Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 18
2 Kings chapter 18, you can turn in your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 18. The last two weeks we considered the fall of the northern kingdom that transpired in 722 BC under the Assyrians. We saw in the first half of the chapter the actual fall of the Northern Kingdom and the latter half of the chapter when Assyria resettled Samaria and how the peoples there developed a form of religion that was what's called syncretistic, where they tried to marry the worship of the true and living God with the worship of their false gods. We saw that that, of course, or obviously, is displeasing to the Lord.
As we come now to 2 Kings chapter 18, we've come to the last major section in 2 Kings, which is the disintegration of Judah. So 2 Kings 18.1 to 25.30 takes up basically the fall of the southern kingdom. Now, specifically, that will come later. Hezekiah is the king we're considering tonight, and Hezekiah was, in fact, a most excellent king.
And this records his dealings with Assyria. So I'll begin reading in 2 Kings chapter 18 at verse 1. Now it came to pass in the third year of Hosea the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. He was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem.
His mother's name was Abi, the daughter of Zechariah. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done. He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broken pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made. For until those days, the children of Israel burned incense to it and called it Nahushtin.
He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. For he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him, but kept his commandments which the Lord had commanded Moses. The Lord was with him, he prospered wherever he went, and he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.
He subdued the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory from watchtower to fortified city. Now it came to pass in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hosea, the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up against Samaria and besieged it. And at the end of three years, they took it. In the sixth year of Hosea, king of Israel, Samaria was taken.
Then the king of Assyria carried Israel away captive to Assyria, and put them in Hela, and by the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded. And they would neither hear nor do them. And in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish saying, I have done wrong.
Turn away from me. Whatever you impose on me, I will pay. And the king of Assyria assessed Hezekiah king of Judah 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold. So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king's house.
At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria. Then the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rabsarus, and the Rabshaka from Lachish with a great army against Jerusalem to King Hezekiah. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they had come up, they went and stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool, which was on the highway to the fuller's field.
And when they had called to the king, Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to them. Then the rabbi Shaka said to them, Say now to Hezekiah, thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, what confidence is this in which you trust? You speak of having plans and power for war, but they are mere words. And in whom do you trust that you rebel against me?
Now look, you are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. But if you say to me, We trust in the Lord our God, is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem? Now therefore I urge you, give a pledge to my master, the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to put riders on them.
How then will you repel one captain of the least of my master's servants and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen? Have I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, go up against this land and destroy it. Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, Shabnah, and Joah said to Rabshakeh, please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it.
And do not speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are on the wall. The Rabshakeh said to them, has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat and drink their own waste with you? Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out with a loud voice in Hebrew and spoke, saying, Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria. Thus says the king, Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you from his hand.
Nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us. This city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, make peace with me by a present and come out to me, and every one of you eat from his own vine, and every one from his own fig tree, and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive groves and honey, that you may live and not die. But do not listen to Hezekiah, lest he persuade you, saying, The Lord will deliver us.
Has any of the gods of the nations at all delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim and Hanna and Eva? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand?
"'Who among all the gods of the lands "'have delivered their countries from my hand, "'that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?' "'The people held their peace and answered him not a word, "'for the king's commandment was, "'Do not answer him.' "'Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, "'who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, "'and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, "'came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn "'and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.
Introduction
Amen. Well, very tense scene. And chapter 18 goes along with chapter 19. 19 is obviously the resolution of the particular problem that Judah is facing at this time. As well, you compare this with Isaiah 36 to 39, and you will see that it is almost parallel.
Everything there is here, everything here is there, which shows the author here most likely dependent upon the prophet Isaiah. So as I said, we've entered into the last section, the disintegration of Judah. The parallel is in 2 Chronicles 29-32, specifically with reference to Hezekiah. There's a lot of material that I simply did not have time to look at today in terms of the Chronicles passage.
So if you want to do more background study, the Chronicler develops in more detail some of the reforms under Hezekiah and some of the things that he was able to accomplish during his kingship.
Sermon Outline Announced
But I want to look at three things tonight. First, the summary of Hezekiah's reign in verses 1 to 8. Secondly, the attempt to pacify Assyria in verses 9 to 16. And then thirdly, the demand for surrender by Assyria in verses 17 to 37.
But
Summary of Hezekiah's Reign
note in the first place the summary of Hezekiah's reign. We're given the time, the details of his reign, specifically in verses 1 to 2. Most likely he also had engaged in a co-regency. He became a co-regent.
