Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 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.
1. went into the house of the Lord ] See Isa 37:14-15. Cf. 1Ki 8:33-34.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
When king Hezekiah heard it – Heard the account of the words of Rabshakeh Isa 36:22.
That he rent his clothes – (See the note at Isa 36:22).
He covered himself with sackcloth – (See the note at Isa 3:24).
And went into the house of the Lord – Went up to the temple to spread out the case before Yahweh Isa 37:14. This was in accordance with the usual habit of Hezekiah; and it teaches us that when we are environed with difficulties or danger and when the name of our God is blasphemed, we should go and spread out our feelings before God, and seek his aid.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 37:1
Hezekiah . . . rent his clothes . . . and went into the house of the Lord
The distress, of Hezekiah
Hezekiah was probably weak in body, and therefore had lost true courage of soul.
(J. Parker, D. D.)
Peril should drive the soul to God
The best way to baffle the malicious designs of our enemies against us is to be driven by them to God and to our duty, and so to fetch meat out of the eater. Rabshakeh intended to frighten Hezekiah from the Lord, but it proves that he frightens him to the Lord. The wind, instead of forcing the travellers coat from him, makes him wrap it closer about him. (M. Henry.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XXXVII
Hezekiah is greatly distressed, and sends to Isaiah the prophet
to pray for him, 1-4.
Isaiah returns a comfortable answer, and predicts the
destruction of the king of Assyria and his army, 5-7.
Sennacherib, hearing that his kingdom was invaded by the
Ethiopians, sends a terrible letter to Hezekiah, to induce him
to surrender, 9-13.
Hezekiah goes to the temple, spreads the letter before the
Lord, and makes a most affecting prayer, 14-20.
Isaiah is sent to him to assure him that his prayer is heard;
that Jerusalem shall be delivered; and that the Assyrians shall
be destroyed, 21-35.
That very night a messenger of God slays one hundred and
eighty-five thousand Assyrians, 36.
Sennacherib returns to Nineveh, and is slain by his own sons,
37, 38.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXXVII
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
1. sackcloth(See on Isa20:2).
house of the Lordthesure resort of God’s people in distress (Psa 73:16;Psa 73:17; Psa 77:13).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And it came to pass, when King Hezekiah heard it,…. The report that his ministers made to him of the blasphemies and threatenings of Rabshakeh, the general of the Assyrian army:
that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth; the one because of the blasphemies he heard; the other cause of the destruction he and his people were threatened with:
and went into the house of the Lord; the temple, to pray to him there: he could have prayed in his own house, but he chose rather to go to the house of God, not so much on account of the holiness of the place, but because there the Lord promised, and was used to hear the prayers of his people, 1Ki 8:29,30 as also because it was more public, and would be known to the people, and set them an example to follow him in. Trouble should not keep persons from, but bring them to, the house of God; here the Lord is to be inquired of, here he is to be found; and from hence he sends deliverance and salvation to his people. Nothing is more proper than prayer in times of affliction; it is no ways unbecoming nor lessening the greatest king on earth to lay aside his royal robes, to humble himself before God, in a time of distress, and pray unto him. Hezekiah does not sit down to consider Rabshakeh’s speech, to take it in pieces, and give an answer to it, but he applies unto God.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The king and the deputation apply to Isaiah. “And it came to pass, when king Hizkiyahu had heard, he rent his clothes, and wrapped himself in mourning linen, and went into the house of Jehovah. And sent Eliakim the house-minister, and Shebna (K. omits ) the chancellor, and the eldest of the priests, wrapped in mourning linen, to Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet (K. has what is inadmissible: the prophet son of Amoz). And they said to him, Thus saith Hizkiyahu, A day of affliction, and punishment, and blasphemy is this day; for children are come to the matrix, and there is no strength to bring them forth. Perhaps Jehovah thy God will hear the words (K. all the words) of Rabshakeh, with which the king of Asshur his lord has sent him to revile the living God; and Jehovah thy God will punish for the words which He hath heard, and thou wilt make intercession for the remnant that still exists.” The distinguished embassy is a proof of the distinction of the prophet himself (Knobel). The character of the deputation accorded with its object, which was to obtain a consolatory word for the king and people. In the form of the instructions we recognise again the flowing style of Isaiah. , as a synonym of , , is used as in Hos 5:9; (from the kal ) according to Isa 1:4; Isa 5:24; Isa 52:5, like (from the piel ), Neh 9:18, Neh 9:26 (reviling, i.e., reviling of God, or blasphemy). The figure of there not being sufficient strength to bring forth the child, is the same as in Isa 66:9. (from , syn. , Gen 38:29) does not signify the actual birth (Luzzatto, punto di dover nascere ), nor the delivering-stool (Targum), like m ashber shel – chayyah , the delivering-stool of the midwife ( Kelim xxiii. 4); but as the subject is the children, and not the mother, the matrix or mouth of the womb, as in Hos 13:13, “He (Ephraim) is an unwise child; when it is time does he not stop in the children’s passage” ( m ashber banm ), i.e., the point which a child must pass, not only with its head, but also with its shoulders and its whole body, for which the force of the pains is often not sufficient? The existing condition of the state resembled such unpromising birth-pains, which threatened both the mother and the fruit of the womb with death, because the matrix would not open to give birth to the child. like in Isa 11:9. The timid inquiry, which hardly dared to hope, commences with ‘ulai . The following future is continued in perfects, the force of which is determined by it: “and He (namely Jehovah, the Targum and Syriac) will punish for the words,” or, as we point it, “there will punish for the words which He hath heard, Jehovah thy God ( hokhach , referring to a judicial decision, as in a general sense in Isa 2:4 and Isa 11:4); and thou wilt lift up prayer” (i.e., begin to offer it, Isa 14:4). “He will hear,” namely as judge and deliverer; “He hath heard,” namely as the omnipresent One. The expression, “to revile the living God” ( l e chareph ‘Elohm chai ), sounds like a comparison of Rabshakeh to Goliath (1Sa 17:26, 1Sa 17:36). The “existing remnant” was Jerusalem, which was not yet in the enemy’s hand (compare Isa 1:8-9). The deliverance of the remnant is a key-note of Isaiah’s prophecies. But the prophecy would not be fulfilled, until the grace which fulfilled it had been met by repentance and faith. Hence Hezekiah’s weak faith sues for the intercession of the prophet, whose personal relation to God is here set forth as a closer one than that of the king and priests.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Hezekiah’s Message to Isaiah. | B. C. 710. |
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. 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. 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. 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. 5 So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 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. 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.
We may observe here, 1. That the best way to baffle the malicious designs of our enemies against us is to be driven by them to God and to our duty and so to fetch meat out of the eater. Rabshakeh intended to frighten Hezekiah from the Lord, but it proves that he frightens him to the Lord. The wind, instead of forcing the traveller’s coat from him, makes him wrap it the closer about him. The more Rabshakeh reproaches God the more Hezekiah studies to honour him, by rending his clothes for the dishonour done to him and attending in his sanctuary to know his mind. 2. That it well becomes great men to desire the prayers of good men and good ministers. Hezekiah sent messengers, and honourable ones, those of the first rank, to Isaiah, to desire his prayers, remembering how much his prophecies of late had plainly looked towards the events of the present day, in dependence upon which, it is probable, he doubted not but that the issue would be comfortable, yet he would have it to be so in answer to prayer: This is a day of trouble, therefore let it be a day of prayer. 3. When we are most at a plunge we should be most earnest in prayer: Now that the children are brought to the birth, but there is not strength to bring forth, now let prayer come, and help at a dead lift. When pains are most strong let prayers be most lively; and, when we meet with the greatest difficulties, then is a time to stir up not ourselves only, but others also, to take hold on God. Prayer is the midwife of mercy, that helps to bring it forth. 4. It is an encouragement to pray though we have but some hopes of mercy (v. 4): It may be the Lord thy God will hear; who knows but he will return and repent? The it may be of the prospect of the haven of blessings should quicken us with double diligence to ply the oar of prayer. 5. When there is a remnant left, and but a remnant, it concerns us to lift up a prayer for that remnant, v. 4. The prayer that reaches heaven must be lifted up by a strong faith, earnest desires, and a direct intention to the glory of God, all which should be quickened when we come to the last stake. 6. Those that have made God their enemy we have no reason to be afraid of, for they are marked for ruin; and, though they may hiss, they cannot hurt. Rabshakeh has blasphemed God, and therefore let not Hezekiah be afraid of him, v. 6. He has made God a party to the cause by his invectives, and therefore judgment will certainly be given against him. God will certainly plead his own cause. 7. Sinners’ fears are but prefaces to their falls. He shall hear the rumour of the slaughter of his army, which shall oblige him to retire to his own land, and there he shall be slain, v. 7. The terrors that pursue him shall bring him at last to the king of terrors,Job 18:11; Job 18:14. The curses that come upon sinners shall overtake them.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
ISAIAH – CHAPTER 37
THE HUMILIATION OF THE PROUD ASSYRIAN
Vs. 1-5: KING HEZEKIAH SENDS MESSENGERS TO ISAIAH
1. Having heard the blasphemous threats of the Assyrian, king Hezekiah rent his garments, put on sackcloth (a sign of mourning) and went into the house of the Lord, (vs. 1; Gen 37:34; Psa 73:16-17; Psa 77:13).
2. He also sent representatives (garbed like himself) to Isaiah, the prophet, whom he recognized as God’s representative (and who had warned against trusting in Egypt, cf. Isa 20:2-6) – desiring his prayers and counsel, (vs. 2-5).
a. The king is greatly troubled, humiliated and disgraced, (comp. Isa 26:16-18).
b. But, his greatest concern seems to be that the Assyrian has defied the living God, (Isa 36:15; Isa 36:18; Isa 36:20).
c. Perhaps, if Isaiah will lift up a prayer in behalf of the remnant of his people, the Lord will hear and rebuke the proud Assyrian who has insulted His holy name, (vs. 4; Isa 1:9; Isa 10:20-22; comp. Jer 21:1-2).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. And it came to pass. The Prophet declares that the only hope of safety that was left to the pious king was to bring his complaints before God as a righteous judge; as it is said in the Psalm, that
“
in the same manner as servants or handmaids, when they are injured, look to the protection of their master or mistress, so the eyes of believers are fixed on the assistance of God.” — (Psa 123:2.)
Thus, when Jerusalem appears to be completely ruined, Hezekiah, being bereft of earthly assistance, betakes himself to the protection of God, and thus acknowledges that there is no other remedy for heavy distresses. Hence also the grace of God shone more brightly, so that it was evidently miraculous, when the pious king was rescued from the jaws of that lion. We ought, therefore, to observe this circumstance, that we may better understand the great excellence of the work of God. Here we are also taught what we ought to do in the most desperate circumstances, not to be indolent or sluggish in supplicating the assistance of God, who himself invites us to come to him. We must not tremble or despair, but, on the contrary, ought to be stimulated by the necessity which presses upon us to seek his aid; as we see what Hezekiah did, who immediately betook himself to the temple in the same manner as to a place of safety, that he and all his people might take refuge under the shadow of God.
That King Hezekiah rent his clothes. He likewise adds the outward expressions of repentance, the “rending of the clothes and wearing sackcloth,” sprinkling of ashes, and other things of the same kind; for these were the ordinary signs of repentance, when, under the weight of any calamity by which they were afflicted, they confessed their guilt before God and implored pardon from him. Wonderful is the modesty of the holy king, who, after having performed so many illustrious works, and after having been adorned by the excellence of so many virtues, does not hesitate to prostrate himself humbly before God; and, on the other hand, wonderful is his courage and the steadfastness of his faith, in not being hindered by the weight of so heavy a temptation from freely seeking God by whom he was so severely smitten. Scarcely do we find one man in a hundred who does not murmur if God treats him with any degree of severity, who does not bring forward his good deeds as a ground of complaint, and remonstrate that he has been unjustly rewarded. Other men, when God does not comply with their wishes, complain that their worship of God has served no good purpose.
We perceive nothing of this kind in Hezekiah, who, though he is conscious of possessing uncommon piety, does not shrink from a confession of guilt, and therefore if we desire to turn away God’s anger, and to experience his favor in adversity, we must testify our repentance and sincerely acknowledge our guilt; for adversity does not fall out to us by chance, but is the method by which God arouses us to repentance. True, indeed, sackcloth and ashes will be of little avail, if they be not preceded by the inward feelings of the heart; for we know that hypocrites are abundantly liberal in the use of ceremonies; but as we have formerly said, the Holy Spirit justly commends those exercises, when they are directed to their proper object. And indeed it was a proof of uncommon piety and modesty, that the pious king and the whole nation excited themselves in this manner to fear God, and that he made a voluntary acknowledgment of guilt in a form attended by wretched filthiness; for we know how unwilling kings are to let themselves down from their rank.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
A FOOLISH KING AND A WISE ONE
Isa. 37:1. And it came to pass, &c.
The message to which our text refers was sent by a foolish king to a wise one. Look at them both.
I. THE FOOLISH KING.
Sennacherib. Ignorant of God, he fell into various follies.
1. Pride and arrogance. Unaware that he was but an instruments in the hand of God (chap. Isa. 10:5-7), he imagined that his triumphs were due entirely to his military genius and the power under his control. Blind as to the true nature of his past career, he looked into the future with boastful confidence; he had no doubt that he would go on conquering and to conquer. His proud survey of the past and this arrogant outlook into the future are follies repeated by many men much smaller than Sennacherib. But every wise man will remember that he owes all his past successes to God (Deu. 8:10-18), and that all his future is absolutely in the hand of God (Jas. 4:13-15).
2. Blasphemous undervaluing of the power of God (Isa. 37:18-20). He therefore imagines that Gods people are in his hand. On this account he presents to them a curious reason why they should surrender (chap, Isa. 36:16-17). He promises them a quiet possession of their own vines, which they possessed already but for his disturbance; and in the same breath he adds, Until I come and take you away; and then, to soften that sentence, he promises to take them to a land like their own. He promises them no more, after all, than they had already on the safe tenure of their own laws.
This reason for surrender was either a mockery of men whom he believed incapable of resisting him, or an indication of the mental weakness into which pride was betraying him. Ere long there was a terrible demonstration of his folly (Isa. 37:36, P. D. 3413), an appalling fulfilment of the prediction concerning him (Isa. 10:12-19).
II. THE WISE KING.
Hezekiah. His disposition does not appear to more advantage in any passage of life, nor his conduct exhibit lessons more generally useful, than in the circumstances to which our text alludes. A message is brought from a proud invader; threats mixed with blasphemies are sounded in his ears; a force far superior to his own draws near to his city. In his extremity he sought help, not from man, but from God. In drawing near to God, he testifies his penitence for his own sins and the sins of the people by rending his garments and covering himself with sackcloth, the usual tokens of sorrow in the East; his faith and hope by resorting to the house of God, his accustomed place of prayer. Observe the wisdom of the order of his procedure.
1. He began with demonstrations of repentance. He knew well that without repentance there could be no hope towards God.
(1.) This is the true order for individuals (H. E. I. 145147).
(2.) For the Church of God.
2. Beginning with repentance, he could cherish hope (Isa. 37:2-4). Why? He felt that the Lord would not permit Sennacheribs words to pass unpunished; and that, if the sins of the people did not operate to prevent it, help would surely be sent him. But he spoke with caution, it may be, &c. The best reasons may be found for what we call delays in providential helps. There was room for expectation that help would be given, room for prayer that it might be given, but no room for overweening confidence that it must be so. With his hope there was mingled submission to the will of God, and that doubtless helped to win for his prayer a favourable hearing.
CONCLUSION.This narrative presents us with the results, on the one hand, of pride and arrogance; and on the other, of repentance and an humbled spirit. In times of extremity let us not entertain hope without an humble and repentant suit to God; and when that ground of penitence is laid for its support, let us not dismiss our confidence. God is always able to help His people. Like Hezekiah, then, to Him let us resort in every time of trouble, whether it be a time of public danger or of domestic affliction.J. H. Pott: Sermons, vol. ii. pp. 282299.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
B. PERSEVERANCE, CHAPTER 37
1. THE PLEA
TEXT: Isa. 37:1-7
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 Jehovah.
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.
3
And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of contumely; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
4
It may be Jehovah thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Jehovah thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.
5
So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6
And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith Jehovah, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
7
Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he shall hear tidings, and shall return unto his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
QUERIES
a.
What is a day of contumely?
b.
Why say, children are come to the birth . . . etc.?
c.
When did the king of Assyria return to his own land?
PARAPHRASE
When King Hezekiah listened to the report of the men sent to meet with Rabshakeh, he tore his robes indicating his anguish of soul, put on camels-hair clothing indicating his penitence and went into the Temple to humble himself before the Lord. Just before doing this he had sent Eliakim, his chief administrator, and Shebna, his royal scribe, and the chief priestsall in camels-hair clothing of humilityto Isaiah, the prophet of God, son of Amoz. They were sent to Isaiah with this message from King Hezekiah: This is a day of distress and anguish, punishment and rebuke, reproach and rejection from the Lordit is a day from which only a miracle can deliver us like a day when children are ready to be born but the mothers wombs will not open! So I am hoping, Isaiah, your God will take note of the defiant, insulting words of the Rabshakeh, who was sent by the king of Assyria for that very purpose and will punish him for the words He has heard the Rabshakeh speak. So pray, Isaiah, for those of us remaining, as many as we can find. So, they came to Isaiah with this message. And this was Isaiahs reply to them: Say this to Hezekiah, your master; Jehovahs word is, Do not be afraid of the threats and insults of the men sent by the king of Assyria, because I will dispose the king of Assyria to leave Judah through a report that will come to him from his homeland that he is needed back there at once, and he will return to his own land, and he will eventually die a violent death by the hand of his own people.
COMMENTS
Isa. 37:1-5 WORSHIP: It is significant that Hezekiah, upon hearing the report of Rabshakehs scoffing intimidation and insulting blasphemy of Jehovah, turned immediately to worship God in penitence and sent to get Gods word from Gods prophet. Happy is any nation whose ruler turns in penitence to worship Jehovah and seek His word in national crises. It was a Hebrew custom in times of great stress and turmoil, sorrow and remorse to both rend the clothing and put on sackcloth (cf. Gen. 27:34; 2Sa. 3:31; 1Ki. 21:27; Est. 4:1, etc.). In addition to all this Hezekiah went into the Temple (the house of the Lord) undoubtedly to pray. He did not pray to have the Lords will revealed directly to himselffor that he sent to the messenger of God, Isaiah. His prayer was probably one of penitence.
Not only did Hezekiah devote himself to penitence and seeking the Lords will, but he instructed his officials to do so also. Most political potentates are accustomed to depend too much on their own power and expertise and consult Gods spokesmen only on matters of morality and religion. Many potentates have made that mistake (Saul, Ahaz, Zedekiah, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, the Caesars, ad infinitum). Then he sent them to Isaiah. He did not order Isaiah to come to him, as many rulers would have done. Respecting Gods prophet shows Hezekiahs deep reverence for God! There was no question in Hezekiahs mind who was the King of the UniverseJehovah. This is true worship, acknowledging Gods sovereignty and seeking His will.
King Hezekiah sends Isaiah his analysis of the current political-military crisis. It is dark and foreboding. The following Hebrew words are used by Hezekiah to describe the situation: tzar (trouble, anguish, distress, oppression); thokekhah (rebuke, correction, punishment); natzah (contumely, contempt, blasphemy). It was a day so dire and catastrophic that it was like a woman in labor struggling to give birth and her womb will not open to deliver. Unless some extraordinary help is forthcoming death will be the result. Hezekiah realizes Judah is at this critical juncture.
Hezekiahs It may be Jehovah . . . will hear is like the Who knows whether he will not turn and repent . . . of Joe. 2:14 and Jon. 3:9, etc. It is not a guess! It is an expression of hope that God will intervene based upon known deeds of God in the past (see our comments, Minor Prophets, College Press, pg. 176, 249, 250, 251). Hezekiahs description of the day, trouble, rebuke, contempt, indicates his persuasion that their circumstances were by the permissive will of God to correct them for their trouble, rebuke and contempt of God. Their circumstances were designed to bring them back to God and Hezekiah was one of the first to recognize and admit it. It is no wonder God compared Hezekiah to Davidafter Gods own heart.
So, the good king commits the defiance of the Rab-shakeh to the Living God who is being defied. The Hebrew word translated defy is lekharek and means literally to reproach and blasphemeto insult and scoff at. Hezekiah requests Isaiah to pray for the shariyth (remnant) that is nimetzaah (findable, or remaining). Apparently the king is referring to besieged Jerusalem as all that is left of Judah. So Hezekiahs servants brought his request to Isaiah.
Isa. 37:6-7 WORD: Isaiahs answer is authoritative, direct and simple. It is as simple as Thus saith the Lord. The answer is simple but the application of it (be not afraid) may be difficult in view of the present circumstances. This is where mans faith is put to the test. If faith fails then he is by his own choice not of the nature fit to companion with God. Isaiah told Ahaz (Isa. 7:4) not to fear the enemies of the covenant people earlier, but Ahaz failed in faith.
The Lord promises, through Isaiah, to put a spirit in the king of Assyria. The Hebrew word is ruakh which is usually translated spirit but literally means breath or wind. It is sometimes translated mind (Eze. 11:5; Eze. 20:32) and sometimes means an emotion (Pro. 29:11; Gen. 26:35). Just how God puts a spirit, mind, emotion, disposition in a pagan ruler to return to his homeland when he seems of a mind to do something other must remain one of the mysteries of the Infinite and Omnipotent God. We are told in other places of such action by God (Isa. 10:5-19; Isa. 44:28 to Isa. 45:6; Jer. 51:20-23; 2Ch. 36:22-23; Ezr. 1:1-4). God is capable of speaking to pagan rulers in dreams and visions (as He did to Nebuchadnezzar) or stirring up their spirits (as He did to Cyrus). It does not appear that God gave Sennacherib a vision. He heard something from his own land that caused him to return, and 20 years later he was violently slain by his own sons. We will document this event in later comments. It should be noted here Isaiah does not predict Sennacheribs death immediately upon his arrival back in Assyria. It is not the prophets purpose to predict all the detailsonly those which are essential to Hezekiahs trust in the Lord.
QUIZ
1.
Why did Hezekiah rend his clothes and put on sackcloth?
2.
How drastic had the political-military situation of Judah become?
3.
What is the remnant that is left?
4.
What is the character of Isaiahs reply?
5.
How did God put a spirit in the king of Assyria?
6.
Why did the king of Assyria return to his own land?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XXXVII.
(1) Covered himself with sackcloth.The king was probably accompanied by his ministers, all in the penitential sackcloth of mourners (Joe. 1:8-13; Jon. 3:5-6).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. When king Hezekiah heard it The narrative continues, but the scene is shifted, and what occurs inside the walls of Jerusalem is brought to view. On hearing the report of his returned commissioners, the king Hezekiah acted his grief in the accustomed way rending his garments and putting on a mourning garb of coarse linen. A deep sorrow is thus expressed; such as, in this extremity, he thought only Jehovah, whom he truly honoured and loved, could assuage.
Went into the house of the Lord Where, according to the prayer of Solomon, (1Ki 8:29,) sincere prayer should be heard. As this was done publicly, it could not well fail of suitably affecting the people.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
King Hezekiah Pleads For the Intercession of Isaiah ( Isa 37:1-7 ).
Isa 37:1
‘And it came about that when king Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Yahweh.’
The result of King Hezekiah’s receiving of the message was that he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth, signs of mourning and repentance, and went to the Temple to seek God. In spite of his failures he was a godly king, and humbly sought God over Jerusalem’s difficulty. He was acting here in his position as ‘a priest after the order of Melchizedek’, coming before God on behalf of the people in a non-sacrificing priesthood (Psa 110:4). We note that he is now dignified by being called king. It is no longer the Rabshakeh who is speaking.
Isa 37:2
‘And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.’
He next sent an official deputation from the Temple to Isaiah. This included his two chief ministers and the leading men among the priests, ‘the elders of the priests’. So both secular and religious leadership were being involved. It was an appeal from the whole nation to God through Isaiah. This brings out how Isaiah was now viewed, as an exceptional prophet who had special influence with God. The fact that he does not summon Isaiah into his presence possibly indicates the sense of humility that he feels. He recognises his present unworthiness.
Isa 37:3
‘And they said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, “This day is a day of trouble, and of reproof, and of blasphemy. The children have come to birth and there is not strength to bring them out.” ’
Note that ‘king’ is dropped again. The words are from Hezekiah’s mouth and he is sending as a suppliant to the representative of the great King Yahweh, not as a lord and master. He is feeling humbled. Hezekiah’s message begins by bringing out the position. It is a day of trouble and distress. It is a day in which God has reproved His people. It is a day when God’s name has been horribly blasphemed by the king of Assyria, or alternately it is a day of disgrace.
So the emphasis is on the fact that this is a day of great distress, although a day of admittedly deserved distress, and a day when they are all disgraced. And he admitted that they did not know what to do. They had brought this trouble on themselves and they did not know how to cope with it. (It is often only when we admit that we have come to the end of our own strength that God steps in).
‘The children have come to birth and there is not strength to bring them out.’ This was probably a well known saying, indicating that something was occurring which they could not cope with.
Isa 37:4
“It may be that Yahweh your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. For this reason lift up your prayers for the remnant who are left.’
This statement supports the translation ‘blasphemy’ above. The king of Assyria has brought reproach on the name of Yahweh in front of the people. Now Yahweh’s reputation is at stake. His hope therefore is that Yahweh will respond in some way in order to clear His name, and he asks Isaiah to pray for what is left of the kingdom, once so large, and now reduced to a pitiful remnant (see Isa 1:9). Thus he centres his prayer on concern for the name of Yahweh. (This should in fact be the central factor in all our prayers, for only then can we pray ‘in Jesus’ name’).
Note the humble ‘Yahweh your God’, repeated twice (not ‘Yahweh our God’). It suggests a feeling of unworthiness, and a recognition of Isaiah’s special place before God. The reference to the living God, however, does demonstrate a certain level of faith. He knows that Yahweh can do something, if He will.
‘Lift up your prayers.’ He sees Isaiah as having a special power in prayer due to his close relationship to God.
‘For the remnant who are left.’ Only a small remnant of Judah was left. Sennacherib in his annals claimed to have taken into captivity ‘two hundred thousand, one hundred and fifty’ of the people of Judah together with great spoil (probably two hundred large units, one smaller unit, and a half unit as they were organised for the march). There were therefore many of the people of Judah who had already been taken into exile, even if we do not accept the number literally, and a great many would also have been slaughtered. And many others had by now been made part of other kingdoms, their region having been handed over by Sennacherib to other kings, while even others would be hiding in the mountains. Thus those left in Jerusalem were a relatively small minority of what had once formed his kingdom.
In fact the quaint number of those taken into captivity, a round number and yet not a round number, suggests either an exaggeration of a not very clever kind, or that in the ‘two hundred thousand’ the ‘thousand’ signifies something other than a number, possibly say two hundred family groups or units organised for marching, and a further one hundred and fifty persons. There are certainly many indications in Scripture that in Hebrew an ’eleph (‘thousand’) originally did indicate such family groups or military units of a certain size, only later becoming solidified to mean a thousand. And it was not an age when numeracy was prominent among non-experts.
Isa 37:5-7
‘So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah, and Isaiah said to them, “Thus shall you say to your master. Thus says Yahweh, Do not be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he will hear a rumour, and will return to his own land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.’
‘So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.’ This is a resume of what has already been mentioned, a regular feature of Hebrew literature. We would write ‘thus the servants —’, or ‘so the servants having come —’.
We note firstly that the narrative now calls him king again. It is an official narrative, and Isaiah sends him a reply from Yahweh in stately style. He gives King Hezekiah the respect that is his due. He has no need to pray because he knows that Yahweh is about to act. There is a time when prayer becomes unbelief. They are to tell King Hezekiah that he is not to be afraid because God intends to rid him of Sennacherib by means of a rumour which will cause him to return to his own land, where he will be murdered. No time limits are given. He is not saying that it will all happen immediately, only that he will not interfere with Hezekiah again. The facts are within God’s timing.
This does not contradict what follows. This is an assurance to Hezekiah, weak in faith. God knew that to promise a wonder would be too much for Hezekiah’s faith, while a rumour would probably appear to him as an acceptable possibility. And it is indeed quite probable that one reason why Sennacherib did return home was because of ‘a rumour’, either of a further Egyptian force being gathered, or of dissension at home, or both.
For God did not at this stage wish to publicise the great wonder that He intended to do. When it happened He wanted it to have its full impact. It was to be a wondrous and unexpected sign to His people and to the king with a hope of producing repentance and faith, and was to be a judgment on Assyria for their behaviour and attitude. It was not just to be seen as a means of relieving the city. Whereas here He is speaking of relieving the city in response to Hezekiah’s request so as to ease Hezekiah’s mind.
Note first Yahweh’s charge of blasphemy. He had heard what had been said, and was passing judgment on it. The king of Assyria was a blasphemer who had brought on his own head what was about to happen.
