King Hezekiah of Judah may be pious and prudent, but the failure of his bribe and diplomatic strategies now means that Assyria is closing in.
In despair, he sends his advisors to beg his mentor, the prophet of Jerusalem, Isaiah, son of Amotz, to counsel and to pray.
This is the first time that this prophet shows up in the Bible, although he seemed to have already been a familiar and revered figure in Judah.
And in fact, Isaiah predicted the birth of this boy who would be king - and savior. During the dark days of initial Assyrian ascent, as King Ahaz turned on all the pagan lights in the palace and the kingdom, Isaiah had a vision of hope, brought on by the imminent birth of a royal baby as sign that God was still with the House of David: ‘A young woman is with child and will soon give birth to a son whom she will call ImmanuEl [God-with-us].’ (Isaiah 7:14) Isaiah predicated that King Ahaz and Queen Abi’s firstborn would birth would be ‘a great light’, to the traumatized people of the north, who ‘walked in darkness’ and ‘deep shadow’. When the baby was born, he was in fact named Hezekiah, and Isaiah blessed the royal child, who on his coronation day he would be called ‘Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty-God, Eternal-Father, Prince-of-Peace’. By the time Christian interpretations of the Bible come around these verses, including the ‘young woman’ giving birth and the ‘prince of peace’ would be ascribed to Mary and Jesus. But back then - Isaiah was still hoping that the king he tutored since his boyhood days will indeed rise to be the savior of Judah’s faith - and fate. Some traditions claim that Isaiah was in fact a member of the royal family.
In the coming months we will revisit this saga of Jerusalem’s demise from Isaiah’s point of view - written as a literary mix of his prophecies and historical analysis. In this chapter he shows up as the wise elder he was - not always on the same side of the political decision making.
Isaiah has been opposed to all treaties with foreign nations - Assyria or Egypt. His position is that of the man of faith and local interests - trying to keep Judah small and safe, minding its own business and surviving at all costs, by relying on YHWH’s protection, no matter what.
But by this point, his strategy is not helpful as the enemy is at the gates, the siege is surging, and the king, in despair, needs guidance and help.
So Isaiah is mobilized. He sends a response to the sack-wearing king that is an echo and a rebuke of the demoralizing Assyrian speech just heard in the previous chapter and echoing through Jerusalem’s terrified streets. With utter assurance based on faith, speaking for YHWH, he promises the king that the siege will be lifted, and Assyria, against all odds, will turn back and not destroy the holy city.
Isaiah is quoting back the horrific speech of the Rabasheka from the previous chapter and mocks the Assyrians:
“Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master as follows: Thus said YHWH: Do not be frightened by the words of blasphemy against Me that you have heard from the boys of the king of Assyria.”
This fearless talk is not just morale-boosting - this is a full on optimistic prophecy, a promise for redemption. It also mocks the Assyrian diplomats as ‘the king’s boys’.
Inspired by the prophet, the king also prays, publicly, with great humility, in the temple, begging YHWH for help.
And somehow - it works.
Unclear how exactly, but overnight, just as Isaiah predicated, the Assyrian army is reported to suffer huge losses and king Sennacherib turns around.
Jerusalem, for now, is spared.
This twist in the plot is incredible - although temporary.
This reprieve will go down in Judean memory and Jewish history as the proof that YHWH is real and Jerusalem is his beloved and cherished home.
What’s really going on here is mysterious, and may have more to do as with the complex political realities of the moment than the power of prayer and the prophetic word.
In II Kings: In a Whirlwind Alex Israel tries to make sense of this moment, and offers some historical data that confirms what happened though not why:
“It almost seems too fantastical to imagine a huge army of 185,000 just expiring in their sleep. The biblical account has always aroused skepticism. For centuries, this remarkable miracle seemed unsubstantiated by any external source. However, with the discovery of Sennacherib's own records almost two centuries ago, we have greater backing for the veracity of the story described by Kings. Sennacherib's war records demonstrate a strange anomaly when it chronicles the siege on Jerusalem. As Prof. Haim Tadmor has observed, Sennacherib uses a standardized formula when describing the conquest of an enemy town: "Four elements which constitute a fixed structure, without which one cannot speak of a description of battle against a renegade enemy." The four elements are: (1) Sennacherib's conquest of the kingdom (including the capital city), (2) execution of the king, (3) the appointment of a vassal in place of the former king, and (4) the imposition of heavy taxation.
These are fixtures in recording each and every conquest — except one: the war against Jerusalem in 701 BCE. Sennacherib describes the siege and Hezekiah's tribute, but fails to record the fall of Jerusalem and the execution or incarceration of its king. This leads Tadmor to assume that Sennacherib abandoned the siege of Jerusalem, having failed to vanquish the city. “
Historical speculations suggest that the Assyrians turned away because the tensions on the Babylonian border were more pressing than this Judean hilltop nuisance.
But rather the speculate what turned Assyria away, we’ll focus on the role of the prophet, and the careful use of words, not swords, that is what makes this terrible saga still stand out. Alex Israel continues:
“The Sennacherib annals yield other gems which corroborate and enrich our reading of the account. One particular phrase sheds light upon an unusual metaphor in the book of Isaiah. Sennacherib, in his own words, boasts: "Hezekiah himself, like a caged bird I shut up in Jerusalem, his royal city." This unusual metaphor gives greater poignancy to the metaphor used by Isaiah (31:5): "Like birds in flight, so will the Lord of Hosts protect Jerusalem. He will protect it and deliver it, He will spare it and rescue it." Until this Assyrian document was uncovered we didn't appreciate the significance of Isaiah's language. Now we realize that Isaiah's phraseology was a direct retort to the language of Sennacherib, one of biblical archaeology's most famous contributions to our understanding of the Biblical word.”
Thus, as Jerusalem manages to hold on for the moment, we are not just telling history but also introduced to the great prophet of the day, and to the purpose and power of prophecy.
“This is not only our introduction to Isaiah per se, but to classical prophecy itself. In our comments to the Book of Samuel, we had occasion to introduce the term “apostolic” prophecy to describe the activities of such early prophets as Samuel, Nathan, and Gad, whose prophetic function consisted of missions—usually political in nature—that they undertook at God’s behest. These matter-of-fact activities were conducted and reported in ordinary prosaic terms, as distinct from the activities of such later prophets as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel whose prophecies were religious—even theological—in nature and were delivered in lyrical, even poetic, terms that we often find obscure, even impenetrable.”
And just as Isaiah predicated, Sennacherib heads back to Nineveh, where he is assassinated by some of his sons while he is worshiping in the temple of the god Nisroch.
His son Esarhaddon succeeded him as king.
Back in Jerusalem, the king falls ill and the prophet has another important task to fulfill - both with his words, and with his power to heal. Coming up - the first and intriguing mention of astral prophecy - aka astrology - in the royal court of Judah - and the bible.
The (Actual) Birth of the Bible!
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