The Angel, the Arrogance, and the Aftermath Text: 2 Chronicles 32:20-23
Introduction: Two Kings, Two Gods
History is not a random series of events, a tale told by an idiot. History is a story, and the central plot line of that story is the conflict between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of men. It is a war of thrones. More specifically, it is a war of gods. Every earthly king serves a god, whether he admits it or not. If he does not serve the true and living God, Yahweh, then he serves himself, or his lusts, or his power, which is to say, he serves an idol. And every so often, God, in His providence, brings this simmering conflict to a full and rolling boil. He sets up a test case. He arranges a public contest so that all the nations might see who is God.
This is precisely what we have here in the confrontation between Hezekiah, king of Judah, and Sennacherib, king of Assyria. Sennacherib is not just a pagan king; he is the pagan king. He is the mouthpiece of the dragon, the embodiment of imperial arrogance. His emissary, the Rabshakeh, had stood before the walls of Jerusalem and blasphemed Yahweh in fluent Hebrew, mocking Him as just another local deity, no different from the gods of Hamath or Arpad, gods who were powerless to stop the Assyrian war machine. Sennacherib’s entire campaign was predicated on the assumption that Yahweh was a cosmic lightweight.
Hezekiah, on the other hand, is a flawed but faithful king. He had made his preparations, yes. He had stopped up the springs and strengthened the walls. Faith is not fatalism; you lock your doors at night. But Hezekiah knew that the walls were not his ultimate trust. His ultimate trust was in the God who had made the heavens and the earth. And so, the stage is set. It is the god of Assyria versus the God of Israel. It is the empty boasts of a man who thinks he is a god against the silent, terrifying power of the God who is God. This is not a battle between two armies; it is an object lesson in the First Commandment.
The Text
But King Hezekiah and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed about this and cried out to heaven. And Yahweh sent an angel who wiped out every mighty man of valor, ruler, and commander in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned in shame to his own land. And he entered the house of his god, and some of his own children caused him to fall there by the sword. So Yahweh saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria and from the hand of all others, and He guided them on every side. And many were bringing presents to Yahweh at Jerusalem and precious things to Hezekiah king of Judah, so that he was lifted up in the sight of all nations thereafter.
(2 Chronicles 32:20-23 LSB)
The Cry of the Besieged (v. 20)
The first action we see from God's people is not a military counter-offensive. It is an appeal to the high king of heaven.
"But King Hezekiah and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed about this and cried out to heaven." (2 Chronicles 32:20)
Notice the partnership here. The king and the prophet, the state and the church, are united in their purpose. They are not at odds. They understand that the threat is not merely political; it is theological. Sennacherib’s blasphemies were not just insults against Judah; they were insults against Judah’s God. And so, the king and the prophet do the only sane thing there is to do when confronted with an overwhelming force. They cry out to heaven.
This was not a polite, folded-hands, "Now I lay me down to sleep" kind of prayer. The text says they "cried out." This is the prayer of men with their backs against the wall. This is the prayer of desperation, the prayer of faith that has nowhere else to look but up. When the world, the flesh, and the devil come against the people of God, our first and most potent weapon is to appeal to our covenant Lord. This is imprecatory prayer in its essence. It is not personal vindictiveness. It is a plea for God to vindicate His own name. The prayer, as recorded in Isaiah 37, is essentially this: "Lord, you heard him. Are you going to let him get away with that?" This is a righteous appeal, based on God's own jealousy for His glory.
We live in an age of sophisticated, technological paganism. The new Sennacheribs stand before the walls of the church and mock our God, our Bible, and our morality. They tell us our God is dead, or impotent, or irrelevant. And what is our response? Too often, it is to form a committee. It is to try and reason with the Rabshakeh. It is to adopt a new marketing strategy. But Hezekiah and Isaiah show us the true posture of the church militant. We must cry out to heaven. We must ask God to act for the glory of His own name.
The Divine Response: One Angel is Enough (v. 21)
God's answer to this prayer is not subtle. It is sudden, silent, and absolutely catastrophic for the enemy.
"And Yahweh sent an angel who wiped out every mighty man of valor, ruler, and commander in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned in shame to his own land. And he entered the house of his god, and some of his own children caused him to fall there by the sword." (2 Chronicles 32:21)
Yahweh sent an angel. Just one. God did not need to muster the armies of heaven. He did not need a legion. He dispatched a single, solitary messenger. And in one night, this angel moved through the Assyrian camp and extinguished the lives of 185,000 soldiers (2 Kings 19:35). The text here emphasizes that these were not mere foot soldiers; these were the "mighty men of valor, rulers, and commanders." The entire leadership structure of the most feared army on earth was decapitated overnight, without a single sword being lifted by Judah.
