Don’t let him fool you into trusting in the Lord by saying, ‘The Lord will surely rescue us. This city will never fall into the hands of the Assyrian king!’

“Don’t listen to Hezekiah! These are the terms the king of Assyria is offering: Make peace with me-open the gates and come out. Then each of you can continue eating from your own grapevine and fig tree and drinking from your own well. Then I will arrange to take you to another land like this one-a land of grain and new wine, bread and vineyards.

“Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you by saying, ‘The Lord will rescue us!’ Have the gods of any other nations ever saved their people from the king of Assyria?What happened to the gods of Hamath and Arpad? And what about the gods of Sepharvaim? Did any god rescue Samaria from my power?What god of any nation has ever been able to save its people from my power? So what makes you think that the Lord can rescue Jerusalem from me?”

Isaiah 36:15-20

The Rabsheka, a representative of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, is sent with a threatening, frightening and disheartening message for the children of Israel.

He says this: Don’t listen to your king, the Lord will not save you. We are to powerful, and you have not worshipped Him like He would want you to. No other nations God’s have ever saved them from us… you will be no different, you will fall prey to our attacks. Then he goes on to claim that the Lord sent him, and was behind Assyria’s war against Israel. He tells them there is an answer: make peace with us. Let us take you away from here and lead you to a new land. You will be our slaves, but we will treat you well… in fact your life will actually be BETTER!

This is such a classic example of the way that the enemy tries to get us to stop trusting the Lord. Today, we may never meet the Rabsheka, but our enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil, will try to do the same thing to us. Threats, accusations and offers of peace, all for the sake of instilling fear and doubt in our hearts. Think about it. We often face challenges and we begin to think, “not this time… the Lord can’t help me this time. I need to do this, or try that…” Friends, don’t be fooled! At times like these we need to go back to the Lord and see what He has to say… tomorrow, we will see how Israel responded to these threats!