Bible History Old Testament Vol 7 by Alfred Edersheim

Author:Alfred Edersheim
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion & Spirituality
Published: 2012-12-07T16:00:00+00:00

12. 2 KINGS 18:17-19

HEZEKIAH, (THIRTEENTH) KING OF JUDAH.

Meaning and Lessons of the Account of the Assyrian Invasion.

RARELY, perhaps, was there an occasion on which faith in the unseen was put to severer test than in the conference between the leaders of the Assyrian army and the representatives of King Hezekiah. What gave special point to the message which the Rabh-Shakeh addressed to the king of Judah was the deep sense of past inconsistency: that, as regarded the matter in hand, it had not always been with Judah as at present, and that in measure their present evil was the outcome of their wrong-doing. But there comes to us also for all time this precious lesson: that even where we have been utterly mistaken, if only we turn in repentance to our God, we may look for His help and deliverance in the new and better course on which we are entering, however we may have to suffer for past sin. For God remaineth faithful, however we may have erred and strayed from His ways.

It was only too true, as the Rabh-Shakeh said, fl1 that in rebelling against Assyria Hezekiah’s confidence had been in Egypt; (compare chapters 9 and 11.) too true also, as even the experience of the past might have taught him, (compare chapters 9 and 11.) that this was to trust in “the staff of a bruised reed”fl2 (comp. Isaiah 30:1-7). Thus, assuredly, whether as regarded his plans or their proposed execution, it was “only word of the lips: counsel and strength for the war!” But in the second point which the Rabh-Shakeh urged lay the weakness of his cause and the strength of Hezekiah’s position. Addressing himself to Hezekiah’s adherents, fl3 he argued from the heathen point of view that since Hezekiah had abolished all the altars on the heights, and confined public religious worship to that in the Temple, he had not only forfeited any claim upon Jehovah, Whom he regarded as the Jewish national deity, but provoked Him to judgment. Accordingly, as on the one hand he had taunted Hezekiah with want of all means for resisting the power of his master, fl4 so on the other hand he now boldly claimed for the inroad of Assyria and its success, not only the approbation of, but even a mandate from Jehovah.

Alike politically and in its religious misrepresentations, the speech was well calculated to appeal to such a populace as that of Jerusalem. Hence also the representatives of Hezekiah requested the Rabh-Shakeh to communicate with them not in “Jewish” fl5 (that is, in Hebrew), as he had done, but in “Aramean,” which, although the commercial language of Syria and Palestine, would not be understood by the common people. The suggestion was haughtily rejected, and the Assyrian openly avowed that his object was not to negotiate with the king nor his representatives, but to produce a reaction among the besieged, whom he represented as reduced to the utmost straits. To them he now directly appealed. They were not to allow themselves to be deceived.

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