God Destroys The Assyrian Threat

Hezekiah was praying, not only that God would deliver Judah from the Assyrians, but also that they might recognize God as the only real God.  God responded by sending Isaiah to assure him that he had heard his prayer, and that he was offended by the Assyrian’s casual assumption that he would be powerless to stop them, in II Kings 19:20-24.  “Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.  This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.  Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.  By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel.  I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.”

They had ignored the historical records, and failed to understand God is the creator of the world.   Their victories had been against people who had turned against God, and they had won because he gave them victory, not because of their great power, as he explains in II Kings 19:25-26.  “Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.  Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the house tops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.”

God knew exactly where they lived and what their attitudes were.  He would use their pride ad hatred for him against them. as we see in II Kings 19:27-28.  “But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.  Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.” 

As proof of his intention to save Judah, despite their in ability to plant due to the threats of war, they would be able to live on the things that grew voluntarily for the remainder of that year, and the next, and then things would get back to normal, with Judah again growing in strength.  The Assyrians would never set foot in Jerusalem, according to II Kings 19:29-34.  “And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.  And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.  For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.

 Therefore thus saith the LORD 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.  By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD.  For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.”

God had chosen Jerusalem to be his holy city, and for the sake of his own reputation, as well as his promises to David, he would defend the city.  The people would not even have to fight to protect it.  II Kings 19:35-37 describes what happened.  “And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.  So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.  And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.”

A hundred eighty five thousand Assyrian soldiers died that night.  Shocked by such a loss, Sennacherib withdrew, returning to Nineveh, the capital to regroup.  Two of his sons murdered him while he was worshipping his gods, escaping into Armenia, and another of his sons seized the throne.  Sennacherib’s death precipitated a gradual decline of the Assyrian Empire which continued about a hundred years, until they were defeated by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar.  They never again threatened Judah.