And it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them.
Hezekiah spent years cleansing the temple and restoring the worship of God in Judah. Then Assyria took every fortified city he had, which raises two questions: can we trust the date, and why did trouble follow faithfulness?
Some argue that "fourteenth" is a copying mistake and should read "twenty-seventh." One writer answers that the number fits the rest of Scripture:
This was in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign (2 Kings 18:13). Fausset says "fourteenth" is a copyist's error for "twenty-seventh." But we hear too much about these "copyist's errors." "Fourteenth" agrees with Isaiah 36:1. It is the only number that agrees with Isaiah 38:5. Maybe it is a lack of faith that makes men force Scripture to fit secular history, or what claims to be history. A date in the Bible may not line up with Babylonian or Assyrian records. It may clash with some untrustworthy pagan inscription. At once commentators cry "Transcriber's error" — as if monuments and clay tablets that are only partly deciphered must correct the word of God!
The order of events is what stings. The king had reopened the house of God and gathered the nation to worship. The reward looked like an invading army:
After these things and their faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria entered Judah, camped against the fortified cities, and planned to break into them (2 Chronicles 32:1). Was that not strange? Judah had just done a great work, restoring the ruined worship of the true God. Yet as soon as it was finished, the enemy came to swallow them up! Those who judged by providence instead of by Scripture would stumble at once. Was it not obvious, they would say, that Hezekiah had done wrong in rejecting the traditions of his fathers? Was God not now disciplining him and the people for his hasty reform? Had he not dared to lay hands on the bronze serpent that Moses made and destroy it? He treated it as a mere piece of brass. Yet it was the honoured sign of God's grace to their dying ancestors in the desert. Israel had burned incense to it until his day. Was the Assyrian a judgement?
Judged by events alone, the invasion looked like punishment on Judah. One writer says the real cause lay elsewhere:
The Lord did not send him because of any guilt on Judah's part, as He did with Israel. This was to be a test of the faith of the godly king Hezekiah.
The cities fell, and the king tried to buy his way out. He gave away the silver and the gold of the temple, and it bought him nothing:
The godly king also did what he could to fortify himself. He sent the humblest message to the proud Assyrian. He gave him all the silver in Jehovah's house, and stripped the gold off its doors and pillars for him. It was all in vain. There was little of the simplicity, strength, or wisdom of faith in all this. No wonder the blessing of God was not with him there, and the enemy grew bold enough to demand everything.
Isaiah is a book of prophecy, yet four chapters of plain history sit in the middle of it. These chapters carry three subjects that reach far past Hezekiah's day:
In Isaiah 36 to 39 the Spirit relates the history of a part of Hezekiah's reign. It covers three main subjects. The first is the resurrection of the Son of David, as if from death. The second is the destruction of the Assyrian, who never managed to attack Jerusalem. The third is the captivity in Babylon. These are the three grand foundations of the whole history and state of the Jews in the last days.
Joy and worship do not mean the fighting is finished:
The Spirit records these points about Hezekiah: he stopped the watercourses, he built the wall, he showed the confidence of faith. Yet after this came the armies of Sennacherib to invade Jerusalem. The child of God must not take off his armour and think the battle is over — we wrestle with wicked spirits in heavenly places. Hezekiah wrestled with wicked men in earthly places. His conflict was only a type of ours. Sennacherib took the cities of Judah (Isaiah 36:1). This looked very sad after such joy and worship. And sad indeed is the damage Satan often does, even among the most spiritual children of God.
- Date — "Fourteenth year" agrees with the rest of Scripture. A clash with outside records is no reason to correct God's Word.
- Test — The attack came right after the revival. Faith judges events by Scripture, not by how they look.
- Fear — Hezekiah stripped the temple gold to buy peace, and the gift only made the enemy demand more.
- Pattern — The Assyrian's defeat is one of three foundations for the state of the Jews in the last days.
- Warning — Worship and reform do not end the conflict. Hezekiah's fight is a type of ours, so keep the armour on.
And the king of Assyria sent Rab-shakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem, to king Hezekiah, with a strong force. And he stood by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller's field.
