Rabshakeh Isaiah 36

Isaiah 36:1 "Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the defensed cities of Judah, and took them."

He is closing in on Jerusalem and things look pretty bad. The story is also told in II Chronicles 32:1.

Rebshakeh is the representative of Sennacherib. Rebshakeh uses some strong words to discourage the men guarding the city. He made his mistake when he blasphemed the LORD and put him in the same bunch as the idols worshipped by other nations.

v7 "But if thou say to me, We trust in the LORD our God; is it not he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar?"

Rebshakeh had his facts all wrong. Hezekiah had done some housecleaning by getting rid of the idols.

v18 "Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying The LORD will deliver us. Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?"

What was it that Hezekiah told the people?

II Chronicles 32:7 "Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him; for there be more with us than with him: v8 With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah."

We will have to wait until the next chapter for the rest of the story.

We can go back to a story of Elisha in II Kings 6 where the king of Syria sent people to fetch Elisha but it did not work. That is also where the swimming ax story is.

v15 "And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto, Alas, my master! how shall we do? v16 And he answered, Fear not; for they that be with us are more than they that be with them."

The servants eyes were opened and he saw a host protecting the prophet.