In our last lesson of Isaiah part 1, I want to talk to you about the blessings of enemies and illnesses. You say, “How can an enemy be a blessing? How can an illness be a blessing?” Oh, precious one, when your heart belongs to God, and when you are called according to God’s purpose, then you can know that an enemy is more than an enemy. An illness is more than an illness. An enemy has been permitted by God; an illness has been permitted by God for your good and His glory.
Isn’t that what Romans 8:28 says?
Romans 8:28And we know (knowing with an absolute certainty) that God causes all things (illnesses, enemies) to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
This is what we see in Isaiah 36-39. We see God’s goodness to Hezekiah and we see God’s glory.
Romans 8:28And we know that God causes all things to work together for goodto those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
You know that Hezekiah loved God because the scriptures tell us.
2 Chronicles 29 goes into great detail when Hezekiah came to the throne. We know that he reigned as king for 29 years. That was probably solo without his father, Ahaz. We know that he was man who was so good that God said:
2 Kings 18:5He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him.6 For he clung to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses.
So all things work together for your good and His glory.
What we see in the life of Hezekiah is God bringing Himself glory through that man who was a faithful man, whose heart was fully His.
As we come to the end of this first segment of Isaiah, as we get ready to move into…
Isaiah 40:1 “Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God.
He is going to move into that wonderful awesome portion of redemption. He has battered Israel. I mean, He has slapped them up one side and down the other trying to get their attention and tell them about their sin. And yet when you come to Hezekiah you find an example of what we should be like.
These last chapters 36-39 are a fitting and divine climax to what has gone on before chapters 1-35.
So let me do a quick review from a little bit different aspect.
In Isaiah chapter 1-6,: Israel’s lack of faith and obedience as a nation. (Except for a remnant) in that first portion He shows you that there is a remnant. Who is among that remnant? In chapter 6, he sees God, he sees his sin, he hears God’s voice, “Who will go for Us?” Isaiah says, “Send me.” Isaiah is sent out. He is told to keep on preaching because the holy seed is the stump.
Isaiah 7-12Ahaz’s Lack of Faith
Who is the son of Ahaz? It is Hezekiah. It is Ahaz’s lack of faith but when we come to the end of this segment, we are not going to see a king’s failure; we are going to see a king’s triumph. We are going to see the triumph of Hezekiah.
Chapters 13-23 The Fate of the Nations
The nations are in His hands. They are a mere instrument of God, and He assures us that what He has planned and purposed will surely come to pass.
Chapters 24-27 The Fate of the World
He shows us what happens. He shows us the fate of the world that He created. He shows us what is going to happen when He lays the earth waste. And yet, when He shows us the fate of the world, He shows us the triumph of His promise. There will be One who sits on the throne just as He tells Ahaz. The One that sits on the throne will be of the seed of David. All the way through, He shows us this triumph.
Chapters 28-33 He reminds His people of the Woesof not listening to Him. He reminds them of destroying and destruction, of dealing treacherously. He assures them that they will see the King in all His beauty.
Isaiah 33:17Your eyes will see the King in His beauty; They will behold a far-distant land.
Chapters 34–35 reminds Israel that God is Coming With Vengeance/Will Save Them
He will save them! There will be a highway of holiness.
Isaiah 35:8A highway will be there, a roadway, And it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, But it will be for him who walks that way, And fools will not wander on it.
9 No lion will be there, Nor will any vicious beast go up on it; These will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk there,10 And the ransomed of the Lord will return And come with joyful shouting to Zion, With everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away.
What does God do in Isaiah 36:1-2?
It is so beautiful. It is so absolutely beautiful the way that this book is laid out and the way that He brings this first segment to a close. (Same location as in chapter7 but two different kinds of kings)
Isaiah 36:1Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah,
This is a very important date. It helps you to put everything into context. It helps you to understand what is written about Hezekiah in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles.
Isaiah 36:1Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them.2 And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a large army. And he stood (where?) by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the fuller’s field.
