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Context No. 1810 of 4322 · Isaiah

Context · Reflection

Isaiah 37:33-38: in context

33“Therefore the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither will he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it. 34He will return the way that he came, and he won’t come to this city,’ says the LORD. 35‘For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.’” 36Then the LORD’s angel went out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 37So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, went away, returned to Nineveh, and stayed there. 38As he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place.

God gives his verdict on the Assyrian threat to Jerusalem: the king of Assyria will not enter this city, nor shoot an arrow there; he will return the way he came. I will defend this city to save it, God says, for my own sake and for my servant David's sake. That night the angel of the LORD strikes down a vast host in the Assyrian camp; and Sennacherib withdraws, returns to Nineveh, and, while worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, is struck down by his own sons.

Two things stand out in this deliverance. The first is that God saved the city for his own sake. I will defend this city to save it, he says, for my own sake and for my servant David's sake. Jerusalem's rescue did not finally rest on the strength or worthiness of its defenders, but on God's commitment to his own name and his own promise. God acts to save for the sake of his own faithfulness, and that is a surer ground than any strength of ours. The second is the irony of Sennacherib's end. The proud king who had mocked the God of Israel and trusted in his own power and his own gods returns home and is cut down, of all places, in the temple of his god, while he is worshiping it. The god he trusted could not even protect its own worshiper in its own house. The idol Sennacherib served proved utterly unable to save him; he was killed at its very feet. There is a sharp lesson in this contrast. God defended his people and saved them for his own sake, faithful to his name; and the false god the enemy trusted could not save even its devotee from his own sons' swords. What we trust matters enormously. Sennacherib trusted in his power and his idol, and both failed him at the end; Jerusalem, for all its weakness, was safe because it belonged to a God who defends his people for his own sake. The idols we may be tempted to trust, our own strength, our wealth, the powers of the age, are as helpless to finally save us as Nisroch was to save Sennacherib in his own temple. But the God who saves for his own sake, faithful to his name and promise, is a refuge that does not fail. Better to be weak and belong to the God who defends his own, than strong and trusting in an idol that cannot save even its worshiper.

What am I trusting to keep me safe, my own strength, my wealth, the powers of the age, and are they as helpless to save me as Sennacherib's god was to save him in its own temple, or can I belong instead to the God who defends his people for his own sake, faithful to his name, a refuge that does not fail?

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