying himself, Hezekiah sends his key officials to Isaiah in sackcloth, showing an attitude of humility, and asking Isaiah to pray as well.\u00a0 When you\u2019re in a crisis, enlist others to pray with you.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Isaiah 37:5-7 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah,
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the\u00a0LORD\u00a0says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard–those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Listen! I am going to put a spirit in him so that when he hears a certain report, he will return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.'”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 5-7:\u00a0 Isaiah\u2019s message for King Hezekiah begins with \u201cDo not be afraid of what you have heard\u201d (v6), referring to the field commander\u2019s taunts.\u00a0 Isaiah says that the LORD will cause the king of Assyria to go back to his own country where he will be cut down with the sword (v7).\u00a0 Keep in mind that, even prior to Isaiah\u2019s message here in verse 5-7, Isaiah had already given Hezekiah and Judah several messages about how God would deliver Jerusalem from Assyria.\u00a0 In fact, in virtually every chapter from Isaiah 28 to 35, God promises to deliver Jerusalem.\u00a0 Hezekiah had to choose whether to listen to the field commander\u2019s momentary tirade or to stand on the ongoing word from God that Isaiah was speaking.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0You and I have a choice.\u00a0 Either we can listen to the fear-filled messages that people around us may share and be very afraid, or we can listen to the Word of God and take heart.\u00a0 Both are speaking at the same time and the question is: which one will you listen to.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Father, so that I can stand up to fear, please help me to stand on Your promises, to stand with others who have faith in You, to pray to You in my trouble, and to listen to Your Word over and above any other messages I hear.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Isaiah 36:1-37:7.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!\u00a0 Isaiah 36-39 is a small but dramatic section of history sandwiched between large sections of prophecy from Isaiah 1-35 and Isaiah 40-66.\u00a0 Isaiah would have had first hand knowledge of the events that he writes about in Isaiah 36-39, since he figures as an important character in all these events.\u00a0 Isaiah\u2019s writings of these events would also make it into the royal annals of Israel, as shown in 2 Kings 18-20.\u00a0 In addition to describing some important history, Isaiah 36-39 teach us many valuable lessons for us today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Isaiah 36:1-3 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
\n2\u00a0\u00a0Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the commander stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman’s Field,
\n3\u00a0\u00a0Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to him. \u00a0
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25565"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25568,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25565\/revisions\/25568"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}