Bible In One Year Day 208 (Isaiah 37-38, Baruch 5-6, Proverbs 11:25-28)

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Day 208:  The Futility of Idols 

Agape Bible Study 
Isaiah 37-38

Chapter 37: God Delivers His People

Isaiah 37:1-7 ~ Hezekiah sends his Ministers to consult Isaiah and Isaiah's reply

The use of the words "your God" sometimes suggests the person is not fully committed to Yahweh, like King Saul in 1 Samuel 15:30. However this is not the case for Hezekiah; see verse 20 where Hezekiah refers of Yahweh as "our God." His reference is to the solidarity of their belief in Yahweh as the "living God" unlike the idols of the pagan Assyrians. Tearing one's clothing and wearing sackcloth was a sign of grief and mourning. The king went to the Temple to pray while his ministers and the most senior chief priests were sent to consult Isaiah.

Unlike Elijah and Elisha who were men of action, the prophet Isaiah is a literary prophet who prophesizes in a poetic style. Perhaps the ministers are approaching the prophet in the same stylistic form with this poetically descriptive saying concerning the condition of the nation of Judah. The meaning is that children about to be born cannot emerge from the womb when the mothers come to the birthing stool and haven't the strength to push the babies out. This is a descriptive image of Judah's desperate impotence and may have been a common saying of the times. As with the previous chapter, this entire passage is recorded in the Book of 2 Kings Chapter 19:1-7.

Question: Why did Hezekiah describe the people of Jerusalem as a "remnant" in verse 4b?
Answer: They are only a portion of the original twelve tribes, consisting of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and even the tribes of Judah and Benjamin have been diminished by the Assyrian invasion and the destruction of so many Judean towns.

Isaiah 37:8-13 ~ Sennacherib sends Messengers to Hezekiah a Second Time

See the parallel passage in 2 Kings 19:8-19. The Judahite town of Libnah was named as one of the Levitical cities (Josh 21:13; 1 Chr 6:57). The city was west of Lachish and Sennacherib had moved from Lachish to attack Libnah. The citizens of the town of Libnah were devout and had revolted against King Jehoram of Judah when he had apostatized from the covenant (2 Kng 8:16-18, 22). Sennacherib and his army left Libnah when he heard that Tirhakah king of Cush was on the way to attack him. Tirhakah later became the Pharaoh of the 25^th Egyptian dynasty. After receiving his ministers' report on Hezekiah's reply to their demands, Sennacherib sent another series of threats in a letter to Hezekiah similar to the first threats delivered by his ministers.

Gozan was one of the places to which the Israelites were deported after the capture of Samaria by the Assyrians (2 Kng 17:6; 18:11, 1 Chr 5:26). Texts found in the ruins of the city mention the exiles descendants. Haran is located in northwest Mesopotamia. It was Abraham's home before the migrated to Canaan and the wives of Isaac and Jacob came from Haran or nearby (Gen 11:22-32; 12:1; 24:10; 27:43; 28:10). According to 2 Kings 17:24 the conquered peoples who were brought in to settle the depopulated land of the Northern Kingdom of Israel were from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva [Ivvah], Hamath and Sepharvaim. This is similar to the list of kingdoms conquered by the Assyrians in 2 Kings 18:34 and 19:12-13

Isaiah 37:14-20 ~ Hezekiah's Prayer
See the parallel passage in 2 Kings 19:14-19. Hezekiah's prayer can be divided into three parts:

1. He gives his profession of faith that Yahweh is the one and the only God who has sovereignty over all nations of the earth.
2. He lists the affronts to God by the Assyrian king and acknowledges the Assyrian victories.
3. He petitions God to save his people from the hands of the Assyrians as a sign to the other nations that Yahweh alone is God.

Question: What is significant about Hezekiah's prayer? See Ex 20:3-4; Dt 5:7-8; 6:4; the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed.
Answer: Hezekiah confess his belief in the most basic tenant of Yahweh's covenant with Israel and the New Covenant in Christ Jesus. Monotheism is the belief that there is only one God. Yahweh is the One True God and all other so-called gods are only images made by men.

Isaiah 37:21-29 ~ Isaiah's Intervention
See the parallel passage in 2 Kings 19:20-28.

Question: What are main points of Yahweh's response to Sennacherib?
Answer:

1. The Assyrians have blasphemed the God of Israel and will be punished (verses 23-25).
2. The Assyrian boasts are empty boasts because God is in control of their destiny (verses 26-28).
3. God will send the Assyrian king back to his own lands (verse 29).

