The Answer Of The King Of Kings. 2 Kings 19:25-37
The Decline and Fall of Israel and Judah
INTRODUCTION
The Second Book of Kings is a continuation of the First. It records the reigns of fifteen kings in Judah and of eleven kings in Israel. In Judah the dynasty of David continued to the end, while in Israel there were nine changes of dynasty.
The northern kingdom maintained an unbroken course of idolatry, until the nation was ripe for destruction. The end came in 722 B.C., when Samaria was taken by the Assyrians. Judah continued her course for nearly 150 years longer. But in spite of the efforts of prophets and good kings, the tide of idolatry could not be stayed, and Jerusalem fell before the Babylonians, 586 B.C. Nothing but the Exile could avail to purify the nation and restore the spirit of true worship.
II. FROM THE FALL OF SAMARIA TO THE FALL OF JERUSALEM, II Kings 18-25
1. The Reign of Hezekiah, II Kings 18:1-8, 13-37; 19-20
46. What was God’s promise concerning the safety of Jerusalem?
THE ANSWER OF THE KING OF KINGS
ISAIAH PROPHESIES SENNACHERIB’S FALL
‘Have you not heard [asks the God of Israel]? Long ago I did it; From ancient times I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, That you [king of Assyria] should [be My instrument to] turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
‘Therefore their inhabitants were powerless, They were shattered [in spirit] and put to shame; They were like plants of the field, the green herb, As grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up.
‘But I [the LORD] know your sitting down [O Sennacherib], Your going out, your coming in, And your raging against Me.
‘Because of your raging against Me, And because your arrogance and complacency have come up to My ears, I will put My hook in your nose, And My bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back [to Assyria] by the way that you came.
‘Then this shall be the sign [of these things] to you [Hezekiah]: this year you will eat what grows of itself, in the second year what springs up voluntarily, and in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.
The survivors who remain of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
For a remnant will go forth from Jerusalem, and [a band of] survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of hosts shall perform this.
‘Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: “He will not come to this city [Jerusalem] nor shoot an arrow there; nor will he come before it with a shield nor throw up a siege ramp against it.
By the way that he came, by the same way he will return, and he will not come into this city,”‘ declares the LORD.
For I will protect this city to save it, for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.'”
Then it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went forth and struck down 185,000 [men] in the camp of the Assyrians; when the survivors got up early in the morning, behold, all [185,000] of them were dead.
So Sennacherib king of Assyria left and returned home, and lived at Nineveh.
It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with a sword; and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.
THE ANSWER OF THE KING OF KINGS
ISAIAH PROPHESIES SENNACHERIB’S FALL
These verses, taken with Isa_10:5-15, form a most suggestive and sublime comment on the words, “the Lord reigneth.” They show us God using the Assyrian as “the rod of His anger,” and working personally and mightily through the politics of the world. Isaiah’s faith, through all this terrible crisis, was the one bulwark behind which king and people lay entrenched. What a gift one such man is to an entire people! His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord, and he cannot be made afraid by evil tidings.
It has been suggested that this was a Sabbatic year, the produce of which sufficed for two years, 2Ki_19:29. In any case, the Sabbatic peace and calm had entered Isaiah’s soul. They who have learned to stay themselves on God may sing triumphal odes, in sure conviction of coming victory. Thus, also, it befell. The angel of God’s deliverance wrought through some terrible outbreak of plague, and thus the tents were strewn with the silent corpses of men who had yesterday been full of manly vigor. The Lord was Judge, Lawgiver, and King; and saved His people, as the mother-bird, with outspread wing, protects her brood against the hawk. God’s presence, like an invisible river, surrounded and saved His people. “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge,” Psa_46:11.
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