Episode Transcript
Good morning.
It's 10 o'clock.
Time to get started.
Glad to see all of you here and those of you who will tune in on the internet today or sometime and watch this.
We will continue with 2 Kings chapter 19 verse 27 this morning.
2 Kings chapter 19 verse 27.
Last week as we studied this verse, we learned how God's message to King Sennacherib was that he knew, God knew Sennacherib's abode.
He knew his dwelling place.
He knew what Sennacherib's foundation was.
That is his going out.
And I recommend you listen to last week's lesson if you missed it so you can be caught up.
In fact, here's a suggestion.
This is for everybody.
If you miss a Sunday school lesson or one of Brother Fulton's lessons, this is what I want you to do.
When you have your iPhone out and you're aimlessly scrolling through Facebook or Instagram or shopping online, stop what you're doing.
And then purposefully, not aimlessly, but purposefully open our Facebook page and find the lesson you missed and spend the next 30, 45 minutes getting fed.
And by the way, there's no charge for that good advice.
That is free counseling for you right there.
Now let's pick back up with verse 27 where we were learning about what it means when God says he knows our going out.
And I left you with this question last week.
From where does one go out?
Now I'm going to read verse 27 and we'll get to it.
God said, "But I know thy abode and thy going out and thy coming in and thy rage against me."
From where does one go out?
That's what we left off with last week.
Well, he goes out from the place where he dwells, from his abode.
And if he dwells in darkness as Sennacherib did, then he goes out from a place of darkness.
In fact, his ways, his paths are the ways of darkness.
And where does he go to?
He goes to places of darkness.
God knows where Sennacherib's abode is.
He knows what Sennacherib is up to.
And everything Sennacherib does is based upon the place where he abides.
It's based upon his dwelling place.
So spiritually speaking, he abides in darkness.
So his works, that is what he goes out to do, his goings out, are darkness.
Speaking to the unbelieving Jews, Jesus said this in John chapter 8, verse 42 through 44, if you just want to write that down so you don't have to try to turn there speedily.
John 8, 42 through 44.
"Jesus said unto them, 'If God were your Father, you would love me.
For I proceeded forth and came from God.
Neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Why do you not understand my speech, even because you cannot hear my word?
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father will you do.'
He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth."
Now what are we talking about?
What were we reading about with Sennacherib?
God said, "I know you're abode."
And Jesus said that Satan abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him.
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it.
So in that passage in John, when Jesus said that he proceeded forth and came from God, that's another way of saying his going out was from God, who was his abode.
God was Jesus' abode.
God was Jesus' dwelling place.
Are you getting this?
This is rich and deep doctrine here in God's Word.
And when Jesus scolded these unbelieving Jews, he told them their abode was different.
Their abode was the devil, and their going out was the doing of the devil's lust, what Satan wanted them to do.
Jesus had a different abode, therefore he had a different going out than these unbelieving Jews.
Now both Sennacherib and those unbelieving Jews in the New Testament, in fact all unbelievers, have the same abode and the same going out.
And God also knew about Sennacherib, looking back in the verse 27, he said, "And thy coming in."
So he knew his abode, he knew his going out, and he knew his coming in.
And that's also, the Hebrew words for coming in are also translated as the word "brought."
And the first time we'll see that is in Genesis chapter 4 and verse 3.
Genesis 4 verse 3, "And in the process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord."
Now in his unbelief, Cain abode, where Sennacherib abode.
They lived in different times, but they both abode in darkness.
Cain's going out was the same as Sennacherib's, and what he brought in was the same as Sennacherib's.
And that was something that was unacceptable to God.
That's what Cain brought.
Cain brought of the fruit of the ground rather than the blood of a lamb.
And if you understand where his abode was and his going out was, then you'll understand his coming in or what he brought.
Why would you expect him to go from a place of darkness, go out in darkness, and come back with light?
Can't happen that way.
If he goes from darkness and goes out in darkness, what he brings back is going to be darkness.
Until his abode changes, his dwelling place changes, he can't do anything else.
In Texas, you've probably heard the saying, "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear."
In the case of Cain, Sennacherib, or even the most religious unbeliever, their going out and their coming in are products of where they dwell, of their abode.
