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SM1158: On-Line

Teaching Notes

WHAT TO DO...

ISAIAH 36 & 37

In Isaiah chapters 36 & 37 we see an historical account of the Assyrians threatening to invade the Southern Kingdom of Judah. And if you remember, back in 722 BC the Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel, bringing them into captivity, and it seemed like no one or nothing was going to be able to stop the Assyrians in their capture and destruction of cities and nations. They did as they pleased, or so it seemed, and they were truly a world power at this time, and a very brutal people.

Before we get into our text this morning, I want to give you some background information that will help set the stage for what we are going to be looking at. Hezekiah is the king of the Southern Kingdom of Judah, reigning from 715 BC to 686 BC. And he was a good king who loved the Lord and did what was right. In II Kings 18:5 we are told that "He trusted in the LORD God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him." In other words, ever since the kingdom was divided, which occurred during the reign of Solomon's son, Rehoboam, and then all the way through the rest of the kings of Judah, Hezekiah stands alone in his faithfulness and commitment to the Lord.

Now don't become discouraged in your walk after hearing that. You see, the best of men are men at best! And Hezekiah was no different. The first time Sennacherib king of Assyria came against Jerusalem, he had just finished taking captive 46 fortified cities of Judah. Obviously, as you sat within the walls of Jerusalem, things looked very bad. Now what does Hezekiah do ina situation like this? He apologizes to the Assyrian king for any wrong he might have done to him and asks him to turn away from Jerusalem, not to attack this holy city.

Obviously those words alone were empty and were not going to convince Sennacherib to stop his attack. So Hezekiah gives him a little incentive. He sends him silver and gold from the house of the Lord, from the kings house, removed the gold from the doors and the pillars of the temple, with the high hopes the Assyrians would be satisfied and not attack them, they would turn away.

But that failed and the Assyrians kept moving southward, towards Jerusalem. You see, it doesn't matter how much you give to the flesh, it will never be satisfied, it will always want more! So what does this man of God do next? He looks to Egypt and their military might, making an alliance with them to help defeat the Assyrians. Now, instead of looking to the flesh for help, he is going to the world. And God explains to His people the foolishness of looking to the world for help. He said in Isaiah 30:1-5, "'Woe to the rebellious children,' says the LORD, 'Who take counsel, but not of Me, And who devise plans, but not of My Spirit, That they may add sin to sin; Who walk to go down to Egypt, And have not asked My advice, To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, And to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore the strength of Pharaoh Shall be your shame, And trust in the shadow of Egypt Shall be your humiliation. For his princes were at Zoan, And his ambassadors came to Hanes. They were all ashamed of a people who could not benefit them, Or be help or benefit, But a shame and also a reproach.'"

Egypt, the world, could not help them because, after the secret deal was made in Zoan and Hanes, and they received the money to seal the deal, the Egyptians were defeated by the Assyrians before they could even come to the aid of Judah. And so the flesh was not satisfied, it wanted more. The world could not help, it was impotent in this situation. And the attack still continues, not from the flesh or from the world, but by Satan as he is symbolized by the Assyrian chief of staff, the Rabshakeh. Now listen how this man attacks and you will see that Satan and his demonic forces do just the same.

This is all taking place in 701 BC, and now half the Assyrian army has surrounded Jerusalem, while their king and the other half of the army is in Lachish, about 20 miles southwest of Jerusalem. And now the Rabshakeh, as a representative of the king of Assyria, is going to speak to the representatives of the king of Judah, the soldiers and the rest of the people who had gathered on the walls of Jerusalem, as the Assyrians were down below, outside the walls of the city, shouting up to them.

And the Rabshakeh is trying to discourage the people by telling them no nation, no city, no god has been able to stop them so far, and no one will stop them. And he reminds them of what happened to Egypt, the one who was suppose to help them, and yet they had already been defeated by the Assyrians. Now if that didn't discourage them to surrender, he has another tactic to use in his arsenal of psychological warfare!

