Isaiah 36
Message by Matt LaMaster
Part of our series through Isaiah.
The Big Idea
When our world falls apart and all we have left is silence, we face the question “Whom do you trust?” And in that silence, Christ is with his people.
Summary
Isaiah 36 opens the second of the book’s two historical sections. Assyria’s King Sennacherib has taken Judah’s fortified cities, and his envoy, the Rabshakeh, stands outside Jerusalem taunting King Hezekiah’s officials and the men on the wall. Pastor Matt pointed out that the chapter ends with no comeback and no hope, only silence and torn clothes. The rest of the story comes in next week’s message.
Pastor Matt called it a depressing, anticlimactic chapter, but a real one. All of us reach points where we have no words left: the phone call from the doctor’s office, a friend’s betrayal, doubts that assail our faith. The question is whether we can still trust God in the silence. His answer is that God uses our suffering to bring us to that question, and it is often in the quiet that we realize he was there all along.
Key Points
- The setting. King Ahaz trusted Assyria instead of the Lord (Isaiah 7–8). His son Hezekiah later shifted toward Egypt and stopped paying tribute. Now Assyria’s army is at the gate, and the Rabshakeh meets Judah’s envoys at the same place where Isaiah once met Ahaz (Isaiah 7).
- Whom do you trust? The Rabshakeh’s arguments mix half-truths with misapplied theology: Egypt is a broken reed, Hezekiah has no horsemen, and the Lord himself sent Assyria. All of them aim at one question (vv. 4–10). When the envoys ask him to speak Aramaic, he shouts in Hebrew to the men on the wall (vv. 11–20). Pastor Matt suggested he may have been an Israelite deported from the northern kingdom who had joined Assyria. That would make this psychological warfare from someone who used to be one of them.
- Silence. “But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, ‘Do not answer him'” (Isaiah 36:21) The officials return to Hezekiah with torn clothes, mourning as if the city had already fallen (v. 22).
- God is with us in the silence. Like the disciples in John 6 and like Elijah hearing the still small voice (1 Kings 19), we find that God was there all along. Pastor Matt distinguished two things:
- Union with Christ is objectively true of every believer (Ephesians 1–2; Philippians 3).
- Communion with Christ is our felt sense of that union. It ebbs and flows, and it is often felt most powerfully in the silence.
Suffering is sometimes our fault, sometimes others’, and often both. Either way, we are always responsible to respond like Christians, with a self-control that begins with trust in the Lord.
- Five Rs for cultivating trust. These help us say with Job that even if God slays us, we will hope in him (Job 13:15).
- Start right now, before suffering comes.
- Remember his faithfulness in the past.
- Read of his present and future faithfulness in Scripture.
- Reach out to him in prayer, even when you have no words.
- Rejoice over his faithfulness in song.
Pointing to Christ
Jesus doesn’t just tell us to look up when we’re in the valley. He entered the valley with us and for us. On Golgotha he knew the silence and cried out, asking why God had forsaken him (Matthew 27:46). Even Christ, in his human nature, learned obedience through suffering (Hebrews 5:8–9). We can trust God because he already knows everything we’ve done and has already forgiven us. To whom else would we go? He has the words of eternal life (John 6:40).
For Reflection
- Pastor Matt said all of us reach points where all we have to offer is silence. When have you been there, and where did you turn?
- How does the difference between union with Christ (always true) and communion with Christ (felt, ebbing and flowing) help when God seems silent?
- Which of the five Rs is weakest for you right now? What would starting “right now” look like?
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible, © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
This summary was prepared by Steve Rock from a transcription of the full sermon recording. Any errors introduced are Steve’s alone.
