Isaiah 37

Although the acting has sometimes left something to be desired, I must say that I have taken quite a fancy to the Mission: Impossible movies. I’m always fascinated at how the characters manage to find a way around the “impossible” situations they face. And if there was a Mission: Impossible story in the Bible, this could be it. Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, has gone around the region, conquering everyone and everything in sight (including Israel!), and now, he was sitting on Jerusalem’s doorstep with 185,000 soldiers, ready to capture Judah as well. Good guys, bad guys, lots of drama—this chapter has it all.

First, the “trash talk.” I’m a linguist with a penchant for sarcasm, so I have always enjoyed sparring with words—and this chapter didn’t disappoint! Did you catch the bravado? First, it’s the king of Assyria who puffs up his feathers in a message to Hezekiah: “Don’t let your God, on whom you so naively lean, deceive you, promising that Jerusalem won’t fall to the king of Assyria. Use your head! Look around at what the kings of Assyria have done all over the world—one country after another devastated! And do you think you’re going to get off? Have any of the gods of any of these countries ever stepped in and saved them, even one of these nations my predecessors destroyed—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who lived in Telassar? Look around. Do you see anything left of the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, the king of Ivvah?” (vs 10-13)

Ooooh. Talk about throwing down the gauntlet. This guy was pretty sure of himself. And after defeating all those other nations (and nations’ gods), Sennacherib was confident that Jerusalem would be his. Adding to his confidence must have been the fact that he had defeated Israel—who supposedly served the same god as Hezekiah and his people.

But God had a response for Sennacherib’s challenge. And I was quite amused to see that God is also fluent in the language of trash talk: “Virgin Daughter Zion despises you and mocks you. Daughter Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee.” (vs 22) Whoa. What could be more feeble and fragile in this male-dominated culture than a girl? And a virgin girl at that?! Yet what God is saying to the king is, You’re so weak that virgin girls laugh at you and toss their pretty little heads while you run away.

The divine dressing-down then continues for several verses, ending with this: “Now I will put a hook in your nose, a bit in your mouth, then I will send you back to where you came from.” (vs 29) That may sound sort of strange to us—the whole hook-in-the-nose and bit-in-the-mouth thing—but this is exactly what the Assyrians did to their prisoners! When they captured people, they humiliated them by piercing them. And now the Lord says that He’s going to give Sennacherib a little taste of his own medicine.

Still, all bravado aside, the residents of Jerusalem appeared to be in an impossible situation. They were totally surrounded by an army of such magnitude that they had little hope of survival. From a practical perspective, their goose was cooked. But God doesn’t subscribe to the “practical perspective.” He has His own perspective, and He is able to do the impossible!

Just when we’re looking at the impossible—wondering how we’re going to be able to fight hard enough or smart enough—God says, “How about if I just put the whole army to sleep? They won’t even wake up in the morning!” Not only can God talk the talk, but He has the goods to back it up. So no matter how impossible the situation looks to you, don’t sweat it. God specializes in impossible missions!