July 18, 2008
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The Book of Isaiah Chapter 1 V.1 Part 5.9
The Book of Isaiah
Chapter 1 V.1 Part 5.9
Now we are back to this point that shows us why Hezekiah is dealing with this situation. It is evident that this is a test. In other words, it’s like Sennacherib = “Sin multiplied brothers” came to “Jehovah is my strength” king of “praised” and said, I don’t believe you. I don’t believe Jehovah is your strength, or that you are the king of “praised.” Me and my “multiplied brothers of sin” have come to challenge you and your “strength.” Now I want to view that invasion from 2 Chronicles.
2Ch 32:1 After these things, and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fenced cities, and thought to win them for himself.
2Ch 32:2 And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem,
Jerusalem = “teaching of peace”
2Ch 32:3 He took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains which [were] without the city: and they did help him.
Waters
1) water, waters
a) water
b) water of the feet, urine
c) of danger, violence, transitory things, refreshment (fig.)
When I looked up the word transition, I found: the passage from one place or state to another, change. Transitory means lasting only a short time.
Fountains
1) eye
a) eye
1) of physical eye
2) as showing mental qualities
3) of mental and spiritual faculties (fig.)
2) spring, fountain
City
1) excitement, anguish
a) of terror
2) city, town (a place of waking, guarded)
a) city, town
So what I see here is that Hezekiah stopped the waters of the fountains without the city in order to prevent the passage or change in the mindset of those outside of excitement, anguish or terror; in other words…this was an effort to proclaim: “Trouble don’t last always.”
2Ch 32:4 So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water?
2Ch 32:5 Also he strengthened himself, and built up all the wall that was broken, and raised [it] up to the towers, and another wall without, and repaired Millo [in] the city of David, and made darts and shields in abundance.
So Hezekiah stopped doubt and at the same time, strengthened himself, and built up broken areas, and invested in weapons in abundance. It sounds to me like he was getting filled with the word.
2Ch 32:6 And he set captains of war over the people, and gathered them together to him in the street of the gate of the city, and spake comfortably to them, saying,
2Ch 32:7 Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that [is] with him: for [there be] more with us than with him:
2Ch 32:8 With him [is] an arm of flesh; but with us [is] the LORD our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.
The Fifteen “Songs of Degrees”:
Fifteen years were added to the life of Hezekiah. In the restoration of the second temple by Herod fifteen steps led from the Court of the Women to the Court of Israel, and on these steps the Levites during the Feast of Tabernacles were accustomed to stand in order to sing the fifteen “songs of degrees” (Pss 120-134). At the head of these same steps in the gateway, lepers who had been cleansed from their disease presented themselves to the priests. It has been suggested that Hezekiah himself was the compiler of these fifteen “songs of the steps,” in thankfulness for his fifteen years of added life. Five of them are ascribed to David or as written for Solomon, but the remaining ten bear no author’s name. Their subjects are, however, most appropriate to the great crises and desires of Hezekiah’s life. His great Passover, to which all the tribes were invited, and so many Israelites came; the blasphemy of Rabshakeh and of Sennacherib’s threatening letter; the danger of the Assyrian invasion and the deliverance from it; Hezekiah’s sickness unto death and his miraculous restoration to health; and the fact that at that time he would seem to have had no son to follow him on the throne—all these subjects seem to find fitting expression in the fifteen Psalms of the Steps.
