The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 350

of Sennacherib. "Thus eha.11 ye spea.k to Hezekia.h King of Juda.h, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trueteet deceive thee, ea.ying, Jerusalem aha.II not be delivered into the hand of the King of Assyria.. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly : and shalt thou be delivered? Ha.ve the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed?" (vers. 10-13). The danger wns near at hand. Sennacherib was on his way with hie hundred and four score and five thousand men. The tramplings of the war-horses and the rattling of the armour would soon be heard in Jerusalem. The utter destruction of the city was contemplated, and seemed rapidly approaching. In a far worse position was the kingdom of Judah at this moment than was England when the Spanish Armada was approaching our shores. 2. The influence of the threatened calamity. (1) It struck the kingdom with a. crushing terror. "And it ea.me to pass, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebna. the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a. day of trouble" (vers. 1-3). The rending of the "clothes" and the arraying in "sackcloth" were symbols to express the horror of the heart. (2) It struck the kingdom with a. helpless feebleness. "This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy: for the children a.re come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth" (ver. 3). "The image is that of a. pa.rturient woman whose strength is exhausted, whose powers are para.lyzed, at the moment when she required to put forth a vigorous effort. The expression in which the message was conveyed to the prophet described, by a strong figure, the desperate condition of the kingdom, together with the utter inability of the people to help themselves; and it intimated also a. hope that the blasphemous defiance of J ehovah's power by the impious Assyrian might lead to some direct interposition for the vindication of his honour and supremacy to all heathen gods." Here is utter national helplessness in a. terrible national calamity. IJ. THE BLESSING TO A NATION OF A RULER WHO LOOKS TO HEAVEN FOB HELP. What, in the wretched condition of his country, does King Hezekiah do? He invokes the merciful interposition of Heaven. When the messengers ea.me to Hezekiah with a. threatening letter from the King of Assyria (see vers. 10-13), what did the monarch do? He took it into the house of the Lord, and there prayed. "And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said, 0 Lord God of Israel," etc. (vers. 14-19). In this wonderful prayer: 1. He adores the God whom Sennachei·ib had blasphemed. He addresses him BR the" God of all the kingdoms of the earth," the Maker of "heaven and earth," the one and only Lord. 2. He implores the .Almighty for his oum sake to deliver the country. "Now therefore, 0 Lurd our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only." "The best pleas in prayer," says an old author, "are those that are taken from God's own honour; therefore the Lord's prayer begins with 'Hallowed be thy Na.me,' and concludes,' Thine be the glory.'" Who is the greatest human king? Not the man who relies on his own power and skill to protect his nation from danger, and seeks to secure it in the possession and enjoyment of all its rights; nor the king who looks to his armies and navies in time of need; but he who practically realizes his dependence upon the "Lord " that made heaven and earth. Reverence for the Infinite is the soul of true royalty. III. THE ADVANTAGE TO A NATION OF A TRULY WISE COUNSELLOR. Apart from his inspiration, Isaiah may be fairly taken in this case as the representative of a wise counsellor, and that for two reasons. 1. Be looked to heaven rather than to earth for his wisdom. "'!'hen Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib King of Assyria I have heard. This is the word that the Lord bath spoken concerning him" (vers. 20, 21). 'fhe counsel which he had to give he here declares to have corr:e from the Lord God of Israel. How the wisdom was conveyed to him, whether by an outward voice or an inner vision, does not appear ; he had it from heaven. He only 898 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. [en. XIX, 1-37.