Sennacherib's insults and his boasts that he will destroy Jerusalem is seen by God as an assault on the God of heaven and earth. In the Assyrian king's boasts, he thinks of himself as godlike in his accomplishments.

Isaiah 37:30-31 ~ God gives King Hezekiah a Sign

Hezekiah receives the promise of a "sign" that what God has foretold through Isaiah will come to pass.
Question: God also gave a "sign" to Hezekiah's father King Ahaz through Isaiah in Isaiah 7:14 when Ahaz refused to ask for a "sign" that God would save Ahaz and his people. What was Ahaz's sign? Was it fulfilled?
Answer: Ahaz's "sign" was that a virgin of the house of David would give birth to the Redeemer-Messiah. St. Matthew announced that it was fulfilled in the birth of Jesus Christ, son of David in Matthew 1:23.

Question: What is Hezekiah's "sign"?
Answer: The sign is living off the land without sowing crops this year. The next year they will do the same, and in the third year everything will return to normal and a remnant of the covenant people will be preserved from Jerusalem.

A "sign" is a work of God that points forward in time to a more significant event; in this case the sign will be two years of having enough to eat from what is naturally produced by the earth without sowing seed. It will point to life returning to normal in the third year. The only time the land laid fallow for two years in a row was when a Sabbath year (every 7^th year) was followed by a Jubilee year that was observed after every 7^th Sabbath year that came every 50^th year (Lev 25:1-12). In the third year after a Sabbath and Jubilee years, the land could be sown again. The "rest" for the land in a Sabbath and Jubilee year was a test of faith for the covenant people to trust God to provide for them from the land. Later when the prophet Jeremiah called a covenant lawsuit against Judah in the 6^th century BC, he included in the riv (lawsuit) against Judah the claim that Judah failed to observe the Sabbath years. The point here may be that like the Sabbath year followed by a Jubilee year in which the land will not be worked until the third year, it will be the same for Judah because it will take two years for life to return to normal for the remnant of the Kingdom of Judah, and they will have to trust God to provide for them.

Once again we return to the sub-theme of the faithful "remnant" of God's covenant people that He will preserve (see Is 1:9; 10:20, 21 twice, 22; 11:11, 16; 37:4, 31, 32; 46:3). The preservation of a remnant of the children of Israel is necessary to God's divine plan to bring forth the Davidic Messiah-Redeemer to save mankind.

Isaiah 37:32-35 ~ Yahweh's Prophecy for Assyria

It is Yahweh's promise that King Sennacherib will not attack or harm the city of Jerusalem and its citizens in any way.
Question: Why does Yahweh say that He does this for the sake of "my servant David"? See 2 Sam 7:16, 29; 23:5; 2 Chr 13:5; Sir 45:25; 47:11/13; Is 11:1-5, 10-13; Jer 23:5; Ez 34:23-24; Mt 1:1).
Answer: Yahweh made an eternal covenant with David and therefore must preserve David's family line. It is God's divine plan that the Messiah shall come from the line of David and from the nation of Israel/Judah to save mankind.

Isaiah 37:36-38 ~ King Sennacherib's Punishment

See the parallel passage in 2 Kings 19:32-37. Hezekiah had Yahweh's promise that the city will not be taken nor even attacked. That night the army of the Assyrians was silently struck by the Angel of Yahweh. When the king and the surviving members of his army discovered the dead in the morning, they immediately abandoned the siege of the city of Jerusalem and returned to Assyria, just as Yahweh had promised.

Assyrian annals record that the king and his army gave up the siege of Jerusalem, but no reason is given for the sudden retreat in the Assyrian documents. Sennacherib was indeed assassinated in the year c. 681 BC by two of his elder sons, and he was succeeded by his youngest son Esarhaddon.

King Hezekiah

Chapter 38: Hezekiah's Illness and Cure

Isaiah 38:1-6 ~ Hezekiah's Illness

See the parallel passages in 2 Chronicles 32:24 and 2 Kings 20:1-11. Bible scholars suggest that this episode took place before Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem in 701 BC. The date proposed for this episode is 703 BC. Verse 6 seems to suggest that the siege had not taken place and there is an additional problem with the event referred to in 39:1-4 where Merodach-Baladan of Babylon sent emissaries to Hezekiah in Judah that appears to have taken place before Sennacherib's invasion and siege of Jerusalem in 701.⁽¹⁾

Hezekiah was ill. Isaiah brought him Yahweh's message that he was not going to recover and was going to die. After Isaiah left, Hezekiah offered his prayer to Yahweh. 2 Kings 20:4-5 includes the information: Isaiah had not left the middle court, before the word of Yahweh came to him, "Go back and say to Hezekiah, prince of my people, Yahweh, the God of your ancestor David, says this: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I shall cure you: in three days' time you will go up to the Temple of Yahweh. Isaiah was either returning to the Temple and had only reached the middle Court of the Women or the middle court of the palace when God sent him back to the king with the news that his life had been spared.

