Isaiah Lectures
Isaiah 36-37 lecture #
I. Introduction:
These four chapters are written in narrative form and not poetry. They stand in the middle of two blocks (-35 and 40-66) that are written in poetry. The theological themes in these four chapters have relate to the theological messages that are in 1-39 and give examples in history of what the prophet had been speaking about in the earlier chapters. The same is true for the relationship of these stories to 40-66. There are themes that are present in the earlier poetry that get repeated in the later chapters, but there are some new themes and these themes are partially anticipated in the stories of 36-39.
Important events which illustrate important theological truths are recorded here and this is demonstrated by the fact that these chapters are repeated with some variations in II Kings 18:13-20:19 and II Chronicles 32:1-31.
There are two themes that dominate and run through out these four chapters (which give us 3 stories). 1) How does an individual have faith in the midst of a crisis? 2) Perhaps more central to these three stories is that they give us a concrete historical example of God’s sovereignty over human affairs and of His Word being accurate in predicting how that sovereignty will play out. This is done by means of concrete historical fulfillment. The stories give us an “interim fulfillment” that helps us believe that the prophecy about the future will also come to pass. (This could also be the role of the Cyrus prophecies later given in Isaiah 44:28 and 45:1.) The stories are written to encourage faith.
There are basically three stories: the Assyrian defeat in 36-37, Hezekiah’s healing in 38 and story about the Babylonian envoys in 39.
II. The First Story: The Defeat of Assyria: 36-37.
The first story is about a test in the midst of a threatening crisis concerning the whole nation. Below is an outline of the story:
Two Attempts to Get Hezekiah to Surrender: 36:1-37:35
A. First Attempt: 36:1-37:7
1. Report of Assyrian Actions 36:1-3
2. First Threat 36:4-20
3. Hezekiah’s Response: call for prayer 36-21-37:4
4. Isaiah’s Answer: Assurance 36:5-7
B. Second Attempt 37:8-35
1. Report on Assyrian Actions 37:8-9a
2. Second Threat 37:9b-13
3. Hezekiah’s Response: prayer 37:14-20
4. Isaiah’s Assurance 37:21-35
II. God’s Action: judgment on Assyrian 37:36-38
A few words about the outline reveal that the there is symmetry between the two attempts to get Hezekiah to surrender: 2 reports of Assyrian action, 2 threats, 2 responses by Hezekiah and 2 answers by the prophet Isaiah. The threats will change, as will Hezekiah’s response and Isaiah’s response. Therefore the author shows that there is similarity but also development. God will often put us through repeated difficulties and similar times of crisis. The attack to get us to surrender will have similarities. In the repetition (though with some variation) in the attack against us there will be an opportunity for development within us that will bring a different and more developed response from God. We will be repeated pounded by evil, but it has the potential to leave us not just weary but better and stronger and more developed in our faith.
>>>>Let us read together Isaiah 36:1-3
Historical records show that it was common Assyrian practice to sent envoys to get the cities they were attacking to choose to capitulate without a siege. A siege took time, expense and then once the walls were breached terrible fighting and great loss of life and valuable property would occur. The Assyrians were building an empire, and they needed the people and property to run their empire. They did not want to wear their armies out in a long siege and then destroy a lot of what they came to capture.
In addition, Sennacherib had threats on two fronts: in the West were Egypt, Judah and her allies and in the East was primarily Babylon under the leadership of Merodach-baladan. Assyria wanted to finish off the West so they would be free to deal with the threat from Babylon. So a quick capitulation of Judah would allow concentration on the East. Assyria had already defeated Egypt’s army and had reduced Judah to rubble with the exception of Jerusalem.
>>>>Let us read together Isaiah 36:4-10
We read here of the argument Rabshakeh gives to the king for opening the gates of Jerusalem without a fight. The argument has four points, some of which are true and some of which are not.
Egypt is a poor ally to depend on. This was true and something even Isaiah had said and history proved true.
Yahweh would not help them. Hezekiah had offended Him (with his religious reforms demanded by Deuteronomy) when he removed the high places. This is actually a false argument showing that the Assyrians did not understand the Bible but assumed Judah’s religion was like any other nation.
