Sabbath: Defeat of the Assyrians
Image © Pacific Press
Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: Isa: 36:1; Isa: 36:2-20; Isa: 36:21-37:20; Isa: 37:21-38; Isa: 38:1-22, Isa: 39:1-8.
Memory Text: “O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth” (Isaiah 37:16).
A gaunt man walks barefoot with his two sons. Another family has loaded all their belongings onto an oxcart pulled by emaciated oxen. A man leads the oxen while two women sit on the cart. Less fortunate people have no cart, so they carry their possessions on their shoulders.
Soldiers are everywhere. A battering ram smashes into the city gate. Archers on top of the ram shoot at defenders on the walls. Hectic carnage reigns supreme.
Fast forward. A king sits grandly on his throne, receiving booty and captives. Some captives approach him with hands upraised, pleading for mercy. Others kneel or crouch. Descriptions of these scenes with the king begin with these words: “Sennacherib, king of the world, king of Assyria” and continue with such expressions as “sat in a nemedu-throne and the booty of the city Lachish passed in review before him.” — John Malcolm Russell, The Writing on the Wall (Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1999), pages 137, 138.
This series of pictures, which once adorned the walls of Sennacherib’s “Palace Without a Rival,” are now in the British Museum, and what a story they have to tell about the plight of God’s professed people!
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, February 13.</
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Pride is one of the first sin. The Assyrians not only oppressed God's people but they were doing worst than the Israelites. The Israelites called on God and they repented. God delivered them and punished the Assyrians.
As preachers, singers and co-workers for God, let us give God glory for all of our success. "For it is God who works in you to will and to act on behalf of His good purpose (Philippians 2:13)." Let us praise God for using and blessing us. Don't ever
take the glory that belongs to God because it will lead to your downfall. Let us ask God to bless and use us before the world needs our compassion, love and attention. Happy Sabbath and stay Blessed.
It’s interesting to see how humans haven’t changed over centuries of earths history since sin entered the world.
Sennacherib was so confident in his ability to defeat based on his previous experience. It’s as though he was so sure of victory that he didn’t even need to place restrictions on scoffing and ridiculing Hezekiah’s trust and faith in God.
It’s the same today. Sometimes so much confidence is placed in what is seen, felt or understood by our senses. Like the battle with the Assyrian army, God has means that we have no idea about. He will use His ability in our behalf if we will ask and have faith in Him.
What we see, touch, feel, taste, understand and hear don’t even remotely enter into what God can and will do if we trust Him. The best thing about trusting God is He enjoys responding to us and giving us success.
Psalms 50:7
“Hear, O my people, and I will speak: O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof...Offer unto God thanksgiving; And pay thy vows unto the most High: And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.”
Psalms 33:12,16-19
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; And the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: A mighty man is not delivered by much strength. An horse is a vain thing for safety: Neither shall he deliver any by his great strength. Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, Upon them that hope in his mercy; To deliver their soul from death, And to keep them alive in famine.”
Our God is the only true deliverer. Only through Him is our health and healing (whether physical, emotional or spiritual) sure and complete. Only in Him is there hope of eternal life trouble free and a home with Him.
Yes, this is the great deception mankind has fallen prey to – feeling secure in ‘counting the numbers and gathering booty’; thinking they achieved great things. I am often reminded of the saying: “The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun” – Ecc.1:9KJV
The consequences of the Fall of man are so all-inclusive that nothing escapes its influence; they are only evidenced by its shadow – destruction -, to which mankind has become accustomed to and accepts it as part of life.
Man, to a great extent, is still unaware that he can escape deception's snare, that he can have his eyes opened and can see the darkness which surrounds him.
Isa.24:17,18KJV Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: For the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.”
Isa.34:4KJV – ”And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.”
Rev.6:13,14KJV: ”And the heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.”
The coming of the Son of God, the Savior of Mankind, Christ Jesus has ushered in the age of the ‘Way of Escape’ from earth’s terrible destiny, but we do not hear these scriptural, factual calamities foretold by Prophecy preached from the pulpit. Are we afraid to ‘alienate’, ‘offend’ or 'distress' the weak soul?
