The Word of the LORD for the Remnant

Isaiah 37:21-38 

(2 Kin. 19:20–34, 35–37)

21 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, 22 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!

23 "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.

24 By your servants 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 its farthest height,
To its fruitful forest.

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

26 "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.

27 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.

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

29 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."'

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

31 And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah
Shall again take root downward,
And bear fruit upward.
32 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.

33 "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.

34 By the way that he came,
By the same shall he return;
And he shall not come into this city,'
Says the LORD.
35 'For I will defend this city, to save it
For My own sake and for My servant David's sake.'"

36 Then 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. 37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh. 38 Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house 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 message of Isaiah concerning Sennacherib was in answer to king Hezekiah’s prayer for God’s glory to be seen in working for His people to deliver them.  The people of God were able to laugh behind the back of the attacker because God was fighting for them and the enemy would certainly be defeated at His word.  Because of the blasphemy and arrogance of the Assyrian king against the LORD and His people, the sentence was passed in this word of the Lord through His messenger.  Because of God’s sovereign plan Assyria was able to rise up to be a military might for a season, only to be knocked down in their pride.  God made them and now was about to end them after this warning due to their blasphemy against the only God as if equal to all the other false idol gods he had defeated before this according to the will and work of the Almighty through them as an instrument. In verse 28 the Assyrian king is seen as a type of Satan who went in and out before the Lord as in Job 1:7, 2:2 and who rages against the Lord and His anointed (Psalm 2:1-2, Revelation 12:17) to no avail in the end.  God would hook him and reel him in for judgment.  The sign which God gave to Hezekiah was for continuing fruitfulness in the crops illustrating the remnant of His people whom He would rescue from their sin and oppression.  The remnant would be settled in good soil to put down deep roots and bear fruits accordingly.  The zeal of God who was their Lord would do all these things because He loved them and worked for their good in His glory (Romans 8:28).  With the sentence passed, the final word of the LORD to Assyria and for the encouragement of the remnant was the sending of their army back to Assyria because God defended His people for His own sake and according to His word of promise through David in the line of the Messiah for ultimate deliverance of all His remnant which is the church of both Jew and Gentile.  After the LORD wiped out much of the Assyrian army at night by His avenging angel, the king returned and was assassinated by his own sons while bowing down to his false god like the idols which he had boasted in defeating them in blasphemous comparison to the LORD before (Isaiah 36:18-20).  God protects His people and will ultimately judge their enemy who also opposes Him.  We trust and pray to the One true God and will bow to idols and know we will be delivered by the Son of God (Daniel 3:17-18, 25).  This is the word of the LORD for His remnant (Romans 9:27, 11:5) of grace.