Chapter 32
Starts with "1 After these things and these acts of faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them for himself. [2Ch 32:1 ESV]."
Sometimes a great show of faith is met with an immediate test of that faith - a great faith means difficult tests - to see if the faith is real. If it goes all the way down.
2025 - Or perhaps the test is to show us what our faith can now withstand.
So when Hezekiah knows Sennacherib is coming, he gets busy. He's put it in God's hands, but like the priest on Poseidon Adventure, he also does what he can to defend against the invader. He stops up all the springs and creeks so the besieging army has no water. He repaired and built up all the walls that had broken down, and even builds a second wall. He strengthened the Millo (they don't really know what this is. It is also referred to as the house of Millo. Could have been military, might have something to do with steps. Surely it had something to do with defense though). The walls had probably not been kept in good shape because doing so may have been an affront to Sennacherib. After all, Hezekiah had stopped paying the tribute and was essentially in rebellion against Assyria. Weapons and shields in abundance were also made. Last, Hezekiah gathers the people and gives them a confidence building pep talk:
7 "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, for there are more with us than with him. 8 With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God, to help us and to fight our battles." And the people took confidence from the words of Hezekiah king of Judah. [2Ch 32:7-8 ESV]
Possible FB post.
I think we've seen this "more with us" idea twice before. Once with Joshua outside Jericho (or somewhere like that), and once with Elisha when the town he was in was surrounded. Would be a good study to find those other two places...
2026 - That phrase "Be strong and courageous" occurs 10 times in the ESV. This time in 2 Chronicles is the 10th. By quoting it, I believe Hezekiah's intent was to connect the current dire, almost hopeless sitiuation in Jerusalem with the previous times the phrase was invoked. God's visible, miraculous power over enemies followed close on the phrase. It is used four times in Joshua, prequel to the invasion of Canaan, with Joshua as their military leader. Using this phrase painted a strong picture of previous victories that could only be explained by the supernatural intervention of God. He is turning their thoughts away from head counts and corp counts and ammo counts, and turning their eyes on the God who is not limited by such physical accounting.
Sennacherib sends messengers to Jerusalem while he himself is engaged in taking Lachish, pictured above. This looks like a pretty formidable place, especially if you picture walls around the top. It also had a moat around it.
This photo of Lachish shows the only siege ramp excavated from the ancient near east. Over 1000 iron arrowheads were recovered from this ramp. Reliefs recovered from the time of Sennacherib show five battering rams ascending this ramp. Certainly this is a secular tie of the Bible to very real events.
Sennacherib's message attempts to divide the people from their king. He asks the people if it was Hezekiah who took all their gods from the high places and required them to serve only one God.
2021 - Actually, the way this reads, Sennacherib completely misunderstood the removal of the high places. He believed these were places that the people worshiped God, and had no idea that it was idols that were worshiped in such places. This is Sennacherib's greatest mistake. He equates the worship of the one true God of Israel with dozens of miscellaneous idols made my men. Ignorance of God is his biggest mistake.
He is very disrespectful, saying that no nations god or gods have ever been able to stand against Assyria or its armies. He makes himself out to be more powerful than gods. The emissaries that were sent shouted these things to the people of Jerusalem, to strike fear into to them, to throw cold water on their confidence, to undermine the leadership of Hezekiah. They talked about gods, but it was a man they were trying to destroy. This verse:
19 And they spoke of the God of Jerusalem as they spoke of the gods of the peoples of the earth, which are the work of men's hands. [2Ch 32:19 ESV]
This was a huge mistake, equating God with god made by men's hands. This is very offensive to God. God could have just turned Sennacherib and his army away with the rumor of an army coming against him from Cush. But look how much more God did...
Then this story finishes up in just two verses - after all the tension that's been built up. Is that coincidence? The siege of Sennacherib turns out to be a non-event. Hezekiah and Isaiah pray, and God sends an angel to "cut off" the mighty warriors, commanders, and officers in Sennacherib's army, so he goes home in shame. In 2Kgs we know 185,000 or so died. We know Sennacherib had heard and believed a rumor that another army was coming against him. But we know that he left Jerusalem, and Judah, and went all the way home, where some of his own sons killed him.
From that time on, per vs 23, Hezekiah was exalted by all the nations around him. Gifts were brought to him and to his God. All this adoration would have been a temptation, and it seems Hezekiah yielded to it, and let his pride run.
Hezekiah gets very sick, prays, and recovers, as told in 2Kings. This says that:
25 But Hezekiah did not make return according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was proud. Therefore wrath came upon him and Judah and Jerusalem. [2Ch 32:25 ESV]
God gave him 15 more years and he did nothing worthwhile with it...except bring God's wrath on he and his people. Then the next verse:
26 But Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the LORD did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah. [2Ch 32:26 ESV]
Don't think we are told this part in 2K. Hezekiah seemed almost flippant about the chastisement not coming until his son was in power, but here we see that he did repent, and humble himself.
31 And so in the matter of the envoys of the princes of Babylon, who had been sent to him to inquire about the sign that had been done in the land, God left him to himself, in order to test him and to know all that was in his heart. [2Ch 32:31 ESV]
I wonder if the sign they came to inquire about was the sun going backwards 10 steps? And we're told straight up that this was a test of what Hezekiah was really made of. The test was so Hezekiah would see the truth himself about what kind of person he was - a prideful, boastful man - because certainly God already knew, Could make a case that's what all testing from God is about. So we will know our own hearts. Good post for FB. Hezekiah had been sent many extravagant gifts over the turning away of Sennacherib that all the world had heard about. He was very famous, and was made very rich with these gifts. So when the emissaries from Babylon came, Hezekiah showed off. He wanted them to see what a very great King he was and how wealthy. Perhaps some of his motivation was to convince Babylon not to try what Assyria had tried, but mostly, he was just showing off. Perhaps the reference to the sign that the emissaries came about was their only real interest. Had they not been shown all the treasure, they may never have guessed Jerusalem would be such a rich prize.
2024 - This verse:
32 Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and his good deeds, behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. [2Ch 32:32 ESV]. Does this hint that Isaiah wrote 1 and 2 Chronicles? Or 2 Kings, in addition to the book of Isaiah? I don't remember a lot about Hezekiah in the actual book of Isaiah...But I'd be wrong. Beginning in Isaiah 36 we get a very detailed account of this condensed version of the invasion of Sennacherib.