36 Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them. 2 And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a large army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the [a]fuller’s field. 3 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to him.
4 Then Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What is this confidence that you [b]have? 5 I say, ‘Your counsel and strength for the war are only [c]empty words.’ Now on whom do you rely, that you have rebelled against me? 6 Behold, you rely on the staff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his [d]hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him. 7 But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’? 8 Now therefore, [e]come make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. 9 How then can you [f]repulse one [g]official of the least of my master’s servants and [h]rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 10 Have I now come up [i]without the Lord’s approval against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’”’”
11 Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Speak now to your servants in Aramaic, for we [j]understand it; and do not speak with us in [k]Judean in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 12 But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”
Here now, as the Assyrian commander Rabshakeh mocks those in Jerusalem, we could also mock him for his lack of understanding about God. He clearly misunderstands Hezekiah’s reforms, and does not know the law of God. But did the people also recognize this? For he was sent, as he states in v. 12, not only to speak to the officials, but to all those who could hear him.
At any rate, mocking Rabshakeh would serve nothing, so what do we learn from this exchange? First, is the parallel between this and the serpent in the garden. To be clear, the snake, being the voice of Lucifer, ought to have known well the ways of God. He was one of the greatest angels, and came before the very throne of God. Yet twisted in his mind those ways had become, so that all he can do is to spread lies like Rabshakeh. To that end, he is called the “father of lies” in John 8:44.
Second, we have this claim that “The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.'” Others, who do not serve God, may make the same claim. For in truth, the angels who have rebelled may attempt to twist and thwart God’s will, but they cannot. Whatever they do, despite their intent, God can use and weave into His perfect plan. After all, it wouldn’t be very perfect if it could be thwarted so easily.
So do not give in to the lies of the enemy, talk to God and listen for His voice instead. Read His word, so that you recognize those lies, and know the truth of who God really is, and how much He cares for you. Trust indeed in God, for He alone is faithful. If He sends a storm into your life, as He can and will, know that He also has a plan to bring you through it. Not just any ol’ plan, for God’s plan is perfect and includes both you and me.