2 Kings chapter 19. Last week, we looked at the prayer of Hezekiah in the face of the Assyrian onslaught, how he pleaded with God to spare the city, but again, he didn't say that. He just said, Lord, remember your name. Remember your promise. And that was all it took. So this week we see God's answer. How did God respond to Hezekiah? 2 Kings 19 beginning at verse 20. Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, That which you have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard. This is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him. The virgin, the daughter of Zion, has despised you, laughed you to scorn. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head behind your back. Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel. By your messengers you have reproached the Lord and said, By the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the limits of Lebanon. I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypress trees, I will enter the extremity of its borders to its fruitful forest. I have dug and drunk strange water, and with the soles of my feet I have dried up all the brooks of defense. Did you not hear long ago how I made it? From ancient times that I formed it, now I have brought it to pass, that you should be for crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins. Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were as the grass of the field and the green herb, as the grass on the housetops and grain blighted before it is grown. But I know your dwelling place. You're going out and you're coming in, and you're rage against me. Because of your rage against me and your tumult have come up to my ears, therefore I will put my hook in your nose, my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came. This shall be assigned to you. You shall eat this year such as grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from the same. Also in the third year sow and reap. Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and those who escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this. Therefore thus says 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 build a siege mound against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and he shall not come into this city, says the Lord. For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for my servant David's sake. And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand. And when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses. all dead. So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh. Now it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the temple of Nisroch his god, that his sons of Drammelech and Sharizer struck him down with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Esarhaddon, his son, reigned in his place. Grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our God stands forever. Let's pray. Almighty Father, we ask that you would open our hearts to understand this text. Show us your prophetic words spoken into the world, the words which contradicts reality, It seems, but then a word which begins and works and creates a new reality, a word which changes things. Father, show us that word. More importantly, we ask that you would speak that word to us tonight. Declare your prophetic word to us. Help me to speak it boldly. We pray, Father, that your Son would be glorified. that we would meet with you, that you would pour your Spirit upon us, that you would help us to see the mighty angel of the Lord in His glorious office as King, executing His and our enemies. We pray these things in His blessed name, and all God's people said, Amen. The angel of the Lord does indeed appear in this chapter for the first time since the first chapter of 2 Kings. As you recall, last time we saw the angel of the Lord, Elijah was on his way, running from Jezebel. He'd come to the southern border of Judah, crossed that, and was undoing Israel's wilderness wandering. He went out into the desert a certain number, a certain distance, lay down under a juniper tree, and there the angel of the Lord came to him and touched him. So if you don't recall that, I encourage you to go back and read that passage again. It's a great passage. But now the angel of the Lord comes forth in answer to Hezekiah's prayer and strikes down these Assyrians. He saves his people, this time not by a friendly touch, but by destroying their enemies. So the angel of the Lord came to conclude, to bring to its end, this test that was sent to Hezekiah and to the people of Jerusalem. This test of an Assyrian invasion. But before the angel of the Lord came for deliverance, he spoke through Isaiah this prophetic word. that confronts basically the Assyrians and says, I know who you are and I will punish you. God will not be mocked. That is the message of our text tonight. God mocks those who seek to mock him and he does it for the salvation of his people. We see this maybe most clearly, really, in the prelude, in verse 21. The word which the Lord has spoken, what is this word? It's a word of mockery, a word of sarcasm. The virgin daughter of Zion, what has she done? Well, she's shown scorn to the king of Assyria in three different ways. Has despised you, so that's internal in her thoughts. She's laughed you to scorn, so that's with words. She's made it very clear that she finds the efforts of the king of Assyria to conquer Jerusalem downright ridiculous and silly. And she's shaking her head behind Sennacherib, or behind the king of Assyria. So with body language. With thoughts, with words, and with body language, the daughter of Zion, which is the prophet's poetic way of speaking of Jerusalem, of speaking of the people of God, has laughed, has mocked, has ridiculed this Assyrian invader. Now that's a pretty surprising thing to say. This, brothers and sisters, is theology for the dungeon. Faced with threats of torture, murder, invasion, exile, Or