The Hook in Leviathan's Nose Text: 2 Kings 19:20-37
Introduction: Two Prayers, Two Gods
We come now to the climax of a cosmic showdown. This is not merely a geopolitical conflict between the regional superpower of Assyria and the tiny kingdom of Judah. It is a battle between two gods, or rather, between the one true God and a demonic pretender. On one side, you have Sennacherib, king of Assyria, the undisputed master of the world, with his massive army, his siege engines, and his monumental arrogance. He is the embodiment of pagan statism, the man who believes himself to be god, who thinks history is something he writes with the blood of his enemies.
On the other side, you have Hezekiah, king of Judah, trapped in Jerusalem, with no military options left. He has nothing but a blasphemous letter from Sennacherib, which he takes into the temple, spreads before Yahweh, and prays. This is the great antithesis. The world believes in chariots and armies; the people of God believe in prayer. The world trusts in its own voice, its own propaganda, its own power. We trust in the God who hears.
The entire conflict boils down to this: Sennacherib has sent his message to Hezekiah. But Hezekiah has forwarded the message to God. Now, God sends His reply. And when God replies to the arrogant blasphemies of men, He does not mince words. What we are about to read is God's official, divine smackdown. It is a polemic aimed not just at a long dead Assyrian king, but at every tinpot tyrant, every secularist government, every proud intellectual, and every rebellious heart that has ever shaken its fist at heaven and declared itself to be the master of its own fate. This is God's answer to the rage of the nations.
The Text
Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah saying, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard you.’ This is the word that Yahweh has spoken against him: ‘She has despised you and mocked you, The virgin daughter of Zion; She has shaken her head behind you, The daughter of Jerusalem! Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? And against whom have you heightened your voice, And haughtily lifted up your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel! Through your messengers you have reproached the Lord, And you have said, “With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains, To the remotest parts of Lebanon; And I cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses. And I entered its farthest lodging place, its thickest forest. I dug wells and drank foreign waters, And with the sole of my feet I dried up All the rivers of Egypt.” ‘Have you not heard? Long ago I did it; From days of old I formed it. Now I have brought it to pass, That you should devastate fortified cities into ruinous heaps. So their inhabitants were short of power, They were dismayed and put to shame; They were as the plant of the field and as the green herb, As grass on the rooftops is scorched before it rises. But I know your sitting down, And your going out and your coming in, And your raging against Me. Because of your raging against Me, And because your presumptuousness has come up to My ears, Therefore I will put My hook in your nose, And My bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back by the way which you came. ‘Then this shall be the sign for you: you will eat this year what grows of its own accord, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant, and out of Mount Zion survivors. The zeal of Yahweh will do this. ‘Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, “He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield or throw up a siege ramp against it. By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he shall not come to this city,” ’ declares Yahweh. ‘Indeed I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’ ” Now it happened that night, that the angel of Yahweh went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And the men arose early in the morning, and behold, all of them were dead bodies. So Sennacherib king of Assyria set out and went away and returned home and lived at Nineveh. Now it happened that as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.
(2 Kings 19:20-37 LSB)
The Divine Taunt (vv. 20-22)
The first thing to notice is that God's response begins by acknowledging Hezekiah's prayer. "Because you have prayed to Me... I have heard you." This is the foundation of everything that follows. Prayer is not a pious formality; it is the instrument through which God governs His world. Hezekiah's prayer moved the hand that moves the universe.
"She has despised you and mocked you, The virgin daughter of Zion; She has shaken her head behind you, The daughter of Jerusalem! Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? ... Against the Holy One of Israel!" (2 Kings 19:21-22)
God's first volley is a taunt. He personifies Jerusalem as a virgin daughter, pure and inviolable. While Sennacherib is puffing out his chest in front of the city walls, she is behind him, shaking her head in derision, laughing at his pathetic posturing. This is cosmic scorn. The world thinks the church is weak, a victim. God says she is a virgin queen who laughs at tyrants. She is secure not because of her walls, but because of her God.
Then God gets to the heart of the indictment. "Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?" Sennacherib thought he was engaged in a political quarrel with Hezekiah. God informs him that he has picked a fight with a much higher weight class. He has raised his voice and lifted his eyes "Against the Holy One of Israel!" This is Sennacherib's fundamental mistake, and it is the mistake of all God's enemies. They think they are fighting against a small band of religious fanatics. They do not realize they have declared war on Reality itself. They have blasphemed the Creator of heaven and earth, the one who is utterly separate, transcendent, and holy.
The Tyrant's Boast and God's History Lesson (vv. 23-26)
Next, God quotes Sennacherib's own press release back to him, exposing the monumental pride at the root of his sin.
"Through your messengers you have reproached the Lord, And you have said, 'With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains... I cut down its tall cedars... I dug wells... with the sole of my feet I dried up All the rivers of Egypt.'" (2 Kings 19:23-24 LSB)
Listen to the drumbeat of "I... I... I." This is the anthem of fallen man. Sennacherib sees himself as the master of the natural world. He doesn't just conquer cities; he conquers creation. He drives his chariots over impassable mountains. He cuts down the legendary cedars of Lebanon. He makes water appear in the desert and makes rivers disappear with his footsteps. This is the language of a man who believes he is God. This is the spirit of Babel, the spirit of Pharaoh, and the spirit of the modern secular state, which believes it can redefine reality, reshape nature, and engineer a new humanity through its own technological power.
