Crisis and the Crown

Let’s pray together before we read our Scripture and study God’s Word as we come to our holy God.

We thank You, O holy God, for Your holy Word, Your Word that is inspired by God, from the lips of God, Your Word that is inerrant.  Nothing false in Your Word at all, down to the very words of Scripture themselves.  Your Word that is sufficient, has all that we need for life and godliness.  Your Word that is authoritative, coming from Your mouth, a Word that we must respond to and obey and believe.  So Lord we pray that in all those ways that Your Word would speak to our hearts now.  We pray these things in Jesus’ name.  Amen.   

Let’s turn in our Bibles to Isaiah 36.  Today is the first Sunday, the first study of a series that is going to carry us into maybe the second week of August or so on the life of King Hezekiah and is going to lead us through Isaiah 36, 37, 38, and 39.

You might know that these chapters in the book of Isaiah are unique.  They’re different from all the other chapters in the prophecy of Isaiah.  All the other chapters, of course, are very prophetic, have the nature of prophecy.  These chapters are historical chapters, telling us a story of what happened in Isaiah’s ministry and during the reign of King Hezekiah.  So we’re taking this chapter this morning, Isaiah 36.  As we read it, remember that this is God’s Holy Word.

“In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.  And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army.  And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field.  And there came out to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.”

“And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria:  On what do you rest this trust of yours?  Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war?  In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me?  Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it.  Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.  But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord our God,” is it not He whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar”?  Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria:  I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them.  How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master’s servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?  Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it.”’”  Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it.  Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”  But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?””

“Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!  Thus says the king:  ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you.  Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying, “The Lord will surely deliver us.  This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”  Do not listen to Hezekiah.  For thus says the king of Assyria:  Make your peace with me and come out to me.  Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one you of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.  Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, “The Lord will deliver us.”  Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?  Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad?  Where are the gods of Sepharvaim?  Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?  Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’””

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

Well, dear people of God, there are some leaders that seem to be raised up by God for certain special times in history.  In other words, leaders who fit the times that they live in.  We can think about presidents and politicians, men like Thomas Jefferson at the beginning of our country or Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, or Winston Churchill during World War II.  We might think about pastors. 

When I think about the history of Christ Covenant Church as it has been told to me over the last four years, the Lord has done this among us, so in our early days raising up Harry Reeder, in those foundational years in which the church really grew.  Then raising up Mike Ross after the distressed years, as they’re called sometimes, a man of organization who kind of brought us together.  And then our own pastor, Kevin DeYoung, and these days, his great teaching and helping us as a resource church to share what we have with others.  

Or we might think about the words of Mordecai to Esther that really capture this.  During the threats that the Jewish people faced during the time  of Haman, Mordecai saying to Esther, and who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this.  She didn’t come too early, she wasn’t raised up too late, she was raised up for that moment, for that time.

And King Hezekiah was that kind of leader.  He was the 13th king of Judah.  His reign lasted 29 years, from 1750 B.C. to 686 and he ruled at one of the most pivotal times in Judah’s history, as the Assyrian army was bearing down on Jerusalem.  The Assyrians were ruthless.  Their army was notorious for its military conquests and for how it operated.  There were massive armies in Assyria.  The Assyrians developed the world’s first great siege machines by which they would surround and strangle cities.

Their greatest weapon, actually, was psychological warfare.  They would impale corpses on stacks, stack severed heads on heaps, skin alive their captives.  They had already toppled the northern kingdom of Israel, they had defeated the Egyptians, they had conquered 46 fortified cities around Jerusalem, and now here in Isaiah 36 they stood on Jerusalem’s doorstep.  This was 701 B.C.

The kingdom and the crown were in crisis.  Politically, militarily, but as we read here in chapter 36, even more spiritually.  Because this chapter is interesting.  It is not a description of the Assyrian might, of the Assyrian military strategy against Jerusalem.  At the heart of this chapter is an assault on Judah’s trust.  Who did Judah believe in?  Who was Judah trusting?  Who would Judah put their confidence in to deliver them?

Friend, that’s the question for us today.  Where is our trust in life?  Where is our trust in death?

