The Blasphemer's Press Release
Introduction: The World's Recurring Boast
We live in an age of swaggering threats. The enemies of God are not known for their humility. They do not whisper their blasphemies; they broadcast them. They send out press releases. Whether it is a pagan warlord from the ancient world or a secularist committee in the modern one, the message is always the same: "We are big, and your God is small. We have a track record of victories, and your God is next on our list. Your faith is a quaint superstition that will buckle under the weight of our real-world power."
This is the essence of Rabshakeh's second message to Hezekiah. It is the world's recurring boast. It is a psychological operation, a campaign of spiritual terrorism, designed to demoralize and intimidate the people of God. The first attempt, the speech at the aqueduct, was public and aimed at the common man. This second attempt is a private letter, aimed directly at the king. The enemy is persistent. He will try to get at you through the crowd, and if that doesn't work, he will slide a note under your door.
But we must see this for what it is. This is not a contest between Assyria and Judah. It is not a contest between Sennacherib and Hezekiah. It is a contest between the gods of the nations, which are no gods at all, and Yahweh, the living God, the Creator of heaven and earth. The whole conflict is a setup. God is sovereign over all of this. He is sovereign over Sennacherib's armies, He is sovereign over Rabshakeh's insolent mouth, and He is sovereign over the fear in Hezekiah's heart. God is using the arrogant bluster of this pagan king to set the stage for a demonstration of His own glory that will echo through the centuries. He is baiting the hook with Assyrian pride, and the leviathan does not even see the line.
This passage teaches us how to think when the world sends its threatening letters. It teaches us to analyze the enemy's arguments, to see their flimsy presuppositions, and to understand that their entire worldview is built on a foundation of sand. Their confidence is in a graveyard of dead gods, and they assume our God is just one more tombstone waiting to be carved.
The Text
Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had set out from Lachish. Then he heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, "He has come out to fight against you." So he heard it and sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of Judah, 'Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, "Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria." Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, devoting them to destruction. So will you be delivered? Did the gods of those nations, which my fathers have brought to ruin, deliver them, even Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?'"
(Isaiah 37:8-13 LSB)
A Bully's Distraction (v. 8-9)
The scene opens with the gears of geopolitics grinding away.
"Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had set out from Lachish. Then he heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, 'He has come out to fight against you.' So he heard it and sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying," (Isaiah 37:8-9)
Sennacherib is a busy man. He is a warlord with a schedule. He has conquered Lachish, a major fortified city in Judah, and has moved on to Libnah. But while he is conducting his siege, he gets some troubling news. A rumor arrives: Tirhakah, the king of Ethiopia, is marching up with an army. This is a significant threat from the south. Sennacherib is now facing the prospect of a two-front war: Jerusalem holding out in front of him and an Egyptian-backed Ethiopian army coming up behind him.
This is a moment of pressure for the great king of Assyria. And what does he do? He doubles down on his psychological warfare against Hezekiah. He cannot afford a protracted siege of Jerusalem if he has to turn and fight Tirhakah. He needs Jerusalem to capitulate, and he needs it to happen now. So this letter, this blasphemous threat, is not sent from a position of leisurely, overwhelming strength. It is sent from a position of strategic anxiety. The bully is distracted. He is worried. And like any bully, when he feels pressured, he gets louder and more abusive.
This is a great encouragement for the saints. When the world turns up the volume of its threats against the church, it is often a sign of its own insecurity. The roaring lion is often roaring because he knows his time is short, or because he has just received a piece of bad news. The world's bravado is a mask for its fear. They see the armies of King Jesus advancing, and so they send their frantic, blustering messages to us, hoping we will surrender before the final battle is joined.
The Accusation Against God (v. 10)
Sennacherib, through his messengers, gets right to the theological heart of the matter.
"Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of Judah, 'Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, "Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."'" (Isaiah 37:10)
Notice the craftiness here. This is a direct echo of the serpent's tactic in the garden. "Did God really say...?" The enemy's primary strategy is always to introduce doubt about the character and Word of God. Sennacherib is not just saying, "Your God is weak." He is saying, "Your God is a liar. He is deceiving you. He is making promises He cannot keep."