Assyria was unbeatable. This was a good argument in that no one had been able to defeat them in battle.
Yahweh approved the Assyrian action and even ordained it. This was true in that the destruction already brought upon Judah was the action of God in response to Judah’s sins. However, it is not clear that God wanted Jerusalem to be destroyed.
The world often wants us to quit. They will make a convincing case, but not all of its arguments will be true. In addition, the attack against the people of God will take a variety of forms. One such form is to separate God’s people from their leaders (parents, pastors, teachers, etc.)
>>>>Let us read together Isaiah 36:11-17
Q Who is Rabshakeh targeting now?
An = He spoke his message in Hebrew (the local language of Jerusalem) instead of Aramaic (the trade language of the region and the language of Assyria) because he wanted the people on the walls to hear what he had to say. He wanted them to turn on their leadership and not to believe Hezekiah’s words that the Lord would deliver them.
>>>>Let us read together Isaiah 36:18-20
Q Who does Rabshakeh attack in these verses?
An = Rabshakeh now attacks the ability of the Lord to protect Jerusalem. He compares Yahweh to the gods of the other cities that Assyria has conquered. He has openly attacked the Lord and his capacity to save His people. He has crossed a line here.
>>>>Let us read together Isaiah 36:21-37:4
The drama in this story heightens with the people manning the walls remaining silent. It must have been an ire silence that pervaded the walls that day. If you could imagine what they must have felt as the field commander of the great Assyrian army was speaking. They must have heard of the defeat of all the cities and their gods north of them as the Assyrian army came closer and closer to their own city. They also knew that all the major towns in all of Judah had been reduced to rubble and they stood alone before the greatest army on earth. They also knew that over a century before the Assyrians had defeated and destroyed their sister nation of Israel and that country no longer existed. It had withstood a 3-year siege and was devastated when the siege ended.
The officials of Judah repeated the words of the field commander of Assyria to Hezekiah, and the king was reported to have done three things. First, the king tore his clothes as a sign of mourning and distress. Second, he went into the Temple of the Lord (in a manner of speaking, he went to God) and third he sent word to the prophet Isaiah.
Hezekiah was deeply distressed and expressed that to Isaiah. He knew this could be the end of the nation as Jerusalem was the last city standing in the country and the Assyrians were planning to deport the people to another place (see 36:16, 17). The removing of the best part of the population was a common Assyrian practice to bolster their own need for people to farm the lands near them to feed their armies. Assyria did this to nations that revolted because once you take a people from their land; it affected how they understood their culture and their own religion. They thought their gods were local and attached to the land in which they were worshipped. To be deported usually ruined the religion and the culture of those taken into captivity.
Hezekiah did a wise thing: he asked for prayer from a man who knew how to pray. Hezekiah did not seemingly pray himself. Maybe his wisdom was in this: he knew his own faith was not strong enough and help was needed. It is not wrong to admit that our faith is weaker than is needed for a particular crisis. Humility and wisdom often go hand in hand. When we are stressed, we should ask for prayer from God’s great spiritual warriors.
>>>>Let us read together 37:5-7
Notice the text does not tell us that Isaiah prayed when he heard the king’s request. Maybe he did, and we are not told that in the interest of keeping the story shorter or that the prophet had already prayed and had already heard from the Lord. What is clear in the text is Isaiah’s message to the distraught king. The Lord had spoken on this situation and once God speaks history and reality and all things on earth are affected. God created the world by speaking (Genesis 1-2) and now the voice had spoken again. Isaiah was not speaking for himself or from his own store of wisdom, but he was speaking the words of God.
The first thing the Lord said was to not fear. God can do miracles and change the world and history by His Word, but He has chosen not to overwhelm the will of men. He has chosen to give us the freedom to believe or to not believe: to stay in fear or to choose to leave fear behind and trust in God’s Word. The second thing the Lord gave the king was a beautiful show of respect. What followed the command to not fear was the reason why trusting in the Lord would be a good thing. God loved us when He gave us freewill, and He gave us respect through the teachings of the Mosaic Law and the teachings of the prophets by giving us reasons for His commands. He respects our minds as we should respect the minds of those to whom we speak to and, we do that when we give reasons for our instructions as pastors, teachers and parents. The reason not to fear was that God understood that the field commander had blasphemed in the name of the king of Assyria (37:6) and therefore that king would hear a rumor and return home to his own death.