That means a king alongside of his father in 729, he becomes the sole ruler in 715, and he reigns until 686 BC. We do know for certain that Hezekiah's 14th year, verse 13, when Sennacherib invaded was 701 BC. So the situation here when Sennacherib is trying to invade, Judah is in 701 BC, Hezekiah is the king. Now notice the religious commitment of Hezekiah.
Verse 3 is intriguing because we have read that certain kings of Judah did what was right in the sight of the Lord. Now, none of them were able to eradicate the high places, which Hezekiah does in verse 4, but Hezekiah is unique in this.
Hezekiah's Religious Commitment
Notice in verse 3, he did what was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father David had done. Remember that David is the standard for kingship in Judah. David is the gold standard, as it were. And so Hezekiah not only did what was right in the sight of the Lord, but he did so according to all that his father David had done.
So on the precipice of the fall of the Southern Kingdom, in many respects, we're given a new David. I mean, what the author says here concerning Hezekiah is absolutely stellar. It's glowing. It's fantastic.
It's phenomenal. So no doubt, after the fall of the Northern Kingdom, at this particular time, the people of Judah are probably quite encouraged that they have such a good and godly king on the throne. As we move through this passage, even good and godly kings suffer trials and hardships and difficulties. And I think that's something that we ought to appreciate in terms of a practical lesson that we'll draw out in more detail as we move through the narrative.
Just because you fear God, just because you obey God and just because you have your house in order does not protect you from all calamities. It does not protect you from the invading Assyrians. It does not protect you from the sorrows and the hardships and the woes that so often afflict the people of God. So Hezekiah here is, in many respects, a model citizen, a model king, and nevertheless he has to contend with this Assyrian invasion upon the cities of Judah.
Remember, the northern kingdom is gone, the southern kingdom is remaining. So when Sennacherib comes against all the fortified cities of Judah and takes them, the author's not telling us about something that's happened in the past. He does review the past in verses 9 to 12 with reference to the fall of the north. But he's highlighting what is the current situation facing Hezekiah and Judah.
So a good and godly person can nevertheless suffer. A good and godly person can nevertheless be tried. Good and godly people go through sorrows. Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
The Apostle Paul was a godly man. Read about his life in 2 Corinthians 11 and ask yourself, is this the sort of thing that the health, wealth, and prosperity preachers preach? Absolutely not. They teach that if you have faith and if you're godly, then all you're going to get is blessings from on high.
That is simply not true. That is simply not the case. We meet Job in Job 1. He's described in stellar terms.
He's an upright man. He's a godly man. He's an intercessor man for his children. Everything about Job is just bang on, and yet no one in the history of man, there's a few probably, has suffered quite like that particular man.
And so we learn from this passage that there are those trials and sorrows and difficulties that come even to people who are godly. So, don't ever get the idea that, well, you know, I'm obeying God and yet He's not blessing me. It sort of betrays that you're only obeying God in order to get blessing. We obey God because the Spirit's at work in us, both the will and to do according to His good pleasure.
We obey God because He saved us by His grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We obey God because it's right, not because we get stuff. That's mercenary. That's being in it like Benny Hinn's in it.
That's being in it like the health, wealth, and prosperity people are in it. They're in it for a buck. They're in it for a blessing. They're in it for their benefit.
Well, we learn that godly men don't always prosper. Godly men don't always, you know, avert the raid of Assyrian hordes. Now
Hezekiah's Sweeping Removal of Idolatry
notice, with reference to his eradication of idolatry, it is sweeping. It is total. The other kings of Judah, even when they did right, left the high places intact. You see that with Asa, you see that with Jehoshaphat, you see that with the godly kings in Judah.
They nevertheless left the high places intact. Hezekiah. He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars. Most likely the sacred pillars are those put in place for male deities and then cut down the wooden image or the Asherah.
Those are the female deities. His purge of idolatry was complete. He got rid of high places. He got rid of idols.
He even got rid of the bronze serpent that Moses had made. Verse 4 says, for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it and called it Naushten. So we see that that means by which God brought healing to the nation. I don't think the text is to be interpreted as that was always the way it was.
Most likely it was a pretty recent innovation. or contribution with reference to the worship of Israel by some of the more recent kings in Israel. But they were nevertheless worshiping this bronze serpent. And then verses 5 and 6 just tell us he's got a robust, whole soul commitment to Yahweh. I mean, look at what it says in verses 5 and 6.
Praise God if it could ever be, you know, somewhat near this written on our tombstone. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah. Now, Josiah is going to be stellar and Josiah is going to be wonderful, but they're each equally great in their particular spheres. We ought not to say, well, what about Josiah?
