The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 392

1,tand, and becoming alarmed, induce their rulers to submit. 'fhe points in Rl\h• shakeh's hRrangue, considerably shortl'ned by the Chronicler, were two. 1. That the J,ope of d.eliverarice held out by Hezekiah was a delusion. If their confidence was based upon expected 11.Ssist.ance from Egypt, they would soon know that Pharaoh we.s •• a h:ruised r~~d, upon_ W?-ich, if a man leant, it would g~ into his hand e.nd pierce it" (2 Kmgs xvm. 21); If It was Jehovah to whom Hezekiah was persuading them to turn their gaze (ver. 11; cf. 2 Kings xviii. 22; Isa.. xxxvi. 7), that source of succour would prove as little satisfactory. (1) Because it w&s not likely Jehovah would extend aid to one ,vho had so openly insulted him as Hezekiah had done by to.kin<> away his high places and altars, and commanding all Jerusalem and Judah to worship at one altar (ver. 12). Either the fame of Hezekiah's reformation had travelled to Nineveh, or Sennacherib had heard of it since coming into the country, if he had not learnt of it from Sargon his father. But Sennacherib either wilfully, or most likely ignorantly, misrepresented Hezekiah's action as one that would rather ea.use him to forfeit than gain the Divine favour. So the best deeds of men are often misunderstood, and their good conversation falsely accused by others who speak against them as evil-doers (1 Pet. ii. 12; iii. 16). (2) Because, even although Jehovah did extend aid to Hezekiah, it would come to nothing. Jehovah would prove as powerless as the gods of other nations had done. Not one of these had been able to oppose the resist- less march of Senn11cherib and his predecessors on the Assyrian throne, or to deliver from destruction the peoples that served them ; and if these had failed to render effectual aid to their devotees, much more wonld Jehovah fail in protecting his (vers. 13-15 ; cf. 2 Kings xviii. 33-35; Isa. xxxvi. 11-13). Sennacherib forgot, as Sargon had d<me before him, that the power of himself and his fathers over the nations and their gods arose from this-that Assyria was the rod of Jehovah's anger (Isa. x. 5-19), and that whensoever Jehovah pleased he could cause the Assyrian, who smote with a rod, to be beaten down (Isa. xxx. 31). 2. That their resistance would entail upon them all the horrors of a siege. 'l'hey would certainly perish by famine and by thirst (ver. 11), if not by the sword, since their escape was impossible. Neither Sennacherib nor his generals guessed the resources of the God of Judah; had they done so, their attitude would have been less defiant and their language less con- fident. Events were to teach them that what was impossible for man ,was both possible and ea.~y for God. Learn : 1. The presumption of some wicked men. 2. The impotence of all heathen gods. 3. The snpremacy of the one living and true God. 4. The security of those whom Jehovah defends.-W. Vers. 16-23.-The invasion of Sennacherib: 2. The great deliverance. I. SEN- NACHERIB .il"D ms Gfil.'ERALS. Their renewed efforts to take the city. 1. The letter of Sennacherib to Hezekiah. (Ver. 17.) The tartan with his assistants having failed to either storm Jerusalem or intimidate its inhabitants, returned, or more probably despatched, Rabshakeh to his master for further instructions. Sennacherib was now at Libnah, a few miles nearer Jerasalem than Lachish, which in the interval had capitulated. Learning that the King of Egypt was on the way north to give him battle, he sent back Ilabshakeh, accompanied by special messengers, bearing a letter to Hezekiah to expedite the taking of the city. The letter when received was read by Hezekiah with indignation and alarm. It contained a repetition with emphasis of what had been uttered by Rabshakeh in the hearing of the king's envoys and of the inhabitants of the city. Of course, the mere reassertion of Rabshakeh's boastings, though in the form of a letter from Sennacherib himself, did not make them the less false, insolent, or blasphemous. 2. The railings of Sennacherib's generals. As before by Rabsbakeh, so a second time by the generals and perhaps also the messengers (ver. 18). To the people on the town wall in their own tongue were addressed words meant to terrify and persuade to capitulation-loud, boastful, arrogant, blasphemous reproaches against Jehovah, putting him on a level with idols, _the works _of mrn's hands and declaring him to be as powerless as these (ver. 19), little dreammg they were :o soon and so completely to be undeceived (ver. 21). So men often hu~ to their bosoms the false ideas they have formed of the Christian's God, without thinking thaL in a mo1mnt, by being admitted through death's portal into his presence, they may Le provetl to have been deceived. on. xxxn. 1---33.J THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 3!)7