Stop and think. Where have you seen that (conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the fuller’s field) before? You’ve seen it in Isaiah 7:3. Go back there. I believe it is very, very significant.
Isaiah 7:3 (You have the king of the northern kingdom and the king of Aram coming against Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah. You have them coming against Ahaz. As Ahaz has an army coming against him in Isaiah 7, so Hezekiah has an army coming against him in Isaiah 36. But the army coming against Hezekiah is far more powerful than the armies that were coming against Ahaz. This is Assyria, mighty Assyria that has already taken Israel captive in 722 B.C. What is the year right now in Isaiah 36? You might want to put it in your Bible. 701 BC. We know that from Assyrian records. It is a set and fixed date. It is the 14th year of King Hezekiah’s reign. It is very important.
You had Ahaz having an army against him. Now we have an army coming against Hezekiah. What does the Spirit of God do? He puts those men IN THE VERY SAME PLACE!!
Look at Isaiah 7:3
Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, (remember that means “a remnant shall return.”) at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the fuller’s field, (It is exactly the same phraseology.)
So you have 2 kings with 2 threatening enemies standing at the same place. That conduit of that upper pool was a sign to them because of the water system that they were trusting God because it was God who supplied the water system.
Hezekiah, in his time, has dug before this what we call “Hezekiah’s tunnel.” If you come to Israel with us, you can walk through Hezekiah’s tunnel. It is there today. But I can tell you, after studying Isaiah, it means so much more.
Now you find these people shaking:
Isaiah 7:2When it was reported to the house of David (Ahaz), saying, “The Arameans have camped in Ephraim (Israel, northern kingdom),” his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake with the wind.
Ahaz and the people of God are shaking because of the enemy.
What do you find in Isaiah 36? You find Hezekiah, who when he gets this news is going to tear his clothes. You see the people, and they, in a sense, are in fear.
But listen to what God is going to show us: what happens when we see our enemies and illnesses as a blessing from God rather than a threat.
We have a contrast in Isaiah 7 and Isaiah 36 of a father and a son.
Ahaz, Hezekiah’s father, was ungodly. (2 Kings 16:1-4) He did evil in the sight of the Lord.
Hezekiah was godly. He has an ungodly father. Having an ungodly father is no excuse. You can be a man or woman of God.
These two kings are reigning during the days of Isaiah (Isaiah 1:1; 6:1; 14:28)
Isaiah 1:1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem, which he saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Isaiah 6:1In the year of King Uzziah’s death
Isaiah 14:28In the year that King Ahaz died this oracle came:
What did Isaiah tell Ahaz on that day when he stood by that conduit.Isaiah is talking about what is going to happen to the enemies:
Isaiah 7:8“For the head of Aram is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin (now within another 65 years Ephraim will be shattered, so that it is no longer a people), (That is exactly what has happened in the days of Hezekiah.) 9 and the head of Ephraim is Samaria and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you (Ahaz) will not believe, you surely shall not last.” ’ ”
Have you got it? Have you got it? Faith is everything. Faith is everything. If you have faith, then your enemies become a blessing. If you have faith, then illness becomes a blessing. Why? Because God in His sovereignty allowed the enemies. God in His sovereignty allowed the sickness and God in his sovereignty promises that all things keep on working together for our good to who love God and are called according to His purposes.
But the question is: Do we believe it? If we don’t believe, we surely will not last.
Ahaz did not last. He did not believe God. But did Hezekiah believe God? Yes. Did he weather the storm with Assyria? Yes. Did Assyria go home with his tail tucked between his legs, so to speak? Yes. (Isaiah 37:33)
Was a sword ever wielded on the walls of Jerusalem? Was an arrow ever shot by Sennacherib’s army?
No! They were delivered because he believed God.
Ahaz is offered a sign:
Isaiah 7:10Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying,11 “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!”
We know that this makes God angry. God looks at the heart, and God knows Ahaz’s heart.