Well, let’s begin with Hezekiah.  Just learn a little bit more about him as we start this series on his life.  We see here in this chapter that Hezekiah, this chapter and other chapters, Hezekiah was a model of trust and faith.

Two things I want to note about him this morning.  First, he was a godly king.  His reign came between two wicked kings, his father Ahaz and his son Manasseh.  Ahaz before him walked in the ways of the wicked kings of Israel, the Scriptures tell us.  He offered his son, one of Hezekiah’s brothers, as a burnt offering to God.  Here’s my son, he burned him before the Lord.

Politically, he entered an alliance with Assyria to secure their help against the threats of Israel and Syria.  So he turned to foreign nations and said, “Come, let’s make an alliance.  Let’s make a treaty.  Come and help us.”  He turned to them instead of to God.

Well, Hezekiah was nothing like his father.  The Bible says this, that he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.  We see this in a number of significant things that he did during his reign.

First, he removed the high places.  He broke down the sacred pillars of Asherah.  Next, in his first month as king, he opened the doors of the temple that his father had shut.  In other words, he put the doors open so that worship could resume before the Lord.  He reformed the priesthood.  He restored temple worship.  The temple was cleansed of its filth and the lamps of incense that had been dark before were re-lit so God’s people could worship again.

The Passover was reintroduced.  He broke in pieces the bronze serpent called Nehushtan.  Remember, it had been made in the wilderness when fiery serpents came and attacked God’s people.  Moses said, “Set up this bronze serpent so that people can look at it and be healed.”  Well, this bronze serpent became an idol.  God’s people had started to worship it, so Hezekiah broke it in pieces and destroyed it.

You can think about some of the famous reformers throughout the history of the Church.  Men like Luther and Calvin and Knox as they led the Church back to truth and the ways of the Lord.  King Hezekiah was that kind of king.  He was a reformer.  He was an ideal king, a leader who pointed God’s people back to God.  That’s what the kings of Israel and Judah were supposed to do.  Yes, I am king, but God is our true king, and Hezekiah took God’s people and said, “Worship the Lord.  Trust in Him.”

There’s a great summary statement in 2 Kings 18, verses 5 through 7, that tell us about Hezekiah’s reign.  It says he trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him nor among those who were before him for he held fast to the Lord.  He did not depart from following Him but kept the commands that the Lord commanded Moses.  The Lord was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered.  He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him.  He was a godly king.

The other thing to notice is that he was also a gifted king.  So he was a strong military leader.  During his reign he built up the walls of Jerusalem around Jerusalem to resist the Assyrians.  He stopped the waters from springs that were outside the city of Jerusalem and he built a tunnel so that the waters would be diverted and go inside the city so that Jerusalem would be able to withstand the siege that was coming against it.

If any of you have traveled to Israel or been to Jerusalem, you’ve probably seen that famous tunnel.  You can still walk through it today.

And he encouraged the people.  He said to the people, “Be strong and courageous.”  This is 2 Chronicles 32.  “Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him for there are more with us than with him.  With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God.”

The conclusion is all the people took confidence from his words.  They were strong in the Lord, not in the arm of flesh.  Hezekiah, faithful king, a faith-filled king, and his trust was in the Lord for deliverance.

Friends, this is important to point out because what we have throughout this chapter is really an attack on faith.  The assault that we begin to read about here from King Sennacherib and his armies is really attacking that trust that Hezekiah and God’s people were putting in the Lord.  Again, this is not a chapter about Assyria’s military might.  We don’t read about their armies, we don’t read about how many horsemen they came against Jerusalem with.  What we read about is their propaganda strategy.  Their attempts to cause Judah to surrender in fear, to topple their trust in the Lord.

This, isn’t it true, this is how the enemy often goes about attacking us.  Picks away at our faith and our trust in God, wants us to trust in other things.  You see all this coming through this man whose name is the Rabshakeh, which simply means that he was a high military official in Assyria.  His boast was in the sovereignty of Sennacherib.  You can see this in verse 4.  The Rabshakeh said to Eliakim and Shebna and Joah, “Say to Hezekiah thus says the great king.”  Note there he doesn’t call Hezekiah king, but he highlights Sennacherib as the great king.  He goes on to say, “Thus says the great king.” 

