seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
2 Kings 18:17 The king of Assyria sent his supreme commander, his chief officer and his field commander with a large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They came up to Jerusalem and stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman’s Field. 18 They called for the king; and Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to them.
19 The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah:
“‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours? 20 You say you have the counsel and the might for war—but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me? 21 Look, I know you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. 22 But if you say to me, “We are depending on the Lord our God”—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem”?
23 “‘Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them! 24 How can you repulse one officer of the least of my master’s officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 25 Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this place without word from the Lord? The Lord himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’”
26 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”
27 But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”
28 Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! 29 This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you from my hand. 30 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’
31 “Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern, 32 until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life and not death!
“Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ 33 Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? 35 Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”
36 But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”
37 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what the field commander had said.
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Here's the link to the commentary I read.
Stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool… Eliakim… Shebna… Joah… came out to them: The Rabshakeh seemed to be in complete command of the situation. He could walk right into the city of Jerusalem, and stand at the crucial water supply — which was Jerusalem’s life-line in a siege attack. As he stood there, three officials from Hezekiah’s government came to meet him.
What confidence is this in which you trust: We might wish that Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, and that this is what the Rabshakeh mocked. Instead, Hezekiah put his hope in an alliance with Egypt, and the Rabshakeh wanted him to lose confidence in that alliance.
You are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt: Strangely, the Rabshakeh could see the truth of Egypt’s weakness better than many of the leaders of Judah could. Hezekiah’s trust-in-Egypt policy would indeed be trouble for Judah.
Is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away: The Rabshakeh knew that King Hezekiah had implemented broad reforms in Judah, including the removal of the high places (2 Kings 18:3-4). Yet in the Rabshakeh’s thinking, Hezekiah’s reforms had really displeased God, so he should not expect help from the LORD God of Israel. The Rabshakeh would say, “Look at all the places there used to be where people would worship the LORD God of Israel. Now, since Hezekiah came in, there is only one place. More is always better, so the LORD God of Israel must be pretty sore at Hezekiah!”
Give a pledge to my master the king of Assyria: This reminds us of the Rabshakeh’s whole strategy, which was to make Judah give up. This was the entire reason the Rabshakeh was at the aqueduct, speaking to these leaders of Hezekiah’s government. He had the vastly superior armies; he could have just attacked Jerusalem without this little speech. But the Rabshakeh would prefer it if Judah would simply give up, out of fear, discouragement, or despair.
Have I now come up without the LORD against this land to destroy it: The Rabshakeh saved his best thrust for last: “Admit it, Hezekiah. You know that your God is on my side.”
The LORD said to me, “Go up against this land, and destroy it”: This was the finishing blow of a brilliant attack. “Hezekiah, God told me to destroy you. I’m just doing His will, and there is nothing you can do to stop it, so you may as well surrender.”
Please speak to your servants in the Aramaic language, for we understand it: We can just imagine how difficult this was for these leaders in Hezekiah’s government. They must have thought, “It’s bad enough we have to hear this. But since he is speaking in Hebrew, everyone will hear, and soon the people will become so discouraged they will rise up against us and make us surrender!”
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Propaganda is a word I learned when the Vietnam War started. Oh, excuse me, the Vietnam "police action" started.
Daddy was stationed in San Juan. I was in school at Fort Buchanan. The boys in my class would soon be taken by the draft.
All the bad news a government has to deal with is normally just quietly taken care of. In the case of war, however, the people are going to have to step up.
So, back in the 60's when I was just becoming a teen, propaganda made its way into the schools on the military bases.
They taught us about the "domino theory". If one country goes communist, then another will, and then another and so on and so forth.
They taught us the "domino theory" because they wanted to control the message.
Here, the king of Syria had already taken over Israel and now he was coming for Judah.
Hezekiah, meanwhile, had indeed been working for God. Hezekiah was a gutless fool for stripping the gold and silver off the temple walls, but he had indeed taken down all the fake churches.
The king of Syria had a brilliant idea! He told the people of Judah that God was mad because Hezekiah had taken down the temples. It was a huge lie but it was a lie the people would swallow. A lot of them were really upset because Hezekiah pulled their statuettes out of the temple.
It was like if the president took all our crosses and statues of Mary and Jesus out of the churches today! Some people would be really angry if that happened today.
Propaganda doesn't have to be the truth. It just has to look enough like the truth to make a little sense. Then after repetition, it becomes the truth.
I heard that when we went into Kuwait, we sent a plane with flyers stating Americans are cannibals. I heard the Kuwaitis believed that if they didn't give up, we would kill them and eat them for dinner.
Say it isn't so???? Well, that's propaganda for you! The Kuwaitis thought it was real. Some surrendered without a fight.
Propaganda is meant to discourage the people.
Check out verse 27. Having to eat our own poop or drink our own pee is some pretty raw propaganda.
And they made sure the propaganda was issued in common Hebrew so everyone would hear.
Discouragement....
Propaganda!
