The Theology of the Bully Pulpit Text: 2 Chronicles 32:9-19
Introduction: The Language of Unbelief
Every conflict, every war, is ultimately a theological dispute. Men and nations go to war because they have rival gods, rival visions of reality, and rival claims to sovereignty. Here in 2 Chronicles 32, the armies of Assyria are not just besieging the city of Jerusalem with battering rams and siege engines. They have brought their heaviest artillery, which is psychological, spiritual, and theological. The king of Assyria, Sennacherib, understands that if you can capture a people's mind, their walls will fall shortly thereafter. If you can sever their trust in their God, their swords will be useless.
This is more than just an ancient history lesson. The tactics of Sennacherib's servants are the perennial tactics of the world, the flesh, and the devil. The arguments they shout in the language of Judah are the same arguments whispered in our ears today by our secular overlords, by our own doubting hearts, and by the ancient serpent himself. It is the language of unbelief, and it has a handful of standard tropes. It appeals to pragmatism, it twists the truth, it boasts in its own power, and its central strategy is to commit a colossal category error: to treat the living God, the Creator of heaven and earth, as just one more tribal deity on a long list of defeated gods.
The world always seeks to relativize the God of Abraham. It wants to put Him on a shelf with Zeus, and Baal, and Marduk, and the god of self-esteem. The argument is always the same: "We are big, and you are small. We are powerful, and you are weak. We have crushed everyone who has stood against us. What makes you think your god is any different?" This is the theology of the bully pulpit. It is the gospel of intimidation. And it is aimed squarely at the heart of faith. Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem are being tempted to believe that the Assyrian army is the ultimate reality, and that Yahweh is, at best, a long shot. We must pay close attention, because this same temptation comes to us, just in different uniforms.
The Text
After this Sennacherib king of Assyria sent his servants to Jerusalem while he was besieging Lachish with all his forces with him, against Hezekiah king of Judah and against all Judah who were at Jerusalem, saying, "Thus says Sennacherib king of Assyria, ‘On what are you trusting that you are remaining in Jerusalem under siege? Is not Hezekiah inciting you to give yourselves over to die by hunger and by thirst, saying, “Yahweh our God will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria”? Has not the same Hezekiah taken away His high places and His altars, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, “You shall worship before one altar, and on it you shall offer offerings up in smoke”? Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the lands? Were the gods of the nations of the lands able at all to deliver their land from my hand? Who was there among all the gods of these nations which my fathers devoted to destruction, who could deliver his people from my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you from my hand? So now, do not let Hezekiah deceive you or incite you like this, and do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you from my hand?’ ”
His servants spoke further against Yahweh God and against His servant Hezekiah. He also wrote letters to reproach Yahweh, the God of Israel, and to speak against Him, saying, “As the gods of the nations of the lands have not delivered their people from my hand, so the God of Hezekiah will not deliver His people from my hand.” And they called this out with a loud voice in the language of Judah to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to instill fear and terrify them, so that they might capture the city. And they spoke of the God of Jerusalem as of the gods of the peoples of the earth, the work of men’s hands.
(2 Chronicles 32:9-19 LSB)
The Enemy's Opening Salvo (vv. 9-12)
The Assyrian psy-ops campaign begins with a series of questions designed to sow doubt and division. Sennacherib sends his mouthpieces to the wall of Jerusalem to speak directly to the people.
"Thus says Sennacherib king of Assyria, ‘On what are you trusting that you are remaining in Jerusalem under siege? Is not Hezekiah inciting you to give yourselves over to die by hunger and by thirst, saying, “Yahweh our God will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria”?" (2 Chronicles 32:10-11)
The first question is the fundamental question of all existence: "On what are you trusting?" This is the question every worldview must answer. Sennacherib assumes their trust is misplaced because he can't see it. He sees walls, and men, and a limited supply of food and water. He operates in a world of brute facts, of material force. He is asking a spiritual question from a materialist presupposition. The world always looks at the church under siege and asks the same thing. "On what are you trusting? Your numbers are small. Your influence is waning. The culture is against you. Your budget is tight. Be reasonable. Surrender."
Next, he attempts to drive a wedge between the people and their king. He frames Hezekiah's faithful leadership as reckless incitement. "Hezekiah is misleading you into a pointless death." This is the classic charge of the pragmatist against the man of faith. The world calls faith-filled obedience "irresponsible." They call standing on the promises of God "fanaticism." They say that trusting God to deliver is a pipe dream that will lead to starvation. They want you to believe that your pastor, your elders, and your godly leaders are fools who are out of touch with reality.
But the most insidious part of the attack comes in verse 12. It is a masterpiece of diabolical misinformation.
"Has not the same Hezekiah taken away His high places and His altars, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, “You shall worship before one altar, and on it you shall offer offerings up in smoke”?" (2 Chronicles 32:12)
What had Hezekiah done? He had led a great reformation. He had cleansed the land of idolatry. He had torn down the high places and the pagan altars where the people were engaged in syncretistic, disobedient worship, and he had restored true worship according to God's law at the one altar in Jerusalem. This was his greatest act of faithfulness. And Sennacherib's propagandist takes this very act of obedience and spins it as an act of impiety. He says, in effect, "Your king has offended your God! He has torn down all His shrines! How can you expect a God you've so diminished to save you?"
