Judgments On The Nations Round About
This final article will have to cover the whole of the rest of the early chapters of Isaiah’s prophecy from 15 to 35, all of which I believe were given during the years of Hezekiah’s reign up to the time of the Assyrian attack (covered by chapters 36-39 of Isaiah).
The year of Ahaz’s death was marked by the prophecy of chapter 14: 29-32. Tiglath Pileser III, the great scourge of the Middle East, had recently died; but the people of Palestine are warned by this prophecy not to put out the flags too early, for the following Assyrian kings are to wreak yet worse devastation. But the prophecy ends with the remarkable statement:
“The LORD hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust hip it” (v.32).
Here was prophesied a secure place in which to trust – not for all, but for the poor of God’s people, a remnant. This prophecy must refer directly to the coming rulership of Hezekiah, who would that year ascend David’s throne.
Nevertheless, a terrible time is forecast for the coming years in the following prophecies. Yet the promise of better things constantly recurs. Chapters 15 and 16 are directed against Moab; but even here, one verse speaks of a king ruling from David’s throne in peace and safety:
“In mercy shall the throne be established: and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness” (16:5).
Chapter 17 is against Damascus, and also includes a warning to Northern Israel. Yet here again is a promise that a few would escape, even from the ten tribes, a very small remnant, “gleaning grapes”, or two or three olives, left after the harvest (v.6). Where would they escape to, but to the Kingdom of Judah, to seek safety under the shadow of Hezekiah’s rule? Chapter 18 is perhaps one of the least clear (or most ambiguous) of all these prophecies; but it does suggest some regathering to Zion of at least a remnant of those in Israel who had been (or were to be) scattered.
Chapter 19 foretells the coming judgment of Egypt, intended, I believe, not so much as a warning to Egypt, as one directed to those Israelites who were trying to counter the Assyrian threat by relying on Egyptian help, instead of on their God.The prophecy nevertheless ends with a promise of redemption for Egypt, and even speaks of a time of peace between Israel, Egypt and Assyria. This prophecy must ultimately (as, indeed, all the redemption prophecies) look forward to the Kingdom of God yet to be established in the earth; nevertheless, I believe that it had an incipient fulfilment in the days of Hezekiah, when Assyria, following the disaster at Jerusalem, was prepared be at peace with a greatly strengthened Kingdom of Judah, and “peace and truth” did indeed exist in the whole Middle East for a few years.
The prophecy of chapter 20 is also against Egypt; but the mention of Sargon’s despatch of Tartan to Ashdod shows that by the time this prophecy was given, the city of Samaria had been taken, or was in process of being taken. Samaria had been invested by the Assyrian King Shalmaneser IV, who followed Tiglath Pileser; but he died before the city finally fell, and Sargon II assumed the credit for this. Ashdod fell at the same time.1
Against Babylon
In chapter 21 we have a remarkable prophecy against Babylon, which looks right into the future to describe the fall of Babylon to the Medes and Persians, in terms very reminiscent of Daniel 5; “The night of my pleasure bath he turned into fear unto me” (v.4). It is as if the prophet has found himself in vision in the skin of Belshazzar as he saw the dreaded hand write out his doom. The words “Babylon is fallen, is fallen” are echoed in the distant future by the prophet John in Revelation 18:2, prophesying the complete downfall of the Kingdom of men. So why here, in the reign of Hezekiah, when the Assyrian ruled the world, is this message given to Judah?
I believe it is because, in God’s eyes, Assyria and Babylon were one people, straddling the world of those days as the Kingdom of men. They were seen as representative of a nation which was to continue to oppose God’s ways and oppress His people, albeit in different times and in different ways in the future. So the prophecy of the fall of Babylon and her gods is given here, at the beginning of the time when God’s unfaithful people first suffer captivity at the hands of the Kingdom of men, when Samaria had fallen and her people were about to be taken from the Land. Later. Judah was to fall to Babylon; the two oppressors were seen as doing one work, though in two phases.
The reform of Judah
In chapter 22 the prophet turns his message against Jerusalem. Here is a picture of a people expecting the worst. The rulers had fled (to Egypt?), and others from the farmlands and maybe some from Northern Israel had run into the walled city for protection (v.3). They had feverishly begun to build up the walls and bring water into the city (v.9-11); but instead of praying for help to God and reforming their ways, they had given themselves over to riotous living, believing they could not escape death. The picture is, I believe, of Judah at the time of Sargon’s capture of Samaria and devastation of Ashdod, which took place in the sixth year of Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:10). If Israel and Philistia had fallen, the men of Jerusalem would think, what hope would there be for Judah?
I believe that eventually Judah did repent, and Hezekiah obeyed the prophet’s command to demote Shebna and promote Eliakim, and so Sargon did not take Jerusalem. We shall see a little more about this later.