And we're talking spiritually here now.
In fact, never be surprised at the depraved acts that a lost sinner can do.
Mankind has seen and done some of the most horrific things to each other.
And I mean it didn't just start recently.
This has been going on.
You read about it in the Bible.
The things that men do to each other.
My law enforcement career has brought me into contact with some of the worst cases of human abuse, both child and adult, most of which the average person can't fathom and can't handle.
It's been a long time since I've been shocked by something that I heard or saw.
However, each act of evil that I've witnessed reminds me that sin reigns over this cursed earth.
And you know what?
Sin was my abode.
Darkness was my abode one time.
It was my dwelling place.
In fact, my going out and my coming in was sin.
It was the works of darkness until God's Spirit led me to the truth that I was condemned.
And He showed me His love for sinners by sending His only Son to die for me.
Do you know what that did?
That changed my abode when I believed that truth.
He died for me and rose again so I could have a new abode, a new dwelling place.
Listen to how the psalmist describes the difference that God makes in the going out of the believer.
This is Psalm chapter 40 and verse 2.
Psalm 40 and verse 2.
He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings.
There you go.
And He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God.
Many shall see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord.
Why will they trust in the Lord?
Because He took a sinner like me or a sinner like David or a sinner like you out of the miry clay and set your feet on a rock.
Now that rock is a new dwelling place.
Before I was saved, my abode was a horrible pit.
That's just another way of putting it.
When I trusted Jesus for my salvation, my abode was no longer a horrible pit, but a rock.
The Rock with a capital R.
And once the rock was my abode, then my going out was different.
It was marked by a new song, praise to my God.
God knew where Sennacherib's abode was, his going out was, and his coming in was.
But look back in the text what He also knew about Sennacherib.
He said in the last part of verse 27, "And thy rage against me."
Thy rage against me.
Rage is to move against.
One who rages against God is one who is disturbed at God.
Brother Doug was sharing with me something he mentioned at work in the presence of some others.
A man was talking about, you don't mind if I share this, do you?
If the boss is watching, he'll be fed, I believe.
But the boss was talking about a good man and a good man and a good man.
Doug said, "I can't help this old mouth.
I just said the Bible says there's none that doeth good, no not one."
And he said that man changed his topic pretty quickly.
So that man may have been disturbed at what God's Word said.
As if he's a Christian, I believe it is said, "That's right, brother, and we can talk about that after this meeting, but you're right on."
But you know, have you ever noticed that some of the most hostile people are the ones who set themselves against God?
And not content to let Christians go about being Christians, but to shove whatever their mess is down our throats and put it in our face and try to teach it to our children.
Someone who can kill an unborn baby and justify it, and yet turn around and speak out against the execution of a serial killer, has set himself against God.
He's messed up.
The wires are completely crossed.
And whatever God is for, the one who rages against Him is against it.
The ones who rage against God often call Christians dangerous.
Have you heard that?
That seems to be a catch word in the last five or ten years for conservatives or Christians or conservative Christians is they're dangerous.
They're dangerous.
I'll tell you what, anybody watching this who thinks that there's nobody you'd rather live next to than a spirit-filled Christian because they're not going to steal from you.
They're not going to, if somebody brings a package to you and says, "Hey, this belongs to your neighbor," you know that package is going to get where it belongs.
And on and on, the good things that a Christian will do for his neighbor.
That'll be the best employee you ever had because they'll be on time and they won't steal from you and they'll give you a good day's work for a good day's pay and they'll try to help others be their best around them and all of that, but we're certainly not dangerous.
That's the word of a person who set himself against God, just like Sennacherib.
And what we've read about Sennacherib is enough to show us his rage against God, but God knows the heart of this man who rages against him.
He doesn't just see the axe, he knows the heart of that man.
He knows that this king, in fact, will not repent because God knows the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end.
Now look back in verse 28 as he continues, he said, "Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears."
Now let's stop and look at that for a moment.
The word "tumult" is a particular or peculiar word in the Hebrew language.
It's different than what we might think it means today.
It actually means "at ease."
Now you wouldn't have thought that, would you?
If you thought of the word "tumult," you'd think, "Well, that's a hot mess is what that is."
