When the Enemy Attacks; Isaiah 36-37

 

I have always found the Hezekiah stories interesting.  He’s one of those mixed bag Judean kings.  He gets rid of the high places and idols, emphasizing that the temple is the only legitimate place to offer sacrifices to the Lord.  He undoes a lot of the evil that his father Ahaz had done.  He worships the Lord, but he also makes some pretty stupid mistakes, which we will see in the next couple of weeks.  In today’s story the Rabshakeh, which means cup-bearer, comes to Jerusalem on behalf of King Sennacherib of Assyria with a large army to threaten the people and try to get them to make an alliance before it is too late.  Assyria has already defeated the Egyptians and several prominent Judean cities.  That alliance God said would fail has fallen.  The threat is real, and they knew it was coming.  They had been given opportunities to repent, and they had not.  In this story, I think there are some lessons we can learn when we are threatened by enemies. 

            One good thing to do when the enemy attacks is to keep your mouth and don’t escalate the situation.  The Rabshakeh’s insults are strong.  He attacks the King.  He attacks the Lord.  He tries to put doubt in their minds about Yahweh, insinuating that it is a bad thing that Hezekiah has limited their place of worship.  He claims that Yahweh is the one who has told them to go up and destroy the land and that Sennacherib and the Assyrians are the ones with Yahweh’s approval, and it’s not a total lie.  God has directed them to go up and attack, but perhaps what he doesn’t know is that God has already assured the Judeans that Assyria will not succeed.  He tells of other conquests and how those lands gods did not save them.  He threatens their lives with starvation and death.  A lifetime ago, I was a 6^th grade teacher at Gramercy Christian School, and the Hezekiah stories were part of our Bible curriculum.  This story is a bit spicy, and of course certain kids wanted to be the one to read particular verses from the King James Version!  I’m sure it was spicier when Rabshakeh said it.  The leaders didn’t want the regular folk to understand what he was saying, and so they asked him to speak in Aramaic instead of Judean, but Rabshakeh doubles down on his insults.  I’m sure in more modern language it would be something like, “Eat sh—and die.”  In fact, if someone insults you in this way, you can reply, “I didn’t know you could quote the Bible.”  And then tell them this Bible story, and the next thing you know you could be having a spiritual conversation with someone who was an enemy and end up telling them about Jesus!  Hey, you never know.  But the leaders of Judah wisely do not respond to the Rabshakeh.  “They were silent and answered him not a word according to the king’s command.”  When you refuse to respond to threats, you buy time.  You don’t have to prove anything.  Reason doesn’t work when emotions run high.  Our tendency is to get defensive.  We even think we have to defend God’s honor, but there are times for apologetics discourse, and there are times to remain silent.  Sometimes the best thing we can initially do when an enemy threatens us is to remain calm and not respond in haste. 

            The next good thing to do when the enemy threatens is to turn to God’s word.  The three return to the king in mourning and despair.  The king also rends his garments in mourning, but he immediately, through these same ambassadors, sends for Isaiah t, whom he knows speaks the Word of the Lord.  Isaiah gives a reassuring word from the Lord that the Lord will cause the Assyrian army to return to their own land, and God’s answer is quite specific.  When our enemy threatens us, we can turn to God’s Word to hear a reassuring Word.  God tells us again and again to not be afraid, that He is with us no matter what, that He has and will overcome all our enemies, that He holds us in His hands.  We have so many promises right here in this book.  We can’t go and ask Isaiah in person what God says, but we have God’s words through Isaiah written down for us, and not just his but so many others have recorded God’s words for us in this book. 

            Another good thing to do when your enemy threatens is to pray.  Notice as Eliakim goes to Isaiah on Hezekiah’s behalf, he asks Isaiah to pray for them.  Hezekiah specifically says, “Perhaps the Yahweh your God will hear.”  Hezekiah’s faith is weak.  Although he has destroyed all the false places of worship, his trust is not fully in Yahweh.  Like his father, he still thinks of Yahweh as Isaiah’s God, not his own, or it could just be that in the face of threat, Hezekiah is in a place of doubt.  Friends, this is part of the reason the Church exists.  We were not meant to face all the threats of the world on our own.  We need the spiritual support of other believers.  When you have doubts, other believers can pray for you.  It is a good thing to enlist others to pray for you and your circumstances, especially when your faith is weak. 

