Now, therefore, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses--if you can put riders on them! Sermons
I. HE PRETENDS TO BE DOING GOD'S WORK. 1. He ridicules their confidence in Egypt. Isaiah himself could hardly have warned them more strongly against the vanity of alliance with other nations. "Thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt" (ver. 21). 2. He censures Hezekiah for disrespect toward God. "If ye say unto me, We trust in the Lord God: is not this he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away?" (ver. 22). So Satan sometimes appears as an angel of light. Men of sin and worldliness sometimes show a remarkable interest in the Church of God. 3. He represents himself as having a commission frown God. "Am I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it" (ver. 25). It is thus that sin constantly presents itself to men and women. It masks its real features. It presents itself in a religious garb. A debased theatre professes to be the teacher of morality. But for one whose life it has changed for the better, there are thousands whom it has changed for the worse. Perhaps we should be justified in going the length of Pollok, in his 'Course of Time,' and in saying, "It might do good, but never did." How many questionable practices defend themselves on the ground that they are sanctioned and encouraged by "religious" people? II. HE MAKES LIGHT OF TRUST IN GOD. But soon the cloven foot appears. The tempter soon begins to wean the soul from that religion 'of whose interests he professes to be so jealous. See here the inconsistency of Rabshakeh's speech. He first of all made it appear that he was commissioned by God, and that therefore all their efforts to resist him would be futile. But now he proceeds to ridicule the idea of trusting to God's power. "Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us" (ver. 30). "Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the King of Assyria?" (vers. 33-35). So it is in the progress of sin. He who is led away by the allurements of the world and pleasure, first begins with pleasures which lie on the herder-land between the bad and the good. These are the pleasures or pursuits about which men say, "Oh! there is no harm in that." "No harm" is a very dangerous phrase. When we hear it, we may generally doubt its truth. It usually refers to pursuits or pleasures which are the stepping-stones to worse sins. Many a man crosses the bridge of "no harm," and enters forever the land of "no good." Let us never be induced to waver in our trust in God and obedience to him. His way is the way of safety and peace. There are many whose work seems to be like that of Rabshakeh - to weaken the trust of others in God, to diminish the respect of others for the Law of God. "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven." Where God and conscience say to us, "You ought not," let not the tempter ever persuade us by saying, "You may." III. HE MAKES FALSE PROMISES. How fair-spoken is Rabshakeh! How very alluring his promises! If the people of Jerusalem would only make an agreement with the King of Assyria by a present, then they would eat every man of his own vine and fig tree, until he would afterwards take them away to a land like their own land, "a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that ye may live and not die." In this specious way he held before them an attractive prospect. But it was as empty as the bubble in the summer breeze. It was the pleasant euphemism by which he sought to gloss over the prospect of conquest and captivity. So with the pleasures of sin. How bright and how attractive, to outward appearance, are the haunts of wickedness and vice! The bright lights of the gin-palace - how they allure its unhappy victims, often by the contrast with the dreariness and misery of their homes! What a pleasant prospect sin in various forms presents! But how terrible is the reality! How grim is the skeleton at the feast! "My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not." Such are the tempter's methods still. The thirty-sixth verse contains a very good suggestion as to the way of meeting temptation. "But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word; for the king's commandment was, saying, Answer him not." It is a wise rule not to parley with the tempter. If we pray, "Lead us not into temptation," then we ought to be careful not to put ourselves in temptation's way. - C.H.I.
Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah. As you stood some stormy day upon a sea-cliff, and marked the giant billow rise from the deep, to rush on with foaming crest, and throw itself thundering on the trembling shore, did you ever fancy that you could stay its course, and hurl it back to the depths of ocean! Did you ever stand beneath the laden, lowering cloud, and mark the lightning's leap, as it shot and flashed dazzling athwart the gloom, and think that you could grasp the bolt and change its path! Still more foolish and vain his thought who fancies that he can arrest or turn aside the purpose of God, saying: "What is the Almighty that we should serve Him? Let us break His bands asunder, and cast away His cords from us!" Break His bands asunder! How He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh!(Guthrie.) People Abi, Abijah, Ahaz, Asaph, David, Elah, Eliakim, Hezekiah, Hilkiah, Hoshea, Israelites, Joah, Pharaoh, Rabsaris, Rabshakeh, Sennacherib, Shalmaneser, Shebna, Tartan, Zachariah, ZechariahPlaces Arpad, Assyria, Egypt, Gaza, Gozan, Habor River, Halah, Hamath, Hena, Ivvah, Jerusalem, Lachish, Samaria, Sepharvaim, Washer's FieldTopics Able, Asshur, Assyria, Bargain, Canst, Chance, Deliver, Engage, Horsemen, Horses, Master, Please, Pledge, Pledges, Riders, Thousand, WagerOutline 1. Hezekiah's good reign4. He destroys idolatry, and prospers 9. The inhabitants of Samaria are carried captive for their sins 13. Sennacherib invading Judah, is pacified by a tribute 17. Rabshakeh, by blasphemous persuasions, solicits the people to revolt Dictionary of Bible Themes 2 Kings 18:23Library Hezekiah, a Pattern of Devout Life'Hezekiah trusted in the Lord God of Israel.... 6. He clave to the Lord, and departed not from following Him, but kept His commandments.'--2 KINGS xviii. 5,6. Devout people in all ages and stations are very much like each other. The elements of godliness are always the same. This king of Israel, something like two thousand six hundred years ago, and the humblest Christian to-day have the family likeness on their faces. These words, which are an outline sketch of the king's character, are really … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture The Woman of Samaria A Living Book The Old Testament and Archeology Gihon, the Same with the Fountain of Siloam. Sargon of Assyria (722-705 B. C. ) General Principles of Interpretation. 1 Since the Bible Addresses Men in Human Language... Sennacherib (705-681 B. C. ) The History Books Kings Links 2 Kings 18:23 NIV2 Kings 18:23 NLT 2 Kings 18:23 ESV 2 Kings 18:23 NASB 2 Kings 18:23 KJV 2 Kings 18:23 Bible Apps 2 Kings 18:23 Parallel 2 Kings 18:23 Biblia Paralela 2 Kings 18:23 Chinese Bible 2 Kings 18:23 French Bible 2 Kings 18:23 German Bible 2 Kings 18:23 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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