Well, in a way it is, but let's look at it and then you'll understand a little bit more about what it means here in the Old Testament, in this passage.
It means "at ease."
Psalm 123 verse 4 says, "Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease and with the contempt of the proud."
So if you take that Psalm and you look at the words "scorning," the ones who are at ease are the ones who are scorning.
The ones who are at ease are contemptuous.
They're proud.
So in this case, in this passage, the word "tumult" is the same as the word "ease" in the Psalm that I just read you.
And both are associated with a proud person having contempt toward someone.
And Sennacherib certainly fits the bill for that description.
Now another use of the Hebrew word for "tumult," as we see it here in our text, is found in Isaiah chapter 32 and verse 9.
Isaiah 32 and verse 9, where it says, "Rise up ye women that are at ease.
Hear my voice, ye careless daughters, give ear unto my speech."
So in that passage, the word "ease" is the same as the word "tumult" here.
And that word "careless" gives you a clue about what it means to be at ease.
Because it describes women that are at ease or in "tumult."
Now we can really learn something about being at ease.
It's not a good thing.
Not this being at ease.
If being at ease means being careless or proud or contemptuous, then God's people should want nothing to do with that.
In Luke chapter 12, Jesus taught a parable about a certain rich man who had an abundant harvest.
And he was filled with his own wisdom and he decided he would tear down those barns and build bigger ones to store that harvest.
Well listen to verses 19 through 21.
This is from Luke chapter 12, verses 19 through 21.
Starting with what this rich man said to himself.
He said, "And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years.
Take thine ease.
Eat, drink, and be merry.'
But God said unto him, 'Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee, then who shall those things be which thou hast provided?'
So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."
Now you've got to catch both of those.
Because if you come away thinking, "Well, I've saved up quite a bit of money in my life.
You know, I've done pretty well in the stock market.
I guess I better get rid of all that."
That's not what the Bible says at all.
In fact, that's wise.
You've gone the way of the ant, not the way of the sluggard.
And now you have been able to reap the fruits of your labor that you honestly performed.
But it says the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God, that's the one who better watch out.
That's the one who is at ease, like this man was in this parable that Jesus taught.
So notice that the phrase, "Take thine ease."
That's what this man said to himself.
And although that's translated from the Greek language rather than the Hebrew in the Old Testament, it has the same meaning as the word "ease" does in Hebrew.
God called this man a fool because he laid up treasure for himself and was not rich toward God.
And this man had said to himself, to his soul, to his own self, "Take thine ease."
And God was not pleased with it.
In fact, it would cost this man a sudden death.
Let's look at another use of this word for ease.
We find it in the New Testament also.
Matthew 11, 28.
Matthew 11, 28.
Because not all ease is bad.
We looked at the ease that's bad, didn't we?
The one who's laid up treasures for himself and is not rich toward God.
That's being at ease in a bad way.
That's tumult.
Well, here's the other side of that coin.
Matthew 11, 28.
Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
The word "rest" is the same as the word "ease" back in the parable that we read in Luke chapter 12.
But wait a minute.
Why was it bad for a rich man to take ease or take rest, but not when Jesus told those who labor and are heavy laden to take rest?
Why wasn't that bad?
Here's the difference.
When we rest in ourselves and our own works like that rich man did, as Sennacherib did, then we're showing faith in our flesh and contempt toward God.
But when we take our ease or our rest in Jesus, we're showing faith in our Savior and love toward God.
And we don't trust in the works of the flesh.
How about that?
Perhaps you've heard people say about their plans for the weekend or maybe their plans for retirement.
Listen, I'm looking forward to retiring from my secular job.
Do you know why?
That gives me more time for kingdom work than I have right now.
And Brother Fulton's the same way.
He's bivocational his whole pastoring career.
And he's looking for that day when he can retire from his secular job and devote all of his time to kingdom work.
And I can't wait for that to happen for him and I can't wait for that to happen for me.
But I'll tell you what some people will say for their retirement or their weekend.
They'll say, "I just want to take it easy."
Listen, it's a good thing to sit down and rest for a little while.
That's OK.
We get tired.
Good thing to sleep so you can be refreshed for the next day, to relax if you've had a stressful day.
