Latest / The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal / 2 Chronicles 32:9-23 - The Assyrians Wage Psychological Warfare
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Life Audio. Good morning, friends and faithful listeners. Hopefully you
- 0:06Speaker 1: have a delicious hot cup of coffee with you, because
- 0:09Speaker 1: today we're going to be discussing Second Chronicles thirty two
- 0:12Speaker 1: and talking about the history of King Sannakrib of Assyria.
- 0:18Speaker 1: We're going to talk about this siege he tries to
- 0:21Speaker 1: do on Jerusalem that is not very successful, and we're
- 0:24Speaker 1: also going to talk about some of the artifacts that
- 0:26Speaker 1: were found regarding King SINACREB. So it's going to be
- 0:30Speaker 1: a really interesting and history filled episode, so stay tuned
- 0:40Speaker 1: and of course, faithful listeners. Before we begin today's episode,
- 0:44Speaker 1: I'm going to play for you guys a sponsored ad.
- 0:46Speaker 1: But while I do that, if you haven't gotten that
- 0:48Speaker 1: delicious cup of coffee yet, I encourage you guys to
- 0:51Speaker 1: brew it right now. Or for those of you who
- 0:54Speaker 1: are crazy tea drinkers and prefer tea for some reason
- 0:57Speaker 1: over coffee, you can go brew yourself a cup of
- 0:59Speaker 1: tea while the sad plays. And now let's get into
- 1:04Speaker 1: the episode. Let's go ahead and read Second Chronicles thirty two,
- 1:08Speaker 1: nine through twenty three. I will be reading all of
- 1:12Speaker 1: this as I usually do from the we B version,
- 1:15Speaker 1: so go ahead and grab your version of the Bible,
- 1:17Speaker 1: whatever you prefer, and let's go ahead and read Second
- 1:19Speaker 1: Chronicles thirty two nine through twenty three together. After this,
- 1:25Speaker 1: Senacrab king of Assyria, sent his servants to Jerusalem. Now
- 1:29Speaker 1: he was attacking Lakish, and all his forces were with him.
- 1:32Speaker 1: To Hezekiah, King of Judah, and to all Judah who
- 1:35Speaker 1: are at Jerusalem, saying, Senacreb king of Asiria, says, in
- 1:39Speaker 1: whom do you trust that you remain under siege in Jerusalem?
- 1:42Speaker 1: Doesn't Hezekiah persuade you to give you over to die
- 1:45Speaker 1: by famine and by thirst, saying yahweh our God will
- 1:48Speaker 1: deliver us out of the hand of the king of Assyria.
- 1:50Speaker 1: Hasn't the same Hezekiah taken away his high places and
- 1:53Speaker 1: his altars and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, you shall
- 1:56Speaker 1: worship before one altar and shall burn incense on it.
- 2:00Speaker 1: Don't you know what I and my fathers have done
- 2:02Speaker 1: to all the people of the lands. Were the gods
- 2:04Speaker 1: of the nations of those lands in any way able
- 2:06Speaker 1: to deliver their land out of my hand? Who was
- 2:09Speaker 1: there among all the gods of those nations which my
- 2:12Speaker 1: father is utterly destroyed that could deliver his people out
- 2:15Speaker 1: of my hand, that your God should be able to
- 2:17Speaker 1: deliver you out of my hand. Now, therefore, don't let
- 2:20Speaker 1: Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you in this way. Don't
- 2:23Speaker 1: believe him. For no god of any nation or kingdom
- 2:26Speaker 1: was able to deliver his people out of my hand
- 2:29Speaker 1: and out of the hand of my fathers. How much
- 2:32Speaker 1: less will your God deliver you out of my hand.
- 2:35Speaker 1: His servants spoke yet more against Yahweh God and against
- 2:38Speaker 1: his servant Hezekiah. He also wrote letters insulting Yahweh, the
- 2:42Speaker 1: God of Israel, and speaking against him, saying, as the
- 2:45Speaker 1: gods of the nations of the lands, which have not
- 2:47Speaker 1: delivered their people out of my hand, so shall the
- 2:49Speaker 1: God of Hezekiah not deliver his people out of my hand.
