The Book of Isaiah
Chapter 1 V.1 Part 5.12
Isa 37:6 And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
Isa 37:7 Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
Right here we see God’s protective nature towards His own becoming visible. He says that the king of Assyria did not speak against Hezekiah, but instead against God, and has blasphemed Him. Therefore, the fight has become God’s and He will address it. Clearly Hezekiah understood this, and his own position here, because he did not attempt to do anything other than what Isaiah instructed him, per the Lord.
Isa 37:8 So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
Isa 37:9 And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is come forth to make war with thee. And when he heard [it], he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
Isa 37:10 Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
Isa 37:11 Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered?
Isa 37:12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, [as] Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which [were] in Telassar?
Gozan = “a cutting off”
1) the Mesopotamian city on or near the middle of the Euphrates where exiled Israelites were settled
Haran = “mountaineer”
2) the city to which Abraham migrated when he left Ur of the Chaldees and where he stayed until his father died before leaving for the promised land; located in Mesopotamia in Padan-aram at the foot of Mount Masius between the Khabour and the Euphrates
Rezeph = “a hot stone”
Eden = “pleasure”
Telassar or Thelasar = “Assyrian hill”
Isa 37:13 Where [is] the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?
Hamath = “fortress”
1) the principle city of upper Syria in the valley of the Orontes
Arpad or Arphad = “I shall be spread out (or supported)”
Sepharvaim = “the two Sipparas”
1) a city in Syria conquered by the king of Assyria
a) perhaps near the modern ‘Mosaib’ and on the Euphrates above Babylon
Hena = “troubling”
1) a city in Mesopotamia which the Assyrian kings reduced shortly before the time of Sennacherib; site unknown
Ava or Ivah = “ruin”
Isa 37:14 And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.
What I like here is the fact that Hezekiah took the offensive letter, went to the house of the Lord, and spread it before Him. That’s the act of placing something upon the altar, or giving it to God.
Isa 37:15 And Hezekiah prayed unto the LORD, saying,
Isa 37:16 O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest [between] the cherubims, thou [art] the God, [even] thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth.
Isa 37:17 Incline thine ear, O LORD, and hear; open thine eyes, O LORD, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent to reproach the living God.
Isa 37:18 Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their countries,
Isa 37:19 And have cast their gods into the fire: for they [were] no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them.
Isa 37:20 Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou [art] the LORD, [even] thou only.
Now I’m looking at this prayer and I see a few things that may be indicative of a pattern of victorious prayer.
- He identifies God; speaks of His reign and power and position as Lord over all – He praises God.
- He requests that God listens to and hears as well as opens His eyes to see what this pagan king has said against God. So he’s not praying about his own shame or embarrassment here, but is saying that this king had the nerve to speak thus against the living God.
- Then he mentions what the kings of Assyria have done against the works of man.
- Lastly he requests that the Lord rescue them so that His name would be glorified in all the earth.
What I see is a totally unselfish prayer. He never once mentioned any of the works that he himself had done, in tearing down the high places and re-establishing worship at the temple unto God as a justification for why God should rescue them. It is also obvious that he was in right standing with God, because he did not have to ask for God’s protection despite the failing of the people to give God proper respect and honor and to serve Him alone.
His entire focus was on the fact that by attacking them, this king was, in fact, rising up against, and attacking God, and therefore, he must be put down, because of God’s glory, which must be evident throughout the earth. It doesn’t matter the number of times these kings rose up against other nations, but when they rise up against God’s own, they rise up against God, and therefore, they must be destroyed.
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