Dealing with the Devil

 December 16, 2021

Assyrian king Sennacherib was on a mission. His armies were relentlessly marching south through Syria, the northern kingdom of Israel, into Judah where they had ravaged and laid waste the northernmost fortified cities, and now were surrounding the capital city of Jerusalem.

On the basis of his apparent success, Sennacherib boasted and threatened Judah’s king Hezekiah with three lies, in hopes of frightening him into submission. In an era when ordinarily life was generally cheap, Assyrian troops were known far and wide for their horrifying brutality. Sennacherib’s threats were not to be taken lightly. Sennacherib is a type, or picture of the Enemy of our souls.

His first lie is found in Isaiah 36:7

““If you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?” ’” Hezekiah had faithfully restored the worship of Yahweh following the disastrous and idolatrous rule of his father, the wicked king Ahab. 

The Enemy wants us to believe we are unfaithful to the Lord when we hold to the ancient ways and stand for orthodoxy against all the deviations and distortions of it. Ahaz and others like him had followed the idolatrous depraved customs of their neighbors, telling the people that those practices and that worship was another way of worshipping the One True God. It was a lie.

The Enemy wants us to believe that what we have called true is really false, what we know as depraved is really holy, and what we know as love is really hate.

The second lie is found in verse 8.

“Now therefore, I urge you, give a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses—if you are able on your part to put riders on them!”

In other words, “Put your trust in the king of Assyria, and he will give you a measure of freedom and power (ie. horses and chariots).” Sennacherib may have been willing to keep that promise, but it would come at a terrible price—a tether that would tighten like a noose around the necks of God’s people. The Enemy of our souls is more than ready to bargain with us, offering us safety if we will relinquish our freedom. It is a lie. Whatever “freedom” the Enemy offers is always a snare that will eventually entrap and imprison us.

The third lie is found in verse 10.

“Have I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’ ””

Again, there is a kernel of truth in all good lies, and here is no exception. The Bible asserts that indeed, Assyria was God’s rod of correction for his people, but they would later be themselves judged for the ruthlessness with which they carried out the matter. God sends troubles as warnings, as proddings to repentance,s judgment, but his aim is never to destroy, but to cleanse, heal, and save. 

The only way to counter the enemy’s lies is with silence. We don’t argue and we need not defend God. Like Jesus was silent before his accusers (Isaiah 53:7), we remain silent before the lies of the Enemy, but we lay them before the Lord in prayer (Isaiah 37:1). He hears, and will answer when we call upon him, but not when we try to bargain with the devil.