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Isaiah 36:1-9, Assyrian Invasion-Part 1

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Isaiah 36:1-9, Assyrian Invasion-Part 1 ISAIAH ISAIAH 36: 1-9, ASSYRIAN INVASION! PART 1 Much of the first half of the book of Isaiah dealt with the issue of trust. Was Judah going to trust Yahweh to protect them, or were they going to rely on themselves, on alliances with pagan nations, and on humanistic solutions to their problems? The next four chapters form a historical bridge from Assyrian hostilities towards Judah to Babylonian hostilities towards Judah. Both of these nations were deadly threats to Israel and Judah—Assyria conquered the Northern Kingdom and Babylon conquered the Southern Kingdom—and they prefigure the end times nations of the world that will be trying to destroy Israel in the future. Chapters 36-37 reveal Hezekiah’s trust in God and the subsequent miraculous deliverance from the conquest and destruction of Jerusalem King Sennacherib planned. Chapter 38, which is chronologically prior to the deliverance from the Assyrian Army, reveals Yahweh’s healing of Hezekiah from an illness. Chapter 39 reveals Hezekiah’s lack of trust in God—even godly people can be very fickle—and the pronouncement of judgment on Judah at the hands of Babylon. “Hezekiah faced three crises in a short time: an international crisis (the invasion of the Assyrian army), a personal crisis (sickness and near death), and a national crisis (the visit of the Babylonian envoys). He came through the first two victoriously, but the third one tripped him up” [Warren W. Wiersbe, “Isaiah” in The Bible Exposition Commentary: Old Testament: The Prophets, 43]. Oswalt summarized the first half of the book very well. “Chs. 7-12 posed a question: ‘Is God Sovereign of the nations?’ Can God deliver from Assyria? Or is he just one more of the gods, waiting to be gobbled up by a bigger god? In short, can God be trusted? Chs. 13-35 have sought to answer in four main sections: chs. 13-23; 24-27; 28-33; 34-35. In the first, God’s lordship over each of the nations is asserted. In the second, it is shown that God is not merely the reactor to the nations, but is in fact the sovereign Actor on the world’s stage. In the third, the superiority of God’s counsel over that of the merely human leaders is shown. Finally, the last two chapters show the ultimate results of the two courses of action, with ch. 35 ending at exactly the same point as chs. 11-12, with the promise that God can, and will, redeem. He may be trusted. However, the issue remains: is this merely abstraction or can it become concrete reality? Ahaz had proved that the nations cannot be trusted. But what of God? Can his trustworthiness be demonstrated or only asserted? Must his promises for the distant future be clung to blindly, or can an earnest of their reality be experienced now? This is what chs. 36-39 are about” [John N. Oswalt, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament: The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 1-39, 627]. These four chapters are not in chronological order; chapters 38-39 must have preceded the events of chapters 36-37. “This is plain from [Is.] 38:6 which anticipates the threat and defeat of the Assyrians (described in chaps. 36-37) as yet future. Moreover, extrabiblical historical records agree, placing Sennacherib’s siege of Judah (recounted in chaps. 36- 37) in 701 BC but the visit of Merodach-baladan’s delegation (39:1) in 703 BC” [Michael Rydelnik and James Spencer, “Isaiah” in The Moody Bible Commentary, 1055]. 1 These four chapters bridge the first part of the book to the last part of the book. The first part of Isaiah emphasized the threat Assyria posed to Judah, and the second part emphasized the threat Babylon posed to Judah. Chapters 36-37 bring to a close the Assyrian emphasis in the first part of the book, and chapter 39 introduces the Babylonian nation into the narrative in the second part of the book. Rydelnik believes the failure of Hezekiah concerning Babylon that was revealed in chapter 39 was placed there for a very strategic theological reason [Michael Rydelnik and James Spencer, “Isaiah” in The Moody Bible Commentary, 1055]. Hezekiah was a great, faithful king, but he was not perfect, and his dalliance with Babylon’s king, Merodach-baladan, proves it. By placing that incident at this point in the book, Isaiah is showing his readers that Hezekiah is not the Messianic king referred to earlier in the book (Is. 7:13-15, 9:6-7, 11:1-16). Chapter 7 referred to the virgin birth of a son named Immanuel, chapter 9 to the child born and the son given who would be Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, and Prince of Peace, and chapter 11 revealed the concept of the Righteous Branch. Hezekiah is not the king identified in these Scriptures. The second part of the book was focused on the future while the first half focused on a foe that was going to be destroyed and who would subsequently disappear from history. The Babylonian captivity to come was of much greater importance than the past defeat of Assyria. “[A]s is suggested at numerous points in the prophecies themselves, their scope is messianic and eschatological. They look forward to a time after the exile in Babylon, when God would judge the nations and bring peace to Jerusalem by means of his promised King” [John H. Sailhamer, NIV Compact Bible Commentary, 367 quoted in Michael Rydelnik and James Spencer, “Isaiah” in The Moody Bible Commentary, 1055]. There is also a contrast presented in these chapters between Ahaz and Hezekiah that illuminates their respective attitudes towards God. Ahaz refused a sign from God (Is. 7:12), but Hezekiah accepted signs from God (Is. 37:30, 38:7-8). Isaiah 36 deals with King Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah by the Assyrian Army. The contrast between King Hezekiah, who will turn to the Lord for deliverance, with his father Ahaz who foolishly entered into a doomed alliance with Assyria is a foundational, background issue although it is unspoken in this chapter. The point Yahweh is making through Isaiah is that trusting God will result in the divine protection of the nation that He promised them long before in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. Who was Hezekiah? Hezekiah was a largely faithful king of Judah who was commended in the Scriptures for his faithfulness. After David and Solomon, the Scriptures had more to say about Hezekiah than about any other king of Judah. 2 Kings 18:1–7 1Now it came about in the third year of Hoshea, the son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah became king. 2He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. 3He did right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father David had done. 4He removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; 2 and it was called Nehushtan. 5He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him. 6For he clung to the LORD; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses. 7And the LORD was with him; wherever he went he prospered.… 2 Chronicles 31:20–21 20Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah; and he did what was good, right and true before the LORD his God. 21Every work which he began in the service of the house of God in law and in commandment, seeking his God, he did with all his heart and prospered. “He began his reign in about 715 B.C., though he may have been coregent with his father as early as 729 B.C. He restored the temple facilities and services of worship, destroyed the idols and the high places (hill shrines where the people falsely worshiped Jehovah), and sought to bring the people back to vital faith in the Lord. He led the people in a nationwide two-week celebration of Passover and invited Jews from the Northern Kingdom to participate” [Warren W. Wiersbe, “Isaiah” in The Bible Exposition Commentary: Old Testament: The Prophets, 42]. The other king involved in this historically and theologically significant episode is Assyria’s King Sennacherib. He became king in 705 B.C. and immediately faced some revolts within the territories Assyria controlled. The most serious of these was the revolt by Merodach-Baladan in Babylon which took a couple of years to bring under control. Once that happened, Sennacherib moved to quell some revolts in the west including Judah. Hezekiah attempted to bribe and buy off the Assyrian king with tribute, and, although the Assyrian accepted the money, he continued his assault on Judah and Jerusalem. 2 Kings 18:13–16 13Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them. 14Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong. Withdraw from me; whatever you impose on me I will bear.” So the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
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