More judgments
Chapter 23 brings a prophecy against Tyre, to be fulfilled when Sennacherib came against the nations of Palestine a few years later. Then in Chapter 24 comes the description of the devastation wrought to the land of Israel by Sargon when he stripped the land in the years following the fall of the city:
“Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof” (v.1).2
However, this dreadful lamentation carries also a bright note of hope. God would in turn “punish the host of high ones that are on high” (v.21), bring ruin on the great defenced city (i.e. Nineveh – 25:2), while the remnant of poor, faithful ones would be sheltered from the storm (v.4) by the LORD. This theme continues on into chapter 26, which ends with a plea by God to the faithful few to remain in Jerusalem and shut the doors, until “the indignation be overpast”.
Chapters 27 and 28 continues the theme of warnings to both Israel and Judah of the coming devastation. Chapter 29 is a clear prophecy about the coming of Sennacherib to lay siege to Jerusalem (v.3). From the Kings and Chronicles records we would not know that during Hezekiah’s reign, in spite of his dramatic reforms and the warning of judgments which had fallen on Israel, worship of God had not touched the hearts of most of the inhabitants of Jerusalem (v.13). And chapters 30 and 31 show clearly that many of the rulers and princes were secretly (or maybe even openly) negotiating with the Egyptians, even as the Assyrian armies threatened Jerusalem.
The theme of the remaining chapters (32-35) is of a king who would rule with justice (32:1), protect his people from the storm, and rule over a peaceful and happy country. The oppressors would be judged (e.g. 33:1, 34:6) and God would buy back out of captivity many of the captives (35:10). In a minor way, the prosperity and happiness of the latter part of Hezekiah’s reign was a fulfilment of the beautiful picture of chapter 35. And if the whole of the picture was not painted in his day, it was because a good but fallible king could not be the perfect ruler whom God sought – this still remains to be fulfilled by the Lord Jesus.
Isaiah And Hezekiah
To finish this article and this series – I have decided to leave the imaginary “Family Story” and go through Hezekiah’s reign with an eye on the words of Isaiah. Imagine, then, the great Passover held right at the beginning of Hezekiah’s reign, setting the tone for a new spirit for the whole nation. There were many from the Northern Kingdom there – Yahweh worshippers – and while these would go back into their own, godless, cities, they would not be forgotten by Hezekiah and their friends in Jerusalem when the cold Assyrian winds began to blow – and they would know, because they listened to God’s prophets, that while Israel was to be taken captive, there would be hope in Jerusalem.
After the Passover, one of the first things Hezekiah did was to gather together an army (which would have to be trained) and go down to tackle the Philistines who had occupied so much of Judah in the west (2 Kings 18:8). Refugees (like those who had slept in our fictional Hanan’s workshop) would be able to return to their own lands and begin to rebuild their family fortunes.
Hezekiah had come to the throne as a vassal king; his father had sold the nation into slavery to the Assyrians. But Hezekiah himself had made no promise to serve them; no doubt the paying of heavy tribute, to the ruin of the nation, would irk this energetic and godly monarch. Perhaps his need to rid the country of Philistines hastened his rebellion against Assyria, for in smiting Gaza (2 Kings 18:8) he deposed an Assyrian deputy.
Only four years into Hezekiah’s reign, Shalmaneser, the king who followed Tiglath Pileser, came against Samaria to punish it for having also rebelled against Assyria. Hoshea had promised to serve Shalmaneser, and had broken his word and conspired against him (2 Kings 17:4). It is to be expected that Shalmaneser had it in mind to punish Hezekiah also. This seems to me to be the background of Isaiah 22. Most of the rulers (who would secretly have supported Egypt) had gathered what wealth and goods they could, and gone. Jerusalem was left with a small, dismayed remnant, scurrying to mend walls that they had as yet not had time to deal with before the threat came: but of those, only a few would remain stoutly faithful and trusting in God. The others would be thinking only of enjoying the present while they could – “for tomorrow we shall die”. Shebna, the ruler of the house of David (the prime minister) had faithlessly devoted himself to building a grand tomb, so that his name would not perish when the cataclysm came.
Imagine, then, the prophet Isaiah, burning with God’s wrath, striding onto the temple steps, or into the King’s court, and delivering this wholesale condemnation before the King and people, demanding on God’s behalf that Shebna be demoted and faithful Eliakim put in his place – warning that Shebna would be taken captive and would not even make use of his tomb.
There is every reason to believe that Hezekiah listened very carefully to the words of the prophet, and set himself to try to put things right. We know that, seven years later when the Assyrians came again, Eliakim was the ruler of the house of David, but Shebna, remarkably, had not deserted Jerusalem or been taken captive, but had taken the lower position of scribe (Is.36:3). Had Shebna, also, taken heed to Isaiah’s words and humbled himself before God – and so escaped the promised captivity?
Some of the ten tribes, knowing from God’s words through His prophets that the Northern Kingdom was to be destroyed, may have fled from Israel to Judah and so saved their lives. And the Assyrian threat did pass over Judah, perhaps because Shalmaneser died before he accomplished the sack of Samaria.
Isaiah continued to prophesy and proclaim safety for those who put their trust in Yahweh (Is.26:1-5 etc.), but this safety would come only after a time of testing, like the pangs of a woman before her child is born (v.17); this was followed by the remarkable prophecy: “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise”. That Hezekiah heard, and remembered, this prophecy may be seen by his despairing words to Isaiah when the time of testing came: “The children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth” (Is.37:3). Yet that terrible trial, those birth pangs, were followed first by the typical resurrection of Hezekiah himself from ‘death’, and then by the salvation of the whole remnant.
We thus can see that Hezekiah heard and understood Isaiah’s prophecies, and saw himself in the role of the King who would be a covert from the storm for his people, when the final Assyrian assault came, and that during those terrible times, a new nation would be reborn from the tiny remnant which would be saved. And that birth would take place in Jerusalem, the virgin mother of the nation – as God through Isaiah said concerning the Assyrian, “The virgin the daughter of Zion bath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee” (2 Kings 19:21). And would Hezekiah not connect this with Isaiah’s earlier words, which he would have heard given to his father Ahaz while still a youth, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son”?
The rebirth of a nation presupposes a prior death, from which there would come a resurrection. Death had come to Northern Israel; now it was looking Judah in the face. When Sennacherib came to the Assyrian throne, the people of Ekron rebelled against their king Padi (an Assyrian puppet) and sent him bound to Hezekiah for safe keeping.(2)The wrath of the king was particularly directed against Hezekiah. He not only attacked Philistia, but laid siege to Lachish and the other fortified cities of Judah.
Here, it seems, Hezekiah faltered in faith. He sent for help to Egypt, and tried to buy off Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:13-16). Hezekiah, in his effort to buy off the Assyrian, sent back Padi. But Sennacherib was not to be deflected from his prey, and from Lachish sent to demand total surrender, which would entail captivity.
We do not know at what point the prophet Micah delivered his warning, “Jerusalem shall become heaps” (3:12), though 4:11 suggests that the Assyrians and their allies were already gathered against Jerusalem. (Perhaps Micah had come into Jerusalem from Moresheth-Gath for safety as the Assyrians approached.) But we learn from Jeremiah that his prophecy caused the King and people to repent (Jer. 26:18). Micah also gave a strong warning that the promised rebirth would have to take place in captivity, unless Judah was ready to “Arise and thresh” (4:9-13).
Hezekiah now stiffened his resolve to trust in the Lord, reorganised the defence of the city and encouraged the people: “With us is the LORD our God to help us, and to fight our battles”; and “the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah” (2 Chron. 32:8). Gone were the evil thoughts and influences of past years; the remnant and the king were now at one, trusting in God; so that when the messengers of Sennacherib came to offer captivity for surrender, they obeyed the king and refused to answer.
And then, when the commitment had been made and the Assyrian messengers rebuffed, the king in whom the people trusted fell sick to death. The people must have felt like the disciples after the crucifixion, bereft of leadership, ready only for death. Thus they, like Hezekiah himself, went through a death-experience – and when the LORD sent through Isaiah to tell Hezekiah he would recover within three days, and that He would defend Jerusalem (Is. 38:6 – this was the third time God had assured Hezekiah of this), the people, like their king, would indeed feel themselves to be a new, reborn people and watch in absolute conviction for the Lord to bring His deliverance. Had not God given the king a certain sign?
And so a new people was born, as a new people will be born when their King, who has already passed through the waters of death, returns to redeem them from the great enemy and set up “peace and truth” in his days – and his days, unlike those of Hezekiah, will last for ever.
References
- “(Property of Sargon, etc., king of Assyria, etc.) conqueror of Samaria and of the entire [country of] Israel who despoiled Ashdod…” (Inscription ‘Pave des Portes’ No. IV, lines 31-44; from “The Ancient and Near East”, Vol.1, Princeton University Press, 1973, p.195.)
- “The officials, the patricians and the (common) people of Ekron, who had thrown Padi, their king, into fetters (because he was) loyal to (his) solemn oath by the god Ashur, and had handed him over to Hezekiah, the Jew (and) he (Hezekiah) held him in prison, unlawfully, as if he be an enemy, had become afraid… I made Padi, their king, come from Jerusalem…” (From the Prism of Sennacherib, idem, p.199).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One