Question: Instead of begging that his life be spared, what did Hezekiah do? What was the result and why?
Answer: He prayed that God would remember his faithfulness and then submitted himself to God's will. God sent word to Hezekiah that his life would be spared for 15 years for the sake of God's covenant with David, and in 3 days he would be well enough to attend the Temple liturgy.

Did God change His mind about Hezekiah's death? God has the power over life and death and He responds to our humble prayers for our salvation from physical illness. Sometimes illness will cause us to be angry with God. For others it becomes an opportunity to take into account the possibility of the end of life and the condition of one' relationship with God that leads to repentance and conversion, or trust and a renewed commitment, as in Hezekiah's case (CCC 1500-02). It isn't that God changed His mind; it is that Hezekiah responded to God's call for humility and trust in God's plan for his life "it was an experience of spiritual growth for the king. It was because of Hezekiah's response, prompted by the threat to his life, that God prolonged his life, but from the beginning of the episode, God knew what would happen.

Isaiah 38:7-8 ~ Hezekiah's Cure

After giving the king the news of his recovery, Isaiah asked for the materials to make a poultice for the king. It appears that Isaiah was applying a remedy, perhaps at God's command, to draw out the infection from the king's ulcer and to save the king's life.

Question: Why did he ask for this sign and what did the miracle represent?

Answer: It is easy for a shadow to incline down then steps since it would be the natural course of the shadow in the progression of the sun in its path across the sky; therefore, Hezekiah chooses the miraculous reversal of the progress of the shadow that becomes a symbol for the reversal of his imminent death.

The miracle is a reminder that God is the Master of Creation and all of Creation is subject to Him.
Question: When was a similar "sun" miracle employed for a leader of the covenant people? See Josh 10:12-15.
Answer: Joshua needed more time to defeat Israel's Amorite enemies; therefore he prayed for God to stop the sun and moon from moving their orbits to delay the end of the day: And the sun stood still, and the moon halted, until the people had taken vengeance on their enemies (Josh 10:13).

Isaiah 38:9-20 ~ Hezekiah's Canticle of Thanksgiving

Hezekiah wrote a poem of thanksgiving after his recovery, and Isaiah included it in his book. The poem can be divided into two sections:

1. Hezekiah's thoughts concerning his anguish over the Lord's decree that he would die (38:9-15)
2. Hezekiah's reflection on the grace God has extended to him and the lessons he learned through his anguish (38:16-20)

Verses 10 and 11 both literally begin with the words "I said." In poetic verses these words usually introduce thoughts and feelings the writer had that turned out to be wrong (i.e., see Is 49:4a; Ps 30:6; Eccl 2:1; 7:23). Hezekiah is recalling the painful thoughts and feelings he had before God's promise to prolong his life.

In verses 16-20 of his hymn of thanksgiving, Hezekiah reflects on the lessons he has learned in his encounter with Yahweh through the prophet Isaiah:

• The Lord has restored him to health (38:16)
• His sins have been forgiven (38:17)
• He has a new opportunity to testify to Yahweh's faithfulness (38:19)
• He pledges himself to a life filled with worshipping in God's Temple (38:20)

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A Daily Defense 

DAY 208 The Trick Hypothesis

CHALLENGE: “Why can’t we explain the Resurrection by saying someone tricked the disciples? Maybe Jesus was drugged on the cross when he was given a drink (Matt. 27:48; Mark 15:36; John 19:28–30), later he revived, and co-conspirators got him out of the tomb and posed as angels (Matt. 28:2–7; Mark 16:5–7; Luke 24:4–7; John 20:12).”

DEFENSE: Anesthesiology was not a developed science in the first century, and it would be extremely risky to administer a drug to a person who had been severely traumatized and was being crucified. The odds of the drug killing him would be too high.

Further, the Romans checked to ensure Jesus was dead. A soldier plunged a spear into his side, causing a flow of blood and what looked like water (John 19:34). The “water” was likely a clear liquid that had built up in the pleural cavity of the lung, the pericardial sac around the heart, or both. That wound itself would have been fatal. 

Who would these conspirators have been? If Jesus was entrusting his survival to them, they must have been very close associates, but then why weren’t they among the apostles—Jesus’ closest associates? (Remember that the point of this hypothesis is that the apostles were innocently tricked, unlike the hypothesis that they lied; see Day 214.)

