The Book of 2 Chronicles

Word Study

"an arm of flesh," Hebrew zeroa basar (זְרוֹעַ בָּשָׂר), a merely human strength. Hezekiah, having done all the practical preparations, stopping the springs, building the walls, arming the people (v3-6), now gives them the one thing that matters most: a right estimate of the odds. To the eye, Judah was hopelessly outnumbered by "all the multitude" of Assyria. But Hezekiah counts differently: "there be more with us than with him." How? "With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God to help us, and to fight our battles." Sennacherib had only human power, "an arm of flesh," which is mortal and breakable; Judah had the living God. This is the arithmetic of faith, which counts God as more than all the armies of earth, the same math Elisha's servant learned when his eyes were opened to see "they that be with us are more than they that be with them" (2 Kings 6:16).

"rested themselves," va-yissamekhu (וַיִּסָּמְכוּ) from samakh, to lean, support oneself upon. The people's response is the model of faith: they "rested themselves (samakh, leaned) upon the words of Hezekiah." Faith leans its whole weight on God's promise. Note that Hezekiah both prepared diligently and trusted wholly; the two are not enemies. He built the walls and then said, "with us is the LORD our God."

Explanation

Facing an overwhelming Assyrian army, Hezekiah encouraged his people not to fear, because the true count of forces was in Judah's favor: Assyria had only human strength ("an arm of flesh"), but Judah had the LORD Himself "to help us, and to fight our battles." The enemy's vast numbers meant nothing against the living God. And the people responded rightly: they leaned their confidence on Hezekiah's words of faith. Hezekiah shows that diligent preparation and wholehearted trust in God belong together; he built the walls and trusted the LORD.

Gospel Focus

"With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God" is the confidence of every believer facing an overwhelming foe. Our enemies, whether sin, death, the world, or the devil, have only "an arm of flesh," a strength that is real but limited and doomed; we have the living God. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31). "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4). The battle is finally the Lord's, and He fights for His people, "the LORD our God to help us, and to fight our battles." The right response is the people's response here: to "rest," to lean our whole weight on God's word. "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm" (Jeremiah 17:5); "trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength" (Isaiah 26:4). Whatever multitude is arrayed against you today, do the arithmetic of faith: an arm of flesh on their side, the LORD our God on ours. There are more with us than with them.

Word Study

"how much less," Hebrew aph ki (אַף כִּי), an argument from the greater to the lesser. Sennacherib's taunt has a certain logic: he had conquered many nations, and none of their gods had saved them; therefore, "how much less shall your God deliver you out of mine hand?" Sennacherib's very argument, "no god... was able," which he means as an overwhelming case, becomes the ground of his downfall: he has blasphemed the one God who is not like the others. His "how much less" will be answered by God's "how much more." The Assyrian's confidence in his own hand, "out of mine hand" repeated over and over, is precisely the pride that goes before destruction.

"your God," which Sennacherib treats as merely one more national deity. The logic rests on one fatal error: he counts "your God," the LORD, as just another idol, "as against the gods of the people of the earth, which were the work of the hands of man" (v19). He does not know the difference between the true and living God and the carved images of the nations. Those gods could not deliver because they were nothing; the LORD is the Maker of heaven and earth. To rank the living God among idols is the most dangerous miscalculation a man can make.

Explanation

Sennacherib argued that since he had destroyed many nations and none of their gods had saved them, Judah's God would be no different, "how much less shall your God deliver you out of mine hand?" His reasoning seemed strong, but it contained a deadly flaw: he treated the LORD, the living God, as if He were just another man-made idol like the gods of the nations. He did not know the God he was defying. His arrogant boast in his own power was the very pride that would bring him down.

Gospel Focus

Sennacherib's fatal error, treating the living God as one idol among many, is the error of every age that reduces God to a human invention. "They... changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man" (Romans 1:23). But the LORD is not "the work of the hands of man"; He is the One who "made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is" (Psalm 146:6). To count Him among the idols, to imagine He can be defied with impunity, is the height of folly, for "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31). Sennacherib sneered "how much less shall your God deliver you?" and God answered him in a single night. The world still speaks of the God of the Bible "as against the gods of the people of the earth," a relic, a projection, a myth, but "he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh" (Psalm 2:4). The living God is not mocked. And the same God who is terrible to His defiant enemies is a refuge to all who trust Him; the difference is only which side of His hand you are on. Do not rank Him among the idols; bow before Him as Lord.

Word Study

"prayed and cried to heaven," Hebrew va-yitpallelu va-yizaqu (וַיִּתְפַּלְלוּ וַיִּזְעֲקוּ), they prayed and cried out. Against the towering threat, Hezekiah and Isaiah do the one decisive thing: they "prayed and cried to heaven." Not to the walls, not to Egypt, not to their own arms, but "to heaven." Prayer, not the sword, won this war; heaven answered from heaven.

"cut off," va-yakhched (וַיַּכְחֵד), destroyed, effaced. The answer is swift and total: "the LORD sent an angel, which cut off all the mighty men of valour, and the leaders and captains in the camp." One angel undid the greatest army on earth in a single night (2 Kings 19:35 gives the number: 185,000). The proud "arm of flesh" was no match for one messenger of the living God. Sennacherib, who had boasted "out of mine hand," "returned with shame of face to his own land", the very shame he had promised to inflict now fell on him. And the end is grimly fitting: worshipping in "the house of his god," the god who could not save him, he was murdered by his own sons, "they that came forth of his own bowels." The blasphemer who ranked the LORD among the idols died at the feet of an idol, by the hands of his own children.

