Isaiah 35 - 39

The Restoration of Israel

Verse 2 says, “The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the Lord.” What is the glory of Lebanon? It is their trees, especially the cedars. Lebanon was known for their cedar trees which were used to build the temple in Jerusalem. More important than the trees, the “glory of the Lord” will be seen, the Shechinah glory will be visible in the land. How does Isaiah explain what causes this transformation? Verse 4 tells us, “Be strong, do not fear, your God will come.”

And if the transformation of the land isn’t enough to celebrate, Verses 5-6 gives them more good news. “The eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.” The Negev desert has good soil. What prevents it from producing any crops is the lack of water. Verse 7, “The burning sand will become a pool, the thirty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.”

In the Messianic kingdom there will be a highway built through Israel. It won’t be called the Autobahn or the Interstate or a Parkway, but the Way of Holiness. Verse 8, “And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness.” 

I hope they ban billboard, fast food restaurants, discount stores, and cheap motels along the way. It should be like the Blue Ridge Parkway which is a 470 mile two lane highway that runs north and south along the Ridge of the Blue Ridge mountains. No commercial vehicles are allowed nor are billboards. It is a scenic highway with numerous parking areas where you can get a better view of the valley. 

This Way of Holiness “Parkway” will be used by only those who are authorized to do so. Verse 8 continues, “The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it.” 

Maybe this will be like the “temple recommend” that Mormons can receive after an interview with their local church leader and regional leader. This “temple recommend” is issued in the form of an identification card is valid for two years. Some of the questions asked are:

1. Do you have a testimony of the restoration of the gospel in these the latter days? (Mormonism isn’t a reformation church. It is a restoration to what they believe was the gospel that had been lost since the death of the apostles. In their book, Doctrines and Covenants, Joseph Smith-History, chapter 1 verses 18-19, Joseph Smith asks the Personages, which church he should join. He was told, verse 19, “...none of them, for they were all wrong...and that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight.” 
2. Do you sustain the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the Prophet, Seer, and Revelator and as the only person on the earth who possesses and is authorized to exercise all priesthood keys? Do you sustain members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as prophets, seers, and revelators? Do you sustain the other General Authorities and local authorities of the Church?
3. Is there anything in your conduct relating to members of your family that is not in harmony with the teachings of the Church?
4. Do you support, affiliate with, or agree with any group or individual whose teachings or practices are contrary to or oppose those accepted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? (In other words, don’t spend your time or money working with other charitable or religious organizations. Besides, the more contact you have with the outside world, the more likely you might be led astray from the truth).
5. Do you strive to keep the covenants you have made, to attend your sacrament and other meetings, and to keep your life in harmony with the laws and commandments of the gospel?
6. Are you a full-tithe payer? (I suspect that this might be the most important one in the minds of some leaders)
7. If you have previously received your temple endowment: 1) Do you keep the covenants that you made in the temple? 2) Do you wear the garment both night and day as instructed in the endowment and in accordance with the covenant you made in the temple?

I bet that in the Kingdom you won’t be able to lie in your “Highway Recommend Interview” if you needed one.

Verse 9, “No lion will be there nor will any ferocious beast get up on it. But only the redeemed will walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord will return.” Perhaps the parkway will be elevated or have fencing along it, so we won’t need armed guards or pepper spray. “Walk there?” There must be sidewalks for the younger set who like to hike. I hope motorcycles are allowed. Verse 10, “They will enter Zion with singing.”

The chapter ends with the prophecy that “Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. So, we learned about the bright future for the Israelites, Blue Ridge Parkway and a little about Mormonism. 

In chapter 36 Isaiah returns to the subject of Sennacherib of Assyria and his attempt to take over Judah.

Chapters 36-37 describe the Assyrians unsuccessful try to take Jerusalem, Chapter 38 deals with a life threatening illness that Hezekiah survives and chapter 39 deals with Hezekiah and the Babylonians. These chapters show a transition from Assyrian domination to Babylonian. The rest of the book, chapters 40-66 deal with, among other things, Babylon. Assyria is history.