Even if they weren’t apostles, they would have been close enough associates that the women should have recognized them. (And their clothes wouldn’t have been bright white, as the Gospels indicate, after rolling back the stone from the tomb, getting a bloodied Jesus out of his grave clothes, and helping or carrying him from the tomb.)

How did they get past the guard on the tomb (Matt. 27:62–66)? Why would they undertake such a risk? Jesus was a poor man, so what did they get out of it? And why bother to fake a  resurrection, when this wasn’t something Jews expected to happen until the last day (see Day 213)?

Finally, how did they manage to fake Jesus’ Ascension into heaven in front of the apostles (Luke 24:50–51; Acts 1:9–11)? Even if we granted all the previous implausibilities, nobody in the first century had the ability to fly.

The trick hypothesis thus does not explain how the apostles could have innocently thought they saw Jesus ascend after the Crucifixion.

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist

Bible In One Year Day 207 (Isaiah 34-36, Baruch 3-4, Proverbs 11:21-24)

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Day 207:  The Lord will Come 

Agape Bible Study 
Isaiah 34-36 

Chapter 34: Eschatological Condemnation of the Nations

Chapters 34-35 serve a similar purpose as chapters 24-27 (Isaiah's Apocalypse) in that these chapters are an eschatological summation of the previous section in chapters 28-33. Some scholars refer to chapters 34-35 as Isaiah's "Little Apocalypse." Biblical scholars have even suggested that chapters 34-39 form a literary bridge between chapters 1-33 and 40-66 (Brevard Childs, Isaiah: A Commentary, page 255). In this chapter Isaiah answers the people's questions: Is Yahweh really the people's only hope for their salvation, and can they count on Him to establish His kingdom among them?

Isaiah's description of God's wrath against the nations is revealed in three sections:

1. Isaiah calls the nations to experience God's wrath (verses 1-4).
2. Isaiah announces that Edom is singled out as representative of hostile foreign nations who will receive God's judgment (verses 5-15).
3. Isaiah gives God's assurance that He will accomplish all that He has spoken through His prophet (16-17).

Isaiah 34:1-4 ~ A Call to the Nations

Judah has responded to God's judgment in sending the Assyrians as His instrument of judgment by repenting and once again acknowledging God's sovereignty over them, but the foreign nations have not. Now God declares war against those nations who interfere with His covenant people and His divine plans for them (verse 1).

The Hebrew word herem means both the "curse of total destruction" and "consecration;" in both cases the deaths become a sacrifice to Yahweh. The wicked are utterly destroyed while the innocent who perish because of the wickedness of their people become a consecration to God who loves the innocent who are free of guilt, as in the case of the conquest of Canaan when the Canaanites were judged with herem for their sins against humanity in the sacrificial murders of children. In that case, the Israelites were God's instrument of judgment.

God will avenge Himself against the wicked of the nations, and Isaiah's words function as a prediction of events to come (verses 2-3). The gruesome language in verse 3 speaks of devastation so total that no one will be left to bury the dead. 

Isaiah 34:5-15 ~ Judgment against Edom

The nation of Edom, located at the south end of the Dead Sea, had a long history with the Israelites. They were the descendants of Esau the son of Isaac and Rebekah who was the twin brother of Jacob-Israel, the physical father of the twelve tribes of Israel (Gen 36:1). There was an earlier judgment against the Edomites in Isaiah 21:11-16, but in this case the destruction of Edom represents God's general judgment on foreign nations, like the judgment against Moab in Isaiah 15:1-9. There is a historical reason for this hostility. When the Babylonians attacked Jerusalem in 587/6 BC, the Edomites took advantage of the misfortune of the citizens of Judah, and later prophets took a severe view of the Edomites for this reason (see Ps 137:7; Lam 4:21-22; Ex 25:12; 35:15; Oba 10-16). Both the Moabites and the Edomites had the opportunity to remain a part of God's covenant people "Lot, the father of the Moabites with Abraham and Esau with Isaac with whom the Abrahamic covenant with Yahweh continued. Both groups of peoples separated from the covenant people and went the way of paganism. Therefore, that their judgment will representing all nations that turn away from Yahweh is fitting.

Isaiah 34:16-17 ~ Summary Statement

Yahweh's book in verse 16 might refer to the record of Isaiah's visions that he was told to write down (30:8) or perhaps to the whole of Sacred Scripture up to the time of Isaiah as in, for example, God's creation of the animals, each with its mate (Gen 1:25; 2:18-20).

