M-W-F Bibe study: Isaiah 36:1-10

Good morning! 

Lately, I've had many conversations with one of my kids about how the enemy just wants to steal our joy. He wants us to worry, be fearful, and not put our trust in our God. Because when he steals our joy, he is breaking down our faith. I highlighted this sentence in Mathew Henry's commentary:

The enemies of God’s people endeavour to conquer them by frightening them, especially by frightening them from their confidence in God.

Last week, I just got it into my head to worry over the safety of my son, who was away for the week, and out of communication with any of us. One of my daughters told me how she had been worried about something recently, and about how it felt like she was out of step with God when she was worried.

Then, yesterday morning, I had my follow-up medical visit, from my biopsy in December. I didn't get the news I wanted. It's not bad news, per say, just they want me to come back again in 5 months, to keep a watch on this mass, as it is changing, although very minorly. Well, once again, I allowed this to worry me terribly. I spent a good hour online reading about all of the horrible outcomes that "could" happen. Then, something shook me away from this worry. And I could hear God so clearly say to me, "don't you know? I have always taken care of you, and I always will."

Coming to read this scripture and Henry's commentary really drove home a point, to me. Fear will weaken me. Fear will keep me from hearing God's instructions for my life. Fear will plant a wedge between me and God. Not something I want for my life. I will put my hope in the Lord.

Do you ever feel like you can hardy wait for Sunday morning worship to come around again? That's how I'm feeling right now.

1 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah's reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

2 Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the commander stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman's Field,

3 Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary,and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to him.

4 The field commander said to them, "Tell Hezekiah, " 'This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours?

5 You say you have strategy and military strength--but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me?

6 Look now, you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces a man's hand and wounds him if he leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him.

7 And if you say to me, "We are depending on the LORD our God"--isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, "You must worship before this altar"?

8 " 'Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses--if you can put riders on them!

9 How then can you repulse one officer of the least of my master's officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

10 Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the LORD? The LORD himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.' "

(the following is from Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary -- www.biblestudytools.com)

"The prophet Isaiah is, in this and the three following chapters, an historian; for the scripture history, as well as the scripture prophecy, is given by inspiration of God, and was dictated to holy men. Many of the prophecies of the foregoing chapters had their accomplishment in Sennacherib’s invading Judah and besieging Jerusalem, and the miraculous defeat he met with there; and therefore the story of this is here inserted, both for the explication and for the confirmation of the prophecy. The key of prophecy is to be found in history; and here, that we might have the readier entrance, it is, as it were, hung at the door. The exact fulfilling of this prophecy might serve to confirm the faith of God’s people in the other prophecies, the accomplishment of which was at a greater distance. Whether this story was taken from the book of the Kings and added here, or whether it was first written by Isaiah here and hence taken into the book of Kings, is not material. But the story is the same almost verbatim; and it was so memorable an event that it was well worthy to be twice recorded, 2 Ki. 18 and 19, and here, and an abridgment of it likewise, 2 Chr. 32. We shall be but short in our observations upon this story here, having largely explained it there. In this chapter we have, I. The descent which the king of Assyria made upon Judah, and his success against all the defenced cities (v. 1). II. The conference he desired to have with Hezekiah, and the managers on both sides (v. 2, v. 3). III. Rabshakeh’s railing blasphemous speech, with which he designed to frighten Hezekiah into a submission, and persuade him to surrender at discretion (v. 4-10). IV. His appeal to the people, and his attempt to persuade them to desert Hezekiah, and so force him to surrender (v. 11-20). V. The report of this made to Hezekiah by his agents (v. 21, v. 22)."

"Verses 1-10 

We shall here only observe some practical lessons. 1. A people may be in the way of their duty and yet meet with trouble and distress. Hezekiah was reforming, and his people were in some measure reformed; and yet their country is at that time invaded and a great part of it laid waste. Perhaps they began to grow remiss and cool in the work of reformation, were doing it by halves, and ready to sit down short of a thorough reformation; and then God visited them with this judgment, to put life into them and that good cause. We must not wonder if, when we are doing well, God sends afflictions to quicken us to do better, to do our best, and to press forward towards perfection. 2. That we must never be secure of the continuance of our peace in this world, nor think our mountain stands so strong that it cannot be moved. Hezekiah was not only a pious king, but prudent, both in his administration at home and in his treaties abroad. His affairs were in a good posture, and he seemed particularly to be upon good terms with the king of Assyria, for he had lately made his peace with him by a rich present (2 Ki. 18:14 ), and yet that perfidious prince pours an army into his country all of a sudden and lays it waste. It is good for us therefore always to keep up an expectation of trouble, that, when it comes, it may be no surprise to us, and then it will be the less a terror. 3. God sometimes permits the enemies of his people, even those that are most impious and treacherous, to prevail far against them. The king of Assyria took all, or most, of the defenced cities of Judah, and then the country would of course be an easy prey to him. Wickedness may prosper awhile, but cannot prosper always. 4. Proud men love to talk big, to boast of what they are, and have, and have done, nay and of what they will do, to insult over others, and set all mankind at defiance, though thereby they render themselves ridiculous to all wise men and obnoxious to the wrath of that God who resists the proud. But thus they think to make themselves feared, though they make themselves hated, and to carry their point by great swelling words of vanity, Jude. 16, . The enemies of God’s people endeavour to conquer them by frightening them, especially by frightening them from their confidence in God. Thus Rabshakeh here, with noise and banter, runs down Hezekiah as utterly unable to cope with his master, or in the least to make head against him. It concerns us therefore, that we may keep our ground against the enemies of our souls, to keep up our spirits by keeping up our hope in God. 6. It is acknowledged, on all hands, that those who forsake God’s service forfeit his protection. If that had been true which Rabshakeh alleged, that Hezekiah had thrown down God’s altars, he might justly infer that he could not with any assurance trust in him for succour and relief, v. 7, We may say thus to presuming sinners, who say that they trust in the Lord and in his mercy. Is not this he whose commandments they have lived in the contempt of, whose name they have dishonoured, and whose ordinances they have slighted? How then can they expect to find favour with him? 7. It is an easy thing, and very common, for those that persecute the church and people of God to pretend a commission from him for so doing. Rabshakeh could say,Have I now come up without the Lord? when really he had come up against the Lord, ch. 37:28 . Those that kill the servants of the Lord think they do him service and say, Let the Lord be glorified. But, sooner or later, they will be made to know their error to their cost, to their confusion."