The text is telling us just Read it for what it's worth. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. For he held fast to the Lord, he did not depart from following him, but kept his commandments which the Lord had commanded Moses. Beautiful description of a wholesale commitment and fidelity to the living and true God.
That's the kind of obedience that ought to be pursued by the people of God. It ought to be whole soul commitment. This is Paul's point, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, when he's urging the church, the church, to flee sexual immorality. What's Paul's argument?
You've been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and soul. Paul, in Romans 12, says that we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. He says this is your reasonable, or your rational, or your spiritual service. In other words, if Romans 1-11 is true, when we get to Romans 12, the therefore necessarily follows. based on this reality, based on the fact that Christ has saved you, based on the fact that you're justified freely by His grace, therefore, present your bodies as a living sacrifice.
I mean, it's a no-brainer. That's what the people of God should be pursuing. Now,
Hezekiah's Political Policy
notice his political policy. Verses 7 and 8. Tells us the Lord was with him. He prospered wherever he went.
Proven says the consequence of his religious faithfulness was that Hezekiah's military exploits paralleled David's in a way that was not true of any of the rest of his descendants. Only of David and Hezekiah among the Davidic kings is it said that the Lord was with him and that the king was successful in war. Only David and Hezekiah furthermore are said to have defeated the Philistines, which it tells us there in verse 8. He subdued the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory from watchtower to fortified city.
But another important aspect that sets the stage for the rest of chapters 18 and 19 is his rebellion against Assyria. Remember that his father Ahaz paid tribute to Assyria. Now this payment of tribute was basically tax. The big bully on the block would come and show up at your gate, and you would say, we'll happily pay you money, taxes, tribute, on a yearly basis so that you won't clobber us, so that you won't annex us, so that you won't deport us, so that you won't take away all of our stuff and kill us.
We want to make this or broker this deal so that you'll leave us alone. It was a payment of a price, ultimately, for protection from the one you're paying the price to. just typical of the ancient Near Eastern world. I'm sure it's pretty typical of the modern world as well. You pay us or you're going to be in big trouble.
So that's what Ahaz had established with Assyria, but Hezekiah is not going to do that. Notice in verse 7b, and he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. Again, the rebellion there ought not to be that he stood outside of, you know, the cities of Assyria and he painted on their fences. He didn't pay them tribute.
He didn't serve them. He wasn't a vassal. He didn't bow down before them. So that's a summary of Hezekiah's reign.
Now
The Attempt to Pacify Assyria
notice this attempt to pacify Assyria in verses 9 to 16. Now the author rehearses chapter 17 for us in verses 9 to 12. And I think the reason that he does that is to show us the implications of verse 7b. In other words, if Hezekiah has chose to rebel against Assyria and is not going to serve him, the author, as it were, says, let me just remind you how Assyria operates.
And that's how verses 9 to 12 function. Verses 9 to 12 happened already. Those are past tense. This is what we read of in 2 Kings 17.
Notice in verse 9, now it came to pass in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, this is going back, which was the seventh year of Hoshea the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up against Samaria and besieged it. And at the end of the three years, they took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is, the ninth year of Hosea, king of Israel, Samaria was taken. Then the king of Assyria carried Israel away, captive to Assyria, and put them in Hala, and by the Habor, the river of Gozin, and in the cities of the Medes." You see?
We already studied that. We already went through that. That's the fall of the Northern Kingdom. So you see, the author is reminding us The author is showing us that 7b carries with it a great deal of implication.
Everybody with me? You've got to appreciate this. Because when we square off with the Rabshakeh, you've got to know what's happening here. and what the Rabshakeh is doing on behalf of the great king of Assyria. This is a showdown at the O.K.
Corral. This is a big deal. And of course, God will intervene in a most powerful and glorious way to the tune of 185,000 Assyrian casualties and ultimately the death of Sennacherib. But that waits us in chapter 19.
Chapter 18 builds the tension. Never let anybody tell you the Bible's a boring book. I mean, this is masterful. This is masterful literature.
The way it's written, the way the tension is created, the way it's got us poised for a resolution, and the way that chapter 18 gives us no resolution. It's very bleak. It's very dark. And of course, if we had never read chapter 19, we might be very depressed.
But I think even in that, the author has lessons for us. So he rehearses what? Assyria did to the northern kingdom. He reminds us that this was not because of the superiority of the Assyrians.
