Basic HTML Version
Angel Destroys the Assyrian Army
161
Faith Inspires Faith
Nothing more quickly inspires faith than the exercise of faith.
Confident that the prophecy against the Assyrians would be fulfilled,
the king put his trust fully on God. “And the people were strength-
[128]
ened by the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.”
2 Chronicles 32:8
.
What did it matter if the armies of Assyria, fresh from conquering
the greatest nations, and triumphant over Samaria, would now turn
against Judah? What did it matter if they would boast, “As I have
done to Samaria and her idols, shall I not do also to Jerusalem and
her idols?”
Isaiah 10:11
. Judah had nothing to fear, for their trust
was in Jehovah.
The long-expected crisis finally came. The forces of Assyria
appeared in Judea. Confident of victory, the leaders divided their
forces. One army was to meet the Egyptian army to the south, while
the other was to surround Jerusalem.
Judah’s only hope now was in God. All possible help from Egypt
had been cut off, and no other nations were near to lend a friendly
hand.
The Assyrian officers haughtily demanded the surrender of the
city. They accompanied this demand with blasphemous insults
against the God of the Hebrews. Because of the weakness and
apostasy of Israel and Judah, the name of God was no longer feared
among the nations, but had become a subject for continual scorn.
See
Isaiah 52:5
.
“Say now to Hezekiah,” said the Rabshakeh, one of Sen-
nacherib’s chief officers, “Thus says the great king, the king of
Assyria: ‘What confidence is this in which you trust? You speak of
having plans and power for the war; but they are mere words. And
in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me?’”
2 Kings 18:19,
20
.
The officers were outside the city but within the hearing of the
sentries on the wall. As the Assyrian king’s representatives loudly
urged their proposals on the chief men of Judah, these men requested
them to speak in the Syrian rather than the Jewish language, in
order that those on the wall might not follow the proceedings of
the conference. The Rabshakeh, rejecting this suggestion, lifted his
voice still higher in the Jewish language: