How Satan Tests Your Faith (Isaiah 36)

Titles for Isaiah 36: The Ultimatum. How Satan Tests Your Faith. How Satan Makes You Give Up. Satan's Attack: Give Up and Surrender.

Isaiah 36-39 appears to have been designed to act as a bridge between its two halves (1-35 and 40-66). The issue in these chapters is absolutely central to the book's total message--the issue of trust and where that trust is placed. The Assyrian invader puts the issue most succinctly: "On whom are you depending?" (Isa 36:5, NIV) This is the question which the book of Isaiah forces us to ponder again and again, and with good reason, for our response to it will determine the whole shape of our lives.

The Rock of History (Isaiah 36-37; 2 Kings 18-19) [Alec Motyer]

1. The first Assyrian embassy to Jerusalem: The helpless king (36:1-37:7)
1. No salvation in faith (36:1-10). The first Assyrian speech.
2. A popular appeal for surrender (36:11-21)
3. The king's reaction: faith at last! (36:22-37:7)
2. The second Assyrian embassy: The godly king (37:8-38)
1. Hezekiah, man of faith (10-13)
2. Hezekiah, man of prayer (14-20)
3. Isaiah's message: Hezekiah, the man of the word of God (21-35)
4. The finale: Assyrian overthrow (36-38)

The Supreme Tests for Hezekiah (Isaiah 36-39) [Derek Kidner]

1. The Assyrian onslaught (36-37).
2. Hezekiah's illness (38).
3. The envoys from Babylon (39).

In Whom Shall We Trust? (Isaiah 36-39) [Barry Webb]

1. The enemy at the gates (36:1-22)
2. The tables turned (37:1-38)
1. The power of God's word (1-13)
2. Hezekiah looks up (14-20)
3. Sennacherib's fall (21-38)
3. Hezekiah's illness (38:1-22)
4. Envoys from Babylon (39:1-8)

Hezekiah's Challenge To Trust God (Isaiah 36-39) [Gary Smith]

I. Challenging Hezekiah's Trust for Deliverance (36:1-22)

1. The First Challenge: On Whom Can You Depend (36:1-10)
1. The setting of the conflict (1-3)
2. Rabshakeh's speech (4-10)
1. You have no one to trust (4-7)
2. Make a bargain with me (8-9)
3. God sent me (10)
2. The Second Challenge: Who Can Deliver You? (36:11-21)
1. Request to speak Aramaic (11-12)
2. Rabshakeh's speech (13-20)
1. Hezekiah and God cannot deliver you (13-16a)
2. Surrender and live well (16b-17)
3. No god can deliver anyone from Assyria (18-20)
3. No response from Hezekiah's representatives (21)

II. Cutting Off the Blaspheming Assyrian King (36:22-37:7)

1. The Hebrews respond with mourning (36:22-37:1)
2. Hezekiah's message to Isaiah (37:2-4)
3. Isaiah's oracle about God's salvation (37:5-7)

III. Sennacherib's Final Warning to Hezekiah (37:8-13)

1. Assyrian military action (8-9a)
2. Sennacherib's threatening letter to Hezekiah (9b-13)
1. Do not trust God for deliverance (9b-10)
2. Rationale: No other gods brought deliverance (11-13)

IV. God's Promise to Rescue Hezekiah (37:14-35)

1. Requesting God's deliverance (37:14-20)
1. Hezekiah goes to the temple (14-15)
2. Hezekiah's prayer (16-20)
1. Invocation (16)
2. First petition and rationale (17-19)
3. Second petition and rationale (20)
2. Promise to defeat proud Sennacherib (37:21-29)
1. God answers Hezekiah's prayer (21)
2. Jerusalem will mock Sennacherib (22)
3. Reason: Sennacherib has reviled God (23-27)
1. Question about reviling God (23a)
2. Quotation proving the king's pride (23b-25)
3. Rebuttal: God is in control (26-27)
4. Verdict: God's plan for Sennacherib's rage (28-29)
3. God's sign of survival and promise of protection (30-35)
1. God's sign concerning a remnant (30-32)
1. Instruction on food supply (30)
2. A remnant will survive (31-32a)
3. God will do this (32b)
2. God's judgment of Sennacherib (33-35)
1. Sennacherib will not lay siege (33)
2. Sennacherib will go home (34)
3. Divine defense because of David (35)

V. Assyrians Defeated (37:36-38)