‘A spirit in him’. A presentiment of doom that would cause him to act swiftly. It may have been news of family intrigue, or warning of a possible dangerous rising elsewhere, or apprehension at the possible size of the Egyptian army. But we are not told.
‘And I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.’ To fall by the sword in his own land indicated treachery. This occurred around twenty years later when he was assassinated in 682 BC (see Isa 37:38).
‘Young men.’ A description dismissive of these great men. To Him they are of little account. They are ‘youngsters’. They are but boys compared with the Rock of ages.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 37:15-20 Hezekiah’s Prayer (Outline) – A prayer of Deliverance (prayer against Sennacherib):
Isa 37:16 Addressing YHWH by name (his name fit the situation)
Isa 37:17 – Requesting YHWH’s attention
Isa 37:18-19 – Explaining the situation to YHWH
Isa 37:20 Specific request of deliverance for YHWH’s namesake and His glory.
Isa 37:15 And Hezekiah prayed unto the LORD, saying,
Isa 37:16 Isa 37:16
Isa 37:22 This is the word which the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.
Isa 37:22
Isa 37:24 By thy servants hast thou reproached the Lord, and hast said, By the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the height of his border, and the forest of his Carmel.
Isa 37:24
Isa 37:29 Because thy rage against me, and thy tumult, is come up into mine ears, therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.
Isa 37:29
Isa 37:30 And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such as groweth of itself; and the second year that which springeth of the same: and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof.
Isa 37:31 Isa 37:31
Isa 37:31 “take root downward” Comments – Like in the parable in Mat 7:24-27, we must build our foundation on the rock, which is Jesus. Our faith must increase as we study God’s word and learn to be established in His word, which is so very precious and wonderful.
Isa 37:31 “and bear fruit upward” Comments – Only the man who is grounded in God’s word can bear fruit for the kingdom. The stronger the root system, the more the fruit.
h the LORD.
Isa 37:35 Isa 37:35
Isa 37:36 Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
Isa 37:36
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Prophecies of Isaiah to Hezekiah Inserted between prophecies of judgment (Isaiah 1-35) and restoration (Isaiah 40-66) is the story of two major events in the life and ministry of Hezekiah king of Judah. Isa 36:1 to Isa 39:8 tells the story of Hezekiah’s confrontation with Sennacherib, who tried to conquer Jerusalem, and God’s miraculous deliverance. This passage of Scripture is almost the same in content to 2Ki 18:13 to 2Ki 20:19. Thus, the same author probably penned both two passages and one served as a copy of the other.
Note the proposed outline:
Sennacherib Besieges Jerusalem Isa 36:1 to Isa 37:38
Hezekiah’s Illness Isa 38:1-22
The Visit of the Babylonians Isa 39:1-8
If we compare the narrative material of Elijah and Elisha (1Ki 17:1 – 2Ki 9:37), there is a similarity in structure in that they both bear witness to the testimony of the prophets of the Lord. This becomes evident by the fact that both passages end with a testimony of the fulfillment of the words of the prophets Elijah and Isaiah. For example, the story of Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem ends with the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy of Isa 37:7 (Isa 37:36-38). The story of Hezekiah’s illness ends by reflecting upon the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy (Isa 38:21-22). The story of the visit of the Babylonians closes by noting the fulfillment of prophecy (Isa 39:8).
Isa 36:1 Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the defenced cities of Judah, and took them.
Isa 36:1
Isa 36:2 And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem unto king Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field.
Isa 36:2
[52] Edward Robinson, ed., Calmet’s Dictionary of the Holy Bible, as Published by the Late Charles Taylor, with the Fragments Incorporated (Boston: Crocker and Brewster, 1832), 774; Adam Clarke, Isaiah, in Adam Clarke’s Commentary, Electronic Database (Seattle, WA: Hendrickson Publishers Inc., 1996), in P.C. Study Bible, v. 3.1 [CD-ROM] (Seattle, WA: Biblesoft Inc., 1993-2000), notes on Isaiah 36:2.
[53] F. F. Bruce, The Books and the Parchments (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1963), 49.
AmpBible, “And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh [the military official] from Lachish [the Judean fortress commanding the road from Egypt] to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem with a great army. And he stood by the canal of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field.”
BBE, “And the king of Assyria sent the Rab-shakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a strong force, and he took up his position by the stream of the higher pool, by the highway of the washerman’s.”
NIV, “Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the commander stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman’s Field.”
Isa 36:11 Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray thee, unto thy servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and speak not to us in the Jews’ language, in the ears of the people that are on the wall.
Isa 36:11
[54] F. F. Bruce, The Books and the Parchments (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1963), 49-50.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Effect of Sennacherib’s Boast upon Hezekiah
v. 1. And it came to pass, when King Hezekiah heard it, namely, the report of his envoys, that he rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth, v. 2. And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, v. 3. And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, v. 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, v. 5. So the servants of King Hezeikiah came to Isaiah.
v. 6. And Isaiah said unto them, v. 7. Behold, I will send a blast upon him, v. 8. So Rabshakeh returned, v. 9. And he heard say concerning Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, v. 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. v. 11. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly, v. 12. Have the gods of the nations, v. 13. Where is the king of Hamath and the king of Arphad and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, v. 14. And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, v. 15. And Hezekiah prayed unto the Lord, saying, v. 16. O Lord of hosts, Commander of the heavenly armies, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubim, v. 17. Incline Thine ear, O Lord, v. 18. Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their countries, v. 19. and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, v. 20. Now, therefore, O Lord, our God,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
This chapter is the sequel of the preceding, and is so closely connected with it that the two really constitute but one narrative. Isa 37:22 of Isa 36:1-22. is more closely connected with Isa 37:1-38, than with the position of the narrative to which it is attached.
Isa 37:1
When King Hezekiah heard it; rather, heard them; i.e. the “words of Rabshakeh,” which his officials reported to him. He rent his clothes. He did as they had done (Isa 36:22; see the comment on that verse). But he went further, showing a deeper sense of horror and affliction than the officials had shown by being covered with sackcloth (on the combination of the two modes of showing grief or horror, see Gen 37:34; 2Sa 3:31; 1Ki 21:27; Est 4:1, etc.). And went into the house of the Lord. The temple was not only a place for offering praise and sacrifice, but also a “house of prayer”. Hezekiah can, on this occasion, have gone up to the house of the Lord only to pray.
Isa 37:2
He sent Eliakim and Shebna and the elders of the priests. A dignified embassy, showing how much Isaiah was held in honour. The prophets, as representatives of Jehovah, were entitled to respect and observance even from kings.
Isa 37:3
A day of rebuke; rather, of reproof, or punishment (comp. Psa 149:7 and Hos 5:9). That God should have allowed such an insulting embassy to come and go in safety was a mode of reproving his people, and to some extent punishing them for their sins. Even Hezekiah himself deserved reproof for having so long placed his reliance upon Egypt (Isa 20:5, Isa 20:6; Isa 30:1-4; Isa 36:6, Isa 36:9), though now apparently he had turned to Jehovah, and relied on him only (Isa 36:7, Isa 36:15). Blasphemy. So Delitzsch. Mr. Cheyne suggests “contumely,” and Dr. Kay “contempt.” But the meaning “blasphemy,” which Mr. Cheyne confesses to “suit the context,” is required in all the other passages where (substantially) the same word occurs (Neh 9:18, Neh 9:26; Eze 35:12). Hezekiah calls the day one “of blasphemy,” on account of Rabshakeh’s impious utterances (Isa 36:15, Isa 36:18, Isa 36:20). The children are come to the birth, etc. This was a proverbial phrase for a time of extreme difficulty (see Hos 13:13), and is not to be pressed as embodying at all a close analogy. Judah was in sore trouble, and was expecting deliverance. It seemed now as if she would not have strength to go through the crisis, but would perish through weakness.
Isa 37:4
It may be the Lord will hear; i.e. “will notice,” or “will punish.” If Isaiah laid the matter before God, and prayed earnestly, it was possible that God would intervene to save Judah, and punish the blapshemous words uttered. The living God. In opposition to the dead idols of the heathen, which had neither life, nor breath, nor perception (see Psa 115:4-8; Psa 135:15-18). The remnant that is left. It is usual to explain this of Judah generally, which still survived, although Israel had been carried away captive. But perhaps the contrast is rather between the numerous Judaean captives who had been taken and conveyed to Assyria by Sennacherib when he took the “fenced cities” (Isa 36:1), and the portion of the nation which still remained in the land. Sennacherib says, in his annals, that he took “forty-six” cities, and carried captive to Assyria above two hundred thousand persons.
Isa 37:6
The servants of the King of Assyria. Mr. Cheyne translates, “the minions of the King of Assyria,” remarking truly that the word used is not the ordinary one for “servants,” but “a disparaging expression.” Perhaps the best translation would be lackeys.
Isa 37:7
Behold, I will send a blast upon him; rather, I will put a spirit within him; i.e. I will take away from him the spirit of pride and arrogance by which he has been hitherto actuated, and I will infuse into his heart, instead, a spirit of hesitation and fear. He shall hear a rumour; literally, as Delitzsch translates, he shall hear a hearsay; i.e. “a report,” or “tidings.“ It is uncertain what “tidings” are intended. Some suppose “tidings of the movements of Tirhakah;” others, “tidings of the destruction of his host;” a few, “tidings of an insurrection in some other part of the Assyrian empire.” This last supposition is wholly gratuitous, since we have no indication, either in Scripture or in the inscriptions, of any such insurrection. The choice lies between the other two, or between one or other of them, and the two combined. The vagueness is owing, not to the time at which the present narrative took shape, but to the fact that a vague promisequite sufficient for its purposewas given at first, the filling in of the details being reserved for a later period (see Isa 37:22-35). I will cause him to fall by the sword (see Isa 37:38).
Isa 37:8
Rabshakeh found the King of Assyria warring against Libnah. Libnah was a town at no great distance from Lachish (Jos 10:31; Jos 15:39-42). It was also near Mareshah (Jos 15:42-44), and must therefore have belonged to the more southern portion of the Shefeleh, and probably to the eastern region, where the hills sink down into the plain. The exact site is very uncertain, and still remains to be discovered. Sennacherib’s object in moving upon Libnah is doubtful; hut it would seem, from his monuments, that he had captured Lachish, and had gone on to Libnah, as the next stronghold on the way to Egypt.
Isa 37:9
Tirhakah, King of Ethopia. Tirhakah is among the most famous of the monarchs belonging to this period. The Greeks called him “Tearchon,” the Assyrians “Tarku” or “Tarqu.” His name, as represented on his own monuments, is “Tahark” or “Tahrak.” According to the Egyptian remains, he had a reign of at least twenty-six years in Egyptfrom b.c. 693 to b.c. 667. He would seem, however, to have been King of Ethiopia, and lord paramount of the lower valley of the Nile, from about b.c. 700, Shabatok for some years ruling Egypt, or a portion of it, as his deputy. Hezekiah’s negotiations had, it is probable, been with Tirhakah (Isa 19:13; Isa 20:5; Isa 30:1-6). This monarch, having engaged to help him, now put his forces in motion, and began to descend the Nile valley to his relief. His movement rather provoked than alarmed Sennacherib, who, having defeated one Egyptian army in b.c. 701, was confident of success against another. He sent messengers. It is not very clear what advantage Sennacherib expected from this second embassy. He had no fresh argument to bring forward, unless it were a suggestion that Hezekiah’s God was endeavouring to deceive him. In the main, Isa 37:10-13 are a mere expansion of Isa 36:18-20.
Isa 37:10
Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee. Sennacherib recognized Jehovah as a god, the God of the Jews, but put him on a par with the other “gods of the nations” (Isa 37:11), and
. Tiglath-Pileser I. calls himself ” the conquering hero, the terror of whose name has overwhelmed all regions“; Asshur-izir-pal, “the king who subdued all the races of men“; Shalmaneser II; “the marcher over the whole world“; Shamas-Vul, “the trampler on the world“ (ibid; vol. 1.12). Sargon says that “the gods had granted him the exercise of his sovereignty over all kings”, and that he “reigned from the two beginnings to the two ends of the four celestial points”, i.e. from the furthest north to the furthest south, and from the extreme cast to the extreme west. Sennacherib himself says, “Aashur, father of the gods, among all kings firmly has raised me, and over all that dwell in the countries he caused to increase my weapons”. From first to last, in their inscriptions, the monarchs claim a universal dominion.
Isa 37:12
My fathers. The Assyrian monarchs call all those who have preceded them upon the throne their “fathers,” without intending to claim any blood-relation-ship. Sargon, Sennacherib’s father, though a usurper and the first king of a new dynasty, frequently speaks of “the kings his fathers”. Gozan Haran Rezeph Telassar. “Gozan” is, beyond all doubt, the region known to the Greeks as Gauzanitis, which was the eastern portion of Upper Mesopotamia, or the country about the sources of the Khabour river. The Assyrian conquest of this tract is indicated by the settlement of the Israelites in the region (2Ki 17:6; 2Ki 18:11; 1Ch 5:26). “Harsh” is the well-known “city of Nahor” (Gen 24:10), called in Act 7:2 “Charran,” and by the Greeks and Romans, Carrhae. It has now recovered its old designation, and is known as Hurrah. “Rezeph” was in the neighborhood of Haran, and is mentioned as belonging to Assyria as early as b.c. 775. It had probably revolted and been reduced at a later date. “Telassar,” “the Hill of Asshur,” is not mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions, but was probably the Assyrian name of a town on or near the Euphrates, in the country of the Bent-Eden, which was not far from Carche-mish. The children of Eden. The Assyrian inscriptions mention a “Bit-Adini” (comp. Amo 1:5), and a chief who is called “the son of Adini;” both belonging to the Middle Euphrates region. The “children of Eden” (Beni-Eden) were probably the people of the tract about Bit-Adini.
Isa 37:13
Hamath Arphad Sepharvaim (see the comment upon Isa 36:19).
Isa 37:14
Hezekiah received the letter. Sennacherib sent his present message in a written form. The communications between kings were often carried on in this way (see 2Ki 5:5; 2Ki 20:12). The Hebrews use the same word for “letter” and “book;” but, when a letter is intended, employ generally the plural number (compare the Greek and the Latin litterae). And spread it before the Lord. Not that God might see it and read it, in a material sense, but still that he might take note of it, and, if he saw fit, punish it. Compare the exhibition of the Books of the Law, painted with idolatrous emblems, at Maspha, “over against” the temple, by Judas Maccabaeus and his companions (1 Macc. 3:46-48). The act in both cases implied the referring of the whole matter to God for his consideration. It was, as Delitzsch, says, a sort of “prayer without words.”
Isa 37:16
O Lord that dwellest between the cherubims; literally, that sittest upon the cherubim. The allusion is scarcely to the poetic imagery of God riding on the cherubim in the heavens (Psa 18:10), as Mr. Cheyne suggests; but rather to his dwelling between the two cherubic forms in the holy of holies, and there manifesting himself (camp. Num 7:89; 1Sa 4:4; 2Sa 6:2; 1Ch 13:6; Psa 80:1; Psa 99:1). Thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. It has been questioned whether Hezekiah was really as pronounced a monotheist as these expressions would imply, and suggested that his actual words received “a colouring” from a later writer. Hezekiah’s contemporaries, it is said, Isaiah and Micah, make no such strong statements of their belief in one only God as this (Kuenen, Cheyne). But it is difficult to see what can be a clearer revelation of monotheism than Isa 6:1-5, or what truth more absolutely underlies the whole of Isaiah’s teaching than the unity of the Supreme Being. The same under-current is observable in Micah (Mic 1:2, Mic 1:3; Mic 4:5; Mic 6:6-9; Mic 7:17, Mic 7:18). Sennacherib’s belief, that each country has its own god (Isa 36:18-20), is not shared by the religious Jews of his time. They are well aware that the heathen gods are “vanity” (Isa 46:3; Hos 4:15; Amo 1:5; Jon 2:8), “wind” and “confusion” (Isa 41:29, etc.). Thou hast made heaven and earth (comp. Gen 1:1; Psa 102:25; Isa 40:26-28; Isa 42:5, etc.).
Isa 37:17
Incline thine ear open thine eyes. This is a conscious pleading of the promise made to Solomon (2Ch 7:15).
Isa 37:18
Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations. This was a stubborn fact, which it was impossible to deny. From the time of Asshur-izir-pal at any rate, about b.c. 880, Assyria had pursued for nearly two centuries a steady career of conquest, reducing the nations which were her neighbors, almost without exception, and gradually spreading her power from the tract immediately about Nineveh to the Persian Gulf on the south, the great plateau of Iran on the east, the Armenian Mountains (Niphates and Taurus) on the north, and on the west to Cilicia and the Mediterranean. Her progress towards the west alone is marked in Scripture, since there alone she came in contact with God’s people. Under Pul she attacked Samaria (2Ki 15:19); under Tiglath-Pileser II. she carried off a portion of the ten tribes (2Ki 15:29); under the same monarch she subjugated Damascus (2Ki 16:9); under Shalmaneser she besieged (2Ki 17:5), and under Sargon took, Samaria (2Ki 17:6); under Sargon also she invaded Philistia and captured Ashdod (Isa 20:1). Now she was bent on subduing Judaea, and so preparing the way for the reduction of Egypt. Humanly speaking, it was most unlikely that the small and weak state of Judaea would be able to resist her. But God was all-powerful, and might be pleased to cast down, as he had been pleased to exalt (Isa 10:5-19). Hence Hezekiah’s appeal.
Isa 37:19
And have cast their gods into the fire. The more valuable of the foreign idols were usually carried off by the Assyrians, and placed in the shrines of their own gods as trophies of victory; but no doubt great numbers of the inferior idols. which were of wood, not even coated with metalthe of the Greekswere burnt. For they were no gods (temp. Jer 2:11; Jer 5:7; Jer 16:20, etc.). Isaiah’s favourite word for “idols“ is elilim, which is, etymologically, “not-gods“ (Isa 2:8, Isa 2:18, Isa 2:20; Isa 10:10, Isa 10:11; Isa 19:1, Isa 19:3; Isa 31:7). The work of men’s hands (see Isa 2:8; Isa 40:19; Isa 41:7, etc.). The absurdity of men’s worshipping as gods what their own hands had made is ever increasingly ridiculed by the religious Jews (comp. Psa 115:4-8; Isa 44:9-20; Jer 10:3-15; ‘Ep of Jeremy,’ 8-73).
Isa 37:20
Save us that all the kingdoms may know, etc. God’s true servants desire deliverance and triumph over enemies, not alone for their own sakes, not even for the sake of the country or people whose fate is bound up with their own, but for the glory of God, that his honour may be vindicated in the sight of the world at large. It is a large part of the satisfaction of Moses at the passage of the Red Sea, that “the peoples would hear the dukes of Edom be amazed the mighty men of Moab tremble,” etc. (Exo 15:14, Exo 15:15). David would have his foes “consumed“ in order that they might know that “God ruled in Jacob, and unto the cads of the earth” (Psa 59:13), and again, in order “that men may know that thou, whose Name alone is Jehovah, art the Most High over all the earth” (Psa 83:18). It has been well said that “the object of all the judgments which the true prophet desires is to bring all nations into subjection to God.”
Isa 37:21
Then Isaiah sent to Hezekiah, saying. It seems most natural to understand that the prophet was at once supernaturally informed of Hezekiah’s prayer, as Ananias was of Saul’s (Act 9:11), and instructed what reply to make to it. But still, it is no doubt possible that some of the facts have been omitted for the sake of brevity.
Isa 37:22
The virgin the daughter of Zion; i.e. Jerusalem (comp. Isa 1:8; Isa 10:32; Isa 16:1; Isa 52:2; Isa 62:11). The expression, “virgin daughter,” is used also by Isaiah of Zidon (Isa 23:12) and of Babylon (Isa 47:1). The personification here is very effective. since it represents Jerusalem as a tender maiden, weak and delicate, yet still bold enough to stand up against Sennacherib and all his host, and bid him defiance. Confident in Jehovah, her Protector, she despises him, and laughs him to scorn; nay, “shakes her head at him,” or rather. “after him,” pursuing him with scornful gestures as In. retreats before her. (On shaking the head as a gesture of scorn, see Psa 22:7; Psa 109:25; Mat 27:39.)
Isa 37:23
Even against the Holy One of Israel. A specially Isaiah phrase, employed by Isaiah twenty-eight times, and only five times in all the rest of Scripture. A strong proof, if any proof beyond the unmistakable Isaiah spirit of the entire prophecy were needed, of the genuineness of the present passage.
Isa 37:24
By thy servants hast thou reproached the Lord (see Isa 36:15-20). And hast said. Sennacherib had not actually uttered these words with his mouth; but the prophet clothes in his own highly poetic language the thoughts which the Assyrian king had cherished in his heart. He had regarded “the multitude of his chariots” as irresistible; he had considered that the mountains which guarded Palestine would be no obstacle to his advance; he had contemplated ravaging and despoiling of its timber the entire country; he had meant to penetrate into every region that was lovely and fertile. The emphatic “I” of the originalanitwice repeated, marks the proud egotism of the monarch. By the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains; rather, with the multitude; or, according to another reading, with chariots upon chariots. The Assyrian kings contrived to cross with their chariots mountain chains of great difficulty, and frequently boast of the achievement. Tiglath-Pileser I. says, “I assembled my chariots and warriors. I betook myself to carts of iron in order to overcome the rough mountains and their difficult marches. I made the wilderness thus practicable for the passage of my chariots and warriors”. Asshur-izir-pal, “The rugged hill country, unfitted for the passage of chariots and armies, with instruments of iron I cut through, and with metal rollers I beat down the chariots and troops I brought over”. Shalmaneser II; “Trackless paths, difficult mountains, which like the point of an iron sword stood pointed to the sky, on wheels of iron and bronze I penetrated. My chariots and armies I transported over them”. In the less rough parts, while the warders dismounted, tire horses drew the chariots, which were assisted over obstacles by attendants; but, in regions of greater difficulty, they were conveyed across the mountain ranges in waggons of rude and strong construction The chariot-force was regarded as so important that the Assyrians never made any distant expedition without it. To the sides of Lebanon. It was not necessary to cross either Libanus or Anti-Libanus in order to invade Judaea, since the natural route was along the Coele-Syrian valley and across the spurs of Hermon to the Jordan; but an Assyrian army was intent on plunder and devastation, no less than upon conquest, and would ascend mountain regions that did not lie on its direct line of march for either or both of these objects. It was customary for the soldiers to cut clown the tall cedars and choice fir trees of Lebanon on their Syrian campaigns, in order to transport the timber to Nineveh and other great cities, where it was used for building. It was also customary to destroy the trees in an enemy’s country, simply in order to inflict injury upon the foe. I will enter into the height of his border; rather, I will enter into its uttermost height; i.e. I will penetrate through the entire mountain region of Palestine, called roughly “Lebanon,” to the furthest height of any importancethat on which Jerusalem stoodand thus occupy the whole land. The parallel passage of 2 Kings has “lodging” for “height,” in apparent allusion to the palace of Hezekiah. And the forest of his Carmel; or, the forest of its pleasure-garden; i.e. the rich plantation tracts, covered with vines, olives, and fig trees, which formed the special glory of Judaea (see Isa 36:16, Isa 36:17).
Isa 37:25
I have digged, and drunk water. Sennacherib notes three natural obstacles to his advancethe forces of his opponents he does not appear to account an obstacleviz. mountains, deserts, rivers. Mountains do not stop himhe crosses them even with his chariot-force (Isa 37:24). Deserts do not stop himhe digs wells there, and drinks their waters. Rivers will not stop himhe will dry them up, trample them into puddles. Note the contrast between the past tenses, “I have come up,” “I have digged,” “I have drunk,” and the future, “I will dry up.” He had crossed the mountain ranges Sinjar, Amanus, Lebanon; he had passed waterless tracts, where he had had to dig wells, in Mesopotamia and Northern Syria. He was about to find his chief obstacle, rivers, when he invaded Lower Egypt. The rivers of the besieged places; rather, the rivers of Egypt. Mazor, the singular form (compare Assyrian Muzr, and modern Arabic Misr), is used here (as in Mic 7:12, and perhaps in Isa 19:6), instead of the ordinary dual term, Mizraim, probably because Lower Egypt is especially intended. Sennacherib was looking especially to the invasion of Lower Egypt,where the Nile had “seven branches” (Herod; Isa 2:17), and the country was also cut up by numerous canals, which would naturally constitute a great difficulty to a force depending mainly on its chariots. He believed, however, in his heart, that he would find a way of “drying up” these “rivers.”
Isa 37:26
Hast thou not heard, etc.? An abrupt transition, such as is common in Isaiah. From speaking in the person of Sennacherib, the prophet without warning breaks off, and returns to speaking in the person of Jehovah, as his mouthpiece. “Hast thou not heard,” he says, long ago; or rather, “that from long ago! have done this?” Art thou so ignorant, so devoid of that light of nature, which should “lighten every man that cometh into the world” (Joh 1:9), as not to know God’s method of governing the world? How that “from long ago,” in his eternal counsels, he designs the rise and fall of nations, and the mode in which their destruction is to be brought about? Art thou not aware that conquerors are mere instruments in God’s hands”the rods of his anger” (Isa 10:5)to work his will, and then to have his will worked upon them in turn (see Isa 10:6-19)? Sennacherib seems to be really reproached for not knowing what he ought to have known, and might have known, if he had listened to the voice of conscience and reason. Now have brought it to pass, etc. All that Sennacherib had done, he had done as God’s instrument, by his permissionnay, by his aid. He had been the axe in the hand of the hewer (Isa 10:15), the saw, the rod, the staff, of God’s indignation (Isa 10:5), the executor of his vengeance. The very purpose of his being was that he should “lay waste (certain) defenced cities into ruinous heaps.”
Isa 37:27
Therefore. The original is not so emphatic, but still contains the idea, not merely of sequence, but of consequence. God, having decreed the successes of the Assyrians, effected them (in part) by infusing weakness into the nations that were their adversaries. They were as the grass of the field (comp. Isa 40:6, Isa 40:7). The comparison is one constantly used by the Hebrew psalmists (Psa 37:2; Psa 90:5; Psa 92:7; Psa 103:15), and was not unknown to the Assyrians. The delicate grass of spring in the East withers within a few weeks, and the fresh and tender herbage becomes yellow, parched, and sapless. The grass that springs upon the earthen roofs of houses fails even more rapidly (comp. Psa 129:6). As corn blasted before it be grown up; literally, like a field before the stalk. Our translators seem to have rightly preferred the reading of 2Ki 19:26 (sh’dephah, equivalent to “blasting”) to that of Isaiah (sh’demah, equivalent to “field”) in this place. Their rendering brings out the true sense.
Isa 37:28
I know thy abode; literally, thy down-sitting (comp. Psa 139:2). The meaning is that God has, and has had, his eye on Sennacherib throughout all his career, seeing to and watching over his performance of his will. The phrase, going out, and coming in, is a Hebrew idiom for a man’s doings (see Num 27:17; Deu 28:6; Deu 31:2; 1Sa 18:13, 1Sa 18:16; 2Sa 3:25; 1Ki 3:7, etc.). Thy rage against me. As shown in the message sent by Rab-shakeh (Isa 36:7), in Rabshakeh’s speech to the “men on the wall” (Isa 36:15-20), and in the letter sent to Hezekiah from Lachish (Isa 37:10).
Isa 37:29
Therefore will I put my hook in thy nose (comp. Eze 29:4; Eze 38:4; 2Ch 33:11). The Assyrians were in the habit of passing “hooks” or “rings” through the noses or lips of their more distinguished prisoners, and attaching a thong to the hook or ring, by which they led the prisoners into the royal presence. The expressions used derive their force from these practices, but are not in the present place to be understood literally. God “turned Sennacherib back” and reconducted him to Nineveh. not with an actual “hook” or “thong,” but by the “bridle” of necessity.
Isa 37:30
This shall be a sign unto thee; rather, the sign. The prophet now turns to Hezekiah, and makes an address to him. “This,” he says, “shall be the sign unto thee of Sennachcrib’s being effectually ‘bridled,’ and the danger from Assyria over. In the third year from the present the land shall have returned to its normal condition, and you shall enjoy its fruits as formerly. Meanwhile you shall obtain sufficient nourishment from the grain which has sown itself.” The “third year,” according to Hebrew reckoning, might be little more than one year from the date of the delivery of the prophecy. The entire withdrawal of all the Assyrian garrisons from the country, which no doubt followed on Sennacherib’s retreat, might well have occupied the greater part of a year. Till they were withdrawn, the Jews could not venture to till their territory. Plant vineyards. The Assyrians had, no doubt, cut down the vines.
