2 Chronicles 32:9-16 - Homilies By T. Whitelaw

The invasion of Sennacherib: 1. A summons to surrender.

I. SENNACHERIB 'S ENCAMPMENT AT LACHISH . Fifteen or eighteen hours west-south-west of Jerusalem, in the low country of Judah, on the confines of Philistia, fourteen miles north-east of Gaza, Lachish (see on 2 Chronicles 11:9 ; 2 Chronicles 25:27 )—on the monuments Lakis— according to a slab in the British Museum, was a walled town with towers and battlements, whose power of resistance was so great as to demand a protracted siege.

1 . Sennacherib ' s route thither. From the north—not by the military road through Nazareth, Jezreel, Sichem, Bethel, At, Michmash, Geba, Rama, Gibeah, Anathoth, Nob ( Isaiah 10:28-32 ), Sargon's route, but by Sidon, Akko, Joppa, Bene-berak, Beth-dagon, Ekron, and Ashdod.

2 . Sennacherib ' s employment there.

II. SENNACHERIB 'S COMMISSION TO HIS GENERALS . These generals were three in number.

1 . Their titles.

2 . Their commission. To advance, with a detachment of the army, against Jerusalem, with the view of intimidating it into surrender; failing in this, to prosecute against it a siege. Sennacherib was most likely moved to this by the report of the approach of the kings of Egypt and Ethiopia; before encountering these, it was clearly to his advantage to reduce both Ekron and Jerusalem.

III. SENNACHERIB 'S ADDRESS TO THE KING AND INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM . Not delivered in person, but through "his servants" ( Joshua 15:9 ), and in particular Rabshakeh ( 2 Kings 18:19 ; Isaiah 36:2-4 ). Nor spoken directly to Hezekiah and his people, but to Eliakim, Hilkiah's son, who was over the household, i.e. the king's high steward ( Isaiah 22:20 ), to Shebna the scribe, or king's secretary, who had lately been deposed from the office of high steward ( Isaiah 22:15-19 ) because of favouring the interest of Assyria, and to Joah, Asaph's son, the recorder, or king's annalist. Standing by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field, where Isaiah and his son Shear-jashub had met with Ahaz when the Syro-Israelitish invasion was threatened ( Isaiah 7:3 ), and where the Assyrian army was now encamped, over against the Gennath Gate, in front of which the envoys of Hezekiah stood, while the inhabitants crowded round it and even sat upon the city wall, observing the scene ( Isaiah 22:1-13 ),—Rabshakeh, in the name of his master, called upon the king and his subjects to surrender, using the Hebrew tongue, that the inhabitants might understand, and becoming alarmed, induce their rulers to submit. The points in Rabshakeh's harangue, considerably shortened by the Chronicler, were two.

1 . That the hope of deliverance held out by Hezekiah was a delusion. If their confidence was based upon expected assistance from Egypt, they would soon know that Pharaoh was "a bruised reed, upon which, if a man leant, it would go into his hand and pierce it" ( 2 Kings 18:21 ); if it was Jehovah to whom Hezekiah was persuading them to turn their gaze (verse 11; cf. 2 Kings 18:22 ; Isaiah 36:7 ), that source of succour would prove as little satisfactory.

2 . That their resistance would entail upon them all the horrors of a siege. They would certainly perish by famine and by thirst (verse 11), if not by the sword, since their escape was impossible. Neither Sennacherib nor his generals guessed the resources of the God of Judah; had they done so, their attitude would have been less defiant and their language less confident. Events were to teach them that what was impossible for man was both possible and easy for God.

Learn:

1 . The presumption of some wicked men.

2 . The impotence of all heathen gods.

3 . The supremacy of the one living and true God.

4 . The security of those whom Jehovah defends.—W.