- 2:53Speaker 1: They called out with a loud voice in the Jews
- 2:55Speaker 1: language to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall,
- 2:58Speaker 1: to frighten them and to trouble them, that they might
- 3:00Speaker 1: take the city. They spoke of the God of Jerusalem,
- 3:03Speaker 1: as of the gods of the peoples of the earth,
- 3:05Speaker 1: which are the work of men's hands. Hezekiah the King
- 3:09Speaker 1: and Isaiah the Prophet, the son of Amos prayed because
- 3:12Speaker 1: of this and cried to heaven. Yahwai sent an angel
- 3:15Speaker 1: who cut off all the mighty men of Valor, the
- 3:18Speaker 1: leaders and the captains in the camp of the king
- 3:20Speaker 1: of Assyria. So he returned with shame a face to
- 3:23Speaker 1: his own land. When he had come into the house
- 3:26Speaker 1: of his God, those who came out of his own
- 3:28Speaker 1: body killed him there with the sword. Thus Yahway saved
- 3:31Speaker 1: Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sanacrib,
- 3:34Speaker 1: king of Assyria, and from the hand of all others,
- 3:37Speaker 1: and guided them on every side. Many brought gifts to
- 3:40Speaker 1: Yahweh to Jerusalem, and precious things to Hezekiah, King of Judah,
- 3:44Speaker 1: so that he was exalted in the sight of all
- 3:46Speaker 1: nations from then on. Now, at this point in time, Senacharib,
- 3:51Speaker 1: the king of Assyria, thinks that he's going to go
- 3:54Speaker 1: into Judah and take the entire land for himself, because
- 3:58Speaker 1: I believe it was his grandfather or his father that
- 4:00Speaker 1: was successful in taking Israel. So Israel was already at
- 4:05Speaker 1: this point in time completely captured by Assyria. So now
- 4:08Speaker 1: Assyria has gotten very big for its breeches, and they
- 4:11Speaker 1: think they're going to go into Judah and do the
- 4:13Speaker 1: exact same thing. And it actually looked like they were
- 4:15Speaker 1: going to be very successful, because it says in Tewod
- 4:19Speaker 1: King's eighteen that Sanakrib went into Judah and took all
- 4:23Speaker 1: the fortified cities. So Sanakrib truly believed that he was
- 4:28Speaker 1: going to have just a massive success across the board
- 4:33Speaker 1: when it came to Judah. It says in verse nine
- 4:35Speaker 1: of our passage for today. After this, Senakreb, the king
- 4:38Speaker 1: of Assyria, sent his servants to Jerusalem. For now he
- 4:41Speaker 1: was attacking Lakish and all his forces were with him.
- 4:45Speaker 1: So Lakeish was a Judite city that was about thirty
- 4:49Speaker 1: miles south of Jerusalem, and it was a pivotal fortified
- 4:54Speaker 1: city in Judah. So the fact that Senakrib had already
- 4:57Speaker 1: taken many of these fortified cities and was now attacking Lakeish,
- 5:01Speaker 1: getting closer and closer to Jerusalem, this was really bad
- 5:05Speaker 1: news for King Hezekiah, and he was, I'm sure terrified.
- 5:10Speaker 1: But as we discussed last week, Hezekiah was working on
- 5:14Speaker 1: defense rather than offense. So one of the things that
- 5:17Speaker 1: he did was he fortified the walls in Jerusalem. But
- 5:20Speaker 1: the reason Hezekiah was focusing more on Jerusalem rather than
- 5:24Speaker 1: these other cities, I would guess was because Jerusalem was
- 5:29Speaker 1: the last holdout and if Jerusalem fell the capital city
- 5:33Speaker 1: of Judah, that meant that Judah fell. And so now
- 5:37Speaker 1: that this siege on the Lakeish thirty miles south of
- 5:41Speaker 1: Jerusalem is going so well for Snakrib, he decides he's
- 5:45Speaker 1: going to send some of his captains and his servants
- 5:48Speaker 1: to go up north to Jerusalem and try to scare
- 5:52Speaker 1: them into just opening up their doors, so the Assyrians
- 5:55Speaker 1: can just like walk right in and take Jerusalem without
- 5:58Speaker 1: much of a fight. Because a sea could take a
- 6:00Speaker 1: really really long time. They could take years actually to
- 6:03Speaker 1: be super successful. And so if the Assyrians could effectively
- 6:07Speaker 1: scare the people of Jerusalem into opening their doors, that
- 6:11Speaker 1: would be a lot easier for the Assyrian king in
- 6:13Speaker 1: the long run. So that was the best case scenario.