Chapter 35: The Redeemed will see God's Salvation

Isaiah 35 is a hymn celebrating God's promised restoration of Jerusalem in the era of the Messiah. The Church uses Isaiah 35:1-10 in the Advent liturgy of the 3^rd Sunday, Cycle A, to encourage the faithful in the joyous hope that God will come again to complete His mission in bringing salvation to His people.

Isaiah 35:1-3 ~ God will show His Salvation in the Messianic Age

The "asphodel" in verse 2 is a plant of the lily family.

The focus of Isaiah's message shifts abruptly from judgment that awaits everyone who opposes God's divine plan for the nations in chapter 34 to the announcement of the joy of the redeemed as they witness and experience the salvation God will bring to His people in chapter 35. God's redemption features three elements:

1. God will show His salvation in nature (35:1-2).
2. God will encourage the weary and downtrodden (35:3-6a).
3. God will renovate the land (35:6b-10).

In verses 1-2, Isaiah announces that Yahweh will first show the coming of salvation in nature. Growth would spring up in formerly unproductive desert areas. He compares those areas with the fertility of Lebanon and the Plain of Sharon near Mt. Carmel.

Sennacherib's Invasion

Chapter 36: Sennacherib's Invasion

Sennacherib was the son of King Sargon II of Assyria, the king who completed the conquest of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and deported its citizens into Assyrian lands to the east. Sennacherib ruled the Assyrian Empire from 705-681 BC. The chief concern of his reign was the continued resistance of the Babylonians to Assyrian rule which culminated in the complete destruction of the city of Babylon in 689 BC. He carried out military campaigns against the nation of Judah, against other nations in the Levant, against the kingdoms of Anatolia and against the Arabs. He was also known as a builder, and it was during his reign that Assyrian art and culture reached its peak.

Hezekiah was 25 years old when his father King Ahaz died, and he became sole ruler of Judah. He was either king from 727 to 698 BC or from 715 to 686 BC. The former dates are calculated by a synchronism with the reign of King Hosea of Israel (2 Kng 18:1), while the latter dates are derived from a synchronism between 2 Kings 18:13, Isaiah 36:1, and Sennacherib's inscriptions. The differences in date may be accounted by the fact that Hezekiah probably served as his father's co-ruler for a number of years and the differences in which the Assyrians and the Northern and Southern Kingdoms calculated the reigns of kings.⁽¹⁾

The practice of elevating the heir to co-ruler was common when a Davidic king was ill and worried about a smooth succession for his son or when the nation was threatened by war:⁽²⁾

• When King David was close to death, he made his son Solomon co-regent to safely secure Solomon's ascension to the throne of Israel (1 Kng 1:28-40).
• When King Asa became ill he made his son Jehoshaphat co-regent (1 Kng 15:23; 2 Chr 16:12).
• The threat of war made Jehoshaphat establish his son Jehoram as co-regent (1 Kng 22:4, 32-33; 2 Kng 8:16).
• When Uzziah/Azariah was struck with leprosy, he made his son Jotham co-regent (2 Kng 15:5; 2 Chr 26:21).
• Jotham made his son Ahaz co-regent during the threat of the Syro-Ephraimite War (2 Kng 15:32-16:9).

Isaiah does not record that King Hezekiah withdrew from the alliance his father made with the Assyrians, but it is recorded in the Book of 2 Kings: And so Yahweh was with him [King Hezekiah of Judah], and he was successful in all that he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to serve him. He beat the Philistines back to Gaza, laying their territory waste from watchtower to fortified town (2 Kings 18:7-8).⁽³⁾ When Sargon II died and his son Sennacherib succeeded him in 705, a number of Assyrian vassal kingdoms revolted and declared their independence, including the Kingdom of Judah. It was Hezekiah's revolt against the Assyrians that brought about the Assyrian army's invasion of Judah.

The year of the Assyrian invasion of Judah was 701 BC. Isaiah chapters 36:1-38:8 contain a near verbatim repeat of the narrative found in 2 Kings 18:13-20:11, but it does present some additional information not found in Isaiah. For example Isaiah does not mention that Sennacherib's invasion was in response to Hezekiah's revolt (2 Kng 18:7-8) or the details of the invasion found in 2 Kings 18:13-16 ~ 13 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria advanced on all the fortified towns of Judah and captured them. 14 Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish, "I have been at fault. Call of the attack, and I will submit to whatever you impose on me." The king of Assyria exacted three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold from Hezekiah king of Judah, 15 and Hezekiah gave him all the silver in the Temple of Yahweh and in the palace treasury. 16 At which time, Hezekiah stripped the facing from the leaves and jambs of the doors of the Temple of Yahweh, which an earlier king of Judah had put on, and gave it to the king of Assyria. Also see 2 Chronicles chapter 32 and Sirach 48:17-25.

