How Would You Answer?

“And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence [is] this wherein thou trustest?” (Isa 36:4 AV)

What a significant question.  The enemies of God posed this question to the faithful saints of Judah.  It was meant to discourage the Hebrews from trusting the LORD.  As is usually the fashion the lost do not know of what they speak.  Rabshakeh brought up two points which only worked to strengthen Judah’s resolve.  Not weaken it.  They accused Hezekiah of rejecting the God of Israel by removing all the high places.  In reality, this accomplished the opposite.  The high places are what introduced idolatry to Judah.  Hezekiah got rid of the temptation.  The second accusation by Rabshakeh suggested since the god of Assyria could defeat all other gods it faced; Jehovah God was no different.  Again, in the logic of those who know not the one true God, this would make sense.  All this did was prove to Judah that idolatry does not pay.  Why worship non-existent gods when their God was the only God?  Strike two.  What we want to entertain this morning is the question Rabshakeh posed to Judah.  If trouble comes, upon who are what are we trusting?

What further stirs the spirit and mind is how the question was asked.  There is an accusation in the question.  The question was not asked because Rabshakeh was curious.  He did not ask out of ignorance.  The enemy of God mentions God’s name in his argument as states of Israel who claimed Jehovah could not resist the armies of Assyria, then surely Judah was wasting their time as well.  In using the word ‘confidence’, he asserts their confidence is misplaced.  This is pure wickedness.  Rabshakeh did not ask ‘who’.  He asks ‘what’.  This is a world of difference.  The God-haters will never understand the faith of the saint.  Their confidence is in themselves.  They cannot fathom having to trust a power greater than themselves.  There is no use trying to explain it to them because, in order to do so, they would have to first understand what helplessness is.  They would have to come to the end of themselves before they begin to understand faith in God.  When the god-haters will not, or cannot, see reality in their situation, the question is not one that can be answered to their conversion.  There must be an answer.  And an answer will come.  An explanation, perhaps not.  But an answer for sure.

So, this poses a question for us.  How will we respond when the accusation of an inadequacy God is leveled?  That is what Rabshakeh insinuated.  Jehovah was a false confidence.  Egypt was no better.  TO equate God with Egypt is another wickedness.  So, what are we going to say when Assyria shows up and tried to convince us that God is not equal to our situation?  What of the Devil?  Assyria no longer exists.  That Wicked One will accuse God of the same.  What will we say then?  Judah did not say a thing.  They sat back and let God speak for Himself.  Perhaps that is one option.  However, there might be another. “You just wait and see!”  What an opportunity to brag on God!  There is no explanation.  The only thing Assyria understood was 180,000 slain at the hand of God.  This is part of their recorded history.  One can see the stone upon which this record appears.  Assyria learned just who it was wherein Judah’s confidence laid.  Dear saint, we are no different.  The god-haters will pose the same question as a veiled accusation against the God of Israel.  This started in the Garden of Eden and it hasn’t let up since.  Just you wait and see the wicked world what our God will do!  Glory!