Rabshakeh returned and caught up with Sennacherib who went to fight at Libnah. For he had heard rumors of the advance of Tirhakah, the king of Cush. So he concluded that the latter’s advance could terminate his dominance in Palestine. Wanting to make one last-ditch effort to secure the total surrender of Hezekiah, Sennacherib then sent a letter through messengers to intensify his challenge. A written document was always taken more seriously than merely oral communication. He must have felt that his letter would make the king of Judah take his challenge more seriously. Besides, he could also cast further aspersion on God, whom Hezekiah had turned to rely on. While his envoy, Rabshakeh’s attack was on Hezekiah personally, his letter was a clear attack on Hezekiah’s God.
Sennacherib’s letter intimidatingly reads: “Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by saying, “Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” Behold, you yourself have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be saved? Did the gods of the nations which my fathers destroyed save them: Gozan, Haran, 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?’”
In suggesting that king Hezekiah should not rely on his God, Sennacherib
was firstly seeking to undermine the
king’s trust in God. He insinuated that his trust would turn out to be an illusion.
In saying that, he had shown how little he knew about Hezekiah’s God. Down through the years, those who have trusted
in the same God whom Hezekiah trusted, have never been let down. One thing to
learn from this incidence is this: seriously evaluate every statement that would
undermine our trust in God. Don’t ever be dissuaded by those foolish insinuations.
Secondly, Sennacherib tried to make himself and his predecessor more
than they truly were. He had foolishly placed Hezekiah’s great God on par with all
the gods of a list of pagan nations. He felt that if none of those gods of
those nations could stop his predecessors from taking their lands, how different
could Hezekiah’s God be? What foolish deduction! He failed to realize that the
God of Hezekiah was none other than the true and living God. The One whom Moses
so gloriously lauded and suggested in Exodus 15:11, asking:
Who is like You among the gods, Lord?
Who is like You, majestic in holiness,
Awesome in praises, working wonders?
Like Hezekiah, we have a great God, so do not let anyone undermine
our trust in Him. Let’s have this truth indelibly etched in our heart and our
mind forever: that there is none like our God, worthy of our worship and total allegiance!
We owe Him our total trust.
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