            But we should also pray for ourselves.  hen Hezekiah gets a letter back from King Sennacherib, who had turned back, just as God promised, but who still threatened, Hezekiah prays for himself and his nation.  Look at how Hezekiah prays.  He takes the threatening letter to the temple, spreads it on the floor and prays over it.  His requests are very specific.  He asks God to pay attention.  He tells the specific things that Sennacherib and his army have done.  We should be specific and intentional in our prayers as well.  Tell God what has happened and ask for His intervention.  In describing his circumstances, Hezekiah realizes that some of his fears aren’t all that rational.  As he talks about Assyria destroying the gods of various nations, he realizes, “O, those gods are just manmade idols anyway.  They don’t have any power.  Of course their gods couldn’t save them, but You the real God.”  Naming our situation when the enemy threatens us helps us to clarify it and what we need God to do about it.

            Notice that Hezekiah begins his prayer with praise.  When the enemy threatens, we should begin our prayers with praise.  Praise reminds us who God is.  It helps us to remember God’s power and presence.  It reminds us of the reality of God.  Did you catch how Hezekiah’s praise reflects his circumstances?  His praise of God is relevant to the threat at hand.  He praises Yahweh as Yahweh of Hosts—Lord of the Armies.  This is a military threat, but God’s got a mightier army.  He lifts up Yahweh as the God of Israel.  This is the God of his people, but then he goes on to praise God as not just the God of Israel but the God over all, the only true God, the maker of heaven and earth.  Whatever threat we are facing, we can praise God as being the One who can overcome that threat.  If faced with a medical situation, we can praise God for being the one who heals, the Great Physician, the one who saves, the one who has power over life or death.  If we are faced with financial threat, we can praise God for being the one who owns all things, the one who provides for all our needs.  If we face natural disasters, we can praise God for being Lord of Creation, the one whom the wind and waves obey, the One who can walk on water, the one who sends rain from heaven, the one who draws a line in the sand for the sea.  Whatever kinds of threats we may face, we can praise God in a way that reminds us that He is in control and has all power against every enemy that may come against us. 

            When petitioning God, Hezekiah gives the “why” for the outcome he desires.  Hezekiah asks for deliverance, but he does so that, “all the kingdoms of the earth will know that You alone, Yahweh, are God.”  We need to think about our petitions and tell God our “why”.  What is the purpose of the outcome we desire?  It is just to solve a problem?  How does the answer we desire play into the bigger part of God’s plan for the world?  Maybe we ask God to deliver us for what God wants to do through us to expand His kingdom.  Maybe we ask for God’s help so that in answering it can show an unbelieving friend or even the enemy who threatens us who God is.  Sometimes when I have come to the “why” of my prayers, it has changed my request.  I realized that what I was praying for was completely self-centered.  We are told to pray in accordance with God’s will.  The “why” of your prayer can very often help you determine whether or not you are praying in accordance with God’s will. 

            The story ends with God answering Hezekiah’s prayer.  First God brings the word of promise through Isaiah, and then we have the actual account of how that answer came to pass. 

God’s answer came in multiple parts.  The angel of the Lord, symbol of the pre-Incarnate Christ, destroyed 185000 Assyrian soldiers, causing the retreat of the army and Sennacherib to go back to his home in Nineveh.  God promised the land would provide for them for the next two years, taking care of all those who were faithful to the Lord.  God promised that a faithful remnant would remain and continue to rise up.  Sennacherib was killed by 2 of his sons while he was worshipping his false god 20 years later.  When we ask in confident faith according to the will of God, we can trust that God will answer our prayers. 

            When the enemy threatens, remember, sometimes the best thing to do is to keep your mouth shut.  You don’t have to respond to the threat.  Turn to God’s Word to see what God has already said about your situation.  Ask others to pray for you.  Pray for your situation remembering to praise God in light of the threat you face.  Be specific about your situation.  Remember to not only ask the Lord for what you want God to do buy why you want God to answer, so that you can pray in accordance with God’s will.  Look for the answer, and remember to thank God for it.

The Final War; Isaiah 34, Revelation 6, I Peter 4:7-19

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The Devil is Defeated!; Isaiah 33:1, Hebrews 2:14-16, Romans 16:17-20

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Where Do You Put Your Trust?; Isaiah 30-31

 

Once again, I’m amazed at the relevance and timeliness of this scripture.  We have an anxiety epidemic in this country.  People are stressed out. Long term economic outlook for the younger generations is very bleak.  Want to flee to somewhere else?  Things are even bleaker in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and most of Europe.  We think, “If so and so could get elected, things will get better.”  Then so and so doesn’t get elected and we feel defeated, or so and so does get elected, but nothing changes.  Campaign promises are broken, and the status quo remains.  I listened to a doctor this week who told one of his patients with high stress to turn off the news for a month.  The patient followed orders, came back in a month, and their sleep quality had improved and their blood pressure had gone down.  We find ourselves anxious and despairing because we put our trust in the wrong things.  We think this program or this person can fix things, if we passed this law or got rid of this one, if we got this job or moved to this place, or made this investment.  King David wrote in Psalm 20:7 “Some boast in chariots, and some in horses, but we trust in the name of Yahweh our God.”  God is the only person in whom we can fully trust.  God’s Word is the only Word we can truly trust. 