No timing was given as to when these events would take place. That is important to note as God often does this and He does so for a reason.
>>>>Let us read together Isaiah 37:8-13
The Egyptian pharaoh, Tirhakah had come up from Egypt and was marching towards Judah, and so the Assyrian king and his field commander were forced to withdraw from Jerusalem and move towards the approaching Egyptian army coming up the South.
The king of Assyria wanted to have the last word. He sent word to Hezekiah that his god would not deliver him from this crisis and gave his concrete examples of what had happened to many other kingdoms that had opposed what he wanted. His parting words were to blaspheme the Lord once more.
>>>>Let us read together Isaiah 37:14-20.
Notice there had been a change in Hezekiah. When all seemed lost he asked for prayer and the prophet Isaiah had given him hope through the Lord’s Words. Now he wisely realizes Egypt will not save them but God will save them. So instead of asking for prayer he prayed to the Lord Himself. It is always better to do our own praying. As spiritual leaders it is good for us to first pray for people but it is better when they pray to God for themselves. It is good when the people we lead skip us and go directly to God. Hezekiah now learns for himself that Isaiah 28:16 is true. The Lord wants us to know for ourselves as leaders and then to hope others learn for themselves the truth of Hebrews 11:6.
These verses are a beautiful scene to try and visualize in our minds. The king brought the letter from Sennacherib and spread it out before the Lord and showed the Lord what had been said about Him. He asked the Lord to hear what was said about Him (37:17) and to deliver them from the Assyrians so that the glory of the Lord may be known (37:20). Hezekiah was a wise leader when he did not trust in Egypt, but trusted in God. As he did this he began to realize that the key issue all along was not deliverance from trouble but the glory of God. Hezekiah was lifted from a preoccupation of his own problems to the proper focus of the glory of God. As Alex Motyer (p.281) so beautifully says: “The heart of prayer is not its petitionary content but the acknowledgement of God”. Hezekiah’s prayer opened with praise of God as present among His people (enthroned between the cherubim) and though close to them Yahweh was also the exalted creator of all the heavens and earth (37:16). He closed his prayer with a request that all the kingdoms of the earth may know: “that you alone, O Lord, are God” (37:20). It is how we should pray.
>>>>Let us read together Isaiah 37:21-29
Like Isaiah, we want others to learn the lessons we have learned as leaders or parents but that does not mean our job is done. God still had work for Isaiah to do and so sent Isaiah with another message to Hezekiah. Notice that Isaiah’s prayer affirmed the direction taken by Hezekiah for Isaiah’s answer and like the prayer of Hezekiah, Isaiah’s message was all about God. Often our job is to affirm those who have taken a courageous step of faith.
>>>>Let us read together Isaiah 37:30-35
The Lord gave Hezekiah a sign that He would deliver him. It was a practical sign and a typical example of the caring heart of God. Though the people of Jerusalem had not had time to plant or cultivate crops because of the siege the land would produce enough for the people until the 3rd year. Then they could go back to normal agricultural practices. Anyone who has experienced war knows that after the war great hardship still remains as the people try to rebuild their lives. God knew that and so gave Hezekiah a special promise that their sustenance would be met by Yahweh’s power.
The promise of food as a sign was followed by a repetition of the promise of deliverance for the sake of David. Hezekiah and Judah in their crisis had no doubt lost sight of that their problems were not the whole situation. They did not want to perish as a nation, but something greater was at stake. God had made a promise to David and His Word was at stake. David would be the line through whom the messiah would come. God cared for Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem in that day but He never lost sight of us either and our need for a savior. Jesus was to come from the line of David. God was going to save Judah so she could be the cocoon that would safe guard the understanding of the messiah for the world. We needed Judah to be that cocoon. God loves Israel and God loves the world. He is the maker of heaven and earth as well as Israel.
