The prophet warned them. The war of the future will come.
Isaiah warned God’s people. The war of the future will come. And you are not ready. The prophet warned them with the same message. Decades passed, and the people clung to their doubt. Perhaps, they thought, the crazy prophet spoke lies and fantasy. Some people changed their ways. But only for a short time. While others considered his words but they didn’t take him seriously enough.
As time passed, the words of the prophet seemed hollow. The war of the future never came. Nothing happened, they argued.
Except for the fact that ten of the twelve tribes of Israel were wiped out. The Assyrian army attacked. Eighty percent of the once-proud Jewish nation was gone.
Oh sure, there’s that but nothing else will happen — right?
The true prophet of Israel spoke the truth to God’s people. They refused to believe or even listen.
It was by the mercy of God that the prophet’s words came early and often. They were warned early so they would know it was truly the Lord went the prophecies came true.
Isaiah 36:1 The war of the future finally arrived.
“In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.”
The prophet Isaiah brought his readers way back to his earlier messages. It was time to repeat them because the lessons weren’t learned. Now the things he prophesied were upon the people of Judah.
Isaiah 36:2 The emissaries came first
“And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field.”
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(2) The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh.—
The word is a title (the Rabshakeh) probably the chief officer or cup-bearer. In 2 Kings 18; 2 Chronicles 32, we have the previous history of the war. Hezekiah, on hearing Sennacherib’s reproach, began to strengthen the fortifications of Jerusalem, called his officers and troops together, and made an appeal to their faith and courage.
In Isaiah 22 we have the prophet’s view of those preparations. Probably by Isaiah’s advice, who put no confidence in this boastful and blustering courage, Hezekiah sent to Sennacherib, who was then besieging Lachish, to sue for peace, acknowledging that he had offended.
A penalty
of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold was imposed and paid, Hezekiah being reduced to empty his own treasury and that of the Temple, and even to strip the Temple doors and pillars of the plates of gold with which they were overlaid. Peace, however, was not to be had even at that price. Encouraged, perhaps, by this prompt submission, and tearing up the treaty (the breach of a covenant of which Isaiah complains in Isaiah 35:1), Sennacherib sent his officers, the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh (the names are all official titles) to demand an unconditional surrender.
Isaiah 36:3 They tried peace — it failed
“And there came out to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.”
The King of Judah sent out his own representatives to engage in a discussion about terms of peace.
Isaiah 36:4 The war of the future is now
“And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours?”
The Assyrian representatives presented an open challenge to the Jews. Why do you trust that you can win this fight?
Isaiah 36:5 What is your strategy for the war of the future?
“Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me?”
They continued the challenge by questioning their strategy. “You can’t talk your way out of defeat.” The Assyrians warned them.
Isaiah 36:6 Old weapons won’t work in the war of the future
“Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.”
We know from Isaiah’s previous chapters, that Israel trusted Egypt for military support. Pharaoh was weak and unable to fight against the far more powerful Assyrian army.
Isaiah 36:7 The king told them to trust in God
“But if you say to me, “We trust in the LORD our God,” is it, not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar”?
Then they began to dig the knife into their backs and twist. They directly challenged the Lord God of Israel. The Assyrians had already defeated their northern brethren. Hezekiah had ordered the removal of false places of worship in the land of Judah. The Assyrians mistakenly assumed these were places where the Jews worshipped God. Hezekiah had reminded the people the Lord ordered the removal of the idolatrous altars.
Isaiah 36:8 Can you bring horses to the war of the future?
“Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses if you are able on your part to set riders on them.”
He twisted the knife further. Though the Jews hid behind a strong wall, their army was weak, unable to proceed into war with Assyria.
Isaiah 36:9 The old ways are old
“How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master’s servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?”
If the Assyrians attacked the King of Judah would have to call on Egypt for help. The emissaries exposed this flawed plan as a failure before it was even put into practice.
Isaiah 36:10 The war of the future — God’s plan?
“Moreover, is it without the LORD that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it.”
Now they even boasted that it was their own God who sent them. These words could have easily stirred doubt in those who heard them. Isaiah, Hosea, and many of the prophets were openly saying the Lord would send an army against them. The Assyrians knew this and took advantage of the doubt and fears of the people of Judah.
Isaiah 36:11 Will they speak your language?
“Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 11. – Speak… unto thy servants in the Syrian language; literally, in the Aramaic language. Aramaeans were widely spread over the entire region between the Lower Tigris and the Mediterranean; and their language seems to have been in general use, as a language of commerce. “Private contract tablets in Aramaic and Assyrian have been found in the remains of ancient Nineveh” (Cheyne).
The Rabshakeh
Rabshakeh had, perhaps, spoken “in the Jews’ language ” without any ill intent, thinking that it was the only tongue which Jewish envoys would understand; but his so doing was calculated to affect the minds of the common people, and to shake their allegiance to Hezekiah. The envoys, therefore, requested him to employ a foreign tongue and suggested Aramaic as one which was familiar to them, and which they supposed that he would understand.
The Hebrew tongue
His employment of Hebrew had shown them that he was a linguist. In the Jews’ language. There was no language peculiar to the Jews as Jews, that is to say, different from the ordinary speech of the Israelites. Both alike spoke Hebrew. In the Old Testament, however, this corn-men language is never called “Hebrew,” but either “the tongue of Canaan” (Isaiah 19:18) or “the Jewish language” (2 Kings 18:26, 28; 2 Chronicles 32:18; Nehemiah 13:24).
