And he shall pass over to his strong hold for fear; rather, and his Rock shall pass away for fear (marginal rendering). It is generally agreed by recent commentators (Kay, Delitzsch, Cheyne), that the rock intended, which is contrasted with the "princes" of the next clause, is Assyria's king (see the contrast of the king, who is "a great rock," and his princes, in Isaiah 32:1, Isaiah 32:2). (On the hurried flight of Sennacherib to Nineveh, see below, Isaiah 37:37.) His princes shall be afraid of the ensign. The word nes, ensign, seems to be here used collectively. The Assyrian princes would tremble at every signal that they saw displayed along their line of route, expecting some enemy to fall upon them. His furnace. Jehovah was at once a Light to his people, and "a consuming Fire" (Hebrews 12:29) to his enemies. His presence, indicated by the Shechinah in the holy of holies, was at once for blessing and for burning.
HOMILETICS
The folly of trusting in an arm of flesh.
"Put not your trust in princes, nor in any child of man," says the psalmist (Psalms 146:3); "for there is no help in them." All human props are uncertain—
I. BECAUSE OF HUMAN CHANGEFULNESS. Men do not continue always of one mind. They make promises, and regret that they have made them, and find some way of escaping their force, or else boldly break them with a cynical disregard to what others may think or say. Their interests change, or the views that they take of them; and the wise policy of to-day seems foolishness, or even madness, tomorrow. Some men are actuated by mere caprice, and have no sooner effected a desired purpose than it loses favor in their eyes, and seems to them of little worth. They will make heavy sacrifices to obtain an alliance, and none to maintain it. They sigh always for something that they have not, and despise what they have. Human protection is always uncertain, owing to the fickleness of man, who is naturally "double-minded," and "unstable in all his ways" (James 1:8).
II. BECAUSE OF POSSIBLE INSUFFICIENCY. The human protector may, with the best intentions in the world, prove insufficient. Syria and Ammon summoned Assyria to their aid when they contended with David (2 Samuel 10:6, 2 Samuel 10:16; Psalms 83:8); but the result was the entire defeat of the confederate army. Hannibal called on Macedonia to assist him against the Romans; but Macedonia proved too weak, and her efforts resulted in her own subjection. There must, in almost every case, be the risk that the protector, though doing all he can, may fail, and our having called him in exasperate, or even infuriate, our adversary.
III. BECAUSE OF HUMAN GREED AND SELFISHNESS. The protector may become, is only too apt to become, the oppressor and the conqueror. Rome's vast empire was built up largely by taking states under her protection, and then absorbing them. Had Egypt succeeded in defeating Assyria, and rolling back the tide of invasion that had so long been rising higher and higher, and threatening her own independence and that of her neighbors, the result would simply have been that Judaea and Samaria would have been absorbed into Egypt, or at any rate have become Egyptian dependencies. The small state that calls in one powerful kingdom to help her in her struggle against another rarely gains anything more than an exchange of masters.
IV. BECAUSE THE GREATEST HUMAN STRENGTH IS POWERLESS AGAINST GOD. The Egyptians were "men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit" (verse 8). Had all the chariots of Egypt come forth, and all their footmen and all their horsemen, they would not have saved Judah, since God had declared that here there was "no work for Egypt" (Isaiah 19:15), and that Judah, if she trusted in Egypt, "should be ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory" (Isaiah 20:5). God can strike an army with blindness, as he did that of Benhadad (2 Kings 6:18) on one occasion; or with panic fear, as he did that of the same monarch on another (2 Kings 7:6); or he can cause quarrel to break out among the constituent parts of an army, and make the soldiers slay one another (2 Chronicles 20:28); or he can send out a destroying angel, and kill a hundred and eighty thousand men in a night (2 Kings 19:35). Again, the God of battles determines the issue of battles. "It is nothing to him to help, whether with many or with them that have no power" (2 Chronicles 14:11). He can cast down and bring to naught the mightiest human protector; he can save, if he wills to save, by his own angelic army, without the intervention of any human aid at all.