"This Will Be the Sign for You"

What guarantee does Hezekiah have that Isaiah's prophecy will be fulfilled? Jehovah answers: "This will be the sign for you: There will be an eating this year of the growth of the spilled kernels, and in the second year grain that shoots up of itself; but in the third year sow seed, you people, and reap, and plant vineyards and eat their fruitage."  (Isaiah 37:30) Jehovah will provide food for the trapped Jews. Although unable to plant seed because of the Assyrian occupation, they will be able to eat from the gleanings of the preceding year's harvest.  The following year, a Sabbath  year, they must let their fields lie fallow, despite  their desperate situation.  (Exodus 23:11)  Jehovah promises that if the people obey his voice, enough grain will sprout in the fields to sustain them.  Then, in the following year, men will sow seed in the usual way and enjoy the fruitage of their labor. 

Jehovah now compares his people to a plant that cannot easily be uprooted: "Those who escape of the house of Judah . . .will certainly take root downward and produce fruitage upward."   (Isaiah 37:31, 32)  Yes, those who trust in Jehovah have nothing to fear.  they and their offspring will remain firmly  established in the land.

What of the Assyrian's threats against Jerusalem?  Jehovah answers:  "He will not come into this city, nor will he shoot an arrow there, nor confront it with a shield, nor cast up a siege rampart against it.  By the way by which he came he will return, and into this city he will not come." (Isaiah 37:33, 34) There will be no battle between Assyria and Jerusalem after all.  Surprisingly, it will be the Assyrians, not the  Jews, who are defeated without a fight.

True to his word, Jehovah sends an angel who strikes down the cream of Sennacherib's  troops-185,000 men.  This apparently happens at Libnah, and Senncherib himself wakes up to find the leaders, chiefs, and mighty men of his army dead. Shamefaced, he returns to Nineveh, but despite his resounding defeat, he stubbornly remains devoted to his false god Nisroch.  Some years later, while worshiping in the temple of Nisroch, Sennacherib is assassinated by two of his sons.  Once again, lifeless Nisroch proves powerless to save. -Isaiah 37:35-38. 

Next time: Hezekiah's Faith Is Further Strenghtened

From the Book Isaiah's Prophecy Light for all Mankind, 2000