I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 36-38.

    The official message given by the Assyrian chief of staff contained a modicum of respect. It lays out the reasons why King Hezekiah and Jerusalem cannot withstand the Assyrian army: Egypt is too weak to defend them, King Hezekiah had insulted God by forcing everyone to worship Him in Jerusalem (indicating a lack of understanding about God), The King of Assyria had more spare warhorses than Hezekiah had soldiers, and God Himself had told the Assyrians to attack Judah. While this is somewhat arrogant (claiming that God had sent them to conquer) and demonstrates a lack of understanding of God’s will (not realizing that centralizing the worship of God in Jerusalem was God’s will), It is not blasphemous, or something which would otherwise anger God. However, when the Assyrian chief of staff went “off script” and revealed what the Assyrians really thought he went too far. In his address to the people on the walls of Jerusalem, and then Sennacherib’s letter to Hezekiah a short time later, they revealed what they truly thought of themselves and of God.

    The Assyrians did not believe that God was any more than the gods of the other nations. I believe that the Assyrians did not believe that there truly were any gods. Or, at least, the ruling class of Assyria did not believe there were any gods. They believed that they themselves were gods. They were convinced that nothing and no one could stop them from doing whatever they pleased. As this passage demonstrates, whenever people begin to believe that they cannot be held accountable, that they are the sole arbiters of what they can accomplish, God is prepared to show them that they are mistaken. There can be no doubt that no human agency was involved in preventing the Assyrians from conquering Jerusalem. There was no human agency that was capable of preventing the Assyrians from conquering Jerusalem. Nevertheless, not only did the Assyrians fail to conquer Jerusalem, they never even laid siege to the city. I am sure that, in the day, many people said that Jerusalem got lucky because plague struck the Assyrian army before Sennacherib could turn his army to attack Jerusalem. However, those with the eyes to see and the ears to hear knew (and know) that this was the hand of God, not just coincidence.