Today, I am reading and commenting on  Isaiah 36-38.

This is the third account of the Assyrian invasion of the Kingdom of Judah during Hezekiah’s reign.  As a result, I am writing about this incident three times a year, which makes it impossible to write something different every time.  Of course, the fact that this story is retold three separate times means that the message to be learned is important.  So, what is the lesson?  At this point in history, the Assyrians were the most powerful nation on earth.  Any nation which they could reach with their armies, they could crush.   When King Hezekiah led the Judeans into resisting Assyria’s demand, the Assyrians confidently invaded.  Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem knew that they were powerless to stop the Assyrians and that their only hope was Divine intervention, but they knew that they had sinned and were unsure if God would come to their aid.  So, when the Assyrians told them that God could not protect them from the might of Assyria, they turned to God in desperate prayer.  The Assyrians attempted to break the faith of the Judeans.  God rescued Hezekiah and Jerusalem because He would not allow the Assyrians, and the rest of the world, to use the fall of Jerusalem as evidence that He could not protect them.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.