Class Notes: 2/17/2013

God delivers his people because of his own integrity


In our study of the enmity between the serpent and his seed and the woman and her seed Gen 3:15; we are presently looking at the Assyrian attack on Hezekiah king of the nation of Judah at the time that Hezekiah was still childless.

We have seen that the Rabshakea was trying to deceive the Jews and get them to surrender with a "Maleficent Deception". Last time we saw that in his attempt to deceive it was misapplying Isaiah's prophecy so he was misapplying scripture.

This is a common tactic that progressives use. They misapply scripture in order to support their utopian socialist agenda and deceive untaught believers with their propaganda because it sounds good.

This is not surprising because satan invented this tactic. Previously in our study we saw that in the garden of Eden he used the woman's misunderstanding of God's word to lead her into self deception.

Always remember propaganda is what they do to you, deception is what you do to yourself. Isaiah's prophecy is found in:

Isa 7:3; Then the Lord said to Isaiah, "Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the fuller's field."

The Lord's first instruction to Isaiah is to take with him his son "Shear-jashub" whose name has great significance in the context because it means "A remnant shall return." (NET note 7) Isaiah's son's name is symbolic of the message that the Lord intends for him to communicate.

The Rabshakeh is using a prophecy that has encoded in it the fact that the Assyrian army will be destroyed.

The prophecy has a near and a far application. The immediate application is that Judah will be delivered from the invading army. The far application is that a remnant of Judah will always be delivered because the deliverance of Judah pictures the destruction of all nations who oppose the Lord God.

The ultimate deliverance is their deliverance by TLJC at the end of the tribulation. This prophecy references the source of that deliverance in Isa 7:14;"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.

In the history of client nations there is always a remnant that survives to carry the word of God into the next generation.

When the fifth cycle of discipline was administered against the Israelites there was always a core of advanced believers who were protected by God, preserved and relocated to execute the plan of God in another place.

There will be an ultimate "remnant" that will be delivered through the Tribulation and become the core group of believers who will populate client nation Israel in the millennial kingdom.

We saw that Hezekiah and the citizens of Judah in 701 b.c. had acknowledged their sins and resumed the spiritual life of their dispensation. The people sitting on the wall, according to Isaiah 36:21; were silent and answered him not a word; for the king's commandment was, "Do not answer him."

v22 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

Isa 37:1; And when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the Lord.
v2 Then 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.

Hezekiah in distress tore his clothes. He was disturbed because of the Assyrian threat and also because the name of the Lord had been profaned. Putting on sackcloth was an act of mourning.

In trust and dependence on God Hezekiah went into the temple of the LORD, showing symbolically that the nation now could do nothing on their own. Their destiny was completely up to God. The Divine solution was the only solution. He also sent his top leaders Eliakim and Shebna along with the leading priests to Isaiah.

Isa37:3; They 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.

v4 'Perhaps 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.' "

The men informed Isaiah of the situation, asked for a word from the LORD to rebuke the Assyrians, and then asked the prophet to pray for them. Hezekiah was thereby acknowledging that Isaiah spoke the word of the Lord God.

Isaiah 37:5; So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
v6 Isaiah said to them, "Thus you shall say to your master, 'Thus says the Lord, "Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.

v7 "Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land." ' "

In the Lord's brief statement through Isaiah to the messengers from He first told them not to be afraid of the Assyrians. That God had heard that they had blasphemed Him and that the Assyrian king (Sennacherib) would return home and would be killed there.


Isa 37:8; Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.
v9 When he heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, "He has come out to fight against you," and when he heard it he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

v10 "Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of Judah, 'Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, "Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. "Isa 38:11; 'Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be spared?

12 'Did the gods of those nations which my fathers have destroyed deliver them, even Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar?
13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?' "

Sennacherib had left Lachish and was at Libnah. (about five miles north of Lachish).

Word had come that Tirhakah was coming to assist Judah in her fight against Assyria. Tirhakah is referred to as the Cushite king of Egypt but he was from Cush, south of Egypt.

Sennacherib continues with his propaganda the "Maleficent Deception" and again reminds Hezekiah that other nations' gods had not been able to deliver them from the Assyrian army.

Isa 37:14;Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord.

v15 Hezekiah prayed to the Lord saying,
v16 "O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

Isa 37:17;"Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to reproach the living God.

v18 "Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have devastated all the countries and their lands,
v19 and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them.

Isa 37:20; "Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, Lord, are God."

Upon receiving the letter from Sennacherib, Hezekiah prayed a prayer of faith rest in the temple. By placing the matter in God's hands in the application of faith rest, he was calling God' s attention to it (although he of course understood that the omniscient Lord God already knew).

The king began his prayer with praise by referring to Him as the God of Israel, the king recalled the special covenant position Israel had with the LORD ( in this case the Davidic Covenant was being tested). God's being enthroned between the cherubim refers to His presence in the Jerusalem temple and thus with His people.

Besides being the God of Israel, the Lord is also over all the kingdoms of the entire earth, including Assyria. Hezekiah also stated that God is the Creator.

Then Hezekiah asked God to intervene for His glory, so that the other nations would know that He, the Lord God of Israel, is the true God (Isa 37:17-20;). Hezekiah requested deliverance from the Assyrians so that nations everywhere would acknowledge Him as the One and Only God of the universe.

Isa 37:21; Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria,

v22 this is the word that the Lord has spoken against him: "She has despised you and mocked you, The virgin daughter of Zion; She has shaken her head behind you, The daughter of Jerusalem!

Isa 37:23; "Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? And against whom have you raised your voice And haughtily lifted up your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel!

v24 "Through your servants you have reproached the Lord, And you have said, 'With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains, To the remotest parts of Lebanon; And I cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses. And I will go to its highest peak, its thickest forest.
Isa 37:25; 'I dug wells and drank waters, And with the sole of my feet I dried up All the rivers of Egypt.'

Isa 37:26;"Have you not heard? Long ago I did it, From ancient times I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, That you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
v27 "Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength, They were dismayed and put to shame; They were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb, As grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up.

Isa 37:28;"But I know your sitting down And your going out and your coming in And your raging against Me.

v29; "Because of your raging against Me And because your arrogance has come up to My ears, Therefore I will put My hook in your nose (the Assyrians were known to lead their captives with a hook in their nose) And My bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back by the way which you came.

Isa 37:30; "Then this shall be the sign for you: you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
v31 "The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

Isa 37:32; "For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant and out of Mount Zion survivors. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." '
v33 "Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, 'He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield, or throw up a siege ramp against it.

v34 'By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city,' declares the Lord.
v35 'For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David's sake.'

The Net Bible translates v35 as" I will shield this city and rescue it for the sake of my reputation and because of my promise to David my servant".

Responding to Hezekiah's prayer, the Lord sent a message to him through Isaiah that Assyria would be defeated The message included three parts.

First, the Assyrians would be driven back Deliverance would come to Jerusalem (the Virgin Daughter of Zion; for Assyria would flee The tables would be turned and Zion would mock Assyria.

This would come about as an answer to Hezekiah's prayer) and as punishment on the Assyrians for their blasphemy and pride.

Second, God assured Hezekiah that a remnant would remain and that life would go on as usual but that for the next two years life would be difficult as they worked to get their crops back to normal, but in the third year there would be a bountiful harvest. The LORD would do this because of his zeal for Judah.

Third, addressing the king of Assyria, God told him that he would not set foot inside the city of Jerusalem or even build a siege ramp against its walls. He would have to return home because God would defend the city because of his integrity and his unconditional promise to David that his seed would sit on the throne of Israel forever. 2Sam 7:8-16; in the Davidic covenant.

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