In anticipation of an Assyrian invasion, Hezekiah built an underground tunnel that connected Jerusalem’s main water source, the Gihon Spring, with the Pool of Siloam. The new system was designed to keep the outflow all within the walls of Jerusalem. This meant that the enemy troops outside the walls didn’t have access to the water. You can read about Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah and the seige of Jerusalem in 2 Chron. 32 and 2 kings 18.

Other nations, Edom, Moab and Ammon, located to the east and south of Judah had already surrendered to the Assyrians. Even Egyptian army that had moved in from the south to help Judah had been defeated. Imagine the pressure that was on the shoulders of Hezekiah. The city of Lachish, located about thirty miles southwest of Jerusalem had been taken and was being used as a staging area for the Assyrians. With many of his fortress cities around the perimeter of Judah conquered, and Jerusalem standing alone. He refused to surrender Jerusalem and allow those with him to be deported.

At this point Sennacherib sent an envoy to King Hezekiah.

Isaiah Chapter 36:1, “In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib, king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.” 

Sennacherib sent an envoy to meet with a representative of Hezekiah. He tries to reason with him to give up. Egypt was of no help to them. He then said in verse 7, “If you say to me, ‘We are depending on the Lord our God”- isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar”? In other words, God would be of no help either. Not understanding the difference between Jewish monotheism and idolatry, he assumed that since the high places and altars were removed, why would God want to help them? He didn’t understand that the removal of these altars was a sign of faithfulness. Not knowing the religion of a military opponent can be dangerous. 

The wars in the middle east have less to do with land than it does with religion. Here is a quote from the Ayatollah Khomeini, “We shall export our revolution to the whole world. Until the cry ‘There is no god but Allah’ resounds over the whole world, there will be struggle. Establishing the Islamic state world-wide belongs to the great goals of the revolution.” The west has to understand that the middle eastern wars are not about politics, but religion. Peace won’t come when the status of Israel is settled. Israel is not the only target of this revolution. 

Verse 8 “Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses.” At this point, the Jews responded by asking them to speak in Aramaic, which was the diplomatic language of the day. They did that so that other Jews wouldn’t be able to understand the negotiations. The Assyrians refused, knowing that if they could convince the common Israelites, they could put pressure on the leaders to agree, also. 

After offering an incentive of thousands of horses, he then gave them a veiled threat. If they didn’t accept this offer, verse 12, they “will have to eat their own filth and drink their own urine.” In other words, if the city is under a prolonged seige, conditions will become so horrible that they will eat and drink their own waste. He goes on to say, verse 14 “Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you.”

In chapter 37 Isaiah describes Hezekiah’s response. Verse 14, “Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. Verse 15, “And Hezekiah prayed. Verse 20, “Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand.” Hezekiah was at the end of his rope. He had no options open to him. He had to rely on God to save him and his city.

God responds begins in verse 22. This is addressed to the Assyrian king. The king is accused of pride (verse 23); disrespect towards God (verse 24) and in verse 29 he says, “Because you rage against me and because your insolence has reached by ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came.”

God goes on to reassure Hezekiah, verses 30-31, “This will be the sign for you, O Hezekiah: “This year you will eat what grows by itself, and the second year that springs from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. Once more a remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above.” In other words, in the third year everything will be back to normal.

God then gives Hezekiah this message, verses 33-34, “He will not enter the city or shoot an arrow here...by the way he came he will return, he will not enter the city.” Verse 35, “I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.”

Wow! Wouldn’t you have liked to have been there to see how it happens? While Sennacherib was getting ready to move against Jerusalem, he had to divert some of his army towards Egypt. Verse 36, “Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp.” I wonder cleaned up this mess. Oftentimes, when a leader lost a battle, he would send teams out to gather the bodies and equipment, then he would control the narrative as to what happened. In effect, kings would bury their failures, literally. 