- 6:17Speaker 1: So Sinacrab sends his servants up to Jerusalem and he
- 6:20Speaker 1: remains in Lakeish. And by the way, the siege in
- 6:24Speaker 1: Lakeish was successful. There is history of this. In fact,
- 6:28Speaker 1: the British Museum of History has a lot of artifacts
- 6:33Speaker 1: during the reign of King Sinacrib and one of the
- 6:36Speaker 1: artifacts that they have is actually a relief of sinacreb
- 6:41Speaker 1: like sitting on his throne as the siege of Lakeish
- 6:45Speaker 1: takes place, and it ended up being a successful siege,
- 6:49Speaker 1: by the way, but Sinagrab sends his general up north.
- 6:53Speaker 1: And here is what the general says in verse ten,
- 6:56Speaker 1: in whom do you trust that you remain under siege
- 7:00Speaker 1: in Jerusalem? Doesn't Hezekiah persuade you to give you over
- 7:04Speaker 1: to die by famine thirst saying yahweh our God will
- 7:07Speaker 1: deliver us out of the hands of the King of Assyria.
- 7:10Speaker 1: So we talked a little bit about this last week,
- 7:13Speaker 1: about this speech that this general made. And by the way,
- 7:17Speaker 1: the Assyrian word for general was Rabshaika, So in Second
- 7:23Speaker 1: King's eighteen that's what they call him is Rabshika. Rab
- 7:28Speaker 1: Shika was saying all this stuff in the name of
- 7:30Speaker 1: senager of the king of Assyria. He was asking Hezekiah,
- 7:34Speaker 1: who do you put your trust in that you remain
- 7:36Speaker 1: under siege in Jerusalem. And what's funny about that is
- 7:38Speaker 1: that Jerusalem was not under siege yet, So you can
- 7:42Speaker 1: see what the Rabshika is doing here. He's really trying
- 7:46Speaker 1: to scare the people of Jerusalem and engaging in basically
- 7:50Speaker 1: psychological warfare with them essentially. Now, there are other things
- 7:54Speaker 1: that he was doing that second chronicle thirty two does
- 7:57Speaker 1: not mention, like very threatening things that we talked about
- 8:00Speaker 1: last week in tewod King's chapter eighteen, specifically where he
- 8:05Speaker 1: went and stood in the pool of water, or rather
- 8:08Speaker 1: one of the pools of water where the city of
- 8:11Speaker 1: Jerusalem would get their water supply from. He went and
- 8:13Speaker 1: stood right in it, and that was to show that
- 8:17Speaker 1: he could cut it off at any time, and the
- 8:20Speaker 1: city of Jerusalem would no longer have water coming in
- 8:23Speaker 1: if he decided to close that conduit off. So there
- 8:27Speaker 1: were multiple things that this general or rab Shakeup was
- 8:32Speaker 1: doing to really try to scare the people, because jumping
- 8:35Speaker 1: down to verse eighteen, it says that they called out
- 8:38Speaker 1: with a loud voice in the Jews language to the
- 8:40Speaker 1: people of Jerusalem who were on the wall to frighten
- 8:43Speaker 1: them and to trouble them that they might take the city.
