Foolish trust rebuked by a strange sign.
Few things are so difficult as to bring men to rely wholly and solely upon God. The circumstances of the time were these. Humanly speaking, Judaea lay absolutely at the mercy of Assyria. There was no existing power or combination of powers that could successfully contend at the time against the vast bodies of well-armed and well-disciplined soldiers which a king of Assyria could bring into the field. Nothing could prolong Jewish independence for more than a few years but some miraculous interposition of God on behalf of the Jewish people. But for God to interpose miraculously, it was necessary that implicit trust should be placed in him. The Jews, however, could not bring themselves to believe that they had no help but Jehovah. They thought Egypt, or Egypt and Ethiopia combined, might well prove a match for Assyria, and were bent on l, lacing themselves under the protection of the combined powers. The lesson of the destruction of the kingdom of Israel, which had trusted in Egypt (2 Kings 17:4), and then been destroyed by Assyria, was lost on them. In connection with Ashdod, they had actually sent ambassadors to Egypt to entreat assistance (Isaiah 30:1-4). Then it was that Isaiah received the special mission which was to warn his countrymen of the utter folly of trusting to human aid. For three years he was to wear the scant clothing that Assyrian captives ordinarily wore, announcing that he did so in token that ere long the warriors of Egypt and Ethiopia would be seen thus clad, on their way from Egypt to captivity at Nineveh. The unusual attire of the prophet could not but create a great sensation. It probably made a considerable impression on Hezekiah and his counselors. It was not forgotten; and if it did not at once cause the negotiations with Egypt to be broken off, it produced the result that, when Isaiah's prediction was fulfilled after the battle of Eltekeh, the Jewish monarch and people did in their trouble turn to God. At the crisis of his danger, Hezekiah made appeal to the Almighty (Isaiah 37:4); and his appeal was followed by that destruction of the Assyrian host (Isaiah 37:36) which caused the Assyrians to respect and fear the Jews thenceforward, and to allow them to retain their independence. Thus the life of the Jewish monarchy was extended for above a century.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON