And Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,
Hezekiah has spread the Assyrian king's threatening letter before God and prayed. God now answers through Isaiah, and the answer opens by naming its cause: because you have prayed to me.
Earlier in the crisis Hezekiah went into the house of the LORD himself. At the same time he sent his officials to Isaiah. Those two moves were not the same errand.
He goes to the LORD; they are sent to the LORD's servant. This was right. He looks in prayer to God Himself, and he expects an answer through His servant.
The same pattern holds when he prays over the letter. Commentators differ on how quickly the reply came, but not on how it reached him.
Hezekiah did spread Sennacherib's letter before the Lord, but no answer came on the spot. Isaiah sent him the reply.
God points to Hezekiah's prayer as the reason for everything that follows. Yet Hezekiah did not pray from strength. He admitted he was no match for Assyria and left the case with God.
The Lord will never refuse to be brought into a difficulty, if only we let Him act and do not rob Him of His own glory. … By grace, Hezekiah was able to step out of the difficulty altogether. He admitted he could not cope with the king of Assyria by the very act of covering himself with sackcloth instead of putting on his armour. His posture in the house of the LORD said one thing: God or nothing. The faith of this humbled man had brought the LORD God of Israel and the king of Assyria into direct contact. So that same LORD God of Israel graciously led the man in sackcloth into the rich spoils of victory over his enemy.
The letter changed what was at stake.
Hezekiah goes up to the house of the Lord a second time. It is no longer a question of humbling himself as it was the first time, but of a direct attack upon the name of the Lord whom Hezekiah honours. God must take account of this letter. The king places God's cause into God's own hands, but he knows that to honour His name, the Lord will save His humbled people.
The prayer did not first draw God's attention to Sennacherib. Back when the Assyrian spokesman shouted his taunts at the city wall, there was a listener he had not counted on.
The blasphemer had no idea who was listening to his taunting demand — whether the LORD would deliver Jerusalem. Not Eliakim, Shebna and Joah only, and not only the men on the wall, but the LORD Himself. It was now His affair; and then at last the faith of Hezekiah begins to shine again.
Verse 21 opens a long speech aimed at Sennacherib, not at Hezekiah. God takes up what was thrown at Him.
This brought out God's immediate answer through Isaiah. God accepted the Assyrian challenge, which was not only insulting but blasphemous too. The Assyrian would become a laughing-stock to Jerusalem. God had ordained his earlier successes against other cities. Now that he turned against God, he would be crushed completely. God would deliver the remnant of Judah for the time being, and He would spare the city for His own sake, as well as for David's sake.
Kelly does not stop at the rescue itself. He reads the Assyrian and his fall as a picture of something later.
Real as it was, it was no more than a shadow of the great chief of the eastern nations in the last days. In the same way, Judah's deliverance and blessing under the son of David in that day was only a witness of a brighter era and a more lasting glory. In that era the LORD will lift up the one who was low and bring down the high one.
- Prayer. God names the cause before the act. Hezekiah prayed, and this word is the reply.
- Handover. The prayer worked by surrender — sackcloth instead of armour, God's cause placed in God's own hands.
- His affair. The insult had already reached the One it was aimed at. Hezekiah's prayer joined him to a quarrel God had taken up.
- Channel. Prayer went straight to God. The answer came back through Isaiah, His servant.
- Shadow. God spared the city for His own sake and David's sake, and crushed the proud power. That rescue is a small picture of a greater deliverance still to come.
this is the word which Jehovah hath spoken against him The virgin-daughter of Zion despiseth thee, laugheth thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem shaketh her head at thee.
God's reply to Hezekiah opens not with armies or strategy but with a picture: a young woman tossing her head at a world conqueror. The Assyrian had ravaged everything around Jerusalem, so whose view of the city was true — his or God's?
These words are God's reply to a prayer. Hezekiah's whole strategy had been to step aside and let God act.
The Lord will never refuse to be brought into a difficulty, as long as we let Him act and do not rob Him of the glory that is His alone… As others have noted, grace enabled Hezekiah to withdraw from the difficulty altogether. He could not cope with the king of Assyria, and he said so by covering himself with sackcloth instead of putting on his armour. His position in the house of the Lord said one thing — God or nothing. The faith of this humble man, who had bowed himself low, had brought the Lord God of Israel and the king of Assyria into direct contact. So that same Lord God of Israel, in His grace, led the man covered in sackcloth into the rich spoils of victory over the enemy.
The title sounds impossible for a city under threat.
"The virgin, the daughter of Zion." Wasn't there fear? Wasn't there anguish of heart? How could God say this and speak the truth? Because God speaks according to His own thoughts. God looks at Zion as something the Assyrian's foot had never defiled. She was a virgin daughter of Zion, and God never intended the Assyrian to walk there. He had allowed him to ravage elsewhere, but Zion, however unfaithful Zion might be, was not reserved for the hand of the Assyrian. Zion might fall in war, but the Assyrian himself must fall. Such was the decree of God… It is not man who governs in any case, but God.
The despising now runs the other way. Behind the boasting of such a man, one writer suggests, there is something less confident.
But God now answers back on behalf of His despised city… The Assyrian had no idea that he had lifted his voice against the Holy One of Israel. I have no doubt there was a certain uneasiness. There always is. However simple the Christian may be, and however great the man of the world may be, you will never find a man of the world, however bold or however great, without a certain anxiety, a certain uneasiness, in the presence of a real trial from God. He may despise; he may see things that draw out his scorn and contempt; but against his own will he is conscious of something strange, something that baffles him, something he cannot understand.
Hezekiah had put God's interests first. That choice shapes the answer he gets.
If Hezekiah carries the interests of his God on his heart when the enemy is in view, the Lord answers him. He will not allow the world to reproach "the virgin daughter of Zion," since she is the bride of the Great King… In this way God upholds the character and honour of His beloved ones, guilty but humbled, when they uphold His own honour and character.
This laughter has a history running through Scripture.
Laughter is connected with resurrection. "Isaac," the man of resurrection, means "laughter." When the risen Christ takes the throne, the Lord will laugh (Ps. 2). When God turns back the captivity of Zion, the people will laugh (Ps. 126)… So here, "the virgin, the daughter of Zion," despises the outward enemy now, and laughs (v. 22). God has stepped in with resurrection power.
One writer reads Hezekiah's story with the nation's future in view.
Looking at it this way, we may see in Sennacherib a sample of "the wilful king" who will exalt himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped… We may also view Hezekiah, covered with sackcloth, as a sample of the righteous remnant in the last days. He cries for deliverance from the hand of the mighty oppressor.
One writer adds a caution about copying this tone. It "is not intended to be an example for us to follow in the way we deal now with enemies of the truth." It was "a righteous response at that time to the man who was a wicked enemy of God" (Leslie M. Grant).
- Prayer first. The verse is an answer to prayer. Hezekiah put on sackcloth instead of armour and let God meet Sennacherib.
- God's thoughts. He calls her a virgin because the invader's foot was never going to defile Zion, whatever her own failures.
- Scorn reversed. The city the Assyrian despised now despises him. The boaster carries an uneasiness he cannot explain.
- Honour for honour. Hezekiah guarded God's name, so God guards the name of His humbled people.
- Laughter ahead. Zion's laugh belongs to resurrection power. The same scene points on to a remnant crying for deliverance from a greater oppressor.
Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted the voice? Against the Holy One of Israel hast thou lifted up thine eyes on high.
Sennacherib's letter reached Hezekiah with one message. Judah's God was no better than the idols Assyria had already destroyed. God answers. He does not argue with the king's claims. He asks one question: who is the One you have insulted?
Hezekiah took the matter to God and said nothing more. God's reply goes past him to the king himself.
The faith of this humble, self-abased man had brought the Lord God of Israel and the king of Assyria into direct contact. So in grace that same Lord God of Israel led the man covered in sackcloth into the rich spoils of victory over his enemy. Hezekiah had said, "He has sent to mock the living God"; the Lord replies, "Whom have you mocked? — the Holy One of Israel."
The verse charges Sennacherib with words his messengers carried for him.
Sennacherib reproached the Lord through his messengers. He was telling Him, in effect, that Assyria had enough chariots to make God helpless against him.
The words he sent Hezekiah show what drove him.
Now he says to Hezekiah, "Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you." He is likening Him to the false gods that he, the Assyrian, had destroyed. It was a direct "reproach" against the "living God." The Assyrian king was blocked in his plan and wounded in his pride. The rage that filled him now shows itself in its true character. It is the God of Israel whom he opposes.
God's answer is a name, and the name has a meaning.
The name "Holy One of Israel" means that the God of Israel is completely separated from all evil, for He is of purer eyes than to look on evil. This is what the seraphim express too, who cry out in front of His throne: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts."
The name is rare in the Old Testament, and it clusters in one book:
In the Old Testament God is spoken of as "The Holy One of Israel" only about 37 times. Just 30 of these occur in Isaiah, so it is the characteristic title of God in his book.
Assyria's victories were real. God gave them. That is what makes the raised voice absurd.
Insult as he might, himself or his servants, the great king of Assyria had to learn that God knew all about him. God made him only the instrument of His own dealings with the nations. Once that work was done, he had to go back humbled and struck down, for he had gone beyond his commission. Would God approve his rage against Himself?
Isaiah had already framed the point as a tool talking back to the hand that swings it.
He did not understand that he was only the rod of God's anger, used to carry out God's judgment on His rebellious and idolatrous people. So the Lord said to him, "Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it… as if a rod should wield him who lifts it!" This proud boasting of the Assyrian only brought God's judgment on them.
Judah was guilty. Still God stood up for the city when the enemy insulted His name.
If Hezekiah carries the interests of his God on his heart when the enemy is in question, the Lord answers him. He will not allow the world to reproach "the virgin daughter of Zion," since she is the bride of the Great King… So God defends the character and honour of His beloved ones, guilty but humbled, when they defend His personal honour and character. In his foolishness the Assyrian had lifted up his eyes against the Holy One of Israel.
This rescue points beyond itself.
The total collapse of the proud Assyrian's kingdom followed a few years later. God is able to humble those who walk in pride… Real as it was, it was no more than a shadow of the great chief of the eastern nations in the last days. In the same way, Judah's deliverance and blessing under the son of David of that time was only a witness of a brighter age and a more lasting glory. Then the Lord will lift up the one who was low and bring down the high one.
- Reproach. Sennacherib's insult came through his messengers. God credits the words to the king who sent them. In effect he told God that Assyria's chariots left Him helpless.
- Recognition. God's question names his opponent. Not one more god to stack with the idols Assyria had destroyed, but the Holy One of Israel, the God separated from all evil.
- Rod. His victories were a commission, not his own achievement. He went beyond it. An axe that boasts against the hand swinging it invites judgment.
- Rescue. God defends the honour of a guilty but humbled people, because they defended His honour first. Hezekiah's sackcloth put God and Assyria face to face.
- Rehearsal. The Assyrian's collapse is a shadow of a later day. Then the Lord will lift up the one who was low and bring down the high one.
By thy servants thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the recesses of Lebanon; and I will cut down its tall cedars, the choice of its cypresses; and I will enter into its furthest height, [into] the forest of its fruitful field.
These words are not Isaiah's own. God is repeating the boast that Sennacherib sent into Jerusalem by messenger, and asking who that boast was really aimed at.
Sennacherib never spoke to God face to face. He wrote to a king and shouted at a city. God still counts those words as spoken to Him. The boast climbs from the mountain heights to the deepest part of the forest, and He hears in it a plan to strip the whole land of its defences.
Through his messengers Sennacherib mocked the Lord. He was telling Him, in effect, that Assyria had enough chariots to make God helpless against him. The proud boasting of Sennacherib continues through verse 24. He said he would cut down the tall cedars of Lebanon and its cypress trees, rendering the whole country defenceless against his power.
The cedars are not picked at random. In the Bible a cedar stands for what is high, strong and admired. So the prophets reach for it when God is about to humble the great.
In scripture its typical use is always to denote power or exaltation, if not pride. When the king of Israel would pour contempt upon the king of Judah, he compared himself to a cedar and Judah's king to a thistle (2 Kings 14:9). When judgment comes upon the great of the earth, the prophet Isaiah says it is the day of Jehovah upon the cedars of Lebanon (2:13). These mark the cedar as the symbol of dignity and power.
One word keeps returning in the boast: I. Each claim credits Sennacherib with what God had already decided.
The Assyrian in his foolishness had lifted up his eyes against the Holy One of Israel. He had been the rod of God's wrath. God had given him that power long before. But he grew proud of his success, and he did not fear to lift himself up against God. He had said: "I have come up … I will cut down … and I will enter … I have dug … I have dried up …" (vv. 23-24). Yet it was the Lord who had decreed the ruin of the nations and of His people by this means (vv. 25-26).