Contrast this with chapter 37, verse 6, where Isaiah says, “Thus says the Lord.” 

You see, it’s a contrast of kings, who really is the king?  Is it Sennacherib?  It is God who is sovereign?  And the key question, I think there’s one main key question throughout this entire chapter, and you see it again in verse 4, key verse, the question is this:  On what do you rest this trust of yours?

Five times the word “trust” or words that are related to the word trust are used in this chapter.  Verse 4, 5, 6, 7, 9.  This is all about a matter of trust and there are five places in this chapter that the Rabshakeh points to as alternatives for the Lord.  One of them being the Lord, four other alternatives to the Lord that he identifies.

First of all, he says to these three men of Judah, how can you trust in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff.  You see it in verse 6, that question.  He says this because so often in Israel’s past this is exactly where Israel went when they were in a time of crisis.  Go down to Egypt, call upon Egypt.  Let’s get the help of Egypt.  It’s an incredible thought, really, isn’t it?  That for 400 years God’s people had been in captivity in Egypt and now as history moves along, where do they go back to?  They go back to Egypt.  And the Rabshakeh says, “Why would you trust in Egypt?  Egypt is only as strong as the reeds that grow by the Nile.”  You lean on one of those reeds and they snap and they have a sharp point to them.  They’ll pierce you.  Egypt is no place to trust.  She cannot save you.

But think about this in our own, the challenge that comes to our own faith.  This might seem like a gracious reminder of the enemy that people or things cannot save us, but it is simply a strategy to more fully embrace the enemy’s ways.  It’s not Egypt for us, but don’t we sometimes trust in people?  We trust in things.  You can’t trust your spouse, the devil may say to us.  Fight back, take control, don’t serve, be served.  Fight fire with fire.

A second person that the Rabshakeh points out is the Lord.  Verse 7 – we’re reminded there that Hezekiah had removed the high places in Israel, or in Judah, and of course this was a good thing, but the Rabshakeh makes it sound, or makes it seem, as if God must be angry because of it.  God is attached to the high places, and of course worship was supposed to happen in Jerusalem, so Hezekiah removes these.  But the Rabshakeh says, “Hey, isn’t the Lord going to be angry with you because you have removed these places of worship.  You have torn them down.” 

He goes on, verse 7 – “Actually, the Lord is on my side, not yours because He has said to me go up against this land and destroy it.”  And of course that was a complete lie.

But friends, this sounds like the enemy’s attack, doesn’t it?  In the garden of Eden, and as he comes to us sometimes.  If God really loved you, He wouldn’t keep this tree from you.  If God really loved you, He wouldn’t prevent you from having all these good things in your life.  Then he goes right to the Word of God, “Did God really say you must not eat of the tree?”  “God has spoken to me, I have the Word of God.”  Or, “What has God really said?”  The enemy attacks our trust in God’s nature and in the authority and the reliability of His Word.

We doubt, we are confused, can I really trust the word that God has given to me?  Our faith is shaken and our trust is rocked.

The Rabshakeh also points out soldiers and armies, verses 8 and 9.  He says come make a wager with me.  I will give you 2000 horses if you are able on your part to set riders on them.

What the Rabshakeh knew fully well is that Judah did not have enough men to put on these horses.  So Assyria could give them all kinds of horses, all the horses they wanted, but there were no men in Judah to ride upon them.  They would be of no use to God’s people.  The point simply was to expose Judah’s impotency.

I think so often the enemy, how Satan uses wagers in our life, to shake our confidence in God.  He did it with Jesus, didn’t he?  I’ll give you all the kingdoms of the earth if you will just fall down and worship me.

The devil loves to make bargains with us.  Let’s just have a, make a little deal together.  I’ll give you this if you give me that.  How about a little peace in your life?  For just a little overindulgence of this or that thing.  Or how about friendships?  If you just compromise a little I’ll give you many, many friends.  Or security, or greed, or pleasure, if you just give in a little.