Now he is telling them that they are foolish for trusting in their God to save them, for Hezekiah has destroyed some of the worship places of their God. Obviously he didn't know what he was speaking of, for Hezekiah destroyed the pagan altars and the false worship places so the people could return to the temple to worship the true and living God. But that did not stop the Rabshakeh. He even went as far to say "Have I now come up without the LORD against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, 'Go up against this land, and destroy it.'" Isaiah 36:10. In other words, "God is not on your side any more. In fact, He told us to come and destroy you!" That was a lie of course, but that doesn't matter to Satan, for even with lies he can defeat us and that is how he defeats us many times or discourages us.

And lastly, he tries to get the people to turn on their king. He offers them a better life if they would just surrender without a fight. Again, that was a lie, life would not be better, you would be in captivity. You see, they would divide nations up and place them with other captives, re-locating you to another land, so you could no longer rebel against them. You would have to conserve you energy just to survive. But again, that is how the enemy works. He wants us to give up, give in, with the promise that things will be better, easier, if we do. They never are!

The conclusion the Rabshakeh makes is this, it is found Isaiah chapter 36, beginning in verse 18. W read, "'Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, "The LORD will deliver us." Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 'Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? 'Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?'" Isaiah 36:18-20.

Now Hezekiah, this great man of God tried to trust in the flesh, and failed. He tried to trust in the world and was defeated. And now Satan is trying to get him to surrender, to give up, not to fight. Hezekiah really has his back up against the wall at this point. There really is no way out of this situation. There are not a lot of options for him here. And sometimes God allows us to come to the end of ourselves so that we will look to Him, having no one or nothings else to trust or turn to.

That is God's desire for us. Remember God's loving words to us back in Isaiah 30:15, 18. He said "For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: 'In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.'...Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you; And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; Blessed are all those who wait for Him."

God will wait until we have come to the end of ourselves and look to Him, for He desires to be gracious to us, to give us rest, salvation, mercy and-so-on. And what we are going to see in the verses we are going to be looking at this morning, 3 things that we are to do when we find ourselves surrounded by the enemy, and then the blessings that come from that.

1. DON'T DIALOG WITH THE DEVIL - ISAIAH 36:21

"But they held their peace and answered him not a word; for the king's commandment was, 'Do not answer him.'"

This is a very important principle for us to follow, as Hezekiah told the people to just keep silent, not to speak to the Rabshakeh, and they listened. Now why would Hezekiah tell them this? Because this man, like the devil, will use psychological warfare to put us down, confuse us, causing us to give up. You see, he doesn't fight fair, but will use lies mixed with truth to get us to surrender, give in. It is foolish to dialog with the Devil, because it will get you no where, only bring you down.

Now for some reason the church has picked-up on this idea of dialoging with the enemy, and they are yelling at Satan, threatening him, that they are going to punch his lights out, and how foolish that really is. What we need to do is draw near to God. Now I know that does not sound too exciting as having a one-on-one with Satan, but it is where the victory is found.

Listen carefully to what James says in James 4:7-8a. We read "Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you..." How do you resist the Devil? By drawing near to God! How do you draw near to God? By being in His Word! If you do, Satan will flee because he can't stand being around a person who is worshipping the Lord, drawing near to God, because he desires all the attention for himself.

But how often we do listen to his words of condemnation, which causes despair in our lives. He tells us "You're not good enough for God to love you! Look at what you just did, and you still believe God loves you or can use you! He is not for you but against you! How can you do that and call yourself a Christian?"

And as he does that to us, as we dialog with him, we tend to draw away from God because we feel like failures and God can't and won't love us. That causes us to stay out of His Word, we stop praying and we break fellowship with our brothers and sisters in the Lord, not even coming to church. Sound familiar? I'm sure we all have experienced that from time to time. Understand this, that condemnation is from Satan, and it draws you away from God. Conviction is from the Holy Spirit and it draws you to God!

Now what can we do to counter his attack? Don't dialog with him but get in God's Word. When he puts those doubts in your mind, go to the Scriptures. Romans 8:1 says "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." No longer can he condemn me, because Christ has cleansed me and set me free. Also in Romans 5:8 we read "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

You see, we are drawing close to God by reading His Word and His truth sets us free from the bondage that the enemy wants to place us in. And as we draw close to God, the result is the devil will flee!

