Isaiah 36:10,11 - The Lord Himself told me

36:10

The taunts continue. Again there is an element of truth in it. Assyria declares that she is coming against Jerusalem as God’s instrument, and this was true! For Isaiah had previously said this. How did Assyria know this? Maybe Isaiah’s words spread, or maybe they had informers in Jerusalem. So how could Jerusalem be saved? Well Assyria was God’s instrument of judgement and discipline, but the goal was that Jerusalem would repent.

36:11

The Assyrian commander had been speaking in Hebrew, making sure that the ordinary people of Jerusalem understood what he was saying. Eliakim, Shebna and Joah wanted him  to speak in Aramaic. Aramaic was the language of diplomacy, and the understood it, but the ordinary people would not.` However, Sennacherib refused, he wanted the people to hear, to understand, and to be full of fear. The enemy will speak to us “in a language we understand”. There are things that press my fear buttons that don’t press yours. There are things that you fear that I will respond to with complete faith in God. We all have different fear buttons, but the enemy knows what they are and will press the appropriate buttons. A useless thing to do is to pray that God will not allow the enemy to press the fear buttons within us. A useful thing to do is to recognise that he will do this, so that when it does happen we do not thing something unusual is happening. We need to learn to stand firm in the face of battle (Eph 6:13).