Then the Rabshakeh points to Hezekiah as a place of trust.  Verses 13 through 16 and verse 18.  The Rabshakeh says Hezekiah, he’s just out to deceive you by turning you to the Lord and promising that you will not fall to Assyria.  Don’t listen to him.  In fact, he repeats it again, don’t listen to the words of Hezekiah.  All you have to do, he says, is look at the other cities around you.  Look at Hamath, look at Arpad, look at Sepharvaim. Their gods couldn’t save them.  What makes you think that the Lord is going to save Jerusalem?

So sometimes the enemy shakes our trust by causing us to doubt our leaders, to not trust their teaching, distrust their teaching, distrust their wisdom.

Of course, people of God, we ought to be like the Bereans.  Do you remember them in the book of Acts?  The Bereans listened to Paul and they tested everything that Paul said by the Word of God.  You should test us as your pastors.  What we’re saying, does it match up?  Does it line up with God’s Word?

But there are times when the devil has a field day by unjustly causing us to mistrust those who God has put over us.  I think about this in our day and times, that there have been many real tragic failures of leaders and it seems like we hear about this more and more.  Right?  More and more exposure of this.

But let’s not overreact.  Be cautious about an unwarranted spirit of suspicion or slander that can fall over you about leaders in the church.  You may begin to think there is nobody I can trust, and the devil loves to sow division this way.

Then there was one other place the Rabshakeh pointed to, and that was trust in Assyria.  Verses 16 and 17.  The Rabshakeh did not hide the intentions of the Assyrians.  He says to these three representatives of King Hezekiah, “We are coming to take you away to another land.  That’s what we are here to do.  We are going to take you to our land.”  But then he went about making false promises and he says, “Each of you for a time will eat of his own vine and fig tree and drink from his own cistern.”  You say, well, okay, what’s the big problem with a promise like that?

Well, these were the very same things that were said of Israel and Judah in the time of King Solomon.  In 1 Kings chapter 4 it says there was peace all around the people, all around the city, on all sides of Israel.  Then it goes on and says each man drank from his own cistern, ate from his own vine.  In other words, during that secure time of Solomon, the king of Assyria says, “Hey, life’s going to be like that, just like that for you.  Yes, we’re coming to take you away, but all is going to be well.  You’re going to prosper.  Like will be good.”

In fact, he goes on.  He says, “The land where we’re going to take you is a land like yours, a land of grain and wine, bread and vineyards.  You know, this is what you’re used to in Judah, it’s going to be the same way in Assyria.  No problem.” 

One of the primary ways the evil one causes us to lose trust in God is by doing this very thing of promising false rewards and blessings.  That was the issue in the garden of Eden.  The fruit was pleasing to the eye, desirable for gaining wisdom.  It looked so good.  Just take of it.  How could this be wrong?  How could this be bad?

Or I think about Moses.  The Scriptures tell us that he chose to be mistreated with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of Egypt for a short season.  In other words, there was so much about Egypt that looked good – the lights, the glitter, the glamor, the wealth – and Moses said no, no.

But this is what the evil one does to us.  He comes with all kinds of false promises.  If you just give in to me, this is what you’ll get, this is what life will be like.  It will be wonderful.  How could it be so bad or wrong?

And you see, people of God, every single one of these five things that the Rabshakeh comes to God’s people with and says, “Hey, here’s a place of trust, here’s a place of trust, here’s a place of trust,” all of it was challenging their trust in God to deliver them.

It’s not only the word “trust” that is used in this chapter, over and over again, but it’s also the word “deliver.”  Eight times.  The question to Israel was this – Who is your deliverer?  Who do you trust to deliver you?  Friends, deliverance is profound because you see the challenge here wasn’t who’s going to make you happier?  Are you going to be happier in Judah or are you going to be happier in Assyria?  Who’s going to just make life a little bit more pleasant?  No, this is a matter of deliverance. 

The questions are these:  Who can give you life?  Who do you trust for life?  Who can set you free?  You could be like God.

You see, this is what really allures us and tugs at our trust.  We’re facing it all the time, every single day.  Where is your life found?  Who can give you freedom in life?  Those are much more profound than simply things of happiness or pleasure.

