Isaiah 36 – 39 largely duplicates 2 Kings 18 – 20. Therefore, I wrote about it back in 2024 when we were going through the History books. But it won’t hurt to review the major lessons. Show the Lord the Threat! captures the content of 2 Kings 18 and 19, which is retold in Isaiah 36 and 37.

Isaiah 36 is all about the threat of Assyria to Judah and King Hezekiah.

And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours? Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me? Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. (Isiah 36.4 – 6, ESV)

After a whole chapter of threats, Hezekiah goes to prayer, recorded in Isaiah 37:

As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the LORD. And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz. They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’ ” (Isaiah 37.1 – 4, ESV)

Isaiah promises immediate relief:

When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me. Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’ ” (Isaiah 37.5 – 7, ESV)

After a threatening letter from Assyria and another prayer session by Hezekiah, Isaiah gives the final promise of deliverance:

Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the LORD. For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David. (Isaiah 37.33 – 35, ESV)

I was leading a Bible study not long ago, and a brother quoted, “The Lord helps those who help themselves.” I explained to him that sometimes that’s true, but that there is no verse in the Bible that says that! This passage is a counter-example: “I will defend this city to save it…” And he did:

And the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of Ararat, Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place. (Isaiah 37.36 – 38, ESV)

Another example of…

Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts. (Zechariah 4.6, ESV)