A short trip back to Isaiah, where we will cover chapters 36-39. These chapters are paralleled in 2 Kings 18-20, sometimes verbatim. One might ask why they have been included again here. There is a very important reason for this, and for the nature of the whole book of Isaiah. The first part of Isaiah has contained various prophecies about how Assyria would conquer much, but would fail to defeat Jerusalem. These chapters show that this is exactly what did happen. Thus these chapters demonstrate the authenticity and validity of the prophecy. The second part of Isaiah contains prophecies, many of which pertain to many years in the future. In particular they refer to the Babylonian captivity, and the eventual release from there. So the validity of the prophecies in the first part demonstrate that we can also trust the prophecies in the second part. This counters the widely held view that chapter 40 onwards were written be someone other than Isaiah, and at a much later date.
Hezekiah had made overtures to Assyria, but this had proved futile (as Isaiah had said they would). So Sennacherib attacked Judah, capturing all the fortified cities. Next an large army was sent to Jerusalem. Various officials from Jerusalem went out to meet the field commander. Maybe they were hoping for some sort of accommodation. As we will see, any such hopes would be dashed.
No comments:
Post a Comment