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‘Shalt thou be delivered?’
2Ki_19:11
I. The challenge of Sennacherib’s general.—(1) By speech.—In 2Ki_18:17-18, the names of the officers are given and the precise position they occupied; also the officers of the king’s household whom they specially addressed. They seem to have used the Assyrian language, speaking probably by interpretation, so that all who stood on the wall were able to overhear what transpired (2Ki_18:26).
The principal argument adduced was the futility of trusting in Jehovah. Evidently the God of Israel had achieved great renown. There were things in history, like the crossing of the Red Sea, that could only be accounted for by His mighty interposition. How good it is when outsiders bear witness to the greatness and glory of our God! Surely we ought so to love and speak of Him as to enhance His power. But the contention of Sennacherib’s ambassadors was that Israel had no further right to claim the intervention of Jehovah, because Hezekiah had destroyed His altars and introduced drastic religious reforms.
Hezekiah, of course, was one of the greatest religious reformers of Hebrew story. It was the story of Hezekiah’s great reforms which had filled Sennacherib and his officers with hope. They supposed that Hezekiah had definitely broken with Jehovah, and that the alliance which had been so potent was now at an end. They did not realise that what Hezekiah had done was rather a tightening and strengthening of that sacred covenant. When Sennacherib spoke so boastfully, how little he realised that he was but an axe or rod in the hands of God, useful for the fulfilment of judgment and then to be cast aside!
(2) By letter.—He wrote letters. The purport of these letters is given in Isa_37:9-14. Everything was done, apparently, that could be done by threat and appeal to intimidate the Jews and induce them to surrender their city without an effort at its defence.
Are there not times when it seems as though the enemies of the faith were allied against the holy city of God, predicting her speedy overthrow? How often have agnostics and infidels boasted that they were confident of their success! In the story of the inner life also, there are days when it seems as though we must succumb before the dark and evil spirits who mock at our faith. At such times either the Church or the individual soul experiences the precise counterpart of this fierce attack upon Jerusalem.
II. The secret trust of God’s servants.—Hezekiah the king and the prophet Isaiah ‘prayed and cried to heaven.’ What a touching announcement! We have the account and burden of Hezekiah’s prayer in Isa_37:14-20. The letter which he had just received lay open and transparent before the Divine eyes, and over it the good king poured forth a perfect litany of intercession which it is still well to appropriate. It would be wise if we were quicker to follow his example! When annoying, trying, and offensive letters come to hand we are too apt to sit hastily down at our writing tables and dip our pens in vitriol. How often these replies of ours aggravate the situation! How often it would have been better to have attempted no reply, but to have let God deal with it all. So at least Hezekiah found it.
The king had hardly returned to his palace when a messenger from Isaiah brought him God’s answer to his prayer. He had the petition which he had desired, not actually in possession, but as good as if it were. This is the beauty and glory of faith, that we receive from the hand of God His good and perfect gifts and rejoice in them before they actually come to hand.
Thus in all ages faith has hidden in God whilst dreaded evils have passed over. What a blessed result of this lesson it would be if multitudes would learn to put God between themselves and their Sennacheribs!
III. The result.—Sennacherib’s army was withered by the breath of God. The boaster’s pride was humiliated, his proud tongue silenced. There is a Divine justice in national assassinations and revolutions which does not take away the evil of them, though they accomplish the Divine purpose. Let us live in fellowship with God, leaving Him to save and defend us, trusting Him to guide us on every side, and accepting any honour which comes from our fellows as His gift.
Illustrations
(1) ‘It is a wonderful quality of Divine love that it puts itself in the place of those it loves. He who harms a child of God smites God in the face. He who taunts a Christian for righteousness taunts God. He who does any unkindness to one who belongs to Christ treats God Himself unkindly. We have this taught very beautifully in the New Testament in the Master’s parable of the judgment, where we learn that he who gives food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty, and who shows pity and mercy to the sick, the stranger, the prisoner, is showing the same kindness to Christ Himself; while he who passes by the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, and the stranger without helping him, is passing by the Lord Christ Himself.’
(2) ‘God says to the proud, insulting Assyrian, that the treatment he gave to his captives should be given to himself in turn. He would become God’s captive, and God would put a hook in his nose and would lead him back to his own land in chains. It is a statement of that infallible law, that with what measure we mete it shall be measured to us again. He who treats others mercilessly will find no mercy in judgment.’