English
Similarly, our own tongue is called “English,” though spoken also in Scotland, Wales, Ireland, America, and Australia. In the ears of the people that are on the wall; i.e. of the soldiers placed on the wall to defend it. We must suppose that the conference took place immediately outside the fortifications so that some of those on the wall could hear.
Isaiah 36:12 The war of the future is for everyone
“But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”
The horrors of war would visit the citizens of Judah before they met with the certainty of death. The Assyrian emissaries were eager to stir fear and doubt in the hearts of those who stood upon the walls. If the soldiers on the wall ran in fear. The rest of the city would cower as well, providing little resistance.
Isaiah 36:13 In open defiance
“Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!”
This was in open defiance of the suggestion from the Jewish leaders. They took their deception and lies to the people on the walls. They boasted that the king of Assyria would save them not their failed king Hezekiah.
Isaiah 36:14 Jesus said, don’t be deceived
“Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you.”
The deceiver lies and accuses others of deception. King Hezekiah clung to faith in God. He hoped the people of Judah would do the same. In the face of an army, it is hard to trust God.
Isaiah 36:15 The faithless will turn away in the war of the future
“Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD by saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”
Many people will hear deceptive words like this and think nothing of giving up their trust in God. Still, others who hold a swallow trust in the Lord put more faith in their circumstances than God. If the circumstances turn then so does their faith. Hezekiah trusted the Lord. Would the people turn away if the Assyrians made empty promises to them? The Assyrians hoped that was the case.
Isaiah 36:16 Don’t resist. It’s useless
“Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern,”
They lied when they said Hezekiah was lying. They promised that the Assyrians would grant them generous freedoms in the short term. “Enjoy your own figs and drink from your wells.” When we return we’ll take you on a trip. Captivity and death were the destinations of that trip they were trying to sell to the people of Judah.
Isaiah 36:17 “You’ll like it,” he lied.
“until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.”
We see here that the representatives of the Assyrian army were telling them lies, and expecting them to believe them. Here they admitted that Judah would be raped, pillaged, and taken captive. Would Judah believe they would like the Assyrian vineyards better as captives?
Isaiah 36:18 The war of the future will challenge the faith of Christians
“Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?”
They tried to divide the people’s trust. Their own king hid behind the city walls, while the enemy stood in the open and dared their king to fight. More than that they challenged their God to fight for them. The Assyrians believed the God of Judah was unable to defend them.
Isaiah 36:19 What false god can save you?
“Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?”
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 19. – Where are the gods of Hamath? (comp. Isaiah 10:9). Sargon had reduced Hamath in his third year, B.C. 720. He had “swept the whole land of Hamath to its extreme limit,” taken the king prisoner, and carried him away captive to Assyria, where he flayed and burned him; removed most of the inhabitants, and replaced them by Assyrians; plundered the city of its chief treasures, and placed an Assyrian governor over it (see ‘Eponym Canon,’ pp. 126-128). Among the treasures taken were, no doubt, the images of the Hamathite gods, which were uniformly carried off by the Assyrians from a conquered city.
And Arphad.
Arphad, or Arpad (Isaiah 10:9), had joined with Hamath in the war against Assyria and was taken by Sargon in the same year (‘Eponym Canon,’ p. 127). Of Sepharvaim. Scpharvaim, or Sippara, was besieged and captured by Sargon in his twelfth year, B.C. 710. A severe example was made of the inhabitants (G. Smith, ‘History of Babylonia,’ p. 122). A discovery made by Mr. Hormuzd Rassam, in 1881, is thought to prove that Sippara was situated at Abu-Habbah, between Baghdad and the site of Babylon, about sixteen miles from the former city (see the ‘Transactions of the Society of Bible. Archaeology,’ vol. 8. pp. 164, 173).
“Hena” and “Ivah,”
joined with Sepharvaim by the author of Kings (2 Kings 18:31), seem to be omitted by Isaiah as unimportant. They are thought to have been towns upon the Euphrates, not very distant from Babylon, and have been identified respectively with Anah and Hit. But the identification is in both cases uncertain.
Have they delivered Samaria?
Delitzsch and Mr. Cheyne translate, “How much less have they delivered Samaria?” Kay, “Verily have they delivered,” regarding the sentence as ironical. Sennacherib can see no distinction between the cities where Jehovah was worshipped, and those which acknowledged any other tutelary god. As Samaria fell, why should not Jerusalem fall?
Isaiah 36:20 Can God deliver you?
“Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”
They challenged them to give an answer for why they believed their God was any greater than the failed gods of the surrounding nations.
Isaiah 36:21 They were silent and scared.
“But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.”
By the king’s command, they kept silent. But most, if not all, were in great fear regarding their future.
Isaiah 36:22 The war of the future is coming.
“Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.”
They all flipped out, knowing they were up against an unbeatable Assyrian army. They trusted in the military might of Egypt, but they had begun to realize that trust was foolish.
Because Isaiah warned everyone, he expected some would listen. But his hopes didn’t result in much fruit. We know that he preached to the northern tribes. And of course, they refused to listen. The words were spoken and written in the region of the southern tribe of Judah.
They listened for a while.
King Hezekiah encouraged a short revival with his personal repentance. It didn’t last long though. Isaiah, inspired by the Spirit of God predicted what would happen.
It did. And it will.
His words weren’t just for the people of his time. He spoke to us. A future war is coming to every corner of the globe. It’s not a fun topic to think about when there are great cat videos to watch and Net Flix movies to surf and binge on.
Can’t it wait?
Yes, but when the time arrives will you or I be ready? I hope so. The Bible tells us that most people will not be ready.
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