The wording quoted here is from an older translation; the ESV reads "to cut down … to come to."
If God gave the victories, the boaster was only ever a tool. God's reply through Isaiah says so, and adds that Sennacherib went further than his orders allowed.
He might insult God himself, or do it through his servants. Either way the great king of Assyria had to learn that God knew all about him. God had made him only the instrument of His own dealing with the nations. Once that work was done, he had to go back humbled and struck down, because he had gone beyond his orders. Would God approve his rage against Himself?
God's answer takes the boast apart. The One Sennacherib mocked had made the trees he planned to fell. That same One had handed him every conquest.
How crushing it would have been, if only the king of Assyria had paid attention to it! Had he not heard long ago that God had made the forests of Lebanon and the waters the king boasted of drying up? It was the God who made these things who had given power to Sennacherib to crush fortified cities into heaps of ruins.
Assyria lived on what it had not made, and that should have taught it dependence. One rule of God's settled where its pride would end.
Anyone could see how dependent Assyria was. Yet what grew out of that position was self-exaltation, not a sense of dependence. So in the end it had to be brought low, for God's law is: whoever exalts himself will be brought low.
The total fall of the haughty Assyrian's kingdom followed a few years after. God is able to bring low those who walk in pride. How blessed to hear His voice and know His love! Real as that fall was, it was no more than a shadow of the great chief of the eastern nations in the last days.
- Borrowed power. God gave Sennacherib his chariots, his victories and his reach. He was only a rod in another's hand.
- Borrowed forest. The God he mocked had made the cedars he meant to fell and the waters he claimed to have dried up.
- Stolen credit. His speech piles up first-person claims — going up, cutting down, digging — taking credit for what the Lord had decreed.
- Overstepped commission. He was used against the nations, then turned his rage on God Himself, and so had to go home humbled and smitten.
- Fixed law. His own position should have taught him dependence. He exalted himself instead, and God brings the proud low.
I have digged and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the streams of Matsor.
Sennacherib's letter to Hezekiah ends with a boast about water: he dug for it where there was none, and he dried up rivers by walking through them. Through Isaiah, God quotes the boast back to him, and the reply exposes who was really behind every victory in that letter.
The whole speech is built out of first-person claims, and one writer lines them up to show what the Assyrian had made of himself.
He had been the rod of God's anger. God had given him this power long before. But he had grown proud of his success, and he was not afraid to lift himself up against God. He had said: "I have come up … I will cut down … and I will enter … I have dug … I have dried up …" (vv. 23-24). Yet it was the Lord who had decreed the ruin of the nations and of His people by this means.
God's reply does not dispute the facts of the boast. It asks where the rivers came from in the first place.
What a crushing reply, if only the king of Assyria had paid attention to it! Had he not heard long ago that God had made the forests of Lebanon, and the waters the king boasted of drying up? The same God who made these things had given Sennacherib the power to crush fortified cities into heaps of ruins.
God had handed him every victory in that letter, and he thought he had won them himself.
He had hardly realised that he was only God's instrument for punishing the nations. He thought all his victories came from his own strength and skill, and in his folly he raged against the living God.
God's answer tells the king that he was never acting unseen, and never acting on his own.
However much he or his servants insulted, the great king of Assyria had to learn that God knew all about him. God had made him only the instrument of His own dealing with the nations. Once that work was done, he had to go back humbled and beaten, because he had gone beyond his orders. Would God approve his rage against Himself?
Hezekiah had nothing to set beside these achievements, and that turned out to be his advantage.
He would gain a glorious victory over the enemy, but he would do it without leaving his sweet retreat in the sanctuary. He would make the temple his council chamber, and plan his military moves on his knees. So he conquered. So he won a silent victory. The king of Judah was on his knees, while the king of Assyria was driven home with a hook in his nose and a bridle in his lips, like a wild beast. It is a striking example of where pride always leads.
Commentators see more here than an old military story.
Scripture gives much space to Hezekiah's life, because Sennacherib's attack on Jerusalem in his reign was a foreshadowing of a still greater deliverance from a future king of Assyria. God so controls the evil and the passions of men that He makes them serve His purpose: to give a hint of what He will yet do for His own glory.
The Assyrian's own end came quickly, and it pointed further ahead.
The total fall of the proud Assyrian's kingdom followed a few years later. God is able to bring down those who walk in pride. What a blessing to hear His voice and know His love! Yet real as it was, it was no more than a shadow of the great chief of the eastern nations in the last days.
- Borrowed power. Sennacherib's list of achievements was real, but God had given him the power to do any of it, long before.
- Borrowed water. The God he was insulting made the very rivers he claims he dried up with his feet — the boast destroys itself.
- Overstepped power. God used him as an instrument against the nations, but raging against the living God went far beyond his orders.
- Answered power. God led him home with a hook in his nose, while Hezekiah won on his knees without lifting a weapon.
- Abased power. His kingdom fell within a few years. That fall is a small preview of a greater enemy God will put down for His own glory.
Hast thou not heard that long ago I did it, and that from ancient days I formed it? Now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest lay waste fortified cities [into] ruinous heaps.
Sennacherib had just claimed credit for every conquest. He took the cities. He dried up the rivers. God's reply cuts underneath the boast with a question. God planned that destruction long before this king was born. The king only carried it out.
The whole force of God's answer is that the Assyrian king was never the author of his own campaigns.
The great king, the Assyrian, might hurl insults, by himself or by his servants. Still he had to learn that God knew all about him, and was making him only the instrument of His own dealing with the nations. When this work was done, he had to go back humbled and struck down, for he had gone beyond his commission. Would God approve his rage against Himself?
The verse sets two things side by side: an old purpose, and a present event. What the king experienced as his own decision was, in fact, a decree already made.
He had been the rod of the wrath of God, who had given him this power long before. But he had become proud of his success. He had not feared to lift himself up against God. He had said: "I have come up … I will cut down … and I will enter … I have dug … I have dried up …" Yet it was the Lord who had decreed the ruin of the nations and of His people by this means.
If God planned it, why is the Assyrian judged for doing it? Because the instrument took the credit, and that claim is what God answers.
God used Assyria as the rod of His anger to chastise Israel and other nations. But Assyria was only the instrument in God's hand to carry out His judgments. Not understanding this, he boasted as if his success in his military campaigns came by his own power. So the Lord said, "Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it… as if a rod should wield him who lifts it?"
This is a rule, not a one-off.
God uses the pride and wickedness of the wicked to chastise His people. Afterwards He destroys the instrument. The Assyrian, God's rod to strike Israel, glorifies himself against God, who breaks the rod.
