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February 07, 2010
Jesus, IN THE DESERT IN DEEP PRAYER: 
Finally, a Bible study program our readers would find VERY useful, easy to use for RESEARCH and DAILY study of The Holy Bible.
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THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF A CHAPTER IN OUR BIBLE, READ IT; CAREFULLY!!
Before we begin today remember that when things hard to be understood come in our way in studying Scripture let us pray, and wait patiently God's own time for revealing the meaning. It would not be a revelation if there were not some things therein which are beyond our comprehension now, and which form tests of faith whether we will bow our reason before the Word of God, and humbly confess our ignorance, and adore God's infinite wisdom in the mighty scheme of redemption. Blessed be His Holy Name, if there be deep waters in which an elephant may swim, there are the healing waters of salvation in which the Lamb may wade. Our salvation does not depend on clearing up the abstruse parts of the Bible: all that is necessary for salvation is so plain that "the wayfaring men," however simple, ["shall not err therein"] (Isaiah 35:8).
2 Kings, Chapter 19
19:1 And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord .
2 And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
[To Isaiah the prophet] His fame and influence were at this time great in Israel; and it was well known that the word of the Lord was with him. Here both the church and the state unite in fervent application to, and strong dependence upon, God; and behold how they succeed!
3 And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
[The children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.] The image is that of a pregnant woman in labor, whose strength is exhausted, whose powers are paralyzed, at the moment when she required to put forth a vigorous effort. The expression in which the message was conveyed to the prophet described, by a strong figure, the desperate condition of the kingdom, together with their own inability to help themselves; and it intimated also a hope that the blasphemous defiance of Yahweh's power by the irreverent Assyrian might lead to some direct interposition for the vindication of his honor and supremacy to all pagan gods.
4 It may be the Lord thy God will hear all the words of Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left.
[The remnant that are left] That is, the Jews; the ten tribes having been already carried away captive by the kings of Assyria.
5 So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6 And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith the Lord , Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
[Isaiah said ... Be not afraid.] The prophet's answer was most cheering, since it held out the prospect of a speedy deliverance from the invader.
[Of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me,] [na±young men, different from ±abdeey, servants, used, 2 Kings 19:5. The former word implies something like contempt for the indiscretion and levity of young end thoughtless lads. The Septuagint has: ta paidaria].
7 Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
[Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour] The rumour was, that Tirhakah had invaded Assyria. The blast was that which slew 185,000 of them in one night, see 2 Kings 19:35.
[Cause him to fall by the sword] Alluding to his death by the hands of his two sons, at Nineveh. See 2 Kings 19:35-37.
8 So Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
[Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.] These two places were not very distant from each other; they were in the mountains of Judah, southward of Jerusalem.
9 And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying,
10 Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
[Let not thy God in whom thou trustest] This letter is nearly the same with the speech delivered by Rab-shakeh. See 2 Kings 18:29.
11 Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered?
12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed; as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Thelasar?
13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah?
14 And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord , and spread it before the Lord .
[Spread it before the Lord] The temple was considered to be God's dwelling-place; and that whatever was there was peculiarly under his eye. Hezekiah spread the letter before the Lord, as he wished him to read the blasphemies spoken against himself.
15 And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord , and said, O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth.
[Thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.] Thou art not only God of, Israel, but God also of Assyria, and of all the nations of the world.
16 Lord , bow down thine ear, and hear: open, Lord , thine eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God.
17 Of a truth, Lord , the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands,
18 And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them.
19 Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only.
20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.
[Then Isaiah ... sent.] A revelation having been made to Isaiah, the prophet announced to the king that his prayer was heard. The prophetic message consisted of three different portions: First, Sennacherib is apostrophized (2 Kings 19:21-28) in a highly poetical strain, admirably descriptive of the turgid vanity, haughty pretensions, and presumptuous impiety of the Assyrian despot. Secondly, Hezekiah is addressed (2 Kings 19:29-31), and a sign given him of the promised deliverance-namely, that for two years the presence of the enemy would interrupt the peaceful pursuits of husbandry, but on the third year the people would be in circumstances to till their fields and vineyards, and reap the fruits as formerly. Thirdly, The issue of Sennacherib's invasion is announced (2 Kings 19:32-34).
21 This is the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.
[The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee ]- the inhabitants in the upper part of the city, the citadel or fortress of Zion, called a virgin because it had hitherto been inviolate by a foreign enemy.
[The daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.] This, of course, must denote the people in the lower city. 'Shaking head'-a sign of contempt (Psalms 22:7; Matthew 27:39).
22 Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.
[Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? ... even against the Holy One of Israel.] In the Jewish law he was guilty of blasphemy who applied that fearful and glorious name to an idol; not less was he chargeable with the same crime who would have the boldness to apply it unwarrantably to himself. Of the latter form of blasphemy Sennacherib was guilty, in ascribing to himself powers, and a command over success and victory, such as can belong to none but an omnipotent being.
23 By the messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel.
[I am come up ... the sides of Lebanon.] There is no reason to suppose there was an actual ascent of Lebanon, as Hannibal and Napoleon crossed the Alps. The description is figurative.
[I will enter into the lodgings of his borders,] [mqitsoh] - a lodging-place, or khan, on the border.
24 I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.
[I have digged and drunk strange waters.] Here is another instance of boasting that he had overcome the greatest difficulties and disadvantages of nature. Though passing through foreign countries, parts of which extended in inhospitable deserts, where it might have been anticipated that his army would have perished of thirst, he had with skillful and well-applied labor digged into the arid soil, and found a sufficient supply of the necessary fluid.