Isa 37:31
The remnant that is escaped (see the comment on Isa 37:4). Take root downward, and bear fruit upward; i.e. “spread over the land, and became firmly rooted in it, and flourish as in the former time.” We must conceive of the Assyrians having, in their two recent invasions, completely depopulated the country districts. Numbers had, no doubt, been slain; more than two hundred thousand had been carried into captivity; a portion had found refuge in the capital On the withdrawal of the Assyrians, these last “went forth,” reoccupied their lands, and rebuilt their towns and villages. The blessing of God was upon them, and in a short time Judaea recovered her ancient vigour, so that, under Josiah, she was able to extend her dominion over almost the whole of the old Israelite territory (2Ch 34:6, 2Ch 34:18).
Isa 37:32
The zeal, etc. (comp. Isa 9:7). The phrase is very emphatic, marking the greatness of the thing to be done, and at the same time bringing the strophe to an end with an asseveration beyond which nothing could go.
Isa 37:33
Therefore, etc. A new clause is commencedthe concluding clause of the prophecy. For Hezekiah’s satisfaction and consolation something more definite is needed than the vague assurances that “the daughter of Jerusalem shook her head at Sennacherib” (Isa 37:22), and that God would “put a bridle in Sennacherib’s mouth” (Isa 37:29). Accordingly, it is now declared, in the plainest terms, that he shall not even lay siege to the city, but shall return by the way by which he camethe coast routeleaving Jerusalem untouched, nay, unattempted. He shall not come into this city; rather, unto the city. He was at Libnah, in the Shefeleh, thirty or forty miles from Jerusalem, when we last heard of him (Isa 37:8); and, having then been just informed of the advance of Tirhakah, he is likely to have proceeded on towards Egypt. There is, at any rate, not the slightest intimation of his having made a retrograde movement towards the Jewish capital. Nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it. The main points of an Assyrian siege are happily seized. The first assailants were the archers. They boldly approached in large bodies, and strove to clear the battlements of the defenders. Then shields were brought into play. Under their cover the archers drew nearer; the scaling parties brought up their ladders; the miners attacked the foundations of the walls; and the torch-bearers endeavoured to fire the gates. Finally, if these tactics did not avail, banks were raised against the walls, which were then assailed with battering-rams till they were breached and the assailants could cuter. God promises that Jerusalem shall experience none of these things at Sennacherib’s hands.
Isa 37:34
By the way that he came. It is clear that Sennacherib on this occasion had marched by the usual coast route, through Sharon and the Shefeleh, upon Lachish, leaving Jerusalem far to his left. From Laehish he sent Rabshakeh to Hezekiah with a threatening message, and (as our version has it) “with a great army;” rather, “with a strong force.” Rabshakeh, having delivered his message, returned to his master (Isa 37:8), doubtless with his escort. Sennacherib then sent a letter by messengers, but without an army, so far as we are told, to renew his threats. Meanwhile from Lachish he went to Libnah, after which we know nothing of his movements, unless we accept the Egyptian account, which was, that he advanced to Pelusium. The declaration, “By the way that he came, by the same shall he return” (comp. Isa 37:29) was the most comforting that Hezekiah could possibly receive. It assured him that he would not even be confronted with his enemy. Into this city; rather, unto this city (as in Isa 37:32).
Isa 37:35
I will defend this city for mine own sake; literally, I will cover over this city, as a bird covers its young with its wings (comp. Isa 31:5; Mat 23:37). God would do this “for his own sake;” i.e. because his own honour was concerned in the defence of his people. He would also do it for his servant David’s sake; i.e. because of the promises made to David, that his children should sit upon his throne (2Sa 7:16; Psa 89:29-37; Psa 132:11-14, etc.), which involved the continued independence of Judaea and Jerusalem.
Isa 37:36
Then the angel of the Lord went forth. The parallel passage of Kings (2Ki 19:35) has, “It came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out.” The word of Isaiah had its accomplishment within a few hours. On the camp of the Assyrians, wherever it was, whether at Libnah, or at Pelusium (Herod; 2:141), or between the two, in the dead of night, the destroying angel swooped down, and silently, without disturbance, took the lives of a hundred and eighty-five thousand’ men. The camp was no doubt that in which Sennacherib commanded. It is contrary to the whole tenor of the Assyrian inscriptions to imagine that a mere corps d’armee, detached to threaten, not to besiege, Jerusalem, could have been one-half, or one-quarter, so numerous. It was Sennacherib’s host, not the Tartan’s, that was visited. So the Egyptian tradition; so verse 37, by implication. That in later times the Jews should have transferred the scene of the slaughter to the vicinity of their own capital, as Josephus does (‘Ant. Jud.,’ 10.2. 5), is not surprising, especially as the Egyptians claimed the glory of the discomfiture for their own gods, and the completion of the victory for their own soldiers. The nature of the destruction is not, perhaps, very important, if it be allowed to have been supernatural; but the “simoom” of Prideaux and Milman, the “storm” of Vitringa and Stanley, the “nocturnal attack by Tirhakah” of Usher, Preiss, and Michaelis, and the “pestilence” of most other commentators, seem to be alike precluded by the terms of the narrative, which imply the silent death in one night of a hundred and eighty-five thousand persons by what English juries call “the visitation of God.” The nearest parallel which Holy Scripture offers is the destruction of the firstborn in Egypt; but that was not, as this, without disturbance (see Exo 12:30). There a “great cry” broke the silence of the night; here it was not till morning, when men woke from their peaceful slumbers, that the discovery was made that “they were all dead corpses.”
Isa 37:37
So Sennacherib departed; rather, broke up his camp. The word used for all the removals of the children of Israel in the wilderness (Num 33:3-48). The loss of even an entire corps d‘armeee would not have caused an Assyrian king, at the head of an intact main army, to break up his camp and abandon his enterprise. And dwelt at Nineveh. Sennacherib lived some eighteen or twenty years from the probable date of his discomfiture, dying in b.c. 681. His ordinary residence was at Nineveh, which he greatly adorned and beautified. His father, Sargon, on the contrary, dwelt commonly at Khorsabad (Dur-Sargina), and his son, Esarhaddon, dwelt, during the latter part of his reign, at Babylon. We must not suppose, however, that Sennacherib was shut up in Nineveh during the remainder of his life. On the contrary, he made frequent expeditions towards the south, the east, and the north. But he made no farther expedition to the south-west, no further attack on Jerusalem, or attempt on Egypt. The Jews had peace, so far as the Assyrians were concerned, from the event related in Isa 37:36 to a late date in the reign of Esarhaddon.
Isa 37:38
Nisroch his god. The name Nisroch has not been found in the Assyrian inscriptions, and is, in fact, read only in this place and the parallel passage of Kings (2Ki 19:37). It has been supposed to represent Nusku, an Assyrian god of a somewhat low position, who, however, does not obtain mention in the historical inscriptions until the time of Asshur-bani-pal. Probably the name has suffered corruption. Asshur was, in fact, Sennacherib’s favourite deity, and it is remarkable that the LXX. give in this place, not Nisroch, but Asarach. “Asarach” would seem to be “Asshur” with a guttural suffix. Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him. The murder of Sennacherib by a son, whom he called “Ardumazanes,” was related by Polyhistor (ap. Euseb; ‘Chronicles Can.,’ Isa 1:5, l). Esar-haddon’s annals are imperfect at the commencement, but show that his authority was at first contested, and that he had to establish it by force of arms. Adrammelech seems to have assumed the title of king (Abyden. up. Euscb; ‘Chronicles Can.,’ 1.9, 1), and to have been put to death by his brother. Sharezer is not elsewhere mentioned. The name is Assyrian, as far as it goes, but is incomplete. Its full form was probably Nabu-sar-uzur or Nergal-sar-uzur. And escaped into the land of Armenia. So Moses of Chorene (‘Hist. Armen.,’ Isa 1:22). The Hebrew word is Ararat (Assyrian Urardu or Urartu), which was the more eastern portion of Armenia, and lay beyond the sphere of Assyrian influence. Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead. Esarhaddon (Asshur-akh iddiua) appears to have ascended the throne in b.c. 681. It is highly improbable that Isaiah was then living, and therefore the verse can scarcely be from his pen. It has probably been transferred from 2 Kings (2Ki 19:37) in order to finish off the narrative. Esarhaddon outlived Hezekiah many years, and was brought into contact with Manasseh, whom he reckoned among his tributaries.
HOMILETICS
Isa 37:1-5
Spiritual advice in, time of need not to be despised even by great kings.
The great of the earthkings, princes, nobles, statesmen, generalsare too apt to rest upon their own internal gifts of wisdom, talent, sagacity, cleverness, and to place little reliance upon others. Especially are they apt to feel a jealousy towards “the spiritualty,” and to hold themselves above the necessity of seeking aid from persons whom they view as unpractical, ignorant of worldly business, flighty, enthusiastic, fanatical. Ahab, when he determined to renew the Syrian war, and to attempt the recovery of Ramoth-Gilead, took no counsel, so far as appears, with any one but himself, and certainly neglected to ask the advice of the only true prophet of Jehovah living within reach (1Ki 22:3-8). Josiah failed to take the advice of Jeremiah before going out to meet Necho (2Ch 35:20-24); Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah went against his advice in resisting Nebuchadnezzar. It has become almost a principle of modern politics that the spiritualty are not to advise except on matters closely connected with religion or morals, and even on such matters their advice is looked upon with suspicion. The cuckoo-cry of “priestcraft” is raised, and the spiritualty is bidden to confine its, If strictly to its own sphere, and not to intermeddle in the ordinary politics of a nation. Hezekiah’s conduct suggests a contrary lesson, seeming to teach
I. THAT THE SPIRITUALTY ARE THE BEST ADVISERS EVEN IN TEMPORAL MATTERS. For, first, they have a less direct interest in such matters, and so are likely to give more unbiased counsel. Secondly, they are accustomed to take into account remoter eventualities, as well as immediate results, and are therefore likely to entertain broader views than others. Thirdly, they are more keenly alive than laics to the moral aspect of political questions, which is often a most important aspect, and one that deserves to have a preponderating weight in determining action.
II. THAT IN CONSULTING THEM IT IS WELL TO SHOW THEM DUE RESPECT. Disrespect is the ordinary rule when the politicians of the world condescend to make any reference at all to the spiritualty. “Hasten hither Micaiah, the son of Imlah,” strikes the keynote of their utterances (1Ki 22:9). It is not uncommon for them even to dictate what the spiritualty shall say (1Ki 22:13). Hezekiah was more respectful, and more wise. He sent his highest officers of state to the house of the prophet, and humbly asked his prayers and his advice. No doubt there is a wide difference between such a prophet as Isaiah and a modern bishop, or archbishop, or conclave of bishops. Still, if there is to be consultation of these last, a show of respect for them should at least be maintained. It cannot be expected that otherwise they will regard their advice as of importance, or apply their minds very carefully to give the best advice in their power.
III. THAT IN THE WORST STRAITS THEY CAN GIVE VALUABLE HELP, IF NOT BY ADVICE, YET BY PRAYER. “Wherefore lift up thy prayer,” said Hezekiah, “for the remnant that is left” (verse 4). God might not have thought fit to “reprove the words of Sennacherib.” His patience might have been exhausted, and he might have been about to allow the conquest of Judaea by Sennacherib, as he afterwards allowed its conquest by Nebuchadnezzar. Hezekiah could not be sure that there was any escape. But in the worst case, “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man would avail much.” It would avail to mitigate, if not to prevent, the sufferings of the people, to support them under misfortune, it not to save them from it. In times of national Deed and distress, wise kings and governments do well to ask the prayers of the Church, not that God will not hear them if they address themselves directly to him, but that he may be besieged, as it were, on all sides by prayer, and so prevailed upon to have mercy. The force of prayer is greatly augmented by the prayer being multiplied. “Where two,” or more, “agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven” (Mat 18:19).
Isa 37:14-20
Taking our cross to God, and casting all our care upon him.
Deep afflictions seem to pass beyond the reach of human aid. Whether it be bereavement, or sense of sin, or coming trouble of any heavy kind, the profoundly afflicted soul for the most part feels human hell) vain, human sympathy impertinent, and finds no refuge, no consolation, except in pouring itself out before God. We know that “he careth for us” (1 Peter 6:7); we know that he can understand us. It is true wisdom to fly to him, and put our griefs before him. Only let us be sure that, like Hezekiah, we “spread” the whole before the Lord (Isa 37:14), that we keep nothing backno dark corner of our heart, no “secret place” of our complex nature, no hidden act of our life. Unless we be honest with God, we have no claim to his help. He hates such as “dissemble in their hearts” (Jer 42:20) before him. The best human counsellor can give us little aid unless we “make a clean breast” of our difficulties to him. So God will have us “make a clean breast”not for his information, since he “understandeth our thoughts long before” (Psa 139:2), but that we may be fit recipients of his gracethat his healing balms may have power to work on us and comfort us and effect our cure.
Isa 37:18, Isa 37:19
Faith neither blind to seemingly adverse facts, nor chary of admitting them.
Sennacherib thought to destroy Hezekiah’s trust in Jehovah by an array of facts which he regarded as having the force of an induction. Hezekiah fully admitted the facts (“Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their countries”), but did not suffer his faith to be shaken by them. His faith rested upon another distinct set of facts, which Sennacherib’s did not and could not invalidate. The truth is that inductions, being never complete, are never demonstrativethey do but establish a probability, and the first adverse fact that can be adduced against them upsets them, or rather upsets the general conclusion that has been drawn from them. Faith, therefore, has no need to be afraid of any amount of seemingly adverse facts, drawn from the region of the sensible. For faith’s facts lie mainly in a different sphere, and are untouched by the facts of sense, however numerous. The miracle of our Lord’s resurrection rests, for instance, first upon prophecy, secondly upon testimony, thirdly upon vision (Rev 1:18). No amount of ascertained facts that others have not risen, can touch the sufficiently established fact that our Lord did rise. There is no even seeming clashing or contradiction, until the physicist proceeds to draw from his army of facts the general conclusion: “Therefore no men rise.” But this conclusion is one that he has no right to draw; it is illogical; the data do not entitle him to infer more than that” Most men do not rise,” or rather, “have not yet risen.” And so generally with the facts that are adduced against the dicta of faith. They are no disproof of that which they are alleged to disprove. Faith, real faith, is always ready to admit the facts, when once they are established as facts. It disputes the illogical conclusions drawn from the facts, and the ingenious hypotheses projected from the brains of scientists to account for them.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Isa 37:1-18
Hezekiah’s resources.
The conduct of the king on hearing the haughty message of the Assyrian is that of a man of habitually religious mind and religious practice.
1. He rends his garments and covers himself with sackcloth. This was significant of sorrow and of self-humiliation: “Humble yourselves beneath the mighty hand of God, and he will exalt you in due time.” Instead of searching far and wide for the causes of our distress, it were well to look first into our own hearts, and that closely. There, where the mischief has begun, the remedy and the hope may be revealed.
2. He sends a deputation to the minister of God; also clothed in sackcloth. They give the king’s message to Isaiah, “This day is a day of trouble, punishment, and contumely.” The outward forms and shows of grief could not denote them truly. They had
“That within which passed show,
Beneath the trappings and the suits of woe.”
The mourning garb expresses the need of the rending of the heart, and the bowing down of its pride before the judgments of God. Human extremity is confessed: “There is no strength to bring forth.” The toil over insoluble problemsthe matching of one’s strength against a superhuman enterprise, the comparison of one’s idea of what should be with one’s sense of the absence of resources for its accomplishment, brings utter exhaustion. It is under such conditions that men learn that whatever strength they had at any time is from God, that whatever help is needed must come from him now. In the house of God, in the attitude of humility and penitence, in communion with men of God, let us be found in the day of distress.
I. THE HUMAN INTERCESSOR. In common life we recognize the principle of intercession. We shelter ourselves behind the worth of another; we seek to gain interest with the powerful and the good. To carry things by personal interest and partiality doubtless opens the door to abuses; but alter all it is founded itself upon love. Logic says,” Let every case be judged by its merits, every man stand or fall by merit or demerit of his person.” Love, softening down the hard lines of logical principle, or concealing them with flowing ornament, says, “Let fellow-feeling and pity, kinship of blood or of mind, have their influence on the decision.” The great truth of the mediation of Christ is reflected in a weaker but still emphatic way in the office of an Abraham, a Moses, a Samuel. Scripture expressly recognizes: “The prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (cf. Jer 15:1). Our objection to the Romish doctrine of the intercession of saints should not carry us too far. It might lead us to a cold denial of the influence of loving thought upon one another’s weal. What limit is there to the far-reaching influences of love? Because some assume to know too much of those influences and the manner in which they may be secured, that is no reason why we should ignore them. “An interest in the prayers of good men,” it is natural to seek, and blessed to have secured. The belief in the intercession of good men rests on the belief that some men stand nearer to God than others. They have a firmer faith, a steadier insight into the methods of Providence, and therefore a clearer outlook into the future, and a courage which is inspiring to others. On this occasion Isaiah is found to be calm and undisturbed by the revilings of the Assyrian. He can speak of his officers with contempt as the “minions of the King of Assyria.” He can foretell that a “spirit” will be put in the enemyan impulse quite contrary to that now animating him; he will hear ill news, will return to his own land, and will fall by the sword. The prophet sustains the king; Hezekiah leans on Isaiah; true policy finds its inspiration in religion. The ministers of state, if wise, will own the worth of the service of the ministers of God.
II. BUSINESS LAID BEFORE GOD. The threat of the Assyrian, the taunting arguments on which he had before relied, are repeated. Let Hezekiah beware of trusting in Jehovah, for he may prove no better resource than the “gods of the nations” which have been subdued by the Assyrians. Hezekiah takes the letter, goes up into the house of Jehovah, and spreads it open before Jehovah. We may be reminded, as we read, of the prayer-machines of the Buddhists; or of the waxen tablets hung upon the statues of the gods by the Romans. inscribed with prayers, as alluded to by Juvenal in his tenth Satire. But where the outward act is similar, the intention may be widely different. If we look to the essence of the act, there is nothing in itself more superstitious in laying open a written letter before God, than in addressing him orally on its contents. If the spreading out is a “prayer without words,” the prayer with words follows. There is no external form which we may not fill out with the life of our spirit and make vital and real; none from which we may not withdraw that life, and so leave dead and cold. It is idle to suppose that the mere abandonment of certain forms will remove the foundations of superstition, which is certain to spring up in a mechanical and lifeless state of mind.
III. HEZEKIAH‘S PRAYER. His thoughts of God. He is revealed in nature and in human life. He is enthroned upon the cherubimthose mysterious creatures of poetic and plastic fancy, representing spiritual power revealed in strong wind and cloud, and figured in the ark. Analogous figures are common in Oriental art. Jehovah is the God of nature, the Creator of heavens and earth. He is the only true Ruler of the kingdoms of the earth. The heathen believed that their gods swayed in the sphere both of nature and of human lifethat their glory and power was revealed, not only in sun, and moon, and stars, and wind, but in the might of warriors and the ascendency of kings. But the contrast is that these pretensions were unreal, that of Jehovah alone. founded on truth and facts. Those “gods of the nations” who had been put into the fire by the Assyrian were no genuine gods, as the result has proved. When the idol was destroyed, the visible image of the god, the faith of the worshipper lost its visible support, and his hope fled. There was no Saviour here. True faith is not dependent on such visible props; they may failit remains. The symbols of religion may change; old sanctuaries may fall into decay; Jerusalem may be taken; the Shechinah-glory may fade from the hallowed spot; but Jehovah remains. In superstition, when the idols are broken, the false faith dies; in true religion, when the idols are broken, the true faith rises into new life. Adversity, fatal to imposture, brings the genuine tradition to light. The true God is bound by his very nature to be the Saviour, the Deliverer of men. The cry for salvation must sooner or later, in one or another way, be answered from him. If the cry be not answered, it is a proof that we have not directed it to the true Objectnot to Jehovah, the Alone, the Eternal, but to some creature, the fabrication, if not of our hands, of our sensuous and unspiritual fancy.J.
HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM
Isa 37:6
Caution against fear.
“Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard.” We are often afraid of whispers; we often suffer severely through words. It is not surprising. Words are winged, and fly across oceans. Words are penetrating, and enter into the secret places of the heart. Words are indestructible, and, once uttered, who but God can restrain their power?
I. THESE WERE WORDS AGAINST GOD. Alas! there have been many such in every age. This is part of the perils of moral government, which leaves the creature “free.” But God has set in order a universe of men, and not of machines, and he is too wise not to have ordered all things wisely and well. Man is evidently a being born to the perils which beset all freedom. Thus he can speak against the Most High. “I am equal to the sad occasion,” says in effect Jehovah to Isaiah. “The servants of the King of Assyria have blasphemed me, but I will send a blast upon them.” No more solemn thought can occupy our minds than the consideration how every day blasphemous, false, and base words are spoken against our Father in heaven.
II. THESE WORDS ARE OFTEN DESIGNED TO HURT HIS CHILDREN. “Fear them not,” says God; “they cannot hurt you.” We are thankful for this revelation of the impotence of evil. If your character is falsely traduced, God can “bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.” If your influence is injured for a time, God has so ordered the world that evil men reveal their true character. They are not good, and they know it; “and they that be otherwise cannot be hid.” Let not the friends of God tremble in the presence of infidel insinuation or sceptical scorn. God’s nature has been revealed. His wonderful works attest his power and goodness. Christ and the cross are the revelation of his love.
III. THESE WORDS ARE SURE TO BE HEARD. We cannot at times help the entrance of evil, but we can help the entertainment of it. We must treat all the evil surmises of wicked men with the disdain that they deserve. We can, as Solomon suggests, “turn from it and pass away.” Besides, just as there is in love what Dr. Chalmers calls “the expulsive power of a new affection,” so there is in love to God a power to banish all that old love of the world which makes men mingle with the irreverent and undevout. The syren voice of evil whisperings will have no charm for us when we hide God’s Word in our heart. The great lesson is not to be afraid of the wickedness of the wicked, or to make their words of account by taking too great note of them. Many malignant words would have perished at their birth if they had not been made much of by argument and reply. The best answer is to trust in God and do the right.W.M.S.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Isa 37:1-4
Our highest solicitude.
A very graphic scene is here sketched. The highest personages in the realm are moved to the strongest feelings of indignation and concern. Dignity is entirely forgotten; the profound agitations which have stirred their souls are expressed in actions which, to less excitable and imaginative people, seem violent and unbecoming. But the rent garments and the coarse sackcloth best uttered, for them, the distracted heart and a deep sense of shame. It was eloquence in action, and was more forcible than the most impassioned speech. Doubtless many feelings mingled in this strong emotion, but we prefer to think (and by the fourth verse are justified in thinking) that what most kindled the indignation of king,’ of statesman, and of priest, was the “blasphemy” which had been spoken against the Lord; the earnest solicitude on their part that the Name of Jehovah should not be shamefully dishonoured among men. There are
I. SOLICITUDES WHICH ARE GOOD, BUT NOT HIGH. We do well to be solicitous to discharge our pecuniary obligations, to take and to hold an honourable position among our fellows, to enjoy a good reputation among men, to see that which is most beautiful, to hear that which is most harmonious, and to read that which is most delightful. But this appeals to those instincts and ambitions which are common to all but the lowest among men; they are desires or anxieties which are good but not high.
II. SOLICITUDES WHICH ARE HIGH, BUT NOT THE HIGHEST. It is in a very high degree desirable, it is indeed urgent, that we should show a patient, practical solicitude
(1) to gain the forgiveness of our sin, and acceptance with God;
(2) to maintain our Christian consistency and conformity of conduct to the will of Christ;
(3) to attain to the nobler ranges of Christian excellency, to reach the goal which is set before us;
(4) to serve our generation to the height of our ability and opportunity;
(5) to be ready for the last hour of life and the first hour of immortality. These are high and worthy aspirations, but they are not
III. THE SOLICITUDE WHICH IS THE HIGHEST OF ALL. It is that commanding and consuming desire for the glory of God which filled the hearts of Hezekiah and his people, and which called forth such powerful and even passionate emotion when his Name was blasphemed.
1. The evidence that this is the highest solicitude is found in:
(1) The fact that it is our supreme obligation. We are bound, first and most of all things, to be concerned for the honour of our heavenly Father, for the glory of our Divine Redeemer: theft he is revered, and that his will is done on earth should be our first consideration.
(2) The fact that it is an unselfish, and therefore pre-eminently Christian and Divine inspiration.
(3) The fact that it is an enlarging and ennobling sentiment. They whose hearts are filled and whose lives are fashioned by this pure and holy solicitude will be lifted up in soul by its elevating influence; they will rise above all that is mean and small; they will attain to loftiness of view and dignity of character.
2. The manifestations which it will assume are
(1) great pain and shame when the Name of God is dishonoured (text);
(2) great joy when his kingdom is seen to be advancing and himself being honoured in the world;
(3) earnest and lifelong effort to bear witness to his presence, his power, his holiness, his love, and the blessedness of his great salvation.C.
Isa 37:10
The God in whom we trust.
To trust in God
I. OUGHT TO SEEM TO US THE MOST SIMPLE AND NATURAL THING.
1. All power is his. We shrink from weakness as a support, but we lean our whole weight on strength with perfect willingness and readiness: and it is Almighty God; it is he to whom “all power is given in heaven and on earth,” who invites our confidence.
2. All wisdom is his. Power without wisdom may lead astray, may work more harm than help: it is the only wise God “who asks us to put our trust in him.
3. All kindness is his. Power with wisdom but without love might be arrayed against us, might overwhelm us with confusion: it is the God whose “new, best Name is love,” that offers us the shelter of his wing.
4. All faithfulness is his. Love that might last but a little while is of little worth; it might change into indifference or even into hatred and hostility: it is the “Father of lights with whom is no variableness,” it is “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever,” who says to us, “Come unto me,” “Trust in me,” “Abide in me,” “Cast all your care on me.” Surely it should be the simplest, the most natural, thing to yield instant and eager response to the Divine invitation, and to put our heart’s whole trust in “the Lord our God.” Yet to trust in him
II. IS MUCH MORE RARE THAT IT SHOULD BE. Do we find men leaning on God, and so leaning on him that their hearts are full of peace, of spiritual rest, of hope, of heavenly joy? Is “the God in whom we trust” a phrase that has as large and lull a meaning to our minds as it should have? Is not a living, sustaining, rejoicing trust in God a comparatively rare, rather than a constant and universal thing, even in Christian hearts? And why is it so, if so it be? Is it not because we allow ourselves to be so sadly imposed upon by the temporal and the superficial? We persist in representing to ourselves that the visible, the audible, the tangible, the material, is the real, the, true, and the substantial. We, who walk by faith and not by sight, whose life is spiritual, who are citizens of heaven, ought to understand that it is this which is illusive, evanescent, unreal, and that the invisible, the intangible, the eternal, is the real and the reliable; we ought to know and to realize that he, whom not having seen we love, the invisible but ever-present, the almighty and never-failing, Saviour, is the One who is worthy of our confidence, and in the deepest and fullest sense it should be true that it is the Lord in whom we trust.
III. IS A PRIVILEGE OF WHICH WE NEED TO AVAIL OURSELVES CONTINUALLY.
1. In prosperity, for God‘s sake. For God wills that we should be ever trusting in him, “in whom are all our springs,” and from whom we derive everything we enjoy. To trace our well-being to ourselves, and to trust in the arm of flesh instead of referring all to the living God, brings down his deep displeasure (see Deu 10:8-18).
2. In adversity, for our own sake. For then God alone can help and save us. We ourselves shall have failed; misfortune, disaster, will have baffled and beaten us; our friends will fail us; human sympathy and succour will avail somewhat, but it will leave much more undone than it will do. Divine interposition alone will supply our needthe pity of the Divine Friend; the help of the heavenly Father; the ministry of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter and the Sanctifier of the hearts of men.C.
Isa 37:14-20
Righteousness in prayer.
Hezekiah’s was the effectual prayer of a righteous man. It was effectual because it was right-minded. Had he gone to the Lord in an unacceptable spirit, he would have met with a very different response. Our prayers may be unexceptionable, so far as time, place, demeanour, and even language are concerned, and yet they may be fruitless, because our mind is not attuned to the true spirit of devotion. We have here five features which should always characterize our approach to God.
I. A DEEP SENSE OF THE DIVINE PRESENCE. “That dwellest between the cherubim;” i.e. the God that has come down and has taken up his abode in the midst of usa God at hand and not afar off. Hezekiah spread the letter before the Lord (Isa 37:14), before the Present One. It is a point of the first importance that we should feel, in prayer, that God is with us in very deed and truth; that we stand in his near presence; that the angels who inhabit the heavenly kingdom are not more truly, though they may be more consciously, before him than are we as we take his Name on our lips and breathe our petitions into his ear.
II. A REVERENTIAL REMEMBRANCE OF HIS MAJESTY. “Thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth.” Our boldness in prayer (Heb 4:16) must stop short of anything like irreverence. Our Lord himself was “heard in that he feared“ (Heb 5:7); much more does it become us to think and to speak with holy awe when we address the Majesty of heaven; we must ever have in mind that it is the one only God, the Lord of hosts, the Infinite and Eternal One, to whom we are addressing ourselves (see Gen 18:23-32).