"From days of old" is not a rough way of saying "a while back." It marks how God works at all times — never reacting, always ahead.
God has no need to make plans to meet current events in the world. He foreknew all that takes place. He deals with everything according to His wisdom, making the city a heap and the fortified city a ruin at His will. He is a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat. So He shows His faithfulness and truth to all who trust Him.
The same principle reaches past one siege.
Even with His enemies, God is just as absolute, and governs them just as thoroughly, as He does His friends. It is not man that governs in any case, but God. God is sovereign, and therefore acts according to His own will. It is not a question of which side has the most strength or the most wisdom. It is never so in the world, for God acts according to His own sovereignty. It was not because of their superior power that Babylon, or Persia, or Greece, or Rome won the empire of the world. Most of them had small beginnings. And the very fact that the Assyrian came full of his proud confidence was what drew out the arm of the Lord in defence of His despised city.
The comfort here is not that hostility disappears, but that it is under orders it does not know it is taking.
What a comfort this is! God Himself, as our Father, guides us by His Spirit. At the same time, the secret providence of God controls circumstances and compels enemies where we could not be, and could do nothing if we were. But God does not fail to work for us, and often works by His worst adversaries. Even Satan, at the moment he exalts himself most, must act as nothing more than God's scavenger. If that is so, we may clearly trust our gracious Lord for everything.
- Planned — God decided long before that those cities would fall. Sennacherib was the means, not the mind, behind the ruin he bragged about.
- Loaned — God gave him the power he used. He was a rod, and another hand did the lifting.
- Claimed — his sin was not the conquering but the crediting. He took for himself what belonged to the One who wielded him.
- Broken — God uses the wicked to chastise His people. Then He destroys the instrument that glorifies itself against Him.
- Trusted — God makes even enemies serve His purposes. So His people can leave the outcome with Him.
And their inhabitants were powerless, they were dismayed and put to shame; they were [as] the grass of the field and the green herb, [as] the grass on the housetops, and grain blighted before it be grown up.
Sennacherib had paraded a list of ruined nations before Jerusalem, and God now tells him why those nations fell. The verse turns his trophy list into a picture of grass on a roof, and raises the real question: whose hand emptied those cities?
The previous verse says God long ago purposed and brought it to pass. This verse gives the result on the ground: the defenders had nothing left to fight with. One writer points back to who made the very things Sennacherib boasted of ruining.
Had he not heard long ago that God had made the forests of Lebanon, and the waters that the king boasted of drying up? It was the God who made these things who gave Sennacherib power to crush fortified cities into heaps of ruins. God was behind this. So the people of those cities had no power to defend themselves (v. 26), and they were left in complete confusion. They were as the grass of the field, green for a time, then withering. But this is true of all mankind by nature (Ps. 103:15-16). Though these nations gave way to Assyria, Assyria would yet give way and perish as the grass. How futile was her boasting then!
If God decided those defeats, the same holds for every conquest in history.
It is not man that governs in any case, but God. God is sovereign, and therefore does according to His own will. It is not a question of the party that has the most strength or the most wisdom. It is never so in the world, for God acts according to His own sovereignty. Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome did not win the empire of the world because their power was greater.
Sennacherib read his victories as proof of his own skill. He had never worked out what he was in God's hand.
He had little idea that he was only God's instrument to punish the nations. He thought all his victories came from his own strength and skill, and in his folly he raged against the living God.
That mistake cost him. Kelly names both sides of it: the work God gave him, and the limit he crossed.
The great king of Assyria could hurl insults, himself or through his servants. He still had to learn that God knew all about him, and had made him only the instrument of His own dealing with the nations. Once that work was done, he had to go back humbled and beaten, for he had gone beyond his orders.
The verse piles up four pictures, and the third is the sharpest. Grass on a flat roof looks alive, but it has nothing to root in. One writer draws out what that picture means for the enemies of Zion.
It is a figure to show the effect of judgment upon the haters of Zion. Under the wrath of God it would soon be clear that they were cut off from the sources of food and life. So they would wither away like grass that has no depth of soil. There would be no fruit, then, for God or man — nothing for the mower, and nothing for the one who binds the sheaves.
The last picture presses it further: blighted before it is grown, cut off before harvest.
God told Sennacherib what his victims were. He did not tell him he was any different. The same verdict covers every human achievement. Only one thing never withers.
May we have grace to love and value the testimonies of our heavenly Father more and more — all the more as we see how miserably uncertain all human events and human opinions are. "All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever." (Isa. 40:6-8)
One writer reads this whole episode as a preview of something larger still to come.
Isaiah 36-39 tell the history of Sennacherib's invasion and its result... This deliverance is, in substance, a picture of what will happen with the Assyrian in the last days.
- Behind the ruin — God had purposed those cities' fall, so their people had no strength left. Assyria's power was not the reason.
- Behind the throne — no empire rose by having the most strength or the best wisdom. God is sovereign over who rules.
- Behind the boast — Sennacherib was a tool that took the credit for the hand using it, and he went past his orders.
- Behind the image — rooftop grass has no soil. Judgment cuts a people off from the source of life and leaves nothing to harvest.
- Behind the warning — the grass verdict falls on Assyria too, and on all people. Only the word of God stands, and this rescue points to a greater one.
But I know thine abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy raging against me.
Sennacherib had mocked Hezekiah's God in public and in writing. God's reply, sent through the prophet, begins not with punishment but with how much He knows about the man.
God's reply reaches past this one invasion to the invader's whole career. His victories were never his own work.
Insult as he might, himself or his servants, the great king, the Assyrian, had to learn that God knew all about him, making him only the instrument of His own dealings with the nations. This work done, he must go back humbled and struck down, for he had gone beyond his commission. Would God approve his rage against Himself?
Hezekiah did not keep the threatening letter to himself. God's answer names its writer's every movement, and that shows where the letter had ended up.
The enemy thunders at the gates of Jerusalem, and Hezekiah is not dismayed. He sets the Lord God of Israel apart as holy in his heart, and instead of crying out at being overcome he is surrounded with songs of deliverance. The letter of the invader, with all its boasting, all its threats, all its scoffing, all its insults, is laid down quietly before the Lord. It has reached the right address.
Assyria's earlier successes were not an accident. God had used this cruel power to discipline His own people — and that use has an expiry date.
God uses the pride and wickedness of the wicked to chastise His people; and afterwards He destroys the instrument. The Assyrian, God's rod to strike Israel, glorified himself against God, who breaks the rod.