Yes, it is fire and brimstone preaching, but it is also life-saving for those who are waking up through the Holy Spirit’s work of Mercy and Grace to realize that the earth’s future is doomed.
Maybe we have become lukewarm as Christians because we consider ourselves to be in a place of relative ‘safety and security’, forgetting that the big ‘earthquake’ happened a long time ago. We continue to ‘play on the beach’ as the sea retreats. The wave is forming on the horizon, its taking on shape but we are not sounding the alarm of the ever faster approaching Tsunami which will wash over the whole world.
I think that we really do not grasp the totality of the change and its associated terror and destruction in which there is no place left to hide. All we will have left is our Faith to keep us from fainting.
I think it is high time to seriously focus the preaching on the 3 Angels messages and instruct believers on how we can keep our faith strong during ”….great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”Matt.24:21KJV.
Yes, we gratefully keep our eyes focused on the return of our Savior Christ Jesus, but the time of tickling the ears of man has passed; now it’s time to sound the alarm of impending doom and soberly open the people's eys to see clearly and precisely God’s plan of how He plans to destroy *Assyria and Babylon* and point out to them 'who have an ear to hear' The Way to find refuge – Isa.43:16-20KJV
Unfortunately the repentance of Nineveh was short-lived. Otherwise the prophecy of Isaiah in 19:25 would have been fulfilled
I have been really enjoying the title of everyday lesson study. What a contrast to the introduction in today's lesson and events to come.
Before a thought enters the heart of men, God shows, He is everlasting. He knows end from the beginning.
King Hezekiah recognized he was no match for the King of Assyria. The power of prayer is miraculous. When we put our trust in our loving God and obey him, we can rest assure he will take care of our problems. So why dont we trust him more with his words?
Where I live here near the tallest mountain in the northeastern US, there is a story of the Willey family that reminds me of Judah's King Hezekiah that we will read about this week. The story of the Willeys goes like this (taken from the Appalachian Mountain Club website):
"In June of 1826, a severe rainstorm tore through the White Mountains, causing a landslide across the Saco River. A huge mass of soil and vegetation slid into the floor of the valley near where the Willey House was situated. As a result, Samuel Willey Jr. decided to build a stone shelter slightly above the house where the family could flee if another landslide threatened the valley. Two months later, in August of 1826, one of the most violent rainstorms ever known in the White Mountains passed through Crawford Notch. This rainstorm followed a period of severe drought which had transformed the mountain soil to powder and gravel. The result was another massive, destructive landslide. The Saco River rose 20 feet overnight, farms and their livestock were set afloat, and the dry soil came tumbling down into the valley. The day after, a search party full of anxious friends and relatives was organized. They reached the Willey House, but found it completely deserted. Though the area nearby was covered in debris and rubble, the house had somehow survived because it was situated near a rock ledge that divided the major slide into two streams. The slide, therefore, passed by the house on both sides leaving it untouched. Inside the house the search party found unmade beds, clothes thrown about, and an open Bible on a table. Whether they died in the shelter, or on their way, is a mystery. What is known is that if they’d stayed in the Willey House they likely would have survived."
Hezekiah followed in his father's footsteps by seeking security in an alliance with Egypt (Is. 36:6). Of course he should have instead been leading his people to trust in the Lord. Spoiler alert is that eventually Hezekiah did seek help from the Lord and God destroyed the invading Assyrian army (Is. 37:36-38). Like the Willey family trying to escape danger and like Hezekiah valuing the strength of Egypt over his own living God, we sometimes make up our own plans to get ourselves out of trouble, when we would have been better off waiting for our Lord to act on our behalf or to tell us what to do. Sometimes the places we look to for safety can be the most dangerous. A life surrendered to God is the most secure (Ps. 20:7).
Imagine being among those prisoners from Lachish paraded before the victorious king, while being a son/daughter of Abraham, to whom God gave "exceeding great and precious promises". Sad to think of it, and of how many today may end up in a similar state while professing to be sons and daughters of God.