Monday, February 8
The rulers of Assyria were not only brutal, they were intelligent. Their goal was wealth and power, not simply destruction (compare Isaiah 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? Isaiah 36:2-20, see also 2 Kings 18:17-35, 2 Chronicles 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 (Isaiah 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 Isaiah 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 Chronicles 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 was your only recourse? If willing, be prepared to share with your class that experience, how you coped, and the ultimate outcome.
