Isaiah 36

Wesley: Sennacherib invades Judah. The history related here is, almost in the same words contained 2 Kings 18, 19, 20. It is inserted here, to explain and confirm some of the foregoing predictions. Them—many of them; universal particles being frequently so used both in scripture, and other authors; and this success God gave him; to lift him up to his own greater and more shameful destruction: to humble and chastise his own people for their manifold sins, and, to gain an eminent opportunity to advance his own honour by that miraculous deliverance which he designed for his people.

Calvin: in this and the following chapter the Prophet relates a remarkable history, which may be regarded as the seal of his doctrine. Not without reason does he specify the time; for at that time Hezekiah had restored the worship of God. If we judge of this calamity according to the perception of the flesh, we shall think that God was unjust in permitting his servant to be reduced to such extremities; the Lord did not punish Hezekiah for carelessness, pleasures, or luxury; God therefore intended to try his faith and patience. Yet the people were justly punished for their iniquities; although true religion flourished as to external worship, yet their life was not changed for the better.

Wesley: sent—having received the money, upon which he agreed to depart from Hezekiah and his land, he breaks his faith with Hezekiah, thereby justifying his revolt, and preparing the way for his own destruction.

Rabshakeh stands at the very spot where Isaiah had met Ahaz (7:3). Wesley notes that Sennacherib took Hezekiah’s money and marched anyway, breaking faith and preparing his own downfall.

Calvin: then the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh. The order of the narrative may here have been altered; historical connection is frequently disturbed; the Scriptures frequently make use of a figure of speech in which a part is taken for the whole. It appeared that the king of Assyria had brought the whole of Judea under his dominion, because nearly all that remained was Jerusalem alone, in which Hezekiah was shut up.

The great army stays with Lachish’s siege.”

Wesley (on v. 2): he sends Rabshakeh, who by his blasphemous persuasions tempts Hezekiah to despair, and the people to revolt. Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah come out; the history is inserted here to explain and confirm some of the foregoing predictions.

Hezekiah sends his three senior officials to meet Rabshakeh, the same men who will bring the report back in torn clothes (v. 22).

Calvin: Eliakim was formerly mentioned. It was he to whom the Lord promised that he would give him the chief power in the kingdom after the banishment of Shebna. It now appears as if that promise had failed, when he is sent to an enemy as a suppliant. Besides, the godly king had such a scarcity of good men, that, along with Eliakim, he was compelled to send Shebna, whom he knew well to be deceitful and treacherous.

Calvin will not let Isa 22’s promise look failed because Eliakim walks out as a suppliant.

Wesley: thus saith—but what are the greatest men when they come to compare with God, or when God comes to contend with them?

“What confidence is this?” The whole speech turns on trust. Wesley answers that even the “great king” is small beside God.

Calvin: say now to Hezekiah. The three ambassadors were not only repulsed, but disdainfully treated by the tyrant’s delegate. Thus saith the great king: he calls the king of Assyria great, because by his power he eclipsed all others, so that he stood alone in his lofty rank. By these thunderbolts of words Hezekiah might have been overthrown and subdued.

The “great king” stays a taunt.

Wesley: what are the greatest men when they come to compare with God, or when God comes to contend with them?

Rabshakeh’s question—“In whom do you trust?”—is the right question asked with the wrong intent. Arminian readers note that the taunt forces Judah to name its confidence.

Calvin: I have said (only a word of the lips). He ridicules Hezekiah, as if he fed the expectation of the people by empty boasting, while he was not provided with military preparations. He perfectly understands, he claims, what it is on which Hezekiah places his chief reliance, namely, on words and eloquence; but it is not by these that war can be begun or carried on.

Wesley: this broken reed—whoever trusts in man, leans on a broken reed: but God is the rock of ages.

Egypt is a splintered reed that pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it. Rabshakeh is right about Egypt; he is wrong in thinking Judah has nothing else to lean on.

Calvin: behold, thou hast trusted in that broken staff of reed. He slanderously and falsely accuses the pious king of this vain confidence. Yet God justly rewarded a rebellious and disobedient people by allowing this filthy dog to reproach them with their wicked revolt. The hope of receiving aid from the Egyptians is not only false and unfounded, but pernicious.

Calvin does not let the slander stand as if the pious king had leaned on Egypt; the reed is Rabshakeh’s taunt, not Hezekiah’s policy.

Wesley: is not—thus boldly he speaks of the things which he understood not, judging of the great God, by their petty gods; and of God's worship by the vain fancies of the Heathens, who measured piety by the multitude of altars.

Rabshakeh mistakes Hezekiah’s reform for sacrilege: removing the high places, he thinks, must have offended Israel’s God. Wesley calls it judging the great God by petty gods.

Calvin: this slander Satan attempted not only to wound the heart of the king. Every person must plainly see how slanderous is that charge; for Hezekiah had taken away false gods and superstitious worship, which God abhors. We must stand out with unshaken faith against such ungodly speeches, by shewing that what they call the worship of God is not his worship.

Calvin and Wesley both keep Rabshakeh ignorant of the LORD’s worship.

Wesley (on v. 6): whoever trusts in man, leans on a broken reed: but God is the rock of ages.

The wager mocks Judah’s weakness: they could not even find riders for two thousand horses. The insult is meant to make trust in God look absurd.

Calvin: now come, give a hostage. He concludes that there will be nothing better for Hezekiah than to lay aside the intention of carrying on war and to surrender. This is ironical language. If I shall give thee two thousand horses, thou wilt not find among all thy people men to ride on them.

The wager stays a taunt.”

Wesley (on the reed of v. 6): whoever trusts in man, leans on a broken reed: but God is the rock of ages.

The taunt measures Judah’s weakness against one minor captain. Wesley answers that whoever trusts in man leans on a broken reed, while God is the rock of ages.

Calvin: and how dost thou despise? Hezekiah is so far from being able to endure the presence of his king, that he ought not to be compared to the very smallest of his captains. Although Sennacherib does not yet appear before them with his whole army, Rabshakeh boasts that his lieutenants are sufficiently powerful, so that Hezekiah ought not to hesitate to make submission.

Wesley: am I—he neither owned God's word, nor regarded his providence; but he forged this, to strike a terror into Hezekiah and the people.

Rabshakeh claims the LORD sent him. Wesley calls it a forgery meant to terrify—though Isaiah had indeed called Assyria the rod of God’s anger (10:5), Assyria never knew it.

Calvin: and now have I come up without Jehovah? He alleges that Hezekiah has not to contend with a mortal man, but with God himself. Satan assumes the character of God himself, and is transformed into an angel of light. We ought therefore to distinguish wisely when God speaks, and when, on the other hand, his name is falsely assumed by men. An upright conscience ought to be like a brazen wall, that, imitating Hezekiah, we may stand unshaken.

Calvin does not let “the LORD said” pass as God’s mouth.