This is a profound spiritual attack. The foundation of our life with God is trust in His Word. If that can be shaken, the whole house comes down. The enemy wants Hezekiah to believe that his faith is foolish gullibility. He wants him to think that trusting God's promise of deliverance is a form of self-deception.
This is precisely the accusation the world levels against Christians today. "Don't let your God deceive you about creation. Don't let Him deceive you about marriage. Don't let Him deceive you about salvation through Christ alone. That is all wishful thinking. Be realistic. Trust the data. Trust the experts. Trust in the arm of flesh." But Sennacherib makes a fatal mistake. He frames the conflict exactly as God wants it framed. He makes it a test of God's veracity. He is goading God, daring Him to prove that He is not a deceiver. And God is more than happy to accept the challenge.
The Empirical Argument from a Graveyard (v. 11-13)
Having accused God of deception, Rabshakeh now presents the evidence for his case. It is an empirical argument, based on a consistent track record of destruction.
"Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, devoting them to destruction. So will you be delivered? Did the gods of those nations, which my fathers have brought to ruin, deliver them, even Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?'" (Isaiah 37:11-13)
This is the Assyrian resume. It is a roll call of dead nations and defeated gods. The logic is simple and, from a pagan perspective, overwhelming. "Look at our works. We have a perfect record. We have crushed everyone. We have devoted them to destruction, the Hebrew word is herem, the same word used for the holy war God commanded for Israel in Canaan. The Assyrians have their own twisted version of holy war. Their god is the god of raw, destructive power."
The argument is this: "No god has ever been able to stop us. Therefore, your God will not be able to stop us either." This is the fallacy of induction, applied to theology. He is assuming that Yahweh is in the same category as the gods of Gozan and Haran. He is lining up all the idols, all the dead pieces of wood and stone, and saying, "See? They all failed. Your God is just one of them." He is making a category error of infinite proportions.
He asks, "Where is the king of Hamath?" The implied answer is, "He's dead, or a puppet, or in exile." He asks, "Where are the gods of those nations?" The implied answer is, "They are in the cosmic junkyard, broken and powerless." This is the logic of the materialist. It is the logic of the unbeliever. They can only reason from what they can see, from the horizontal plane of human history. They look at the graveyard of empires and religions and conclude that this is all there is. Power politics is ultimate.
But Hezekiah knows, and we must know, that our God is not in that graveyard. He is the one who puts kings and empires in the graveyard. The God of Israel is the Creator of all these lands, the Author of the history that Assyria thinks it is writing. Sennacherib thinks he is the master of herem, but he is about to find out what it means to be placed under the ban by the true and living God.
Conclusion: The World's Best Argument
We must give the devil his due. This is a good argument, if your presuppositions are pagan. If you believe that the spiritual realm is just a collection of competing tribal deities, then Sennacherib's logic is flawless. The biggest army must have the biggest god.
This is the world's best argument against the Christian faith. "Look at history. Look at the power of Rome. Look at the power of secularism. Look at the power of science falsely so-called. Look at the long list of defeated ideas and crushed movements. Do you really think your faith, your God, can stand against the march of progress, the overwhelming force of the zeitgeist?"
They point to their list of conquered territories, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph. The modern list is different, but the argument is the same. They point to the academy, to Hollywood, to the courts, to the corporations. "We have conquered all these lands," they say. "Did the God of the Bible deliver them from us? Where is the king of a Christian culture now?"
And so we are tempted to fear. We are tempted to believe their press release. We are tempted to think that perhaps our God is, if not a deceiver, then at least outmatched.
But this is where we must stand with Hezekiah. Hezekiah will take this letter, this summary of the world's best argument against God, and he will not try to refute it with his own cleverness. He will not muster his own army to disprove it. He will take the letter, walk into the temple, and spread it out before the Lord. He will say, in effect, "Lord, this is what they are saying about you. This is their argument. Now, you answer it."
This is the essence of presuppositional faith. We do not meet the world's arguments on their own terms. We bring their arguments and lay them before the throne of God. We let God be God. We trust that the Creator of heaven and earth is not in the same category as the idol of Hamath. We believe that the God who spoke the world into existence can unmake an Assyrian army with a whisper. The world's confidence is in its list of victories. Our confidence is in the God who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.