Season 6, Podcast 91, Isaiah 36:1-22, “The Price of Pride.”

Season 6, Podcast 91, Isaiah 36:1-22, “The Price of Pride.”

One can read the Old Testament as history. These are real events in real time. For example,

Isaiah 36:1

Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the defenced cities of Judah, and took them.

The event above occurred in 701 BC. Hezekiah was king of Judah. Sennacherib was king of Assyria. Assyria is at the height of its power. Judah is at the lowest of its power. The northern tribes have already been conquered and scattered by the Assyrians. We know from the Bible record that the Assyrian army is at least 185,000 soldiers strong. There is no way Judah could approach that number, but no record is given of the size of their army. Judah sought alliances with Egypt, but Egypt was also under the thumb of the Assyrians. The only powers Judah could trust in was their own fortified city, their own small army, and the power of the Lord. The Assyrians mock the Jews, and they mock the Jewish God thinking that Jehovah has no more power than the idols of the other nations whom the Assyrians had conquered. This is as much the story of the Assyrians as it is the story of the Jews. 

We need to distinguish between the secular history of man and the spiritual history of the Holy Bible. Temporal history is generally chronological founded on recorded events. Biblical history is spiritual. Events are selected, not for their historical significance, but for their spiritual importance. The purpose of the Holy Bible is not to teach history. The purpose of the Holy Bible is to teach about the ways of God to man. That is its only purpose. And that is how we should read the story of the Assyrian/Judean conflict. 

From any logical perspective, the king of Assyria is right. It is foolish for Judah to stand up against Assyria. Assyria conquered the northern kingdoms. Assyria conquered Syria. Assyria conquered Egypt. What was the small army of Judah to them? You can see their contempt for Judah in the arrogance of their language. Judah is just another pawn to be crushed in their unstoppable empire, an afternoon’s work. 

To get a fuller picture of the lessons to be learned from the Assyrians, we must read Isaiah10, 20, 36, & 37. Only then will we learn the ways of God to man. It has several themes, among them are “trust in the Lord” and “pride comes before the fall.”

In Isaiah 10 we learn that Assyria like Babylon is symbolic of the destruction of the wicked prior to the Second Coming of Christ. Both Assyria and Babylon are lifted up in pride.  Both fall in a day 

Isaiah records

Isaiah 10:24-26

Therefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt. For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction. And the Lord of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb: and as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt

Before Assyria is destroyed, they build a vast empire. They even subdued Egypt. What would prevent them from trampling on Judah?

Isaiah 36:2

And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem unto king Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field.

We know that the army is at last 185,000 strong. Notice how the ambassador of Assyria mocks the Jews. Rabshakeh speaks to Eliakim who is Hezekiah’s chief administrator or Secretary of State.