Notice in verse 12, why did this happen to the north? Because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed his covenant and all that Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded. And they would neither hear nor do them. It's almost like the author is reminding us here, when you hear the Rabshakeh blathering on about the great king of Assyria and how wonderful they are and how victorious they are and how Yahweh himself wouldn't be able to deliver, the author wants us to remember The Northern Kingdom didn't fall because of the superiority of Assyria.
The Northern Kingdom fell because they broke covenant with Yahweh. The Northern Kingdom collapsed because they rejected the living and the true God. Now, again, when we think about what we've read in verses 1 to 8, Hezekiah obeyed God. If the Northern Kingdom disobeyed God and they fell or they collapsed, we might be inclined to think, well, Hezekiah obeyed God, so he's going to reign supreme.
Again, he's going to in chapter 19, but dealing with chapter 18, everything looks bleak and it looks rough and it looks most difficult. This is not the case. Verses 13 to 16 tells us a different story. But before we proceed, listen to Davis.
I think he makes a good comment here. He says, you can cling to the Lord and the Assyrians will come. This does not overthrow the overall promise of blessing and help given to faith and obedience, but recognizes that such blessing often can be diluted with trouble and grief. If it were not so, our faith would likely become magic.
He gives several examples of the kinds of things that you hear in the church. You know, somebody tried to pray and it didn't work, so they stopped. Somebody read their Bible, but they didn't get, you know, automatically holy like Paul, so they stopped. It's all formulaic.
It's all rote. It's all routine. It's all designed to produce results. That's the thing that we're about.
We want results. That's how come so many churches are so big because they figured out the way to produce results. You put in the proper sort of formula or the algorithm and it yields the proper sort of results. Well, God never tells us to look at the results.
God tells us to be faithful and to do what's right in terms of preaching the truth, right? Is everybody with me? I hope so. You know, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4, moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.
Not that they be found successful, not that they be found, you know, resourceful, but that they be found faithful. So Davis gives us He gives in his commentary several examples of this mindset. I tried this. It didn't work, so I don't do it anymore.
I went to church, but I wasn't thrilled, so I don't go anymore. I went to church. I wasn't fulfilled, so I don't go anymore. I tried to pray with my wife, but she's still an old wretch, so I don't want to do that anymore.
I tried to pray with my husband, but he fell asleep. We're not going to do it. You know, it's all results-oriented. So David says many folks who get disappointed with God have walked by this kind of faith.
He says, so 2 Kings 18 can prove to be a helpful corrective. It tells you that you can be a king who trusts and obeys Yahweh and reforms the nation's worship, and yet your enemy may come and crush your land, deport its population, and await the moment when he can impale the king's carcass on a stake outside the city wall. It's helpful to faith to know that. I mean, that's precisely the point we ought to get from 2 Kings chapter 18.
You can obey, you can do all the things that God calls you to do, but you can't then stick out your hand and just wait for the blessings to flow. I really suspect, everybody's looking at me puzzled. None of you struggle with that? Nobody ever thinks, well, I read my Bible four times this week, Lord, so?
I mean, we never verbalize it quite like that, but we sort of live by it. church three times on Sunday, Lord, so, you know, we're always with our hand out looking for the next biggest thrill. We never consider the fact that faithfulness and obedience are blessings in and of themselves. Praise God, I'm doing what he says to do. You know what you do when you're in church three times on Sunday?
Guess what you're not doing? You're not, you know, playing poker, You're not chasing prostitutes. You know, when you're here on a Wednesday night, you're not fighting with your spouse. I mean, there's a blessed corrective in just doing what you're supposed to be doing for that sake.
Isn't that Paul's emphasis in Ephesians 6? Children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. Why do I need to obey you? Because it's right?
Well, what's in it for me? I'll tell you what's in it for you if you don't. Brethren, we can be like that, our hands held out, asking God to pour out blessings when we're doing what we're supposed to do anyway. Isn't this Jesus' statement in the Gospel of Luke?
When you've done, you're just unprofitable servants doing what you're supposed to do. So, this is the mindset that we need to sort of crush with passages like these.
Hezekiah's Payment and Temple Plunder
Now note, verses 13 to 16, still concerning the attempt to pacify Assyria. There is this siege in verse 13. Now, notice what Hezekiah does. King of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish saying, I have done wrong.
Turn away from me. Whatever you impose on me, I will pay. And the king of Assyria assessed Hezekiah, king of Judah, 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold. That's a lot of dough.
That's a massive amount of tribute. That's a big payday. Why did Hezekiah do this, especially in light of verses 1 to 8? We need to appreciate that verses 1 to 8 are a summary of his entire reign.
