Isaiah 37:21-38

Hezekiah prayed to the LORD.  Today we hear God’s answer through Isaiah.  God had a special relationship with the Davidic king if that king was one to inquire of the LORD.  Hezekiah was, of course, one of those kings.  He had sought destroyed idolatry in Israel, restored the temple and resurrected the feasts.  In v21 Isaiah tells Hezekiah that God is answering simply because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria.  

Remember what James said?  You do not have because you do not ask … You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures … The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much (Jas. 4:2-3; 5:16).  All those statements are illustrated in Hezekiah.  He DID ask God; he asked for the right reason (37:20: that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the LORD, You alone); and he came to God as a righteous man.

Thus God is marvelously and powerfully moved to answer Hezekiah.

·        37:22: First God’s answer is that the people who fear the Assyrians will laugh at and scorn them.  Remember how the commander spoke with so much intimidation from outside the walls of the city?  These words are intimidating and are to be feared because they come from God who laughs at those who speak as this commander did (Psa. 2:4; 37:13).  In Psalm 2 God’s laughter is followed by His action.  And note that Psalm 2 is a promise to the Davidic king and ultimately the Messiah, that He will rule the nations.  So God’s answer to Hezekiah fits the Davidic covenant (2 Sam. 7:12-17).

·        37:23-25: God’s answer to Hezekiah maintains the purpose Hezekiah counted on: that God would honor His name in the face of the slander of Assyria.  In essence v24-25 are asking the Assyrian king, who do you think you are?

·        37:26-27: The Rabshakeh had acknowledged that Assyria was God’s instrument of wrath and vengeance.  If the commander would have listened to his own words (36:10) he would not have challenged God in the way he did.

·        37:28-29: Sometimes we jokingly tell someone, I know where you live (or perhaps we have said this seriously).  Well God says it with all seriousness.  God knows what is going on in every life and situation.  His eyes are on the just and the unjust.  We may wonder like Asaph in Psa. 73 and think He is taking too long to bring justice.  But let us not doubt: the LORD knows.

·        37:30-35: God gives Hezekiah a sign.  Though they are locked in the city with Assyria outside, they will continue to harvest and sow.  And the King of Assyria would never enter the city.  The zeal of the LORD of host will do this.  

All of this happened.  The Assyrian army was decimated by God’s angel.  Several years after that Sennacherib was killed by his own sons. As Isaiah would later say (64:4): Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides You, who acts for the one who waits for Him.