- 8:46Speaker 1: So the Rabshaika knew exactly what he was doing here
- 8:49Speaker 1: by both standing in the water and also by telling
- 8:54Speaker 1: the people of Jerusalem that they're already under siege, even
- 8:58Speaker 1: though they were not he was trying to make Assyria
- 9:01Speaker 1: look much bigger than mere little Judah, who was already
- 9:06Speaker 1: getting its cities taken away by the King of Assyria.
- 9:10Speaker 1: But going back to verse ten, the rab Shaika continues,
- 9:13Speaker 1: in whom do you trust that you remain under siege
- 9:15Speaker 1: in Jerusalem? Doesn't Hezekiah persuade you to give you over
- 9:18Speaker 1: to die by famine and by thirst, saying Yahweh, our
- 9:22Speaker 1: God will deliver us out of the hand of the
- 9:24Speaker 1: king of Assyria. So there you go. The rab Sheeika
- 9:27Speaker 1: is specifically saying, we are going to put Jerusalem under siege,
- 9:31Speaker 1: or rather, you're already under siege, and we're gonna cut
- 9:34Speaker 1: off all of your water supply and all of your food,
- 9:37Speaker 1: and you're going to thirst and starve to death very
- 9:41Speaker 1: very quickly. If you listen to Hezekiah and all the
- 9:44Speaker 1: things that he's saying to you, specifically that Yahweh is
- 9:48Speaker 1: going to deliver you out of this mess that you
- 9:50Speaker 1: found yourselves in, he says in verse twelve, hasn't the
- 9:53Speaker 1: same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars
- 9:56Speaker 1: and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying you shall work worship
- 10:00Speaker 1: before one altar, and you shall burn incense on it.
- 10:04Speaker 1: So this is a little piece of proof, interestingly enough,
- 10:07Speaker 1: that shows the validity of the Bible. You know, a
- 10:11Speaker 1: lot of people say that the Bible is made up
- 10:14Speaker 1: and there's no historical backing to it, and that all
- 10:17Speaker 1: of these are just fiction, they're just stories. But this
- 10:20Speaker 1: is one of those things where how would the author
- 10:23Speaker 1: have thought of this if it wasn't the truth? Because
- 10:27Speaker 1: the rab Sheika clearly believes that God wants all of
- 10:31Speaker 1: those altars in Jerusalem. Do you remember when Hezekiah had
- 10:36Speaker 1: gone in with his religious reform and actually removed all
- 10:39Speaker 1: the altars out of Jerusalem and out of Judah as
- 10:41Speaker 1: a whole. The Assyrians heard about all this, They probably
- 10:45Speaker 1: heard about the big passover that was taking place every year,
- 10:48Speaker 1: and they believed that Hezekiah was taking away valid altars
- 10:54Speaker 1: to Yahweh. And that would make sense coming from an
- 10:57Speaker 1: Assyrian point of view, because the Assyrians worshiped a whole
- 11:00Speaker 1: pantheon of gods. They didn't understand monotheism, they didn't understand
- 11:06Speaker 1: the laws of Yahweh. They didn't know that God didn't
- 11:09Speaker 1: want all of those altars in Judah. They assumed that
- 11:13Speaker 1: Hezekiah was taking Yahweh's altars away, or at least places
- 11:18Speaker 1: of worship where the people could go and worship Yahweh
- 11:21Speaker 1: and any other deity that they wanted to worship. The
- 11:25Speaker 1: Assyrians did not understand monotheism. They believed that any powerful
- 11:30Speaker 1: god would want more alters, more places of worship, not
- 11:35Speaker 1: just one altar and one place of worship. So this
- 11:38Speaker 1: little statement from the rab Sheika just really feels valid,
- 11:43Speaker 1: do you know what I mean? It doesn't feel like
- 11:44Speaker 1: a work of fiction. It feels like a true historical
- 11:49Speaker 1: viewpoint that an Assyrian would have. And there are tons
- 11:53Speaker 1: of things like this strewn throughout scripture that I think
- 11:56Speaker 1: really show the historical validity of the scripture rather than
- 12:01Speaker 1: them just being made up and works of fiction by
- 12:04Speaker 1: some unknown authors. But moving on in verse thirteen, don't
- 12:09Speaker 1: you know what I and my fathers have done to
- 12:12Speaker 1: all the peoples of the lands. Were the gods of
- 12:14Speaker 1: the nations of those lands in any way able to
- 12:17Speaker 1: deliver their land out of my hand? Who was there
- 12:20Speaker 1: among all the gods of those nations which my fathers
- 12:23Speaker 1: utterly destroyed, that could deliver his people out of my hand?
