Commentary - Isaiah 36:4-10

Bird's-eye view

This passage plunges us into one of the great spiritual standoffs in the Old Testament. The scene is a geopolitical crisis, but the conflict is fundamentally theological. Rabshakeh, the mouthpiece for Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, is not just a military envoy; he is a preacher of a false gospel. His speech, delivered in the hearing of the common people of Jerusalem, is a masterpiece of psychological warfare, designed to dismantle every foundation of Judah's trust, leaving them with nothing but despair. He systematically attacks their military alliances, their political leadership, and most importantly, their confidence in Yahweh. He uses a blend of truth, half-truth, and outright blasphemy to make his case. The core of his argument is that resistance is futile because Assyria is the true global superpower, and even Judah's God is either unable or unwilling to stop them. In fact, Rabshakeh audaciously claims that Yahweh is the one who commissioned Assyria's invasion. This is the world's gospel: might makes right, and the gods are on the side of the big battalions. Hezekiah's reformation and trust in God are presented as folly, a weak and pathetic alternative to the hard-nosed realism of Assyrian power. This is a direct challenge to the First Commandment, a summons for Judah to transfer their trust from the living God to the mortal king of Assyria.

The entire scene is a test of faith. Will Judah believe the promises of God delivered through His prophet Isaiah, or will they succumb to the persuasive, intimidating, and seemingly logical arguments of the enemy? Rabshakeh's speech is a perfect illustration of the kind of taunts and temptations the people of God face in every generation. The enemy always seeks to undermine our confidence in God by pointing to our weakness, mocking our piety, twisting God's words, and presenting the power of the world as an irresistible force. The question for Judah, and for us, is the one Rabshakeh himself poses: "What is this trust that you have?" Everything hinges on the answer.

Outline

Context In Isaiah

This dramatic narrative section (Isaiah 36-39) serves as the historical hinge for the entire book. It provides the concrete, historical validation for the prophecies that have come before and sets the stage for the glorious promises of restoration that will follow in chapters 40-66. In the preceding chapters, Isaiah has been warning Judah against forming foreign alliances, particularly with Egypt, urging them to trust in Yahweh alone for their deliverance from the Assyrian threat. King Ahaz, Hezekiah's father, had failed this test miserably by appealing to Assyria for help against Israel and Syria (Isaiah 7). Now, his son Hezekiah is facing the full force of that same Assyrian machine. Hezekiah has instituted sweeping religious reforms, cleansing the land of idolatry and centralizing worship in Jerusalem as the law required (2 Kings 18:4). This confrontation with Rabshakeh is therefore the ultimate test of Hezekiah's reformation. Is his trust in Yahweh genuine? Will it hold up under the most intense pressure imaginable? This historical account demonstrates in real-time the clash between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of men, proving that God is indeed sovereign and that faith in Him, not in political maneuvering, is the only path to salvation.

Key Issues

The Devil's Megaphone

Rabshakeh is more than just a historical figure; he is an archetype. He represents the voice of the world, the flesh, and the devil, amplified for all to hear. His tactics are timeless. First, he isolates his target, speaking to the leaders but intending his words for the demoralization of the people on the wall. Second, he mixes truth with lies. It was true that Egypt was an unreliable ally. It was true that Judah was militarily outmatched. This veneer of truth makes the lies more plausible. Third, he attacks the character and wisdom of the godly leader, Hezekiah, attempting to drive a wedge between the king and his people. Fourth, and most insidiously, he co-opts the language of faith for his own demonic purposes. He claims to be on a mission from Yahweh. This is the ultimate spiritual gaslighting.

This is how our ancient foe always operates. He questions God's goodness ("Did God really say?"), he points to our circumstances as proof of God's abandonment, and he presents himself as the reasonable, logical, and powerful alternative. He preaches a gospel of sight, not of faith. "Look at the Assyrian army," he says. "Look at your own weakness. Look at the failure of your allies. Now, look at me. Surrender is the only sensible option." The Christian life is a continual refusal to accept this sermon. It is the settled conviction that what God has promised is more real than what the enemy is shouting.

Verse by Verse Commentary

4 Then Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What is this trust that you have?

The speech begins with a blast of imperial arrogance. Rabshakeh doesn't speak in his own name, but as the herald of "the great king, the king of Assyria." This title is a direct challenge. In the ancient world, and especially for Israel, there was only one truly "great king," and that was Yahweh. Assyria is setting itself up as the ultimate authority on earth, the arbiter of the fate of nations. And the first question from this self-proclaimed great king is a theological one: "What is this trust that you have?" The word can be translated as confidence, security, or reliance. Rabshakeh correctly identifies that the conflict is not ultimately about horses and chariots, but about the object of Judah's faith. He sees their defiance not as military strategy, but as an act of trust, and he intends to demolish it.

5 I say, ‘Your counsel and might for the war are only empty words.’ Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?