But if your purpose in life is to get to a point where you can just take it easy and rest all the time, then you're showing contempt toward God.
If you've got that much time and you have decided, "I'm going to do everything but serve God," then you're showing contempt toward God and you should take that into consideration.
Let me tell you about someone for whom I have respect for a lot of you here, by the way.
But I have a great amount of respect for, and that's Brother Neil Drake, and he's not able to be here today.
He has so many physical disabilities that he often has to use a walker to get from one place to another.
And yet, whenever he's able to stand and walk and doesn't hurt so bad, he gets himself about three blocks from his apartment over here.
Now you might think, "Wow, if you didn't know him, you'd think, 'Well, three blocks isn't that far.'"
But if you've ever watched him walk to church or to his apartment, you'd see what a struggle it is for him.
And one night we were going home from Wednesday night service and he was walking and my wife said, "You think we should give him a ride?"
I said, "No, that's a sweet thought, but it means a lot to Brother Neil to be independent enough to walk from church back to his apartment.
It means more to him than if we gave him a ride."
And I know that's true.
But now if he said, "I don't feel like coming to church tonight, Brother Andy," we would all understand, but he does it anyway.
As often as his body will physically allow him to, he does it.
Now I know people who use the Lord's day as their day off.
That's their, not just from work, but from worship as well.
I mean, they just take off and boy, they just have something else to do.
My heart was broken when I heard a child sometime back, not from here, tell me what her family's practice was when it came to going to church.
And I asked her if her family had been going to church.
And she said, "Well, sometimes if we're not busy, we go."
She's a little girl, and she's just telling me what her parents told her.
And she said, "Sometimes we don't want to get up, so we'll watch online.
Sometimes we have stuff to do, so we don't go."
Listen, that precious child could not help what she was taught.
And she asked me if we went to church all the time, I said, "We sure do."
I said, "Unless we are too sick to go, and then we tune in.
We don't want to miss a word.
And if we're about once a year or so, we go out of state on a vacation, then we'll watch online.
But we don't miss the Lord's day, we leave after it's over with.
We get done Sunday afternoon, and we'll drive to New Mexico, and with God's grace, you're going to see us the following Sunday here, even though we traveled about 2,000 miles by car.
That's just how we like to roll.
But do you understand how relevant this teaching is when it comes to being at ease in the wrong way?
And when you're at ease in your flesh, you're actually living in tumult.
And people who are in tumult may not think they're in tumult, but the Bible has taught us otherwise.
Now let's look back in our text here in verse 28 and see, God said to Sennacherib, now he's speaking through the prophet Isaiah here, "Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears."
Now I want to look at that.
That phrase is "come up into mine ears."
Doesn't God already know everything before it happens?
Yes, He does.
And doesn't God hear everything?
Well, He does.
So why would something come up into His ears?
What would that mean?
A person might get the initial impression that that means God hadn't heard of it before, and then all of a sudden he could hear it now.
That's not what this means at all.
I'm going to show you that the Bible teaches quite differently from that.
So let's look at the first two times in the Bible.
The Hebrew word for "is come up" is used.
It's just one Hebrew word, and it's conjugated.
It's a verb, so it means it's conjugated or changed to fit whatever tense it's in.
Genesis chapter 2 verse 6.
Genesis chapter 2 verse 6.
"But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground."
So "went up" is the same Hebrew word as "come up" in our text.
And then moving down to Genesis chapter 8 and verse 20.
Genesis 8 verse 20.
"And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered," there's your word, "burnt offerings on the altar."
So the word "offered," the word "went up," and the word "come up" are the exact same Hebrew word.
They're the same word.
The idea of the Hebrew word translated as "come up" is not that God would hear something for the first time ever.
"Come up," "went up," and "offered," the idea here is of direction, not detection.
It's not that God just detected something that He hadn't detected before.
It has to do with the direction of the thing that's being sent, and it's going up.
There was never a time when God suddenly detected something He had not heard or seen before.
And the direction signified by the Hebrew word is "up."
Mist in the garden went up from the earth.
Offerings go up.
And rage and tumult go up.
Now let's look for a moment at how an offering goes up so we can understand how rage and tumult go up.
