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LESSON 7

* May 8 - 14

Defeat of the Assyrians

The Week at a Glance:

How hopeless did the situation in Judah appear? How did the Assyrians try to undermine the morale of the people in Judah? How did Hezekiah respond? What happened to him during prosperity?

Memory Text: 

*Study this week's lesson to prepare for Sabbath, May 15.

Strings Attached (Isa. 36:1).

What happened to Judah? 2 Kings 18:13, 2 Chron. 32:1, Isa. 36:1.  

When faithless Ahaz died and his faithful son Hezekiah succeeded him, Hezekiah inherited a kingdom that had lost full independence. Having purchased Assyrian aid against the alliance of Syria and northern Israel, Judah was forced to continue paying "protection money" in the form of tribute to Assyria (see 2 Chron. 28:16-21). When the Assyrian king Sargon II died on a distant battlefield and was succeeded by Sennacherib in 705 B.C., Assyria appeared vulnerable. Evidence from Assyrian and biblical texts reveals that Hezekiah seized this opportunity to rebel (compare 2 Kings 18:7), taking aggressive action as the ringleader of an anti-Assyrian revolt among the small nations in his region.

Unfortunately for him, Hezekiah had underestimated the resilience of Assyria's might. In 701 B.C., when Sennacherib had subdued other parts of his empire, he lashed out against Syria-Palestine with devastating force and ravaged Judah.

How did Hezekiah prepare for a confrontation with Assyria? 2 Chron. 32:1-8.

When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib intended to take Jerusalem, the capital city, he made extensive preparations for a confrontation with Assyria. He strengthened his fortifications, further equipped and organized his army, and increased the security of Jerusalem's water supply (see also 2 Kings 20:20, 2 Chron. 32:30). The remarkable Siloam water tunnel, commemorated by an inscription telling how it was constructed, almost certainly dates to Hezekiah's preparation for a potential siege.

Just as important as military and organizational leadership, Hezekiah provided spiritual leadership as he sought to boost the morale of his people at this frightening time. He encouraged them by saying: " 'Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him; for there is one greater with us than with him. With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our battles' " (2 Chron. 32:7, 8, NRSV).

If Hezekiah trusted the Lord so much, why did he put forth so much effort on his own? Did his works negate his faith? See Philippians 2:12, 13 on cooperating with God, who provides the power that is truly effective.

Propaganda (Isa. 36:2-20).

The rulers of Assyria were not only brutal, they were intelligent. Their goal was wealth and power, not simply destruction (compare Isa. 10:13, 14). Why use resources to take a city by force if you can persuade its inhabitants to surrender? So, while he was engaged in the siege of Lachish, Sennacherib sent his rabshakeh, a kind of high officer, to take Jerusalem by propaganda.

What arguments did the rabshakeh use to intimidate Judah? Isa. 36:2-20; see also 2 Kings 18:17-35, 2 Chron. 32:9-19.  

The rabshakeh made some rather powerful arguments. You cannot trust Egypt to help you because she is weak and unreliable. You cannot depend on the Lord to help you because Hezekiah has offended Him by removing His high places and altars throughout Judah, telling the people to worship at one altar in Jerusalem. In fact, the Lord is on Assyria's side and told Sennacherib to destroy Judah. You don't even have enough trained men to handle 2,000 horses.

To avoid a siege in which you have nothing to eat and drink, give up now and you will be treated well. Hezekiah cannot save you, and because the gods of all the other countries conquered by Assyria have not saved them, you can be sure that your God will not save you either.

Was the rabshakeh telling the truth?  

Because there was much truth in what he was saying, his arguments were persuasive. Backing him up were two unspoken arguments. First, he had just come from Lachish, only 30 miles away, where the Assyrians were showing what happened to a strongly fortified city that dared resist them. Second, he had a powerful contingent of the Assyrian army with him (Isa. 36:2). Knowing the fate of armies and cities elsewhere (including Samaria, the capital of northern Israel: 2 Kings 18:9, 10) that had succumbed to Assyria, no Judahite would have reason to doubt that from a human point of view Jerusalem was doomed (compare Isa. 10:8-11). The rabshakeh was also right in saying that Hezekiah had destroyed various places of sacrifice in order to centralize worship at the temple in Jerusalem (2 Kings 18:4, 2 Chron. 31:1). But had this reform offended the Lord, who was the only hope His people had left? Would He, and could He, save them? It was up to God to answer this question!

Have you ever been in a "similar" situation, where, from a human standpoint, all seemed lost? What's your only recourse?

Shaken but Not Forsaken (Isa. 36:21-37:20).

How did the clever oratory of the rabshakeh affect Hezekiah and his officials? 2 Kings 18:37-19:4, Isa. 6:21-37:4.  

Shaken to the core and mourning in distress, Hezekiah turned to God, humbly seeking the intercession of Isaiah, the very prophet whose counsel his father had ignored.

How did God encourage Hezekiah? Isa. 37:5-7.

The message was brief, but it was enough! God was on the side of His people! Isaiah predicted that Sennacherib would hear a rumor that would distract him from his attack on Judah. This was immediately fulfilled.

Temporarily frustrated, but by no means giving up for long, Sennacherib sent Hezekiah a threatening message: " 'Do not let your God on whom you rely deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. . . . Have the gods of the nations delivered them. . .?'" (Isa. 37:10, 12, NRSV; see also 2 Chron. 32:17).