This is the sovereignty of God in action. God is not a playwright who is bound by the rules of His own play. He is the author, and He can write into the script whatever He pleases. He can save by many or by few, or, as in this case, by none at all. This is a glorious demonstration that the battle belongs to the Lord. Our deliverance does not depend on our strength, our numbers, or our cleverness. It depends entirely on the good pleasure of God.
And then look at the aftermath for Sennacherib. He returns "in shame." This is the divine sense of humor. The man whose mouth was filled with arrogant boasts returns to his own country with nothing to say. His grand campaign ended in a silent, inexplicable plague. But the humiliation is not over. He goes into the temple of his god, Nisroch, presumably to ask what went wrong. And there, in the presence of his lifeless, powerless idol, his own sons cut him down. The punishment is drenched in poetic justice. The man who blasphemed the living God is murdered in the house of a dead god. The man who threatened the sons of God in Jerusalem is killed by his own sons in Nineveh. God is not mocked. What a man sows, that he will also reap, and Sennacherib reaped a harvest of shame, humiliation, and blood.
The Author of Salvation (v. 22)
The chronicler leaves no room for ambiguity about who gets the credit for this victory.
"So Yahweh saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria and from the hand of all others, and He guided them on every side." (2 Chronicles 32:22)
The sentence begins with "So Yahweh saved." It was not Hezekiah’s piety, nor Isaiah’s eloquence, nor Judah’s army that saved them. It was Yahweh. Period. Salvation is of the Lord. This is the central message of the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. God is the one who saves His people. He saves them from the Egyptians, from the Philistines, from the Babylonians, and ultimately, He saves them from their sins through the person of His Son.
And notice the scope of this salvation. He saved them not only from Sennacherib, but "from the hand of all others." This one decisive act of judgment sent a shockwave through the entire geopolitical landscape. It established a perimeter of peace around Judah. The result was that God "guided them on every side." The Hebrew can also be translated as "gave them rest." When God deals with our enemies, He does not just give us a temporary reprieve. He gives us peace. He gives us rest. This is a foretaste of the ultimate rest we have in Christ, who has conquered our greatest enemy, sin and death, and secured for us an eternal peace.
The Tribute of the Nations (v. 23)
The final verse shows the result of God's mighty act, not just for Judah, but for the surrounding nations.
"And many were bringing presents to Yahweh at Jerusalem and precious things to Hezekiah king of Judah, so that he was lifted up in the sight of all nations thereafter." (2 Chronicles 32:23)
When God acts in power to save His people and judge His enemies, the world takes notice. The result of this deliverance was a stream of tribute flowing to Jerusalem. But notice the order. They brought "presents to Yahweh," and "precious things to Hezekiah." The glory goes to God first, and then the honor flows to His anointed representative. This is the proper order of things. When God is exalted, His people are blessed.
This is a beautiful picture of the Great Commission in the Old Testament. God’s mighty acts of salvation are a form of evangelism. The nations see His power, they see the impotence of their own gods, and they are compelled to bring their treasures and lay them at His feet. This event magnified Hezekiah, but it did so as a means of magnifying the God of Hezekiah. This is a preview of that day when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. The wealth of the nations will one day flow into the New Jerusalem, not as a bribe, but as tribute to the King of kings.
Conclusion: Our Sennacherib and Our God
This is not just an interesting story from the ancient world. This is a paradigm for the people of God in every age. We are besieged. We are surrounded by a culture that is every bit as arrogant and blasphemous as Sennacherib. The intellectual elites, the media, the political powers, they all stand before the walls of the church and mock our King. They tell us that our faith is a relic, that our morals are bigoted, and that our God is an imaginary friend.
And what must we do? We must do as Hezekiah and Isaiah did. We must recognize that the insults are ultimately directed at our God. We must refuse to trust in our own political cleverness or cultural savvy. We must cry out to heaven. We must pray that God would vindicate His own great name.
And we must have confidence that He will answer. We serve the same God who sent one angel to destroy the Assyrian army. We serve the God who delights in bringing low the proud and exalting the humble. Our Sennacherib may be a godless ideology, a tyrannical state, or the sin that crouches at our own door. But our God is the one who speaks, and it is done. He has already sent His Son to win the decisive victory at the cross. He has already disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame. The battle is the Lord's, and the victory is already assured. Our task is to stand firm, to cry out to Him in faith, and to watch as He brings all His enemies to ruin, for His own everlasting glory.