He wasn't perfect. None of the kings that we met with, even those who were spoken of favorably, were perfect. There's only one perfect person in the entirety of Scripture. There's only one hero, there's only one champion, there's only one who is the one who fulfills all that the Father gives him every step of the way.
And it is intriguing that even in light of what Hezekiah does, verses 1 to 8 still stand. Now, I'm not saying go out and sin and broker a deal with the Assyrians in your life, because God's still going to describe you as a faithful human. But it is interesting to see that God's assessment over the all in terms of Hezekiah's life is positive, even when he did this kind of a thing. I mean, again, don't use this, so I can go out and be a wretch now and clean it up in the last few years and then my tombstone can rightly reflect that I served God all my day.
I'm not suggesting that, but I am suggesting that at times God is a lot more gracious to his people than his people are to his people. God is a lot more kind to his people than his people are to his people. That Hezekiah, how dare him? Well, verses 1 to 8 tell us he did some incredibly wonderful things.
Yeah, he did an incredibly boneheaded thing here, but I'm not Hezekiah. I don't know what it's like to be facing down, you know, the king of Assyria in this particular setting. Remember that Assyria is on the rise. It's probably 701 because Assyria is off fighting Babylon.
There's a period of years where basically Judah has been unaffected. Now, all these nations try to have alliances. They try to form together to fight the big bully. Well, now it's just Assyria and Judah, and he is facing down King Hezekiah, and Hezekiah brokers this deal.
He says, I have done wrong. Turn away from me. Whatever you impose on me, I will pay. The king of Assyria assessed Hezekiah, king of Judah, 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold.
Now, where do kings typically go when they need some resources? They go plunder the house of the Lord. We see this in 1 and 2 Kings. The author never treats this favorably.
When the house of the Lord serves as the treasury to pay off foreign oppressors. That's just not a good thing. That Hezekiah does this is just not a good thing. He found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king's house At that time, Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord and from the pillars which Hezekiah, king of Judah, had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria.
So you see this summary of 1 to 8, and then we see this particular infraction here in 9 to 16.
Assyria's Demand for Surrender
Now that brings us thirdly and finally to consider the demand for surrender by Assyria. Never trust an Assyrian. I'm just kidding, if you happen to meet one. They were paid off, weren't they?
I mean, he plundered the temple to pay off Sennacherib. Whence verse 17? You mean this, you know, ghoulish monster of an empire leader wasn't faithful to his word? No, he wasn't.
He sends his troops to demand immediate surrender by Hezekiah and Judah, specifically the city of Jerusalem.
The Rabshakeh's First Speech
Now notice, the king of Assyria, verse 17, sent the Tartan, the Rabseres, and the Rabshakeh. Your margin probably gives as good a translation of these as could be. Commander-in-chief, a chief officer, and then the Rabshakeh who will deal with is the chief of staff or the governor. And obviously he is fluent in Hebrew, and obviously he is somewhat savvy of what's going on within the nation of Judah, what's going on in the southern kingdom.
So what we find here are these sort of ambassadors or delegates or representatives of Assyria. Rabshakeh is going to be the one that actually speaks. These aren't proper names, these are titles. but because it doesn't say Rabshakeh Billy, we're just going to say Rabshakeh. We're going to refer to him by that as his name.
And so then the king of Judah sends out his troops, his representatives, in verse 18. And it was Eliakim, the son of Elkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joab, the son of Asaph, the recorder. They came out to them. So you see the showdown.
Assyria is there, they want Jerusalem to surrender. The Rabshakeh and these other two go out there and they meet these three delegates or representatives from the King of Judah. Just a couple of observations before we dive into what the Rabshakeh does here. This is psychological warfare.
What the Rabshakeh does here is he seeks to taunt, he seeks to divide, and he seeks to get there to be a division among the kingdom within, so that it will make it easier for the Assyrians to take over. What else he does is he never refers to King Hezekiah as King Hezekiah. He only ever calls him Hezekiah, and yet he serves the great king of Assyria. Don't miss that.
He's really trying to goad the king. In fact, King Hezekiah probably sends these three representatives out as a sort of an equal show. The king of Assyria sends three representatives, so does the king of Hezekiah. Many of you know that at one time or a few years ago before Moonbeam got back into office in Southern California, Schwarzenegger was the governor in California.
