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164
Royalty and Ruin
king of Assyria, I have heard.’ This is the word which the Lord has
spoken concerning him: ...
“Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? Against whom
have you raised your voice, and lifted up your eyes on high? Against
the Holy One of Israel. By your messengers you have reproached
the Lord.” “I know your dwelling place, your going out and your
coming in, and your rage against Me. Because your rage against Me
and your tumult have come up to My ears, therefore I will put My
hook in your nose, and My bridle in your lips, and I will turn you
back by the way which you came.”
2 Kings 19:20-23, 27, 28
.
The army of occupation had laid Judah waste, but God had
promised to provide miraculously for the people. To Hezekiah came
the message about the king of Assyria: “‘He shall not come into
this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield,
nor build a siege mound against it. By the way that he came, by the
same shall he return; and he shall not come into this city,’ says the
Lord. ‘For I will defend this city, to save it for My own sake and for
My servant David’s sake.’”
Verses 32-34
.
Deliverance Comes
That very night deliverance came. “The angel of the Lord went
out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-
five thousand.”
Verse 35
. “Every mighty man of valor, leader, and
captain in the camp of the king of Assyria” was killed.
2 Chronicles
32:21
.
News of this terrible judgment on the army that had gone to take
Jerusalem soon reached Sennacherib, who was still guarding the
approach to Judea from Egypt. Stricken with fear, the Assyrian king
left quickly and “returned shamefaced to his own land.”
Verse 21
.
But he did not have long to reign. In harmony with the prophecy
concerning his sudden end, he was assassinated by those of his own
home. “Then Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.”
Isaiah 37:38
.
The God of the Hebrews had prevailed. His honor was vindicated
in the eyes of the surrounding nations. In Jerusalem the people were
filled with holy joy. Their pleas for deliverance had mingled with
confession of sin and with many tears. They had trusted wholly in