God’s Word of Defeat and Death

2 Kings 19:20-37
    20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel: Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard.' 21 This is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning him:

'The virgin, the daughter of Zion,
Has despised you, laughed you to scorn;
The daughter of Jerusalem
Has shaken her head behind your back!

22 'Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice,
And lifted up your eyes on high?
Against the Holy One of Israel.

23 By your messengers you have reproached the Lord,
And said: "By the multitude of my chariots
I have come up to the height of the mountains,
To the limits of Lebanon;
I will cut down its tall cedars
And its choice cypress trees;
I will enter the extremity of its borders,
To its fruitful forest.

24 I have dug and drunk strange water,
And with the soles of my feet I have dried up
All the brooks of defense."

25 'Did you not hear long ago
How I made it,
From ancient times that I formed it?
Now I have brought it to pass,
That you should be
For crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins.

26 Therefore their inhabitants had little power;
They were dismayed and confounded;
They were as the grass of the field
And the green herb,
As the grass on the housetops
And grain blighted before it is grown.

27 'But I know your dwelling place,
Your going out and your coming in,
And your rage against Me.

28 Because your rage against Me and your tumult
Have come up to My ears,
Therefore I will put My hook in your nose
And My bridle in your lips,
And I will turn you back
By the way which you came.

29 'This shall be a sign to you:
'You shall eat this year such as grows of itself,
And in the second year what springs from the same;
Also in the third year sow and reap,
Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.

30 And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah
Shall again take root downward,
And bear fruit upward.

31 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant,
And those who escape from Mount Zion.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.'

32 "Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria:
'He shall not come into this city,
Nor shoot an arrow there,
Nor come before it with shield,
Nor build a siege mound against it.

33 By the way that he came,
By the same shall he return;
And he shall not come into this city,'
Says the LORD.

34 'For I will defend this city, to save it
For My own sake and for My servant David's sake.'"

    35 And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the LORD went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead. 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh. 37 Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the temple of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

The Word of the LORD was brought by His messenger, the prophet Isaiah, to let Hezekiah know that his prayer for deliverance was heard and would be answered in God’s way.  This way was given in this metered response covering prophetic action and judgment for defeat and death to the enemy of His people, specifically the Assyrians amassed against Judah with boasting blasphemous threats.  It begins with ridicule for the one set against the LORD and His people, shaking the head at the threats and their consequences.  The real threat and attack is clearly shown to be against the holy LORD of Israel and not merely the nation, revealing the true danger of certain judgment for the slanderer.  The pride in false hope of worldly might is put down, reminding the king of Assyria who has power over all nations to set them up and tear them down by His divine right and ability, not an upstart mortal king set against His people or their cities.  There is only powerless confusion and dismay in the face of such divine sovereign provident power when He and His people are opposed.  God knows the rage against Him and will lead the rebellious into captivity and to a swift end, turning the oppressor away from his intended objective.  The Assyrians would be ruined back where they came from and Judah would be restored and fruitful once more; they would put down roots in their LORD and the land He gave them, growing upward once more in Him.  This was the remnant of Jerusalem as the LORD’s zeal would accomplish, not their might or efforts.  God defended their city by driving the enemy away before he could begin the attack.  He sent the Angel of the LORD into the enemy camp and killed one hundred and eighty-five thousand soldiers in the night as they slept.  They awoke to the decimation and left to go home without the spirit to fight against the LORD of hosts anymore.  The king Sennacherib of Assyria then met an untimely death by his own sons, ending the blasphemous boasting and fighting against the LORD and His people.  We know that in Christ the victory is won already and certain judgment will fall on His enemies who refuse to submit in trust of His work and will in His Son.  Those who oppose will face Him in judgment at the end, and many will be turned back from destroying His people whom He chooses to deliver in His sovereign will of grace according to His honor and glory.  No matter how many sabers are rattled by earthly armies, His is the victory (Revelation 19:11, 19-21, Isaiah 11:4).  The battle and victory are the LORD’s, for His word of truth, the gospel, brings defeat and death to the enemy, and life with Him to the overcomer who trusts the word of Christ as true for eternity.  God’s Word of Defeat and Death is for those who make themselves His enemies by disobedience and disbelief in His sovereign rule and acknowledgement of His glory and honor.  Grace for His people is seen here.