- 12:26Speaker 1: That your God should be able to deliver you out
- 12:28Speaker 1: of my hand. So basically what's being said there is
- 12:32Speaker 1: that the Assyrians are more powerful than any god that exists.
- 12:37Speaker 1: There is no god anywhere that exists that the Assyrians
- 12:41Speaker 1: could not defeat, and that includes Yahweh. None of their
- 12:45Speaker 1: gods have been able to help them. And actually, if
- 12:48Speaker 1: you turn to Second Kings eighteen and read this account,
- 12:51Speaker 1: the Assyrian general also mentions the gods of Samaria, which
- 12:57Speaker 1: is kind of funny because you know, Samario is obviously
- 12:59Speaker 1: part of Israel, and Israel was supposed to be monotheistic.
- 13:04Speaker 1: They were supposed to have the same god that Judah had,
- 13:08Speaker 1: which was Yahweh. But the Assyrians didn't even know this
- 13:12Speaker 1: because Israel was so corrupt with idolatry during the time
- 13:17Speaker 1: of the Assyrian takeover. So that's actually talked about also
- 13:20Speaker 1: in Isaiah thirty six. So here's what the rab Sheika
- 13:23Speaker 1: says in Isaiah thirty six nineteen. Where are the gods
- 13:26Speaker 1: of Hamoth and Arpad? Where are the gods of Safarvam?
- 13:30Speaker 1: Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? Who are they
- 13:33Speaker 1: among all the gods of these countries that have delivered
- 13:36Speaker 1: their country out of my hand, that Yahweh should deliver
- 13:39Speaker 1: Jerusalem out of my hand. Oh that's pretty sad, isn't it. That?
- 13:44Speaker 1: H Yeah, Samaria fell very hard, and that's just more
- 13:47Speaker 1: proof of how fallen Samaria and Israel had become that
- 13:53Speaker 1: the other nations of the world didn't even know who
- 13:57Speaker 1: the God of Samaria was. It clearly was not Yahweh
- 14:01Speaker 1: in their estimation. But going back to Second Chronicles thirty two,
- 14:05Speaker 1: verse fifteen, he says, now, therefore, don't let Hezekiah deceive you,
- 14:10Speaker 1: nor persuade you in this way. Don't believe him. For
- 14:14Speaker 1: no god of any nation or kingdom was able to
- 14:16Speaker 1: deliver his people out of my hand and out of
- 14:18Speaker 1: the hand of my father's. How much less will your
- 14:21Speaker 1: god deliver you out of my hand? But moving on
- 14:25Speaker 1: in this story, it says in verse sixteen that his
- 14:27Speaker 1: servants spoke yet more against Yahweh God and against his
- 14:30Speaker 1: servant Hezekiah. He also wrote letters insulting Yahweh, the God
- 14:34Speaker 1: of Israel, and speaking against him, saying, as the gods
- 14:38Speaker 1: of the nations of the lands which have not delivered
- 14:40Speaker 1: their people out of my hand, so shall the God
- 14:42Speaker 1: of Hezekiah not deliver his people out of my hand.