This will give you a more accurate picture of that.
The scene in Exodus chapter 19 and verse 18 is when the children of Israel were gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai.
And here's what it says, Exodus 19, 18.
"And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended," same Hebrew word is "went up," "come up," and "offered."
It's ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
So just as smoke goes up physically, offerings go up spiritually.
And here's how we do this.
Here's how we do this as Christians.
We've got something that goes up to God too.
And it's not a fire.
1 Peter 2 verse 5.
Speaking to Christians, he said, "Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."
That is the only way your spiritual sacrifices are acceptable to God, by the way, is by Jesus Christ.
You try to offer them outside of Him, they are strange fire on the altar.
And you know what happened to Nadab and Abihu when they offered strange fire on the altar in the Old Testament?
They died.
The Old Testament burnt offerings produced smoke from the animal that was being burnt.
And that smoke physically went up, but as it physically went up, it spiritually signified an offering, a spiritual offering, that also went up.
And if it went up from the earth, then it came up to God.
It was sent in God's direction.
And that's the aim, literally, the aim of the offering, is to go up.
When we offer up spiritual sacrifices to God, the smoke of those sacrifices goes straight up to God.
And if it's by Jesus Christ, He smells that and goes, "Man, that's good.
That came through my son.
That was on account of my son.
I got those spiritual sacrifices from my people."
We've used this next passage before in explaining the incense altar.
I've taught on that.
Brother Fulton's taught on the incense altar from the Old Testament tabernacle.
But it'll also help us here.
And at the opening of the seventh seal in the book of Revelation, there is in Revelation chapter 8 is where that is, there's something that happens.
Revelation 8, and I'll read verse 4.
It says, "And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints."
Notice that's not the prayers of all people of all faiths.
The prayers of the saints, those are the Christians.
"The prayers of the saints ascended up before God out of the angel's hand."
So John, the apostle who wrote this revelation, ties the prayers of the saints with the smoke of the incense and he said, "Both of them ascended up before God."
They went up to God.
Okay, I think it's clear now that prayers, sacrifices, just like smoke, ascend up to God.
Now which of the senses is used to appreciate incense?
It's the sense of smell, isn't it?
And earlier we read from Genesis 8 verse 20 where Noah offered burn offerings of every clean fowl and beast.
And I'll go down to verse, well I've got it marked as verse 221, that's me doing that twice.
So I think it's verse 21.
But if it's verse 22, it's right there nearby it.
Genesis chapter 8.
And this was God's response to those sacrifices Noah offered up.
It says, "And the Lord smelled a sweet savor.
And the Lord said in his heart, 'I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.
Neither will I again smite anymore every living, everything living as I have done.'"
You see, God smelled a sweet savor.
Noah offered that offering here on the earth.
He offered the physical offering.
And it wasn't just that God thought, well the smoke from that burning animal smells awfully good, smells like a good barbecue.
No, there was more to it than that.
It was an offering made to the Lord and it was a sweet savor to Him, not because Noah picked just the right breed of animal, but because of what was behind that.
And because there was faith, he offered up an acceptable sacrifice to God.
But there are things that are not a sweet savor to God.
And He tells us about them.
In fact, all the way back in Leviticus 26, because if He's going to tell His people what is a sweet savor to Him, He needs to also tell them what's not a sweet savor to Him.
God is very fair to us if people think, "Oh, I don't know how God expects us to do this and that."
Listen, He knows you're going to fail.
That's why He sent His Son to die for you.
He knows you're going to fail.
But He tells us, He told His people, "Here's what does not smell good to me."
Leviticus chapter 26, He is warning the children of Israel about the consequences of walking contrary to Him.
And in verse 31 of that chapter, God said, if they do this, "And I will make your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation.
And I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors."
Did you see that?
He said, "I will not smell it."
You walk contrary to me, you can burn every animal in the county and it's going to stink.
I'm not going to smell it.
So the very same sacrifices that smelled sweet to God when Israel obeyed Him would no longer be acceptable when Israel walked contrary to Him.
It's not animal sacrifice that pleases God anyway.
He said that several times and we see it there in Psalm chapter 51 also that He said, "I don't want sacrifice."
