Chapter 37
2021 - I notice that vss 1,2 are told as narration, though messengers are sent to Isaiah. It does not say "they came to see me", it says "they were sent to Isaiah". Interesting, if you want to say that the Book of Isaiah has many authors. In vs 3 also, "They said to him...". Is Isaiah referring to himself in 3rd person?
2025 - It could be that Isaiah is here just copying in the account of this story from...2Chron or 1Chron...I am not sure where it is recorded but there is a lot of overlap in this story. Isaiah - or his scribe/secretary - may well have just copied this in.
Narration continues. Hezekiah is very frightened of the word from the Assyrian King, and sends to Isaiah. He tells Isaiah that the Assyrian King has downplayed his God, and perhaps Isaiah would like to do something about it?
Isaiah says God is going to intervene, that Sennacherib will leave, and that he will die in his own land.
Sennacherib hears a rumor that Cush is coming against him. He sends another message to Hezekiah telling him not to get cocky just because Sennacherib is leaving without conquering him. That Assyria is still the strongest. and that God cannot save Judah.
vss 14-20 are Hezekiah's prayer, direct to God, for deliverance from Sennacherib. He does not go through Isaiah this time. He takes the letter insulting God into the Temple and lays it out before God, then prays.
In vs 21, Isaiah sends a message to Hezekiah where God acknowledges that He has heard Hezekiah's prayer. The message is that God had planned all these events from of old, and that now it is time for Him to lead Sennacherib around as a horse - with a bit in his mouth. God says he will save Jerusalem, and that Sennacherib will not so much as shoot an arrow at it.
This verse in God's answer to Hezekiah's prayer through Isaiah:
30 "And this shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that. Then in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. [Isa 37:30 ESV] It seems that even after Sennacherib withdraws, things will still be in such a mess that normal agriculture cannot resume. But God will produce enough food to get them by just from "volunteer" growth. Then in the third year, they can plant again. But MSB says the two volunteer years were the ones when Sennacherib's armies ravaged their land, and the third is the season immediately after he went home. So not only did the invaders leave suddenly - in just one night - but all that was "normal" also returned immediately. Prayer brought this about. Hezekiah prayed one prayer for God to avenge himself on the arrogant of Assyria, and everything changed in a heartbeat. If all these bad things happening to Israel can be taken as lessons for us in how to discern His work in our own day, then the power of prayer to return to a normal situation can also be taken as a lesson for us. Prayer is what will work here.
Good post for FB after all those harsh ones!
God's angel kills 185,000 Assyrian soldiers overnight, quietly, so that it is in the morning before it is even noticed. Sennacherib lives, and departs, and goes and lives in Nineveh. He is worshiping his false gods there, and two of his sons come in and kill him. While he is worshiping. And Esarhaddon, another of his sons, becomes King in his place. Surely history would recount such a "defeat" of Sennacherib. A good research project to find secular corroboration of this event.