Isa 37:1-13 "Shall You be Delivered?" - Discussion

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Isa 37:1-13 "Shall You Be Delivered?"

Isa 37:1  And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.
Isa 37:2  And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
Isa 37:3  And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
Isa 37:4  It may be the LORD thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.
Isa 37:5  So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
Isa 37:6  And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
Isa 37:7  Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
Isa 37:8  So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
Isa 37:9  And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is come forth to make war with thee. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
Isa 37:10  Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
Isa 37:11  Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered?
Isa 37:12  Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Telassar?
Isa 37:13  Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?

Last week we heard the threats of the Lord's enemies against His people. Rabshakeh, speaking for the king of Assyria, tells us we do not stand a chance if we attempt to resist the king of Assyria. Those were not empty threats, because the king of Assyria had demonstrated his ability to overcome all nations all around Judah, the Lord's people. He has even taken away our closest kin, our northern brothers, the nation of Israel. The Lord Himself has already labeled Assyria, the people of Babylon, as "the rod of mine indignation":

Isa 10:5  O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.
Isa 10:6  I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

Being swallowed up by the lies of Babylon "is [the Lord's] indignation". The fact is, that it is a miracle that any of us do battle with the beast, the beast against whom no man can, of himself, do any battle:

Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

Here is the only answer to that question:

Php 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

The trial of our faith requires that our plight must look hopeless, because of ourselves we are hopeless! We must all be brought to our wits' end before we will renounce our own will and acknowledge that "all things" are of Him. The storms and the trials as well as the outcome of the storm and trials are all His doing. All things are the work of His hand. Archangels Michael and Gabriel are the Lord's hand, but so is Satan (Job 1:11-12 and 2:5-6).

Psa 107:25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end.
Psa 107:28  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Nevertheless our victory "through Christ" is as certain as David's victory over Goliath, and this is why it will be the case:

1Sa 2:10  The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.

1Ch 29:11  Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.
1Ch 29:12  Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all.

It was faith in the truth of these words which inspired David to face Goliath, inspired Shadrach, Meshech and Abednego to refuse the king's order to bow down to his image, and it was this truth which inspired Daniel to remain faithful in prayer and let the chips fall where they may because, like Christ before Pilate, he knew these words were true. However, do not think that David and Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego, and Daniel and Christ's faith was not sorely tried. The account of our Lord Himself is probably the most vivid of what all these men endured. It is not humanly possible to face Goliath, a fiery furnace, a lion's den, and crucifixion without symbolically sweating blood as our Lord did literally on the night of His apprehension:

Luk 22:41  And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,
Luk 22:42  Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
Luk 22:43  And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
Luk 22:44  And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Hezekiah is an Old Testament type of Christ in this same fiery trial:

Isa 37:1  And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.
Isa 37:2  And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
Isa 37:3  And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
Isa 37:4  It may be the LORD thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.

Hezekiah has already seen the humiliating results of bowing down to the king of Assyria. His father before Him and he himself had succumbed to that temptation and eaten the humiliating fruit of that faithless, rebellious heart and mind. Both Ahaz, Hezekiah's father, and Hezekiah himself, had voluntarily attempted to buy the mercies of a merciless "old man" king, and a merciless king could not give something he did not possess.

When Hezekiah says...:

Isa 37:3 ...This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.

...He is simply acknowledging that of himself he is completely hopeless and helpless. This is what he is saying in spiritual terms:

Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Listen to the hopelessness Paul feels in his own ability to make good on his will to serve God:

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

All of this happened to Hezekiah, and it is written down for our admonition just to let us know that we, too, are helpless and hopeless creatures if we are depending upon ourselves for our salvation.

