Welcome! I’m so glad you’ve come to see what we might find in this next chapter of Isaiah. Taunting God is what we’re going to see here. There are a few more verses than usual in this one because it’s harder to understand the story without them.
But I will once again encourage you to read the whole chapter because that way you’ll see the responses of those sent to listen.
Let’s pray:
Lord Jesus, I know we’ll see your response in the next chapter to this and how these people handle this, but for now, we have to listen to what happens here. Help us understand what this Assyrian is really doing in this chapter. And lead us through this. Thank You, Lord.
Please read Isaiah 36:1-3
1 Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and conquered them. 2 And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh [his military commander] from Lachish [the Judean fortress commanding the road from Egypt] to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem with a large army. And he stood by the canal of the Upper Pool on the highway to the Fuller’s Field. 3 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the [royal] household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recording historian, came out to [meet] him.
How many people are sent out to meet this commander and his large army? Who were they? How valuable to you think this kind of meeting would be if all it was was a prelude to taunting?
I have to say, Hezekiah is one of my favorite kings. Sure, he fails in the future, but wonders happen in his reign and he is more faithful than most of the kings in Jewish history. And there are things he does in Scriptures that are easy to remember and faithful and wonderful too. Stick with this study and you’ll see them too. First though, the taunting.
Please read Isaiah 36:13-20
The Taunting
13 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out with a loud voice in Judean (Hebrew): “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. 14 This is what the king says, ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to rescue you; 15 nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, “The Lord will most certainly rescue us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah,’ for this is what the king of Assyria says, ‘Make peace with me and come out to me, and each one of you will eat from his own vine and each from his own fig tree and each [one of you] drink from the water of his own cistern, 17 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. 18 Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you by saying, “The Lord will rescue us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations [ever] rescued his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad [in Aram]? Where are the gods of [c]Sepharvaim? And when have they rescued Samaria from my hand? 20 Who among all the gods of these lands have rescued their land from my hand, that [you should think that] the Lord would rescue Jerusalem from my hand?’”
Footnotes
[c] Sepharvaim – Isaiah 36:19 An area from which the Assyrians brought colonists to inhabit Samaria, the capital city of the ten northern tribes of Israel, after it was evacuated.
That’s the taunting
“Has any one of the gods of the nations [ever] rescued his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?” I could make you wait to hear God’s response, but our God, is the Real God. All those others are made by men. Our God is a mighty God and He will hear the taunts against Him and His people.
The Lord will rescue Jerusalem. For Jerusalem is the city of the great king David.