Now some would argue that that kind of attitude shows a lack of faith on our part. That Jesus defeated Satan and we can do the same. We can fight against him, call on him so we can show him who is boss, and-so-on. Foolishness! Jesus, when He was confronted by Satan in the wilderness came against the lies of Satan that were mixed with truth, by saying "It is written..." Jesus used Scripture to ward off the lies of the devil, and the result, "Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him." Matthew 4:11.

You see, the Word of God caused the devil to flee. But also understand, he will not give up. We are told in Luke 4:13, regarding this same situation, "Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time." Satan will wait until there is an opportune time, and come at you again. Our action must always be to draw near to God through His Word, through fellowship, to keep silent towards Satan and he will flee.

2. BRING YOUR REQUESTS BEFORE THE LORD - ISAIAH 37:1, 14-20

"And so it was, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD...And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD. Then Hezekiah prayed to the LORD, saying: 'O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. Truly, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were not gods, but the work of men's hands; wood and stone. Therefore they have destroyed them. Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the LORD, You alone.'"

An interesting point. We are not to retaliate but bring our concerns, our petitions before the Lord. Get on your knees and pray. You see, as Hezekiah began to pray, he developed a proper perspective of the situation. He recognized that no nation could stand up to the Assyrians, and many have already fallen. He also recognized that their gods were not like our God, nor was their rock like our Rock!

Hezekiah rightly recognized, as he began to pray, that the God they served created the heavens and the earth. He also heard the blasphemous speech against Him by the Assyrians. And so Hezekiah asks God to intervene, not just to save them, but to show the nations of the world that He alone is God and He will not have His glory dragged through the mud by these people!

No matter what you are going through, being attacked by Satan, or by brothers and sisters in the Lord, the thing you need to do is pray! Prayer gives you a proper perspective of the situation and comforts your heart, as you see that God is still in control!

Jesus said in Luke 11:9-10, "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." In the Greek it is a little bit more emphatic. Jesus is saying that we are to ask and keep on asking. We are to seek and keep on seeking. We are to knock and keep on knocking. He is not saying that in doing this we are going to annoy God so much that He gives us what we want. But we need to be persistent in our prayers, not to give up, not to grow weary or discouraged, but to keep on keeping on!

You see, God does answer prayer, but not always the way we think He is going to. Sometimes God says "No" to our requests, and that is the answer to our prayer because it is what is best for our life. The key is being persistent so that God can speak to our hearts and work in us and through us in a given situation. God wants to give you what you need, He wants to show you what you are looking for, He wants to open doors of opportunity for you, but He is waiting for you to look to Him so He may bless you.

I like the way one writer put it. He said:

God answers prayers:

Sometimes, when hearts are weak,

He gives the very gifts believers seek;

But often faith must learn a deeper rest,

And trust God's silence when He does not speak;

For He whose name is love will send the best,

Stars may burn out, nor mountain walls endure,

But God is true; His promises are sure,

He is our strength.

- M.G.P

For Hezekiah, he no longer was going to look to the flesh to defeat the enemy. He no longer was going to look to the world for victory. But he was now going to turn to the only one that could truly help, and that was the Lord. And so he brought his requests before the Lord and spread them out before Him in prayer! As Peter said, "casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." I Peter 5:7.

3. START UP THE PRAYER CHAIN - ISAIAH 37:2-5

"Then he 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. And they said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah: 'This day is a day of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy; for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth. It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach 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.'" So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah."

To often as Christians we try to play the Lone Ranger and we have tossed aside our faithful companion Tonto, thinking we can tackle the world alone. How wrong that is. Maybe we are embarrassed at our failures and don't want anyone to know what we are going through. We are trying to look like spiritual giants when, in reality we are like every one else, sinners saved by grace!

Now listen to what I have to say. Don't misunderstand me. I would not bring my prayer requests, my needs before anyone and everyone. There are sensitive things that some people are just not mature enough to handle. That is not a put down, but a reality! Get to know your brothers and sisters in the Lord, and as difficult times come, you will know who you can go to with those personal prayer requests, so that they may pray for you.