This is what the enemy always does. He takes our obedience and reframes it as foolishness or wickedness. When you discipline your children according to Scripture, the world says you are abusing them. When you hold to a biblical sexual ethic, the world says you are a hateful bigot. When you tear down the high places of cultural idolatry in your own life, the world accuses you of being a fanatic. The enemy's intelligence is good enough to know what the righteous are doing, but his spiritual blindness is so complete that he cannot comprehend why. He sees reformation and calls it rebellion.
The Argument from a Flat Universe (vv. 13-15)
Having planted the seeds of doubt, the Assyrian spokesman now moves to his central argument. It is an argument from induction, based on his own imperial experience.
"Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the lands? Were the gods of the nations of the lands able at all to deliver their land from my hand? ...for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you from my hand?’" (2 Chronicles 32:13, 15)
This is the logic of the playground bully and the global empire. "I've beaten up everyone else, so I will surely beat you up too." His argument is entirely horizontal. He has a long list of defeated nations and their defeated gods. He has the data. He has the historical precedent. From his perspective, the conclusion is inescapable. Yahweh is simply the next name on the list.
This is the great blasphemy. This is the colossal category error. Sennacherib places Yahweh on the same level, in the same category, as the gods of the other nations. He assumes a flat universe, where all gods are essentially the same kind of being, differing only in their power levels. And since the Assyrian war machine has proven stronger than all the other gods, he logically concludes it must be stronger than Yahweh as well. He cannot conceive of a different kind of God. He cannot imagine a God who is not a part of the universe, but the one who created it. He cannot imagine the Creator/creature distinction.
This is the foundational error of all paganism and all modern secularism. It looks at the God of the Bible and says, "Oh, you have your god, and others have theirs. It's one option among many." It is a refusal to acknowledge that Yahweh is not an entity within the cosmos; He is the one who spoke the cosmos into existence. The gods of the nations are artifacts; Yahweh is the artist. They are characters in the story; He is the author. To compare them is like comparing a character painted by Rembrandt to Rembrandt himself. Sennacherib's argument is foolish because his premise is insane. He is using Assyrian military history to measure the power of the God who invented history.
The Propaganda Barrage (vv. 16-19)
The attack now escalates. It becomes more direct, more public, and more explicit in its blasphemy.
"His servants spoke further against Yahweh God and against His servant Hezekiah... And they called this out with a loud voice in the language of Judah to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to instill fear and terrify them..." (2 Chronicles 32:16, 18)
They don't just send a diplomatic letter. They shout it. They shout it in the vernacular, in the language of the common man on the street, so that everyone can understand. The goal is not negotiation; the goal is terror. They want to bypass the leadership and demoralize the populace. This is the strategy of every godless movement. It seeks to isolate the individual, to make him feel afraid and alone, to convince him that resistance is futile and that his leaders have failed him.
And then, the narrator gives us the theological summary of their entire position in verse 19. This is the nail in the coffin of their worldview.
"And they spoke of the God of Jerusalem as of the gods of the peoples of the earth, the work of men’s hands." (2 Chronicles 32:19)
Here it is, laid bare. They equated the God of Jerusalem with idols. They equated the uncreated God with gods that are "the work of men's hands." This is the ultimate foolishness described in Romans 1. They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images. They could not imagine a God who was not made, because they themselves were creatures who lived in a world of made things. Their worldview had no room for a transcendent Creator. Therefore, when they blasphemed Yahweh, they were not simply being rude. They were speaking the logical conclusion of their own godless, materialistic faith. They believed that reality consisted only of things you could see, conquer, and carry away. They were blind to the one who holds all things together by the word of His power.
Our Sennacherib
We do not have the Assyrian army outside our walls today. But we have the same spirit, the same arguments, and the same blasphemies shouted at us from every cultural loudspeaker. The modern secularist is Sennacherib in a lab coat or a business suit. He looks at the Christian faith and says, "On what are you trusting? Science has disproven your myths. Progress has made your morality obsolete. We have history on our side. All the other religions have crumbled before our enlightened reason. How much less will your God deliver you from our hands?"
The world speaks of the God of the Bible as though He were the work of men's hands, a sociological construct, a psychological crutch, an artifact of an ignorant age. They commit the same category error. They place God inside the system as one more variable to be analyzed, studied, and ultimately dismissed.
And like the Assyrians, they twist our obedience into a crime. When we insist that there is one way to the Father, through the Son, they call it intolerant. When we insist that there is one standard for marriage, they call it hateful. When we insist on worshipping at the one altar of Jesus Christ, and not at the high places of cultural syncretism, they accuse us of being divisive and dangerous.
The story of Sennacherib's siege is our story. And the central issue is the same. Is Yahweh the one true God, the Creator of all, who stands outside and over His creation, sovereign and absolute? Or is He just another god, another option, another name on a long list of failed deities? The answer to that question determines everything. Sennacherib made his choice. He put Yahweh in a box with the idols, and in so doing, he sealed his own doom. For the God who is not an idol does not take kindly to being treated like one. He is a jealous God. And as the rest of this chapter shows, He was about to answer the Assyrian's theological arguments, not with a counter-argument, but with an angel and 185,000 corpses.
Our confidence is not in the strength of our walls or the cleverness of our leaders. Our confidence is in the character of our God. He is not like the others. He is not the work of men's hands. He is the one whose hands made man. And He has promised to deliver all who trust in Him.