November 16, 2014: Swords into Plowshares

Isaiah 36:1-3, 13-20; 37:1-7; then 2:1-4

36:1-3

Assyria’s King Sennacherib marched against all of Judah’s fortified cities and captured them in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah. ² Assyria’s king sent his field commander from Lachish, together with a large army, to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. He stood at the water channel of the Upper Pool, which is on the road to the field where clothes are washed. ³ Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, who was the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Asaph’s son Joah the recorder went out to them.

36:13-20:

¹³ Then the field commander stood up and shouted in Hebrew at the top of his voice: “Listen to the message of the great king, Assyria’s king. ¹⁴ The king says this: Don’t let Hezekiah lie to you. He won’t be able to rescue you. ¹⁵ Don’t let Hezekiah persuade you to trust the Lord by saying, ‘The Lord will certainly rescue us. This city won’t be handed over to Assyria’s king.’

¹⁶ “Don’t listen to Hezekiah, because this is what Assyria’s king says: Surrender to me and come out. Then each of you will eat from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own well ¹⁷ until I come to take you to a land just like your land. It will be a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. ¹⁸ Don’t let Hezekiah fool you by saying, ‘The Lord will rescue us.’ Did any of the other gods of the nations save their lands from the power of Assyria’s king? ¹⁹ Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Did they rescue Samaria from my power? ²⁰ Which one of the gods from those countries has rescued their land from my power? Will the Lord save Jerusalem from my power?”

37:1-7

When King Hezekiah heard this, he ripped his clothes, covered himself with mourning clothes, and went to the Lord’s temple. ² He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests to the prophet Isaiah, Amoz’s son. They were all wearing mourning clothes. ³ They said to him, “Hezekiah says this: Today is a day of distress, punishment, and humiliation. It’s as if children are ready to be born, but there’s no strength to see it through. ⁴ Perhaps the Lord your God heard all the words of the field commander who was sent by his master, Assyria’s king. He insulted the living God! Perhaps he will punish him for the words that the Lord your God has heard. Offer up a prayer for those few people who still survive.”

⁵ When King Hezekiah’s servants got to Isaiah, ⁶ Isaiah said to them, “Say this to your master: The Lord says this: Don’t be afraid at the words you heard, which the officers of Assyria’s king have used to insult me. ⁷ I’m about to mislead him, so when he hears a rumor, he’ll go back to his own country. Then I’ll have him cut down by the sword in his own land.”

2:1-4

This is what Isaiah, Amoz’s son, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

² In the days to come
    the mountain of the Lord’s house
    will be the highest of the mountains.
    It will be lifted above the hills;
        peoples will stream to it.
³ Many nations will go and say,
“Come, let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain,
    to the house of Jacob’s God
        so that he may teach us his ways
        and we may walk in God’s paths.”
Instruction will come from Zion;
    the Lord’s word from Jerusalem.
⁴ God will judge between the nations,
    and settle disputes of mighty nations.
Then they will beat their swords into iron plows
    and their spears into pruning tools.
Nation will not take up sword against nation;
    they will no longer learn how to make war.

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Think of the nastiest, meanest, cruelest villains in any story you can remember.  Darth Vader followed by a bunch of storm-troopers from Star Wars.  The Dark Lord Sauron and his orcs from Lord of the Rings.  The Wicked Witch of the West and her flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz. Throw in some real-life villains from our own world (the Nazis, ISIS, or whoever…) and you have an idea of what the Assyrian Empire was like.

Empires are usually not warm-and-cuddly, but Assyrians took cruelty and destruction to a new level.  They were based out of what is now Northern Iraq and they were able to conquer most of the Middle East.

The Assyrians were cruel. “How cruel?” you ask. They were so cruel that when the city of Babylon (filled with hundreds of thousands of people) was destroyed by the Assyrians, the destruction was so complete that it was the equivalent of a nuclear bomb going off. The Assyrians created that much destruction with hand-held weapons.

The Assyrians were bullies. “How were they bullies?” you ask. The King’s Palace in Nineveh was covered with carvings and paintings of Assyrians executing, dismembering and enslaving conquered people in very hideous ways. This artwork was usually found in the room where they made foreign ambassadors sit before going to see the Assyrian King. 

The Assyrians were greedy. “How greedy were they?” you ask.  The Assyrian Empire lasted for hundreds of years and they would go out campaigning every few years, fighting and conquering enemies. After a while their economy became so dependent on warfare that they would campaign every year. And if they couldn’t find enemies to fight, they’d simply attack and destroy FRIENDLY nations. 

THESE are the people outside of the walls of Jerusalem when our lesson begins.  No wonder King Hezekiah and his officials are frightened.  The bragging that the Assyrian field commander does to the officials listening on the walls can be backed up by a trail of blood, death, and slavery.  The alternative to fighting must have sounded very tantalizing.

But the prophet Isaiah encourages the king and his officials to hold fast: the LORD can be trusted, even in the face of these monsters.  And this faith is well placed: when the dust settles at the end of this episode Hezekiah is still in control of Jerusalem and Sennacherib, the King of Assyria, has been killed in palace intrigue back home in Nineveh.  In the meantime, the Assyrian army was ravaged by a plague which the Bible attributes to an angel of the Lord.

Have you ever faced a person or situation like the Assyrians? Has it ever seemed hopeless?  Maybe your personal Assyrian Empire is not a person per se. Maybe it’s an addiction or compulsion or habit you really, really, REALLY need to leave behind. Maybe it’s a life situation that you can’t seem to get out of.  Whatever it is, these verses can inspire you to HOLD ON and look to the Lord for help.

Our lesson finishes with a beautiful vision that we are still waiting to see: swords will be beaten into plows and nation will not take up sword against nation; they will no longer learn how to make war.  It seems almost too good to be true, doesn’t it?  Our world has been filled with violence and destruction for thousands and thousands of years.  Could something like this ever happen?

                                          

Even Jesus Christ our Lord, the Prince of Peace, faced violence and was killed by another empire. But the empire that killed him (Rome) as well as the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Macedonians, Communist Russia and so many others are now on the trash-heap of history.  Jesus Christ is very much still alive and with us.  Let this lift your heart when you see bullies in your life.