Also, here at Calvary we have prayer request slips in our bulletin that you can fill out and we will pray over them throughout the week. I encourage you to fill those out so we can pray for you. But there are those times when emergencies come up, and then you need to call the prayer chain. When I receive a call, I then call the other people who are on the prayer chain, and we will lift up that need in prayer.

Just recently I received a call from someone in the church that their relative was in a serious car accident and this young girl was in a comma, on life support equipment. The prayer chain was activated and God does answer prayers. She is off of life support and breathing on her own. She continues to recover from this accident, but continues to need your prayer for a full recovery. But God does answer our prayers!

Remember the story when Herod put to death James the brother of John, and locked Peter in prison. It says in Acts 12:5, "Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church." Peter is in trouble and the church is praying for him. These great men and women of faith we are going to see did not have too much faith in regards to their prayers being answered, but I am getting ahead of myself here.

Peter was in prison, bound in chains between 2 soldiers, being watched by 4 squads of soldiers, and as all are watching an angel of God comes by and frees him. He walks right out of prison and no one does anything. And Peter can't believe it, he thinks he is dreaming at first, but then soon realizes "I'm free!"

Then, in Acts 12:12-16 we read of this account, "So, when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying. And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer. When she recognized Peter's voice, because of her gladness she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate. But they said to her, 'You are beside yourself!' Yet she kept insisting that it was so. So they said, 'It is his angel.' Now Peter continued knocking; and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished."

Peter, now free, goes to the house of Mary, where they have gathered for this prayer meeting for Peter, praying for God to release him from the prison that he was in. And Peter is knocking on the door to get into this prayer meeting they were having for him, and Rhoda comes to the door, and she is so excited to see Peter, she forgets to let him in.

She goes and tells the others that Peter is outside the door and they think she is nuts. But she persists and they finally go to the door and there is Peter! And notice what it says in verse 16, "they were astonished." Interesting, they were praying for his release but it doesn't seem like they even believed their prayers were going to be answered by God, and yet God still answered their prayers, and how that must have strengthened their faith.

We see here in Isaiah that Hezekiah sends word to Isaiah to begin to pray, the enemy has surrounded the city, things look bad! The prayer chain has started. And before God even brings about the victory, as they are praying, God gives them words of comfort, words that would cause them to trust in Him. He said in Isaiah 37:33-35, "Therefore thus says the LORD concerning 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.'" The power of prayer!

4. THE BLESSINGS OF GOD - ISAIAH 37:36-38

"Then the angel of the LORD went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses; all dead. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh. Now it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place."

Hezekiah did not dialogue with the enemy, fight against the enemy, but stood still before the Lord in prayer, bringing his petition before the Lord, asking others to lift up in prayer this situation they were in and the result, God answered their prayer and blessed them mightily.

All they could do is stand still and see the salvation that the Lord would bring, and He did! As the people of Judah woke up and looked out over the walls, there, spread over the landscape were the bodies of 185,000 Assyrian soldiers, destroyed by the angel of the Lord in one night. The handful that were remaining fled back to Nineveh with their king. They had received victory in the Lord!

We must understand that the flesh will not give us victory but will consume us. The world will not give us victory but conform us. The enemy will not give us victory but only defeat us with words of discouragement. Only the Lord will give us that perfect victory that we need in our lives. It is as Isaiah 33:2 says, "O LORD, be gracious to us; We have waited for You. Be their arm every morning, Our salvation also in the time of trouble."

Let me leave you with these thoughts about monkeys that will make a final point:

In North Africa the natives have a very easy way to capture monkeys. A gourd, with a hole just sufficiently large so that a monkey can thrust his hand into it, is filled with nuts and fastened firmly to a branch of a tree at sunset. During the night a monkey will discover the scent of food, and its source, and will put his hand into the gourd and grasp a handful of nuts. But the hole is too small for the monkey to withdraw his clenched fist, and he has not sense enough to let go of his bounty so that he may escape. Thus he pulls and pulls without success, and when morning comes he is quickly and easily taken.

- The Pilgrim

THINK OF IT THIS WAY, YOU NEED TO LET GO AND LET GOD OR YOU TOO WILL BE DEFEATED AND TAKEN CAPTIVE!