716_The Lord’s patience is not weakness (Isaiah 36-37)
Isaiah 37:23-29 “‘Whom have you mocked and reviled?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes to the heights?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
24 By your servants you have mocked the Lord,
and you have said, With my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
to the far recesses of Lebanon,
to cut down its tallest cedars,
its choicest cypresses,
to come to its remotest height,
its most fruitful forest.
25 I dug wells
and drank waters,
to dry up with the sole of my foot
all the streams of Egypt.
26 “‘Have you not heard
that I determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
what now I bring to pass,
that you should make fortified cities
crash into heaps of ruins,
27 while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
are dismayed and confounded,
and have become like plants of the field
and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops,
blighted before it is grown.
28 “‘I know your sitting down
and your going out and coming in,
and your raging against me.
29 Because you have raged against me
and your complacency has come to my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth,
and I will turn you back on the way
by which you came.’
An atheist once said, “If there is a God, let him prove himself by striking me dead right now.” Nothing happened. He crowed, “You see, there is no God.” Another responded, “You’ve only proved that He is a gracious and patient God.”
Many people make this mistake about God. When judgment does not come immediately, they assume God is indifferent and weak, or worse He doesn’t exist. When evil prospers, they conclude that God is powerless. But Scripture repeatedly teaches us a different lesson: God’s patience is not weakness.
Someone once said, “The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine.” That truth is vividly displayed in Isaiah chapters 36 and 37. These chapters move us from prophecy into history. God had spoken through Isaiah for many years, and now the events unfolding before Jerusalem would demonstrate that every word of God is true.
The mighty Assyrian Empire stood at the height of its power. Under King Sennacherib, nation after nation had fallen. The northern kingdom of Israel had already been conquered. Much of Judah had been overrun. Jerusalem’s defeat seemed inevitable.
Then came Rabshakeh, the Assyrian field commander. Standing before the walls of Jerusalem, he launched a carefully crafted attack with words. His aim was to shake the confidence of the people and persuade them to give up without a fight.
He mocked their trust in Egypt. He mocked their military strength. He mocked their king. He mocked their God.
In Isaiah 36:20 he asked, “Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?” To him, the Lord was simply another local deity, like the powerless idols of the nations Assyria had already defeated. He assumed that Assyria would roll over Jerusalem just as it had rolled over many kingdoms.
That was his fatal mistake. For he was confronting the living God, and not just another nation.
Continuing with his arrogance, Rabshakeh claims divine authority for his mission. In Isaiah 36:10 he says, “Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.'”
This is how pride often works. It not only rejects God; it eventually attempts to speak for God. Success breeds self-confidence, self-confidence becomes arrogance, and arrogance ultimately leads people to believe they are untouchable. Because judgment does not arrive immediately, they mistake God’s patience for God’s approval.
Scripture warns us against such thinking. As Isaiah 10:15 asks, “Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it?” Assyria had forgotten that its strength was borrowed strength. God had allowed its victories. God had used it as an instrument of judgment. It should not have lifted itself up against the One who held it.
What a contrast King Hezekiah was. Where Rabshakeh was full of pride; the other was marked by humility. He heard the threats against Jerusalem, but he did not respond with bravado. He did not trust political alliances or boast of his military strategy or strength, even though he had spent much time and effort building up the defences of the royal city.
Isaiah 37:1 tells us, “Hezekiah tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord.” For he understood, like David, that this was not a military or political question. It was a direct challenge to the God of Israel through his people.
So Hezekiah turned his eyes toward heaven. When king Sennacherib of Assyria sent a threatening letter, Hezekiah carried it into the temple and spread it before the Lord. His faith impelled him to bring what was impossible into the mighty presence of God.
His prayer reveals the focus of his heart. In Isaiah 37:20 he prays, “So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.” Not just comfort or survival, but the knowledge of God in all the earth. That God’s kingdom might come, that his will be done on earth as in heaven.
This is where true faith begins. Instead of asking, “How can I escape this problem?” faith asks God to honour his own name in the situation.
And God’s response through Isaiah reflects how accurately the prophet and the king knew God’s heart. The Lord was angry, not because the Assyrians were attacking Jerusalem, but because they had reduced him to the level of an idol. Isaiah 37:23 says, “Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes to the heights? Against the Holy One of Israel!”
Indeed, the world often views sin as breaking rules. God sees it as an assertion of pride, a rejection of his rightful claim, a boast of self-sufficiency, aimed at being independent of the Creator.
Remember, God had been patient with the Assyrians. For years they had expanded their empire, sweeping over country after country.
The apostle Peter later explained why this happens, why justice seems delayed: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you” (2 Peter 3:9). God’s delays are not signs of weakness. They are expressions of mercy.
But mercy is not surrender to evil. The moment will come when God acts, as in this case. The outcome was breathtaking in its simplicity. No great battle was fought. No military genius emerged. No alliance came to the rescue.
Isaiah 37:36 says, “And the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians.”
One night. One angel. One act of divine judgment. And the army that terrified the world was helpless before the God it had mocked.
The Lord who was silent was not inactive. The Lord of patience was not powerless. The Lord who kept back judgment had now chosen the perfect moment to act.
Scripture repeats this pattern again and again. Pharaoh hardened his heart until judgment overwhelmed Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar boasted of his great city, and was immediately humbled by God. Belshazzar profaned the holy vessels of the temple of God, and his kingdom fell that very night. Herod accepted worship that belonged to God alone and was suddenly struck down.
James 4:6 reminds us, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
Though our culture often celebrates self-sufficiency and treats dependence on God as weakness, let us beware of its focus on human achievement, while Biblical truth is frequently ridiculed. Isaiah 36 and 37 remind us that every individual, every nation, every institution, and every ruler ultimately stands before the throne of God.
Galatians 6:7 warns, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” The question is not whether God will act. The question is whether we trust Him and wait obediently in his ways.
Remember Jerusalem, and Hezekiah spreading that letter before the Lord. Remember the victory, and remember God’s timing is not ours. His patience is not weakness. His delay is not defeat.
If our hearts are proud, uncertain, fearful, let us humble ourselves before him and trust him. He remains forever on the throne. Isaiah 36 and 37 end with a simple but powerful reality. Rabshakeh mocked. Sennacherib boasted. Hezekiah prayed. God answered.
Like Hezekiah, let us rest in the confidence that the Lord is patient, and His patience is mercy. God bless.