Discouragements For Subordinates

Sennacherib’s Discouragement of Judah’s Leaders and People

Please turn your Bible to Isaiah 36. Going to continue looking at Sennacherib's discouragement of the people of Judah. Here he moves from speaking to the leaders of Judah to talking to the people themselves.

When you have that please stand for the reading of God's Word. Then Eliakim Shebna and Joah said said to the Rabshakeh. Please speak to your servants in Aramaic for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.

But the Rabshakeh said Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you and not to the men sitting on the wall? Who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?

Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah. Hear the words of the great king the king of Assyria. Thus says the king do not let Hezekiah deceive you. For he will not be able to deliver you.

Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord. By saying the Lord will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Do not listen to Hezekiah for thus says the king of Assyria.

Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine and each one of his own fig tree and Each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern. Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land land of grain and wine a land of bread and vineyards.

Bewareless Hezekiah mislead you by saying the Lord will deliver us. Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria. Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad?

Where are the gods of Sefer Vayim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand that the Lord should deliver? Jerusalem out of my hand.

But they were silent and answered him not a word for the king's command was do not answer him. Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah who was over the household and Shebna the secretary and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rabbi Shecha.

Amen.

You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father We thank you for your word. We thank you for this narrative that you have recorded for us here in Isaiah. We pray that we would Be cognizant of the spiritual battle that is afoot that we would be prepared to resist the attacks of Satan that we would be Ready to face any discouragement the enemy throws our way in Jesus name.

Amen. So I said just a moment ago before.

The.

King Sennacherib the king of Assyria had sent the rab Shaka to go and discourage the rulers. But now he reveals that his main purpose. It's not to discourage the rulers, but it is in fact to discourage the people themselves.

Said there in verse 11 then Eliakim Shebna and Joah said to the rab Shaka Please speak to your servants in Aramaic for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.

But the rab Shaka said to them said has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you and not to the men sitting on the wall. These are words that are supposed to be spoken to those who are sitting on the wall.

Now you can imagine is all the different Cities around Judah have been attacked and people have fled from them. They've all retreated to Jerusalem. So Jerusalem is now full of people Overcrowded with people and they have limited resources.

And so they have this enemy pressing up against them ready to do warfare sitting outside the gates so they cannot leave the city to be able to get any resources and The enemy wants to discourage them so that they would not they would not follow their ruler now.

Naively you might think that all that matters is Hezekiah's. Hezekiah's standing in his confidence. But really a leader has no power without the approval of his people. A leader really has nothing if all the people turn on him and they decide that.

That his words are not worth being followed and this is the case. With us and with our enemy I mentioned last week the leaders have a special target placed on their back and the enemy approaches them.

But this does not mean that the enemy does not try to tempt every single individual if he can turn people away from godly leaders. That he has accomplished his purposes and so he will and it would not be wise of us to think that.

We are not engaged in some kind of battle because it is those who have taken more prominent roles within the church more prominent roles within the church at large even who are facing those battles and we individually as either laymen or pastors of no special report would have to Would have to face but the reality is is that he is seeking to discourage every Last one of us and he is prowling around like a roaring lion seeking to devour.

So we ought to be sober and vigilant. And so there are two ways that the enemy the enemy does us he does does this by. By discouraging in in this these particular ways. By denigrating the true gospel and true authority and then also by promoting a false gospel and a false authority.

The Enemy Denigrates the True Gospel and True Authority

And so looking first at his denigrating of true things is denigrating true gospel. He speaks in this passage and says to them. That they are doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine. He wants them to hear these words loud and clear.

He says that he stands up. Okay, so you stand up so that you are able to be heard? Well, he calls out in the land loud voice. Calls out so they can hear and he speaks in the language of Judah in order that they can understand.

Now before they were speaking they were speaking in the language of Judah and Eliakim Shebna and Joah said speak to us in Aramaic. Now later on and you might be more familiar with this in the New Testament.

This was the common language of the people of Jew. They were speaking in Aramaic the words that were inscribed above Jesus that this is Jesus the king of the Jews. What languages were those words inscribed in.

They were inscribed in Latin? They were inscribed in Greek. They were inscribed in Aramaic because Aramaic is the language of the Jews at the time of the New Testament at this time roughly 700 or 701 BC it is the language primarily of the Syrians and for everyone else it's more of a trade language and so it's the case that some of the people of Judah do not know this trade language and Eliakim Shebna and Joah say speak to us in the trade language.

