The Assyrian #3

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

“For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod” (Isaiah 30:31 KJV).

Who is this “Assyrian?”

Another “Assyrian” about which Isaiah the Prophet wrote is King Sennacherib: “Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the defenced cities of Judah, and took them” (Isaiah 36:1). This was approximately 702 B.C., some 20 years after Assyria had already captured Israel’s 10 northern tribes (2 Kings chapter 17). Now, in King Hezekiah’s day, another King of Assyria has come into power, and he seeks to conquer Jerusalem (southern tribes). “And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem,…” (2 Chronicles 32:1).

Hezekiah advises his people: “Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him: With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah” (2 Chronicles 32:7,8).

Additionally, Hezekiah prays to the LORD to intervene and save Jerusalem from otherwise certain doom (2 Kings 19:15-19; Isaiah 37:15-20). “And for this cause Hezekiah the king, and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz, prayed and cried to heaven. And the LORD sent an angel, which cut off all the mighty men of valour, and the leaders and captains in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he was come into the house of his god, they that came forth of his own bowels slew him there with the sword. Thus the LORD saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all other, and guided them on every side” (2 Chronicles 32:20-22; cf. 2 Kings 19:32-36; Isaiah 37:33-38).

When Assyrian King Sennacherib and his troops encircled Jerusalem, the LORD defended and spared the city for David’s sake. In today’s Scripture, yet future from us, JEHOVAH God will again deliver Jerusalem from an “Assyrian….”