III. FULL CONFIDENCE IN HIS DIVINE POWER. “Thou hast made heaven and earth.” To doubt God’s power to interpose on our behalf, by whatever restraints we imagine that power to be limited, must be painful to him, and must invalidate our prayer. To have a firm assurance that God is able to sustain, to supply, to deliver us; to feel that no obstacles of any kind can prevent his interposition on our behalf, if he only sees it to be wise and right to intervene, is to be right-minded in devotion.
IV. A HOLY CONFIDENCE IN HIS DIVINE INTEREST IN US. Hezekiah addressed Jehovah as the “God of Israel” (Isa 37:16); i.e. the God who had a peculiar interest in Israel, “the chosen people,” his own “inheritance,” “a people near unto him” (Psa 148:14). We place ourselves in accord with God’s will concerning us, not when we presuppose that the most urgent entreaties have to be made to secure his interest in us and in our affairs, but rather when we assume the fact that we are the objects of his deep solicitude, that we are near to his heart, and that he is disposed to do all that is needful for our present well-being and future blessedness.
V. UNSELFISHNESS OF SPIRIT. Hezekiah pleaded with the Lord, not his own and his people’s extremities, but the dishonour which had been cast o,, the Name of Jehovah, and the need there was for that Name to be glorified before the nations (Isa 37:17-20). We may plead with God our own necessities, both temporal and spiritual; but we are in the tree mood, in the right spirit, when we rise above all selfish considerations.
1. We do well to pray for our suffering and necessitous friends.
2. We do better to pray for our lost and perishing race.
3. We do best to pray for the extension of our Saviour’s kingdom and the exaltation of his holy Name. The prayer which the Lord taught his disciples may teach us the “order of merit” in regard to our desires when we bow down at the throne of grace.C.
Isa 37:21-29
The intoxication of success, etc.
The first thing of which this passage speaks, and of that it speaks very forcibly, is
I. THE INTOXICATION OF UNHOLY SUCCESS. The tone of this Assyrian monarch was one of insolent arrogance. His military achievements had implanted in his mind the notion that he had done much greater things than he had actually accomplished, and had exerted the idea that he could achieve other things which were wholly out of his power. He magnifies his victories and over-estimates his capacity (Isa 37:23-25). This is the common consequence of successeven of success which is not unholy, which is not obtained regardless of the power and will of God; it is sometimes the unhappy result of success in sacred ministries; how much more so must it be, and is it found to be, the result in the case of those who “fear not God, nor regard man”! Unholy success intoxicates. It makes men imagine that they have done far greater things than they have achieved, and that they have become far greater people than they are. It often rears its head so high that, as with Sennacherib, arrogance passes into blasphemy (Isa 37:23) or into presumptuous impiety.
1. Shrink from all success that is not gained by righteous means and in the fear of the Lord.
2. Take earnest heed that honourable and even sacred success does not delude and corrupt the soul.
II. THE ATTITUDE OF GOD TOWARDS ARROGANT MEN.
1. Continual regard. (Isa 37:28.) “I know thy abode,” etc. God’s presence, his observant eye, is in the dwelling, is in the chamber of the guilty; it follows their steps whithersoever they go; it witnesses their actions with whatsoever cunning they may be hidden from human eyes.
2. Keen displeasure. The entire passage, particularly Isa 37:23, is indicative of stern disapproval. Undevout and godless men, still more impious and flagrantly wicked men, should be made to understand that, though they may be congratulating themselves, and though like-minded neighbours may be approving and even applauding them, the God in whose hand their breath is, and to whom they are accountable for everything they do, regards them with deep, Divine displeasure. His awful anger rests upon themthat righteous resentment which the Divine Ruler must feel towards those who are spoiling and. degrading the subjects of his rule.
3. The infliction of appropriate penalty. (Isa 37:29.) Jehovah would make the arrogant conqueror “go back by the way by which he came.” God always visits those whom he has to punish with penalties suited to their sins. The haughty are humbled to the dust; those who partake of unlawful pleasure will suffer corresponding pain; they who rob others of their reputation will fall into utter disrepute; the rogue that preys on society will be impoverished, etc.
4. A Divine use of their lives and actions. (Isa 37:26, Isa 37:27.) Little as it imagined it, the Assyrian power was an instrument in Jehovah’s hand. God will make sinful men’s lives serve as beacons to warn others if they cannot be used in a worthier and more acceptable way.
III. THE TRIUMPH OF HOLY TRUSTFULNESS. The virgin daughter of Jerusalem had been greatly despised, but she trusted in the Divine Deliverer, and her hour of rescue and of triumph was at hand (Isa 37:22). The children of God may have to pass through a period of sore trial, of bitter anguish; their redemption may be long delayed; it may seem as if God’s hand were shortened (Isa 50:2; Rev 6:10); but the time of deliverance will certainly arrive: whether it be from distracting anxieties, or consuming doubt, or protracted pain, or weary loneliness, or cruel oppression, or the shadow of death, the days of darkness are numbered, ,and the hour of triumph is drawing near.C.
Isa 37:31
Root and fruit, or character in its completeness.
The text speaks of two necessities for the plant in its perfectionroot and fruit; it may speak to us of the complete human character.
I. CHARACTER IS OFTEN FOUND IN MANIFEST INCOMPLETENESS.
1. We have character deficient in fruitfulness. Some men are intelligent, acquisitive, contemplative; they have solid knowledge; they have reached clear and strong convictions; they have formed admirable private and domestic habits. But they bring forth very little fruit; they exert very little influence; they are incommunicative; they have nothing to say when something needs to be said; they have no tact or courage for action when something demands to be done. These men contribute little, or nothing appreciable, to the advancement of truth and righteousness; they are not the forcible factors they have had the means of becoming in the society in which they move.
2. We have, also, character deficient in root. Some men are exuberant in expression; they communicate. freely; they are forward to speak and to act on every possible occasion; they are constantly efflorescent. But they lack knowledge, judgment, wisdom; they have not trained their minds; they have not compared their thoughts with those of others, and come to sound and settled conclusions; they have not acquired fixed habits of mind and of life; they are uncertain and unreliable quantities, on whom you cannot safely reckon in the day of trial. Of these two orders of human character neither is without excellency, but both are manifestly incomplete.
II. INCOMPLETENESS OF CHARACTER IS REGRETTABLE IN GOD‘S SIGHT AND IN OURS.
1. It is unbeautiful. For it lacks symmetry; it is one-sided, and therefore offensive to the spiritual eye.
2. It is a state of insecurity. The man that has root without fruit, knowledge and experience without action and influence, is a man who “has not” his own possessions (see Mat 25:29), for he is making no serious practical use of them, and from him who “hath not” will be taken away, by the constant penalty which attends neglect, “even that which he hath”viz, his unused capacity. And the mart who has fruit without corresponding root wilt find that his influence will soon wane, his power soon wither away. Speech without knowledge, action without thought, outward activity without inward growth, will soon reach its limit and disappear.
3. It leaves a large part of sacred duty undone.
(1) To the meditative man who has exhausted his time and strength in self-culture, and left his brethren’s state uncared for, will be presented the solemn and startling questionWhat have you done? And he will have to confess that he has hidden his talent in the earth.
(2) Of the man who allowed his powers of usefulness to run out and be lost in precocious activities, or exhausting excitements, it will be requiredWhy did you neglect yourself? And he will have to lament that he was content with being a short-lived gourd instead of a long-lived tree in the garden of the Lord.
III. COMPLETENESS OF CHARACTER MAY BE AND SHOULD BE ATTAINED. Assuming that we are bound to employ our powers in the direction in which our own preferences lead us, and granting that it is well for human character to partake of much variety, it remains true that we should make an earnest effort to attain to some completeness of character by attention to those elements which we are tempted to neglect. In every department of human action we recognize the duty of bestowing special care on the weakest pointthe candidate for literary honours on the subject with which he is least familiar; the builder on that part of the ground where the foundation is least substantial; the general on that outpost which is least defensible, etc. The defects of character are subject to repair; earnest effort is sure to be rewarded. They who have “the root of the matter in them” can bring forth fruits of usefulness by patient, prayerful endeavour. They who are quick to bear fruit upward can strike their root downward and enrich their spiritual resources by study, by thought, by painstaking acquisition, by prayer.C.
Isa 37:34
Returning on our way.
“By the way that he came, by the same shall he return.”
I. THE RETURN WHICH IS IMPOSSIBLE. Our departure from this world is often spoken of as a return. We “return to the grave.” We ascend and descend the hill of life; but we go down that hill on the other side. Old age is indeed “a second childhood;” but how different a childhood it is!with the experience, and the carefulness, and the sad consciousness of failure which childhood has not, but without the eager-heartedness, buoyancy, simplicity, trustfulness, which childhood has. It may be said of every part and passage of our human experience, “Thou hast not gone this way heretofore.” We never live over again even a single day of our life.
II. THE RETURN WITH WHICH WE ARE THREATENED. God, in his holy and wise providence, may defeat our purpose, as he did that of Sennacherib, and in this sense may cause us to return on our way. Again and again is this the case with:
1. Unrighteous aggression, or some other design which is positively sinful.
2. Unhallowed ambition; when men set themselves to achieve some great thing for their own enrichment or aggrandizement, and God breaks their schemes. He sends them back to the starting-point of emptiness or poverty from which they set out. When God thus interposes, men may well ask what it is that he me, his them to learn.
3. Unwise endeavour; as when men offer themselves for the work of teaching, or preaching, or labouring in the field of foreign missions, when they are unfitted lop the post.
III. THE RETURN WHICH IS OUR DUTY.
1. That which awaits the Christian man,
(1) when he has entered on a business which he finds he cannot conduct with a clear conscience;
(2) when he has adopted a course of training his family or directing his establishment which he finds inefficient and disappointing;
(3) when he has associated himself with a company of men, or with a Church of Christ, which he finds ungenial and unsatisfactory.
2. That which belongs to the unchristian man. To him, in the “far country” of estrangement, comes ever the commanding, but yet. the entreating voice of the heavenly Father, saying, “Return unto me, and I will return unto you.” Well is it, indeed, when the heart’s response is found in the heaven-gladdening words, “I will arise, and go to my Father.”C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Isa 37:1
Carrying troubles to God.
The silence which Hezekiah kept, and commanded, represents only the negative side of his dealing with the Assyrian insults and threatenings. The earnest man can seldom be satisfied with the weak policy of “doing nothing.” It may be one side of meeting difficulty, but it needs to be matched with another and a positive side. The earnest man wants to do something. Yet his circumstances may make personal action questionable and almost impossible; but this, at least, he can always do, and this he would be wise always to do firsthe can carry his trouble to God; he can “cast his care on God.” There is a positiveness and a definiteness of action about so doing, which meets the anxiety of the earnest man; there is a sense of propriety in so doing which satisfies the higher feeling of the pious man. From the conduct of Hezekiah on this occasion we learn four ways in which our troubles may be carried to God.
I. BY CHERISHED MOODS OF MIND. There is a thought of God; a dependence on God; a heart-appeal to God; a purposed meditating on the Divine relations with the troubled; a recalling of God’s ways in past experience; and an assuring of the heart,which are all voiceless cryings after God, which he knows and heeds. Tennyson gives this view exquisite expression when, describing Mary of Bethany, he says
“Her eyes were homes of silent prayer.”
There are times when we are “so troubled that we cannot speak,” but at such times the trouble speaks, the afflicted soul lies open to God.
II. BY ATTITUDES AND BODILY STATES. The appearance of a man may be a prayer. This is more developed in Eastern than in Western lands. Rent clothes, neglected hair and beard, rough sackcloth, ashes cast on the person,were signs of distress, and mute appeals for comfort and help. But we often say of persons, “His face was a prayer;” “The miserable neglected state was an appeal.” The widow’s crape is a casting of trouble on God. Attitudes of body naturally express moods of mind; and dress follows suit. Even thus we can pray.
III. BY SEEKING AUDIENCE OF GOD. Hezekiah made the effort to go to the place where God revealed himself. It is carrying our trouble to God simply to resolve that we will go to God’s house. A psalmist, with a burdened heart, says, “I went into the sanctuary of God.” The worshippers are really thiscompanies of men and women who are rolling their burdens off upon God.
IV. BY UNBURDENING THE SOUL. It is often thought strange, and called foolish, for men to tell God in prayer what he well knows. But the free unburdening is the best, and often the only, relief a soul can find. Child to mother, friend to friend, creature to God,nothing helps us so much as being permitted to tell out all that is in our souls, bad and good, worthy and unworthy.R.T.
Isa 37:4
Responsibility of prayer-leaders.
The message sent to Isaiah, the prophet of God, was this: “Pray for us; be our leader, our intercessor.” “Wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.” Scripture singles out Samuel and Moses as great prayer-leaders, or intercessors, but we can add Joshua, David, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Apostle Paul, drawing further illustrations from each of these. The Prophet Jeremiah has a very striking sentence, which indicates the power that prayer-leaders have with God: “Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people” (Jer 15:1). Isaiah, in our text, was sought by Hezekiah in his trouble, because he was a prayer-leader, an intercessor. We note that the things about men which are really most important are not the things which most readily attract attention. We need to get the view of men which God takes, if we would get the true view. Some of the best gifts bestowed on the Christian Church are undervalued; the endowments which give men public prominence are thought much more of than those spiritual powers which are men’s best possessions. To some men God gives, in unusual measure, the power of prayer. There is a remarkable difference between good men in this gift and power of prayer. We see the difference in our children. Some of them are able to move and persuade us so that we find it most difficult to refuse them anything. And men and women seem to have a like power in their relations with Goda most responsible power. ,Some of us can never rise above the orderly habit of prayer, and treat it as a matter of duty; but others have such praying frames of mind that, at any moment, they seem able to go in to God. There are men among us who are true prayer-leaderswhose utterance is full of petition, who are able to seize the souls of their fellow-worshippers, be their mouthpiece, and carry their desires within the veil; while other good men can only pray before us, and fail to awaken responsive prayer-feelings in our hearts.
I. THE GREATNESS OF PRAYER THAT RISES TO BE INTERCESSION. Man’s power of prayer is a faculty full of high possibilities. It may rise even to thisit may go beyond all self-spheres, and become intercessory. While prayer keeps in the self-sphere there is a certain narrowness and even meanness about it. It is all concerned with what we want, and what we feel, and we are greatly comforted if we have any fervour of emotion in such prayer. But we feel that a course of daily prayer from which the interceding element is removed would be most injurious to the spiritual life. It lacks the generous, sympathetic, unselfish element, and it will very soon lack fervour and faith. No one can long keep up a prayerful life, and persist in praying altogether about himself. Power comes, love grows, when prayer includes intercession. Limitations of earnestness and importunity pass away; the soul is free to urge its pleas with persevering instancy; we can ask for another what we dare not fashion into a prayer for ourselves. The prayers of Scripture are, for the most part, intercessory. IllustrateAbraham’s for Sodom; Moses’, Joshua’s, Samuel’s, for the people of Israel in their distresses. Daniel prays with his window open towards desolate Jerusalem, that he may be reminded of the captive people. Our last sight of Job finds him in the attitude of the mediator, praying for God’s mercy on his mistaken and cruel friends. And the Apostle Paul writes again and again of the constancy of his intercessions. We may learn the secret of the poverty and formality of much Christian praying. It has so little intercession in it. When some beloved friend is smitten down with imperilling sickness, our prayer suddenly gains strength, and becomes a thing full of fervour and pathos. All our souls then go out in strong crying and tears. But this power might be in our praying always. We might be not only prayerful men, but also prayer-leaders, carrying the burdens of others to the throne of grace, and ourselves sanctified through the carrying.
II. THE POWER OF INTERCESSION THAT MAY BE IN A SINGLE INDIVIDUAL. Any one of us may have the gift of intercession. One man, one woman, even one child, may bring down the Divine benedictions as refreshing rains upon us. We may kneel for others before God. We may win the blessing, prevailing with God, for men. Illustrate from the life of Moses. Note three great interceding-times:
(1) at Rephidim;
(2) matter of golden calf;
(3) return of spies.
Or from the life of Samuel, who may be regarded as the most consistently beautiful character in the Bible. Note two cases:
(1) battle with Philistines;
(2) matter of asking for a king.
But what responsibilities rest on such men! On such men living amongst us now! Who can tell what the Church of God would become, if interceders would but intercede? Plead that, in these times, we need to be often recalled to the power of prayer. “We have not, because we ask not.” The Prophet Isaiah has a wonderful conception. He represents God as looking out upon men in their sin and sorrow and shame, and saying, “I saw that there was no man, and I wondered that there was no intercessor.” It may be so still God may look into our family lives, and wonder that there is no intercessor. He may look at our Churches, and wonder that there is no intercessor. Oh for a multiplying of men and women who say, “I can pray. I can intercede. I can plead for Jerusalem”!R.T.
Isa 37:6, Isa 37:7
God’s message to the troubled.
“Thus saith Jehovah, Be not afraid.” We have here the Divine response, through Isaiah, as the national intercessor. The circumstances, the boastings, the threatenings, were eminently calculated to produce fear, both in Isaiah and in the people. There was such a show of material strength as Elisha’s servant saw at Dothan, which sent him to his master full of fears. The answer is such as Elisha gave when he made the servant see what it was to have God on their side. God in the city was abundant security against Assyria outside the city, and Hezekiah need not be afraid. God’s message to those who seek him in their troubles is always this: “Be not afraid;” “I am with you.” Our fears only stay with us when our eyes are so dim that we cannot see God. Fear goes when he “lifts the light of his countenance upon us.” Matthew Henry says, “Those who have made God their enemy we have no reason to be afraid of, for they are marked for ruin; and though they may hiss, they cannot hurt.” Dr. A. Raleigh remarks that every creature is liable to fear; there can only be one Being in the universe absolutely and for ever free from that liabilityhe who knows everything and controls everything.
1. The great mysteries of existence have a tendency to produce fear. There am few thoughtful persons who do not feel the shadow of them on their path. They are such things as the existence of evil, sin, misery in the universe, under the government of an infinitely powerful and infinitely benevolent Being. There is great mystery about the plan of Divine providence in the world. Job, David, Jeremiah, were all perplexed and appalled by the sight of the afflictions of the righteous and the prosperity of the wicked.
2. There are certain possibilities, the thought of which has a tendency to darken the spirit with fear. The most sanguine and cheerful can hardly ever imagine, far less expect, a wholly uncheckered future. The worst of all earthly calamities is the possibility of spiritual failure, ending in a final exclusion from the presence of God and the joys of the blessed. Whatsoever form our fear may take, whatsoever may be the trouble or the alarm out of which it grows, if the fear drives us to God, we shall always be sure of getting this response, “Be not afraid.” The one answer to all mysteries is this: “God is, God lives; and I can trust him.” The one strength with which to meet all the possibilities, and bear all the calamities, of life is this, “He maketh all things work together for good.” Fully unfolded, the response of God is given in Isa 41:10. “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God.”R.T.
Isa 37:16
The God of all kingdoms.
This expression indicates Hezekiah’s conviction of the uniqueness of God. He is the one great Over-Lord. He cannot be classed with other gods or other kings. But Hezekiah surely went beyond himself in this hour of pressure and anxiety. The Jewish idea of the supremacy of Jehovah included the speciality of his relation to the Abrahamic race, and the Jew was in danger of making God to be a mere local deity. And we, in these latter days, find it difficult to admit that God’s rule over all kingdoms involves the moral training arid even the redemption of all the races. We limit all the best of God to ourselves, in just the spirit of exclusive Jews. Only our great thought-leaders seem able to see what is involved in recognizing God as the God of all the kingdoms of the earth.
I. IF GOD IS GOD OF ALL KINGDOMS, HE HAS SUPREME CLAIMS ON US. Most distressing to men who can create an ideal, and want to put trust in one who is absolutely good, must be the division of their confidences among gods many and lords many. The unrest of pagan intellect and heart was unspeakably painful. With gods in every street, Athenians pined for something more, and more satisfying; so raised an altar to the “Unknown God.” Here is rest from all rival claimswe yield to one will; all who would command us must express that will.
II. IF GOD IS GOD OF ALL KINGDOMS, HE MUST REVEAL HIMSELF TO ALL. To be unrevealed, in adapted relations to each kingdom, is not to be so far as each kingdom is concerned. St. Paul is firm in declaring God has revealed himself to all, at least in “rain from heaven and fruitful seasons.” And we have yet to recognize that he has spoken in gracious adaptations, differing, it may be, from the voices that we have heard, in every age and every clime. Very probably on this point there is “yet more light and truth to break forth from his Word.”
III. IF GOD IS GOD OF ALL KINGDOMS, HE OVERRULES THEM. Their magistracies, and their so-called divinities, when they do not rival him, are his agencies, everywhere they are the “powers that be ordained of God”under-rulers practically carrying out the will of the great Over-Ruler, who fits in together man’s obediences and wilfulnesses, guiding all towards the fulfilment of his gracious ends for the whole race.
IV. IF GOD IS GOD OF ALL KINGDOMS, HE ]PRESIDES OVER THE RELATIONS OF THE NATIONS TO EACH OTHER. This brings us to the case of Hezekiah. If God is the God of Assyria, he knows all the schemings and the ambitions of that nation. Assyria is not acting in any self-strength, or in the inspirations of any rival god. Jehovah presides over the relations between Israel and Assyria. For nations, as for individuals, it is true, but it is most perplexing truth, difficult to grasp; our God is working alike in what we call evil and what we call good.R.T.
Isa 37:23
Holy One of Israel.
It is singular to find the holiness of God introduced here rather than his majesty or his power. Yet it is significant. The sublime greatness of God is his character, and this is expressed in the word “Holy One.” The insults of Assyria are not levelled so much against God’s throne, or God’s rule, as against God himself. It is the insult offered to the Divine Name. The contrast between Jehovah and the gods created by heathen imaginations is very striking in this particularthey are embodiments of powers; he is a moral Being. They imply force; his Name involves character. Our security lies in this. The possibility of a reasonable trust lies in this. Our conviction of Jehovah’s sensitiveness to what troubles us lies in this. The full suggestions of this most suggestive name for God may be drawn out under these divisions.
I. THE GOD WHO ALWAYS DOES THE MORALLY RIGHT.
II. THE GOD WHO ALWAYS RESPONDS TO TRUST.
III. THE GOD WHO IS EVER FAITHFUL TO HIS PROMISE.
IV. THE GOD WHO IS JEALOUS OF HIS PERSONAL HONOUR.
V. THE GOD WHO REQUIRES TO BE SERVED WITH OUR GOODNESS.
On the jealousy of the Divine Name, see Eze 36:22, Eze 36:23; and show how the views of God, thus unfolded, become the basis for the great atonement, whereby the world is redeemed. The “just God” is also the “Saviour.”R.T.
Isa 37:28, Isa 37:29
God s agents are never beyond his restrainings.
He used Assyria, but he holds Assyria in with bit and bridle. The horse may plunge, and rear, and trample, and seem to be beyond all restraint; but God never looses the rein, and draws it in when he pleases. The figures used are even more striking. He puts “a hook in the nose,” which Michaelis explains in this way: “The Orientals make use of a contrivance for curbing their work-beasts, which is not adopted among us. They bore the nose through both sides, and put a ring through it, to which they fasten two cords. When a beast becomes unruly, they have only to draw the cord on one side, which, by stopping his breath, punishes him so effectually that, after a few repetitions, he fails not to become quite tractable, whenever he begins to feel it. To this contrivance the Arabian poets often allude.” It illustrates two points.
I. THE ANXIETIES WE SUFFER WHEN WE FIX OUR GAZE ON SECOND CAUSES.
II. THE RESTFULNESS WE GAIN WHEN WE LOOK, BEHIND AND WITHIN, TO THE GREAT, OVERRULING FIRST CAUSE.R.T.
Isa 37:32
The zeal of the Lord.
Cheyne renders, “The jealousy of Jehovah-Sabaoth shall perform this;” and he suggestively says, “‘Jealousy,’ being the affectional manifestation of the Divine holiness, is a ‘two-edged word,’ implying the destruction of all that opposes the Divine covenant, and the furtherance of all that promotes it.” Zeal also expresses “earnest desire,” and that vigorous and persistent activity in which such desire finds expression. In this sense we may treat Jehu’s boast of his “zeal for the Lord.” This word seems a favorite one with Isaiah, as applied to Jehovah. He employs it in Isa 9:7; Isa 59:17; Isa 63:15 (see also Eze 5:13). The two sides of it may be illustrated from the narrative of the chapter.
I. THE ZEAL OF THE LORD REGARDED AS A SACRED JEALOUSY OF THE DIVINE NAME. AND HONOUR.
II. THE ZEAL OF THE LORD REGARDED AS AN EARNESTNESS OF PURPOSE AND ENDEAVOUR, WHICH ASSURES THE DISCOMFITURE OF THE ENEMIES OF HIS PEOPLE.
It is an incentive to trust that we are thus assured that our God wants no rousing to action on our behalf, as does the heathen Baal on Mount Carmel This is our confidencehe is jealous for himself and his Word, and therefore is ever working for us.R.T.
Isa 37:36
Humiliating judgments.
After such boastings and threatenings as the Rabshakeh had uttered, it was utterly humiliating to lose his army without fighting a battle, to be compelled to take a miserable remnant home, as a circumvented, disgraced general. It was all the more humiliating if Sennacherib himself headed the army at the later stage. “The greatest men cannot stand before God. The great King of Assyria looks very little when he is forced to return, not only with shame, because he cannot accomplish what he had projected with so much assurance, but with terror and fear, lest the angel that had destroyed his army should destroy him; yet he is made to look still less when his own sons, who should have guarded him, killed him.”
I. GOD‘S JUDGMENTS OFTEN TAKE SURPRISING FORMS. Anything so overwhelming as this even his people, with all their experience, could not have imagined. God’s ways of judgment are never exhausted.
II. GOD‘S JUDGMENTS ALWAYS HAVE A PRECISE FITNESS. This humiliation was exactly the thing for a people so proud, boastful, and over-confident as the Assyrians. The high looks of the proud God will abase.
III. GOD‘S JUDGMENTS CARRY SOLEMN WARNINGS TO THOSE WHO HEAR OF THEM. They say, “Who art thou that repliest against God?” “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”R.T.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
2. HEZEKIAHS MESSAGE TO ISAIAH
Isa 37:1-7
1And 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. 2And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the 1scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. 3And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of 2blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. 34It may be the Lord thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, 4whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God, and will 5reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard: 6wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that Isaiah 7 left. 5So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah 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 8servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7Behold, I will 9send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumor, and return to his own land; and 10I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa 37:3. comp. Ps. 20:2; 1:15; Obad. 12:14; Nah 1:7, etc.The expression is taken from Hos 5:9. from contemnere, aspernari (Isa 1:4; Isa 5:24; Isa 60:14. contemtus, opprobrium occurs only here. In Neh 9:18; Neh 9:26 is found in the sense of , blasphemy. Our present word must be taken in this sense (comp. Isa 37:4).The expression the children are come occurs again only 2Ki 19:3. But comp. Hos 13:13.inf. nom. again only Jer 13:21.
Isa 37:4. , with double acc. like verbs of teaching, commanding: comp. Isa 55:11; Exo 4:28, etc. , except here and Isa 37:17, the expression always reads (Deu 5:23; 1Sa 17:26; 1Sa 17:36; Jer 10:10; Jer 23:36). The constant absence of the article in the expression is noteworthy. Thus it appears to me to designate God, not as the only living God, but only in general as living God in contrast with the dead idols, whereby is not expressly excluded that there may be still other (comp. Judges 8).The two perfects and connect with the imperfect . Many older expositors have explained to be an infinitive, and have taken it as the continuation of . But then one must make the word mean to contemn, which it does not. It must therefore be construed as perfect. The meaning is direct causative: exercise reproof, (comp. Isa 2:4; Isa 11:4). The prefix before has a causal sense: and he will use reproof (judicial decision) (moved) by the words, etc. Comp. Isa 50:1; Isa 57:17.The perf. formally connects with the Imperf. although materially the reverse is the proper relation. is the remnant in fact as opposed to that which ought to be. Comp. Isa 13:15; Isa 22:3.
Isa 37:6. occurs only in Piel (Num 15:30; Psa 44:17; Eze 20:27; 2Ki 19:6; 2Ki 19:22); it means to wound, insult, blaspheme.
Differences between the text of Isaiah here and 2 Kings 18 appear in 2Ki 18:2; 2Ki 18:4; 2Ki 18:6. Isa 37:6 has instead of because the former is the more usual, at least in these chapters (comp. 2Ki 18:19; 2Ki 18:22; 2Ki 18:25-27; 2Ki 19:3; 2Ki 19:10; 2Ki 20:1; 2Ki 20:8; 2Ki 20:14; 2Ki 20:16; 2Ki 20:19). The simple after occurs only once, 2Ki 18:22.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. And it cameAmoz.
