Isaiah Chapter 36

Today’s chapter takes a short break from the prophecies uttered to record a time in history when Rabsheckiah, commander of the Assyrian army came to threaten the Jews. Jerusalem was in danger of falling just like the Northern Kingdom to the Assyrians.

Perhaps buoyed by their previous conquests, the Assyrians was arrogant and dismissive of what the Israelites were or could do. But they severely underestimated the God of Israel and what He stood for. And they did not expect to meet a king like Hezekiah, who was determined to do God’s will.

⁷ “But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?” ’
~ Isaiah 36:7 ~

Here we see how the Assyrian leader completely misunderstood the reason for why Hezekiah had the high places of worship removed. Those were altars to the Baals, Ashtoreth etc… The worship of these false gods was one of the many reasons why God allowed His people to be taken captive by other nations. And Hezekiah had now removed one of the obstacles to the people’s faith and acknowledgement of the only True God who saves!

Now Rabsheckiah was trying to discourage the people in Jerusalem by telling them that they had no chance against the Assyrians and they should just give up.

This is how Satan very often will act too… to confuse, discourage, threaten, dissuade the believers from doing the things that God wants them to do. Half-truths are told and if we do not know the Word of God properly, we would be swayed.

The way Hezekiah handled this was a lesson for us. We need to go to God directly and seek godly counsel. And we need to know the wiles of the devil and not get caught up in them.

²¹ But they held their peace and answered him not a word; for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.”
~ Isaiah 36:21 ~

Hezekiah told his people not to respond to the army. In the next chapter, we see what Hezekiah did – he went straight to the temple of God and sought out the prophet of God, Isaiah for counsel.

The world around us is in great chaos where the wrong seems right and what is right is now seen as wrong. Skeptics of God and the truth abound and many try to fit God or religion the way they want to believe. If they cannot understand it, their reasoning is that then this is not true.

Our only solace from this wayward world is God and His House.

Can we be like Hezekiah today?

•