We understand that that'll be easy for you. Then they don't have to hear all this stuff that you're saying and we can just keep these conversations among ourselves. It says no, I want them to hear. I have been sent in order to discourage them.

And so I'm going to speak in their language so that they can understand me and that they can be fully discouraged people find. Even even when you can speak another language you tend to find words phrased in your own language to be more persuasive than Interacting with someone in the language of another it's just much more Compelling to you to hear things in your own native tongue.

One way to think of the Rav Shaka here is he is this cross-cultural missionary of hopelessness. Okay, so he's going to this other land. He's he's Learned their culture in order to persuade them just like a missionary would.

Right just like a missionary would be sent to learn a language try to learn a culture in order to persuade people. This guy has taken the time to learn the language of Judah so that he can persuade God's people to turn away from God's authority.

Now this is the case for you. It's the case today that but the enemy employs whatever tactics he can in order to discourage people away from the true gospel and you are subject to all kinds of propaganda.

Trying to discourage you away from the true gospel. A lot of people don't think of themselves as being very susceptible to propaganda. They think of themselves as being very very objective. Reasoned thinkers, but it's just not the case that anyone is really able to detect all the ways subtly that lies and priorities are shifted out of bounds by the world around us and Imposed on us if you want just a small illustration of this think about how.

Not too long ago when smoking advertisements were very common make people look cool. Smoking. How widely acceptable smoking is and then more recently? Smoking all the ads around smoking are about. Are trying to disgust you with smoking to the degree where you think it is just the most deadly thing on earth.

Now if you talk to. If any of you talk to someone who's you know, Gen Z age I have found that they tend to be very very disgusted by smoking so much so that is not just in a. In my estimation it seems to be even beyond what would be Determined by a reasonable analysis of things.

There's a there's an impression that That the world gave at one point to make people think smoking was just the coolest thing ever then oppression. An impression that the world gives later that it's just the worst thing ever right and we are very susceptible.

To these.

Impressions that we are given and so we should not think that we are Yeah that we are not susceptible to this. We are very susceptible to the propaganda of the enemy and so we need to resist that. We need to Spend time thinking about the goodness and truth of the gospel so that when it's suggested that it's not good When it's suggested that it will not save that God will not be enough.

That we have our mind so full of the truth that the gospel is good gospel does say it. That we can be free from sin. That When the enemy speaks otherwise with either direct words or gentle suggestions.

We are ready to resist those things. And so you have to spend time Thinking about the goodness of the gospel. Spend time thanking God for him having saved you. Spend time reading his word and what it says.

Spend time even Thinking about the world to come. Find that very few Christians do this. Either because they think it's too speculative to think of the world to come or because they are simply Too apathetic about the matter and distracted by the world at hand.

But this is why a lot of people struggle with the Christian life is because they are.

So.

Surrounded by the here-and-now and do not have their mind on what is to come and on the the goodness that God has promised. That they are not able to endure what is taking place. What is taking place here now?

The Enemy Denigrates True Authority

So it goes on and it discourages not just by denigrating the true gospel, but also by denigrating true authority. It says in verse 13. Then the rabbi Sheka stood and called a loud and loud voice in language of Judah Hear the words of the great king the king of Assyria.

Do thus says the king do not let Hezekiah deceive you for he will not be able to deliver you. Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying the Lord will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.

So he tells the people not to trust in Hezekiah now. To make sure that I don't miss this explanation if you're confused by why it's talking about eating their own dung and drinking their own.

Urine.

All right if you've got an overcrowded city where they're not allowed to go out of the city in order to find resources because the There's an army around the city. This is siege warfare. You basically just sit there until you starve.

This is how war is done. You sit there until you starve and you finally tap out you come out and you. And you get taken captive. Okay, so this is why why he says this and you can imagine Ways that would not be appropriate for me to say at the pulpit of how this could be stated more crudely.

Right if you were if you were trying to discourage them there there, you know cruder ways that this could be said. They are consigned to eat their own dung and drink their own urine because they will run out of resources and he tells them that Hezekiah Don't let him deceive you.

He's telling you to trust in the Lord. Don't let him deceive you. Now it's interesting because none of this really has to do with Hezekiah. It has to do with the promises that have been given from God in Isaiah 10 very clear prophecy from Isaiah that Assyria will be defeated in fact.