Realizing an Assyrian invasion was imminent, Hezekiah attempted to form an alliance with Egypt. It was an alliance that was condemned by the prophet Isaiah when Hezekiah's embassy was leaving for Egypt to ask the Pharaoh for Egyptian support against the Assyrians in c. 703-02 BC (see Is 30:1-7; 31:1-3). Sennacherib's campaign against the rebellious states of Phoenicia, Philistia, and Judea in 701 BC is documented in Assyrian Annals and bas-reliefs.⁽⁴⁾ According the Assyrian records, the imperial Assyrian forces captured forty-six Judean towns. The most important fortified Judahite town was Lachish. Sennacherib took the city in 701 BC and set up his headquarters there. When Sennacherib took Lachish, about 25 miles southwest of Jerusalem, Hezekiah capitulated and sent a letter repenting his rebellion together with a large amount of tribute to the Assyrian king, hoping to appease the Sennacherib and to save the nation of Judah. Unfortunately Hezekiah's tribute and his repentance did not appease Sennacherib. A more complete history of Hezekiah's reign including his many religious reforms is found in 2 Chronicles 29:1-32:33.

Isaiah 36:1-10 ~ King Sennacherib's Rab-shakeh (cupbearer-in-chief) addresses King Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem
See the parallel passages in 2 Kings 18:26-37 and in 2 Chronicles 32:9-23. When Sennacherib became king (705-681 BC), he immediately set about putting down the revolts against the Assyrian Empire generated by his father's death. First he addressed the revolt in Babylonia which gave Hezekiah some time to prepare of an inevitable Assyrian invasion. Hezekiah appears to have consolidated Judah into four administrative districts and stored food supplies for his army in specially marked containers. He also prepared Jerusalem for a possible siege by repairing and strengthening the city walls, adding a new line of walls and building watchtowers. The springs outside the city walls were stopped up and the city's main water source, the Gihon Spring, was redirected into a tunnel to fill a new reservoir made at the southwestern end of the hill of Zion in Jerusalem (2 Kng 20:20; 2 Chr 32:1-8, 30). "Hezekiah's Tunnel" was an engineering marvel for its time, and today water still flows through it the 1,748 feet from the Gihon Spring to the pool of Siloam through the limestone bedrock of Jerusalem. Two teams dug the tunnel from opposite ends and met at the mid-point.

Isaiah 36:11-12 ~ King Hezekiah's Ministers' Request

Aramaic had become the dominant language of the region, and therefore, the diplomatic language, but the Assyrian commander was speaking in Hebrew.

While the diplomats understood Aramaic, the common people did not, and Eliakim did not want the people standing inside the top of the city walls to hear the terrible things the Assyrian minister was saying to intimidate them and to cause a rift between the king and his people. The Assyrian minister refused the request because it was his intent to speak directly to the people and to cause them to oppose their king's plans. His reference to dung and urine in verse 12 was intended to make the people think of the terrible consequences of a prolonged siege.

Isaiah 36:13-22 ~ The Rabshakeh of King Sennacherib attempts to intimidate the People

The Rab-shakeh stopped addressing King Hezekiah through his ministered and directly addressed the people listening and watching from the city wall. He continued: 14 The king says this, Do not let Hezekiah delude you. He will be powerless to save you. The literal translation is to "save you from my hands." It is a phrase repeated six times with slight variations from 36:14 to 37:20; "hands" is the key word that identifies the theme of this section which is the threat of falling into the hands of the Assyrians.

Question: What three arguments did the Assyrian minister make to the people of Jerusalem in his attempt to persuade them to surrender?
Answer:

1. King Hezekiah and Yahweh your God are as powerless and impotent as the king and the gods of the Northern Kingdom and are incapable of saving you.
2. If they surrender, they can stay on their own property until it is time for them to go into exile.
3. They will be exiled into a land of plenty that is very like their own land.

The expression "vine and fig tree" is found frequently in Scripture and expresses a peaceful and prosperous life (i.e., 1 Kng 4:25/5:5). Eating from the fruitful vine or fig tree and drinking clear well-water are a vivid antithesis to the squalid conditions the besieged people of Jerusalem will experiencing as the siege drags on and they find themselves drinking their own urine and eating their own excrement.

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A Daily Defense 

DAY 207 The Wrong-Tomb Hypothesis

CHALLENGE: “Why can’t we explain the Resurrection by saying that the disciples simply went to the wrong tomb—a tomb that was empty?”

DEFENSE: There are multiple problems with this hypothesis.