Another writer looks at it from the Assyrian's side. He was proud of his victories, and he never grasped whose errand he was running.
The heart of the Assyrian was full of pride, and he was set on destroying and subduing nations. He had no idea that he was only God's instrument to carry out His will against the nations because of their evil deeds.
The last item on God's list is not a movement but an emotion. One writer traces where that fury pointed once the campaign stalled.
Now he says to Hezekiah, "Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you," comparing Him to the false gods that he, the Assyrian, had destroyed. It was a direct insult against the living God. The rage that filled the Assyrian king, blocked in his plan and wounded in his pride, now shows itself in its true character. It is the God of Israel whom he opposes.
The rage God overheard had a short and humiliating end. One writer sets the two kings side by side.
The king of Judah was on his knees. Meanwhile the king of Assyria was being brought back to his own land with a hook in his nose and a bridle in his lips, like a wild beast. It is a striking example of what pride always leads to. Such will be the end of all those who exalt themselves against the Lord and His people.
One writer reads chapters 36 and 37 not only as history but as a picture of a siege still to come.
In chapters 36 and 37 of Isaiah, Jerusalem stands face to face with the Assyrian, their enemy. The proud waters that have flooded the land seem about to overwhelm them with death and destruction. This is the picture, given here by God, of the outward situation. So it will be again at Jerusalem. But "the living God" (Isa. 37:4, 17) will defend and deliver the city by the working of His mighty power.
- Known. God had the Assyrian's sitting down, going out and coming in all on record. He watched him long before He answered him.
- Used. His victories were not his own strength — he was a rod in God's hand to chasten His people, and he never understood it.
- Overheard. The raging in this verse was aimed at God Himself. When the campaign stalled, the king's pride showed what it had been fighting all along.
- Turned back. A rod that boasts gets broken; the proud king went home led like an animal while the praying king stayed on his knees.
- Repeated. The scene previews what comes again: Jerusalem faces the flood, and the living God delivers the city.
Because thy raging against me and thine arrogance is come up into mine ears, I will put my ring in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will make thee go back by the way by which thou camest.
Sennacherib's army stands outside Jerusalem. His messengers have mocked the God of Israel by name. This verse is God's reply to him, not to Hezekiah. The hook and the bit come from the handling of animals, and here God uses them on an emperor.
Assyria had conquered many nations before this. What changed her case was the target of her contempt.
God knew where Assyria lived and everything she did, including her rage against God Himself (v.27). If she had kept her hostility to the nations she conquered, she might not have fallen so soon. But she added blasphemy against the God who had raised her up. So God would put His hook in her nose and His bridle in her lips, and turn her back by the way she had come (v.28). God may use one nation to punish another. But when that nation is then puffed up with pride, God knows how to bring it down to a humiliating level.
The verse opens with "because." What comes before it is God's claim that He planned Assyria's victories long ago. That makes the conqueror a tool in another hand.
However much he insulted God, whether by his own mouth or his servants', the great king of Assyria had to learn that God knew all about him. God had made him only the instrument for His own dealings with the nations. Once that work was done, he had to go back humbled and struck down, because he had gone beyond his orders. Would God approve his rage against Himself?
Older translations read "my bridle in your lips" where the ESV has "my bit in your mouth." Where the ESV says "your complacency," others read "your arrogance." Both sets of words point the same way. A hook through the nose and a bit in the mouth are what you use on a beast that will not listen. Used on an emperor, the picture is humiliating. Set beside it is a second picture: a king who fought this war on the temple floor.
He would win a glorious victory over the enemy, but he would do so without leaving his sweet retreat in the sanctuary. He would make the temple his council room and plan his war moves on his knees. That is how he conquered. That is how he won a silent victory. The king of Judah was on his knees. Meanwhile God was leading the king of Assyria back to his own land with a hook in his nose and a bridle in his lips, like a wild beast. It is a striking example of what pride always leads to.
Sennacherib wrote his threats to Hezekiah. Hezekiah spread the letter out before God — and this verse is the answer that came back.
The invader's letter, with all its boasting, all its threats, all its scoffs, all its insults, is laid quietly before the Lord. It has reached the right address. About its writer the Lord says, "I know your sitting down and your going out and your coming in, and your raging against Me."
God let the enemy speak his blasphemy and set his siege before He acted.
They plainly scoff at the idea that God will step in and act for His people. They get ready to carry out their terrible plans to the full. But just then God does step in. The angel of the Lord went out. In the night he struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. The slain of the Lord were many. "Whom have you mocked and reviled?" said God, "… against the Holy One of Israel." … Their rage ran wild and their fury looked unbridled. Yet God still kept control, and in His own time He reined them in. Whatever wrath is left over, He holds back.
God uses this picture again elsewhere. And Sennacherib's story does not end with his march home.
Compare God's answer here with His words to Gog in Ezekiel 38:4, "I will turn you back, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out." … The living God had protected Hezekiah from the armies of Sennacherib. Sennacherib's own gods could not protect him from his own sons.
- Heard. God acts because the rage was aimed at Him. Conquering nations was one thing. Blaspheming the God who raised Assyria up was another.
- Known. God knew the invader's sitting down, his going out and his coming in. He was only a tool, and he went past his orders.
- Hooked. A hook and a bridle are for handling animals. That is where pride leads a man who lifts himself up.
- Turned. The road out is the road in: Hezekiah prayed in the temple, and Sennacherib walked home the way he had marched.
- Restrained. God let the boasting run to its full height, then reined it in — the pattern repeated later with Gog.
And this [shall be] the sign unto thee there shall be eaten this year such as groweth of itself; and in the second year that which springeth of the same; but in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards and eat the fruit thereof.
Sennacherib's army had swept through Judah, and the fields lay unsown. God's sign to Hezekiah is not fire or thunder but food: two years of what the ground gives on its own, then a normal harvest.
The sign speaks to a people who had no crop in the ground. What grows "of itself" is what comes up from grain dropped in an earlier season, without anyone planting it.
They would stay in the land and eat "what grows of itself" that year — a crop nobody had planted. They had clearly been unable to sow any crop, so they could not count on a harvest, but God would give them what they needed. The same would be true in the second year, probably because conditions stayed unsettled. But in the third year they were to sow and reap, to plant vineyards and eat their fruit. So for three years God assured Jerusalem that they would be safe from the enemy's raids.
Later, when he is dying, Hezekiah asks for a sign and receives the shadow moving backward. Here, no request is recorded — the sign is simply handed to him.