Isa 37:1-2. It is perhaps not unimportant to note that, except here, when Isaiah speaks of putting on sackcloth he uses the expression (Isa 3:24; Isa 15:3; Isa 22:12) and never employs the general article that occurs in Kings, and elsewhere also (2Ki 6:30, comp. 1Ki 21:27). The expression elders of the priests beside here and 2Ki 19:2, occurs only Jer 19:1. hler (Herz.,R.-Encycl. XII. p. 182 sq.), distinguishes these priest-elders from the or (2Ch 26:14; Ezr 10:5; Neh 12:7), and understands by the latter the overseer of the priestly class, and by the former only the most respected priests on account of their age. The embassy to Isaiah as one sees from those composing it, was one commensurate with the importance of the subject, and also very honorable for Isaiah.
[Hezekiah resorted to the temple, not only as a public place, but with reference to the promise made to Solomon (1Ki 8:29) that God would hear the prayers of His people from that place when they were in distress. On Isa 37:2. The king applies to the Prophet as the authorized expounder of the will of God. Similar applications are recorded 1Ki 22:9; 2Ki 22:14; Jer 37:3.J. A. Alex.].
2. And they saidin his own land.
Isa 37:3-7. One may say that anguish relates only to the Jews, rebuke is received from the Lord through the Assyrians, and the object of , contempt, is Israel and their God. Thus it appears, they intimate that the matter concerns, not them only, but also God, and that in an active and in a passive sense. [The metaphor in the last clause expresses, in the most affecting manner, the ideas of extreme pain, imminent danger, critical emergency, utter weakness, and entire dependence on the aid of others.J. A. Alex.]. Judah had done all in its power to keep away the supreme power of Assyria. But the latter has taken the whole land (Isa 36:1); and moreover an immense sum of gold has been sacrificed (2Ki 18:14). But the Assyrian demands the capital itself, and Judah is powerless to hold him back. There is no going backwards, i.e., what was done in vain to ward off the Assyrian cannot be made a thing not done; and there is no going forwards, i.e., there are no means left to ward off the worst. Therefore the very life is in peril. Such is the meaning of the figurative language. In Isa 37:4 the messengers present their request. It begins timidly with ,peradventure. It refers to two things: 1) that Jehovah will hear and punish the words of Rabshakeh, 2) that Isaiah will make supplication. The order may seem an inverted one. But they produce the things sought for, not in the order in which they are to be realized, but according to their importance. The most important is that Jehovah hears and punishes. The means to this is Isaiahs intercession. [The preterite denotes a past time only in reference to the contingency expressed by . Perhaps he will hear and then punish what he has heard. The reproach and blasphemy of the Assyrian consisted mainly in his confounding Jehovah with the gods of the surrounding nations (2Ch 32:19), in antithesis to whom, as being impotent and lifeless, He is here and elsewhere called the living God.J. A. Alex.]. Comp. Isa 8:9; Psa 104:28; Psa 115:4 sqq. To reproach the living God, strongly reminds one of the blasphemy of Goliath, 1Sa 17:26; 1Sa 17:36; 1Sa 17:45. Such an one the Assyrian here appears. The remnant extant (see Text. and Gram.). The deportation of the Ten Tribes, and Isa 36:1 show that Jerusalem was at that time only a weak remnant of the theocracy.
[Isa 37:5 is a natural and simple resumption of the narrative, common in all inartificial history. It affords no ground for assuming a transposition in the text, nor for explaining Isa 37:3, as a subjunctive.J. A. Alex.]. Isa 37:6-7, contain Isaiahs answer. The Assyrian messengers are contemptuously called , i.e., boys, striplings of the king of Assyria. The expression Behold, I am putting a spirit in him designates the subjective side of a resolve accomplished in the king of Assyria, and he shall hear a report the objective cause. It had manifestly been the purpose of the king of Assyria to go immediately at that time against Jerusalem. Sending Rabshakeh was the prelude to it. On the return of the latter with Hezekiahs refusal, the advance on Jerusalem was instantly to be made. This is confirmed Isa 37:9-10 by the warning to Hezekiah not to cherish unwarranted expectations from the unlooked for diversion made by the Ethiopian army. Thus the Prophet says here, I impart to him a spirit, i.e. I occasion him a mind, a tendency of the will (comp. Isa 19:14; Isa 29:10, etc.), and he shall hear a report. This is the first stage of the deliverance. It intimates that the Assyrians next intention now at once to advance on Jerusalem shall not be realized. But that only wards off the immediate danger. Perhaps to reprieve is not to relieve. Thus the Assyrian himself seems to have thought according to Isa 37:10-13. But there is no danger. He shall not come before Jerusalem at all (Isa 37:33), but shall return into his land, and there fall by the sword. Let those believe that, and I will fell him by the sword, etc., is ascribed to Isaiah by the narrator post eventum, who cannot believe that there may be such a thing as a spirit of God, that can look freely into the future, and, when it seems good to him, can declare the future.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa 36:4 sqq. Haec proprie est Satanae lingua et sunt non Rabsacis sed ipsissimi Diaboli verba, quibus non muros urbis, sed medullam Ezechiae, hoc est, tenerrimam ejus fidem oppugnat.Luther. In this address the chief-butler, Satan performs in the way he uses when he would bring about our apostacy. 1) He urges that we are divested of all human support, Isa 36:5; Isaiah 2) We are deprived of divine support, Isa 36:7; Isaiah 3) God is angry with us because we have greatly provoked Him by our sins, Isa 36:7; Isaiah 4) He decks out the splendor, and power of the wicked, Isa 36:8-9; Isaiah 5) He appeals to Gods word, and knows how to turn and twist it to his uses. Such poisonous arrows were used by Satan against Christ in the desert, and may be compared with this light (Mat 4:2 sqq.). One needs to arm himself against Satans attack by Gods word, and to resort to constant watching and prayer.Cramer.
The Assyrian urges four particulars by which he would destroy Hezekiahs confidence, in two of which he was right and in two wrong. He was right in representing that Hezekiah could rely neither on Egypt, nor on his own power. In this respect he was a messenger of God and announcer of divine truth. For everywhere the word of God preaches the same (Isa 30:1-3; Isa 31:1-3; Jer 17:5; Psa 118:8-9; Psa 146:3, etc.). But it is a merited chastisement if rude and hostile preachers must preach to us what we were unwilling to believe at the mild and friendly voice of God. But in two particulars the Assyrian was wrong, and therein lay Hezekiahs strength. For just on this account the Lord is for him and against the Assyrian. These two things are, that the Assyrian asserts that Hezekiah cannot put his trust in the Lord, but rather he, the Assyrian is counseled by the Lord against Hezekiah. That, however, was a lie, and because of this lie, the corresponding truth makes all the deeper impression on Hezekiah, and reminds him how assuredly he may build on the Lord and importune Him. And when the enemy dares to say, that he is commissioned by the Lord to destroy the Holy Land, just that must bring to lively remembrance in the Israelite, that the Lord, who cannot lie, calls the land of Israel His land (Joel 4:2; Jer 2:7; Jer 16:18, etc.), and the people of Israel His people (Exo 3:7; Exo 3:10; Exo 5:1, etc.).
2. On Isa 36:12. [In regard to the indelicacy of this passage we may observe: 1) The Masorets in the Hebrew text have so printed the words used, that in reading it the offensiveness would be considerably avoided. 2) The customs, habits and modes of expression of people in different nations and times, differ. What appears indelicate at one time or in one country, may not only be tolerated, but common in another. 3) Isaiah is not at all responsible for the indelicacy of the language here. He is simply an historian. 4) It was of importance to give the true character of the attack which was made on Jerusalem. The coming of Sennacherib was attended with pride, insolence and blasphemy; and it was important to state the true character of the transaction, and to record just what was said and done. Let him who used the language, and not him who recorded it bear the blame.Barnes in loc.].
3. On Isa 36:18 sqq. Observandum hic, quod apud gentes olim viguerit adeo, ut quaevis etiam urbs peculiarem habuerit Deum tutelarem. Cujus ethnicismi exemplum vivum et spirans adhuc habemus apud pontificios, quibus non inscite objici potest illud Jeremiae: Quot civitates tibi, tot etiam Dei (Jer 2:28).Foerster.
4. On Isa 36:21. Answer not a fool according to his folly (Pro 26:4), much less the blasphemer, lest the flame of his wickedness be blown into the greater rage (Sir 8:3). Did not Christ the Lord answer His enemies, not always with words, but also with silence (Mat 26:62; Mat 27:14, etc.)? One must not cast pearls before swine (Mat 7:6). After Foerster and Cramer.
5. On Isa 36:21. Est aureus textus, qui docet nos, ne cum Satana disputemus. Quando enim videt, quod sumus ejus spectatores et auditores, tum captat occasionem majoris fortitudinis et gravius premit. Petrus dicit, eum circuire et quaerere, quem devoret. Nullum facit insidiarum finem. Tutissimum autem est non respondere, sed contemnere eum.Luther.
6. [On Isa 37:1-7. Rabshakeh intended to frighten Hezekiah from the Lord, but it proves that he frightens him to the Lord. The wind, instead of forcing the travelers coat from him, makes him wrap it the closer about him. The more Rabshakeh reproaches God, the more Hezekiah studies to honor Him. On Isa 37:3. When we are most at a plunge we should be most earnest in prayer. When pains are most strong, let prayers be most lively. Prayer is the midwife of mercy, that helps to bring it forth.M. Henry, in loc.]
7. On Isa 37:2 sqq. Hezekiah here gives a good example. He shows all princes, rulers and peoples what one ought to do when there is a great and common distress, and tribulation. One ought with sackcloth, i. e., with penitent humility, to bring prayers, and intercessions to the Lord that He would look on and help.
8. On Isa 37:6 sq. God takes to Himself all the evil done to His people. For as when one does a great kindness to the saints, God appropriates it to Himself, so, too, when one torments the saints, it is an injury done to God, and He treats sin no other way than as if done to Himself. He that torments them torments Him (Isa 64:9). Therefore the saints pray: Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily (Psa 74:22).Cramer.
9. On Isa 37:7. God raises up against His enemies other enemies, and thus prepares rest for His own people. Example: the Philistines against Saul who pursued David, 1Sa 23:27.Cramer.
10. On Isa 37:14. Vitringa here cites the following from Bonfin Rerum Hungar. Dec. III. Lib. VI. p. 464, ad annum Isaiah 1444: Amorathes, cum suos laborare cerneret et ab Vladislao rege non sine magna caede fugari, depromtum e sinu codicem initi sanctissime foederis explicat intentis in coelum oculis. Haec sunt, inquit ingeminans, Jesu Christe, foedera, quae Christiani tui mecum percussere. Per numen tuum sanctum jurarunt, datamque sub nomine tuo fidem violarunt, perfide suum Deum abnegarunt. Nunc Christe, si Deus es (ut ajunt et nos hallucinamur), tuas measque hic injurias, te quaeso, ulciscere et his, qui sanctum tuum nomen nondum agnovere, violatae fidei poenas ostende. Vix haec dixerat . cum proelium, quod anceps ac dubium diu fuerat, inclinare coepit, etc.
[The desire of Hezekiah was not primarily his own personal safety, or the safety of his kingdom. It was that Jehovah might vindicate His great and holy name from reproach, and that the world might know that He was the only true God. We have here a beautiful model of the object which we should have in view when we come before God. This motive of prayer is one that is with great frequency presented in the Bible. Comp. Isa 42:8; Isa 43:10; Isa 43:13; Isa 43:25; Deu 32:39; Psa 83:18; Psa 46:10; Neh 9:6; Dan 9:18-19. Perhaps there could have been furnished no more striking proof that Jehovah was the true God, than would be by the defeat of Sennacherib. The time had come when the great Jehovah could strike a blow which would be felt on all nations, and carry the terror of His name, and the report of His power throughout the earth. Perhaps this was one of the main motives of the destruction of that mighty army.Barnes, on Isa 37:2].
11. On Isa 37:15. Fides Ezechiae verba confirmata magis ac magis crescit. Ante non ausus est orare, jam orat et confutat blasphemias omnes Assyrii. Adeo magna vis verbi est, ut longe alius per verbum, quod Jesajas ei nunciari jussit, factus sit.Luther.
12. On Isa 37:17. [It is bad to talk proudly and profanely, but it is worse to write so, for this argues more deliberation and design, and what is written spreads further and lasts longer, and does the more mischief. Atheism and irreligion, written, will certainly be reckoned for another day.M. Henry].
13. On Isa 37:21 sqq. [Those who receive messages of terror from men with patience, and send messages of faith to God by prayer, may expect messages of grace and peace from God for their comfort, even when they are most cast down. Isaiah sent a long answer to Hezekiahs prayer in Gods name, sent it in writing (for it was too long to be sent by word of mouth), and sent it by way of return to his prayer, relation being thereunto had: Whereas thou hast prayed to me, know, for thy comfort, that thy prayer is heard. Isaiah might have referred him to the prophecies he had delivered (particularly to that of chap. 10), and bid him pick out an answer from thence. The correspondence between earth and heaven is never let fall on Gods side.M. Henry.].
14. On Isa 37:31 sqq. This is a promise of great extent. For it applies not only to those that then remained, and were spared the impending destruction and captivity by the Assyrians, but to all subsequent times, when they should enjoy a deliverance; as after the Babylonish captivity, and after the persecutions of Antiochus. Yea, it applies even to New Testament times from the first to the last, since therein, in the order of conversion to Christ, the Jews will take root and bring forth fruit, and thus in the Jews (as also in the converted Gentiles) will appear in a spiritual and corporal sense, what God at that time did to their fields in the three following years.Starke.
15. On Isa 38:1. Isaiah, although of a noble race and condition, does not for that regard it disgraceful, but rather an honor, to be a pastor and visitor of the sick, I would say, a prophet, teacher and comforter of the sick. God save the mark! How has the world become so different in our day, especially in our evangelical church Let a family be a little noble, and it is regarded as a reproach and injury to have a clergyman among its relations and friends, not to speak of a son studying theology and becoming a servant of the church. I speak not of all; I know that some have a better mind; yet such is the common course. Jeroboams maxim must rather obtain, who made priests of the lowest of the people (1Ki 12:31). For thus the parsons may be firmly held in rein (sub ferula) and in political submission. It is not at all good where the clergy have a say, says an old state-rule of our Politicorum. Feuerlein, pastor in Nuremberg, in his Novissimorum primum, 1694, p. 553. The same quotes Spener: Is it not so, that among the Roman Catholics the greatest lords are not ashamed to stand in the spiritual office, and that many of them even discharge the spiritual functions? Among the Reformed, too, persons born of the noblest families are not ashamed of the office of preacher. But, it seems, we Lutherans are the only ones that hold the service of the gospel so low, that, where from a noble or otherwise prominent family an ingenium has an inclination to theological study, almost every one seeks to hinder him, or, indeed, afterwards is ashamed of his friendship, as if it were something much too base for such people, by which more harm comes to our church than one might suppose. That is to be ashamed of the gospel.
16. On Isa 38:1. [We see here the boldness and fidelity of a man of God. Isaiah was not afraid to go in freely and tell even a monarch that he must die. The subsequent part of the narrative would lead us to suppose that, until this announcement, Hezekiah did not regard himself as in immediate danger. It is evident here, that the physician of Hezekiah had not informed him of itperhaps from the apprehension that his disease would be aggravated by the agitation of his mind on the subject. The duty was, therefore, left, as it is often, to the minister of religiona duty which even many ministers are slow to perform, and which many physicians are reluctant to have performed.
No danger is to be apprehended commonly from announcing to those who are sick their true condition. Physicians and friends often err in this. There is no species of cruelty greater than to suffer a friend to lie on a dying bed under a delusion. There is no sin more aggravated than that of designedly deceiving a dying man, and flattering him with the hope of recovery, when there is a moral certainty that he will not and cannot recover. And there is evidently no danger to be apprehended from communicating to the sick their true condition. It should be done tenderly and with affection; but it should be done faithfully. I have had many opportunities of witnessing the effect of apprising the sick of their situation, and of the moral certainty that they must die. And I cannot now recall an instance in which the announcement has had any unhappy effect on the disease. Often, on the contrary, the effect is to calm the mind, and to lead the dying to look up to God, and peacefully to repose on Him. And the effect of that is always salutary. Barnes in loc.]
17. On Isa 38:2. It is an old opinion, found even in the Chald., that by the wall is meant the wall of the temple as a holy direction in which to pray, as the Mahometans pray in the direction of Mecca. But cannot mean that. Rather that is correct which is said by Forerius: Nolunt pii homines testes habere suarum lacrymarum, ut eas liberius fundant, neque sensu distrahi, cum orare Deum ex animo volunt.
18. On Isa 38:8 :
Non Deus est numen Parcarum carcere clausum.
Quale putabatur Stoicus esse Deus.
Ille potest Solis cursus inhibere volantes,
At veluti scopulos flumina stare facit.
Melanchthon.
19. On Isa 38:12. Beautiful parables that picture to us the transitoriness of this temporal life. For the parable of the shepherds tent means how restless a thing it is with us, that we have here no abiding place, but are driven from one locality to another, until at last we find a resting-spot in the church-yard. The other parable of the weavers thread means how uncertain is our life on earth. For how easily the thread breaks. Cramer. When the weavers work is progressing best, the thread breaks before he is aware. Thus when a man is in his best work, and supposes he now at last begins really to live, God breaks the thread of his life and lets him die. The rational heathen knew something of this when they, so to speak, invented the three goddesses of life (the three Parcas minime parcas) and included them in this little verse:
Clotho colum gestat, Lachesis trahit,
Atropos occat
But what does the weaver when the thread breaks? Does he stop his work at once? O no! He knows how to make a clever weavers knot, so that one cannot observe the break. Remember thereby that when thy life is broken off, yet the Lord Jesus, as a master artisan, can bring it together again at the last day. He will make such an artful, subtle weavers-knot as shall make us wonder through all eternity. It will do us no harm to have died. Ibid.Omnia sunt hominum tenui pendentia filo.
[As suddenly as the tent of a shepherd is taken down, folded up, and transferred to another place. There is doubtless the idea here that he would continue to exist, but in another place, as the shepherd would pitch his tent in another place. He was to be cut off from the earth, but he expected to dwell among the dead. The whole passage conveys the idea that he expected to dwell in another state. Barnes in loc.].
20. On Isa 38:17. [Note 1) When God pardons sin, He casts it behind His back as not designing to look upon it with an eye of justice and jealousy. He remembers it no more, to visit for it. The pardon does not make the sin not to have been, or not to have been sin, but not to be punished as it deserves. When we cast our sins behind our back, and take no care to repent of them, God sets them before His face, and is ready to reckon for them; but when we set them before our face in true repentance, as David did when his sin was ever before him, God casts them behind His back. 2) When God pardons sin, He pardons all, casts them all behind His back, though they have been as scarlet and crimson. 3) The pardoning of sin is the delivering the soul from the pit of corruption. 4) It is pleasant indeed to think of our recoveries from sickness when we see them flowing from the remission of sin; then the cause is removed, and then it is in love to the soul. M. Henry in loc.]
21. On Isa 38:18. [Cannot hope for thy truth. They are shut out from all the means by which Thy truth is brought to mind, and the offers of salvation are presented. Their probation is at an end; their privileges are closed; their destiny is sealed up. The idea is, it is a privilege to live because this is a world where the offers of salvation are made, and where those who are conscious of guilt may hope in the mercy of God. Barnes in loc.] God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2Pe 3:9). Such is the New Testament sense of these Old Testament words. For though Hezekiah has primarily in mind the preferableness of life in the earthly body to the life in Hades, yet this whole manner of representation passes away with Hades itself. But Hezekiahs words still remain true so far as they apply to heaven and hell. For of course in hell, the place of the damned, one does not praise God. But those that live praise Him. These, however, are in heaven. Since then God wills rather that men praise Him than not praise Him, so He is not willing that men should perish, but that all should turn to repentance and live.
22. On Isa 39:2. Primo (Deus) per obsidionem et bellum, deinde per gravem morbum Ezechiam servaverat, ne in praesumtionem laberetur. Nondum tamen vinci potuit antiquus serpens, sed redit et levat caput suum. Adeo non possumus consistere, nisi Deos nos affligat. Vides igitur hic, quis sit afflictionum usus, ut mortificent scilicet carnem, quae non potest res ferre secundas. Luther.
23. On Isa 39:7. God also punishes the misdeeds of the parents on the children (Exo 20:5) because the children not only follow the misdeeds of their parents, but they also increase and heap them up, as is seen in the posterity of Hezekiah, viz.: Manasseh and Amon.Cramer.
HOMILETICAL HINTS
[The reader is referred to the ample hints covering the same matter to be found in the volume on 2 Kings 18-20. It is expedient to take advantage of that for the sake of keeping the present volume within reasonable bounds. Therefore but a minimum is here given of what the Author offers, much of which indeed is but the repetition in another form of matter already given.Tr.]
1. On Isa 37:36. 1) The scorn and mockery of the visible world. 2) The scorn and mockery of the unseen world. Sermon of Domprediger Zahn in Halle, 1870.
2. On the entire 38. chapter, beside the 22 sermons in FEUERLEINS Novissimorum primum, there is a great number of homiletical elaborations of an early date; Walther Magirus, Idea mortis et vitae in two parts, the second of which contains 20 penitential and consolatory sermons on Isaiah 38. Danzig, 1640 and 1642. Daniel Schaller (Stendal) 4 sermons on the sick Hezekiah, on Isaiah 38. Magdeburg, 1611. Peter Siegmund Pape in Gott geheilighte Wochenpredigten, Berlin, 1701, 4 sermons. Jacob Tichlerus (Elburg) Hiskiae Aufrichtigkeit bewiesen in Gesundheit, Krankheit und Genesung, 18 sermons on Isaiah 38. (Dutch), Campen, 1636. These are only the principal ones.
3. On Isa 38:1. I will set my house in order. This, indeed, will not be hard for me to do. My debt account is crossed out; my best possession I take along with me; my children I commit to the great Father of orphans, to whom heaven and earth belongs, and my soul to the Lord, who has sued for it longer than a human age, and bought it with His blood. Thus I am eased and ready for the journey. Tholuck, Stunden der Andacht, p. 620.
4. On Isa 38:1. Now thou shouldest know that our word order his house has a very broad meaning. It comprehends reconciliation to God by faith, the final confession of sin, the last Lords Supper, the humble committing of the soul to the grace of the Lord, and to death and the grave in the hope of the resurrection. In one word: There is an ordering of the house above. In reliance on the precious merit of my Saviour, I order my house above in which I wish to dwell. Moreover taking leave of loved ones, and the blessing of them belongs to ordering the house. And finally order must be taken concerning the guardianship of children, the abiding of the widow, and the friend on whom she must especially lean in her loneliness, also concerning earthly bequests. Ahlfeld, Das Leben im Lichte des Wortes Gottes, Halle, 1867, p. 522.
5. On Isa 38:2-8. This account has much that seems strange to us Christians, but much, too, that quite corresponds to our Christian consciousness. Let us contemplate the difference between an Old Testament, and a New Testament suppliant, by noticing the differences and the resemblances. I. The resemblances. 1) Distress and grief there are in the Old, as in the New Testament (Isa 38:3). 2) Ready and willing to help beyond our prayers or comprehension (Isa 38:5-6) is the Lord in the Old as in the New Testament. II. The differences. 1) The Old Testament suppliant appealed to his having done nothing bad (Isa 38:3). The New Testament suppliant says: God be merciful to me a sinner, and Give me through grace for Christs sake what it pleases Thee to give me. 2) The Old Testament suppliant demands a sign (Isa 38:7-8; comp. Isa 38:22); the New Testament suppliant requires no sign but that of the crucified Son of man, for He knows that to those who bear this sign is given the promise of the hearing of all their prayers (Joh 16:23). 3) In Hezekiahs case, the prayer of the Old Testament suppliant is indeed heard (Isa 38:5), yet in general it has not the certainty of being heard, whereas the New Testament suppliant has this certainty.
Footnotes:
[1]chancellor.
[2]Or, provocation.
[3]peradventure.
[4]with which the king commissioned him.
[5]administer punishment for the words.
[6]and thou wilt lift up a prayer.
[7]Heb. found.
[8]the boys.
[9]Or, put a spirit into him.
[10]I fell him.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
Isa 37
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Blasphemy of Rabshakeh
Isaiah 36-39
The prophecies of Isaiah constitute a threefold division: first, Isaiah 1-35; second, Isaiah 36-39; third, Isaiah 40-46. We have just considered the noble words which formed the peroration of Isaiah’s political eloquence. The four chapters (Isaiah chapters 36-39), were possibly not written by Isaiah himself; they may, it is thought, have been appended by some disciple or editor in the time of Ezra. In proper chronology Isa 38 , Isa 39 should come first. For our purpose it will be enough to pause here and there at some point of direct spiritual utility. For example, here is a man, a chief officer or cupbearer, Rabshakeh by name, who represents the king of Assyria, and embodies the brutality and blasphemy which have ever distinguished the enemies of truth and righteousness. Rabshakeh began his communications with Hezekiah by a taunt. He reminded the king that he had trusted in the staff of a broken reed, that is, upon Egypt; “whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him” ( Isa 36:6 ). Rabshakeh had the advantage of truth on this occasion, and he wished to push it to undue uses or extract from it fallacious inferences, on the supposition that Hezekiah being able to confirm his testimony upon one point would be predisposed to accept it on another. Rabshakeh offered to lay a wager when he said, “Now therefore give pledges” ( Isa 36:8 ). The proposition is marked by extreme ludicrousness, being nothing less than to find two thousand horses for the use of Hezekiah if the king on his part should be able to set riders upon them. This was the taunt of defiance; this has about it all the brutality of men who know that their proud offers cannot be accepted. Where there is great weakness on the one side, it is easy to boast of great pomp and power on the other.
Rabshakeh continued his empty boast either personally or representatively, when he said, “I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it” ( Isa 36:10 ). Here we have an instance of a perverted truth. Isaiah had distinctly taught that it was Jehovah himself who had brought the king of Assyria into Judah, and they who were opposed to the people of God were prepared to say that such being the case it was evident that the king of Assyria was really the representative of the God of heaven, and now Rabshakeh or the king of Assyria may be said to assume the character of a defender of the faith.
Rabshakeh made a bold appeal to the people when he said, “Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me: and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his own cistern; until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards” ( Isa 36:16-17 ). How eloquent was Rabshakeh in the telling of lies! Hezekiah’s people had only to leave the besieged city, and to go into the Assyrian camp, and they would be allowed the greatest privileges; thus Rabshakeh adds the torment of sarcasm to the sufferings of war, and actually proposes to the people to accept the doom of exile as if it were a change for the better! It is supposed that the taunt and the promise may perhaps be connected with Senra-cherib’s boast that he had made the water supply of the cities of his empire.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
The Distress of Hezekiah
Isa 37
The first picture that strikes us in this chapter is that of a panic-stricken king. When Hezekiah heard the messages from Assyria he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. The king and his ministers all clothed themselves in the penitential sackcloth of mourners. Hezekiah was probably weak in body, and therefore had lost true courage of soul. None knew better than he the overwhelming resources of Assyria, and if for a moment he surrendered his faith in God, he knew that the fate of himself and his people was sealed. In all ages the people of God have really had nothing to trust to but God himself. Their temptation, therefore, was to look without, to reckon up resources of a military kind, and discovering the inadequacy of such resources to meet the exigencies of the time they were prone to fall into despair. It has always been difficult to trust the purely spiritual. Given, on the one hand, a boundless army with boundless resources, and given, on the other hand, nothing but simple religious faith, and it is easy to see how men constituted as we are, may incline to seize the soldiery and the armour, and to put their confidence in resources of a palpable kind. The history of providence has been an intentional rebuke of such foolish confidences. They that trust in the Lord are to be as mount Zion; they who believe are to have perfect peace in the midst of storm; they who have the eyes of their hearts enlightened can see infinite hosts gathering around them, though there be nothing patent to the naked eye. In the midst of his distress Hezekiah sent “unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.” So far Hezekiah was right. He might have gone himself directly by an act of faith to the living God, but he had regard to the constitution of Israel, and he availed himself of the ordinances and institutes appointed of heaven. Hezekiah made through Eliakim a pathetic speech to Isaiah “This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy” ( Isa 37:3 ). There are hours, as we have often seen, when prophets come to the enjoyment of their fullest influence. Isaiah had been despised and derided, but now his hour has come, and he stands up as the one hope of Judah. The question was, What can you, Isaiah, do to extract Israel from all the peril which now presses upon the people of God? In the sixth verse we see how nobly the attitude of Isaiah contrasts with the attitude of Hezekiah. Instead of the word of inspiration proceeding from the king it issued from the prophet.
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. 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 ( Isa 37:6-7 ).
