"(but they are but vain words)" Isaiah 36:5

OLD TESTAMENT PARENTHESES (20)

"(but they are but vain words)" Isaiah 36:5

WE have now reached that part of the Old Testament in which there are few parenthetical statements, so perhaps I may be permitted to make use of this one which is only to be found in the Authorised Version.

IT is part of the harangue made by the multilingual Rabshakeh, who was Sennacherib's Public Relations Officer. The all conquering Assyrians found Jerusalem a very hard nut to crack, so they tried cajoling threats when they did not quite know how to use their customary force. This is a constant stratagem of our spiritual enemies, and it is sometimes successful.

THE point of emphasis being made was that it would only be a vain matter of empty words if the Jews claimed to have resources in themselves. 'You are saying', reasoned Rabshakeh, 'that you have counsel and strength for this war, but your claims are absurd.' This would have been quite true if it had been Hezekiah's position, but it was not. He made no such claims.

HAD he made them, it would indeed have been a foolish boast. The might and experience of the Assyrians were all too great for any resistance by puny little Jerusalem. If the Jews had relied on their own skill and strength, they would undoubtedly have been defeated. But they were not defeated. God's people never need be defeated. There is another factor in their spiritual warfare, a factor of which the natural mind has no knowledge. Defeat is turned into total victory when the Lord is brought into the fight.

CLEAR and persuasive as were the arguments of the loud-mouthed Rabshakeh, they in their turn proved to be quite vain, for Hezekiah had ample resources to withstand the attack, though those resources were in the Lord and not in himself.

HEZEKIAH did not say that he had them. He never used the words which the lying Rabshakeh tried to put into his mouth. What he did say was that he had no strength (37:3), his only hope being in God's ability to answer prayer or perhaps in His willingness to do so. Hezekiah himself was not too sanguine. "It may be" he suggested. Isaiah the prophet had a much more robust faith. But little faith or great faith, the two men prayed and sought help from heaven. The answer came quickly and comprehensively (2 Chronicles 32:21). And it was all because they prayed.

IF Hezekiah had said, or even thought, what was alleged by Rabshekah, he would have indeed been frustrated. His words would have been vain. And if we say or think in those terms, imagining that we can tackle the task, there can be no hope of victory for us. Our way, like that of Hezekiah, must be the way of humbling and prayer. What a pity we so seldom take it!

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