Chapter 8: That Night

God answered. He sent word through the prophet Isaiah, and the message was directed straight at Sennacherib. God had taken his insults personally. And through the mouth of Isaiah, the Lord Himself spoke.

ISAIAH“Because you have raged against Me, I will put My hook in your nose and My bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came.”— 2 Kings 19:28

Sennacherib would not enter Jerusalem. He would not shoot a single arrow at it. He would not build a siege ramp against it. He would go back the way he came. The Assyrian invasion had devastated Judah's farmland. But God gave Hezekiah a promise: this year they would survive on what grew by itself. The second year, on what sprang from that. But by the third year, they would sow and reap again. The surviving remnant of Judah would take root below and bear fruit above.

Then the Lord spoke again through Isaiah.

ISAIAH“I will defend this city and save it, for My sake and for the sake of David My servant.”— 2 Kings 19:34

That was the promise.

Outside Jerusalem's walls, the Assyrian army was encamped. One hundred and eighty-five thousand soldiers, the most feared fighting force in the world, settled in for the night.

When the sun rose, they were all dead. No battle. No siege. No explanation that any general could understand. The angel of the Lord had passed through the camp in the night.

Sennacherib broke camp and fled to Nineveh. The man who had mocked the living God could not leave fast enough. And some time later, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, two of his own sons, Adrammelek and Sharezer, struck him down with the sword. The god he trusted could not protect him in his own house.

Word of what happened in Jerusalem spread. Many nations brought offerings to the Lord and valuable gifts for Hezekiah. From that day on, he was highly regarded by all the nations.