Hezekiah had already received a sign of the enemy's final overthrow, and he had not asked for it. God had kept this remnant alive without any human help, and from them He would form the new Israel. Here Hezekiah learns how this remnant would be saved.
The three years are not three equal mercies. They rise in strength, and the Lord explains the picture to the king.
In the first year they would eat what grew from the fallen grain. It was a poor harvest, but it would keep them from starving. In prophecy, this is the story of how the remnant at Jerusalem was kept alive. In the second year the growth would be stronger. In the third year the harvest and the fruit of the vine would come. The Lord explains this picture to the king: "And the remnant of the house of Judah that has escaped will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem will go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion those who escape. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this." The Lord would establish the remnant of Judah again and fill them with His blessings.
Roots go down; fruit goes up. Each direction carries its own point.
God carries on His promise of blessing to Judah. He tells them that their small remnant, who have escaped the assault of Assyria, would "take root downward and bear fruit upward." Being firmly rooted gives a settled character, and that leads to fruit "upward" — that is, fruit for God. "For out of Jerusalem will go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion those who escape." The remnant of Judah would not be shut up in Jerusalem like prisoners. They do not escape from Mount Zion; they escape from Sennacherib. "The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this." How good for Jerusalem to depend on Him!
Chapter 37 is not the only sign in this part of Isaiah, and the writers link them. What grows where nothing was planted is treated as a picture of life rising where death had done its work.
We cannot close this section without looking at the other SIGN given. It is a life out of death sign, in beautiful harmony with the rest.
The same writer presses on to ask where such reversal comes from, and finds the answer in the Servant of Isaiah 53.
Why all this life out of death? How does it come about? It comes because of that other "Plant," the "tender Plant" — the One they saw no majesty in, for He was among them in lowliness. They saw no beauty in Him that they should desire Him. He was wounded for their transgressions, He was crushed for their iniquities. His wounds will bring them healing. He was "cut off out of the land of the living."
Some commentators read the whole episode as a pattern of something still ahead.
Seen this way, Sennacherib is a sample of "the wilful king" who will lift himself above everything that is called God, or that people worship… Hezekiah too, dressed in sackcloth as a sign of grief, is a sample of the righteous remnant of the last days, crying for rescue from the hand of the mighty oppressor.
- Unasked. Hezekiah never asked for a sign. God gave one anyway, keeping the remnant alive without any human help.
- Unsown. Year one is a volunteer crop from fallen grain — enough to stop them starving, and no credit to the farmer.
- Unhurried. Year two brings stronger growth. Year three brings sowing, reaping and vineyards. Bare survival is not God's goal.
- Rooted. The remnant takes root downward and bears fruit upward — fruit for God, from people no longer shut in by an enemy.
- His zeal. The zeal of the Lord of hosts does all of it. The same picture points on to life out of death through the One who was cut off.
And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward;
Assyria has stripped Judah's fields, and God answers King Hezekiah with a picture from farming, not a battle plan. A few survivors will root downward and bear fruit upward — but who makes that happen?
The promise sits inside a three-year sign about crops. Before Judah can sow anything, God feeds them from what the ground grows on its own. One writer reads that slow recovery as a picture of the remnant God is preserving.
The Lord then gives Hezekiah a sign of His deliverance. In the first year they would eat what grew from the fallen grain. It would be a poor harvest, but it would keep them from dying of hunger. Prophetically, this is the history of God preserving the remnant at Jerusalem. In the second year there would be strong growth. In the third year the harvest and the fruit of the vine would come… The Lord would establish the remnant of Judah anew, and fill them with His blessings.
The verse points in two directions. Downward comes first, and the upward growth is the result. That fruit is for God.
God goes on with His prophecy of blessing to Judah. He tells them that their small remnant, who have escaped the attack of Assyria, would "take root downward and bear fruit upward". Roots set right give a settled character, and that results in fruit "upward", that is, fruit for God… The remnant of Judah would not be shut up in Jerusalem like prisoners. They are not escaping from Mount Zion; they are escaping from Sennacherib. "The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this." How good for Jerusalem to depend on Him!
God gives the sign against the darkest possible background — an enemy who has stripped the land. One writer sees more here than recovery. He sees resurrection.
How well the language here fits! In glowing colours the Holy Spirit shows us this striking sign. It shines out, vivid and fresh, against the dark background of the land the enemy has devastated… Here, again, we find resurrection pictured.
He then traces the reason back to a Person. The life of the people rests on One who was cut off.
Why all this life out of death? How does it come about? Because of that other "Plant," the "tender Plant". They saw no greatness in Him, for He was among them in lowliness. They saw no beauty that they should desire Him (Isa. 53:2). He was wounded for their transgressions, He was bruised for their iniquities. Through His stripes they will get healing. He was "cut off out of the land of the living" (Isa. 53:8).
Commentators read Hezekiah's crisis as more than history. Sennacherib, the Assyrian invader, and Hezekiah the praying king each stand for something still ahead.
In Sennacherib we may see a sample of "the wilful king". He will lift himself up above everything that people call God or worship… We may also see Hezekiah, covered with sackcloth, as a sample of the righteous remnant in the last days. He cries for rescue from the hand of the mighty oppressor… Then indeed "the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward."
The rescue was real. Yet another writer calls it only a shadow of a greater deliverance still to come.
Real as it was, it was no more than a shadow of the great chief of the eastern nations in the last days. In the same way, Judah's deliverance and blessing under the son of David in that day only pointed to a brighter era and a more lasting glory. Then the Lord will lift up the one who was low and bring down the high one.
One writer points to God's zeal as the power behind this promise.
God's zeal also shows itself in His sovereignty, preserving a remnant in days of darkness and failure, and while the enemies attack the people of God. Scripture records this in 2 Kings 19 and in Isaiah 37.
- Zeal starts it. God's own zeal does this. His sovereignty keeps a remnant alive in days of darkness and enemy attack.
- Zeal feeds them. The first year's self-sown crop is poor, but it keeps them alive. God's care for the remnant is pictured in a harvest.
- Zeal roots them. Roots come first. The hidden, settled growth below is what bears fruit above, and that fruit is for God.
- Zeal frees them. They are not shut up in Jerusalem as prisoners — the escape is from Sennacherib, not from Mount Zion.
- Zeal cost Him. This life out of death rests on the tender Plant. He was cut off out of the land of the living, and through His stripes comes healing.
for out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of mount Zion they that escape the zeal of Jehovah of hosts shall do this.