            There are many wrong places in which we can put our trust.  One of the worst things we can do is trust in ourselves and make up our own plans without consulting God.  When we don’t ask for God’s guidance, when we try to go it alone, when we devise our own schemes, they very often come back to bite us.  Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.  Who can know it?”  We can get deceived if we follow our heart, especially if we let our emotions lead us.  Even if we use our rational minds, we often do not come up with all the possible solutions.  And although our instincts can be very trustworthy because God gave them to us, we really need to consult God with our plans.  Who knows the heart?  God does.  The Bible study group is looking at the Exodus Way—how God leads us out of bad situations, leads us through wilderness times, and leads us into the Promised Land, God’s kingdom.  Our podcast episodes this week pointed out that many of the situations from which we need Exodus—for God to lead us out—are ones of our own making.  Somewhere along the line, we deviated from the plan God had for us.  This is what we see in our passage today.  God’s own people are falling under judgment because they had devised their own scheme instead of trusting God.  Assyria was threatening them, but instead of asking for God’s direction and deliverance, they rebelled against Yahweh, and looked elsewhere for help.

            This leads to the next bad place to put one’s trust which is in unholy alliances.  Israel decides it will make an alliance with Egypt, the country that had oppressed them for 400 years.  Paul warns us about forming unholy alliances in 2 Corinthians 6:14ff.   

    Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?  What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:  'I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’  Therefore, ‘Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord.  Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”   And, ‘I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.’

Unholy alliances can result with us ending up indebted to those who want to see us fail.  Isaiah warns Israel that this alliance with Egypt is going to end up in their humiliation.  The rulers of Egypt will not be able to help them.  Military might often backfires.  We have seen this time and time again in our own country’s history.  Let’s pray we aren’t making the same mistake again!  Certainly, the regime change in Syria hasn’t gone so well, especially for Syrian Christians.  Alliances are costly.  Tribute would have to be paid to Egypt in the form of money and goods, but often in return military service.  Ray Ortlund in his commentary on Isaiah points out that human favor is costly, but often worthless.  It certainly was going to be for Israel.  We must not try to spiritualize unholy alliances nor fall prey to the idea that the ends justify the means.  Sometimes God does call us to work with those who are very different from us, but we must only do so as God guides us. 

            The third bad place to put our trust in bad advice and flattery.  How many times have you witnessed people asking for advice or searching online for advice only to ignore or dismiss said advice when it didn’t affirm what they wanted to hear?  Maybe you have been guilty of this.  We Instead of listening to the Lord, and going so far as to try to silence the seers and prophets, told them to speak pleasant words.  They didn’t want to hear about God, let alone about what God had to say.  They didn’t want to be reminded of God’s commandments.  Often we want to remake God in our image instead of being conformed to God’s image.  We need to be careful not be drawn in by pleasant words when we need to receive the prophetic word.  Flannery O’Connor wrote, “The truth does not change according to your ability to stomach it.” 

            The consequences for misplaced trust can be disastrous.  For Israel, God says through Isaiah that their destruction will come suddenly and unexpectedly and so complete that it will be like a clay pot that is broken so violently that all is left is dust and crumbles so small that none is big enough to scoop a coal from the fire or to scoop water out of a cistern.  Our misplaced trust can leave us utterly defeated and broken. 

            But there is hope and good news.  When we find ourselves broken and defeated because we have misplaced our trust, the solution is simple and readily available.  God’s good word to Israel and to us is this: “In repentance and rest, you shall be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength.”  All we have to do is call out to God in repentance and rest in Him.  We have to let God take control and trust in Him and His goodness.  At first glance, we may find God’s way to be unhelpful.  Waiting on the Lord in the middle of a “crisis”?  That’s a real challenge.  And God can be demanding.  God’s commandments, after all, are non-negotiable, and aren’t always easy to follow.  Loving your neighbor is tough.  Loving your enemy is even tougher.  Denying yourself?  When we find ourselves being offended by something Christ asks us to do, we need to ask ourselves why.  There’s probably a sin in there that needs confessing, and something for which we may need to ask for God’s help.