It's even so specific that they it says that they will be defeated right as they approach Jerusalem. So it's saying that this is the point in time where they are defeated. Just you know, it is they're calling their shots that God is calling his shots here in in Isaiah 10 now not only that but Hezekiah has gotten a personal a personal promise that God will save him from the king of Assyria and this has been Broadcast even farther than the land of Assyria.

Even Jerusalem or not Jerusalem, excuse me, even Babylon has heard this promise that God gave Hezekiah. We see this in 2nd Chronicles so later on in Isaiah, we'll see that Hezekiah was sick and God saves him and then he promises that he will save him from the king of Assyria and he's given a particular sign.

That sign is shadow moving backwards so that you know, it's almost like time itself moving backwards and he gets more time and 2nd Chronicles tells us that word of this has reached all the way to Babylon.

And so you have word from God that these things are true. And so really it's not Hezekiah's words that are being questioned. It's it's God's word. But this is how the enemy often tries to get at people is tries to say that Authority that God has put in place to tell you his words.

Because it's a little harder to get you to distrust God himself. I'm going to get you to distrust that authority and use that as a proxy for getting you to distrust. Getting you to distrust God. There are all kinds of ways that people distrust the authorities that God have put in their life one that our confession addresses it talks about how people Often when they see sin in the church.

They want to separate themselves from the Lord and suffered because they don't want communion to be polluted and it says it it is not right to distrust the church and its management of that and to leave immediately without allowing the church to Go through the go through the process, but a lot of people simply do not do not trust.

Now I'm not saying that the church can't make any mistakes that would ever require some kind of action. But a lot of people just simply do not have an attitude of trust. Toward the authorities that God has put in their life a lot of times a pastor will say something very true from the pulpit or in personal counseling Biblically, he will show you what the Word of God says tell you what to do.

But there will be something about him or about his character that the enemy will point to to totally undermine. What was simply biblical it was simply biblical Instruction and You will look and the enemy will say don't look at the fact that this is coming from the Bible don't look at the fact That this is coming from God.

Look at the messenger that he is telling he is telling you this through. Because he has faults. Maybe you should distrust all of this and this happens. Especially with children right with children as they get older they start seeing the faults in their parents.

Starts making them rebel making them distrust their parents even when their parents have told them something simply biblical. And this is especially true as children get more introduced to things in the world.

Things that they think their parents are entirely naive about when the reality is they are the ones that are naive about them.

To.

As one illustration of this I knew a I knew a boy who invited someone over to his home and This man or this other boy had a had a hat that was leopard-skinned cowboy hat and the father said something along the lines of this man looks like a pimp and The other boy said the other boy later told me so I didn't know my dad knew that what that was.

Right. He just thought his dad was entirely Oblivious to the things that happen in the world, you know, my parents have never talked to me about these particular things. There's no way they could possibly know about those particular things.

It's very it's very tempting for children to think this way. So parents as you interact with your children let them know that the fact that you are protecting them from evil things in the world does not mean that you are oblivious to evil things in the world and Children, you know as you grow up The enemy is going to tempt you is going to try to point out all the faults in your parents and your parents do have Faults and you're going to see them and you're going to think these are reasons why I shouldn't trust my parents.

But it's not your parents that you need to trust so much as the word of God that they are pointing to the biblical truths. They are pointing to so do not let the enemy distract you from what is true just because.

Just because the messenger that God has sent to you to tell you those things has faults. So not only does the enemy denigrate The true gospel and true authority. He also promotes a false gospel and false authority.

The Enemy Promotes a False Gospel and False Authority

Says in verse 16 do not listen to Hezekiah for thus says the king of Assyria make your peace with me and come out to me then each of you will eat of his own vine and each one his own fig Tree and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern.

Till I come and take you away to a land like your own land of grain and wine land of bread and vineyards. Okay, so what is he saying? He's saying if you listen to me. You'll get to stay in your own land for a little while and then when I take you to my land It's gonna be wonderful.

It's gonna be a land. Yeah, it will be a land like your own land the land of grain and wine the land of bread and vineyards. It's going to be an excellent land. Now. Maybe you're familiar with some of this language.

What is he saying? He's essentially saying it's a promised land. You look at Deuteronomy 713 it says He will love you bless you and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb the fruit of your ground the grain your grain and your wine and your oil the increase of your herds, etc, and.

Then.

