The Book of Isaiah

Chapter 1 V.1 Part 5.11

I’m back in 2 Ki 18, as this story is recorded there as well as Chr. 32: 1-15, 30; and Isa 36:2-10.  So let’s look at it here in 2 Ki 18.

2Ki 18:19  And Rabshakeh said unto them, Speak ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence [is] this wherein thou trustest?

2Ki 18:20  Thou sayest, (but [they are but] vain words,) [I have] counsel and strength for the war. Now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?

2Ki 18:21  Now, behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, [even] upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so [is] Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him.

2Ki 18:22  But if ye say unto me, We trust in the LORD our God: [is] not that he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and hath said to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?

2Ki 18:23  Now therefore, I pray thee, give pledges to my lord the king of Assyria, and I will deliver thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them.

2Ki 18:24  How then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

What got my attention was the next verse.

2Ki 18:25  Am I now come up without the LORD against this place to destroy it? The LORD said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.

Now, I gotta say, that if I was one of the people…one of the Jews in Hezekiah’s kingdom, that statement might make me question things or rethink, particularly if Hezekiah had not already been standing for the Lord. If not for the fact that Hezekiah had prepared the people, and had strengthened them…they would have been shaken. Since I put most of what the king of Assyria’s message was already, I’m just jumping to the people’s reaction.

2Ki 18:36  But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king’s commandment was, saying, Answer him not.

2Ki 18:37  Then came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which [was] over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, to Hezekiah with [their] clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

This story continues in chpt 19, but also in Isaiah 37, so I’m going to go there. Here is Hezekiah’s reaction.

Isa 37:1  And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard [it], that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.

Isa 37:2  And he sent Eliakim, who [was] over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.

Eliakim = “God raises” or “God sets up”

Shebna = “vigour”

Isaiah or Jesaiah or Jeshaiah = “Jehovah has saved”

Amoz = “strong”

Isa 37:3  And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day [is] a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and [there is] not strength to bring forth.

Isa 37:4  It may be the LORD thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up [thy] prayer for the remnant that is left.

Isa 37:5  So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

Now, not only did Hezekiah build up the people and exhibit faith, but sometimes we can burn out giving or feeding faith into others and we need to be refreshed and built back up ourselves.