Isa 37:6-10 | KingComments | STEP | The faith of Hezekiah does not remain unanswered. God never fails to answer anyone who entrusts everything to Him. He promised: “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me” ( ). The answer Isaiah has is encouraging. He does not have to pray first, because the LORD has already given him a word that he may give to this envoy ( ). They are allowed to go to Hezekiah with the encouraging message: “Do not be afraid.” Isaiah said the same to Ahaz earlier ( ), but unfortunately he did nothing with this encouragement. The word of the prophet only has a powerful effect for those who want to believe. Hezekiah need not be afraid of all that the messengers of the king of Assyria have said and with which they have blasphemed the LORD. “Because he has stretched out his hand against God and conducts himself arrogantly against the Almighty” ( ), he will soon learn how foolish it is to fight against the Almighty. The LORD will simply put an end to the siege. He will simply ensure that this hostile king will hear a rumor that will bring him back to his land ( ; cf. ). There he will come to his end. So powerful is the LORD and so powerless is this king.

‏ Isaiah 37:6-10

The Answer of Isaiah

The faith of Hezekiah does not remain unanswered. God never fails to answer anyone who entrusts everything to Him. He promised: “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me” (Psa 50:15). The answer Isaiah has is encouraging. He does not have to pray first, because the LORD has already given him a word that he may give to this envoy (Isa 37:6).

They are allowed to go to Hezekiah with the encouraging message: “Do not be afraid.” Isaiah said the same to Ahaz earlier (Isa 7:4), but unfortunately he did nothing with this encouragement. The word of the prophet only has a powerful effect for those who want to believe.

Hezekiah need not be afraid of all that the messengers of the king of Assyria have said and with which they have blasphemed the LORD. “Because he has stretched out his hand against God and conducts himself arrogantly against the Almighty” (Job 15:25), he will soon learn how foolish it is to fight against the Almighty. The LORD will simply put an end to the siege. He will simply ensure that this hostile king will hear a rumor that will bring him back to his land (Isa 37:7; cf. Pro 21:1). There he will come to his end. So powerful is the LORD and so powerless is this king.

Once More Rabshakeh

After the, apparently negative, reaction of Hezekiah to the threatening boast of Rabshakeh, Rabshakeh returns to his lord to report to him (Isa 37:8). The king of Assyria then finds himself with an army in Libnah. After the report of Rabshakeh, the king would certainly have gone against Jerusalem if he had not heard a rumor, so he doesn’t go up (Isa 37:9) together with the army that is already around Jerusalem to take the city. This is a fulfillment of the first part of the promise of the LORD in Isa 37:7.

What the king still does is to make it clear once more to Hezekiah that he should not cherish the illusion that Jerusalem will be spared (Isa 37:10). In the previous chapter he accuses Hezekiah of deceiving his people; now he goes even further and accuses God of deceiving Hezekiah. Now he tries again to undermine the faith of Hezekiah by writing to him that his trust in his God will prove to be useless. Surely, Hezekiah has heard that no one has been able to withstand the kings of Assyria, hasn’t he (Isa 37:11)? So he must not think that he will be saved.

The word “behold” means that what the king now says are facts that everyone knows. The king’s persuasive argument consists of concrete facts which can all be traced. All the gods of those peoples have not benefited those peoples (Isa 37:12). To Sennacherib, the God of Israel is no different than all the other gods. Let Hezekiah tell him where all the kings of those conquered nations are (Isa 37:13). Hezekiah will share in their fate.

With the exception of the living God, Sennacherib’s argumentation is strong and irrefutable. But the exception is no small thing. That the God of Israel, the living God Who created heaven and earth, is no more than the idols of other peoples, is the biggest mistake Sennacherib and with him the rest of the world can make. The king of Assyria will soon learn the difference between the dead idols of the nations and the living God whom Hezekiah trusts.