In first Kings for first Kings 425 describing the time of Solomon When Solomon was over the people of Israel granting them God working through him to establish a lot of prosperity. It says in Judah and Israel lived in safety from Dan even to Beersheba.

Every man under his vine and under his fig tree all the days of Solomon. This is what God had promised while the people were going through the wilderness. This is what God had established through his King.

This promise of having their own vine having their own fig tree being a land of grain and wine all of these are God's promises to the people. But what the enemy is doing here what's knocker of is doing here is basically saying I have a similar promise I have something that's just as good and I am trying to offer to you, right?

He is offering a false gospel and this is what the enemy does. The enemy offers people false gospels if you look at anything Going on in the world and you'll realize that it's just mimicking the true gospel in some way.

Right you look around and you see. If you're familiar with transhumanism, right the idea that you know as man merges with machine you'll be able to Store your own brain and and basically live forever, right that it's trying to offer some kind of eternal life.

Or you look at what what the pharmaceutical industry pushes on people in order to correct their problems instead of Addressing spiritual problems at their root. They're trying to promote peace and joy.

Or these are things that God provides. God provides all these things and the world wants to offer something different the world wants to say come. You know enjoyment material indulgences rather than pursuing God's kingdom because that's what's going to give you real joy real enjoyment all of these things are false false Gospels and notice the the auspices in which they come under if An enemy comes to you and wants you to surrender rather than Just conquering you.

Why wouldn't they just conquer you? Why would they ask you to surrender? The reality is there's some kind of desperation there and so they can't let on with that desperation. Instead they have to make it look like compassion, right?

So that's what Sennacherib is doing. He can't say, you know, I'm a little bit desperate and we'll see some of his desperation soon in the next chapter. He can't say that all he can say is that he is Compassionate towards them.

Look, I'll give you these nice things. We'll care for you. This is what the enemy does. This is what the enemy did in the garden right, he basically Express goodwill towards Eve. You say God doesn't want this for you, but I want this for you.

I want something that's good for you and he offers peace. That's what people want to do. They want to make peace with the enemy, but there is no peace with the enemy. You adulterous peoples, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God it says in James 4 4 There is no peace with the world.

You have to always be on guard. You have to always be be ready. You're probably familiar with the famous Ben Franklin quote. Says those who would give up essential liberty to purpose purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither Liberty nor safety.

This is what's going on here with Judah, right is Freedom is something that they're willing to throw aside in order to In order to have safety. Well, if you get us here safely, we'll be fine being captives.

That's what some of them are being tempted into. But if you would give up Liberty for safety you deserve neither God has offered both. God has offered both to us and To throw them away is to throw away the very good promises of God for a false gospel for a false promise That never delivers and then and on top of promoting a false gospel.

He promotes a false authority in verse 18. It says Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying the Lord will deliver us. Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of the of Sephirot I am have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who among all the gods of these lands has delivered their lands out of my hand that the Lord should deliver?

Jerusalem out of my hand. Now we saw this same speech last week and we'll see it again in a couple of weeks when Sennacherib sends that very same message if I defeated all these other gods. Then how is it that I would not be able to defeat your God.

And so he sets himself up as a greater a greater kind of authority. He calls himself the great king in verse 11. And then on top of that he's described himself as one being sent by the Lord himself in verse 10.

He is one who is setting himself up as a sort of an antichrist. Right an antichrist being a lot of people think of that as being one who is against Christ, right? That's how we tend to use the prefix anti.

When the Bible talks about antichrist anti in Greek more often means a replacement for okay so this is a false Christ a replacement Christ. And This and this is not Anachronistic to speak this way either.

Because what were this people supposed to hope for this one who would lead them into this land of promise this one who would Give them establish, you know the grain and wine the the abundance of eating on there under their own fig tree, etc, and This is what Solomon has the son of David is doing and so they're waiting for a greater son of David to accomplish this.

But Sennacherib is describing himself this way, right? He's he's describing himself as a better authority he obviously looks like a more capable authority in the way he has defeated so many things and the people of Judah right now are are in dire straits.

So he sets him up self up it's very very high authority and it's very tempting to see that sort of thing and Have it sway you people are often swayed by confidence or by charisma. You know, you see this even in the church.

This is not just true in the world. Some pastors the reason why a lot of their theology is just so widely accepted. It's simply because they are they're just so confident about the way they say it and you look at that and you go, man.

