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Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Isaiah 36

For this chapter and the three that follow it we are treated to an excellent historical interlude from the reign of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was good king in Judah in the days when both Israel and Judah were threatened by the power of the Assyrian empire. Israel fell to this foe from the east, and much of Judah also suffered from Assyrian domination, but Hezekiah and Jerusalem were spared the final indignity of the destruction of the city where David and his descendants reigned, which would instead fall by the hand of the Babylonians more than a century later.

Sennacherib was the king of Assyria in Hezekiah’s day, and he sent a high official to bring a message from the head of the empire to Hezekiah and to the people of Jerusalem. This was after the other fortified cities of Judah had been captured. This high official, called here the Rabshakeh, came to Jerusalem with a large army. He came to a public place where the officials of Judah and the populace as a whole could hear his message, and he spoke in the language of the common man, with the hope of inspiring fear in the hearts of the populace so that Hezekiah would be left alone without the aid and support of the remaining people of Judah.

What message did the Rabshakeh bring? As with most of the messengers of the world who would try to frighten the people of God throughout the centuries of God’s faithfulness to His promises, this Assyrian official brought a message that had many true points that were laced with poisonous error and unbelief. Messengers who would deceive the people of the Lord do not bring pure lies, or they would be more easily dismissed. They catch people in the net of lies with the bait of half-truths.

Let’s look at the true part first. Sennacherib was a powerful man as the king of Assyria, and mere words will not save people from the kind of military danger they faced at that time. Also, the people of Judah did have a tendency to place their trust in foreign alliances, and as God Himself had told them through Isaiah, Egypt would not be able to save them from the Assyrians. Also, Hezekiah had removed some places of worship where the people had turned for help in the past. Judah was vastly outnumbered by the Assyrians. Furthermore, the Lord God was involved in directing foreign powers to come up against His own people. Also, as the Rabshakeh insisted, it was not just the leaders who were in danger from the Assyrians, but a fight against Sennacherib and a siege against Jerusalem would very likely mean starvation and disease for the people who would try to survive that assault from within the city. Finally the other nations, including Israel and Samaria, had found resistance to the Assyrians futile, and their local gods that they worshiped had not been able to deliver them from the Assyrians, who did have plans to resettle the remaining people of Judah in other places. All of this was true.

What then was untrue? The Rabshakeh suggests that to trust in the Lord would not work for the people of Judah. This is a wicked falsehood. He tries to suggest that the Lord was in the same category as the idols of the nations, again a horrible deception. Not all approaches to supposed gods need to be seen as equal. The gods of the nations are idols and demons. The Lord Jehovah made the heavens and the earth. He accomplishes His will and will not be stopped. Yes Hezekiah had removed certain places of worship, but these were places of false worship, not places where God had authorized true worship. While God had used the Assyrians and others to discipline His people, it was not God’s unchangeable will to see Jerusalem destroyed at that time. Humility before God and an earnest plea to Him in faith would not be wasted breath. God would actually hear the plea of His servant, as we will see in the chapters that follow.

In an amazing way, God would deliver His people from this powerful foe. We can appreciate that with some rejoicing from the distance of hundreds of years into the future. It was harder for the ranking men who had to bring this provocative message of the Assyrian official to the king of Judah in that day. We close this chapter with the evil word coming to the king in Jerusalem.

When we think of the King over the church today, we know that He also faced the challenge of half-truths and lies as Satan attempted to move Jesus in the direction of fear and sin. That serpent of old even used the words of the Bible to try to confuse God’s faithful servant. How did Jesus respond? He recognized half-truths and the lying use of even the Scriptures as subtle attacks that needed to be resisted. He fought back with the true use of the Word. He would not yield Himself to the unclean adversary for even a moment. Instead He was utterly committed to the One whom devils rebelled against long ago when they fell from their lofty heights.

Our Lord reigns as the King Supreme over the heavenly Jerusalem. He has accomplished His victory over sin and death for us by taking upon Himself the penalty for all that is unclean and unrighteous in us. We must not shrink in fear as followers of Jesus the King today. We need not answer the proud boasts of this wicked adversary. The Lord will rebuke Him. The King will give Satan His final answer one day by casting this fallen angel into a lake of fire. Our delight is that we are on the side of such a righteous and powerful Ruler who with His own body and blood on the cross has satisfied divine justice and accomplished divine love.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 8:17 AM

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