Sennacherib has already taken Judah's fortified cities. Now he sends his chief spokesman with an army to stand outside Jerusalem's wall and talk. The spot he chooses is not random, and his words aim past the king at the people listening above him.
Hezekiah had already tried to buy the invader off. He emptied the temple of its silver and pried the gold from its doors. One commentator shows what that money bought:
The godly king did what he could to strengthen his defences. He sent the humblest message to the proud Assyrian. He gave him all the silver in Jehovah's house, and stripped off for him the gold from its doors and pillars. But it was useless. There was little of the simplicity, strength, or wisdom of faith in all this. No wonder the blessing of God was not with him there. No wonder the enemy grew bold enough to demand everything. So the king of Assyria sends Rabshakeh from Lachish to insult king Hezekiah, to blaspheme the God of Israel, and to lure the people into unconditional surrender to his master.
Another writer adds what trust in the Lord would have done instead:
Hezekiah could have kept the gold and silver and still not been defeated by Assyria. He learned that by experience when he trusted the Lord. The king of Assyria proved himself treacherous by sending a great army against Jerusalem.
The name is not a personal name at all. It marks an office, and the man holding it had one qualification that made him dangerous:
This is a title, and it means 'chief cup-bearer.' Sennacherib sent the officer who held it to Jerusalem, along with the Tartan (general) and a Rab-saris. He was the chief spokesman. Because he could speak the language of the Jews, many think he was either a convert to the Jewish faith or a Jew who had abandoned it. He claimed that the Lord Himself had sent him up against the land to destroy it. Yet he also profanely classed the God of Israel with the gods that could not protect their worshippers from his master.
The conduit of the upper pool was not new ground. One commentator ties the spot to an earlier scene there:
That is the spot where Ahaz despised the gracious word of Jehovah through Isaiah some thirty years before. There the Assyrian now hurled insults at Jehovah and the king.
Isaiah had already made water the picture of this invasion:
The water of Shiloah was despised, so the very different waters of the Assyrian had to come, and they all but overwhelm the land. Then He whose birth God had announced to the unbelieving Ahaz as His sign in mercy will at last appear to vindicate His land. The Assyrian fills the land in his pride, reaching even "to the neck." Yet he is not just checked and put to shame. He is broken completely and for ever in Immanuel's land.
The army came, but the weapon was words. Hezekiah's officials tried to interrupt the speech, and it backfired:
He was a skilled diplomat, and he gave his cunning speech in the language of the Jews. He and his fellow officers stood by the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the Washer's Field, most likely on rising ground. Hezekiah's ministers interrupt him… They did not know the crafty Rabshakeh. He turned their fear to his own advantage and answered: "Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words? Has he not sent me to the men who sit on the wall?"… He hoped to stir up rebellion in the city, so as to take it without a siege. But he worked for nothing: the people "kept silent and answered him not a word, for the king's command was, 'Do not answer him.'"
Isaiah is a book of prophecy. These four history chapters sit inside it for a reason:
Isaiah 36-39 tell the history of Sennacherib's invasion, its result, and the deadly illness of Hezekiah that came before it. They teach the remnant how to wait on the Lord. And this deliverance is, in substance, a picture of what will take place with the Assyrian in the last days.
Another writer places the whole episode under a different hand:
God so controls the evil and the passions of men that He makes them serve His purpose. Through them He gives a hint of what He will yet do for His own glory.
- Payment. Buying off the enemy bought nothing. The silver and gold only brought the Assyrian back to demand everything.
- Pressure. The weapon sent from Lachish was a spokesman, not a siege engine. Sennacherib chose an officer who could argue in the language of the Jews.
- Place. He stood where Ahaz had once despised God's word, and where Isaiah had pictured the flooding "waters of the Assyrian."
- People. Rabshakeh aimed his speech past the officials at the men on the wall. He wanted surrender from inside. Silence defeated him.
- Purpose. Commentators read the whole invasion as a rehearsal. God bent an enemy's pride into a preview of a deliverance still to come.