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Context No. 940 of 4322 · 2 Kings

Context · Reflection

2 Kings 19:1-7: in context

1When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the LORD’s house. 2He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. 3They said to him, “Hezekiah says, ‘Today is a day of trouble, of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them. 4It may be the LORD your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’” 5So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master this: ‘The LORD says, “Don’t be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he will hear news, and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”’”

The Assyrian field commander Rabshakeh has stood outside Jerusalem's walls and hurled threats and blasphemies, mocking Judah's God as no better than the gods of the nations Assyria has already crushed. King Hezekiah, hearing it, tears his clothes, puts on sackcloth, and goes into the LORD's house. He sends his officials, also in sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah with a message: today is a day of distress, we are like a mother in labor with no strength to deliver; pray for the remnant that is left. Isaiah sends back the LORD's answer: do not be afraid of the words you heard, for I will send the Assyrian king home to fall by the sword in his own land.

What Hezekiah does with a terrifying threat is the model. He does not answer Rabshakeh's taunts with taunts of his own, and he does not despair; he takes the blasphemy straight into the temple and lays it before God. Notice the phrasing of his plea, this is a day when the children have come to the point of birth and there is no strength to deliver, a picture of being at the very edge of a crisis with nothing left in yourself to finish it. That is exactly where he turns to God, not while he still has resources but when he has run out. And Isaiah's first word back is do not be afraid, followed by the reason: the Assyrian has not really blasphemed Hezekiah but the living God, and God will handle what was said against him. Hezekiah understood that the mockery was ultimately aimed higher than himself, and he was content to let God defend his own name.

When threats and mockery come, do I trade insult for insult, or do I take the words straight into God's presence and let him defend his own name?

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