Justin Houtz

Hi. I’m Justin. I write code and things but enough about that…

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  • Daily Bible Study

    2 Kings 18-19; 2 Chronicles 32; James 5

    DateVersionReading Plan
    July 21, 2026ESV (2016)ESV Life Journal Plan – 2026

    2 Kings 18-19

    Observation & Interpretation

    These chapters are primarily of the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah and the Assyrian takeover. Hezekiah did what was right in the eyes of the LORD (2 Kings 18:3), keeping the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses (2 Kings 18:6). The LORD was with Hezekiah and he rebelled against the king of Assyria and struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza (2 Kings 18:7-8). Shalmanezer, king of Assyria, besieged Samaria in the fourth year of Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:9). The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria, putting them in Halah, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God (2 Kings 18:12).

    In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against the fortified cities of Judah and took them (2 Kings 18:13). The Assyrian king required of Hezekiah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold (2 Kings 18:14). Hezekiah fulfilled the request by stripping gold from the doors of the temple and from the doorposts that he had overlaid with gold (2 Kings 18:16). “Like Ahaz, his father, Hezekiah is forced to take extreme measures concerning temple goods because of the heavy burden of tribute he must pay to the Assyrian king (16:17–18; compare 1 Kgs 6:31–35).” (FSB). The king of Assyria sent representatives to Hezekiah at Jerusalem (2 Kings 18:17). When these men called for Hezekiah, he had his own representatives meet them (2 Kings 18:18). The Rabshekah, one of Sennacherib’s men, told Hezekiah’s men a message to relay back to Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:19-25). In the message, the Rabshekah mocked Hezekiah for trusting in the LORD and ordered that a wager be made with Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:22-23). Hezekiah’s men tried to compel Sennacherib’s men to speak to them in Aramaic rather than the language of Judah, but the Rabshekah again mocked them and told them that they were doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine (2 Kings 18:27).

    The Rabshekah then called out even louder in the language of Judah, urging them not to let Hezekiah deceive them, claiming that he would not be able to deliver them out of the hands of the Rabshekah (2 Kings 18:29). The Rabshekah spoke of how the gods of the other nations were not able to deliver them from the hand of Assyria and scorned their reliance on the LORD to deliver them (2 Kings 18:33-35). The people responded in silence to the Rabshekah because Hezekiah’s command was, “Do not answer them.” (2 Kings 18:36). Hezekiah’s men came to him with their clothes torn and told him all that the words of the Rabshekah (2 Kings 18:37).

    As soon as he head the words of the Rabshekah, Hezekiah also tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and ashes (2 Kings 19:1). He sent the secretary of the household, Eliakim, to Isaiah and told him the situation (2 Kings 19:2-5). Isaiah told them the words of the LORD that they were to relay back to Hezekiah; that they were not to be afraid of the words of the Rabshekah. Isaiah told them that the LORD would put a spirit in the king of Assyria and make him fall by the sword in his own land (2 Kings 19:6-7).

    The narrative pivots to a brief account of when the Rabshekah returned to the king of Assyria, finding him fighting against Libnah (2 Kings 19:8). “Sennacherib heard that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia in upper (i.e., southern) Egypt, was advancing to attack him. He immediately tried to frighten Jerusalem into quick surrender by sending a blasphemous letter.” (BBC). Hezekiah read the letter, spread it before the LORD and proceeded in earnest, devotional prayer that the LORD would save them and that the kingdoms of the earth may know that the LORD is God alone (2 Kings 19:19).

    Isaiah then sent to Hezekiah and told him of what the LORD said (2 Kings 19:20). The LORD through Isaiah told Hezekiah that He heard Hezekiah’s prayer and provides a prophecy of what was to come. “The prophecy of Isaiah is a taunt song against … Assyria. It pictures Jerusalem, the virgin, the daughter of Zion, as laughing at Assyria’s threats. It denounces Sennacherib for blaspheming God’s holy name, and for boasting that he would invade Judah (Lebanon), destroy her rulers and great men (tall cedars and … cypress trees), and enter the palaces of Mount Zion (lodging place and forest).” (BBC). Isaiah told Hezekiah that there would be a sign, to eat what grows of itself the first two years and then, in the third year, to sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit (2 Kings 19:29). Isaiah continued in saying that the king of Assyria would not come into Jerusalem but would return the way he came (2 Kings 19:32-33). That night, the angel of the LORD struck down 185,000 Assyrians (2 Kings 19:35). Sennacherib departed and went home to live in Ninevah and, as he was worshiping at the house of his god, his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat, fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy regarding the king of Assyria (2 Kings 19:36-37).

    Application

    The LORD was gracious to His people, blessing Hezekiah’s reign and bringing about a faithful remnant of Israel after enduring a time of judgment through the Assyrians. God is patient and tarries for a time, but destruction will ultimately come to those who oppose and rebel against Him. We can look at the Rabshekah’s taunts of the LORD as deplorable, but we too once walked the same way, “following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2b). May the saints never forget the radical corruption that permeates our hearts and of God’s immeasurable grace to redeem us from such vile wickedness. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 2:4-7).

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