Because You Prayed To Me

Even while King Hezekiah was laying the letter from Sennacherib out before the LORD in the Temple and praying for God to intervene for His Name’s sake, the Word of the LORD came to Isaiah to send a message to the king. ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib, King of Assyria, this is the word that the LORD has spoken against him:’ 

The content of that message describes how Jerusalem was mocked and despised by Assyria. Even the words of Rabshekah revealed the scorn that Sennacherib held towards that land and city. The God asked, ‘Whom have you blasphemed and raised your voice against? Who have you haughtily lifted up your eyes against? Against the Holy One of Israel! 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 will cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses, and I will go to its highest peak, its thickest forest. I dug wells and drank waters, and with the soles of my feet I have dried up all the rivers of Egypt.’’

Assyria had entered the Land of Israel and defeated city after city, dragging the inhabitants away into exile. They went as far as the border of Egypt and stopped the potential incoming help for Judah from them. And Sennacherib really thought all of this was accomplished by his own strength and the night of his army. But what he did not know was what actually allowed and enabled Assyria to do as they had done. God Himself had allowed them to decimate Israel and come against Judah because of the their sins. 

‘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. Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength, they were dismayed and put to shame; they were as the vegetation of the field and the green herb, as grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up.’ The invasions by Assyria were brought on as part of the curses agreed to in the covenant God made with Israel. The calamities had come just as God had stated. And it was God who weakened Israel and Judah before He brought their enemies into the land. God was the One who accomplished what was needed for Assyria to even be able to enter the land of Israel to begin with. God had been exacting the calamities on His people to bring them to repentance and to fulfill His Word.

Then God had a message personally for Sennacherib. ‘But I know your sitting down, and your going out and coming in, and your raging against me. 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, and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came.’ The sign God gave it that Judah would eat the procure of the land that year, plant the next year, and be able to reap and sow for years to come. The surviving remnant of Judah would bear fruit again as they came out of Jerusalem. The zeal of the LORD of hosts would perform that. The King of Assyria would not be able to come against Jerusalem for God Himself would defend that city for His own Name’s sake, and for the sake of His covenant with David.

That message was relayed to Hezekiah. Then that night the Angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185000 in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, they found all the dead. So Sennacherib departed to Assyria and returned home to Nineveh. It came about while he was worshipping in the house of his false god, that two of his sons rose up and killed him. Then they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esarhaddon his son became king in his place. God raises up kings and he brings them low. Sennacherib’s problem was he thought he could conquer the One True God, but he did not realize he was simply a pawn in the hand of God. When he pitted himself against God, he lost his life.