Introduction: In Biblical Hebrew the word for messenger and angel are the same – ‘mal’akh’. You may remember that Hezekiah was depending on Egypt for help. The Egyptian records have a story of Sennacherib’s sudden departure because field mice had chewed through the bow and shield straps of the army! How did the Angel of God work his miracle? The passage in 2 Kings 19 says that the next morning there were 185,000 dead soldiers.This reminds me of the theory of a plague causing the deaths and my experiences with massive deaths due to cholera makes this more likely than the mice story! The thing that impresses me is that God promised and God did! The three years as a sign suggests to me that the three years indicated when the Assyrian army would flee. Historically Judea had been under Assyrian vassalage for some years. Is the meaning that the angel wouldn’t come immediately, but after 2 years? Some suggest that the delay of 2 years before getting a good crop was because according to the law the year Sennacherib fled was the Year of Jubilee etc and so it took 3 years for them to get a good crop. I’m happy to wait and find out the answer when talking to Isaiah or the angel in the here-after!
30 “And this shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that. Then in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 31 And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 32 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
33 “Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. 34 By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the LORD. 35 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”
36 And the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 37 Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. 38 And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of Ararat, Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place. – the Judeans didn’t win the battle – God did!
2 Chronicles 32: 21-22a – And the LORD sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty warriors and commanders and officers in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he came into the house of his god, some of his own sons struck him down there with the sword. So the LORD saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of Assyria.
Prayer: Guide my honest questioning of Your Word so that it leads me to deeper faith not lingering doubt.