God’s Answer through Isaiah
20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard you.’ 21 This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him:
‘She has despised you and mocked you,
The virgin daughter of Zion;
She has shaken her head behind you,
The daughter of Jerusalem!
22 ‘Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?
And against whom have you raised your voice,
And [i]haughtily lifted up your eyes?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
23 ‘Through your messengers you have reproached the Lord,
And you have said, “With my many chariots
I came up to the heights of the mountains,
To the remotest parts of Lebanon;
And I [j]cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses.
And I [k]entered its farthest lodging place, its thickest forest.
24 “I dug wells and drank foreign waters,
And with the sole of my feet I [l]dried up
All the rivers of [m]Egypt.”25 ‘Have you not heard?
Long ago I did it;
From ancient times I planned it.
Now I have brought it to pass,
That you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
26 ‘Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength,
They were dismayed and put to shame;
They were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb,
As grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up.
27 ‘But I know your sitting down,
And your going out and your coming in,
And your raging against Me.
28 ‘Because of your raging against Me,
And because your [n]arrogance has come up to My ears,
Therefore I will put My hook in your nose,
And My bridle in your lips,
And I will turn you back by the way which you came.29 ‘Then this shall be the sign for you: [o]you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 30 The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 31 For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant, and out of Mount Zion [p]survivors. The zeal of [q]the Lord will perform this.
32 ‘Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, “He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield or throw up a siege ramp against it. 33 By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he shall not come to this city,”’ declares the Lord. 34 ‘For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’”
35 Then it happened that night that the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when [r]men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were [s]dead. 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home, and lived at Nineveh. 37 It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that [t]Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.
God wanted to make it abundantly clear to the Assyrians that He was in control, and Isaiah delivers God’s words to that effect. He says “Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?” because Sennacherib thought he was mocking a king and a nation, but he knew not the God of Israel whom he mocked with his taunting to the people.
To make it even more clear, God sent an angel to destroy the Assyrian army. We don’t know how large the actual army was, did the angel kill everyone but the king? However, even the 185,000 who died would be the largest force I can remember any nation sending against Israel (or Judah).
It’s yet another reminder that God is in control, and He suffers no fools, especially those who would openly mock Him. His retribution is not always so swift, because again, He has no need to prove himself, or be prideful. Even more so, this was a reminder to the people remaining in Judah that their God was mighty to save, and loved them dearly.
“For God so loved the world…” We know the rest, and yet we take that lightly, we think it’s just a trifle. But it is life and death, not a laughing matter, nor a thing to be scoffed at. Fortunately for us, He is also patient (long-suffering) and merciful towards us, knowing our weakness, our humanity, and God continues to extend His hand of salvation to any who will take it, even the most undeserving. For which of us is deserving of the least of His attentions? Yet He lavished His love on us all. Take His hand, or scorn it, the choice is yours.