But then God delivers the punchline, and it is a devastating one.
"'Have you not heard? Long ago I did it; From days of old I formed it. Now I have brought it to pass, That you should devastate fortified cities into ruinous heaps.'" (2 Kings 19:25 LSB)
This is one of the clearest statements of God's absolute sovereignty over history in all of Scripture. God asks Sennacherib, "Have you not read the minutes of our previous meeting? Did you not get the memo?" All of Sennacherib's conquests, all of his glorious victories, were planned and ordained by God from eternity past. Sennacherib thought he was the author of his story. God informs him that he is just a character, and a minor one at that. He was nothing more than an axe in the hand of the divine woodcutter (Isaiah 10:15). God raised him up for the specific purpose of judging other wicked nations. The nations he defeated were weak and "short of power" because God had determined it. Sennacherib was God's hammer, and now God was about to judge the hammer for its arrogance.
The Beast on a Leash (vv. 27-28)
God's takedown becomes intensely personal. He exposes the impotence behind the rage.
"But I know your sitting down, And your going out and your coming in, And your raging against Me. Because of your raging against Me... I will put My hook in your nose, And My bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back by the way which you came." (2 Kings 19:27-28 LSB)
God knows everything about this supposedly mighty emperor, down to the most mundane details of his life. His rage, which he thought was so fearsome, is nothing more than a childish tantrum to God. And God's response is not to fight him as an equal. It is to treat him like a wild animal. The imagery of a hook in the nose and a bridle in the lips was how the Assyrians themselves depicted their handling of conquered peoples and beasts of burden. God says, "You think you are a lion, but you are just a bull. I will put a ring in your nose and lead you back to your pen." This is the ultimate humiliation. The great king who thought he controlled the world cannot even control the direction of his own feet. He is a beast on a divine leash.
The Sign of the Remnant (vv. 29-34)
After dealing with Sennacherib, God turns to Hezekiah with a word of comfort and promise.
"And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant, and out of Mount Zion survivors. The zeal of Yahweh will do this." (2 Kings 19:30-31 LSB)
The sign for Hezekiah is a promise of Sabbath rest and restoration. For two years, the ravaged land will provide food miraculously, without being sown. This is a sign that their deliverance and provision come from God, not their own labor. After this rest, normal life will resume. This points to the central theme of the Bible: God always preserves a remnant. Though judgment comes, God's covenant people will not be annihilated. They will "take root downward and bear fruit upward." This is a beautiful picture of the Christian life. True spiritual health means being deeply rooted in the truth of God's Word, which then results in the upward growth of righteous fruit.
And what is the engine of this great salvation? It is not human will or military might. The text is emphatic: "The zeal of Yahweh will do this." God's passionate, fiery, covenantal love for His own glory and for His people is the ultimate guarantee of our salvation. It is this same zeal that sent Jesus to the cross. God's promises are not based on our performance, but on His passionate commitment to His own name.
God then gives the specific, falsifiable prophecy:
"He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there... By the way that he came, by the same he will return... I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake." (2 Kings 19:32-34 LSB)
This is not a vague spiritual encouragement. It is a concrete promise. The siege will not even begin. Not one arrow will fly over the wall. And God states His two motives plainly: His own reputation ("for My own sake") and His covenant promise ("for My servant David's sake"). God acts to vindicate His glory and to keep His Word. Our security rests on these two unshakable pillars.
The Angel and the Idol (vv. 35-37)
The execution of God's sentence is breathtaking in its speed and efficiency.
"Now it happened that night, that the angel of Yahweh went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians." One angel. One night. No battle. No noise. Just a silent, terrifying reaping. The army that had terrorized the world was turned into a field of corpses while they slept. This is the power of the God we serve. He does not need armies. He has hosts of angels who do His bidding with terrifying power.
The story concludes with the pathetic end of the blasphemer. Sennacherib limps home in disgrace. And then, the final, crushing irony. "It happened that as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer [his sons] struck him down with the sword."
Consider the perfect, poetic justice of this. The God of Israel defended His city and His king from an overwhelming foreign army. The god of Assyria, Nisroch, could not defend his most powerful worshiper, in his own temple, from his own two sons. The contrast is absolute. Yahweh is the living God who saves. The idols are blocks of wood and stone who can do nothing. Sennacherib's life is a case study in the truth of Psalm 115: "Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see... Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them." Sennacherib trusted a dead god, and he ended up a dead man.
This is the fate of all who rage against the Lord and His Anointed. Our God is a consuming fire. He is jealous for His name. He hears the prayers of His people. He puts hooks in the noses of tyrants, and He defends His city. Let us therefore not fear the boasts of modern Sennacheribs. Let us, like Hezekiah, take their blasphemies, spread them before the Lord, and trust that the zeal of Yahweh will perform His good pleasure.