Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Isaiah chapter 37 - Haggai

The account of Isaiah thirty-seven and the account from the book of Haggai are both familiar to most of us. The thirty-seventh chapter of Isaiah is one place we can read the story of God protecting Jerusalem from the Assyrian King by having an angel destroy the 185,000 men of the Assyrian army during the night. This was in response to King Hezekiah’s prayer to God when he received a blasphemous letter from Sennacherib.

The book of Haggai tells of the time when Israel had returned from Babylon and was under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Shealtiel. The people of Jerusalem were busily going about their lives, and they were not rebuilding the temple.

God tells them to get at it, and get it done, and then He tells them to take note of the change in the productivity of the land, comparing the time prior to their getting His work done and the time after the work on the temple was begun.

Isaiah chapter thirty-seven is about God protecting His people from foreign enemies, and Haggai is about God blessing His people when they do what He asks. The two themes are not the same, but there is more to these two stories. If we have a general knowledge of the account from the book of Haggai, we may be able to see the connection to this verse from Isaiah’s thirty-seventh chapter.

“And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.” (Isaiah 37:3)

This is a description of the situation in Israel at the beginning of Haggai’s first chapter. God has brought His people back to their land, and He wanted to bless them there with growth and prosperity. It is like the time had come for the new beginning for the people of Israel, but they didn’t seem to be interested in participating with their God in the process. God had brought them “to the birth” but there was no strength “to bring forth” the new baby.

The situation was troublesome to God, and He rebuked them for it. They had put the building of their own residences before the work for which God had brought them back to the land. Was this a blasphemous attitude? I think so. Later in the second chapter of Haggai, God announces that He is going to do something really big.

“For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Haggai 2:6-7)

This is a prophecy of the coming of Christ, but included in the language is the idea that God is going to shake the nations, and in the case of Isaiah chapter thirty-seven, God was really going to shake up Assyria. Toward the last part of the second chapter there is more of this language.

“Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth; And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother.” (Haggai 2:21-22)

After Hezekiah’s prayer (Isaiah 37), God proceeded to send an angel and destroy the entire army of Assyria encamped outside the city of Jerusalem. It is in total agreement with the language of Haggai 2;21-22 above. There was no army left for Sennacherib to take home with him. It was all destroyed.

As a final connective thread between the thirty-seventh book of the Bible (Haggai) and the thirty-seventh chapter of Isaiah, we find the interesting wording of the last verse above. Included in God’s destruction of Sennacherib’s power was his own death at the hands of his own sons, and that assassination put their brother on the throne of Assyria.

“every one by the sword of his brother.”

Is the thirty-seventh book of the Bible connected to the thirty-seventh chapter of Isaiah? Yes. They are connected.

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