Explanation

Faced with blasphemy and siege, Hezekiah and Isaiah did not scheme or despair; they "prayed and cried to heaven." God answered immediately and decisively: a single angel destroyed the Assyrian army's mighty men and officers in one night. Sennacherib fled home in disgrace and was later murdered by his own sons while worshipping his powerless god. The greatest empire of the day was defeated not by Judah's weapons but by Judah's prayers and God's angel. The proud boaster met the very shame and ruin he had promised to others.

Gospel Focus

"Hezekiah the king, and the prophet Isaiah... prayed and cried to heaven. And the LORD sent an angel", here is the power of prayer against impossible odds. When God's people cry to heaven, heaven answers. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (James 5:16); "call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not" (Jeremiah 33:3). Judah's weapons did not save them; their prayers did. This is the church's true strength in every age: not the arm of flesh but access to the throne of heaven. And the deliverance points to a greater one. The same God who sent one angel to save Jerusalem sent His own Son to save the world; the God who cut off the blasphemer's army will one day put down every enemy under Christ's feet, "for he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet" (1 Corinthians 15:25). When you face a Sennacherib, a threat too great for you, do what Hezekiah and Isaiah did: pray and cry to heaven. The battle belongs to the LORD, and He answers those who call upon Him.

Word Study

"his heart was lifted up," Hebrew gavah libbo (גָּבַהּ לִבּוֹ), his heart grew high, proud. Even Hezekiah, one of Judah's best kings, was not immune to pride. After his sickness and miraculous recovery (v24), "Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up (gavah)." He failed to respond to God's kindness with proportionate humility and gratitude; instead, his heart "grew high." It is a sobering warning: the very mercies of God, deliverance from Assyria, healing from sickness, riches and honor, can become occasions for pride. The same word, "lifted up," described the fatal pride of Uzziah (chapter 26:16).

"humbled himself," va-yikkana (וַיִּכָּנַע) from kana, to bow low, submit. But here is the crucial difference from Uzziah and Ahaz: "Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself (kana) for the pride of his heart." When confronted, Hezekiah did not harden; he bowed. And because he humbled himself, "the wrath of the LORD came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah." The mark of a true saint is not that he never falls into pride, but that when he sees it, he humbles himself. Repentance, not perfection, is what distinguishes the godly. Hezekiah's greatness lay finally in his willingness to bow low.

Explanation

Even godly Hezekiah stumbled. After God healed him and blessed him, his heart grew proud, and he did not respond to God's goodness with the gratitude it deserved, so God's displeasure fell on him and the nation. But Hezekiah did what Uzziah and Ahaz would not: when he recognized his pride, he "humbled himself," and so did the people, and God's wrath was turned away in his days. His recovery from pride, through humbling and repentance, is what set him apart. The godly are marked not by never sinning but by humbling themselves when they do.

Gospel Focus

Hezekiah's fall into pride and his recovery through humbling teach a vital lesson: God's mercies can tempt us to pride, and the remedy is not despair but humbling ourselves. "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18), and even the recipients of great blessing must beware, "when thou hast eaten and art full... then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God" (Deuteronomy 8:12-14). But the good news is that God gives grace to the humble: "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble" (James 4:6); "humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time" (1 Peter 5:6). Hezekiah's greatness was not that he never grew proud but that "notwithstanding" he "humbled himself." So it is with us: we will stumble, but the mark of grace is a heart that, when it sees its pride, bows low and repents rather than hardening. Do not let God's kindness make you proud; let it make you grateful. And when pride is exposed in you, do as Hezekiah did, humble yourself, and find that mercy still meets the lowly.

Word Study

"left him," Hebrew azavo (עֲזָבוֹ) from azav, to leave, forsake. When Babylonian envoys came to inquire about Hezekiah's miraculous recovery, "God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart." This "leaving" is not abandonment in wrath but a withdrawal of God's felt, restraining help. God stepped back so that what was really in Hezekiah's heart, the pride and self-display that Isaiah rebuked when Hezekiah showed the Babylonians all his treasures (2 Kings 20:12-18; Isaiah 39), would surface. What God "left" was not His covenant love but the felt supports that had been holding Hezekiah steady.

"to try him," le-nassoto (לְנַסּוֹתוֹ) from nasah, to test, prove. The withdrawal was a deliberate testing, and its purpose is stated: "that he might know all that was in his heart." God, of course, already knew; the trial was so that Hezekiah, and we, would know. Testing is one of God's chief instruments to reveal the true state of the heart, both its pride and its faith. "The LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart" (Deuteronomy 13:3). God sometimes withdraws the sense of His help, not to destroy us, but to show us what we are, and to drive us back to dependence. Even the removal of God's felt presence is, for His child, a form of His fatherly care.

Explanation

When envoys came from Babylon, God deliberately withdrew His restraining help to test Hezekiah and reveal what was truly in his heart. Left to himself, Hezekiah gave way to pride, showing off his treasures to the Babylonians (as the parallel accounts record). God did not abandon him in anger, but stepped back to expose the pride that remained, so that Hezekiah might see his own heart. God uses testing, sometimes even the sense of His absence, to reveal and refine what is really within us.

Gospel Focus

"God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart" opens a window into how God works with His children through testing. He sometimes withdraws the felt sense of His help, not to forsake us, He has promised "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5), but to reveal and purge what lies hidden in us. Trials are God's searchlight into the heart: "thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night" (Psalm 17:3); "examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart" (Psalm 26:2). The gold is refined in the fire, "that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth... might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:7). If you feel that God has, for a season, "left" you, that His nearness is not felt as before, take heart: for His child this is not abandonment but proving. He is showing you your own heart, its pride and its need, so that you will lean harder on Him. Let the trial do its work: humble you, reveal you, and drive you back to the God who has promised never to truly leave His own.