How satan speaks 3: King Sennacherib - Friday Praise & Pray (for others) May 12, 2023
As we move through life, we must remember that there are two categories of voices seeking our attention. One type belongs to God and intends to help us reach our heavenly home. Yet, there are other more insidious voices that aim to cause us to stray from the path the Lord wants us to walk on. These belong to satan.
The last few posts examined how the devil spoke directly in Genesis and in the Book of Job. We also considered the consequences and objectives of those evil communications. Today, however, we look at how the devil speaks but this time through human beings. Such communication is no different from when the devil speaks on its own. It aims to deceive those who believe in God and cause them to turn from Him.
This happened when the Assyrian army arrived at the wall of Jerusalem during the reign of King Hezekiah of the Kingdom of Judah. The army, led by the king's field commander, had pillaged through the neighboring country and was puffed up by its military successes. It reached Jerusalem's wall to find a remnant that inexplicably stood in defiance to the King of Assyria.
The field commander opened his mouth to share a message from his king - Sennacherib - and the conversation that ensued reflects how satan speaks. One of the first things the warrior did was to attack Jerusalem's confidence, saying in Isaiah 36:4 - The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: “’This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours? This is a common tactic of the devil. It speaks a few words aimed at breaking the confidence of those who believe in the Lord and His might.
Sennacherib's man didn't stop there, continuing in Isaiah 36:7 - But if you say to me, “We are depending on the LORD our God"—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar"?
With this statement, he twisted the truth with a lie. Yes, Hezekiah did remove many high places and altars of worship. However, these were places where citizens bowed to false gods and idols. What Hezekiah did was cause his people to return to worshipping the one true God and Him alone. Yet, the war commander sought to create confusion and division in Jerusalem. That could create enough disunity to cause someone to open the gates and let the enemy into the city. After all, Mark 3:25 states, If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. Satan is no different. It twists truth with lies in order to rock a person's confidence in the Lord. It will present very logical arguments but if you agree with them, you then would be rejecting what God has said and open the door for satan to come in.
In Isaiah 36:8, the war commander also made an offer, saying, “’Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them! Did you catch the disrespect in that statement? Sennacherib's field commander insinuated that the city was so weak, it didn't even have up to 2000 soldiers remaining. Similarly, the devil cannot control itself, it will surely include a veiled or not so veiled insult in its statements. It's just a matter of waiting for it to reveal its true self. How many of us know people who can't speak without including a dig at the person they're conversing with? If not that, they must make a disparaging comment about someone else? These types of people have no godly love in them and so their hate comes out as insults and other expressions that are contrary to God's word. We must be careful to not be these people and to avoid them.
Isaiah 36:10 - Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the LORD? The LORD himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’” Here, the field commander claimed to be there because the Lord Himself had sent him and the Assyrian army. Satan is known to pretend to be a representative of the Lord. It is for this reason that counterfeits exist - to maintain deception. The Bible reveals this as a ploy of the devil in 2 Corinthians 11:14 - And no wonder, for satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. In pretending to be a servant of the Lord, the devil presents lies with the aim of derailing and destroying people. And that was the case with this war commander and it's untruth that it had been sent by God.
In case you are wondering how things ended, let me tell you. God promised King Hezekiah that He would keep Jerusalem safe (Isaiah 37:35). And He did. Sennacherib was killed by his own sons in the temple where he served his false gods (Isaiah 37:38). They couldn't protect the Assyrian king from his own flesh and blood. Yet, the God he'd insulted through his field commander was able to protect the people of Jerusalem without any of them lifting a hand to fight. All because they trusted in Him and didn't succumb to the lies of the devil.
God intends to do the same for all of us who would believe in Him and dismiss the devil's evil communication, whether it is spoken by satan itself or a human being. We must therefore invest the time in becoming familiar with God's voice by studying the Bible and asking God for grace to hear Him clearly. This way, we won't fall for the lies satan peddles. The Lord will help us all, IJMN, Amen.
For more on the How satan speaks series, please consider the following:
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