2 Kings 19:1

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ASSYRIAN ARMY BEFORE JERUSALEM

The gargantuan dimensions of the prodigious miracle described in this chapter compel its ranking among the most astounding wonders ever performed by Almighty God upon behalf of his Chosen People. No one can deny that SOMETHING happened. As should have been expected, the Assyrians never mentioned it in their inscriptions and monuments, but Herodotus records, "An Egyptian tradition that, `The mice ate up the quivers' of Sennacherib's army."[1] "He also reported that this resulted in causing their flight, and that many died."[2] Thus, pagan history bears witness that something dreadful indeed overcame the Assyrian army.

This wonder ranks with the Crossing of the Red Sea and with the victory over Sisera. As in those two wonders, this one also might have resulted from God's employment of natural forces in its accomplishment. The bubonic plague, suggested by the mice mentioned by Herodotus, or a mighty thunderstorm with a great downpour of killing hail, such as that in one of plagues of Egypt, come to mind as possibilities. Of course, God did not reveal to us HOW the death angel did it.

Those who do not believe in the supernatural confront a genuine nemesis in this chapter. There is no other possible explanation of why Sennacherib failed to capture Jerusalem. Without any doubt whatever, the supernatural deliverance of the city must be accepted as fact. The subsequent unbounded confidence of the Jewish people themselves that Jerusalem would never fall was directly derived from that deliverance.

HEZEKIAH RECEIVED THE REPORT OF THE RABSHAKEH'S DEMAND

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

In his earlier years, Hezekiah had favored an alliance with Egypt, in spite of Isaiah's continual warnings that God alone was the source of Judah's protection, but in the extremity of this situation, Hezekiah turned to Isaiah. His reference to Jehovah as "thy God" was not a denial of Hezekiah's faith, but a confession that he had not been as faithful as had Isaiah.

Although this is the first mention of Isaiah in Kings, we learn from Isaiah himself that he had prophesied even in the days of Hezekiah's father Ahaz (Isaiah 7:10-17), but that ruler had despised Isaiah's warnings.

"He rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth" (2 Kings 19:1). "He well knew how largely he himself had been responsible for the terrible situation."[3]

"The children are come to birth, and there is not strength to bring forth" (2 Kings 19:3). "This was a common proverb that meant a dangerous crisis was approaching, and that the nation has no strength to carry it through the peril."[4]

"Lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left" (2 Kings 19:4). There are two things that Hezekiah might have meant here: (1) Sennacherib had already captured and destroyed 46 cities of Judah; and in one sense, Jerusalem itself was a remnant (though hardly a righteous remnant). (2) Isaiah had long prophesied the destruction of Judah with the proviso that afterward "a remnant" would return. As an authentication of that prophecy, Isaiah even named one of his sons Shear-Jashub, with the meaning, "a remnant shall return."[5] That event had taken place more than thirty years earlier in the times of Ahaz. Hezekiah might have had that fact in mind also.

Isaiah did not need to be invited to pray for Jerusalem; he had already been doing so, and was ready with encouragement.