Introduction: The purple shows the Assyrian kingdom: the green the conquered area under Assyria at Isaiah’s time: the brown is Judea. Judea spoke Hebrew. Aramaic was the official international language, and even the Assyrians spoke a different language which the Jews didn’t understand. The officials did understand the ‘International’ language. The common Jewish people probably didn’t understand Aramaic. The Jewish officials didn’t want the common people to understand what was being discussed. How like modern day politicians – they hide their discussions behind closed doors and sometimes/?always with lying!
11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 12 But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?” – What adjectives would you use to describe Rabshakeh’s reply? – superior; racist; threatening; insulting?
13 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 14 Thus says the king: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. 15 Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD by saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah. – Here we have 3 negative commands. Obviously Hezekiah’s words were going to call the people to trust Jehovah, Almighty God and to promise that God would deliver them from the Assyrians, ‘Do NOT be deceived’ Rabshakeh says and adds – For thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, 17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. – ‘I’m a good guy’ he says. ‘You should listen, not to Hezekiah, but to me!’ The suggestion is that Assyria would give the Jews a good deal in their own land, until they were taken elsewhere, where they would still be treated well! It is easy for politicians to make promises! – 18 Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 20 Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’” – I suspect that the Assyrians will get a huge shock when they discover Jehovah’s ‘Power’, not only compared to other ‘gods’ but to anything! We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see what happens next!
Isaiah 44: 19-20 – No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment (I think that this means, when carving an idol, ‘it is stupid’) to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?” 20 He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?” – you might like to read this whole chapter – Isaiah 44.
Prayer: Let me not be deceived as to whom real power belongs, please my Gracious God.