Then Sennacherib broke camp and withdrew and returned to Nineveh and STAYED THERE.” I imagine he wouldn’t be afraid of stepping out his front door. But he should have been too afraid to even go to the temple to pray because, verse 38 tells us, “While he was worshiping in the temple of his god, Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with the sword and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.” Sennacherib died in 681 B.C., twenty years after his failure to take Jerusalem. 

Let’s see what we can find out about this god and the his sons. Nisroch is more likely a scribal error and should be the god Nimrod, a god of agriculture. Adrammelech is the name of a pagan god.  After the assassination the sons escaped to Ararat, which is in modern-day Turkey. There are no clear answers as to the motive behind the killing of Sennacherib by his sons or why they fled to Ararat.



Chapter 38, Hezekiah’s Illness

Chronologically, the events of Isaiah 38, his near fatal illness occurred before chapters 36 and 37.

Verse 1, “In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.’”

Did you know that one of the first things a newly elected president of the U.S. has to do is to make out his funeral plans? You never know when a president might die in office and so plans have to be made before he is even inaugurated. In 1841 President William Harrison, who is known for delivering the longest inaugural address in American history, died after just one month after taking office. 

If “putting your house in order” is a task you have been putting off, take comfort in knowing that at least it isn’t as complicated as what the President of the U.S. must do. The president must strictly follow the outline of a 138 page planning document. 

As an expression of love for your family, everyone should do as much pre-planning as possible. This means having a will, a living will, power of attorney, a letter of instruction as to who gets what, where documents are kept, who to notify at the time of death, funeral and burial preferences, etc. This will prevent unnecessary stress and conflict when the time comes. 

So Hezekiah probably called his attorney to see about updating his will, power of attorney, funeral preferences, etc. He also “turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, ‘O Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.’” Well, you might think that he had a pretty good image of himself. But God thought the same thing. 2 Kings 18:3-8 tells us, “He did what was rights in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it...Hezekiah trusted in the Lord...There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook.” 2 Chron. 31:21, “In everything that he undertook in the service of God’s temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God ad worked wholehearted. And so he prospered.” That’s quite an epitaph. I wonder if he had any of these comments on his headstone.

Benjamin Franklin wrote his own epitaph:

The body of B. Franklin, Printer,

Like the Cover of an old Book.

Its Contents torn out.

And stripped of its Lettering and Gilding.

Lies here. Food for worms.

But the Work shall not be wholly lost.

For it will as he believ’d

appear once more

In a new and more elegant Edition

Corrected and improved

By the Author. 

The actor Peter O’Toole sent a jacket to the dry cleaners. It was returned to him with a note that read, “It distresses us to return work which is not perfect.” He thought that would be a good epitaph for his headstone. 

God heard Hezekiah’s prayer (verse 5) and gave him fifteen more years of life. 2 Kings 18-20 shows that Hezekiah was fifty-four years old when he died, so his illness must have stricken him when he was about thirty-nine. If you in your late 70’s would you want to be guaranteed another fifteen years of life? What if you the last five years included having to deal with a degenerative condition such as Alzheimer’s disease? To what degree should Christians seek an extension of their lives by way of modern medicine? Paul tells us that we shouldn’t grieve like those who are without hope (1 Thess. 4:13). Should we die like those who are without hope, clinging to life for as long as we can?

Besides being given the promise of being healed, God also promised Hezekiah that he would be delivered from Sennacherib. Verse 6, “And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.” Can you picture the grin on Hezekiah’s face after hearing this?

Being the anxious personality type, God decided to give him a sign to prove his promise. Verse 8, “I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway.” It is often assumed that the steps refers here to a sundial in the palace courtyard. The next day Hezekiah felt great. He had a good night’s sleep, his favorite breakfast, the sky was clear, with low humidity and then in verses 9-20 he wrote a psalm to commemorate this miracle. Verse 18 says, “For the grave cannot praise you, death cannot sing your praise, those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness.” This sounds as if there is no consciousness after death. This idea, called “soul sleep” is taught by the Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses and a few other groups, such as the offshoots of the Worldwide Church of God. But back then, there wasn’t the knowledge that is available today regarding the status of the dead. The story of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-31) and the tribulation martyr of Rev. 6:10 are a few passages that show that there is consciousness after death. 

