Page 76 - Isaiah Student Worktext

The ‘virgin’ daughter of Zion is Jerusalem. God is saying to the king of Assyria that Jerusalem has
laughed behind Assyria’s back. Assyria may have thought that it was Hezekiah or Jerusalem that they
had scorned, but in fact, it was God Himself they have attacked.

God shows that He has heard not just Hezekiah’s prayer, but also the boasts of the king of Assyria. He
heard the claim to have a superior military force, that he had cut down the forests of other lands and
even a preposterous claim to have dried up the waters of the Nile simply by touching it with his feet.

This king of Assyria has taunted Jerusalem by asking ‘don’t you know who I am and what I have done?’
God answers in kind.

V. 26-28 God tells Sennacherib that anything the king has accomplished has been done with God’s
foreknowledge and even with His approval, up to a point. The king could have done nothing without
God allowing it.

Then God says, in V. 28 ‘I know your dwelling place’. I have seen all that you do, have heard all that you
have said. Because of this, I will drag you back to your homeland with a hook in his nose. If the king had
any idea at all of the power of God, he would be shaking in his sandals at that point.

V. 30-32 This is for Hezekiah: God tells him that He will provide for His people, the first, second and third
year. A message there is that God doesn’t always answer quickly or in our timing…but He does provide.
There is coming a time, in V. 31-32, when the remnant will once again flourish.

V. 33-35 But as for the king of Assyria, here is all that he will NOT do. He will not enter the city, he will
not shoot an arrow, he will not besiege the city. He will, however, return to his homeland. Not because
of any human power or might, but because God Himself will defend the city, once again, for His name’s
sake.

Thus, ends the threat of Assyria.

V. 36-37 An incredible display of God’s power. Not with an army or with weapons, God sent an angel to
kill 185,000 Assyrian troops. Those who did not die awoke to find the camp littered with corpses.

There are ‘theories’ that the angel brought a plague or a virus or something to cause these deaths. It is
possible, but the ultimate result is simply this: 185,000 troops died. Sennacherib, defeated, went back
home, just as God said that he would.

V. 38 ‘It came to pass’…history tells us that Sennacherib didn’t die for another 20 years. God didn’t say
it would happen tomorrow. He said it would happen. The sons of the king are the very ones who struck
him down. Not only is he defeated, he is humiliated in death, because it came at the hands of his own
family.

We are told that two sons killed their father, but that a third son became the king. The two who killed
him ‘escaped’ to Ararat, and perhaps feared to come back. Regardless, it happened just as God had
said. Sennacherib the blasphemer would die, after returning home, and would fall by the sword in his
own land.

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