He really he really seems to believe this. It must be true. You know. It's very easy to to take that mindset rather than to go to the Word of God and examine the matter for yourself to use that confidence or that charisma as a proxy for real for real authority and Of course if it happens in the church, it's certainly happening in the world many speak with all kinds of confidence.

Many will promote their false gospel promote themselves as some sort of False Messiah or as some sort of true Messiah, but actually being a false Messiah. Now quintessentially, this is true of the Pope.

He sets himself up as head of the church. It used to be That they would very strongly argue that there was no salvation outside of the Roman Catholic Church. Now a lot of that's gone out the window and the way they promote a false gospels somewhat different but it it used to be a very exclusive claim and it would be very terrifying to those who were Swayed by that sort of thing to be found outside of the Roman Catholic Church.

And but this is something that that faces all of us as you face Issues in the world where people are going to be arguing for for all kinds of false ideologies. They will state it with confidence. They will say you don't want to be found outside of this or else you will not have salvation.

But none of that is true. None of that is true because we have a good God who is not only Able to save not only capable but very willing. He is a good God. We have a true Messiah one who has already come at this point in history we're in a better position than people of Than the people of Judah were because they had to look forward to this Messiah who was to come.

We have already received that Messiah we have a great salvation that is that is here in Jesus Christ and Those who have trusted in him have hot all their Guilt washed away and there's no reason to look back and to to be distracted by the world and think why not?

Why don't I trust in in something else and you see frequently? That the Bible says that these promises are fulfilled in Jesus Christ for example.

Consider.

Malachi excuse me, not Malachi. Micah 4 4. Micah 4 Starts off with the very same passage that Isaiah 2 starts off with. You'll be familiar with this. It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of The mountains and it shall be lifted above the hills and people shall flow to it and many nations shall come and say come let us go to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and It talks about beating swords and the plowshares.

Are you familiar with this? Right? This was all said in Isaiah 2. Micah and Isaiah are contemporary prophets. There's debate about which of them wrote first and maybe the other is including the prophecy of the other.

It's not really clear which one but It does seem to be possible that this very last verse of this Isaiah intentionally left off because it comes in this narrative and Micah 4 for it says. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree and no one shall make them afraid for the mouth of the Lord of hosts have spoken so this passage where Isaiah and Isaiah 2 is prophesying this gospel this kingdom that will be established in that Messiah through Jesus Christ leaves off This one little verse that every man sitting under his vine and fig tree.

It sort of gives you a clue that there's going to be some threat to that and Indeed, we see that threat here in chapter 36 where Sennacherib offers for them to sit under their own vine and fig tree if they follow Him, but what we see in Micah is that this is a promise that belongs to the Messiah.

This is a promise that is true in his kingdom to sit under your own vine and enjoy your own things Rather than to be a slave of another and not have anything at all.

And.

So those who Trust the enemy and do not trust God they risk. They will become slaves of him and not be able to enjoy their own things as he takes over their whole life. And then Zechariah 4 makes it excuse me 3 makes it abundantly clear that this is all fulfilled in the Messiah.

Says here now Oh Joshua the high priest you and your friends who sit before you for they are men who are assigned. Behold, I will bring my servant the branch the branch is even how Isaiah has spoken of this Messiah Jesus Christ.

For behold on the stone that I have set before Joshua on a single stone with seven eyes I will engrave its inscription declares the Lord of hosts and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day.

In that day declares the Lord of hosts every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree. No more slavery. No more slavery to sin. No more slavery to the guilt of the enemy.

No more slavery to death knowing that when you die, there will be nothing else and you will have nothing. But rather knowing that you will have everything that not only will you be able to enjoy a few things of your own a vine And a fig tree, but that we will be co-heirs with Christ inheriting all things owning all things.

And this is something that can be enjoyed. Even in this life, they're not manifest yet. Even in this life as we know that God has Assigned all things for our good through Jesus Christ. Do not trust the enemy.

Do not listen to the lies do not listen when he denigrates true authority true gospel. Do not listen when he promotes a false gospel false authority but listen to the Word of God that's come from the mouth of God listen to the true gospel and Heed the authorities that he has put in your life to remind you of The good news of Jesus Christ, let's pray Dear Holy Father.

We thank you for the great gospel that we have in Jesus Christ. We pray that you would Help us to heed those authorities that you have given to us to remind us of this good news. We pray that you would steal us from the advance of the enemies of The enemy that we would not Heed his lies in Jesus name.

Amen.