Rabshakeh dismisses Judah's entire war effort as mere talk, "empty words" or literally "a word of the lips." He is saying, "Your strategy sessions and your boasts of strength are nothing but hot air. You have no substance to back it up." He then repeats the central question, framing Hezekiah's stand as rebellion. From the Assyrian perspective, any nation that did not bow to Sennacherib was in rebellion. But from God's perspective, Hezekiah's refusal to bow was an act of faithfulness. The world always frames faithfulness to God as rebellion against the established order. Rabshakeh is probing, trying to find the source of this seemingly irrational confidence. He cannot comprehend a trust that is not based on visible, material power.

6 Behold, you trust in the staff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.

Here, Rabshakeh lands a solid punch, because he is telling the truth. He correctly identifies one of Judah's potential sources of trust: an alliance with Egypt. And his description of Egypt is brutally accurate. He calls it a "crushed reed," a walking stick that is already broken. Not only will it fail to support you, but it will splinter and pierce the hand of the one who leans on it. This was precisely the message God had been sending through Isaiah for years (Isa 30:1-7). Trusting in Egypt was not only futile, it was dangerous and idolatrous. The devil is more than happy to use God's truth when it serves his purpose of inducing despair. He is saying, "See? Even your best hope is a joke. Your saviors cannot save you."

7 But if you say to me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?

Having demolished their trust in Egypt, Rabshakeh turns to their ultimate trust: Yahweh. This is a brilliant, though blasphemous, piece of propaganda. He has heard about Hezekiah's reforms, but he interprets them through a pagan, polytheistic lens. In his worldview, more altars meant more access to the deity. By removing the illicit "high places" and centralizing worship in Jerusalem as the Torah commanded (Deut 12), Hezekiah was, in Rabshakeh's mind, offending his God. He was shutting down franchises, reducing the god's influence. He twists an act of profound obedience into an act of impiety. He is essentially arguing, "You can't trust in your God; your own king has been insulting him! Why would Yahweh help you when you've just torn down his shrines?" This is how the world misunderstands and mocks true reformation. It sees devotion to God's specific commands as narrow, intolerant, and foolish.

8 So now, come make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to give riders for them.

The taunting now becomes intensely personal and humiliating. After attacking their alliances and their religion, he attacks their competence. He makes a sarcastic wager. "I'll give you two thousand horses, a gift for your pathetic cavalry, but it wouldn't matter because you don't even have enough trained soldiers to ride them." This is designed to highlight their utter military insignificance. He is not just saying Assyria is stronger; he is saying Judah is not even in the same league. They are a non-entity, a joke. The offer is pure mockery, meant to crush their morale and emphasize their complete dependency on Assyria's goodwill.

9 How then can you turn away one official of the least of my master’s servants and trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

He drives the point home. "If you are so weak that you cannot even field two thousand horsemen, how could you possibly repulse even the lowest-ranking captain in Sennacherib's army?" He again links this military weakness to the folly of trusting in Egypt. The argument is circular but psychologically effective: you are weak, therefore you trust in Egypt, but Egypt is weak, which just proves how desperate and foolish you are. Every door to hope is being systematically slammed shut. There is no human solution. This is precisely the point God wants His people to reach, so that they will abandon all other trusts and look only to Him.

10 So now, have I come up without the approval of Yahweh against this land to make it a ruin? Yahweh said to me, ‘Go up against this land and make it a ruin.’ ” ’ ”

This is the final, most audacious, and most blasphemous claim. Rabshakeh appropriates the authority of God Himself. He claims that his invasion is not just a standard military campaign, but a holy war commissioned by Yahweh. "I am here on your God's orders." Now, in a certain ironic sense, he was correct. God was indeed using Assyria as the rod of His anger to discipline His people (Isa 10:5). But God had not given Sennacherib a direct, personal command. Rabshakeh is either lying, twisting a rumor he has heard, or is demonically inspired to speak a half-truth that will be maximally destructive to the faith of God's people. He is attempting the ultimate subversion: to make Judah believe that to resist Assyria is to resist God. If they believe this lie, all resistance will collapse. Their last refuge, trust in God, will have been turned into a reason for surrender.

Application

The sermon of Rabshakeh is still being preached today. The world, through its various mouthpieces, constantly tells the church that our trust is misplaced. It tells us our reliance on God is "empty words." It points to the weakness of our "allies" and the failures within the church to prove that our faith is futile. It mocks our attempts at holiness and biblical reformation, misinterpreting our obedience as narrow-minded bigotry. It taunts us with our lack of worldly power, influence, and resources. And most subtly, it sometimes claims that the spirit of the age, the progressive march of history, is in fact the work of God, and to resist it is to fight against God Himself.

We must learn from Hezekiah's men, who, at his command, "were silent and did not answer him a word" (Isa 36:21). Arguing with the devil's megaphone is a fool's errand. The proper response to the taunts of the world is not a clever retort, but a quiet and resolute confidence in the God who has spoken. We must know what we believe and in whom we have believed. Our confidence is not in our own strength, our political savvy, or our cultural relevance. Our confidence is in Yahweh our God.

Like Judah, we must see through the enemy's lies. When he points out our weakness, we must agree and say, "Yes, and for that reason we do not trust in ourselves." When he boasts of his power, we must remember the one who declares the end from the beginning. And when he blasphemously claims to be on God's side, we must cling to God's revealed Word, which tells us that the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. Rabshakeh had a great king. But we have a greater one.