Verse 21 says that Isaiah told the king to make a poultice of figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover.” If God healed him, why did he have to use the poultice? I don’t know how anyone could be told that a boil, by itself, would be fatal. He might have had an infection that started with a boil, then he went sepsis, where the body is flooded with pathogens and is overwhelmed by them. And no poultice, made of fig or anything else could cure a patient with this systemic infection. Nor was the poultice necessary for God to heal Hezekiah. He didn’t need the help of this primitive treatment. It was done so that Hezekiah could show his faith by submitting to the treatment. And the treatment would have also served as a placebo, a treatment that would calm his anxiety. We know that placebos can have a powerful effect, on the mind, if not on the body. I dispensed them to patients at the Air Force pharmacy where I worked. 

Chapter 39 parallels 2 Kings 20:12-19 and 2 Chron. 32:24-31. These passages describe the visit of some governmental officials from the Babylonian Empire. They arrived with a nice letter from the emperor as well as a get well gift. Wasn’t that nice of them? I hope they gave him something he wanted. What gift do you buy for a king? Wouldn’t he already have anything he wanted? Royalty, they’re so difficulty to buy for.

Verse 2, “Hezekiah received the envoys gladly.” Rather than using this occasion to thank God and to declare His greatness to the visitors, the king became arrogant. 2 Chron. 32:25 tells us, “But Hezekiah’s heart was proud.” This led him to show his visitors (spies) what was in his storehouses-the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine oil, his entire armory and everything found among his treasures.” 

He may have even showed him his collection of restored antique chariots and stamp collection. Was Hezekiah nuts? Did his illness cause brain damage? That would be like giving the German and Japanese Ambassadors to the U.S. a tour of Ft. Knox, and the War Department back in the 1930’s. 

Some rabbis even claim that he allowed the delegation to take a look at the two tablets that Moses put in the Ark of the Covenant. How could he, a non-priest, have access to the Holy of Holiess? Well, the rabbis suggest that they were shown, not the tablets in the ark, but the broken ones (Ex. 32:19) which were supposedly kept in a separate ark outside the Holy of Holies. Isn’t scripture enough? Isn’t it sufficient? Why do some people feel compelled to add their speculations and legends to what God has given them? Do they think that what God chose to give us is inadequate? 

After the visitors had gone back home, Isaiah visited the king and asked who were those visitors. Hezekiah explained to him who they were and said, with some degree of pride, (verse 4) “They saw everything in my palace...there is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.” At this point the king may have come to realize the foolishness of his actions. Isaiah then had to tell him that all those things that he was so proud of showing off would be carried off to Babylon. 

Verse 6-7, “The time will surely come when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon...and some of your descendants will be taken away and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” 

Those visitors weren’t well-wishers, they were spies. And it may not have been just pride that led to the tour. Perhaps he was hoping to gain their military support against Assyria and he wanted to show them that he had something to offer as a potential ally.

Hezekiah didn’t argue or plead with him. 2 Chron. 32:26, shows his humbleness, “Then Hezekiah repented of the pride of his heart, as did the people of Jerusalem; therefore the Lord’s wrath did not come upon them during the days of Hezekiah.” It would not be until the time of Jeremiah that the nations’ sins would bring them beyond the point of no return, during the time of Hezekiah’s son Manasseh.

Verse 8, “The word of the Lord you have spoken is good.” He thought that as bad as this news was, it won’t happen in his lifetime. Just as today, when a death sentence is issued, it might not be carried out until years later. 

Up until then, Hezekiah didn’t have any children. And we know from history, once he did, he might have wished he hadn’t. It would be his wicked son and successor Manasseh whose behavior would ultimately lead to the Babylonian captivity. 2 Kings 21:11-14. “The Lord said through his servants the prophets: Manasseh has done more evil than the Amorites and led Judah into sin with his idols. Therefore, I am going to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle...I will wipe out Jerusalem. I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance and hand them over to their enemies. They will be looted and plundered by all their foes.”