Exhortation Station

This morning, I read the account in Isaiah 36 of when Sennacherib king of Assyria set out to invade the cities of Judah in the days of King Hezekiah. Sennacherib sent one of his henchmen, Rabshakeh, to Jerusalem with a large army (verse 2). When Rabshakeh arrived at the wall of Jerusalem, he spoke a loud message to the people of Judah. I encourage you to read the whole story. For sake of time, I will skip to verse 11.

Isaiah 36:11-20 —

¹¹ Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah [Judaeans] said to Rabshakeh, “Speak now to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak with us in Judean in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” ¹² But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

¹³ Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in Judean and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. ¹⁴ Thus says the king, ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you; ¹⁵ nor let Hezekiah make you trust in YHWH, saying, “YHWH will surely deliver us, this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ¹⁶ Do not listen to Hezekiah,’ for thus says the king of Assyria, ‘Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat each of his vine and each of his fig tree and drink each of the waters of his own cistern, ¹⁷ until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. ¹⁸ Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you, saying, “YHWH will deliver us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹ Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And when have they delivered Samaria from my hand? ²⁰ Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their land from my hand, that YHWH would deliver Jerusalem from my hand?'”

Rabshakeh shouted loud threats to the people of Judah in an attempt to intimidate them into submission. He tried to sweet talk them into making peace with (i.e., surrendering to) the king of Assyria. He made sure his message reached the ears of all the people who were on the wall, no doubt so that they, too, would be scared in their boots.

Let’s see how the people responded:

Isaiah 36:21-22 —

²¹ But they were silent and answered him not a word; for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.” ²² Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

In the face of Rabshakeh’s bluster, the people of Judah answered not a word, according to King Hezekiah’s command.

I think there’s a lesson for us here. The adversary, Satan, often comes against us with clanging cymbals and loud threats. He wants to intimidate us. He wants to get us riled up, confused, and out of sorts. In the face of Satan’s noise, there is wisdom in keeping silent. Strength is displayed when we quietly trust in Yahweh amidst all the clamor of the enemy. In Isaiah 30:15, YHWH told Israel, “In repentance and rest you will be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength.” A well-trained soldier knows how to keep calm in the face of opposition. Being calm is not the same as being carefree. It means you retain your composure and focus. One can be distressed yet calm simultaneously.

Satan wants to negotiate with us. He desires a platform on which to argue with the truth. We need not entertain him. “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)

In the next chapter, Isaiah 37, the rest of the story unfolds. Hezekiah, after hearing the message, “tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of YHWH” (verse 1). Later, after receiving another threatening message from Rabshakeh, we read what Hezekiah did next.

Isaiah 37:14-20 —

¹⁴ Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of YHWH and spread it out before YHWH. ¹⁵ Hezekiah prayed to the Lord saying, ¹⁶ “O YHWH of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. ¹⁷ Incline Your ear, O YHWH, and hear; open Your eyes, O YHWH, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to reproach the living God. ¹⁸ Truly, O YHWH, the kings of Assyria have devastated all the countries and their lands, ¹⁹ and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. ²⁰ Now, O YHWH our God, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, YHWH, are God.“

Long story short, Yahweh did deliver them. An angel of Yahweh struck dead 185,000 men of the Assyrian army, and King Sennacherib tucked his tail. (Isaiah 37:36,37)

When threatened by the enemy, take courage! Spread out the threats before Yahweh. Get down on your knees and implore Him for help. Trust in His righteousness and lovingkindness.

Praise Yahweh for the things He accomplishes while we quietly trust in Him!

(For another example of when Yah’s people kept silent, see a previous post, Quietness and Trust.)

(Bible passages NASB 1995; Hebrew transl. added by me.)