- 14:46Speaker 1: So that right there gives a synopsis of the extra
- 14:50Speaker 1: harassment that was going on. It wasn't just the Rabshika
- 14:53Speaker 1: coming to Jerusalem and yelling at the people on the
- 14:56Speaker 1: wall that they are going to die in a few
- 14:59Speaker 1: days if they don't just open up their doors to
- 15:01Speaker 1: the Assyrians. But there were letters coming in. There were
- 15:05Speaker 1: more insults coming against Yahweh, and you can read a
- 15:08Speaker 1: lot of that stuff in the Account of Second Kings
- 15:12Speaker 1: eighteen or also Isaiah thirty six. But one of the
- 15:15Speaker 1: things I found very interesting that Second Chronicles thirty two
- 15:18Speaker 1: doesn't mention is Isaiah thirty six, verse ten, where the
- 15:23Speaker 1: rab Sheika says, have I come up now without Yahweh
- 15:27Speaker 1: against this land to destroy it? Yahweh said to me
- 15:30Speaker 1: go up against this land and destroy it. So there's
- 15:34Speaker 1: some false prophecy happening here with this rab Sheika and
- 15:38Speaker 1: with Senagrev, the king of Assyria. They're saying, actually, God
- 15:43Speaker 1: told me that I should come and destroy this land.
- 15:46Speaker 1: Your God is so weak, he's so powerless that even
- 15:50Speaker 1: if he wanted to stop me, he couldn't. But also
- 15:53Speaker 1: he told me to come and destroy this land. So
- 15:55Speaker 1: there's definitely some conflicting things being said here. Which is
- 15:59Speaker 1: it God is not powerful enough or God told me
- 16:01Speaker 1: to do this, you know, So in order to scare
- 16:05Speaker 1: the people, the Assyrians are basically doing every single thing
- 16:08Speaker 1: they can to try to convince the people to just
- 16:11Speaker 1: open up their doors to the Assyrians and essentially wave
- 16:15Speaker 1: the white flag. But it's very clear that God does
- 16:19Speaker 1: not look kindly on this kind of stuff. He does
- 16:23Speaker 1: not look kindly on his name being used in vain,
- 16:26Speaker 1: nor does he look kindly on people downplaying his power.
- 16:30Speaker 1: Because he's the God of the universe, he is just
- 16:32Speaker 1: as much the God of the Assyrians as he is
- 16:36Speaker 1: the God of the Israelites. He's the God of the
- 16:38Speaker 1: entire world. So when he shows his power, he's not
- 16:41Speaker 1: just doing it for the Israelites. He's also doing it
- 16:45Speaker 1: for the Assyrians. And I think a lot of people
- 16:46Speaker 1: don't understand that about when God works. A lot of
- 16:51Speaker 1: people think that God only does things in the Old
- 16:54Speaker 1: Testament for the sake of his people. But God does
- 16:56Speaker 1: things because he wants to show the entire world world
- 17:00Speaker 1: that he truly is God. And right now we have
- 17:04Speaker 1: a very arrogant Assyrian king and general that believe that
- 17:09Speaker 1: they are more powerful than God ever could be, that
- 17:13Speaker 1: their gods maybe are more powerful than God ever could be.
- 17:17Speaker 1: So now God is going to show his power not
- 17:20Speaker 1: just to the Judaites who are calling out to him
- 17:23Speaker 1: to save them, but also to King Snakreb. He's going
- 17:27Speaker 1: to prove to Snacrib, I am more powerful than you,
- 17:30Speaker 1: and I am certainly more powerful than all these other
- 17:33Speaker 1: gods that you mentioned, being the same as me, I
- 17:37Speaker 1: am more powerful than all of it. So, going back
- 17:40Speaker 1: to verse twenty of our passage for today, here's what
- 17:43Speaker 1: God does to help Hezekiah. Hezekiah the King and Isaiah
- 17:47Speaker 1: the prophet, the son of Amos prayed because of this
- 17:50Speaker 1: and cried to heaven. So this is obviously Isaiah the prophet.
- 17:55Speaker 1: We just read his account of this in Isaiah thirty six,
- 17:59Speaker 1: and it says, Yahweh sent an angel in verse twenty one,
- 18:02Speaker 1: who cut off all the mighty men of valor, the
- 18:05Speaker 1: leaders and the captains in the camp of the king
- 18:07Speaker 1: of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to
- 18:11Speaker 1: his own land. He was humbled. He was humbled drastically.