This was the message which the Lord sent through Isaiah to King Hezekiah. A terrible thing is it for the Lord to determine to send a blast upon a man. The better rendering is, “I will put a spirit in him;” the word spirit may represent an impulse, mighty and overwhelming, which makes havoc of all previous resolutions and purposes, and indeed drives the man to madness. The Lord troubles the faculties of our nature. He causes us to see sights which have no existence, and to hear voices which are pure suppositions of the fancy. Thus, the king of Assyria was to “hear a rumour;” it might be a mere noise in the ear, it might be of real danger gathering in some distant quarter; or this may be an instance of that prescience which foresees far away the complications of statecraft which drive to despair the sagacity of the shrewdest kings. Whatever may be the precise meaning of the words, it is evident that the Lord takes the whole affair into his own hands, and drives about the king of Assyria as men drive a horse in whose mouth they put a bit and bridle. When the Lord proposes to smite a man as with a sword of lightning, there is a dignity about his reply which makes us pause in wonder and in awe; but when he simply undertakes to trouble the brain, to frighten the eyes, to create an uproar in the ears, we begin to feel how terrible a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God. We should fix our attention upon the position occupied by Isaiah in this time of exigency. What are prophets for if not to declare the will of God in the midst of thickening danger? What are ministers of the Gospel for, if they dare not stand up in times of political conflict and social distress, and lay down the law of eternal righteousness? There is no need for them to intermeddle with the mere details of policy, or to range themselves in the spirit of partisanship on this side or that, but as ministers of Christ, who came to save the lost, to help the helpless, to open the eyes of the blind, and work miracles of beneficence, they are bound to speak a word for those who are cast down, to rebuke all tyranny, monopoly, and oppression and to declare the word of hope in the ears of men who are being driven by misfortune into dejection and despair. A woful day will it be for the Christian Church when ministers speak nothing but sentiment, and occupy a position so remote from the actual affairs of the day as really to involve them in nothing that is of the nature of pain, loss, and sacrifice. The ancient prophets came down amongst the people, took their place amongst them, heard all the messages that were delivered by foreign sovereigns, and declared the will of the Lord respecting all the events of the time. Prophets and ministers will be quickly allowed to retire to “some boundless contiguity of shade,” if they prefer to live a monastic life and to speak only those platitudes which have no reference to the dangers and the sufferings of the present hour. It is not enough for us to admire Isaiah, a prophet who lived thousands of years ago, when he stood up and delivered the word of God in the hearing of the messengers of the king of Assyria: Isaiah’s heroism will be wholly lost if it be not copied by ourselves, and so embodied as to have a direct bearing upon all the action and purpose of the day in which we toil.
A beautiful picture is presented in the fourteenth verse, in which Hezekiah receives a threatening letter, and goes up into the house of the Lord, and spreads it before the Lord. This may be described as an action of mute worship. Possibly not a word was said. The letter was simply laid out before the presence of the all-seeing God. Sometimes this is the only thing we can do in the midst of trying providences. We have exhausted all thought, all words, all skill in fence, and our arms now fall powerless by our side: in such circumstances we can but lay the case before God in eloquent silence. He knows what we mean by the act, and in proportion as our spirit is true in its tone towards him will he reply to us. In a moment Hezekiah was enabled to speak, and he offered a most pathetic prayer.
“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. 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. Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their countries, 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. 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” ( Isa 37:16-20 ).
The tone of sublimity which marks this address cannot be overlooked. In Psa 80:1 we have an expression like that which Hezekiah uses when he says “that dwellest between the cherubims” an expression which is supposed to refer to the dark thunderclouds of heaven. In this case the reference is supposed to be to the glory-cloud which was the symbol of the divine presence, and which rested when it manifested itself between the cherubim of the ark figures which symbolise the elemental forces of the heavens. Rabshakeh had spoken of “the gods of the nations,” but Hezekiah speaks another faith “thou art the God, even thou alone.” We must never forget that monotheism was the faith of Israel. Never was Israel allowed to suppose that God was many and not one. The majesty of the Lord lay in his unity, and not in his divisibleness. This may be called the majesty of simplicity, in contradistinction to the majesty of number, variety, and complication. Now Hezekiah cast the whole difficulty into the hands of the Lord, his plea being that if God would defend Judah, and deliver his chosen Israel, all the kingdoms of the earth would know that God was the Lord, and there was none beside him. It is curious to observe how, by a kind of necessity, we all endeavour to give motives to the Divine Being which may direct his action and account for it. God does not disallow this worship of what may be called suggestive ness. Properly viewed, can anything be more out of reason and out of place, than that man should supply not only a prayer which expresses his necessity, but should suggest reasons on which God himself should act? Throughout the whole commerce of heaven and earth God continually reveals himself to us in condescending forms, and permits himself to be treated in many cases as if he were open to suggestion and reason and eloquence on our part. This is one method of the divine education of the world. Men are driven to find reasons for themselves and to suggest reasons to God, and the whole process may end in mental enlargement, or in intellectual illumination, or in the proof that it is not in man to find reasons but in God to supply both the motive and the end of his actions. Hezekiah’s prayer is in some respects a model petition. He lays the whole case before God, and then speaks aloud concerning it. He reviews the history of Assyrian gods; he has seen them one by one cast into the fire: for they were no gods but the work of men’s hands, yea, gods that could be destroyed by the very hands that made them; but now Hezekiah’s heart rises in a sublime appeal to the eternity which cannot be shortened, to the infinity that cannot be diminished, to the almightiness whose energy can never be modified. The very making of such an appeal stirs and ennobles the heart and brings every faculty to its highest temper and power. This, indeed, is one of the best uses of prayer, namely, the enlargement of soul which follows it, the glow which makes the whole heart glad, and the sense of divine nearness which inspires timidity itself with invincible courage.
Now Isaiah the son of Amoz sends a message unto Hezekiah, and his message constitutes probably the last of Isaiah’s recorded utterances, which is undoubtedly one of the sublimest bursts of eloquence attributed even to his inspired lips. It would seem as if the Lord replied to Hezekiah’s prayer through the instrumentality of Isaiah, for Isaiah begins his answer to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria: this is the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning him.” This is remarkable as showing in how many ways we may receive answers to prayer. It could not have been thought that the Lord would answer a prayer addressed to him by sending a message through some other man. But thus we are to look for answers to our petitions. We cannot tell how the reply will come by man, or woman, or child, or unexpected event, or unknown correspondent, or impressions produced upon the mind apparently without any ability on our part to trace their origin or account for their suddenness or their emphasis. We should always be looking for answers to prayers, not always by lifting up our heads and directing our eyes to the far-away heavens; we should open our ears to listen to the words which are being spoken immediately around us, for in the common conversation of the day we may receive some hint as to the destiny and effect of our own prayers. According to the answer which Isaiah was inspired to give to Hezekiah, the virgin daughter of Zion was enabled to despise those who sought to overthrow her, and to laugh to scorn those who had meditated evil things against her beauty and her virtue. The virgin daughter hurls back every taunt of Assyrian pride, and proceeds from one degree of contempt to another, until she inflicts upon the enemy the most signal humiliation. The Assyrians were to be as the grass of the field; they were to be as a field before the blades, or they were to be blasted as with mildew, or they were to be cast into the oven and destroyed; as for proud Assyria, a hook was to be put into his nose and a bridle into his lips, and he was to be turned back by the way by which he came. It is instructive to notice that the Assyrian sculptures represent both beasts and men as dragged in this way. Thus, in Eze 38:4 , we read: “And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords.”
“And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such as groweth of itself; and the second year that which springeth of the same: and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof” ( Isa 37:30 ).
In this verse the prophet turns to Hezekiah, and offers him pledges sufficiently near to assure him that all the prophecies of larger scope were perfectly literal in their intent. It is supposed that the time of the address was autumn, probably near the Equinox, which was the beginning of a new year. The best historians tell us that the Assyrian invasion had stopped all tillage in the previous spring, and the people had to rely upon the spontaneous products of the fields. “In the year that was about to open they would be still compelled to draw from the same source, but in twelve months’ time the land would be clear of the invaders, and agriculture would resume its normal course, and the fulfilment of this prediction within the appointed limit of time would guarantee that wider promise that follows.” Thus the providence of the Lord confirms itself. Sometimes we have a remote promise stretching far away beyond the ages, and which the living men can never hope to see fulfilled, but in order to assure their faith and brighten their hope, something is promised to them which they can immediately realise. Thus from point to point, and from day to day, we are drawn forward, we are drawn forward by the good hand and the living Spirit of God.
The prophet says, “The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this” ( Isa 37:32 ). It was not to be done by human energy, but wholly accomplished by divine wisdom and power. We may so look at prophecies of a large significance as to be overwhelmed by the range of time through which they had to pass, and thus we may blind ourselves and actually overpower our own faith; whereas we ought continually to look at the living God, and the eternity in which he dwells, and to feel that everything is in his hands, and that how great soever the time required it is as nothing compared with the eternity in which he lives.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XXVII
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN ISAIAH
The relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy is that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. To him give all the prophets witness. All the scriptures, the law, the prophets, and the psalms, testify of him. And we are fools, and slow of heart to credit adequate testimony when we distrust any part of the inspired evidence.
Of the ancient prophets Isaiah was perhaps the most notable witness of the coming Messiah. An orderly combination of his many messianic utterances amounts to more than a mere sketch, indeed, rather to a series of almost life-sized portraits. As a striking background for these successive portraits the prophet discloses the world’s need of a Saviour, and across this horrible background of gloom the prophet sketches in startling strokes of light the image of a coming Redeemer.
In Isa 2:2-4 we have the first picture of him in Isaiah, that of the effect of his work, rather than of the Messiah himself. This is the establishment of the mountain of the Lord’s house on the top of the mountains, the coming of the nations to it and the resultant millennial glory.
In Isa 4:2-6 is another gleam from the messianic age in which the person of the Messiah comes more into view in the figure of a branch of Jehovah, beautiful and glorious. In sketching the effects of his work here the prophet adds a few strokes of millennial glory as a consummation of his ministry.
In Isa 7:14 he delineates him as a little child born of a virgin, whose coming is the light of the world. He is outlined on the canvas in lowest humanity and highest divinity, “God with us.” In this incarnation he is the seed of the woman and not of the man.
The prophet sees him as a child upon whom the government shall rest and whose name is “Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6 ). This passage shows the divinity of Christ and the universal peace he is to bring to the world. In these names we have the divine wisdom, the divine power, the divine fatherhood, and the divine peace.
In Isa 11:1-9 the prophet sees the Messiah as a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, i.e., of lowly origin, but possessing the Holy Spirit without measure who equips him for his work, and his administration wrought with skill and justice, the result of which is the introduction of universal and perfect peace. Here the child is presented as a teacher. And such a teacher! On him rests the seven spirits of God. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. He judges not according to appearances and reproves not according to rumors. With righteousness he judges the poor and reproves with equality in behalf of the meek. His words smite a guilty world like thunderbolts and his very breath slays iniquity. Righteousness and faithfulness are his girdle. He uplifts an infallible standard of morals.
In Isa 40:3-8 appears John the Baptist, whom Isaiah saw as a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the coming King.
In Isa 11:2 ; Isa 42:1 ; Isa 61:1-3 the prophet saw the Messiah as a worker in the power of the Spirit, in whom he was anointed at his baptism. This was the beginning of his ministry which was wrought through the power of the Holy Spirit. At no time in his ministry did our Lord claim that he wrought except in the power of the Holy Spirit who was given to him without measure.
In Isa 35:1-10 the Messiah is described as a miracle worker. In his presence the desert blossoms as a rose and springs burst out of dry ground. The banks of the Jordan rejoice. The lame man leaps like a hart, the dumb sing and the blind behold visions. The New Testament abounds in illustrations of fulfilment. These signs Christ presented to John the Baptist as his messianic credentials (Mat 11:1-4 ).
The passage (Isa 42:1-4 ) gives us a flashlight on the character of the Messiah. In the New Testament it is expressly applied to Christ whom the prophet sees as the meek and lowly Saviour, dealing gently with the blacksliding child of his grace. In Isa 22:22 we have him presented as bearing the key of the house of David, with full power to open and shut. This refers to his authority over all things in heaven and upon earth. By this authority he gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter one for the Jews and the other for the Gentiles who used one on the day of Pentecost and the other at the house of Cornelius, declaring in each case the terms of entrance into the kingdom of God. This authority of the Messiah is referred to again in Revelation:
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying. Fear not: I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Rev 7:17
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphis write: These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and none shall shut, and shutteth and none openeth. Rev 3:7
In Isa 32:1-8 we have a great messianic passage portraying the work of Christ as a king ruling in righteousness, in whom men find a hiding place from the wind and the tempest. He is a stream in a dry place and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
In Isa 28:14-18 the Messiah is presented to w as a foundation stone in a threefold idea:
1. A tried foundation stone. This is the work of the master mason and indicates the preparation of the atone for its particular function.
2. An elect or precious foundation stone. This indicates that the stone was selected and appointed. It was not self-appointed but divinely appointed and is therefore safe.
3. A cornerstone, or sure foundation stone. Here it is a foundation of salvation, as presented in Mat 16:18 . It is Christ the Rock, and not Peter. See Paul’s foundation in 1 Corinthians:
According to the grace of God which was given unto me; as a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1Co 3:10-11 .
In Isa 49:1-6 he is presented as a polished shaft, kept close in the quiver. The idea is that he is a mighty sword. In Revelation, Christ is presented to John as having a sharp, twoedged sword proceeding out of his mouth.
In Isa 50:2 ; Isa 52:9 f.; Isa 59:16-21 ; Isa 62:11 we have the idea of the salvation of Jehovah. The idea is that salvation originated with God and that man in his impotency could neither devise the plan of salvation nor aid in securing it. These passages are expressions of the pity with which God looks down on a lost world. The redemption, or salvation, here means both temporal and spiritual salvation salvation from enemies and salvation from sin.
In Isa 9:1 f. we have him presented as a great light to the people of Zebulun and Naphtali. In Isa 49:6 we have him presented as a light to the Gentiles and salvation to the end of the earth: “Yea, he saith, It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”
In Isa 8:14-15 Isaiah presents him as a stone of stumbling: “And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.”
The prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection are found in Isa 50:4-9 ; Isa 52:13-53:12 . In this we have the vision of him giving his “back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” We see a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His visage is so marred it startled all nations. He is a vicarious sacrifice. The chastisement of the peace of others is on him. The iniquity of others is put on him. It pleases the Father to bruise him until he has poured out his soul unto death as an offering for sin.
The teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews is his teaching concerning the “holy remnant,” a favorite expression of the prophet. See Isa 1:9 ; Isa 10:20-22 ; Isa 11:11 ; Isa 11:16 ; Isa 37:4 ; Isa 37:31-32 ; Isa 46:3 . This coincides with Paul’s teaching in Romans 9-11.
In Isa 32:15 we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit: “Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest,” and in Isa 44:3 : “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.”
In Isa 11:10 he is said to be the ensign of the nations: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting place shall be glorious.”
Isa 19:18-25 ; Isa 54:1-3 ; Isa 60:1-22 teach the enlargement of the church. The great invitation and promise are found in Isa 55 .
The Messiah in judgments is found in Isa 63:1-6 . Here we behold an avenger. He comes up out of Edom with dyed garments from Bozra. All his raiment is stained with the blood of his enemies whom he has trampled in his vengeance as grapes are crushed in the winevat and the restoration of the Jews is set forth in Isa 11:11-12 ; Isa 60:9-15 ; Isa 66:20 . Under the prophet’s graphic pencil or glowing brush we behold the establishment and growth of his kingdom unlike all other kingdoms, a kingdom within men, a kingdom whose principles are justice, righteousness, and equity and whose graces are faith, hope, love, and joy, an undying and ever-growing kingdom. Its prevalence is like the rising waters of Noah’s flood; “And the waters prevailed and increased mightily upon the earth. And the water prevailed mightily, mightily upon the earth; and all the high mountains, that are under the whole heavens, were covered.”
So this kingdom grows under the brush of the prophetic limner until its shores are illimitable. War ceases. Gannenta rolled in the blood of battle become fuel for fire. Conflagration is quenched. Famine outlawed. Pestilence banished. None are left to molest or make afraid. Peace flows like a river. The wolf dwells with the lamb. The leopard lies down with the kid. The calf and the young lion walk forth together and a little child is leading them. The cow and the bear feed in one pasture and their young ones are bedfellows. The sucking child safely plays over the hole of the asp, and weaned children put their hands in the adder’s den. In all the holy realms none hurt nor destroy, because the earth is as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the fathomless ocean is full of water. Rapturous vision! Sublime and ineffable consummation! Was it only a dream?
In many passages the prophet turns in the gleams from the millennial age, but one of the clearest and best on the millennium, which is in line with the preceding paragraph, Isa 11:6-9 : “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.”
The prophet’s vision of the destruction of death is given in Isa 25:8 : “He hath swallowed up death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of his people will he take away from all the earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it,” and in Isa 26:19 : “Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.”
The clearest outlines of the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained” are to be found in Isa 25:8 , and in two passages in chapter Isa 66 : Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn over her; that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream: and ye shall suck thereof; ye shall be borne upon the side, and shall be dandled upon the knees, as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass: and the hands of Jehovah shall be known toward his servants ; and he will have indignation against his enemies. Isa 66:10-14
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Jehovah. Isa 66:22-23
QUESTIONS
1. What is the relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy?
2. What can you say of Isaiah as a witness of the Messiah?
3. What can you say of Isaiah’s pictures of the Messiah and their background?
4. Following in the order of Christ’s manifestation, what is the first picture of him in Isaiah?
5. What is the second messianic glimpse in Isaiah?
6. What is Isaiah’s picture of the incarnation?
7. What is Isaiah’s picture of the divine child?
8. What is Isaiah’s vision of his descent, his relation to the Holy Spirit, his administration of justice, and the results of his reign?
9. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah’s herald?
10. What is the prophet’s vision of his anointing?
11. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a miracle worker?
12. What is the prophet’s vision of the character of the Messiah?
13. What is the prophet’s vision of him as the key bearer?
14. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a king and a hiding place?
15. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah as a foundation stone?
16. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a polished shaft?
17. In what passages do we find the idea of the salvation of Jehovah, and what the significance of the idea?
18. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah as a light?
19. Where does Isaiah present him as a stone of stumbling?
20. What is the prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection?
21. What is the teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews?
22. Where do we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit?
23. Where is he said to be the ensign of the nations?
24. What passages teach the enlargement of the church?
25. Where is the great invitation and promise?
26. Where is the Messiah in judgment?
27. What passages show the restoration of the Jews?
28. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah’s kingdom?
29. What is the prophet’s vision of the millennium?
30. What is the prophet’s vision of the destruction of death?
31. What is the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained?”
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
XVII
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH PAST 9
Isaiah 34-39
Isaiah 34-35 form an appendix to the preceding parts of the book, setting forth the storm of God’s wrath upon the whole world, and the face of nature in its sweetest forms and brightest colors, after the storm is over.
They constitute the counterparts to one great picture. The first part contains a denunciation of divine vengeance against the enemies of God’s people and the second, a description of the glorious state of things after the execution of these judgments is finished. The awful picture, with its dark lurid hues, prepares the way for the soft and lovely portraiture of the blessed condition which follows.
This section opens with a call to all nations and people, the earth and the fulness thereof, the world and all things therein, to hear the prophet’s message concerning Jehovah’s indignation, which shows that the judgments to follow embrace the whole world.
There are three distinct paragraphs in Isa 34 . In Isa 34:1-7 we have announcement of the final judgment upon the whole world, including Edom as the leader. In Isa 34:8-15 we have the details of the judgment upon Edom as the ideal representative of the world. In Isa 34:16-17 the prophet appeals to the written word.
The allegorical view of the use of the word, “Edom,” in this chapter is in no way inconsistent with the existence of a basis of historical fact, therefore we adopt this view for the following reasons:
1. The invitation shows that the message to be delivered was on universal interest arid application, yet the language is parabolical in kind.
2. The allegorical character of Isa 35 is undeniable, but the two chapters are linked together by the very phraseology’. As the Zion of Isa 35 is the ideal “city of God,” so the Edom of Isa 34 must include all who hate and persecute the mystical Zion.
3. The names, “Edom and Bozrah,” occur in another allegorical passage (Isa 63:1-6 ).
4. Edom, the surname of him who “despised the birthright,” was a fitting designation for those who profanely slighted their privilege as God’s special people.
5. The context is admittedly figurative, but if the lambs, bullocks, and goats be symbolical, then the unclean animals that are to occupy their places should be so, too.
6. In Heb 12:16-17 Esau stands as the type of profane and sensual-minded men, who are identified with those against whom Moses warned Israel in Deu 29:18-23 . The idea is further carried out in the next paragraph. In Isa 34:8-15 we have the more detailed account of God’s vengeance against the enemies of Zion, which is likened unto that upon Sodom and Gomorrah. This, of course, is not literal, but typically represents the punishment of God’s dreadful vengeance upon all his enemies while Edom is here again made the type. Isa 34:10 shows that this curse is to be everlasting in its typical aspect while the following verses show that Edom, as an example of such destruction, was to be literally and perpetually laid waste, and history verifies this prophecy respecting Edom.
The book referred to in Isa 34:16 is the book of Moses and perhaps includes the earlier prophets which had written in them the threatenings against the ungodly. At this time the Pentateuch and history of Joshua and Judges, and the history of the reigns of the kings up to this time had been written and preserved, but the reference is very likely to the Pentateuch, primarily, which was complete in one book and kept in the ark of the covenant. This appeal to the book by Isaiah is to prove that he was in line with the threatenings and judgments which preceded his time and that his prophecies were to be regarded as equal in inspiration and authority with the other scriptures of his day.
Isa 35 is a glorious counterpart of the judgment on Edom in Isa 34 and is distinctly messianic. The outline of these contents consists of three items. In Isa 35:1-2 we have the blessings on the land pronounced which reverses the corresponding desolation of Lebanon, Carmel, and Sharon, because of “the glory and excellency of our God.” This is a general statement of the reversal of the judgments before predicted. In Isa 35:3-4 is a general announcement of the hope and good cheer on account of the recompense of God. Then in Isa 35:5-10 the prophet particularizes these blessings which were literally fulfilled in the ministry of Christ. Then the prophet shows us the highway that shall be there, the way of holiness, with no unclean person, no fools and no ravenous beasts walking therein, over which the redeemed shall walk and the ransomed of Jehovah shall return with songs of joy to Zion, where they shall have everlasting joy upon their heads and where sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Thus commencing with the restoration to their land, then passing on to the coming and healing work of the Messiah the prophet closes with the blessing of their conversion. This hope is kept constantly before the holy remnant of Israel by Isaiah, stimulating them in these dark and gloomy hours, just As when the weary traveler gains The height of some o’er-looking hill, The sight his fainting spirit cheers, He eyes his home, though distant still.
This section, Isaiah 36-39, in our outline of Isaiah is called “The Historical Interlude,” sometimes called “The Book of Hezekiah.” There is a reference to this section in 2Ch 32:32 , thus: “Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his good deeds, behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz, in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.” as a matter of history almost all this section is embodied in 2 Kings 18-20, which should be carefully studied in connection with this passage in Isaiah.
This section may be regarded as the history of how Hezekiah stood the test applied to him. A like test was put to Ahaz (Isa 7:3-17 ), and he, an unbeliever as he was, simply put the offered grace from him, as swine would deal with pearls cast before them. But Hezekiah’s test reveals a different character, one vastly more interesting and instructive for God’s people in all ages. He proves to be a man of faith in God and, in a large measure, wins out in the conflict, but fails in the matter of the Babylonian messengers and the pride of his heart. Yet again he shows that he was a child of God in that he humbled himself so that the threatened wrath of Jehovah came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah. The case of David and Solomon, in which the consequences of Solomon’s sins were deferred till after his death for the sake of David, is similar to this.
This section divides itself into two parts, viz: (1) Sennacherib’s invasion (Isaiah 36-37) ; (2) Hezekiah’s sickness, and the embassy from Babylon (Isaiah 38-39).
Isaiah 36-37 contain a history of an event which had been predicted long before and frequently alluded to afterward (see Isa 8:5-10 ; Isa 10:12-19 ; Isa 10:33-34 ; Isa 30:28-31 ; Isa 31:8 ). It was stated definitely that the stream of Assyrian conquest, after it had overflowed Samaria, would “reach even to the neck” of Judah, and then be suddenly turned back. The fact of the prediction is unquestionable. The actual overthrow of the Assyrian power is as certain as any event in the world’s annals. These two chapters are thus the historical goal of tile book from Isaiah 7-35. So this part of the book is as inseparable from the preceding part of the book as fulfilment is inseparable from prediction itself.
Isaiah 38-39 are, on the other hand, the historical starting point for the rest of the book. These two chapters tell of the failure of the man who had checked the stream of national corruption; who suppressed idolatry, restored the Temple worship, and followed the guidance of the prophetic word; who had been rescued, both from a fatal malady and from the assault of the Assyrian king. When such & one fell away, no higher proof could be given that Judah must be subjected to the severe discipline of the captivity. With this dark foreshadowing there was a necessity for the following chapters of comfort.
The date of Sennacherib’s attack on Jerusalem is significant. The record tells us that this event was in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, king of Judah, which was forty-six years after the vision of Isa 6 . This taken in connection with Isa 37:30 indicates that they were on the threshold of the Jubilee Year which, with its blessings, should be the sign unto Hezekiah that God would make the Jubilee laws effective at this time and deliver the land from the hand of Sennacherib.
From 2Ki 18:13-16 we learn that the immediate cause of Sennacherib’s invasion at this time was Hezekiah’s refusing to pay tribute. But the record also tells us that Hezekiah righted this wrong to the king of Assyria by sending the tribute and begging his pardon. This did not satisfy Sennacherib because he had a motive beyond that of getting the tribute, for we see him demanding the unconditional surrender of Jerusalem avowedly to be followed by deportation. This was an act of perfidy, as well as of cruelty and arrogance. Undoubtedly Sennacherib’s motive was not merely political, but he was bent on proving that Jehovah was on a level with the gods of other nations. Assyria had become a great power and, as she thought, had overcome the gods of all the other nations, including Samaria whose God was Jehovah. Just one more step now was needed to make Assyria the lord of the world, and that was the capture of Jerusalem. This evidently was his ulterior motive in this invasion.
In Isaiah 36-37 we have the details of this history which is a thrilling account of a conflict between the true and the false religion, similar to that of Moses and Pharaoh, or Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Here it is the Assyrian gods versus Jehovah. The items of this history are as follows: Rabshakeh was sent by Sennacherib from Lachish against Jerusalem with a great army which stopped at the upper pool near the Joppa gate, where Isaiah met Ahaz some forty years before.
Messengers from Hezekiah at once went out to meet Rabshakeh through whom he sent a message to Hezekiah belittling his confidence in Egypt and in Jehovah, saying that Egypt was a bruised reed and could not be depended upon, and that Jehovah had commissioned him to destroy the land of Judah. Then the messengers asked Rabshakeh to speak in the Assyrian language so the people on the wall could not understand, but he deliberately refused to comply, saying that he was sent to speak to the people on the wall. Then he grew bold and made a strong plea to those who heard him to renounce allegiance to Hezekiah and come over to Sennacherib, but they held their peace as they had been instructed to do. Upon this came the messengers to Hezekiah with their clothes rent and told him the words of Rabshakeh. Hezekiah when he heard it rent his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of Jehovah.
Then he sent messengers to Isaiah to ask him to pray for the remnant. Isaiah returned word that there was no need of fear, for Jehovah would send Sennacherib back to his own land and there he would die. Rabshakeh returned to find his master pushing the conquest on toward Egypt and hearing at the same time that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, was coming out to help Hezekiah. This seemed to provoke Sennacherib and he sent a letter to Hezekiah to warn him again putting his trust in Jehovah, reminding him also of the Assyrian victories over the gods of the other nations. Then Hezekiah took the letter and spread it before Jehovah and prayed.
For pointedness, faith, and earnestness, this prayer has few equals on record. Just at this time came another message from the Lord through Isaiah, assuring Hezekiah of the Lord’s intervention, as in very many instances before, to deliver his people from this Assyrian, whom he would lead by the nose back to his own land. Then follows the sign of Jehovah to Hezekiah assuring him that the remnant should prosper under Jehovah’s hand, reannouncing also the defeat of the plan of Sennacherib to take Jerusalem. The rest of Isa 37 is an account of the destruction of the Assyrian army by the angel of Jehovah and the death of Sennacherib in his own land.
Isa 38 opens with the statement, “In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death,” which is far from being a precise date, but the promise of fifteen years added to his life and the twenty-nine years of his reign in all, fixes the date in the fourteenth year of his reign, which is the date given in Isa 36:1 . In Isa 38:5-6 the two deliverances are coupled together in a way which suggests that they stood in some close relation to each other. Thus we are led to look on these two pairs of chapters, not as successive in point of time, but as contemporaneous.
In the record here Hezekiah’s malady is called a boil, but we learn that it was a special disease marked by the signs of leprosy. The same word occurs in Exo 9:9-11 to describe the Egyptian plague of “boils,” in Lev 13:18-20 to describe the boil out of which leprosy sprang, in Deu 28:27 ; Deu 28:35 to describe the “boil of Egypt” and the “sore boil that cannot be healed,” and in Job 2:7 to describe the “sore boils” with which Job was smitten. So, humanly speaking, his disease was incurable.