13 Then he (Isaiah) said, “Listen now, O house of David(talking to Ahaz)! Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well?
What do you see Hezekiah doing? You see Hezekiah asking for a sign when he is sick that he is going to get well. You see Hezekiah being given a sign when God tells him that he is going to be delivered.
So do you see the contrast? Do you see the contrasts?
What has Goddone at this point? God has taken us through the sin of Israel. God has shown them that it is faith’s obedience that makes them what they ought to be. He has shown them that there is judgment when you sin but there is ultimate triumph because He is a covenant-keeping God. He made a covenant (2 Samuel 7:11-16) with David that you will have someone who will sit on the throne. He confirms who that someone is in Isaiah 9.
Isaiah 9:6For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
So He tells us this and He shows us this.
So when we come now to this very end, in a sense you have seen defeat, defeat,defeat,defeat. We have seen Uzziah die a leper because of a proud heart. We have seen that Ahaz refused to believe God. We have heard the message of Isaiah all the way – but from the death of Ahaz, God has given this message over and over and over again.
Has it fallen on deaf ears? No! There is a remnant. Part of that remnant is a king by the name of Hezekiah.We are going to see that when you believe God, then God will take and use those enemies and those threats in your life to make you more like God. When you believe God and you get a bad diagnosis, God knows that. But God can take that bad diagnosis, and He can use it to make you more like God.
Isaiah 36 is like a clash of symbols in this symphony of Isaiah 1-36. It gets our attention.
I just want you to remember as we look at this passage, that in Matthew - whatdid Jesus say about enemies in the Sermon on the Mount?
Matthew 5:10“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.11 “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.12 “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Look at Luke 1 –when John the Baptist’s father is rejoicing:
Luke 1:6“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people, (This is what the rest of Isaiah is all about.) 69 And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of David His servant—70 As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old—71 Salvation from our enemies, And from the hand of all who hate us;72 To show mercy toward our fathers, And to remember His holy covenant,73 The oath which He swore to Abraham our father,74 To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, Might serve Him without fear,75 In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.
There is a purpose to an enemy. We have seen that enemies are used as a hand of God’s destruction.
Let’s go to Isaiah 36:4-7Rabshakeh is standing there. This could be his name or it could be a title for a field commander. It really doesn’t matter, he is doing his job.
4 Then Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What is this confidence that you have?5 “I say, ‘Your counsel and strength for the war are only empty words.’ Now on whom do you rely, that you have rebelled against me?
What does an enemy want to do? An enemy wants to take you captive. An enemy wants to bring you under subjugation. Here is Hezekiah, here is Judah resisting the king of Assyria. So when an enemy comes, how can an enemy be a blessing? This is the first point I want you to see.
1) An enemy is a blessing because he challenges our faith.
The enemy asks the question: “Who are you trusting in?” So when the situation is hard and the enemy is standing there threatening your security or your life and you look at the enemy, what is going to keep you from capitulating? What is going to keep you from throwing up the white flag of surrender? What is it going to be? It is going to be: where is your confidence? So it challenges me. I can say I believe God but faith isn’t faith until it is tested. When the test comes and the enemy says, “On whom do you rely, that you have rebelled against me?” It can happen in the marketplace. It can happen in church. It can happen any place. Where all of a sudden some one stands up and challenges your faith and tells you that that is simplistic, that that is infantile, or don’t you know that the Bible has errors? Then where is your confidence? Are you going to rest in God or are you going to rest in man?
36:6 “Behold, you rely on the staff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him.7 “But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?
What do you find out? This guy really does not understand the faith of the Jews. Because if he really understood it, he would know that Hezekiah was walking in obedience to God, getting rid of all those altars (2 Chronicles) Hezekiah went through and cleaned the land and called the northern kingdom to come and celebrate the Passover. (2 Chronicles 30:1) The northern kingdom didn’t do it, but Hezekiah offered them the opportunity. But they did not believe God.