2 Chronicles 32:16-23 - Homilies By T. Whitelaw

The invasion of Sennacherib: 2. The great deliverance.

I. SENNACHERIB AND HIS GENERALS . Their renewed efforts to take the city.

1 . The letter of Sennacherib to Hezekiah. ( 2 Chronicles 32:17 .) The tartan with his assistants having failed to either storm Jerusalem or intimidate its inhabitants, returned, or more probably despatched, Rabshakeh to his master for further instructions. Sennacherib was now at Libnah, a few miles nearer Jerusalem than Lachish, which in the interval had capitulated. Learning that the King of Egypt was on the way north to give him battle, he sent back Rabshakeh, accompanied, by special messengers, bearing a letter to Hezekiah to expedite the taking of the city. The letter when received was read by Hezekiah with indignation and alarm. It contained a repetition with emphasis of what had been uttered by Rabshakeh in the hearing of the king's envoys and of the inhabitants of the city. Of course, the mere reassertion of Rabshakeh's boastings, though in the form of a letter from Sennacherib himself. did not make them the less false, insolent, or blasphemous.

2 . The railings of Sennacherib ' s generals. As before by Rabshakeh, so a second time by the generals and perhaps also the messengers ( 2 Chronicles 32:18 ). To the people on the town wall in their own tongue were addressed words meant to terrify and persuade to capitulation—loud, boastful, arrogant, blasphemous reproaches against Jehovah. putting him on a level with idols, the works of men's hands, and declaring him to be as powerless as these ( 2 Chronicles 32:19 ), little dreaming they were so soon and so completely to be undeceived ( 2 Chronicles 32:21 ). So men often hug to their bosoms the false ideas they have formed of the Christian's God, without thinking that in a moment, by being admitted through death's portal into his presence, they may be proved to have been deceived.

II. HEZEKIAH AND HIS PROPHET . Their supplications to the God of heaven ( 2 Chronicles 32:20 ).

1 . The prayer of Hezekiah. Recorded in 2 Kings 19:14-19 and Isaiah 37:15-19 .

2 . The prayer of Isaiah. Though not recorded by the writer of 2 Kings that Isaiah prayed along with or in addition to Hezekiah, the fact mentioned that, on Rabshakeh's first approach, Hezekiah requested Isaiah to " lift up his prayer" on their behalf ( 2 Kings 19:4 ), renders it probable that on this occasion also he joined the king in crying unto Heaven.

III. JEHOVAH AND HIS ANGEL . Their interposition on behalf of Judah and Jerusalem (verses 21, 22).

1 . The destruction of Sennacherib ' s army.

5 . That the Assyrian monuments have preserved no record of Sennacherib's humiliation is not surprising. The Egyptian monuments of the nineteenth dynasty contain no memorial of Menephtah's overthrow in the Red Sea. Nations, like individuals, do not publish their misfortunes) least of all perpetuate the remembrance of their defeats.

2 . The assassination of Sennacherib himself. The usual end of kings in Assyria (Sargon, and probably Shalmaneser II . and Assurnirari), no less than in Israel and Judah. "Within the hollow crown that rounds the mortal temples of a king keeps death his court," etc. ('Richard II .,' act 3. sc. 2).

IV. THE PEOPLES AND THEIR PRESENTS . The effect produced by this deliverance on surrounding nations.

1 . Gifts unto Jehovah. Brought not by Judahites alone, but by the inhabitants of nations who had been delivered from the Assyrians' yoke, and were designed as a grateful recognition of Jehovah's hand in effecting their emancipation. No benefactor more deserving of man's thanks than God ( Psalms 139:17 , Psalms 139:18 ); no duty more frequently urged upon men than gratitude to the Supreme Giver ( Psalms 50:14 ; Psalms 100:4 ; Psalms 107:1 ; Ephesians 5:20 ; Philippians 4:6 ; Colossians 1:12 ; 1 Thessalonians 5:18 ); yet no bestower of good receives less thanks than he.

2 . Precious things to Hezekiah. As the Philistines and Arabians had brought presents to Jehoshaphat ( 2 Chronicles 17:10 ), so now the inhabitants of heathen countries, among whom may have been the Babylonians—though verse 31; 2 Kings 20:12 ; and Isaiah 39:1 refer not to this (see below)—sent gifts to Hezekiah in recognition of his greatness, as attested by the Divine deliverance wrought on his behalf.

Learn:

1 . The heinousness of scoffing at religion.

2 . The impotence of human rage against God ( Psalms 2:1-5 ).

3 . The superiority of the true God over all divinities worshipped by the heathen ( Psalms 115:3 , Psalms 115:4 ).

4 . The efficacy of prayer ( James 5:16 ).

5 . The advantage of social supplication ( Matthew 18:19 ).

6 . The command of God over the resources of nature ( Numbers 11:23 ).

7 . The ability of God to save his people out of any sort of peril ( 1 Corinthians 10:13 ).

8 . The sad fate of the ungodly ( Psalms 75:8 , Psalms 75:10 ).

9 . The indebtedness of the world to the Church's God.—W.