Most of you probably know as well that he used to be into bodybuilding and he was quite the competitor. Well, it was said, and you can see clips of this, when they would be on the stage waiting for the verdict, he would whisper into his opponent's ears, your mom called and congratulated me on my victory. And he would do that to psychologically mess with these competitors. You see this in combat or missions today.
You try to mess psychologically with those persons that you're going to come against. That's what Rabshakeh is doing here and he's doing it in spades. You need to see this because when we get to verse 37 and all of the three representatives, and then in the next chapter, Hezekiah, they're all tearing their clothes. Chapter 18 is a bleak chapter.
They've stared down the face of the great king of Assyria, and it hasn't gone well for them at all. So that's what's happening. The two parties have gathered. Now, the Rabshakeh makes two speeches.
The first is 19 to 25, and the second is 25 to 37. Now notice the first. He says, first of all, that trust in their ability is futile. That word trust comes up out of the mouth of the Rabshakeh several times in the space of a few verses.
Because it's ultimately a matter of trust. Who has a trust in order to have victory over the Assyrians? And it's as if the Rabshakeh is pointing this out and showing him that his trust is misplaced. But note, verses 19 to 20, he's essentially saying, trust in your own ability is futile.
Verse 19, the Rabshakeh said to them, say now to Hezekiah, thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, what confidence is this in which you trust? You speak of having plans and power for war, but they are mere words. And in whom do you trust that you rebel against me? See, it's an attack upon their ability in and of themselves.
He now ups the ante and he says, your trust in Egypt is bad. Now there's no evidence that Hezekiah specifically brokered a deal with Egypt. His father Ahaz had, and it wouldn't be unheard of if he had, to try to oppose this Assyrian threat. Or it could be that the Rabshakeh is just covering his bases, supposing that this little nation-state of Judah would try to broker a deal with Egypt.
But notice, he says this very specifically in verses 21 and 24. Now look, you're trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. And then again in verse 24, how then will you repel one captive of the least of my master's servants and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?
Now, if Hezekiah really is using Egypt, it's a sad and pathetic thing that his enemy points that out. It's a sad and pathetic thing that he's able to say, you're not trusting in Yahweh, you're trusting in Egypt. Isaiah and Ezekiel excoriate the kings for this very thing. Isaiah 31 and 32, and then Ezekiel chapter 29.
They cannot fathom that a king of Judah would actually put their trust in Egypt. You know, the Lord doesn't need horses. He doesn't need chariots. He doesn't need Egyptians.
He is perfectly able to win the battles for Judah. So, if this is the case, that he's trusting in Egypt, this is quite the sort of indictment on the part of King Sennacherib. And then notice, he ups it even more so in verses 22 to 25. Trust in Yahweh is futile.
Trust in Yahweh is futile. Notice in verse 22. But if you say to me, we trust in the Lord our God, is it not he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and said to Judah in Jerusalem, you shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem? You see, the king of Assyria has some intel on Judah.
He knows what's happening under Hezekiah's reign. Now, it's a good thing for us to see that Hezekiah made this sweeping removal of all idolatry from Judah, but it probably wasn't received as favorably by all the people in Judah. If you had become accustomed to going to the high place, then it would be a disappointment if the high place was no longer there. This is calculated to sow discord among the people in Judah.
Hezekiah is the big meanie that came and took away your high places. He doesn't want you to serve Yahweh. He doesn't want you to glorify God. He doesn't want you to honor the Lord.
So he is showing them or trying to show them that trust in Yahweh is futile. Paul House says, this sort of propaganda about other countries' deities abandoning their adherents was a standard Assyrian ploy when they invaded and conquered another nation. Kogan notes that the Assyrians routinely told their enemies that their gods were angry with them, that the gods had abandoned them, and that these gods counseled them to surrender to the Assyrians. It is not unusual, then, for the spokesmen to try such tactics on Judahites.
He's trying to get under their skin. He wants to shake them. He wants to get them off balance. This was, you know, sort of the masterful policy of Assyria to attack in this manner.
And then when they resettle, they take mountainous people and put them on the coast. They take coastal peoples and put them in the mountains. They want to destabilize the enemies so that they can keep control over that. That was Assyrian policy.
Notice it's a flat-out taunt concerning Hezekiah's decimated forces in 23 and 24. He says, I will give you 2,000 horses if you are able on your part to put riders on them. In other words, you don't even have that. dare I say it, to pony up. You can't produce the sorts of men necessary, even if I were to hand you horses for this particular task.
And then notice in verse 25, he appeals to Yahweh's will as the decisive factor in the siege. This is really going a step above and beyond. He's a Calvinist. No, he's not.
