Overview
The
Lord was fed up with the Northern
Kingdom of Israel and their
wickedness. Every king was evil and
desired to be like the kings of the nations around them, worshippingidols and
forsaking the commands of the Lord who brought them out of the house of bondage.
The Bible describes each of the kings of Israel like
this:
I King 15:34 "and he did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin by which he had made Israel to sin."
Israel’s destruction had finally been spoken by the prophets, who were continually rejected by the rulers. In fact they had so resisted Isaiah’s message that, according to tradition, in order to shut him up they sawed him in two in a hollow log.
God was swift to use the mighty Assyrians as His instruments of judgment upon his people Israel and many of the territories of the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
God allowed the Assyrians to create an "invincible host" far superior in their tactics of warfare than any other people in the ancient world. In fact military strategists today stand in awe of their training and warfare strategy.
Assyria became God’s plunderers and because of their disunity within their own land they continually went out to war. In fact almost all of their history was described by mighty monarchs,intense warfare and brutal military campaigns.
The Assyrians became proud in their own might, and did not realize that it was the Lord enabling them to be powerful for a season and for a purpose. Their pride, brutality and wickedness reached the throne of the Lord of Hosts, Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of the armies of heaven. It was time for the Lord to deal with Assyria directly, by His own hand.
When the king of Assyria came to Jerusalem his invincible army was routed by "the Angel of the Lord" who was not really an angel but the Lord Himself.
The mighty Assyrian Empire finally came to an end in 612 B.C. when the Lord caused a great flood to open the way for the Babylonians and the Medes. They were utterly destroyed, never to rise again.
The prophets of ancient Israel and Judah were despised, but their messages from God have been preserved, and we have the Biblical testimony of God’s dealings with the Assyrians before the actual events.
In this program we are briefly looking at about 20 of the prophecies that were spoken regarding the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the campaigns and fall of the powerful Empire who would bring their destruction, Assyria, and the foretelling of God’s protection of His chosen city, Jerusalem.
"Therefore
thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: 'He shall not come into this
city, Nor shoot an arrow there, Nor come before it with shield, Nor build a
siege mound against it. By the way that he came, By the same shall he return;
And he shall not come into this city,' Says the LORD. 'For I will defend this
city, to save it For My own sake and for My servant David's sake.'" Isaiah
37:33-35