1Co 10:6 Now these things became types of us, for us not to be lusters after evil things, (CLV)

1Co 10:11 Now all this befalls them typically. Yet it was written for our admonition, to whom the consummations of the eons have attained. (CLV)

Hezekiah has been crushed to powder before the Lord and before Judah. Isaiah had already prophesied of this exact day outwardly. We, too, must experience this same day inwardly, before the Lord will come to our rescue:

Isa 20:1  In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it;
Isa 20:2  At the same time spake the LORD by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.
Isa 20:3  And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia;
Isa 20:4  So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
Isa 20:5  And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.
Isa 20:6  And the inhabitant of this isle shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whither we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria: and how shall we escape?

"This isle" is referring to the nation of Israel. Spiritually 'this isle' is you and  me. We all see that everyone reaps what they have sown:

Gal 6:7  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Gal 6:8  For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

As we just read in Romans 7, of ourselves we can sow to nothing but the flesh.

Our own expectation, when we continuously rebel against our Maker, is to be carried away into spiritual Babylon, with nothing to cover our spiritual nakedness and with nothing to cover our spiritual feet. Sadly, when this is accomplished within us, we are not even aware that we are spiritually naked and have been swallowed up by spiritual Babylon. In fact we feel that the exact opposite is true:

Rev 3:15  I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
Rev 3:16  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

This 'fire', the 'white raiment' and the 'eye salve' are all the one and same Christ and His doctrine. The Lord is all Hezekiah now has to depend upon for his very life. As a type of us, he has been chosen by the Lord to be brought to his "wits' end", and he is now desperate for a Savior to deliver him from his plight, which he now acknowledges is hopeless. Hezekiah, typifying each of us, has now learned that the king of Assyria, typifying our own self-righteous flesh, would not be satisfied if we were to give Him the Lord's temple with all of its treasures. He has already tried that route and he has seen just how merciless the king of Assyria is.

So King Hezekiah humbles himself before the Lord, He tears up his own clothes of self-righteousness, and dresses himself and the Eliakim, who was in charge of the king's house, and his scribe and the elders of the priests, in sackcloth, to demonstrate their sorrowful, crushed and repentant hearts, and he sends them all to the Lord's prophet, to Isaiah.

Isaiah had even been made to know that Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, would be in this very position to lead the king's house in a right and proper way as nothing less than a type of Christ Himself, "in that day", the day of judgment upon the house of God (1Pe 4:17):

Isa 22:20  And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah:
Isa 22:21  And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.
Isa 22:22  And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
Isa 22:23  And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house.
Isa 22:24  And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons.
Isa 22:25  In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the LORD hath spoken it.

This "key of the house of David" is just another way of saying "the keys to the kingdom of David". This phrase represents being given access to Christ and His doctrine, which is a gift given to all who know Him:

Mat 16:19  And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

If we have Christ within us, then we have "the key of the house of David", which is the house of Christ, as He Himself confesses:

Rev 3:7  And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;

This entire prophecy of Hilkiah being exalted from a much less prominent position to replace Shebna, is all a prophecy for our own encouragement. This is a prophecy of how Christ is preparing us to oversee the Lord's house in the day of judgment and in times of trouble.

"Upon His shoulder" has the same meaning as:

Isa 9:6  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

The government of the entire earth will be upon the shoulders of Christ and His Christ. He and His Christ are our "Counselor" and when we ignore His counsel, we will reap what we have sown.

Getting back to the actions of King Hezekiah as a type of the Lord's elect rulers, he is one who was crushed and humiliated and brought to His wits' end and then chosen to repent of his sins in giving the Lord's gold and silver to the king of Assyria. He is now, at long last, aware that he must depend upon the Lord alone for his salvation from the strength of the king of Assyria. He has humbled himself and has humbled all of his house and has sent them all dressed in sackcloth, the symbol of humility and repentance, to the Lord's prophet to ask the Lord for His mercy and the salvation of His strength.

This is the exact opposite state of mind to that of the elders who many years later, after being taken to Babylon, came to inquire of the Lord through the priest prophet Ezekiel:

Eze 14:1  Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?
Eze 14:4  Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;
Eze 14:5  That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.

