Woe To Those Who Go Down To Egypt For Help

The Word of the LORD Himself gave the strongest yet clear statement about going to Egypt for help. King Hezekiah and everyone involved with that plan would hear those words and see them come to pass. A future generation would remember these words and ignore them to their detriment. 

God has warned the children of Israel against ever returning to Egypt way back in the days of Moses. When God set a king over Israel, that king was not to multiply horses, or cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the LORD had said, ‘You shall never again return this way.’ That king was to never multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away from God, nor was he to greatly increase silver and gold for himself. What the king was supposed to do was hand write a copy of the Law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical Priests and read it every day and keep it with him at all times so he would know the Law of God and keep it, by carefully observing the commandments of God. 

History reveals to us that very few kings followed that command. There were more kings that forgot God than followed Him. All because they were not careful to follow the LORD and read/study His Word. So here was Hezekiah in a quandary. Would he trust the LORD or would he instead go to Egypt? God was clearly stating that Egypt would never be able to help Judah or Jerusalem. And anyone who went there would suffer for it. Relying on them for horses, chariots, or a massive army would only bring the destruction of that army. Instead, they ought to be looking to the Holy One of Israel for deliverance. After all, did not God deliver them out of Egypt to begin with? Why go back when He instructed them not to?

Since there were many who wanted to go to Egypt for help, God said that He would bring down the promised calamities on Judah and especially on Egypt. Anyone who attempts to become the Protector of Israel has set themselves up to fall. And fall the Egyptians would. God would arise against them and against the evildoers of Judah. The Egyptians were men, not God. They were flesh, their horses were flesh. They were not God, but He would stretch out His Hand against them. Anyone who sought to help Egypt would stumble, the one who was helped would fall, and they would all of them come to an end together. 

The LORD declared to Isaiah that He would be like a lion growling over His prey, no matter how many people are gathered against him, he will not be afraid or disturbed by their noise. That lion will get his prey, whatever young lamb he seeks to snatch from the gathered shepherds. The LORD of Hosts would be like that and will come down to wage war on Mount Zion. Like flying birds, the LORD will protect Jerusalem and deliver it. He would pass over and rescue it. Judah did not need Egypt to help them when they had God Himself to protect and deliver them.

So the message was this - Return to the God they had deeply defected from. If they would cast away their idols and return to the LORD, then He would protect and rescue them. Then the Assyrian would fall by the sword not of man. A sword not of man would devour him. He would not escape and his young men would become forced labor. His rock will pass away because of panic and his princes would become terrified at the standard. The LORD Himself made that declaration, likening Himself to a fire in Zion - probably referring to the fire on the Temple Altar- and a furnace in Jerusalem. He would be the consuming fire over Jerusalem just as He was a fire by night to the children of Israel in the wilderness. 

One only has to read about Hezekiah’s response to Rabshekah and what God did next to see what decision he made. God always fulfills His word.