>>>>Let us read together Isaiah 37:36-38
Notice that what happened to Sennacherib was an interim fulfillment. The coming true of the prophecy of Isaiah earlier in the chapter was a “down payment” that the other words of judgment and promise about the future (given in chapters 1-39 and 40-66) would come true.
Note: The Assyrians had made a crucial mistake in their calculations. It is one that the world often makes and the church is often tempted to make. The Assyrians did not figure God into the equation. They regarded neither Him nor any religion as a real force to be reckoned with.
III. The Second Story: Personal Crisis. Isaiah 38
This second story is about a personal crisis in the life of Hezekiah the king.
>>>>Let us read together Isaiah 38:1-8
RQ Is it all right to not want to die?
The king asked for a lengthened life on this earth and reminded the Lord that he had been faithful and wholehearted in his devotion. Isaiah told him that he will be given 15 extra years added to his life. In similar fashion to the other events in Isaiah, there is a short-term prophecy functioning as an interim fulfillment. A sign or interim fulfillment given was with a well known sundial. The sundial would retreat 10 steps.
>>>> Let us read together Isaiah 38:9-12
The prayer of Hezekiah was an inspiring and honest prayer. Of particular interest is the contrast between verses 13 and 14. In verse 13, he used the metaphor of a roaring lion as his frustration grew but in verse 14 there is the mere whisper of prayer like the weak twitter of bird. It is this weak twitter that seems able to move the lion-like death actions of God.
>>>>Let us read together Isaiah 38:21-22
There is a place for signs and Isaiah speaks of signs or interim fulfillments. There is one in 38:7, 8 with the sundial, in 37:30-32 with the crop yields and in 7:14 with the virgin with child. Signs are meant to help us believe and keep going. Ahaz rejected the offer of a sign in 7:14, and he was judged for refusing to use it. Signs were given to help us, and Ahaz story illustrated that they are to be used.
However, in 38:22, it seemed that Hezekiah was addicted to signs. Like all good things, signs can also be misused. Signs can become a crutch and an excuse for refusing to act in faith. Always seeking another sign when one has been given is considered wrong in the Scriptures. See the Gospel of Luke where Jesus addresses this attitude in 17:23, 37. They refused to use the information they had because they really did not want another sign as much as they did not want to take a risk. Also, go back to the story of Gideon who was repeatedly seeking signs. Gideon later failed in his life, despite the four signs and great miraculous victory that God gave him. Hezekiah was given a sign in the moving backward of the sundial, but then wanted another sign after Isaiah put the healing material from figs on the Hezekiah’s boil. What is interesting is what will happen in the next chapter. Hezekiah will do poorly in Isaiah 39.
The Mistake with the Enjoys of Babylon: chapter 3
This final story is about the mistake of a king.
>>>>Let us read together Isaiah 39:1-8
As mentioned above, Merodoch-Baladan was a threat to the Assyrians from the East as Hezekiah, his allies and Egypt was from the West and so when the Babylonians hear of Hezekiah’s recovery they make contact. We are not told of the Babylonian intentions for the visit or Hezekiah’s motives for receiving them and trying to impress them. Isaiah did not seem happy. Hezekiah was told by Isaiah that all that the king showed the envoys from Babylon will some day belong to them as they would carry it off to Babylon. It seemed that Hezekiah was seeking another political alliance or help from the flesh (like the mistake of relying on Egypt) instead of just relying on God.
What is strange, but sad, is how this short chapter ends. Hezekiah seemed to have gone backwards in two ways. First, after walking in faith and experiencing so much success against the great Assyrian army, Hezekiah seemed to have gone back to the security of the flesh. Second, when told that the Babylonians would take his heirs captive, Hezekiah was relieved it would happen after his death. It seems like a poor response to be happy with peace in our own time with little concern for what will happen to our children and grandchildren. Perhaps, trusting in the flesh can develop selfishness in us so that we do not fully care about anything but their immediate happiness. Trusting in God develops the insight in us that greater than our problems is the glory of God. The greatest gift we can give our children is our obedient trust in the Lord.