Eliakim, Shebna, and the elders and priests, came to the prophet Isaiah "covered with sackcloth" to inquire of the Lord. The idols of their hearts had already been crushed to powder, and the stark reality of that crushing experience was now staring them in the face in the form of Rabshakeh and a great host of Assyrian soldiers who had indeed destroyed and subdued all the nations around them. Now they were come to destroy the people of the Lord, and it would take a miracle for Hezekiah and his people to be delivered from the great king Sennacherib, the king of Assyria. The destruction of all the armies of the adversary within each of the Lord's children, the destruction of the pride within each of us and the humbling of our old man comes only through this same, physically impossible situation in our own lives. It is nothing short of a miracle of God that any of us are here today or that we will endure the trials of this life to the end:

Mat 10:21  And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

The Truth is that our blindness and our sight are both miracles of God. The things of the spirit are foolishness to our natural man. It appears to Hezekiah that there is no way out of his dilemma. "Who can make war with the beast?" No one has ever before overcome the beast. But God is merciful to His elect and He gives them faith in Himself to do the impossible:

Isa 37:5  So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
Isa 37:6  And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

When we set up our own "idols of the heart" and place them as stumbling blocks of iniquity before our faces and then come to the Lord, His Word, and His elders and His prophets, with a made up mind telling the prophet the way it is going to be, that prophet and all who are given to hear the word of the Lord at his mouth are told "Be not afraid of the words that you have heard... blaspheming Me". Our idols of our hearts and all the lies we are told we must believe in order to be saved are not lies against any man. They are nothing less than blasphemous, rebellious, doctrines which contradict and deny the Truths of the Word of God.

This is how the Lord deals with such reprobates:

Isa 37:7  Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
Isa 37:8  So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
Isa 37:9  And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is come forth to make war with thee. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
Isa 37:10  Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
Isa 37:11  Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered?
Isa 37:12  Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Telassar?
Isa 37:13  Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?

Outwardly Hezekiah has not lifted as much as a finger against the king of Assyria, and all of a sudden everything has changed and the king of Assyria is suddenly preoccupied with more pressing matters than the conquering of Jerusalem. The Lord, who is working all things at all times after the counsel of His own will, has done all of Hezekiah's fighting for him in causing the king of Assyria to "Hear a rumor, and return to his own land" where it is the king of Assyria who falls by the sword of the Lord at the hands of evil wicked men, just as King David had prophesied many years earlier. Just look at how these words of King David apply to King Hezekiah's plight:

Psa 17:7  Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them.
Psa 17:8  Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,
Psa 17:9  From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.
Psa 17:10  They are inclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly.
Psa 17:11  They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth;
Psa 17:12  Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.
Psa 17:13  Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:
Psa 17:14  From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.
Psa 17:15  As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

King David and King Hezekiah typify us as the Lord's very elect who will "awake with [the Lord's] likeness" in that "blessed and holy... first resurrection".

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Next week, Lord willing, we will see who the king of Assyria within us has blasphemed, and the week after that we will see what the Lord does to blasphemers:

Here are next week's verses:

Isa 37:14  And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.
Isa 37:15  And Hezekiah prayed unto the LORD, saying,
Isa 37:16  O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth.
Isa 37:17  Incline thine ear, O LORD, and hear; open thine eyes, O LORD, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent to reproach the living God.
Isa 37:18  Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their countries,
Isa 37:19  And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them.
Isa 37:20  Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD, even thou only.
Sennacherib's Fall
Isa 37:21  Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria:
Isa 37:22  This is the word which 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.
Isa 37:23  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.
Isa 37:24  By thy servants hast thou reproached the Lord, and hast said, By the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the height of his border, and the forest of his Carmel.
Isa 37:25  I have digged, and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged places.
Isa 37:26  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 defenced cities into ruinous heaps.
Isa 37:27  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 housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.
Isa 37:28  But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.