When the prophet announced that Hezekiah must die he prayed and wept. The prayer, as recorded here, is very brief but pointed, pleading his own faithfulness to Jehovah, an unusual petition though allowable in Hezekiah’s case because it was true and was in line with the promise made to Solomon (1Ki 9:4 ).
It was no weak love of life that moved Hezekiah to pray for recovery. It was because that he, who had followed God with all sincerity, appeared to be stricken with the penalty fore-ordained for disobedience. Leprosy means “a stroke,” and was believed to be a stroke from God. That was what made the stroke so exceedingly bitter. He was not to witness that great exhibition of God’s truth and mercy toward which the faithful had been looking for almost thirty years. Such was a sore trial to Hezekiah.
Upon the direction of the prophet, a cake of figs was applied. This remedy is said to be employed now in the east for the cure of ordinary boils. But it was quite an insufficient cure for this incurable “boil” from which Hezekiah was suffering. In miraculous cures, both the Old Testament prophets and our Lord himself sometimes employed means, insufficient in itself, but supernaturally rendered sufficient, to effect the intended cure. (See 1Ki 17:21 ; 2Ki 4:34 ; 2Ki 4:41 ; 2Ki 5:14 ; Joh 9:6 ; Mar 7:33-8:23 , etc.) These are examples of the natural and the supernatural working together for the desired end.
The sign given Hezekiah was the turning back of the shadow on the dial ten degrees. The dial was, perhaps, a large structure consisting of steps upon which the shadow of a great shaft was allowed to fall, which indicated the position of the sun in the heavens. In this case the shadow was made to run back, instantly, ten degrees. How this miracle was performed the record does not say, but it may have been seen by the law of refraction which does not make it any less a miracle. Hezekiah wrote a song of thanksgiving for his recovery, which in the first part looks at the case of his sickness from the standpoint of the despair and gloom of it, while the latter part treats the case from the stand point of the deliverance and wells the note of praise. In the middle of this poem we find his prayer which he prayed in this dark hour.
Hezekiah made a great mistake in the latter part of his life in allowing himself to become exalted in his prosperity and not humbling himself before the Lord as in former years (2Ch 32:24-33 ). So when God tested him again in the matter of the messengers from Babylon, he failed because he had not the spirit of discernment so as to know their purpose to spy out the land. He showed them everything and thus prepared the way for the capture of Judah by the Chaldeans.
The closing part of this section shows the necessity for the second division of the book. This part closes with the announcement of the captivity and gives us a very dark picture which calls for the opening sentence of comfort in the next division. Hezekiah is reconciled to it as we see from his language, but evidently it is to be understood in this connection that the prophet had already revealed to him that there should be peace and truth in his days. Now, if Hezekiah had his message of comfort and was thereby able to joyfully acquiesce in the future calamity already announced, should we not expect a message of comfort also for Judah? The last twenty-seven chapters furnish just such comfort for Judah, that she too might not despair in view of the approaching captivity.
From the many lessons that might be selected from the life of Hezekiah I take but one. Though he was upright and so highly commended in the Scripture (2Ki 18:5-7 ) he had a burden of guilt, from which only God’s grace could absolve him. He could not stand as the “Righteous Servant,” who should “justify many” by “bearing their iniquities.” If good Hezekiah could not, what child of man can? Nay, we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the relation of Isaiah 34-35 to the preceding parts, especially the preceding section, of the book?
2. What is the relation of these two chapters to each other?
3. How does this section open and what the nature of the prophecy as indicated by it?
4. What is the analysis of Isa 34 ?
5. Why adopt the allegorical view of the use of the word, “Edom,” in this chapter?
6. How is the idea further carried out in the next paragraph?
7. What is the book referred to in Isa 34:16 and what the import of this appeal to the Word?
8. What is the nature of Isa 35 and what the brief outline of its contents?
9. What is the section, Isaiah 36-39, called, where may we find a reference to them and where do we find nearly the whole of them embodied?
10. What, briefly, is the theme of this section, what similar test was applied to a king of Israel prior to this and what the difference in the deportment of the two kings under the test of each, respectively?
11. What case in the history of Israel similar to this?
12. How is this section divided and, briefly, what does each part contain?
13. What is the date of Sennacherib’s attack on Jerusalem and what the significance of the date in the light of Isa 37:30 ?
14. What is the cause of Sennacherib’s invasion at this time?
15. What are the essential points in the narrative of Sennacherib’s attack upon Jerusalem?
16. What is the date of Hezekiah’s sickness?
17. What was Hezekiah’s malady and what ita nature?
18. What did Hezekiah do when the prophet announced that Hezekiah must die and what plea did he make?
19. Why did Hezekiah pray to be healed?
20. What is remedy did he apply and why?
21. What is the sign given Hezekiah?
22. How was this miracle performed?
23. What expression have we of Hezekiah’s gratitude for this divine deliverance and what the viewpoints from which it deals with the case?
24. What was Hezekiah’s great mistake in the latter part of his life?
25. How does the closing part of this section show the necessity for the second division of the book?
26. What is great lesson from the life of Hezekiah?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
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.
Ver. 1. See 2Ki 18:1-37 2Ki 19:1-37 with the notes; See also 2Ch 32:1-33 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isaiah Chapter 37
His clothes rent, the king covered in sackcloth repairs to the house of Jehovah, and enquires of the prophet, who returns Jehovah’s answer that they were not to fear the words of blasphemy; for Jehovah would undertake the matter and send back the Assyrian to perish in his own land. “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 Jehovah. And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. And they said to him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day [is] a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of contumely (or, rejection): for the children are come to the birth, and [there is] not strength to bring forth. It may be Jehovah thy God will hear the words of Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which Jehovah thy God hath heard. Therefore lift up [thy] prayer for the remnant that is left. And the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. And Isaiah said to them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith Jehovah, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Behold, I will put a spirit into him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land” (vv. 1-7).
Still confident, Sennacherib from Libnah sends a letter of similar import to Hezekiah, who spreads it before Jehovah with earnest prayer for His intervention. “And Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish. And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is come out to fight against thee. And when he heard [it], he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 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. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden that [were] in Thelassar? Where [is] the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up into the house of Jehovah, and spread it before Jehovah. And Hezekiah prayed unto Jehovah saying, Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, that sittest [upon] the cherubim, thou [art] He, even thou alone, the God of all the kingdoms of the earth, thou hast made heaven and earth. Incline thine ear, Jehovah, and hear; open thine eyes, Jehovah, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, who hath sent to reproach the living God. Of a truth, Jehovah, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the countries and their land, and have cast their gods into the fire; for they [were] no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; and they have destroyed them. Now therefore, Jehovah our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art Jehovah, thou only” (vv. 8-20).
Isaiah again returns the answer of the only living God. “And Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, this [is] the word which Jehovah hath spoken against him. The virgin-daughter of Zion hath despised thee, [and] laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted the voice? Against the Holy One of Israel hast thou lifted up thine eyes on high. By thy servants hast thou reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the recesses of Lebanon; and I will cut down its tall cedars, its choice cypresses: and I will enter into the height of its border, the forest of its fruitful field. I have digged, and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of Matsor” (or, Egypt) (vv. 21-25).
Insult as he might, himself or his servants, the great king, the Assyrian, must learn that God knew all about him, making him but the instrument of His own dealing with the nations. This work done, he must go back humbled and smitten, for he had exceeded his commission; and would God sanction his rage against Himself? “Hast thou not heard long ago I have done it, how of ancient days I purposed it? Now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest waste fortified cities [to] ruinous heaps. And their inhabitants [were] powerless, they were dismayed and put to shame; they were [as] the grass of the field, the green herb, the grass on the housetops, and [corn] blighted before it be grown up. But I know thy sitting down, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy raging against me. Because thy raging against me and thine arrogance is come up into mine ears, I will put my ring in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will make thee go-back by the way by which thou camest” (vv.26-29). After a sign of coming to Judah (vv. 30-32), Jehovah pronounces His decree (vv. 33-35). “And this [shall be] the sign unto thee; ye shall eat this year that which groweth of itself, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof. And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of mount Zion they that shall escape; the zeal of Jehovah of hosts shall perform this. Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come unto this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither shall he come before it with shield, nor cast a mount against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and he shall not come unto this city, saith Jehovah. For I will defend this city to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake. And the angel of Jehovah went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when men arose early in the morning, behold, they [were] all dead corpses. And Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat (or, Armenia): and Esar-haddon his son reigned in his stead” (vv. 30-38).
The total fall of the haughty Assyrian’s kingdom followed a few years after. Those that walk in pride God is able to abase. How blessed to hear His voice and know His love! Real as it was however, it was no more than a shadow of the great chief of the eastern nations in the latter day; even as Judah’s deliverance and blessedness under the son of David of that day was but the witness of a brighter era and a more enduring glory, when Jehovah shall exalt him that was low and abase the high one. “I will overturn, overturn, overturn: and it shall be no more, until he cometh whose right it [the diadem] is; and I will give it him” (Eze 21:27 ).
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 37:1-4
1And when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the LORD. 2Then he sent Eliakim who was over the household with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. 3They said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke and rejection; for children have come to birth, and there is no strength to deliver. 4Perhaps the LORD your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the remnant that is left.’
Isa 37:1 he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth These are signs of mourning. See Special Topic: Grieving Rites .
the house of the LORD This refers to the temple in Jerusalem. Exactly what area of the temple he entered is uncertain. Only priests and Levites had access to the sacred buildings. However, there was a special area set aside for the monarch to be as close as possible and view the activities of festival rituals.
Isa 37:2 Eliakim. . .Shebna See note at Isa 36:3; Isa 36:22.
Isa 37:3 Hezekiah vividly describes the situation (cf. 2Ki 19:3).
1. NASB, NRSV , a day of distress (BDB 865 I)
NKJV, a day of trouble
NJB, a day of suffering
LXX, a day of affliction
2. NASB, NKJV, NRSV, a day of rebuke (BDB 407)
NJB, a day of punishment
LXX, a day of reproach
3. NASB, a day of rejection (BDB 611)
NKJV, a day of blasphemy
NRSV, NJB, a day of disgrace
LXX, a day of rebuke
4. LXX, Peshitta, a day of anger
5. time for birth, but no strength to deliver
All of these phrases refer to YHWH’s actions, not Assyria’s. Hezekiah knew the problem was covenant disobedience and faithlessness. Assyria was not the real problem, but YHWH’s instrument of judgment against a disobedient covenant people.
Isa 37:4 Hezekiah is hoping that as YHWH heard the blasphemy (i.e., reproach, BDB 357, KB 355, Piel INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT, cf. Isa 37:17; Isa 37:23-24) of Assyria’s arrogant boast (cf. Isa 36:15; Isa 36:18; Isa 36:20), He would defend His name (i.e., Eze 36:22-23).
the remnant This term can be used in several senses depending on the context. See Special Topic: The Remnant, Three Senses .
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
went into the house of the Lord. See Hezekiah’s reference to his love for, and use of, the Temple in his “Songs of the Degrees” (Psa 122:1, Psa 122:9; Psa 134:1, Psa 134:2; and App-67).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 37
And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes ( Isa 37:1 ),
Yeah, man, it is bad. Rip, you know.
and he covered himself with sackcloth ( Isa 37:1 ),
Now sackcloth was something that they put upon themselves to more or less afflict themselves. It was whenever you were in mourning you would put on sackcloth. Sackcloth, as you can well imagine, against the skin must be very irritating. And so the king himself put on sackcloth.
and he went into the house of the LORD ( Isa 37:1 ).
Or he went into the temple. And they said unto him… let’s see,
And then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth, and they came to Isaiah the prophet. And they said to Isaiah, 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 the mothers do not have enough strength to bring them foRuth ( Isa 37:2-3 ).
Actually, they were beginning to suffer from the ravages of being closed in by the Assyrian forces. And so with the shortage of food, the strength of the mothers was ebbing and they didn’t have enough strength when it came time for a child to be delivered. They’d be in labor, and yet they didn’t have enough strength to bring the children forth. He said,
It may be that Yahweh 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 37:4 ).
So it’s really a request to Isaiah, “Pray. This guy has been down here and we’re in trouble. Pray.”
So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words that you have heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumor, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land ( Isa 37:5-7 ).
So God’s answer to these threats of Sennacherib is that he is going to return to his own land and there fall by the sword.
So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish. 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, Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God, in whom you trust, deceive you, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly; and you think you’re going to be delivered? 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? Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? 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 ( Isa 37:8-14 ).
I like this. He gets a threatening letter. It is a disturbing letter. And what does he do with it? He goes into the house of the Lord. He just spreads it out before the Lord. He said, “Look, Lord, what they’re saying about You now. Take care of them, God.” And so he spreads this thing out before the Lord.
If we would only learn to take our problems and our troubles to the Lord. Just spread it out before the Lord. “Lord, look what’s going on.” What a wise thing to do. Just take your problems and spread them out before the Lord.
And Hezekiah prayed unto the LORD, saying, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwells between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made the heaven and the eaRuth ( Isa 37:15-16 ).
God is above all gods. There are many gods. For a god is the master passion of a person’s life. The Bible speaks that the gods of the heathen are vain. There is only one true and living God. Francis Schaeffer said the time has come when we as Christians must really just… we can’t just talk about God anymore, because God is so many things to so many people. You talk about God, and to some person it’s an essence of love. It’s so many things. So he said the time has come when we need to more or less qualify the term God and not just use the term God, but qualify it by saying, “The eternal living God who created the heavens and the earth.” Then we know what God we’re talking about. For there is only one eternal, living God who has created the heavens and the earth. Though there are many gods that people bow down to worship, yet there’s only one true, eternal, living God. Creator of heaven and earth.
So here of all of the kingdoms of the earth and gods of all of the kingdoms, You’re the only One who is really the Creator of heaven and earth.
Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent [which he has sent, actually] to reproach the living God ( Isa 37:17 ).
So here he is. He addresses Him as the living God who has made heaven and earth, the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel who dwells between the cherubims. Now he acknowledges a certain truthfulness to this threatening letter,
Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their countries ( Isa 37:18 ),
Surrounding territories.
And they have cast their gods into the fire: because they were not true gods, but the work of men’s hands, they were gods of wood and stone: therefore they were able to destroy them. 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, and you only ( Isa 37:19-20 ).
Marvelous prayer. A prayer and the recognizing of the greatness of God, who He is. A prayer in which he lays out the facts as he understands them. And then asks God’s help in the situation.
Then Isaiah sent unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Inasmuch as you have prayed to me against Sennacherib the king of Assyria: This is the word which the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee ( Isa 37:21-22 ),
Talking about Sennacherib now, this powerful Assyrian king. Hey, our little girls despised thee.
and they’ve laughed thee to scorn; the daughters of Jerusalem just shake their heads at thee ( Isa 37:22 ).
Which is a sort of a reproachful kind of a thing.
Who have you reproached and blasphemed? and against whom have you exalted your voice, and lifted up your eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel. By your servants you’ve reproached the Lord [the Adonai] and hast said, By the multitude of my chariots am I come in to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof, and the choice fir trees: and I will enter into the height of his border, and the forest of his Carmel. I have digged, and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged places. Hast thou not heard long ago, how I have done it; and of ancient times, that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste defensed cities into ruinous heaps. Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded: they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn that is blasted before it is grown up. But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me. Because thy rage against me, and thy tumult, is come up into mine ears, therefore will I put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which you came. And this shall be a sign unto you, Ye shall eat ( Isa 37:23-30 )
And this is unto the children of Hezekiah.
You shall eat this year ( Isa 37:30 )
In other words, God has declared, “I’m going to turn you back and by the way you came is where you’ll go.” This is the end of the message to Sennacherib. Now to Hezekiah, this shall be the sign that God is going to fulfill this.
this year you will eat that which just grows of itself out of the ground; and the second year [the same thing] that which springs from the same: and in the third year you’re going to sow the land, and reap, and you’ll plant the vineyards, and you’ll eat the fruit thereof ( Isa 37:30 ).
God is going to restore and remove the enemy entirely out of the land.
And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward: For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: for the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this. Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD. For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake ( Isa 37:31-35 ).
This is the word of the Lord through Isaiah to king Hezekiah. Now if you were king and the prophet of God gave you this message, how would you react to it? Here you’re facing the strongest army in the world. And you are admittedly weak. The guy has said, “Hey, we gave you two thousand horses, you don’t have enough men to put on them.” They’ve wiped out all of the enemy, all of the other lands which were, many of them, stronger and more powerful than you are. Now the word of the Lord comes from the prophet Isaiah saying, “Don’t worry about it. They’ll never step inside of this city. They won’t shoot an arrow in. By the way they came they’re going to turn back.”
Well, really what can you do? You’re really sort of defenseless anyhow. You might as well just hope that the prophet’s right ’cause you can’t do much else. Fortunately in this case, the prophet is right, for we read,
Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand: and when they [that is, the children of Judah] awoke early in the morning, behold, the Assyrian army were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and he went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh ( Isa 37:36-37 ).
Which is the capital of Assyria. He returned to Nineveh in defeat, his armies destroyed by an angel of the Lord.
And it came to pass ( Isa 37:38 ),
Remember, he said he’s going to go back to his land and there he would fall by the sword.
It came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia: and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead ( Isa 37:38 ).
So God’s word was fulfilled. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Isa 37:1-7
Isa 37:1-4
THE THREAT TO JERUSALEM CONTINUED AND CONCLUDED
The first four verses here begin to enumerate the things which Hezekiah did because of the desperate situation that confronted him. His first move was one that indicated his deep distress, repentance and sorrow. He covered himself with sackcloth and went into the temple to pray. He sent Eliakim and Shebna and the elders of the priests all covered with sackcloth to seek out Isaiah and to request his assistance in the prayers for “the remnant that is left.”
Isa 37:1-4
“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 Jehovah. 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 son of Amoz. And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of contumely; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. It may be Jehovah thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Jehovah thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.”
These words represent a profound change in Jerusalem. The king himself appears as a penitent seeking the aid of God. The sinful party that advocated alliances with Ethiopia and Egypt is nowhere in evidence. Hezekiah now professes to believe what Isaiah for such a long time had been telling him, that only a remnant of Israel would finally be spared.
The reference to children that have come to birth and the absence of strength for them to be born was a well known proverb of a desperate and almost hopeless situation (Hos 13:13). “Hezekiah rent his clothes in token of the deepest humiliation and distress. He well knew how largely he himself was responsible for the terrible blow about to fall on the kingdom. He had disregarded God’s warning and had gone forward with that Egyptian alliance. He had also turned away from Isaiah; but now in utmost distress he sought him whom he had so long ignored. Note his reference to Jehovah as “thy God,” in his words to Isaiah. That does not mean that Hezekiah did not believe in Jehovah, but that he recognized Isaiah as a more faithful follower of Jehovah than Hezekiah had been.
Isa 37:5-7
“So the servants of Hezekiah came to Isaiah. And Isaiah said unto them. Thus shall ye say to your master. Thus saith Jehovah, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he shall hear tidings, and shall return unto his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”
Isaiah did not need to be solicited for prayer on behalf of Jerusalem; he had already been praying and was ready with an answer when Eliakim and Shebna with their delegation arrived. As Douglas pointed out, there were no less than four things which God promised would thwart and prevent Sennacherib’s purpose toward Jerusalem. “First, God would put a spirit into him; secondly, he would hear a rumor; thirdly, he would return to his own land; and fourthly, in that land, he would fall by the sword.
“Servants of the king of Assyria …” (Isa 37:6). Hailey tells us that, “The word from which `servants’ is here translated is a term of disparagement, a term that Leupold translates as `lads’ or `young chaps.'” It leaves us with the thought that, “you boys have not said anything of importance!”
Isa 37:1-5 WORSHIP: It is significant that Hezekiah, upon hearing the report of Rabshakehs scoffing intimidation and insulting blasphemy of Jehovah, turned immediately to worship God in penitence and sent to get Gods word from Gods prophet. Happy is any nation whose ruler turns in penitence to worship Jehovah and seek His word in national crises. It was a Hebrew custom in times of great stress and turmoil, sorrow and remorse to both rend the clothing and put on sackcloth (cf. Gen 27:34; 2Sa 3:31; 1Ki 21:27; Est 4:1, etc.). In addition to all this Hezekiah went into the Temple (the house of the Lord) undoubtedly to pray. He did not pray to have the Lords will revealed directly to himself-for that he sent to the messenger of God, Isaiah. His prayer was probably one of penitence.
Not only did Hezekiah devote himself to penitence and seeking the Lords will, but he instructed his officials to do so also. Most political potentates are accustomed to depend too much on their own power and expertise and consult Gods spokesmen only on matters of morality and religion. Many potentates have made that mistake (Saul, Ahaz, Zedekiah, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, the Caesars, ad infinitum). Then he sent them to Isaiah. He did not order Isaiah to come to him, as many rulers would have done. Respecting Gods prophet shows Hezekiahs deep reverence for God! There was no question in Hezekiahs mind who was the King of the Universe-Jehovah. This is true worship, acknowledging Gods sovereignty and seeking His will.
King Hezekiah sends Isaiah his analysis of the current political-military crisis. It is dark and foreboding. The following Hebrew words are used by Hezekiah to describe the situation: tzar (trouble, anguish, distress, oppression); thokekhah (rebuke, correction, punishment); natzah (contumely, contempt, blasphemy). It was a day so dire and catastrophic that it was like a woman in labor struggling to give birth and her womb will not open to deliver. Unless some extraordinary help is forthcoming death will be the result. Hezekiah realizes Judah is at this critical juncture.
Hezekiahs It may be Jehovah . . . will hear is like the Who knows whether he will not turn and repent . . . of Joe 2:14 and Jon 3:9, etc. It is not a guess! It is an expression of hope that God will intervene based upon known deeds of God in the past. Hezekiahs description of the day, trouble, rebuke, contempt, indicates his persuasion that their circumstances were by the permissive will of God to correct them for their trouble, rebuke and contempt of God. Their circumstances were designed to bring them back to God and Hezekiah was one of the first to recognize and admit it. It is no wonder God compared Hezekiah to David-after Gods own heart.
So, the good king commits the defiance of the Rab-shakeh to the Living God who is being defied. The Hebrew word translated defy is lekharek and means literally to reproach and blaspheme-to insult and scoff at. Hezekiah requests Isaiah to pray for the shariyth (remnant) that is nimetzaah (findable, or remaining). Apparently the king is referring to besieged Jerusalem as all that is left of Judah. So Hezekiahs servants brought his request to Isaiah.
Isa 37:6-7 WORD: Isaiahs answer is authoritative, direct and simple. It is as simple as Thus saith the Lord. The answer is simple but the application of it (be not afraid) may be difficult in view of the present circumstances. This is where mans faith is put to the test. If faith fails then he is by his own choice not of the nature fit to companion with God. Isaiah told Ahaz (Isa 7:4) not to fear the enemies of the covenant people earlier, but Ahaz failed in faith.
The Lord promises, through Isaiah, to put a spirit in the king of Assyria. The Hebrew word is ruakh which is usually translated spirit but literally means breath or wind. It is sometimes translated mind (Eze 11:5; Eze 20:32) and sometimes means an emotion (Pro 29:11; Gen 26:35). Just how God puts a spirit, mind, emotion, disposition in a pagan ruler to return to his homeland when he seems of a mind to do something other must remain one of the mysteries of the Infinite and Omnipotent God. We are told in other places of such action by God (Isa 10:5-19; Isa 44:28 to Isa 45:6; Jer 51:20-23; 2Ch 36:22-23; Ezr 1:1-4). God is capable of speaking to pagan rulers in dreams and visions (as He did to Nebuchadnezzar) or stirring up their spirits (as He did to Cyrus). It does not appear that God gave Sennacherib a vision. He heard something from his own land that caused him to return, and 20 years later he was violently slain by his own sons. We will document this event in later comments. It should be noted here Isaiah does not predict Sennacheribs death immediately upon his arrival back in Assyria. It is not the prophets purpose to predict all the details-only those which are essential to Hezekiahs trust in the Lord.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Penitently, went Hezekiah immediately into the house of the Lord, while he sent messengers to Isaiah. The prophet sent them back with words of encouragement, declaring that God would deliver them. In the meantime Rabshakeh returned to the king in Assyria, and a letter was dispatched to Hezekiah warning him against being deceived by God. This letter he spread before the Lord, and prayed to Him for deliverance. His prayer was characterized by a great simplicity. It was the simplicity of faith which recognized the throne of God, declared the immediate peril threatening the people, and asked for a deliverance which would vindicate the honor of the name of Jehovah. Isaiah’s second and fuller message to Hezekiah’s declared that the sin of Sennacherib was blasphemy against the Holy One of Israel, and forgetfulness of the fact that he, too, in all his enterprises was within the sphere of Jehovah’s government and power. His judgment was imminent, and his boastings vain.
The chapter ends with an account of the destruction of the Assyrian army by the direct act of God, and the death of Sennacherib at the hands of his sons.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
EXPOSITORY NOTES ON
THE PROPHET ISAIAH
By
Harry A. Ironside, Litt.D.
Copyright @ 1952
edited for 3BSB by Baptist Bible Believer in the spirit of the Colportage ministry of a century ago
ISAIAH CHAPTERS THIRTY-SIX TO THIRTY-NINE
THE HISTORIC INTERLUDE
WE NOW GLANCE at the next four chapters which relate certain important incidents in the life of Hezekiah, King of Judah. I say “glance at,” because I do not intend to take these chapters up verse by verse, quoting and endeavoring to explain them, as in the case of the first prophetic division of the book.
These chapters are almost duplicates of II Kings 18:13-21:26 and the major events are also covered by II Chronicles 32, 33. In all probability it was Isaiah who wrote these records and who was guided by the Holy Spirit in transferring the lengthier one into its place in his great prophetic book.
There was a very special reason for giving us these four historical chapters. They all have to do with a son of David upon whom all Judah’s hopes were centered, who came down to the very verge of death but was raised up again in order that the purpose of GOD might be fulfilled. That, of course, points forward to our Lord JESUS CHRIST, who went down into death actually and was raised up again to carry out GOD’s counsels. They have to do with certain events in the life of King Hezekiah, who in some degree foreshadowed this in the experiences through which he was called to pass.
In the fourteenth year of his reign the invasion of the Assyrians under the cruel and ruthless Sennacherib took place. After destroying or capturing various fenced cities, he sent a great army to besiege Jerusalem. This host was under the direct leadership of a general named Rabshakeh, a bold but vulgar and blustering officer who had a supreme contempt for the Jews and for their religion.
He took his stand at a prominent place outside the wall of Jerusalem, where his voice could be heard. easily by the defenders of the city, and called upon the leaders to surrender before he undertook to destroy them completely.
Eliakim, Shebna and Joah, who were what we would call members of Hezekiah’s cabinet or privy council, undertook to parley with the arrogant Assyrian. Speaking on behalf of his master,
Rabshakeh inquired as to what confidence they trusted in, daring to refuse to yield to his commands. Insolently he declared that if they hoped for deliverance to come through the power of their GOD, their expectations were doomed to disappointment. Had not Sennacherib proved himself more than a match for all the gods of the surrounding nations?
And had not Hezekiah himself destroyed the altars of the Lord and thus forfeited all claims upon Him even if He did have the power to protect him? Not realizing that the destroyed altars were connected with idolatrous shrines, Rabshakeh supposed that they had been dedicated to the God of Judah (chap. 36:1-7).
Demanding unconditional surrender to be ratified by a large tribute, as pledge that the Jews would abide by the proposed terms, Rabshakeh even went so far as to insist that it was by direction of the Lord that Sennacherib had come against Judah.
He may in some way have become familiar with some of the prophecies which we have been considering; he knew of Samaria’s fall, and so may have learned that their own GOD had declared that He would use Assyria as a rod to punish Judah for their disobedience and waywardness (vss. 8-10).
Fearful that these words might have an ill effect upon the morale of the defenders of the city, the Jewish leaders asked that the Assyrian general speak to them in his own language with which they were familiar, and not in the Hebrew tongue. This request only roused Rabshakeh to greater insolence. He used language that was disgusting and revolting as he declared that he had been sent not to parley with the representatives of Hezekiah as such, but with all the people of Jerusalem, of whom he continued to demand instant obedience to the call for surrender and the promise of allegiance to the king of Assyria.
In that case their lives would be spared and they themselves transported as prisoners of war to other lands where they would be permitted to live in peace and security.
Derisively he referred again to the folly of trusting in their GOD and reminded them that the gods of Hamath, Arphad, Sepharvaim and Samaria had been unable to cope with the might of Sennacherib. What reason had they then to hope that the Lord should intervene on their behalf and deliver Jerusalem from threatened ruin?