Notice in verse 25, have I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, go up against this land and destroy it. I'm an agent of your God. I'm an agent of Yahweh.
Open the gates, let us in, we'll do our business and it will all be done. You see, this is psychological warfare.
The Rabshakeh's Second Speech
Now note the second speech. I said 25. It's 26 to 37. At this point, the three representatives of Judah say, we'd rather you speak to us in Aramaic. than in Hebrew.
Aramaic was sort of the official language of the time. That was the language that you did these sorts of meetings in. And so the three representatives of Judah don't want the guys sitting on the wall to hear what they're talking about. Again, not that I think they want to keep things from them, but they don't want them privy to the sorts of dialogue that is going on.
So you get this, the men of Judah say, speak to us in Aramaic, don't speak to us in Hebrew, because we don't want these guys to hear. And now he steps it up, verse 27. The Rabshakeh said to them, has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words and not to the men who sit on the wall who will eat and drink their own waste with you? Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out with a loud voice in Hebrew.
You see what he says? My master wants everybody in Judah that is ultimately going to be eating their own excrement and drinking their own urine to hear what is happening. He wants them to hear what's at stake. So he raises his voice.
He does so in Hebrew so that the men on the wall who are going to be eating their own excrement and drinking their own urine, that refers to the siege. That refers to the time when there's no more food in the city. That refers to the time, like we saw in 2 Kings 6, when a donkey's head was selling for top dollar. when dove droppings were selling for top dollar. He's like, that's icky.
Brethren, we've never been in a siege. We've never had it in this case where there was no food in our town. We've always had Walmart and Superstore. You don't know what it would be like if they sealed the city and then basically starved us out.
It's interesting, too, because in the Chronicles passage, doesn't he order that the water be stopped and secured within the city? I think they meet at the aqueduct specifically there in verse 17. Probably the Assyrians were going to try and stop the water supply, because that's a surefire way to smoke a people out. You don't give them water, they're ultimately going to die.
But you see what the Rabshakeh is doing here. He raises his voice. Now he wants all of the men of Judah to hear. He speaks in such a way to drive a wedge between rebellious Hezekiah and the people.
This is, again, masterful. It's, you know, diabolical, but it is masterful. What he does in the second speech is try to get the men of Judah against Hezekiah the king. You see how effective that would be?
You get your own countrymen saying, you know, we don't want you, Hezekiah. We want the great king of Assyria. Robert Alter says, his purpose is to drive a wedge between the rebellious Hezekiah and the people, convincing them that the uprising is hopeless and that, in fact, the fate of deportation to Assyria will be a happy one. In other words, don't listen to Hezekiah.
He repeats that four times. Notice in verses 29, 30, 31, and 32. He is speaking in Hebrew to the men of Judah, telling them, don't listen to your king. He's lying to you.
He's deceiving you. He doesn't want what's best for you. He sounds like the serpent in the Garden of Eden telling Eve, Well, God doesn't want you to be happy. He doesn't want what's good for you.
You go ahead and eat. You do what I say. It's almost like that sort of a thing here. He then demands tribute in verse 31a, when it says, do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, make peace with me by a present.
That doesn't mean, you know, with a big bow on it. It means do re mi. cough up money and we won't seize your city, or we won't utterly destroy you. Make peace with me by a present, and then notice, and come out to me, and every one of you eat from his own vine, and every one from his own fig tree, and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive groves and honey, that you may live and not die. You see what he says here?
You men on the wall are going to be eating your own excrement and your own urine in a matter of days. Come with me. Come to Assyria. Come and enjoy the good things.
You know, this is an idiom that's used often in the Old Testament. Under his own vine, everyone from his own fig tree, every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern. That would sound a whole lot better than your own excrement and urine, wouldn't it? I mean, does mean you gotta leave your family, you gotta leave your land, you gotta leave your language, and you gotta go to Assyria.
But hey, we got food, we got water, we got all those niceties. In fact, he's making a promised land sort of promise. Notice in verse 32, it's a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive groves and honey, that you may live and not die, but do not listen to Hezekiah, lest he persuade you, saying, the Lord will deliver us. It's masterful, psychologically.
Get the people to turn against Hezekiah. They'll throw Hezekiah right over the wall, and Sennacherib and his buddies march right in, take them away, deport them back to Assyria. And then the final thing he does is he appeals to history. And herein he makes his most significant blunder.
He says in verse 33, has any of the gods of the nations at all delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Sepharvim and Hena and Eva? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? I mean, in many respects, this historical argument has a degree of logical accuracy.
