22 “Whom have you mocked and reviled?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes to the heights?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
23 By your messengers you have mocked the Lord,
and you have said, ‘With my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
to the far recesses of Lebanon;
I felled its tallest cedars,
its choicest cypresses;
I entered its farthest lodging place,
its most fruitful forest.
24 I dug wells
and drank foreign waters,
and I dried up with the sole of my foot
all the streams of Egypt.’
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes to the heights?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
23 By your messengers you have mocked the Lord,
and you have said, ‘With my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
to the far recesses of Lebanon;
I felled its tallest cedars,
its choicest cypresses;
I entered its farthest lodging place,
its most fruitful forest.
24 I dug wells
and drank foreign waters,
and I dried up with the sole of my foot
all the streams of Egypt.’
25 “Have you not heard
that I determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
what now I bring to pass,
that you should turn fortified cities
into heaps of ruins,
26 while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
are dismayed and confounded,
and have become like plants of the field
and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops,
blighted before it is grown.
that I determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
what now I bring to pass,
that you should turn fortified cities
into heaps of ruins,
26 while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
are dismayed and confounded,
and have become like plants of the field
and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops,
blighted before it is grown.
27 “But I know your sitting down
and your going out and coming in,
and your raging against me.
28 Because you have raged against me
and your complacency has come into my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth,
and I will turn you back on the way
by which you came.
and your going out and coming in,
and your raging against me.
28 Because you have raged against me
and your complacency has come into my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth,
and I will turn you back on the way
by which you came.
(II Kings 19)
Hezekiah was a speedbump in the way of the Assyrian Army. They had been taking over nation after nation, defeating king after king, but when they came to Israel, he refused to cave. Instead, in the beginning of this chapter, he sends royal messengers to Isaiah the prophet to find out what to do. God assures him Assyria will return home without defeating Israel. Once again, the general of Assyria does a lot of trash talking - not just against Israel and King Hezekiah, but against their God. Once again, Hezekiah calls out to God, and this is God's answer - not just to Hezekiah, but beyond that - to the Assyrians. Yes, they had been winning against nation after nation, but that is only because God allowed them to, and even designed them too. But now they had assumed they were the gods, and were declaring war on Him. They captured kings and humiliated them by puting hooks in their noses and draggin them wherever they wanted to take them, into exile. Now God was going to be hooking them, and taking them back home to die. For now, Israel would stand, and even enjoy relief from the great famine they had endured during the seige. Most of all God would be glorified - not only in Israel - but even to the great king of Assyria. May we be humbled. May we call out to Him. May He be glorified.
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