Derek Thomas says this about this chapter.  He says battles like these in the Old Testament whereby the Lord’s people are faced with colossal forces are meant to encourage us to persevere in faithfulness in our own trials.  The odds may be stacked against us from a human point of view, the enemy may appear to be the size of a Goliath.  Everything from a worldly point of view may dictate a policy of appeasement and compromise but faith will always inform us of a better way.

Is it the way of faith and trust or is it the way of compromise and mistrust?

See, that’s what this chapter is calling us to, to trust in God.  That question, on who do we rest for our trust and deliverance, where is that found?

I already mentioned that Isaiah 36 to 39 is a historical break in this prophecy of Isaiah.  These chapters all centered on the leadership of Hezekiah.  But it’s still important to read God’s Word in context, even these chapters 36 through 39.  If you have your Bibles open, just compare chapter 36 to chapter 35, what comes right before it.  What a huge difference there is.  Chapter 35, a promise that the ransomed will return.  God’s people will be delivered.  The wilderness will bloom and come to life.  God will come with vengeance to save His people.  The eyes of the blind will be opened, the deaf will hear, the mute will sing, a highway will stretch through the wilderness on which the ransomed of the Lord will return and come to Zion.  Jerusalem will be filled with singing, everlasting joy will be on their heads.  They will be filled with gladness and joy and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

What a chapter.  This is glorious stuff.  What a promise God is making there, a new day, a day of redemption, a day when God will set His people free.

And then Isaiah takes us right into chapter 36.  Jerusalem is about to be destroyed and fall.  Why does Isaiah do it this way?  The answer is that these chapters are set in contrast, and the contrast simply points to the inherent tension in the life of faith.  That on the one hand our faith rests on the promises of God, the promises of a new beginning, the promises of deliverance from sin and death and hell, when God will make all things new.  That’s what chapter 35 is about.  Friends, that’s what our faith hopes in.  That’s what our faith rests upon, that God is going to do these things.

Of course, all these things were inaugurated in the Lord Jesus Christ.  That’s where the fulfillment of chapter 35 comes.  It comes in Christ.  That’s why Isaiah, his very name, points to this.  The Lord saves.  Or Hezekiah’s name, the Lord strengthens.  It’s all in the Lord.  Trust in the Lord.  Trust in His promises.  They are promises to live by.

Then we start living every day as we do on this side of glory.  All things have not been made new.  In fact, we live in the old order of things.  Chaos and brokenness and sin and pain.  We struggle to remain true to God in a world that still rebels against Him.  Chapter 36. 

Just read this past week an article out of World Magazine entitled “The College Kids Aren’t All Right.”  It was an article about the severe mental health crisis that college students are facing all across our country, maybe some of our own students are facing that, too.  Very, very hard times.  Life in the old order of things.

All you have to do is think about what happened in this church this last week.  Three funerals.  We don’t want weeks like that very often.  But three families of our church gathering to lay to rest their loved ones.  A reminder that things are not the way they’re supposed to be in this old order of things.

The questions that chapter 35 and 36 simply lays out to us is in the midst of these trials and in the midst of this life, who do you trust in?  Where do you put your trust for deliverance?  Where do you seek life?  Who are you trusting to set you free?  Of course, there’s only one answer to that, and that’s the Lord.  Our great King.  It’s not Sennacherib who’s the great king.  It’s the Lord who’s the great King, and the one who is also our loving Savior who gave Himself up to deliver us from all our sins.

Not only does God’s Word remind us of that this morning, but this table reminds us of that.  Because this table is a means of grace, a table by which God says, “I want to give you My grace, I want you to be reminded again of where your trust belongs, in a Savior whose body was broken and a Savior whose blood was shed.”  O, how He loves you.  Trust Him.  Lean on Him.  Rest in Him.  Not all these other things.    

Let’s pray together and then we’ll come to this table.  Our Father in heaven, we do pray that You would now feed us as You’ve done through Your Word, reminding us of where our trust must be placed.  Feed us now through this table and through this supper.  Strengthen our faith, we pray.  We pray these things in Jesus’ name.  Amen.