Isaiah – What Does This Mean?

Encore Post: The Holy Spirit sent Deacon Philip to meet a eunuch in the service of Candice of Ethiopia, the mother of the reigning king. In Ethiopian society, she took care of day-to-day duties of the kingdom. Ethiopians believe she was the descendant of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon. Many believe they are Jewish.

Eunuchs served as assistants for the royal family. They were often castrated so that they could be trusted to guard royal or noble women and provide physical care to kings and emperors. This man appears to have been the treasurer of Candice. He is devout and has been to worship at the temple in Jerusalem. On his way home, the man is reading Isaiah 53, a detailed prophecy of the suffering and death of the Messiah. Puzzled by it, he invited Philip to explain the text to him. With this opening, Philip tells the man the good news that Jesus is the Man Isaiah prophesied. The man responded by asking to be baptized. When the Holy Spirit took Philip away, he rejoiced that salvation had come to him.

This new Christian became, in turn, the evangelist who brought the gospel to Ethiopia. A strong Eastern Orthodox church was born and grew there. Called the Coptic Church, its members still thrive in Muslim Egypt to this day. This man was the first of many Christians to believe in Christ on the continent of Africa.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Pastor Emeritus

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Encore Post: Prior to King Josiah, there was another king who followed in the commandments of of the Lord. His name was Hezekiah. His story is covered in 2 Kings 18-20. There, the author of Kings tells us that Hezekiah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, cutting down the Asherah poles. He recognized the idolatry which ran rampant among the people. Judah was actually bowing down before the bronze serpent that Moses made in the wilderness! Hezekiah broke it into pieces. He was zealous for proper worship of the Lord.

Hezekiah was king of Judah during the Assyrian destruction of the northern kingdom. After Israel’s defeat, Judah was on high alert. The largest superpower was knocking on their door. And Assyria was a promised instrument of the Lord to exact judgment on His people.

The Rabeshakeh, that is a spokesman for the king of Assyria, spoke to Hezekiah, telling him that no god had saved the other surrounding countries. So, would Hezekiah’s God save Judah? The king of Assyria, Sennacherib, speaks of himself as a god, able to give a land that is good as if not better than what God had promised to the people of Israel way back in his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and again to the people as they were coming into the Promised Land.

Hezekiah, though afraid of the impending doom for Jerusalem, does what a faithful Christian ought to do in time of distress. He spoke with Lord’s servant Isaiah and inquires of the Lord with prayer. God has been mocked in the speech of Sennachrib, and Hezekiah pleads that God hears it. He does and gives peace to Hezekiah, promising that Sennachrib will die by the sword in his own land.

Isaiah 37 records for us what happens to the Assyrian army. The Angel of the Lord struck the army and 185,000 died that night. The Lord preserved Hezekiah and Jerusalem for the time being.

We learn from Hezekiah to rely on God alone when we are in distress as well as times of plenty. Isaiah the prophet and this story of Jerusalem being under siege tells us to rely on God, who gives us our daily bread. For he also gives us the blessed forgiveness of sins in the saving work of Jesus on the cross who took upon the siege of the devil at the cross and won for us the true promised land, the promise of the new heaven and new earth that is to come.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
Christ Lutheran Church
Noblesville, Indiana

Tag: Isaiah

Sunday School: Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

Sunday School King Hezekiah and the Assyrian Siege