Assyria is the big kid on the block. These other nations haven't been able to stop them. They have gobbled up territory, they have gobbled up provinces, they have not been stopped by these provincial gods. Herein lies his mistake, or his error.
Verse 35. Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their countries from my hand? that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand. His theology has shifted to being an instrument in the hand of God, verse 25, to there's no way Yahweh will ever be able to stop the king of Assyria. Now, when Isaiah prophesies, notice in 1922, whom have you reproached and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel. It ought not to surprise us that the section ends with 185,000 dead Assyrians and Sennacherib assassinated in his own home city. He blasphemed, he taunted the living and true God.
But at this point, again, we know what happens in chapter 19. These three representatives of Judah don't know. They just tear their clothes and they walk with head hung low back to Hezekiah. Notice, verse 36, Hezekiah had already told them, don't answer him.
Don't give him an answer. Verse 37, Eliakim, the son of Hezekiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joab the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rabshakeh. So it's a bleak situation. It's a very disheartening situation.
If there was no chapter 19, man, what a terrible situation they're certainly going to lose. It will, in fact, require divine intervention, and God does so through the prophet Isaiah and ultimately through the killing angel of the Lord to bring destruction upon Assyria and to stop this threat upon Judah.
Application and Conclusion
Well, in conclusion, real quick, I don't want to go past 9. First, the presence of trial in the midst of blessing. We've already pressed that particular lesson. This, or the good in this life, will usually be counterbalanced by the Assyrians.
It's just the way God's designed it. If everything always went peachy king, we'd never think about heaven. You know what makes me think about heaven? Teeth problems.
There's no dentists in heaven. There's no, you know, need for such thing. I'm being cheeky. Lots of things make me long for heaven. you know, this world, the wickedness of it, the wretchedness, the absolute depravity that we see all around us.
I mean, you know, there's a story that I saw in Fresno the other day. I don't even want to repeat it. It's just that bad. It's so terrible that you wouldn't even want to mention such a thing in, you know, this kind of a context.
And these kinds of things are happening all over the world. And I think that if it were the case that we had no Assyrians, We'd never long for heaven. We'd never look forward to the New Jerusalem. Brethren, that's our hope.
That's our blessed hope. That's what we got to look forward to. We're going to have, you know, Sennacheribs breathing down our noses seeking to seize our kingdom. But in the New Jerusalem, the King in all his glory is there, and we're going to be in the presence of the Lamb.
Secondly, we ought to appreciate, and I touched on this briefly, the presence of wavering in the midst of faithfulness. Hezekiah was a faithful man who wavered. Peter was a faithful man who denied his master. David was a faithful man who committed adultery and murder.
Nevertheless, God speaks favorably of these persons. Davis says, we must recognize that 18.1-8 is a summary of Hezekiah's whole reign, just as 16.1-4 is a summary of Ahaz's entire reign. So the trust and obedience verses 1-8 speak of are what Hezekiah came to have as a result of the whole Assyrian threat. True verses 1 to 8 specify some of Hezekiah's initial reforms, but primarily they're giving an evaluation of Hezekiah's total reign, not of a particular failure.
There is no conflict between an overall trend of faith that nevertheless experiences lapses of faith. Sometimes faith has its wobblies, and they can be severe. It is true that people of great courage and strong faith can crumble, and the best antidote any believer has is realizing that faith eclipse can happen to him or her and praying that it won't. You know, we say, how could that ever happen?
It could happen, so you ought to pray that it doesn't happen. That's the lesson that we ought to take from Hezekiah, from King David, and from the Apostle Peter. As well, the presence of despair in the midst of hope. I mean, verses 36 and 37 are terrible.
But they didn't have chapter 19, but they still had Yahweh. They still had the living and true God. Nevertheless, there is this despair. And then, of course, chapter 19 will enforce this lesson even more so.
But the presence of God in the midst of His enemies. He is going to deal with Assyria for His people, Judah. And this demonstrates His kindness, His mercy, His love, but His justice, His wrath, and His vengeance against the blaspheming so-called Great King of Assyria. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank You for Your Word, and we thank You for the very relevant lessons that we find in these Old Testament And God, I pray that you'd help us to learn these things, help us to live by these things, help us to understand that at times the Christian life, many, most of the time, is a difficulty and a trial and hardship, and there are Assyrians to contend with. Give us grace, give us help, give us strength, give us perseverance and consistency and faithfulness before our God. Go with us now, we pray, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.