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

I love the various accounts of Sennacherib’s aborted invasion of the Kingdom of Judah.  Today I want to look at how Sennacherib’s field commander pretended at first to have some respect for God, while demonstrating a complete lack of understanding about what God commanded His people.  Often today the enemies of those who serve God use similar tactics.  First, he refers to the Pharaoh of Egypt “splintered reed of a staff,” echoing the warnings prophets repeatedly gave against relying on Egypt.  Then he questions Hezekiah’s claim that God would defend Jerusalem based on the fact that Hezekiah had dismantled the shrines throughout the land in order to insist that people worship God in Jerusalem.  This shows that the field commander is not aware of God’s command to the Israelites that they worship Him at a central location.  However, when Hezekiah’s advisors asked him to speak in Aramaic rather than Hebrew, he reacts by calling to the people on the wall that no other god was able to save their people, therefore God will be unable to save His people.  By doing this, the field commander reveals that his original argument questioning Hezekiah’s faith was disingenuous.  He did not believe that God would hold Hezekiah’s actions against Hezekiah because he did not believe God had any power.  In the same way, many people today make arguments against how Christians practice their faith based on a misunderstanding of what Christians believe, and then reveal they don’t actually think the argument matters anyway because they do not believe that God exists.  Sennacherib followed up his field commander’s blasphemy with a letter supporting it.  God responded to the arrogance of the Assyrians by reminding His people that He had planned, and had His prophets declare, their actions long before they had arisen as a power.

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

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.

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

I always love reading the story of Sennacherib’s threat to Jerusalem.  It is really a great story about God’s power, and how He treats those who arrogantly challenge Him.  However, there is one aspect of this story that I have rarely seen touched upon.  Initially the message which Sennacherib’s field commander delivered to Hezekiah’s representatives claimed that the Assyrian king was acting on following God’s command to invade Judah in response to Hezekiah taking down the high places where people had worshiped God.  And while this message was ostensibly being delivered to King Hezekiah, the passage makes clear that it was delivered so that the general populace of Jerusalem would hear and understand what was being said.  However, the Assyrian representative was unable to maintain the ruse for long.  When Hezekiah’s emissaries pushed back a little, the Assyrian revealed what they really thought about God, that He was of no consequence.

All of that leads me to something we see time and again: people who hold God in contempt will couch their arguments as being about following God’s will, but when given a little room to run with their arguments will quickly reveal their disdain for God and for those who put their trust in Him.  Let us not be misled by those who attempt to undermine our faith by appealing to our faith.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Isaiah 36-38.
I want to note for any of you who come to this from the links that I post on social media sites (FaceBook, Gab.com, and MeWe. com) that I will be going on vacation from July 31-August 9 and may not be able to post my links to those sites during that time.  I will, however have written the blogs for those dates and scheduled them to be posted.  So, please continue to visit my site to read my daily devotional.

When the Assyrian field commander spoke to King Hezekiah’s representatives outside Jerusalem (but within earshot of the city wall), initially he claimed that Sennacherib was acting at the command of the Lord.  He made the argument that God was actually on the side of the Assyrians.  However, after Hezekiah’s representatives asked him to not speak so that the people of the city on the walls could understand him, he revealed his true beliefs.  This reminded me of something we often come across today; those who use the Bible, or Christian  ideas to promote their non-Christian goals.  We should be careful to not be fooled by their appeal to Biblical authority into believing that they actually care about acting in a way consistent with the Bible.  Here the Assyrians tried to use religious language to sway the people of Jerusalem into surrendering.  In the same way many anti-religious people will attempt to use religious language to convince Believers to surrender.

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

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

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

This is the third account of the Assyrian invasion of Judah which we read in the Bible.  All three accounts contain the same elements. I love reading this story again despite having written about it twice already this year.  Ultimately, the story boils down to the Assyrians telling the people of Jerusalem that nothing can save them from the Assyrians; King Hezekiah could not even find enough men to mount the King of Assyria’s spare warhorses.  As for God saving them, don’t be ridiculous, had any other nation’s gods been able to save them?  There was nothing the people of Jerusalem and Judah could do, they might as well surrender!

How often have we found ourselves in such a situation?  There is nothing within our power that can get us out of a terrible situation and no one to whom we can turn.  But that is exactly the situation in which God shows His power.  There existed no power on earth which could stop the King of Assyria from conquering Jerusalem.  Yet, Isaiah told King Hezekiah that not only would the King of Assyria not conquer Jerusalem, he would not even lay siege to it.  So, what happened?  Something went through the Assyrian camp and killed a large part of the Assyrian army in a single night and the King of Assyria marched home without laying siege to Jerusalem.  King Hezekiah turned to God in his time of trouble, when he had no earthly hope of avoiding defeat.  When you know that you cannot do it on your own, turn to God and He will rescue you.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.  I am going to be on vacation starting tomorrow through August 10th.  I have read the passages and prepared my blog entries for each day.  While I am on vacation I will have limited access to the Internet, but I expect to be able to get these published each day.

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

Isaiah gives his account of the Assyrian invasion of Judah.    I want to look more closely at the initial statement of the Assyrians versus what they really thought.  When the Assyrian envoy first spoke to King Hezekiah’s delegation he gave lip service to God’s power.  He told them that the Assyrians had invaded Judah at God’s direction.  However, when Hezekiah’s envoys pushed back, the envoy revealed what the Assyrians really thought of God.  The Assyrians thought that God was just a made up idea like the gods of other nations.  They believed that because they had defeated many nations with various gods that God was powerless to stop them.  We see similar behavior often when we speak up for God’s will.  Those who oppose us will, at first, pretend to take God seriously and pay lip service to honoring Him.  They will make a case that God supports their cause.  Do not be fooled.  An examination of what they say in other contexts will soon reveal that they hold God, and those who serve Him, in contempt.