Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

In the third year of Hoshea, king of Israel, Hezekiah, son of Ahaz became king. He was twenty-five years old and reigned for twenty-nine years. He was a godly man and walked in the ways of king David. He (finally) removed the high places in Judah. He broke down the sacred pillars, cut down the poles. Crushed the bronze serpent Moses had made – because they had started worshipping it by making offerings to it (they had named it Nehushtan). He trusted in the Lord in a way that those before and after him didn’t do. He was a godly king and a godly man. He clung to the Lord and walking in His ways and kept His commandments. He loved the Lord.

He rebelled against the king of Assyria, refusing to serve him or give him tribute as his father Ahaz had done. He subdued the Philistines, driving them out of Judah’s territory. In the fourth year of his being king – which was the seventh year of Hoshea, king of Israel – the Assyrians under Shalmaneser came down on Israel and besieged Samaria. They captured it and dragged Israel off to captivity and brought settlers to the land in their place. The people had refused to obey God and to seek Him. This was the punishment.

In the fourteenth year, another king of Assyria – Sennacherib – came against the cities of Judah intending to do to Judah what Shalmaneser had done to Israel (Josephus believed Sennacherib and Shalmaneser were the same man). Hezekiah panicked and sent Sennacherib a message offering to pay whatever the Assyrians wanted if they left him alone. The price was three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. Hezekiah gave him all the treasure in the king’s house and the silver in the house of the Lord. He stripped the gold from the doors of the temple and from the pillars. He gave it all to Sennacherib. But it did no good and the assault against Judah didn’t stop. They assembled and came against Jerusalem.

Rebshakeh was the chosen envoy and he met with men picked by Hezekiah. He mocked their ability to defend themselves. He mocked their (supposed) reliance on Egypt to come save them. And he mocked their God, Yahweh, as being nothing but an empty god. Like all the gods of all the other nations that they had conquered. He even mocked Hezekiah for removing the high places – because idol worshippers want altars everywhere. When the elders asked him to speak a language the Judeans on the wall couldn’t understand, he refused. He declared their trust was misplaced and there was no way God could save them. None of the gods of the conquered nations withstood the Assyrians, and Rebshakeh was saying Yahweh would be the same thing. He even offered them land in other nations for themselves.

The Judeans on the wall – which 2 Chronicles showed us Hezekiah comforted – refused to bow. They were standing united against the Assyrians. They didn’t even answer, but held to the command of Hezekiah not to speak. The elders tore their clothes and went back to Hezekiah. They reported the words of Rebshakeh. Hezekiah also tore his clothes when he heard the news, but HE went to the house of the Lord.

“So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah,” (2 Kings 19:5)

Hezekiah went there to seek the Lord. He sent the chief priest and the elders of the Temple to seek our Isaiah saying that the people of Israel have no strength and Rebshakeh is blaspheming God. They were asking Isaiah to join them in making a prayer for the remnant that was left (the people of Jerusalem, the besieged city). Off they went to Isaiah. Isaiah gave them words of encouragement. That the Lord said ‘Don’t be afraid of these people who have blasphemed me’. God said He would send a spirit among them, and they would get a message, and the king would retreat home. Once he was home, the king would die by the sword.

Rebshakeh returned to his king and found him fighting with a Levitical city (Libnah), and heard rumours that the king of Ethiopia was coming to Judah’s aid. So he sent a letter to Hezekiah and repeated his threats. He doubled down on his mocking of God’s ability to save Judah. It was a VERY threatening letter designed to make them lose all hope.

Hezekiah took it to the Temple and spread out the letter before the Lord. He didn’t seek Isaiah, he went to the Lord and declared that in spite of this letter, he was holding to the word he had received from the Lord. He asked the Lord to see the words of the Assyrians against the Lord – he refused to see this contest as anything but an attack on God through them. He acknowledged that the Assyrians were correct. People after people they had destroyed and their gods hadn’t helped. But Hezekiah was holding to Yahweh, who was unlike any other God. He simply asked that the Lord stand up and save them, holding to the word of the Lord which said they would be saved.

Isaiah sent the word of the Lord to the king. God said not only would it be fine, but they would be prosperous. They could enjoy their rest. The Assyrian king would be humbled for his arrogance. They would lose because God was God and he was fighting for Judah. God promised growth. God promised a remnant saved. God promised freedom from captivity. God promised everything that in the natural world seemed IMPOSSIBLE. But nothing is impossible with God (Matthew 19:26).

On a night after that word, an angel visited the Assyrian camp. Just one angel. He killed 185,000 men. When the camp awoke the next day, they were surrounded by the dead. Sennacherib? He went home. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. One day, he went to the temple of his god and was worshipping there and two of his sons came and killed him with swords. They fled into Ararat (modern day Turkey) and Esarhaddon his son reigned in Sennacherib’s place.

Summary

Key Players: God, Hezekiah, Isaiah, Sennacherib, Rebshakeh

Key Verse(s): 2 Kings 18:1-4, 13-15, 33-35; 19:5-7, 14-16, 33-36