[And with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.] The metaphor was probably derived from the familiar fact of a gardener opening rills of water by his foot. Assuming that there is some reality, or basis of fact, under this grandiloquent figure, it may be supposed to mean, that the strongest fortresses had been taken by his forces, and that cities defended by the encircling course of broad rivers were successfully stormed, by diverting the currents, so that the assailants, crossing dry-shod the old channels of those streams, had, contrary to human anticipations, effected an easy entrance into the "besieged places." [But maatsowr, rendered "besieged places," is considered by Gesenius (sub voce) and Bochart ('Hierezoicon,' part ii., lib. v., cap. 15) to be here the proper name of Egypt, and apparently of Lower Egypt (so called, probably, from being well fortified. Bochart, 'Phaleg.,' iv., 34).] In this sense the word occurs in Isaiah 19:6; Micah 7:12.
25 Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.
[Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it.] Here comes the prophet's response to the Assyrian's boasting. The purport of it is, that Sennacherib was merely an instrument in the hands of Yahweh, to accomplish His purposes of providential judgment.
26 Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.
27 But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.
[I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in.] All the movements of Sennacherib were well known to Yahweh. His residence in Assyria, his expedition against Judah and Egypt, his return home for a time, his second expedition, his menaces against Judah, and blasphemous defiance of Judah's God-all these were well known and permitted in the course of Divine Providence.
28 Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.
[I will put my hook in thy nose] - or I have put, etc. People in the East lead their large and turbulent beasts by a bridle fastened to a ring, which is put through the cartilage of the animal's nose (Job 41:1-2). The Assyrians often strung a number of war-captives in that way, with their hands bound behind them, and rings fastened in their nostrils (cf. Ezekiel 19:4,9; 29:3-4) (Rawlinson, 'On the Cuneiform Inscriptions,' p. 76). Sometimes the ring was passed through the lip ('Nineveh and its Remains,' ii., 376).
29 And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.
[This shall be a sign unto thee] To Hezekiah; for to him this part of the address is made.
[Ye shall eat this year] Sennacherib had ravaged the country, and seed-time was now over, yet God shows them that he would so bless the land, that what should grow of itself that year, would be quite sufficient to supply the inhabitants and prevent all famine; and though the second year was the sabbatical rest or jubilee for the land, in which it was unlawful to plow or sow; yet even then the land, by an special blessing of God, should bring forth a sufficiency for its inhabitants; and in the third year they should sow and plant, etc., and have abundance, etc. Now this was to be a sign to Hezekiah, that his deliverance had not been effected by natural or casual means; for as without a miracle the ravaged and uncultivated land could not yield food for its inhabitants, so not without miraculous interference could the Assyrian army be cut off and Israel saved.
30 And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
[The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root] Since your grain shall take root in the soil, and bring forth and abundantly multiply itself, so shall the Jewish people; the population shall be greatly increased, and the desolations occasioned by the sword soon be forgotten.
31 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.
[Out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant] The Jews shall be so multiplied as not only to fill Jerusalem, but all the adjacent country.
[And they that escape out of Mount Zion] Some think that this refers to the going forth of the apostles to the Gentile world, and converting the nations by the preaching of the Gospel.
32 Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.
32 Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.
[He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.] Here follow the fullest proofs that Jerusalem shall not be taken by the Assyrians:
1. He shall not come into this city;
2. He shall not be able to get so near as to shoot an arrow into it;
3. He shall not be able to bring an army before it;
4. Nor shall he be able to raise any redoubt or mound against it;
5. No; not even an Assyrian shield shall be seen in the country; not even a foraging party shall come near the city.
33 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord .
[By the way that he came] Though his army shall not return, yet he shall return to Assyria; for because of his blasphemy he is reserved for a more ignominious death.
34 For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.
35 And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
[That night] The very night after the blasphemous message had been sent, and this comfortable prophecy delivered.
[The angel of the Lord went out] I believe this angel or messenger of the Lord was simply a suffocating or pestilential WIND; by which the Assyrian army was destroyed, as in a moment without noise, confusion, or any warning. See the note at 1 Kings 20:30. Thus was the threatening, 2 Kings 19:7, fulfilled, I will send a BLAST upon him; for he had heard the rumour that his territories were invaded; and on his way to save his empire, in one night the whole of his army was destroyed, without anyone even seeing who had hurt them. This is called an angel or messenger of the Lord: that is something immediately sent by him to execute his judgments.
[When they arose early] That is, Sennachcrib, and probably a few associates, who were preserved as witnesses and relaters of this most dire disaster. Rab-shakeh, no doubt, perished with the rest of the army.
36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
[Dwelt at Nineveh.] This was the capital of the Assyrian empire.
37 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esar-haddon his son reigned in his stead.
[Nisroch his god] We know nothing of this deity; he is nowhere else mentioned.
[Smote him with the sword] The rabbis say that his sons had learned that he intended to sacrifice them to this god, and that they could only prevent this by slaying him.
The same writers add, that he consulted his wise men how it was that such miracles should be performed for the Israelites; who told him that it was because of the merit of Abraham, who had offered his only son to God: he then said, I will offer to him my two sons; which when they heard, they rose up and slew him. When a rabbi cannot untie a knot, he feels neither scruple nor difficulty to cut it.
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