we could say, to further the picture of the virgin daughter of Zion, faced with this would-be rapist, the king of Assyria, what does she do? She laughs. She doesn't just laugh, she thinks in her head, in her mind, I don't need to fear this guy. I find his effort to hurt me just simply silly. And she shows that by her body language. This isn't fake. It isn't forced. It's genuine. This prophetic word tells you how Christ sees his bride. This is who he sees us as. Beautiful, poised, confident, and side-splittingly funny in the face of attack and danger. Why is the daughter of Zion able to laugh and able to mimic and able to broadcast hilarious parodies of one of Sennacherib's staff meetings? Because she trusts her fiancé. Because she knows that God will protect her. There's something somewhat ludicrous in the very idea of raping God Almighty. And that is the idea that the virgin daughter of Zion has. Now it's easy to get uncomfortable with this and say, wait a second, I don't like the idea of mocking enemies, no matter who they are. Are we really supposed to just point the finger and laugh? Is that the way of Christ? Surely not. So it would seem. But we have to remember, again, this is theology for the dungeon. This is not the power dynamic of the triumphant church that dominates the world, laughing at a few despised people. Quite the opposite. It's the church imprisoned, unable to do anything to help herself, still joyful in the face of her persecutors, laughing because her Redeemer is mighty. And yet there are two things we need to notice about this. The first one, of course, is that this does not describe conditions in the literal Jerusalem in any way. What is everyone doing according to the end of chapter 18, the beginning of chapter 19? They're all walking around in sackcloth with their clothes torn. Hezekiah is saying things like, today is a day of trouble, rebuke, and blasphemy. The people in chapter 18 are sitting on the wall listening to the Rabshakeh threaten them with eating their own dung and drinking their own piss. And yet the word of God comes into the situation and says, I don't see a bunch of frightened people trying to think of any way they can possibly get the king of Assyria to leave, including stripping the gold off the doors of the temple and giving it to him. which of course is what Hezekiah did in verse 15 and 16 of the previous chapter. God doesn't say that that's what he sees. He says, I see my people mocking. I see my people laughing. And so this is a word from God that describes the ideal. We can almost say that it's a key feature of the prophetic word that it contradicts reality. It doesn't tell you something you could see just by looking out your own window. In that sense, it's much more important than the morning weather report on TV. The prophetic word doesn't repeat to you what's already obvious. The prophetic word comes into your situation and says what you see is not the way things really are. You see an Assyrian army, 200,000 strong, camped outside this little city of Jerusalem. We don't know how many people live there. It may have been no bigger than Gillette. The Jerusalem citizens looked out their window and saw that. The word of God through Isaiah comes to them and says, no, the virgin daughter of Zion mocks the Assyrians. And so we can say that the prophetic word grows to its fulfillment in due time. This is an ideal, but it's an ideal that will become reality as God continues to mature his people. Are we mature enough to mock our enemies now? Hardly. Maybe we're mature enough to rightly mock our enemies from the dungeon. We're certainly not mature enough to mock them from a position of power. And yet, God says, someday, this is what his church will look like. She despises you, she scorns you, she wags her head behind you. Imagine the church as the beautiful daughter of Zion, mocking her would-be rapist from the dungeon, her inner nobility blazing brightly through the sackcloth she wears. Can you love the church as Christ sees her? That's the message of this verse. In this little paragraph lies everything you need to know about why he loves you. Why does Christ love the church? Because when he looks at us, this is what he sees. Not a bunch of fearful citizens running around in sackcloth saying, what are we going to do? What are we going to do? What are we going to do? Assyria is definitely going to get us this time. No, he sees someone who's calm and confident because she knows that her fiancé is almighty and that he will not let this destruction take place. Now that's just the prelude to the oracle. How is it that you and I can be calm and confident in the face of danger and fear and disaster? It's because we know that God is with us. And therefore, Psalm 46 has it, God is in her midst, therefore she shall not be moved. Nations rage, kingdoms totter, steeples are falling, but God is still in the midst of his people, mighty to save. Well, God's word moves on from just this brief spotlight, this one verse, half a verse, on the beauty of his church, switches over and highlights Assyria's rebellion. What had Assyria done wrong? Well, God issues this charge against them. They had mocked God. Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? Assyria had looked down on God, had despised Him, basically to mock God is the opposite of hallowing His name. To hallow God's name is to do your best to make Him look good, to show His glory and His holiness. To unhallow God's name is to try to make Him look bad, foolish, wrong, silly, and weak. Assyria had claimed to be God. Their boasts are evidence that God brings in and quotes to show that they were attempting to rival God. Especially, well, all of these things. I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the limits of Lebanon, to cut down these tall cedars. That is a prerogative of who? Not just of a human being, especially When we compare it with this in verse 24, Assyria's claim to have dried up the waters, to have power over the waters of chaos. Psalm 72, I will put his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers. Mightier than the waves of the sea, the Lord on high is mighty. Psalm 89, you rule the powerful sea, you still its angry waves. When Assyria says, I rule strange waters, my feet are on these waters, I control the waters, that's claiming divine prerogatives. Claiming to do what only God can do. So God quotes this to say, you have lifted up your eyes on high. You've looked up at me and challenged me with these words. Now, obviously, it's not wrong to cut down trees. It's not wrong to dam up waters and to direct them where we want them to go. That wasn't what Assyria was saying. They're not saying we manage the natural world in a way that's good for our citizens. They're saying we rule and there is no one superior to us. We have power over trees. We rule the high places, the height of the mountains. What's that? Well, that's where the gods live. We rule those heights, we rule those waters. God quotes that and says, no you don't. You don't understand that I made these things. So God gives them this verdict, first of all saying, I gave you victory. I was the one who determined all of your conquests. From ancient times, I formed it. What did God form? Well, God formed this plan that they would be victorious. God says, I set you apart to crush these cities. I'm the one who made their inhabitants weak. It was my providence that made you win. Don't claim to be ultimate, Assyria. Don't claim that you are the final arbiter of your own actions and your own destiny and of the geopolitics of the Near East. You're not. I am, I'm the one, God says, who set you up to be able to do all this. And then God adds that He knows everything about Assyria. Assyria's claims to be ultimate are simply absurd because God knows far more about it than they do. Any of you who have expertise in some trade or field of knowledge know how tiring it can be to talk to someone who doesn't know anything about your field, but who insists on trying to correct you. Well, I think, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you just want to say, would you please stop? The more you talk, the more it's clear that you don't know what you're talking about. Well, that's God's word. I know all about you, Assyria. You're simply tiresome in your claims to be the ultimate in power. You're not. And I know it, and the longer you talk, the more you prove that you don't know anything about it. That's God's word to Assyria. And so God says, I will defeat you. Notice how merciful this defeat is. A hook in the nose, a bridle in the lips, and just a gentle redirection. I'll just turn you back by the way you came. God doesn't say, therefore, I'll beat you about the head and ears with a stick until you repent. No, God is gentle, he's kind, even to the evil and the ungrateful. Even Assyria, God simply says, I'm gonna send you back home and give you some time to think about it. Remember, this is the same Assyria that had repented 150 years before, or I'm sorry, about 50, 60 years before, under the preaching of Jonah. God says, okay, Assyria, here's another chance. You're going back home. You've attacked my people. You've raged against me. You've blasphemed me. You've claimed divine prerogatives. I'm gonna send you back home and you can cool off. And then God turns to his people in verse 29 and gives them this sign. This year, you will eat what grows of itself. Next year, you'll plant crops. The third year, you'll eat them. And we read that and say, what kind of a sign is that? Really? Why is this an important sign? What's the deal here? Well, this is important because if you don't know whether you're going to live out the week, and God says you will be planting crops here in three years, that's a pretty important sign. No, Assyria is not going to destroy you this week or this year, and next year you will have free access to your fields and be able to plant, and the third year after that, life in the land will be restored to some degree of normalcy. That's God's promise. And then a second promise, God's people will be rooted in his presence. You think you're going to die, but actually you're about to experience spiritual fruitfulness like you've never seen. The remnant will take fruit downward and bear fruit upward. They'll grow deeper into God and they'll bear those spiritual fruits on top. The flourishing, fruitful life in the presence of God in His land. God's repeating that promise that He made to Abraham. Saying, Assyria, this invasion is not going to be the end of you, Judah. You're terrified. You think this could be it. But it's not. I'm about to give you a reprieve. And then a second promise, God's people will spread out to bless the nations. A remnant will go forth out of Jerusalem. What does this mean? Is this a promise that Jerusalem will be destroyed and only a certain number will escape? No. God is saying, you will spread out from this city to bless the nations because I spared you. This is God's missionary heart. What was it that Hezekiah prayed? We looked at last week. Verse 19, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord God because you saved us from Sennacherib's hand. How does God answer the prayer? He says, I will spare you, I will deliver this city, and a remnant will leave this city and go out. What will they do when they go out? They'll spread the good news that God delivered them. Hezekiah's prayer is being answered. God's name is being hallowed and glorified even in this brutal test sent to God's people. Someday, in other words, this deliverance of God's people would result in blessing coming to the nations. Now was there a great missionary movement out of Jerusalem in the decade following this deliverance? Not that we know of. No, this promise is being fulfilled today, in our times. God's