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"Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of
Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad?" (Isa. 36: 18, 19).
To all this, the king's instruction was "Answer him not".
We turn from the spectacle of Rabshakeh strutting before the walls of Jerusalem,
already confident that the city would fall an easy prey to Hezekiah within its walls, "shut
up like a bird in a cage", distressed by the reproach leveled at the name of the living God.
Hezekiah makes much of the fact that Rabshakeh had blasphemed God, and little of his
own distress and that of his people. In other words, he "sought first the kingdom of
God". The Lord sent a message through Isaiah the prophet, saying:
"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.
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).
From this it would appear that Rabshakeh received some inkling of Isaiah's
encouraging prophecy, for the remainder of Isa. 37: is taken up with the fact that the
rumour caused Sennacherib uneasiness, that he suddenly returned without delivering a
blow at Jerusalem, and was ultimately put to death in his own land. Rabshakeh makes an
immediate move to counteract the effect of this fulfillment of Isaiah's words. He heard
that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, threatened war, and immediately sent further messengers
to Hezekiah, saying:
"Let not thy God in Whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying Jerusalem shall not be
given into the hand of the king of Assyria" (Isa. 37: 10).
Once more, Hezekiah's reply was to turn to the Lord, and in his prayer he makes it
manifest, that to himself, at least, the God of Judah was no mere tribal deity.
"O Lord of Hosts, God of Israel, That dwellest between the Cherubim, Thou are the
God, even Thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: Thou hast made heaven and
earth . . . . . Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all kingdoms of
the earth may know that Thou are the Lord, even Thou only" (Isa. 37: 14-20).
To this noble and unselfish prayer the Lord sent the encouraging answer of
Isa. 37: 22-35. Addressing the Assyrian, the Lord said:--
"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 which thou camest" (Isa. 37: 29).
A sign is then given to confirm the faith of the people. Invasion goes hand in hand
with devastation, the ordinary procedure of agriculture being entirely upset, yet for
two years there should be sufficient food provided by that which "groweth of itself" and
which "springeth of the same". In the third year sowing and reaping could once more be
undertaken.
Reverting to the threatened siege of Jerusalem the prophet continues:--