Bible Society of South Africa
Xanthe Galanis

Come to Me – Day 7

The fact of the matter

Bible text(s)

Isaiah 36

18Don't let Hezekiah fool you into thinking that the LORD will rescue you. Did the gods of any other nations save their countries from the emperor of Assyria? 19Where are they now, the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Did anyone save Samaria? 20When did any of the gods of all these countries ever save their country from our emperor? Then what makes you think the LORD can save Jerusalem?”

Isaiah 36:18-20GNBOpen in Bible reader

King Ahaz dies and King Hezekiah, who loved the true God, is now on the throne of Judah. The problem is, as you will recall, that Ahaz had made a deal with the Assyrians. The Assyrians decide they will not simply take Ahaz’s bribe money – they want his whole country! Now, Hezekiah has the might of the Assyrian army on his doorstep and their field commander has called a meeting to negotiate Jerusalem’s surrender. This field commander gets up and starts talking to the people of Jerusalem, in Hebrew, to make sure they understand. Essentially, he tells them that Hezekiah cannot save them, God cannot save them, and so their best bet is to surrender. He even promises to treat them nicely if they do.

It is not an idle threat. The Assyrians have a perfect win rate. Hezekiah has lost every battle. There is no doubt that the Assyrians have the military strength to crush Jerusalem, as they have crushed many others. Those are the facts.

However, there is one important fact this commander ignores – these are the people of God and God has something to say about what happens to them.

In the decisions we make, we also need to remember that we have surrendered our lives to the Lord and, even though some facts are not apparent to us, they are clear to him. If we are going to be truly reasonable, we must carefully listen to the Lord, not to what others around us are saying.

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