- 18:18Speaker 1: Apparently one hundred and eighty five thousand of his men
- 18:21Speaker 1: died overnight. That's what it says in Isaiah thirty seven,
- 18:25Speaker 1: verse thirty six. Then Yawey's angel went out and struck
- 18:29Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty five thousand men in the camp
- 18:31Speaker 1: of the Assyrians. When the men arose early in the morning, behold,
- 18:35Speaker 1: these were all dead bodies. So nobody knows exactly what happened.
- 18:40Speaker 1: There's always theories that pop up when God does something
- 18:43Speaker 1: miraculous like this, but it could just be that the
- 18:47Speaker 1: Angel of Death went in kind of like with the
- 18:50Speaker 1: plague in Egypt and truly just struck everybody dead. We
- 18:53Speaker 1: don't know exactly how God worked here, but whatever God did,
- 18:56Speaker 1: it was miraculous to the point that Sanakreb had to
- 18:59Speaker 1: just go home, and he went home with a much
- 19:02Speaker 1: reduced army because of what God had done here. But
- 19:07Speaker 1: he didn't get the hint because there's something called the
- 19:09Speaker 1: prism that was found and this is also in the
- 19:13Speaker 1: British Museum of History, and I have it pulled up
- 19:16Speaker 1: right here to look at it, and it's basically this
- 19:19Speaker 1: prism looking pillar thing that they call the Taylor Prism
- 19:24Speaker 1: or the senacreb Prism, and what it is is a
- 19:29Speaker 1: history that Sanakreb had a scribe right down of all
- 19:33Speaker 1: of the conquests that he had, specifically with Jerusalem. But
- 19:39Speaker 1: what's embarrassing about it is it does not mention the
- 19:42Speaker 1: fact that one hundred and eighty five thousand of his
- 19:44Speaker 1: men died. It doesn't mention any of that. All it
- 19:47Speaker 1: mentions is that he demanded payment from Hezekiah, and Hezekiah
- 19:52Speaker 1: gave it to him, and he was successful in this
- 19:54Speaker 1: and that and all this other stuff. But it does
- 19:56Speaker 1: not mention that Jerusalem was never taken and that he
- 20:01Speaker 1: had to return home in shame. And this little piece
- 20:05Speaker 1: of history is found in the British Museum of History
- 20:09Speaker 1: and you can look up a picture of it if
- 20:11Speaker 1: you're interested. Again, it's called the Taylor of Prism or
- 20:14Speaker 1: the Senakreb Prism. But yeah, so Senagreb never learned from
- 20:18Speaker 1: his mistakes. He was just as arrogant as he always was,
- 20:23Speaker 1: even though he had a massive defeat in Judah, and
- 20:27Speaker 1: he never learned because he kept on worshiping his own gods.
- 20:32Speaker 1: So here's what it says in verse twenty one, when
- 20:37Speaker 1: he came into the house of his God, those who
- 20:39Speaker 1: came out of his own body killed him there with
- 20:42Speaker 1: the sword. Thus Yahweh saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of
- 20:46Speaker 1: Jerusalem from the hand of Sanakreb, the king of Assyria,
- 20:50Speaker 1: and from the hand of all others, and guided them
- 20:52Speaker 1: on every side. Many brought gifts to Yahweh to Jerusalem
- 20:57Speaker 1: and precious things to Hezekiah, the King of Judah, so
- 21:00Speaker 1: that he was exalted in the sight of all nations
- 21:02Speaker 1: from then on. So that is the very sad end
- 21:07Speaker 1: of King Snacrib. Basically, he went home in shame, but
- 21:11Speaker 1: not shameful enough because he never turned to Yahweh. He
- 21:14Speaker 1: was embarrassed, but he was never truly humbled. He went
- 21:18Speaker 1: into a temple of one of his own gods, and
- 21:22Speaker 1: his sons killed him there in that temple and then
- 21:26Speaker 1: ran away to a foreign land after they killed him.
