July 6, 2024 - Isaiah 36-39

I know these historical chapters pretty well having studied them closely during my seminary days.  I hope this does not come across in any way as braggadocious. There are many biblical texts/events about which I know much less.  I’m just quite familiar with these chapters and the chapters in 2 Kings that tell of Hezekiah and the Assyrian Crisis.  I certainly have thoughts about how to summarize and apply these texts but I thought I would take a look at my ESV Study Bible and see what the writer has come up with.  It’s quite good, I think, and I would like to quote him.  He entitles these chapters “Historical Transition:  ‘In Whom Do You Now Trust?’”  That’s a pretty good summary right there!  Hezekiah must decide, will he trust himself and his efforts to ward off destruction by Sennacherib, king of Assyria, or will he trust in the Lord?  That’s the question these chapters address.

The ESV writer writes:  “These chapters form a narrative bridge between the mostly poetic chapters 1-35 and 40-66.  Chapters 36-37 look back to chapters28-35, proving through Hezekiah that faith in God is met by his blessing.  Chapters 38-39 provide context for chapters 40-55, as Hezekiah’s folly dooms his nation to Babylonian exile.  Against the backdrop of divine faithfulness (chapters 36-37) and human inconstancy (chapters 38-39), God stands forth as the only hope of his people.”  Wow, now that I type that, I’m thinking, “That summary actually seems a bit wordy.  But it all boils down to the question ‘In whom will you trust?’ and the response ‘God stands forth as the only hope of his people.’”  And so, we must ask, “In whom do we trust?”  Can we say with the psalmist, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God” (Psalm 20:7)?

Oh, didst thou show, in thy self-centered pride,

Earthly possessions, and naught beside?

Never once pointing to Him who gave?

Him who alone has the power to save?

Never revealing by look or word,

Almighty God about whom they’d heard.

Hearken, my soul!

Hearken, my soul!

“What have then seen in thine house?

“What have then seen in thine house?

Didst thou reveal how the Saviour can heal,

And make a man whole in body and soul?

“What have then seen in thine house?   -- Jessie F. Moser (1929)