This time Hezekiah went straight to the temple and spread the message out before the Lord of hosts, "enthroned above the cherubim" (Isa. 37:14-16, NRSV).

How did Hezekiah's prayer identify what was at stake in Jerusalem's crisis? Isa. 37:15-20.

Sennacherib had pointedly attacked Hezekiah's strongest defense: faith in his God. Rather than buckling under, Hezekiah appealed to God to demonstrate who He is, "so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord" (Isa. 37:20).

Read prayerfully Hezekiah's prayer (Isa. 37:15-20). What aspects of God does he focus on? What principle do we see in this prayer that can give us encouragement and strength to stay faithful in our own personal crises?

The Rest of the Story (Isa. 37:21-38).

According to Sennacherib, as reported in his annals, he took forty-six fortified towns, besieged Jerusalem, and made Hezekiah the Jew, "a prisoner in Jerusalem, his royal residence, like a bird in a cage."--James B. Pritchard, editor, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1955), p. 288. But in spite of his penchant for propaganda as an extension of his monumental ego, neither in text nor in pictures does he claim to have taken Jerusalem. From a human point of view, this omission is amazing, given the inexorable power of Sennacherib and the fact that Hezekiah led a revolt against him. Rebels against Assyria had short life expectancies and gruesome deaths.

Scholars admit that even if we did not have the biblical record, we would be compelled to admit that a miracle must have taken place. The fact that Sennacherib lined the walls of his "Palace Without a Rival" with reliefs (carved pictures) vividly depicting his successful siege of Lachish appears to be due to his need for a face-saving device. But for the grace of God, these pictures would have shown Jerusalem instead! Sennacherib did not tell the rest of the story, but the Bible does.

What is the rest of the story? Isa. 37:21-37.  

In response to Hezekiah's prayer of total faith, God sent him a message of total assurance for Judah that boils over with molten fury against the proud Assyrian king who had dared slap the divine King of kings in the face (Isa. 37:23). Then God promptly fulfilled His promise to defend Jerusalem (2 Kings 19:35-37; 2 Chron. 32:21, 22; Isa. 37:36-38).

A big crisis calls for a big miracle, and big it was! The body count was high: 185,000. So Sennacherib had no choice but to go home, where he met his own death (compare Isaiah's prediction in 37:7 to vs. 38).

If Sennacherib had conquered Jerusalem, he would have deported the population in such a way that Judah would have lost its identity, as northern Israel did. From one perspective, then, there would have been no Jewish people to whom the Messiah could be born. Their story would have ended right there. But God kept hope alive.

What do you say to someone who, not yet believing in the Bible, or the God of the Bible, asks this question: Was it fair that these Assyrian soldiers, who just happened to be born where they were, should die en masse like this? How do you, personally, understand the Lord's actions here?

In Scikness and in Wealth (Isaiah 38, 39).

The events of Isaiah 38 and 39 (2 Kings 20) took place very close to the time God delivered Hezekiah from Sennacherib, even though the deliverance, as depicted in Isaiah 37 (see also 2 Kings 19) had not yet occurred. Indeed, Isaiah 38:5, 6 and 2 Kings 20:6 show that they still faced the Assyrian threat.

"Satan was determined to bring about both the death of Hezekiah and the fall of Jerusalem, reasoning no doubt that if Hezekiah were out of the way, his efforts at reform would cease and the fall of Jerusalem could be the more readily accomplished."—The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 4, p. 240.

What does the above quote tell us about how important good leadership is for God's people?  

What sign does the Lord give Hezekiah to confirm his faith? 2 Kings 20:8-10, Isa. 38:6-8.  

By rejecting signs offered by God (Isaiah 7), Ahaz had started the course of events that led to trouble with Assyria. But now Hezekiah had asked for a sign (2 Kings 20:8), so God strengthened him to meet the crisis his father had brought upon Judah. Indeed, reversing the shadow on the sundial of Ahaz was possible only through a miracle.

The Babylonians studied movements of heavenly bodies and recorded them accurately. Thus, they would have noticed the sun's strange behavior and wondered what it meant. The fact that King Merodach-baladan sent envoys at this time is no accident. The Babylonians had learned of the connection between Hezekiah's recovery and the miraculous sign.

Now we know why God chose this particular sign. Just as He later used the star of Bethlehem to bring wise men from the East, he used a solar shift to bring messengers from Babylon. This was a unique opportunity for them to learn about the true God. Merodach-baladan spent his entire career trying to win lasting independence from Assyria. He needed powerful allies, which explains his motivation for contacting Hezekiah. If the sun itself moved at Hezekiah's request, what could he do to Assyria?

Further Study:  

Discussion Questions:

How is Satan like the Assyrian rabshakeh? Does he tell the truth when he says that you have sinned (Zech. 3:1)? How does God respond? See Zech. 3:2-5. What is our only hope against these accusations? Rom. 8:1.     Does Satan stop his accusations when you are forgiven? See Rev. 12:10. After you are forgiven, when Satan goes on saying that you belong to him because of your sin, what is the nature of his accusation? See Deut. 19:16-21 (law of a lying, malicious witness).

Summary:

In response to the cry of a faithful king, God saved His people and showed who He is: the omnipotent King of Israel who controls the destiny of earth; not only does He destroy those who attempt to destroy His people, He also provides opportunities for others to become His people, no matter how "Babylonian."

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