people are spreading out to the nations to share the good news that God delivers. So this is a promise that would be fulfilled not necessarily in Hezekiah's time, but in the distant future. God's people would flourish and spread out and ultimately cover the whole world. And why is it? What is it then that God will do? He'll do this by His zeal. Isaiah, of course, uses this phrase to describe the coming of the Messiah. The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall perform this. It's that same zeal, that same overflowing passion that God has for His name and His people and His promise to David that guarantees the spiritual fruitfulness of Judah, the continued life in the land for God's people, and the missionaries leaving, going out from Jerusalem spreading out to the world. So how do we know that we're safe? How do we know that we're protected? How do we know that God takes care of his people? Because of his zeal. It's the zeal of the Lord of hosts that does this. God gives one last oracle concerning the king of Assyria. And again, this seems to be an oracle that contradicts reality in a certain sense. God says, Sennacherib will not build a siege mound against the city, verse 32, and yet that's exactly what the Assyrian troops were engaged in doing. They're standing in front of the city, besieging it. But one point of the oracle is that Sennacherib personally would never come to Jerusalem, would not attack it, And the other point is simply that the invading army, the besieging army, would not attack, would not even attempt to destroy Jerusalem. They would return, they will not come into this city, says the Lord. Why, verse 34, for I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for my servant David's sake. When you hear that God is doing something for his own sake, that means that nothing contingent can come along and change his mind. God doesn't change, and so if he's doing it for his own sake, he is certain to do it. No circumstances can change. No event can happen. Nothing can come to pass that will make God say, wait, I'm going to recalculate this. And God also promises to defend his people for the sake of his servant David. Because of his promise to David that one of David's sons would rule forever and ever, because of that messianic promise, God spares his people. God will break his promise to you just as soon as he breaks a promise to Jesus Christ. That was God's message to his people in the days of Hezekiah. Because Messiah is coming, God will save his people. Of course, the message now is because Messiah has come, God will save his people. So on a certain night, the angel of the Lord, the pre-incarnate Christ, exercising his kingly office, came out and slaughtered 185,000 Assyrians. Christ executes the office of a king in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies. And here he is restraining and conquering his and our enemies. Is this the Jesus that you serve, the one who acts for the salvation of his people, not only by personally eliminating threats to their existence, but also by suffering and dying himself in his people's place? Why was the daughter of Zion able to mock her would-be rapist? Because she knew that her fiance was alive, well, and unstoppable. that He would come and deliver her and destroy these invading Assyrians. She had perfect confidence in His omnipotence. Do you share that confidence? Do you see that Christ must and will triumph over all His and our enemies? What are you afraid of for yourself, for your church? for the church. Do you believe that Christ can defend the church? Can save her? That's the message. The angel of the Lord acts for the salvation of His people. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. You saw how He sees you. How do you see Him? How do you think of Christ? Is this the angel of the Lord that you serve and worship? Nothing can stop God's salvation. By many or by few, and ultimately, of course, by one man. Salvation comes through Him. Well, our chapter concludes with a little two-verse epilogue Sennacherib went home 20 years later, according to Assyrian records. He was indeed worshiping in the house of his god, and his son struck him down. They fled to the land of Ararat and escaped, and Esarhaddon, his son, reigned in his place. God mocks human pretensions. Sennacherib said, I am more powerful than God. God himself cannot save this city from me. He spent two chapters saying it. Chapter 18 and the first half of chapter 19. And then what happened? God saved his city. Far from being mightier than God Almighty, Sennacherib wasn't even mightier than his own sons. Not only could he not conquer Jerusalem, he couldn't even hold on to power in his own native country at the end of his reign. The Lord of hosts is on our side, our safety to secure. The God of Jacob is for us a refuge, strong and sure. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you mock those who would mock your people. That you restrain and conquer your enemies and our enemies. Heavenly Father, we pray that you would help us to see how your Son sees us. Help us to see the Church as the glorious, spotless Bride of Christ, and to love her accordingly. We pray, Father, as well, that you would help us to have confidence in your Son's rule. Help us not to be friends with the world, Help us especially not to claim ultimacy like Assyria to say, I have power where only God has power. Father, teach us that we are not ultimate in any area. Teach us to live in every area in dependence upon you and in submission to you and your perfect law and your perfect plan. We thank you that you acted to save your people. We thank you that your son not only killed Assyrians to protect his bride, but that he himself died to protect his bride. We pray, Father, that you would teach us to love and magnify and glorify Jesus Christ. We ask these things in his blessed and beloved name. And all God's people said, Amen.