Assyria's army still stood at the gates when God gave Hezekiah a sign: the stripped land would take root, grow, and send people out again. Who comes through such a siege, and who gets the credit?
The promise stands at the end of a three-year picture of harvests. One writer traces what each year said about the remnant:
The Lord then gives Hezekiah a sign that He will deliver them. In the first year they would eat what grew from the fallen grain. It was a poor harvest, but it would keep them from dying of hunger. As prophecy, it is the story of God preserving the remnant at Jerusalem. In the second year the growth would be stronger. In the third year the harvest and the fruit of the vine would come… The Lord would establish the remnant of Judah again and fill them with His blessings.
Roots and fruit both carry meaning here. The going out needs care too, since people cannot walk out of a besieged city. Commenting on the parallel account in 2 Kings, one writer reads both halves:
God tells them that their small remnant who escaped the assault of Assyria would "take root downward and bear fruit upward." A settled, rooted character would produce fruit "upward" — that is, fruit for God… The remnant of Judah would not be shut up in Jerusalem as prisoners. It is not escaping from Mount Zion, but escaping from Sennacherib. "The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this." How good for Jerusalem to depend on Him!
The invader had stripped the countryside bare. One writer sees the promise of new growth as more than recovery:
How well suited the language is here. In glowing colours the Holy Spirit shows us this striking sign. It shines with freshness against the dark background of the land, which the enemy had devastated… Here, again, we find a picture of resurrection.
The same writer asks why life comes out of death, and answers with a Person:
Why all this life out of death? How does it come about? Because of that other "Plant," the "tender Plant"; the One who had no lordliness in their eyes, for He was among them in lowliness. They saw no beauty in Him that they should desire Him… He was "cut off out of the land of the living."
The verse names who does this: the LORD, in His zeal. One writer ties that zeal to God's sovereignty, and points to this chapter:
It comes into view in connection with God's sovereignty in preserving a remnant in days of darkness and failure, and while the enemy attacks the people of God. 2 Kings 19 and Isaiah 37 record this.
One writer reads this episode as more than one nation's narrow escape. He sees its people as samples of figures in a later day:
In Sennacherib we may see a sample of "the wilful king" who will lift himself above everything that people call God or worship… Hezekiah too, covered with sackcloth, may be viewed as a sample of the righteous remnant in the latter day, crying for deliverance from the hand of the mighty oppressor. Then indeed, "out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this."
- Zeal — the verse names the cause: God's own zeal. He preserves a remnant in dark days and under enemy attack.
- Root — that zeal roots the remnant first. Stability grows below before anything shows above ground.
- Fruit — roots that hold then bear fruit upward: fruit for God, not just survival.
- Out — the escape is not out of Zion but out of Sennacherib's grip. The city that shelters them does not become their prison.
- Resurrection — the whole sign pictures life out of death. It rests on the tender Plant, who Himself was cut off out of the land of the living.
Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning the king of Assyria He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.
Sennacherib's army had taken the fortified cities of Judah, and Jerusalem stood alone. God's answer is not a hope but a decree, naming exactly what the world's greatest king will never do.
God speaks about Sennacherib, not to him. One writer asks who was really running events when the great army closed in on the little kingdom.
Such was the decree of God. Even with His enemies God is just as final, and governs just as thoroughly, as among His friends. It is not man that governs in any case, but God... The fortified cities of Judah had fallen, and there stood Jerusalem. It seemed as if a shovel of earth, so to speak, would be enough to bury it in those days. But not so. The very fact that the Assyrian came full of proud confidence was what drew out the arm of Jehovah in defence of His despised city.
The promise is not that Jerusalem would survive an attack. It rules out the attack itself — no entry, no arrow, no shield, no siege mound. A siege mound was the earth ramp an army piled up against a city wall to get over it. With that promise came a matching instruction for the people.
In Hezekiah's time, the people were told, "in quietness and confidence shall be your strength," and that the Assyrian would not even cast up a siege mound before Jerusalem. They were to stay perfectly calm and firm. And the army of Assyria was destroyed.
The wording is narrow enough to test against what happened. One writer uses these very words to settle where the Assyrian army fell.
Sennacherib's army, let us remember, was not destroyed at Jerusalem. That is what 2 Kings 19:32-33 plainly shows. For he was not to come into the city. He was not even to besiege it. He was not to shoot an arrow there, nor to come before it with a shield, nor to build a siege mound against it. He was to return by the very road he came.
The next lines give the reason, and it has nothing to do with Jerusalem's strength. One writer sets that reason against the scene outside the city at the time.
The Assyrian should not enter the city, shoot arrows into it, or build a siege mound against it. Yet at that very moment the enemy army was surrounding it. But God stepped in for the sake of His name, and for the sake of David His servant, toward whom He would revoke neither His covenant nor His promises.
A promise like this can harden into a rule. One writer sets it beside a later word God gave the same city, when the enemy was Babylon and not Assyria.
The same word and the same Spirit spoke through Isaiah, telling the people of Jerusalem to be still, and promising that God would preserve them from the Assyrian. That same word and Spirit said, through Jeremiah, that whoever went out to the Chaldeans would be kept alive. Faith and obedience in the one case was nothing less than presumption and disobedience in the other.
Commentators read this rescue as a picture of a greater one still ahead.
Scripture gives much space to Hezekiah's life, because in his reign Sennacherib's attack on Jerusalem foreshadowed a still greater deliverance from a future king of Assyria. God so controls the evil and the passions of men that He makes them serve His purpose of giving a hint of what He will yet do for His own glory.
The picture is only partial. Sennacherib never besieged Jerusalem, and his army did not fall there, so the full overthrow of that enemy is still ahead.
- Decree — God had already settled the matter of Sennacherib. He governs His enemies as thoroughly as His friends, and the king's pride is what drew out God's arm.
- Limit — God pins the enemy down to the inch: no entry, no arrow, no shield, no siege mound. He does not just help His people survive the attack; He forbids it.
- Stillness — the people's part matched that limit: quietness and confidence, not military effort. Their strength lay in trusting, not in fighting.
- Reason — the rescue rests on nothing in Jerusalem. It rests on God's own name and on His promises to David, which He would not take back.
- Rehearsal — the deliverance is a scale model. What God did for one city points ahead to a greater deliverance from a greater enemy, for His own glory.
By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith Jehovah.
Isaiah's message to Hezekiah ends with a travel order: the Assyrian king will go home the way he came, and Jerusalem will never see him. The closing words, "declares the LORD," raise the question of who was directing the Assyrian army all along.