First, the Gospels indicate the women who visited the tomb were also eyewitnesses of the burial, and even name the women involved (Matt. 27:61; Mark 15:47; cf. Matt. 28:1, Mark 16:1). The women thus knew where Jesus was buried.

Second, the tomb’s location was publicly known. It was in the place where Jesus was crucified (John 19:41–42), so the women merely had to return to the site of the Crucifixion.

Third, the owner of the tomb was known. It was Joseph of Arimathea, who had also performed the burial (Matt. 27:57–60; Mark 15:43–46; Luke 23:50–53; John 19:38–42). If there had been any doubt about the matter, it would have been dispelled by consulting with him.

Fourth, Matthew indicates a guard was placed on the tomb (Matt. 27:62–66), who also served to  mark the spot.

Fifth, the wrong-tomb hypothesis at most explains how the disciples could have innocently thought Jesus’ tomb was empty on the morning of the Resurrection. However, it implies Jesus’ body remained in his own tomb, and once the disciples began proclaiming the Resurrection, the Jewish authorities would simply have gone to the correct tomb—performing a search of recent burials if necessary—and produced Jesus’ corpse.

Sixth, this hypothesis does not explain why the disciples would have thought Jesus was resurrected. The disciples were not expecting a resurrection to happen in their own time. They viewed the resurrection of the dead as something that was to happen on the last day (John 6:39 40, 11:24).

Seventh, the Gospels record that when the disciples found the tomb empty they did not leap to the conclusion that Jesus had been resurrected. The first interpretation was that someone had moved Jesus’ body (John 20:2–13), which was how a Jew who believed in a last-day resurrection would interpret the discovery.

Eighth, the wrong-tomb hypothesis does nothing to explain how the apostles could have innocently thought they saw Jesus alive after the Crucifixion. If Jesus’ body was still lying in his tomb, why did the disciples claim to see him, hold conversations with him, and physically interact with him?

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist

Bible In One Year Day 206 (Isaiah 32-33, Baruch 1-2, Proverbs 11:17-20)

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Day 206: The Book of Baruch 

Agape Bible Study 
Isaiah Isaiah 32-33

Chapter 32: Hope and Woe: A Description of the Righteous Kingdom

Isaiah 32:1-8 ~ Characteristics of the Righteous Nation

Question: In this passage, Isaiah mentions two characteristic of a righteous nation; what are they?
Answer:

1. Just/righteous leadership
2. A rejuvenated society that is able to rightly discern between justice and injustice and between righteousness and evil

Question: Isaiah used what four similes to describe the blessings of righteous leadership in 32:2?

Answer:

1. Like a shelter from the wild
2. [Like] a refuge from the storm
3. Like streams on arid ground (streams in the desert)
4. Like the shade of a solid rock in a desolate land

A rejuvenated society is Isaiah's second important feature of the righteous kingdom God will bring about. The former negative aspects of society will be replaced by right judgment.

Question: What four parallels or contrasts does Isaiah use in verses 3-4?
Answer:

1. The closed eyes of God's visionaries will be opened.
2. The ears of hearers will hear.
3. The hearts of those who were impulsive will become discerning.
4. The tongues of those who stammer will become coherent.

Baruch 

Isaiah 32:9-20 ~ Prelude to the Kingdom: Judgment, Mourning, and the Outpouring of God's Spirit

Question: What does Isaiah call the complacent women of Jerusalem to do and why?
Answer: He calls them to mourn because within a year hard times were coming.

The Ophel and the Keep in verse 14 refer to the oldest inhabited part of the city of Jerusalem where David established his palace in the residence of the former Jebusite rulers.

Isaiah is probably referring to the Assyrian advance through Judah and their siege of the city in 701 BC. But there is hope because God's spirit will bring restoration to the land and the people.
Question: In what four ways does Isaiah say God's spirit will bring restoration at all levels in 32:15-18?
Answer:

1. The land will become fertile including desert areas (verse 15).
2. Domestic animals will have plenty of areas to graze in peace (verses 16-17).
3. Justice and righteousness will prevail in the land (verses 16-17).
4. The people will enjoy lasting security (verse 18).

The restoration Isaiah foretold would come as a result of the working of God's divine will for His covenant people. It is the same work of God in Isaiah's time that is active today in the lives of individuals and nations "in blessings for the good for the righteous and in judgment for the wicked.

Chapter 33: The Final Oracle Against Assyria and Judah's Salvation

Isaiah 33:1 ~ God's Woe against Assyria

This is Isaiah's 6^th woe judgment. It is obvious that the judgment is against the Assyrians. God has used them as His instrument of judgment against the Northern Kingdom, but they have not behaved as a just people in destroying the focus of their aggression and betraying even their allies.
Question: What is the divine judgment that is pronounced against them?
Answer: They in turn will be destroyed and betrayed by their allies.

