Isaiah 37

Isaiah 37
Jerusalem's Deliverance Foretold
1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the LORD. 2 He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3 They told him, "This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the point of birth and there is no strength to deliver them. 4 It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the LORD your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives."

Hezekiah's response here was appropriate, when all skies turn dark, he turned to God.

5 When King Hezekiah's officials came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, "Tell your master, 'This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7 Listen! I am going to put a spirit in him so that when he hears a certain report, he will return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.' "

The true and faithful God, responses to Hezekiah.
Principle: When skies turn dark, let's turn to God and learn to wait upon God's answer. It might be that His answer brings about immediate deliverance, like in this instance, or that the correct time has not arrived, in which we learn to wait upon the Lord, like for eg. when Daniel waited for 70 years before he and his people could leave exile in Babylon, or it could be that God's answer is that we go through this refining fire, like how Jesus died on the cross, because that hath to be done for a greater good in God's plan.

8 When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.
9 Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the Cushite [a] king of Egypt , was marching out to fight against him. When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word: 10 "Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, 'Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.' 11 Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? 12 Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my forefathers deliver them—the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, or of Hena or Ivvah?"

Now the taunting comes from Sennacherib himself. Again, mocking God and exerting human supremacy, even to the point where man becomes divine, like a god.

Hezekiah's Prayer
14 Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD : 16 "O LORD Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 17 Give ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God.
18 "It is true, O LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands. 19 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. 20 Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God. [b] "

Hezekiah rightfully turns to God, acknowledging that He is the one true God. All the other gods that Assyria had destroyed were but products of the human hand. Hezekiah asserts his faith that God will deliver them, and by that all on earth will know that He alone is the one true God.

Application:
If we meet with troubles of any kind, let our response be turning to God. Not blaming him, but praising Him that He is the one true God. There are no other gods in the world but idols - products of man.

Sennacherib's Fall
21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word the LORD has spoken against him: "The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises and mocks you. The Daughter of Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee.
23 Who is it you have insulted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!
24 By your messengers you have heaped insults on the Lord. And you have said, 'With my many chariots I have ascended the heights of the mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of its pines. I have reached its remotest heights, the finest of its forests.
25 I have dug wells in foreign lands [c] and drunk the water there. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.'
26 "Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass, that you have turned fortified cities into piles of stone.

The fact that Assyria reigned its military might was ordained by God. It was all part of God's plan. Assyria has no right to assert his power as it was given by God.

27 Their people, drained of power, are dismayed and put to shame. They are like plants in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the roof, scorched [d] before it grows up.
28 "But I know where you stay and when you come and go and how you rage against me.
29 Because you rage against me and because your insolence has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came.

Hook in your nose, bit in my mouth refers to the hook in a horses's nose and bit is the strangle in the horse's mouth that controls the horses direction. Whereever the rider pulls, the horse will experience pain and head towards that direction. God is going to handle Assyria painfully because it has raged against God and was insolent towards God.

30 "This will be the sign for you, O Hezekiah: "This year you will eat what grows by itself, and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
31 Once more a remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above.
32 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.
33 "Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria: "He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it.
34 By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city," declares the LORD.
35 "I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!"

God will preserve Judah for the sake of His promise to David, that a descendant of David will rule in Jerusalem. And indeed, by kingship, and more importantly, the genealogy from David to Joseph, to Jesus, the true King.

36 Then the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! 37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.
38 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.

God's Word has and always will be fulfilled. His assurance of preservation, His judgement, all will come to pass. Sennacherib, a mighty king who conquered many nations, in a state now that no one would ever expect or want.