He wants a broken and a contrite heart, a broken and a contrite spirit.
I don't despise that.
But you know what's a sweet savor to God?
The smell of obedience to obey is better than sacrifice.
In fact, the smell of disobedience is a foul stench to God.
And if that's the case, then those same outcomes are true when it comes to what God hears, not just to what He smells but to what He hears.
So not only does the smoke go up to God to be smelled both physically and spiritually, but the words go up to God to be heard.
And in Deuteronomy chapter 5, Moses recounts to the children of Israel about a time when they agreed to do all that the Lord said.
You remember that at the foot of Mount Sinai there in Exodus chapter 20?
"All that the Lord has said, this we will do."
Oh, they were glad to obey those commandments.
They feared the Lord greatly then in the right way.
And in Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 28, Moses said to those people, "And the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spake unto me.
And the Lord said unto me, 'I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken unto thee.
They have well said all that they have spoken.'"
So when God smelled a sweet savory, He said, "That smells good."
When He heard those good words, those words spoken in obedience, faith, He said, "That sounds good.
They have well said."
So when those words came up to God's ears, they went in His direction just like a smoke offering does.
And they were pleasing to Him.
Listen to what God said about other words spoken by the children of Israel in another place in Numbers chapter 14.
Numbers 14 verse 27.
Now we're tying this all back to Sennacherib.
"How long shall I bear with this evil congregation which murmur against me?"
Remember what a tumult is?
That's against God.
What a rage is.
I'm sorry.
A rage is moving yourself against God, being disturbed against God.
And he said, "How long shall I bear with this evil congregation which murmur against me?
I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel which they murmur against me.
Say unto them, 'As truly as I live,' saith the Lord, 'As ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you.
Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness and all that were numbered of you according to your whole number from 20 years old and upward, which have murmured against me.'"
So in that verse, the children of Israel in that day in the wilderness had something in common with Sennacherib.
The children of Israel murmured.
Sennacherib raged.
Both Israel's murmuring and Sennacherib's rage was against God.
And the Scripture clearly tells us that.
And in both cases, God did not like what he heard.
There are many who believe, well, I remember John Hagee saying this, that the Jews had a different way to be saved than the Christians.
No, they don't.
By and large, they have rejected their Savior.
There is a remnant of Jews who do believe.
We call them the Messianic Jews, but they're believers.
But the ones who say, "Our Savior hasn't come.
We're still looking for Him."
They're raging against God.
They can be as religious as they want to.
They've murmured against God.
And God doesn't like what he hears.
And he told us what he'd do to Israel because of what he heard them say.
Now let's see what he said he'll do to Sennacherib because of what he heard him say.
Back in verse 28, in the middle of the verse, he said, "Therefore, I will put my hook in thy nose and my bridle in thy lips."
Now that just hurts thinking about it, doesn't it?
God will put His hook in Sennacherib's nose and his bridle in his lips.
What does that mean?
Well, let's look at another place.
If you've been in my class very long and in our pastors' classes, you've noticed that we often use the Bible to teach the Bible.
It's the most helpful commentary on the market.
There's not a better teacher in the Bible to help teach the Bible.
So that's why we go to other places in the Bible that tell us what we're trying to learn, teach us what we're trying to learn.
And so we're going to look at another place where God says this, but let's think about what a hook is.
The Hebrew word for hook is also translated as the word "chains" and the word "bracelets."
So the idea of the word is that something is fastened to something else.
What do you do when you back a trailer up or you back your pickup up to a trailer?
You're going to hook your trailer to your pickup.
That's what we say sometimes.
We're not running a fish hook through it.
We're using a bulldog hitch or whatever kind of hitch you use to hook that trailer and that pickup together.
So that's like a chain or a bracelet.
The idea is to fasten something to another.
A chain is a fastener and so is a hook, which is probably more like a ring here that is put in a horse's nose.
And a bridle is also an instrument of control.
You put a hook in somebody's nose, you got them, don't you?
Where the nose goes, the heart and soul will surely follow.
And the bridle is also an instrument of control for a large beast like a horse.
In our text, this is a metaphor.
God putting His hook in Sennacherib's nose and his bridle in his lips.
