Year 9, Day 20: Isaiah 36

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Isaiah 36 reveals the dangerous pride that easily overcomes God’s servants.  This chapter is all about the coming of the Assyrians.  At God’s request, remember, the Assyrians came out of their land and descended like a plague upon the Promised Land.  Syria fell.  Israel fell.  The countries east of the Jordan fell.  Now Assyria comes to Jerusalem to see if Judah will fall.  Do not forget that all of this was at the will of the Lord!

The problem, though, is that Assyria becomes arrogant.  They forget their place.  They forget why they are here as well as who enabled them to be here!  They forget everything that is important as they become drunk on their own importance.  They become intoxicated with their own power and their own strength.  Humbleness is replaced with arrogance.

Hear the words of the servant of the Assyrian king as he speaks.  Can it really be that he insinuates the Lord cannot save Judah when he speaks in Isaiah 36:15 as well as in Isaiah 36:18-20?  Look at the pride and arrogance that comes.  Look at how the servant Assyria, called out of their place by God, has forgotten their place!

This is what is bred by success.  Success done wrong breeds pride.  Success done wrong counters humility.  Success done wrong leads us to the antithesis of God.  Success done wrong pulls us away from God and our understanding of our place within His plan.  The Assyrians fall not because they were conquerors but because they became arrogant and forgot their place.

They challenge God, and God proves them wrong.  Isaiah says it again and again.  The judge will become the judged.  The conqueror will become the conquered.  Their pride will be their downfall.  They forgot their place in God’s plan and fell because of it.

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