- 21:29Speaker 1: And we have no clue why his sons killed him. Again,
- 21:32Speaker 1: there's a whole bunch of theories on this, but there's
- 21:35Speaker 1: no defining evidence as to what the dynamic was in
- 21:39Speaker 1: Snacrib's home for his sons to actually kill him. But yeah,
- 21:44Speaker 1: that is the sad end of King Sanacarb. And by
- 21:48Speaker 1: the way, this did happen several years after he returned
- 21:52Speaker 1: to Ninevah This was not like an immediate thing, but
- 21:55Speaker 1: still God showed his judgment to Snacrib for all the
- 21:57Speaker 1: things that he had done to the people of Judah.
- 22:00Speaker 1: And meanwhile, Hezekiah is becoming more and more famous because
- 22:06Speaker 1: of what Yahweh is doing in Judah. It says the
- 22:09Speaker 1: people started offering all these sacrifices and these gifts to
- 22:14Speaker 1: Yahweh because they were so ecstatic over what they had
- 22:17Speaker 1: seen God do in their country. And it says they
- 22:20Speaker 1: also gave gifts to Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and
- 22:23Speaker 1: he was exalted in the sight of all nations from
- 22:26Speaker 1: then on. So basically, Hezekiah became a king that you
- 22:29Speaker 1: don't mess with because no matter how arrogant Senanakreb, the
- 22:33Speaker 1: king of Assyria, was, words still got out to the
- 22:37Speaker 1: other nations that the Assyrians had to go home after
- 22:41Speaker 1: they were besieging Jerusalem. Even if the other nations didn't
- 22:46Speaker 1: know what happened, they still knew that the Assyrians were
- 22:50Speaker 1: defeated because Assyria was home and Judah was still standing.
- 22:55Speaker 1: All right, faithful listeners, hopefully you enjoyed it today's episode.
- 22:59Speaker 1: But before we got oh, here's a quick ad break. Okay,
- 23:03Speaker 1: faithful listeners. So on Wednesday, we're going to finish up
- 23:06Speaker 1: this chapter. We're gonna be talking about Hezekiah almost dying
- 23:11Speaker 1: and what he does while he's dying, how God responds,
- 23:15Speaker 1: and then what Hezekiah does after God responds, which is
- 23:19Speaker 1: shocker is not a very good thing, because unfortunately, the
- 23:21Speaker 1: kings in Judah's history have a tendency to start out
- 23:26Speaker 1: very good and end very poorly, unfortunately, and that's kind
- 23:30Speaker 1: of what Hezekiah does. Not to the same extent as
- 23:33Speaker 1: some of the other kings, but he's on the same
- 23:35Speaker 1: path for sure. So we'll get into that subject on Wednesday.
- 23:39Speaker 1: So I hope to see all of you guys then
- 23:41Speaker 1: six am or whenever you choose to wake up and
- 23:44Speaker 1: listen now, faithful listeners. Tomorrow we will be in the
- 23:46Speaker 1: Book of Hebrews, because on Tuesdays and Thursdays I go
- 23:51Speaker 1: through the New Testament with you guys, and right now
- 23:53Speaker 1: we are studying the Book of Hebrews together, and it
- 23:56Speaker 1: is such a fantastic book of the Bible. I love
- 24:00Speaker 1: the Book of Hebrews, and I hope that you guys
- 24:02Speaker 1: have been really enjoying it as well. You know, every
- 24:04Speaker 1: single time I research it to present it to you guys.
- 24:08Speaker 1: I learn something new and I'm so excited to share
- 24:11Speaker 1: that new information with you guys as well. So hopefully
- 24:14Speaker 1: I'll see all you faithful listeners tomorrow as well. But
- 24:17Speaker 1: until tomorrow, I hope you guys have a wonderful, wonderful
- 24:20Speaker 1: rest of your day, happy listening, and God bless. I
- 24:30Speaker 1: just want to take a second to thank the team
- 24:31Speaker 1: at Life Audio for their partnership with me on the
- 24:34Speaker 1: Bible Explain podcast. In fact, if you go to lifeudio
- 24:37Speaker 1: dot com you'll find dozens of other faith centered podcasts
- 24:40Speaker 1: in their network. They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting,
- 24:44Speaker 1: and more.