It's a metaphor.
And that means that God is going to turn Sennacherib, just like you and I would, a horse by using that hook and that bridle.
Now let's consider a horse which is a powerful animal.
They're beautiful animals, but boy they're strong and they can hurt you in a blink of an eye.
Anybody ever been kicked by a horse?
I thank God I have not.
But some people have and live to tell about it.
But a horse is not only powerful, but it has a strong will.
And that will has to be broken and tamed before the horse is of any use to us.
A wild mustang is a beautiful creature to watch run across the fields, but he's not any good to you if you can't ever catch him and break him and tame him and train him to do what you want.
Want him to do.
And so we use a bridle in a horse's mouth, like we might use a ring in a bull's nose, to turn that powerful animal where we want it to go.
And neither the bridle nor the ring are designed for comfort.
They're designed to cause discomfort when that beast struggles against their pressure.
And a skilled cowboy on a good horse doesn't have to do this and jerk that horse around.
All they got to do is just, I mean it's almost indiscernible, just a little pressure and boy that horse knows which way to go.
And they're incredibly intelligent when they're trained.
And now, without a bridle or a ring, we have no hope of turning such a strong animal.
And based upon what we read about him, Sennacherib considers himself to be a strong animal, so to speak.
He's bragged for many verses about his conquests and what he's going to do to Judah, just like he did to their sister Israel there in the northern kingdom.
But he considers himself to be like a bull or a horse that cannot be turned.
And he held no more respect and all for God than he did for any of the false gods of those nations whom he conquered.
So, in using this metaphor, God tells us through Isaiah that he will turn this king, who is powerful in an earthly sense, and God will do it by putting his hook in his nose and his bridle in his lips.
And here's what God's going to do by using that hook and bridle.
Look back in your text in verse 28, he said, "And my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest."
I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.
Now, Sennacherib wasn't interested in going home.
He went forth to conquer.
And there's no doubt in my mind that he set his eyes on the same thing every other wicked ruler has from all the ages.
And that is he wanted to conquer the whole world.
I've been, since I'm on night shift, I stay up on my days off kind of late just to keep my sleep schedule correct and my family's in bed.
And so I'll educate myself.
I'll watch some of the historical accounts of the Spaniards and the Portuguese and their conquest.
And it doesn't matter which country it is, they want the whole world.
They're not satisfied with just their piece of land.
So that was Sennacherib.
He had no desire to turn around and go home with just a few countries that he had conquered.
He wanted more.
And God said, "Not only you're not going to get more, but I'm going to turn you around and send you home."
That's a real killjoy for Sennacherib, isn't it?
You're thinking back to what we learned about Sennacherib's abode, his going out and his coming in.
Let's apply that here to what God's going to do to him.
God was sending Sennacherib back to his earthly abode.
He was impeding his going out and his coming in.
He knew that Sennacherib came from darkness and that he went out in darkness.
And he wasn't going to let him do what he wanted to do and bring back in darkness those captives from Judah.
Not here, he wasn't.
And from this truth, we learn that God will do the same thing to our great adversary, the devil.
And as fearsome as he is and as loudly as he roars, those roars go up to God's ears just like Sennacherib's rage in tumult went up to God's ears.
And just as surely as God would intervene against Sennacherib and punish him, he'll do the same thing to Satan.
Revelation 20 verse 10 as we close, "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever."
That's right.
God will put his ring in Satan's nose and his bridle in his lips and turn him into the lake of fire.
And Psalm 9 17 says, "The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God."
And that word "turned" is the same Hebrew word used in our text where God says he would turn Sennacherib back by the way which he came.
And we'll stop right there and let's pray and thank God for what he's done for us in his word.
Lord, we're so thankful for everyone who came and those who tuned in.
We pray that those who weren't able to do either will watch later on the recorded version.
Our brothers and sisters across the world in different time zones may see this tomorrow.
And Lord, we're thankful for every person who chooses to be fed by your word.
And we thank you for what your Spirit does, how you teach us, and often in spite of the frailty of the man speaking to the people.
You teach us.
You're faithful.
And now we look forward to the next hour and pray you bless the preaching, the praying, the singing, the fellowship around your word.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
