“Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make peace with me by a present and come out to me; and every one of you eat from his own vine and every one from his own fig tree, and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.’ Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”
The king of Assyria did not know Who he was dealing with. The Lord of the Israelites was no different to him than the gods of the other nations he had conquered. I can only imagine what a terrifying scene this would have been, and what courage it would have taken to stand against the Assyrian invaders.
