How would the Judeans respond to this blasphemous challenge? How they did determined their destiny not only at that moment but for years to come.
36:21 The people listening to this invitation did not respond out loud because Hezekiah commanded them to remain silent.
36:22 Hezekiah's officials then returned to their king, who had not dignified the occasion with his presence, to report what had happened. They tore their clothes as a sign of extreme distress over the present crisis.
37:1 Hezekiah's response was also extreme grief, but he went into the temple. He wanted to seek the Lord's wisdom and help in prayer.
"Happy the nation that has such a ruler."360
It is not clear how involved Hezekiah had been in making the treaty with Egypt, but his personal repentance here set the pattern for the nation.
37:2 Then the king sent some of his highest officials and some of the leading priests, who were also in mourning, to visit Isaiah. Notice that Hezekiah did not summon Isaiah into his presence. This reflects the respect that the king felt for the prophet (cf. 2 Kings 6:12).
37:3-4 The leaders of Judah, speaking for their king, acknowledged that he had come to the end of his rope. The Assyrian invasion of Judah had been like labor pains for the king, but now the crisis had peaked and there was no human strength left to expel the enemy. Hezekiah confessed that he deserved the adversity that had overtaken him, which had signaled an end of hope and resulted in great embarrassment. Yet he did not appeal for divine help on the basis of his own needs but because of the Lord's honor and the needs of His people (cf. 1 Sam. 17:26, 36). The king appealed for Isaiah's prayers on behalf of the remnant, the remaining Judahites who had not already been devoured by the Assyrians.
"This kind of admission of helplessness is frequently a necessity before divine help can be received. So long as we believe that we only need some assistance, we are still treating ourselves as lords of the situation, and that latent pride cuts us off from all that God would give us."361
37:5-7 So the officials came to Isaiah, and the prophet responded by sending them back to the king with a message from Yahweh. Hezekiah was not to fear the blasphemous claims of Sennacherib's underlings. The Lord promised to lead the king away from Jerusalem and back to his own country where he would die by the sword. A message placed in Sennacherib's ear would be the sovereign Lord's instrument. The lack of reference to the decimation of the Assyrian troops already gathered around Jerusalem (cf. v. 2) focuses the promise on the central issue, divine punishment for the king's blasphemy (cf. 14:24-27; 31:8).
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