            Sadly, Israel refused to repent.  God says that they were not willing.  Instead, they tried to flee the coming Assyrian army on horses.  Even so, God didn’t give up on them.  Isaiah says, “The Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore, He is on high to have compassion on you.  For Yahweh is a God of justice.  How blessed as those who wait for Him.”  God is patient with us as well.  God waits for us to repent and to call out to Him.  He will carry out justice.  Isaiah continues the good news, “A people will inhabit Zion, Jerusalem.  You will weep no longer.  He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry.  When He hears it, He will answer you.”  Bible study friends, if that last phrase sounds like what we heard this week in our study, you are correct in seeing the pattern that God always answers when His people cry out to Him.  The One who has withheld blessings from the unrepentant lavishes them on the repentant. The One who has wounded in judgment, will heal all wounds in love.  He will be your Teacher and show you the way you should go.  The proverb says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your path.”  Isaiah then says they will get rid of their idols.  When we see who God is and what God can do, we will willingly destroy our own idols.  All it takes is repentance.  God always responds to repentance with mercy.

            This message in Isaiah 30-31 was for the nation more than it was for individuals.  I think we need to hear the same concerns as a nation.  We have celebrated Independence Day, but our nation is not in great shape today.  The dollar is on the verge of collapse.  Our Constitutional freedoms for which the founders of this country fought so hard for and drafted so carefully are being eroded.  Our citizens are largely unhealthy.  Our people are divided.  As a country, we are putting our trust in the wrong places.  I finished reading my required books for my theology group in October, so I am back to reading for fun.  I picked up this book about the CIA.  Listen to this snippet about the fall of Communism in Europe after the Berlin wall and Soviet Union collapsed…

    ...The fall of Communism was the result of a huge undercurrent; a longing for civil and religious freedom among the people which could no longer be restrained...When Communism fell in the East, the people did not pour into the streets waving American flags or praising the CIA for its power and prowess.  They broke out into the streets in droves and celebrated Communion.  Churches barely tolerated during the Cold War which had not been closed down by the government were swamped.  The Soviet Duma began having daily Bible studies during its sessions.  The sad part was, while the former Soviet Union was introducing the Bibe in its government sessions and placing it as a part of student curricula in its schools, America had kicked the Bible out of education and almost every part of open public life.  I watched the beginning of one inspiring revival of religious freedom in the East, and the slow elimination of another in America, occurring despite the warnings of the framers of the Constitution.  It was if we had become so fat and happy we had forgotten the fundamental truth which gave us our freedom and liberty.

The author, Kevin Shipp, goes on to share a conversation he had with a former KGB agent.

    'You know, Kevin, our country has left communism and is now a democracy.'
     'Yes, I know, that is wonderful.'    
     'But there is one thing we have learned.'     
     'What is that?'                      
     'We have learned a free society cannot function without a belief in the Bible.'                                       

 Amazed, I responded, 'You know, you are right!'  I will never forget that moment and how ironic it was that the opposite seemed to be happening in America--the country which had communicated this truth to the world for so many decades.  Communism had fallen because of human being's innage thirst for true religion, freedom, and meaning in life.

And we as a country have turned even further from God today than he was talking about then.  And for some reason, we want to make Russia, a majority Christian country, whose adherence to the faith rivals and percentage wise by some surveys, exceeds ours, our enemy.  Perceived enemies are not the real threat.  God will take care of them, just as God took care of Assyria.  God told them that He was going to fight them in multiple ways—with natural disasters, and in battles, and that they would be the one burned up on the Topheth.  God is our ally.  The gospel is truth. God is our only hope.  Ray Ortlund in his commentary on Isaiah wrote, “Our only hope is in abandoning every other hope, however obvious.  Our only truth is in disbelieving every other truth, however widely accepted.  Our only safety is in trust; our only stability is in yielding control; our only freedom is in surrender.”  Our future with Christ is secure and joy-filled, and nothing can separate us from God’s love.

            What do your actions say about your trust in God?  Do you act like God isn’t in the picture?  Do you ask God to bless your schemes and plans instead of asking God what His plan is?  Do you live as if you have to go it alone?  Do you try to find your own solutions to your problems without consulting God?  Do you feel like you have to make compromises with people whose values oppose yours simply to get things done?  It happened a lot during COVID.  Remember that God is not obligated to bless your plans, but God does bless your obedience when you walk in His plans.  Again, from Ray Ortlund's commentary on Isaiah:

  ...whatever God says to us in the gospel, he speaks with love and grace.  Some of his truths will melt in your mouth.  Other truths will hit you like a ton of bricks.  But everything God says opens up to you the life hidden with Christ in God--if you are open.  Trust him enough to keep listening.  Give his gospel a willing audience in the inmost chamber of your soul, whatever his Word says.  Do not listen with detachment, but open your heart wide to God.  He will surprise you with how his wisdom really does work. 

May we off-load “our alliances with the false salvations of this world, and enter more and more into the life that is hidden for us with Christ in God.”  How do we do this?  We become like little children reaching out to our Heavenly Father, and He will give “songs in the night.”