The Assyrians had not realized their role in Yahweh's divine plan, but they day will come when they will understand it was not by their might alone that they have conquered nations (see Is 10:5-7).

Isaiah 33:2-6 ~The People's Plea for God's Mercy and their Enemy's Destruction

After the hopeful announcement in verse 1, the people now petition God to show them mercy and to be their protector (verse 2). They have confidence that God's power alone can scatter their enemies (verses 3-4).
Question: When the enemy is driven off, what will become of the spoil they left behind that is now rightfully Yahweh's?
Answer: It will be stripped from the ground like grasshoppers and locusts strip a grain field when the people enter the enemy camp and collect the spoils.

Isaiah 33:7-9 ~ The People Lament and wait for Redemption

In verse 9 Lebanon is in the north, the Plain of Sharon is the fertile coastal plain extending south of Mt. Carmel, and Bashan is the fertile plateau of south Syria extending across to the foothills of Gilead on the east side of the Jordan River. In Hebrew the word carmel means "garden" or "orchard," but the reference is probably to Mt. Carmel, a range of fertile forested hills on the western border of the land near the Mediterranean coast.

Isaiah 33:10-24 ~ The Lord's Reply

Yahweh replies to the people's lament in verses 10-14.
Question: What does God tell His people? What groups of people will be affected? 
Answer: He is ready to act. They have been ineffective in defending themselves (verse 11), but He will demonstrate great works on their behalf (verse 12) to afflict the enemy (verse 13), and the sinners and godless of Jerusalem/Zion will be fearful and panic-stricken by the realization that divine judgment is upon them (verse 14).

Isaiah 33:17-24 ~ Isaiah's Description of God's Day of Restoration

Question: How does Isaiah describe the day Jerusalem will witness God's restoration?
Answer:

• Their king, Yahweh, is secure on His throne (verses 17 and 22).
• They will recall the past terrors and ask where their insolent oppressors have gone "the enemy who spoke a strange language and their own leaders who abused their authority (verses 18-19).
• They will see that the holy city of Jerusalem is secure as the center of worship and a secure beacon of peace (verses 20-21).
• The people will again acknowledge Yahweh's sovereignty over His people as divine judge, lawgiver, king and savior (verse 22).

The major theme in chapters 7-33 has been the sovereignty of God over Judah and other nations. The question for Judah has been whether the covenant people will trust God and allow Him to be their king or whether they will deny His sovereignty over them in trusting to their own plans and in accepting the help of foreign nations. Verse 22 is the climax of that theme in a spiritual reawakening of Judah to the real nature of their relationship with Yahweh as King, lawgiver and Savior.

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A Daily Defense 

DAY 206 The Resurrection of Jesus 

CHALLENGE: “There’s no good evidence that Jesus actually rose from the dead.”

DEFENSE: The Resurrection explains the evidence we have better than any alternative hypothesis does.

According to the Christian message, Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried. He rose from the dead, his tomb was found empty, and he appeared to his disciples. Finally, he ascended into heaven in their presence.

The pivotal claims here are that he died, rose from the dead, and ascended. The latter is often overlooked, but it was a key part of the Christian message, both for its theological significance and—for our present purposes—because it explains why Jesus was no longer walking the streets of Jerusalem.

People saw Jesus die and ascend, but nobody saw him resurrect, since it happened while he was in the tomb. The evidence the apostles offered for the Resurrection is that the tomb was found empty and Jesus began appearing—alive—to the disciples.

How else might one explain the above ? Some have proposed that the disciples lied: They were crooks, stole Jesus’ body, and lied about the Resurrection appearances and the Ascension.

If they didn’t lie, how could we explain the empty tomb? Some have proposed the disciples went to the wrong tomb, that someone other than the disciples stole the body, or that Jesus didn’t he just became unconscious on the cross. That could also explain how he later appeared to the disciples. 

Other proposals for how he could have appeared include that it wasn’t really Jesus who was crucified but an identical twin, that an impostor afterward appeared to the disciples, or that they simply hallucinated. Some have even proposed that the disciples didn’t think the tomb was empty and that they believed Jesus had been “spiritually” resurrected.

All these hypotheses are fraught with problems. Most explain either the empty tomb or the Resurrection appearances, but not both. Most also ignore Jesus’ Ascension into heaven.

To fix the problems, it could be tempting to combine hypotheses (e.g., the disciples went to the wrong tomb, then hallucinated the Resurrection appearances), but combined hypotheses inherit problems from both originals.

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist