Hopeless Situations – Isaiah 36

“When you say a situation or a person is hopeless, you are slamming the door in the face of God” (Charles L. Allen).  Allen was a Methodist pastor in Atlanta, Georgia and Houston, Texas.  In Atlanta his church became the largest congregation in Georgia.  In Houston, his congregation became the largest Methodist church in the world, with 12,000 members.  He authored the books God’s Psychiatry and All Things Are Possible Through Prayer, books that have ministered to countless thousands.  His leadership may be likened to that of Hezekiah.  Don’t know Hezekiah?  Let Isaiah introduce you.

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field. And there came out to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.

And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours? Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me? Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. But if you say to me, “We trust in the LORD our God,” is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar”? Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master’s servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? Moreover, is it without the LORD that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.’”

Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”

Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD by saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.” Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.  (Isaiah 36 ESV)

When Hezekiah became king of Judah, the southern kingdom, he led a spiritual reform by removing all the idols and declaring worship of Yahweh as the only true worship.  Israel, the northern kingdom, on the other hand, continued in idolatry and God allowed the Assyrian nation to conquer them and, true to Assyria’s policy, scatter them in exile among other conquered nations.

Now here was Assyria knocking on Jerusalem’s door, prepared for siege warfare in which they would starve the inhabitants until they surrendered.  In the hearing of the people he threatens them and also promises them that if they give up they will get their needs met in the land Assyria sends them to.  And he mistakenly believes that Hezekiah has turned on Yahweh by removing Yahweh’s images and claims Yahweh sent him to conquer Jerusalem for it.

You and I will face situations in which it looks hopeless that we will be delivered, even though we have put our trust in Yahweh God.  Satan will incite us to give up and will make us promises of deliverance if we enslave ourselves to him.

Discussion Questions

1. Describe when have you felt highly threatened.
2. If you were one of those Israelites sitting on the wall of Jerusalem listening to Rabshakeh, what would your anxiety level have been?
3. How have your actions been misunderstood by unbelievers?
4. Why do you think Hezekiah instructed his people not to answer Rabshakeh?
5. In what ways has Satan incited you to wrong actions with false promises?
6. What is an area in which you need to trust in God for deliverance?