The invader's route was not his own choice. One writer sees a man who thought he was a conqueror but was only a tool:
He and his servants could hurl their insults. Still, the great king of Assyria had to learn that God knew all about him, making him only the instrument of His own dealing with the nations. His work done, he had to go back humbled and struck down, for he had gone beyond his orders. Would God approve his rage against Himself?
The promise ruled out even an approach to the walls. So where did the Assyrian army fall?
Sennacherib's army, remember, was not destroyed at Jerusalem. He was not to come into the city. He was not even to lay siege to it. He was not to shoot an arrow there, nor to come before it with a shield, nor to cast up a siege mound against it. By the way that he came, by that same way he was to return. Now that way had clearly been along the low country, the great highway between Syria and Egypt.
God let the boasting run its full course before He acted:
To what lengths are Sennacherib, Rabshakeh, and the Assyrians allowed to go in their attack on Judah! With a great host they come up against Jerusalem. Their surrounding of it seems complete, and no escape possible. What fury against God's people they show! What boastings of former victories they make! What blasphemy and railing against God they are permitted to utter! … Their rage was out of control, and their fury seemed unstoppable. Yet God still kept control, and in His own time reined them in. "The remainder of wrath" He restrains.
While the word came true, the two kings could not have looked more different:
He would gain a glorious victory over the enemy, but he would do so without leaving his quiet retreat in the sanctuary. He would make the temple his council-chamber and make his military arrangements on his knees. So he conquered — so he gained a silent victory. The king of Judah was on his knees. At the same time the king of Assyria was being led back to his own land with a hook in his nose and a bridle in his lips, like a wild beast. It is a striking example of what pride always leads to.
Sennacherib did go home — but not to safety:
When God takes a hand in any matter, we know that the mightiest enemy against a feeble land is powerless. What happened to the mighty Assyrian army? "And the angel of the LORD went out and struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies." No wonder the chastened remnant of the proud army left, with their humbled king at their head. Shortly after, Sennacherib's own sons rose against their father and struck him down with the sword. So Isaiah's prophecy came true to the letter.
Sennacherib never reached the city. So a prophecy that shows Jerusalem besieged and then rescued must point somewhere else:
Some apply it to the enemy who was only a type. But they cannot get past Isaiah's own prediction that Sennacherib would not come into the city of Jerusalem, nor shoot an arrow there. … In fact it is the future siege at the close of this age, when the great confederacy of the north-eastern nations will be broken after an earlier success against the Jews.
- The road — God named the enemy's exit route before he took it. The great king was only God's instrument for dealing with the nations.
- The leash — God let the boasting and blasphemy run to their limit, then reined the rage in at His own time.
- The limit — No arrow, no shield, no siege mound. The army that seemed to have Jerusalem surrounded never fell at Jerusalem at all.
- The knees — One king made the temple his council-chamber. The other went home with a hook in his nose, like a beast. That is where pride always leads.
- The shadow — Every word came true, down to Sennacherib's death at the hands of his sons. The rescue still pictures a greater deliverance of Jerusalem to come.
And I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.
The Assyrian army surrounded Hezekiah's city, and the word that ended the crisis rested on nothing in Jerusalem itself. God gives two reasons for saving the city, and neither of them is Hezekiah.
God spells out exactly what the Assyrian will not manage to do.
The Assyrian would not enter the city. He would not shoot arrows into it or build a siege ramp against it. Yet the enemy army was surrounding it at that very moment. God stepped in because of His name, and because of David His servant. He would cancel neither His covenant nor His promises to David.
Hezekiah had prayed, wept, and trusted. Yet when God states why the city will stand, the king's name is absent.
The Lord would defend the city, not even for Hezekiah's sake, but for His own sake and for the sake of David His servant.
The Assyrian had aimed his challenge higher than Hezekiah.
This was a direct challenge to Israel's God, and God was not slow to take it up. First of all, in answer to Hezekiah's prayer, God assured His servant that He would step in for him in grace. He also spoke of the future blessing of the remnant of His people.
The second reason looks back to God's promises to David. One writer points to what was at stake if David's line had failed:
The message of approaching death startled the king, because at that time he had no son. If he had died, what then would have become of the Messianic hope through the house of David? It is beautiful to hear the Lord say through Isaiah, "Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father." Before that, Isaiah gave him this message: "For I will defend this city to save it, for My own sake and for the sake of My servant David."
The answer did not come at once, and the delay says something about God.
God shows amazing patience with the cruelty and arrogance of His enemies. That does not mean He is indifferent, as many would like to think. He gives time for repentance. But when it is clear that men will not change, sudden and awesome judgment falls from a righteous God. Hezekiah had trusted God, and though the answer seemed slow in coming, it did come in God's time. In one night the angel of the Lord killed 185,000 men in the camp of Assyria! What a shock to those who remained!
Commentators read this rescue as a pattern for something still to come.
Isaiah 36–39 tell the history of Sennacherib's invasion and its result. They also tell of Hezekiah's deadly sickness, which came before it. This teaches the remnant how they should wait on the Lord. And in substance this deliverance is a figure of what will take place with the Assyrian in the last days.
Another writer measures the Assyrian of that day against a greater enemy still to come.
The total fall of the proud Assyrian's kingdom followed a few years later. God is able to bring down those who walk in pride. Real as this Assyrian was, he was no more than a shadow of the great chief of the eastern nations in the latter day.
If God defends for His own sake, then the way to get help is to hand Him the trouble and leave Him room to act.
Let us see how God received and answered Hezekiah's prayer from between the cherubim. The Lord will never refuse to be brought into a difficulty, as long as we let Him act and do not rob Him of His own special glory. By grace, Hezekiah stepped out of the difficulty altogether. He admitted he could not cope with the king of Assyria when he covered himself with sackcloth instead of putting on his armour. His stand in the house of the Lord said one thing — God or nothing.
- Sake, not merit. God saved the city for His own sake and for David's sake. Hezekiah prayed, but his name is not the reason given.
- Sake as covenant. For David's sake, God would cancel neither His covenant nor His promises. The hope carried by David's house pointed on to the Messiah.
- Sake as glory. The Assyrian challenged God to His face, and God took the challenge up Himself.
- Sake proved by power. God said no arrow would touch the city, and He kept His word. The angel struck 185,000 in one night — slow in seeming, exact in timing.
- Sake as pattern. Commentators see this rescue as a figure of a final deliverance from the Assyrian in the last days. It was real, but only a shadow of what is coming.