To all these demands and taunts the people answered “not a word,” for the king had so commanded them. Eliakim and his companions returned to Hezekiah with their clothes rent in token of their grief at being unable to come to terms with the Assyrian general whose arrogant and defiant words they reported to their king (vss. 12-22).
When Hezekiah heard it, he too rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and “went into the house of the Lord” (chap. 37:1). There he could pour out his heart to the GOD of his fathers who had so often given deliverance to His people in times of great distress and adversity. Feeling the need of counsel and prayer he sent Eliakim, Shebna, and the elders to call upon Isaiah, to whom he said,
“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. 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” (vss. 3, 4).
Such faith could not go unrewarded. GOD never fails those who commit everything to Him. He has said, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me” (Psa 50:15). Hezekiah was soon to prove the truth of this promise, even though his faith must first be tested severely.
Isaiah’s answer was most cheering and reassuring. He said, “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” (vs. 6). It was not a question between the two opposing forces, or between Rabshakeh and Hezekiah. The Assyrian had dared to challenge the power of the Lord. He, Himself, would take up the challenge, and would manifest His power and might, thus showing that He was not a mere idol, nor an imaginary deity like the gods of the heathen whose inability to save their devotees from destruction had been so readily manifested.
Sennacherib and his servants had dared to rush upon the thick bosses of the bucklers of the Almighty (Job 15:25, 26), and were soon to prove the folly of daring to fight against the omnipotent GOD who had created the heavens and the earth, and who declared through His prophet, “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” (vs. 7).
The “rumour” was a report that Tirhakah, King of Ethiopia, was on his way to fight against Assyria, whose armies were divided; part besieging Jerusalem, and part warring against Libnah. Reluctantly, Rabshakeh was obliged to lift the siege and to withdraw to Assyria, but he sent a last defiant message to the king of Judah as his armies were withdrawing. “Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered?” (vss. 10, 11).
Again he taunted Hezekiah concerning the folly of presuming that his GOD would prove any more powerful than the gods of other nations. This message was put in the form of a letter which Hezekiah received at the hands of certain messengers who brought it from the camp of the Assyrians. It was a letter of blasphemy, and Hezekiah did right in not attempting to answer it himself. Instead, he took it into the house of the Lord and spread it out before GOD.
Bowing in His presence, he pleaded that the Lord would intervene to save His people. He
frankly acknowledged that the fake gods of the nations had no ability to save, but he confessed his confidence that the living GOD would undertake for those who put their trust in Him. The conclusion of his prayer is very beautiful and heart-moving: “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” (vs. 20). Such confidence could not go unrewarded, nor such a prayer unheard.
The answer came through another message from Isaiah, assuring him that God had heard and was about to answer his petition; and that in such a way, that “The virgin, the daughter of Zion,” should despise the haughty foe whose army had at first seemed invincible.
Rabshakeh had reproached the Lord. He had blasphemed the GOD of Judah. In his pride and folly he had lifted up himself against the Holy One of Israel. Trusting in the vastness of his army, the number of his chariots and horsemen, he had thought it would be but a small matter to conquer Jerusalem and to carry its inhabitants away as captives, but he was soon to learn the difference between the senseless idols of the heathen and the One in whom Hezekiah had put his trust (vss. 21-28). Therefore the word of the Lord came to him saying: “Because thy rage against Me, and thy tumult, is come up into Mine ears, therefore will I put My hook in thy nose, and My bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.”
To Hezekiah the promise was given that the land which had been overrun by the enemy should bring forth of itself for two seasons and in the third year should be planted and would produce an abundant harvest, while the remnant of Judah, escaped out of the hand of the Assyrian, should once more begin to prosper and “again take root downward, and bear fruit upward: for out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of Mount Zion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.”
As for the king of Assyria, he should not be permitted to enter Jerusalem, nor even shoot an arrow into it, nor threaten it again in any way. He was to return by the way that he came, for the Lord had undertaken to defend Jerusalem for His own sake and for His servant David’s sake.
The judgment was not long deferred, for GOD sent a terrible plague upon the camp of the Assyrians, so severe in character that in one night one hundred and eighty-five thousand died, and the scattered remnants of the once-great army of Sennacherib departed for their own land, led by their defeated and crestfallen ruler.
Upon reaching his home city and worshiping in the house of his god he was set upon by two of his own sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, who slew their dishonored father with the sword and escaped into Armenia. One of their brothers, Esarhaddon, became king in his father’s stead.
Thus had GOD vindicated His holy name and freed His people from the impending doom that seemed about to fall upon them.
In chapter thirty-eight we read of Hezekiah’s illness and recovery. It might have been supposed that after such a remarkable experience of GOD’s intervention on behalf of His people, in answer to prayer, Hezekiah would have been drawn so close to the Lord that he would never have doubted His love and care again, but have lived constantly in the sunshine of the divine approval. But alas, with him, as so often with us all, it was far otherwise. When new tests came doubts and fears again prevailed and only the grace of GOD could bear with His poor failing servant.
The first test came through illness. Hezekiah was “sick unto death,” we are told. The prophet
Isaiah was sent to say to him, “Thus saith the Lord, Set thy house in order; for thou shalt die and not live.”
To the stricken king these words were evil tidings indeed. He was still a comparatively young man, for he had come to the throne at the age of twenty-five, and his entire reign was but twenty-nine years, so that at this time he was but thirty-nine. Long life was one of the promises to the obedient Israelite. Therefore the announcement that he was to die ere he was forty seemed to Hezekiah like an evidence of the divine displeasure.
He received the message of the prophet with real distress and pleaded for a reprieve from the sentence imposed upon him.
In reading his prayer we need to remember that Old Testament saints, however godly they might be, did not have the light on the after-life that has now been vouchsafed to the children of GOD. Our Lord JESUS CHRIST has brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel (2Ti 1:10).
He has revealed the truth as to that which GOD has prepared for those who love Him. Having gone down unto death and come up in triumph, He has annulled him that had the power of death, even the devil, and so delivers those who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage (Heb 2:14, 15). We know now that for the believer death simply means to be absent from the body and present with the Lord (2Co 5:8), and that this is far better than any possible earthly experience (Php 1:23).
But all this was unknown in the days before the advent of our Lord JESUS CHRIST, who declared, “If a man keep My saying he shall never see death” (Joh 8:51).
Therefore when the word came to Hezekiah that he must die, his soul was filled with fear, and he cried to GOD in his wretchedness, pleading the integrity of his life as a reason why his days should be prolonged.
GOD who sometimes grants our requests but sends leanness into our souls (Psa 106:15), heard his cry and sent the prophet to him once more; this time to tell him that his prayer was heard, and that GOD would add to his life another fifteen years and would also continue to defend Jerusalem from the evil machinations of the Assyrian king.
To confirm the promise, a sign was given which involved a stupendous miracle, for GOD said, “I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun-dial of Ahaz ten degrees backward.” When this actually took place, Hezekiah knew, beyond all question, that the prophet had spoken by divine authority.
This is not the place to discuss the miracle itself. Whether it was caused by some amazing event in the planetary system, or whether it was a miracle of refraction, we need not try to decide; but the fact that the astronomers of Babylon had knowledge of it would indicate that it was something far-reaching and of grave import.
Upon his recovery, Hezekiah wrote of his exercises and described vividly the experiences he passed through when he felt that he was under sentence of death. Bitterly he complained that he was about to be deprived of the residue of his years. To leave the world seemed to him like being banished from the presence of the Lord. His days and nights were filled with grievous pain, not only of body, but of mind, as he awaited in fear the carrying out of the decree, when GOD, as he put it, would “make an end” of him. He mourned “as a dove”; his eyes failed from “looking upward.” Yet he knew that he was in the hands of the Lord, and his heart cried out to Him for help.
It is evident that as his exercises continued, his soul entered more restfully into the truth that all must be well when one is in the care of a covenant-keeping GOD. “O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt Thou recover me, and make me to live. Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.”
These precious words express his realization of the goodness and the wisdom of GOD, after health returned, for he took this as an evidence that GOD had pardoned all his sins and cast them away forever. As an unenlightened Old Testament believer, he could only think of early death as, in some sense, an expression of divine disapproval.
He could see nothing in the grave but darkness and forgetfulness. In life the Lord could be praised, not in Sheol. He wrote, of course, of conditions as he understood them; but he closed his writing with a note of praise and thanksgiving for renewed strength and added years of life.
The deliverance came in a very simple way. He had been suffering from a malignant boil, but a poultice of figs, prescribed by Isaiah, drew out the poison, and started the king on the way to recovery.
It is hardly necessary to point out that had Hezekiah died at the age of thirty-nine, Manasseh, who proved to be the most wicked king who ever sat on the throne of Judah, would never have been born, for he was but twelve years old when he began to reign (2Ch 33:1). He tried to undo everything that his father had done. Hezekiah had destroyed the altars of idolatry, had swept the land clear of idols. Manasseh brought in more forms of idolatry than were ever known before and he went to spiritists, mediums, and filled the land with those who professed to be able to talk with the dead, practices which GOD had forbidden. And he brought down the indignation of GOD upon Judah, because of the corruption and sin committed.
Yet how wonderful is the mercy of GOD; at last an old man fifty years of age and almost facing eternity, GOD brought that godless king to repentance. Manasseh broke down, confessed the sins of a long, ungodly life, undertook again to cleanse the land of its idols and tried to bring about a reformation, but it was too late to recover the people. His son Amon went right on in the sins of his father.
But in the next generation, GOD came in in wondrous grace again and raised up another son of David, King Josiah, who honored the Lord in his very youth and was the means of bringing about the great revival in Judah.
The thirty-ninth chapter tells of another failure on the part of this king who was, in the main, so devoted to the will of GOD. We read in 2Ch 32:31 concerning him, “Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that He might know all that was in his heart.”
There are few of us indeed, who could stand such a test as this. To be left alone by GOD, in order that our own hearts might be manifested, our inmost thoughts revealed, could only mean a moral or spiritual breakdown. Such was the trial to which Hezekiah was now exposed, and in which he failed through self-confidence. He acted upon his own judgment instead of turning to the Lord for guidance, and the result could only bring harm instead of blessing.
After the Lord had so graciously granted his request and raised him up from the very brink of the grave, we are told that “Merodach-Baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah: for he had heard that he had been sick, and was recovered.”
How would the King of Judah react to this apparently friendly overture from the prince of the great city which was the very fountain-head of idolatry?
When Rabshakeh sent a letter of blasphemy, Hezekiah went into the sanctuary and spread it out before the Lord; but when there came a letter and a present, he felt no need of bringing this before GOD, or seeking instruction from Him. Do we not all know something of this self-confidence when we have to do with the world, not seen as in open opposition to that which we cherish most, as of GOD, but rather when it approaches us in an apparently friendly, patronizing manner, extending the hand of friendship instead of the mailed fist of enmity? Yet we are never in greater danger of missing the mind of GOD than at such a time as this. The letter that is accompanied with a present may cover up a far greater danger than the letter of blasphemy.
Evidently elated by the visit of the Babylonian envoys and their retinue, and pleased with the present, Hezekiah felt no need to ask counsel of the Lord, but without hesitation he received the embassage, “and shewed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not.”
This was exactly what the Chaldeans desired. No doubt, as they looked with covetous eyes on all these things, they were pondering in their hearts how best they should proceed in order that, some day, they might conquer Judah and have all this vast treasure for themselves.
Scarcely had they gone from the presence of Hezekiah before Isaiah appeared upon the scene to confront the king with two questions: “What said these men? And from whence came they unto thee?” Ingenuously Hezekiah replied, “They are come from a far country unto me, even from Babylon.” Surely he could not have been ignorant of the prophecies Isaiah had spoken as to this reserve power in the northeast that was yet to come against Judah, and be used by the GOD whom His people had neglected, as a rod to punish them for their willful disobedience.
Isaiah put another question: “What have they seen in thy house?” The king answered: “All that is in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewed them.” He had no idea of the serious import of this, for he had not realized that the princes were actually spies, who had come to search out the land, and to report to the King of Babylon all that which they found.
It must have been a real shock therefore to the unsuspecting monarch, when Isaiah said, “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away: and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
All this was fulfilled years later, when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah, and carried away their chief men as captives to Babylon, including a large number who were of the blood royal, as well as those very treasures (2Ch 36:18).
One can imagine Hezekiah’s disappointment and his deep chagrin, as he heard these words of the prophet; but he could only bow his head and accept them as the revelation of the judgment of GOD. So he replied, “Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken . . . For there shall be peace and truth in my days.”
The after-history of Judah shows how, in spite of occasional revivals, things went from bad to worse, until at last “there was no remedy” (2Ch 36:16) for their evil condition, and the prophesied judgment was fulfilled in the days of Zedekiah.
One to whom so many owe so much in rightly dividing the Word of truth, J. N. Darby, aptly points out that in this first part of the book, “We have had rather the outward history of Israel, but now we have their moral or inward history in their place of testimony against idolatry, in their relationship with CHRIST and the separation of a remnant.”
That inward history was a complete failure as the next part of Isaiah’s great prophecy clearly shows.
~ end of chapter 36-39 ~
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Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Isa 37:10
I. Let us weigh this piece of satanic advice: “Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee.” It is a very dangerous temptation for three reasons. (1) Because it appeals to the natural pride of the heart. There is a universal instinct which makes a man abhor the idea of being deceived. There is something in the very idea which rouses all the pride that lies latent in every heart. To take a man’s confidence, to receive all the secret thoughts of his heart, to allow him to confide everything to you, then cold-bloodedly to turn round and leave him in the lurch, having led him on by fair promises, is so cruel an act in its nature, that I marvel not that by a universal instinct every man shudders at the mere supposition of being so treated. (2) There is no disguising the fact that if God did deceive us we are in a hopeless plight, and therefore there is force in the temptation. (3) The methods of God’s government being beyond our comprehension, sometimes appear to incline towards the tempter’s suggestion,-from appearances one might say, “God is going to leave us in the lurch.”
II. Let us turn round and tear the advice up. (1) We may tear it up because it comes too late. If God be a deceiver we are already so thoroughly deceived, and have been so for years, that it is rather late in the day to come and advise us not to be. (2) We may tear it up, because if God deceive us we may be quite certain that there is nobody else that would not. From all we know of our God, His holiness, His righteousness, and His faithfulness, if He can deceive us, then are we quite certain that there are none to be trusted. (3) There is not one atom of evidence to support the libel. Search the world through, and see if you can find a man who will deliberately say, “I have tried God, I have trusted Him, and He has deceived me.” (4) There is overwhelming evidence to refute it. Never yet did man trust his God and be put to shame. Heaven and earth and hell declare that Jehovah never hath deceived and never can deceive.
A. G. Brown, Penny Pulpit, No. 1131.
References: Isa 37:22.-Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 203. Isa 37:30.-S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year, vol. ii., Appendix, No. 1.
Isa 37:31
The Christian Church a continuation of the Jewish. Consider one or two difficulties which at first may be felt in receiving this view of God’s dealings with His Church, which in itself is most simple and satisfactory.
I. It may be said that the prophecies have not been, and never will be, fulfilled in the letter, because they contain expressions and statements which do not admit, or certainly have not, a literal meaning. This objection is surely not well grounded, for it stands to reason that the use of figures in a composition is not enough to make it figurative as a whole. We constantly use figures of speech whenever we speak; yet who will say on that account that the main course of our conversation is not to be taken literally? Of course there are in the Prophets figurative words, and sentences, too, because they write poetically; but even this does not make the tenour of their language figurative, any more than occasional similes show an heroic poem to be an extended allegory. Why should we find it a difficulty that Israel does not mean simply the Israelites, but the chosen people, wherever they are, in all ages; and that Jerusalem should be used as a name for the body politic, or state or government of the chosen people, in which the power lies, and from which action proceeds?
II. But it may be asked, whether it is possible to consider the Christian Church, which is so different from the Jewish, a continuation of it, or to maintain that what was promised to the Jewish was fulfilled in substance in the Christian? (1) The chosen people had gone through many vicissitudes, many transformations before the resolution which followed on the coming of the promised Saviour, and which was the greatest of all. It is no objection, rather it gives countenance to the notion of the identity of the Jewish Church with the Christian, that it is so different from it, for the Jewish Church was at various eras very different from itself; and worms of the earth at length gain wings, yet are the same; and man dies in corruption and rises incorrupt, yet without losing his original body. (2) The sacred writers show themselves quite aware of this peculiarity in the mode in which God’s purposes are carried on from age to age. They are frequent in speaking of a “remnant” as alone inheriting the promises. The word “remnant,” so constantly used in Scripture, is the token of the identity of the Church in the mind of her Divine Creator, before and after the coming of Christ.
J. H. Newman, Sermons on Subjects of the Day, p. 180.
Reference: 37-E. H. Plumptre, Expositor, 2nd series, vol. iv., p. 450.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 37
Hezekiah in the House of the Lord and Sennacheribs Second Attempt
1. Hezekiahs humiliation and Isaiah sent for (Isa 37:1-5) 2. The message from the prophet (Isa 37:6-7) 3. Rabshakehs letter (Isa 37:8-13) 4. Hezekiahs prayer (Isa 37:14-20) 5. The prayer answered (Isa 37:21-35) 6. The army of Sennacherib judged (Isa 37:36) 7. The judgment upon Sennacherib (Isa 37:38)
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
it came: 2Ki 19:1-19
he rent: Isa 36:22, 2Ki 22:11, Jer 36:24, Jon 3:5, Jon 3:6, Mat 11:21
and went: Ezr 9:5, Job 1:20, Job 1:21
Reciprocal: Gen 37:34 – General 1Ki 20:31 – put sackcloth 2Ki 22:12 – the king 2Ch 32:20 – Hezekiah Est 4:3 – great mourning Psa 68:30 – Rebuke Isa 33:17 – eyes Isa 37:14 – and Hezekiah went Jer 26:19 – did he Jer 48:37 – upon the loins Mar 14:63 – his
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 37:3. This is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy. What moral idea can we form of a conqueror? A man hailed, adored, and applauded by the world. History is full of his fame, and monuments are loaded with his glory. His ambition is without bounds: he saith, I will cut off nations not a few. And what idea must he have of the loss of his own army; the finest men of his nation, and fully equipped for war. Assuredly, he calculates the lives of men as merchants count their gold. And perishing in war, like Sennacherib and Rabshakeh, how must he live with the countless myriads of souls which he sent to the shades below? To say nothing of the anger of an avenging God, all the anguish which murdered multitudes can inflict on the spirit of a culprit, will await him in the shades of death. If the blasphemy of those men let loose on earth, and the reins launched to every lawless passion, horrified good men; what must the recoil of that blasphemy be among the damned?
When Isaiah saw the storm coming, for the seers had enlightened eyes, he blew the trumpet like a watchman, and cried, He is come to Ajath, he is advanced to Migron. At Michmash he has laid up his carriages; they have crossed the river, they have encamped at Geba. Ramah, the soul of Gibeah, is fled. Lift up thy voice, oh daughter of Gallim; cause it to be heard to Laish. Oh poor Anathoth! Madmenah is removed. The inhabitants of Gebim assemble for flight. Isa 10:28-31.
Isa 37:4. It may be the Lord thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh. King Hezekiah took a wise course; he spread the letter of Sennacherib before the Lord, and pleaded the promises of divine protection. A fine example for us to follow. This was better than reliance on the bruised reed of Egypt.
Isa 37:25. I have digged, and drunk [strange] waters. 2Ki 19:24. In the sandy deserts, the cattle can smell water underground, and will thrust their noses into the sands. John Campbells Travels in South Africa. In like cases, the Assyrian armies must have dug wide pits, and obtained supplies of water.
Isa 37:29. I will put my hook in thy nose, as rings are put in the nose of camels, bears, buffaloes, and unruly bulls.
Isa 37:36. Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand. Who would set the thorns and the briars in battle against Omnipotence? This stroke of the arm of heaven is six times recorded in the sacred writings; in the books of Kings and Chronicles as above; and three times in the Apocrypha. It is recorded by Herodotus, the father of Grecian history, in his second book.Euterpe. The stalking pride of atheism can find no footing here. This Angel, according to the prophet Hosea, was Jehovah; the Angel, as in Gen 22:16; Gen 32:30. Isa 63:7; Isa 63:16. His words are,
To the house of Judah I will be tenderly merciful,
And I will save them by Jehovah their God:
And I will not save them by the bow,
Nor by the sword, nor by battle;
By horses, nor by horsemen.Hos 1:7.
Lowths Version.
Isa 37:38. Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword. In this war, Gods sword had two edges. It smote the nations of the west, and the Assyrians after they had wickedly done his strange work. Sennacherib, the greatest offender, received the most distinguished punishment. He who set Jehovah at defiance was deceived by his gods! He who thought to burn the temple of the Lord, perished in his own temple! His sins pursued him to the last retreats of conscience, and mercy spurned him from her bar.
REFLECTIONS.
What a day of trouble to Judah! What a day of anguish to Hezekiah and his ministers! They had heard Rabshakeh class JEHOVAH with the gods of the gentiles, and set him at defiance; and yet no fire went forth from the Lord to consume, nor did the earth open her mouth to swallow him up. They saw all Asia from Armenia to India in his power, while Jerusalem only and a few small cities dared to resist. It seemed for the time as though the age of the furies was come, and that heaven had granted permission for the powers of darkness to reign on earth.
When we are unable to stem the torrent of wickedness, let us keep silence, and weep for what we hear. Thus good Hezekiah and his ministers rent their robes for the blasphemy they had heard, and with fasting and prayer sought the salvation of God. Happy for Judah in this day of trouble that the idols had been recently destroyed; happy that there was a prophet, and a synagogue of righteous men in Jerusalem; and happy that there was a king whose heart was inclined to seek the Lord, and to consult his prophets.
Promises and encouragements from the Lord, and especially in the day of trouble, are doubly precious, and should be embraced by faith. So Hezekiah, more encouraged by the prophets declaration, than intimidated by Rabshakehs blasphemy, went into the temple and spread this letter before his God. He acknowledged the presence of the Lord, dwelling between the cherubims; he magnified him above all the gods, and besought him to save in the evil day.
God sends a speedy answer to the prayer which is offered up in faith and piety. Besides the interior sweetness conveyed to the soul of the weeping king, Isaiah was inspired to console him with a message of triumph. The calamity being public, God was pleased thus to compose the public mind. The whole character of the answer is a retort of pious scorn. It is the vaunting of a mortal confounded by the boasting of a God. While this vain king was swelled to heaven with the pride of trampling on nations, and burning their gods, the Lord reproaches him with impious ignorance in not knowing that nations have withered as the grass; and he assures him, that he would now put a ring in his nose as an unruly camel, and lead him back most disgracefully to Nineveh, where he should receive, not the homage of a divinity, but the punishment of an execrated tyrant. And farther, that heaven made so little an account of his boasting, as not to allow him to shoot one feeble arrow against the bulwarks of Jerusalem. How happy is the nation which seeks its protection under the wings of the sanctuary! And God was faithful to his word. Sennacherib, hearing that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, was approaching, raised the siege of Libnah, and advanced with his whole army against Jerusalem; and the first night he sat down before the city, behold, the angel of the Lord, who for Israels sake had slain the firstborn of Egypt, once more stretched forth his hand, and slew that very night one hundred and eighty five thousand of his army. What a stroke was this from the hand of the Lord! Are these the men who have half swept the earth of its inhabitants? Now they are slaughtered in turn. Are these the men who have plundered the nations, and forced Hezekiah to spoil the temple for gold? Behold they have brought back the fruit of their wickedness, and been compelled to disgorge it at the Lords feet. Are these the men who compared JEHOVAH to the gods of the gentiles, and said he could not defend his city? Behold, he bids an angel touch their flesh, and in the morning they are all dead corpses. There is but a remnant spared to tell the nations of the east the terrors of his name. See the notes on 2 Chronicles 32.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isaiah 36-39. This section has been extracted from 2Ki 18:13 to 2Ki 20:19, and the Song of Hezekiah has been added. For an exposition see the notes on 2 K.; here we have simply to deal with the Song of Hezekiah.
Isa 38:10-20. Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Imminent Death.This is now generally regarded as a post-exilic psalm. Its absence in the parallel narratine in Kings is significant. Apparently it was inserted here by an editor who thought it suitable to Hezekiahs circumstances. If, as seems likely, it has been influenced by the Book of Job, it must be post-exilic. The title cannot, any more than the Psalm titles, weigh against internal evidence.
Hezekiahs writing after his recovery from sickness. I thought that when I had reached the zenith of my life I should be banished to Sheol, where I should have fellowship with Yahweh no longer, nor yet with my fellow-men. My habitation (mg.) is torn from the soil. I have rolled up my life as a weaver rolls up his web when it is finished; He will cut me off from the thrum (mg.), day and night Thou deliverest me to my pain. I cried out until morning, my bones broken with torment. I twittered like a swallow, moaned like a dove; my failing eyes looked up with appeal to Yahweh, that He would be my surety. What shall I say to Him? It is He who has done it. I toss all the time I am sleeping, because of the bitterness of my soul. Lord, for this my heart waits on Thee. Quicken me and restore me to health. Affliction was bitter, but it has been for my peace. Thou hast kept back my soul from the pit, and utterly forgotten all my sins. For in Sheol there can be no praise of Yahweh. Those who descend to the pit cannot hope for His faithfulness. Only the living can praise God. the father can declare to his children Yahwehs faithfulness. Here the song closes. Isa 38:20 seems to be an addition fitting it for use in the Temple.
Isa 38:10. noontide: lit. stillness. The metaphor is of the sun having risen to its height and pausing before it descends.
Isa 38:12. loom: better thrum (mg.), i.e. the threads that fasten the web to the loom.From day . . . of me: better day and night thou didst deliver me up.
Isa 38:13. quieted myself: better cried.
Isa 38:14 c. He is like a debtor who is being taken to prison; he appeals to Yahweh, to the creditor Himself, to become his surety (Job 17:3).
Isa 38:15. Very difficult. Duhms restoration, adopted above, gives the probable sense.
Isa 38:16. Duhms emendations of the obscure text are adopted above
Isa 38:18 f.Observe the characteristic Hebrew conception of Sheol.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
37:1 And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard [it], that he {a} tore his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.
(a) In sign of grief and repentance.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Hezekiah’s response was also extreme grief, but he went into the temple. He wanted to seek the Lord’s wisdom and help in prayer.
"Happy the nation that has such a ruler." [Note: Young, 2:472.]
It is not clear how involved Hezekiah had been in making the treaty with Egypt, but his personal repentance here set the pattern for the nation.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
BOOK 4
JERUSALEM AND SENNACHERIB
701 B.C.
INTO this fourth book we put all the rest of the prophecies of the Book of Isaiah, that have to do with the prophets own time: chapters 1, 22 and 33, with the narrative in 36, 37. All these refer to the only Assyrian invasion of Judah and siege of Jerusalem: that undertaken by Sennacherib in 701.
It is, however, right to remember once more, that many authorities maintain that there were two Assyrian invasions of Judah-one by Sargon in 711, the other by Sennacherib in 701-and that chapters 1 and 22 (as well as Isa 10:5-34) belong to the former of these. The theory is ingenious and tempting; but, in the silence of the Assyrian annals about any invasion of Judah by Sargon, it is impossible to adopt it. And although Chapters 1 and 22 differ very greatly in tone from chapter 33, yet to account for the difference it is not necessary to suppose two different invasions, with a considerable period between them. Virtually, as will appear in the course of our exposition, Sennacheribs invasion of Judah was a double one.
1. The first time Sennacheribs army invaded Judah they took all the fenced cities, and probably invested Jerusalem, but withdrew on payment of tribute and the surrender of the casus belli, the Assyrian Vassal Padi, whom the Ekronites had deposed and given over to the keeping of Hezekiah. To this invasion refer Isa 1:1-31; Isa 22:1-25. and the first verse of 36.: “Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib, King of Assyria, came up against all the fenced cities of Judah and took them.” This verse is the same as 2Ki 18:13, to which, however, there is added in 2Ki 18:14-16 an account of the tribute sent by Hezekiah to Sennacherib at Lachish, that is not included in the narrative in Isaiah. Compare 2Ch 32:1.
2. But scarcely had the tribute been paid when Sennacherib, himself advancing to meet Egypt, sent back upon Jerusalem a second army of investment, with which was the Rabshakeh; and this was the army that so mysteriously disappeared from the eyes of the besieged. To the treacherous return of the Assyrians and the sudden deliverance of Jerusalem from their grasp refer Isa 33:1-24, Isa 36:2-22, with the fuller and evidently original narrative in 2Ki 18:17-19. Compare 2Ch 32:9-23.
To the history of this double attempt upon Jerusalem in 701-chapters 36 and 37 – there has been appended in 38 and 3 an account of Hezekiahs illness and of an embassy to him from Babylon. These events probably happened some years before Sennacheribs invasion. But it will be most convenient for us to take them in the order in which they stand in the canon. They wilt naturally lead us up to a question that it is necessary we should discuss before taking leave of Isaiah-whether this great prophet of the endurance of the kingdom of God upon earth had any gospel for the individual who dropped away from it into death.