Evil is Never Satisfied

Scripture: Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are on the wall." 2 Kings 18:26

Observation: The Assyrian who is declaring war upon Jerusalem is named by the title 'Rabshkeh' (likely 'governor'). Interestingly, he is speaking in Hebrew, the language spoke exclusively by Israel, and is doing this very specifically to make himself understood to the residents of Jerusalem. He has also misunderstood the actions of Hezekiah, interpreting that his destruction of the "high places" and requiring that worship be conducted in the temple was not a return to compliance with the Lord's covenant commands, but rather an affront to the Lord by removing his holy places and instead seizing control of religion in Judah.

Let's see ... what kind of person would ... believe that proper worship of Yahweh required also worship to Asherah, speaks Hebrew, and carries a title connoting local authority? The most likely answer is ... a Samarian who pledged loyalty to the Assyrian king early in his conquest of the northern kingdom and thus rose in rank until he is the local administrator of Samaria. After centuries of perverted worship practices, this is exactly the kind of person who would now intermix honor of the gods with the Lord, and thus misinterpret Hezekiah's loyalty to God. He would speak Hebrew fluently. He would be the likely candidate to lead negotiations for surrender with the southern kingdom.

If true, Judah isn't just being attacked by Assyria. It is being betrayed by Israel. From the time of splitting the kingdom, Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, worshipping other gods in greater and more vile ways. The Lord finally handed Israel over and had it removed from the earth. Yet, that wasn't enough to evil ... the next act is to undermine and betray the best king since David. Evil wasn't satisfied to destroy Israel, and it wasn't satisfied to simply attack with force ... it sought more, and to perform its work in sinister ways.

Application: In our society - and against us as individuals - evil isn't satisfied to simply cause us to commit sin and thus attempt to damage our relationship with the Lord. Evil always tries to go further ... destroy families, rip apart communities, create chaos, foster widespread violence.

What does evil attack? Three things: faith, hope, and love.

By tricking us into sin, satan works on our faith ... creating a gap in our relationship with God, and then lying to us that Jesus' sacrifice isn't enough to bridge that gap, and thus shaking our faith. By introducing famine, plague, and chaos, satan clouds our ability to see goodness and thus dims our hope for future outcomes. By inciting hate, anger, and violence, satan explicitly attacks our love of people, both intimate love with individuals we are close to, and general love of mankind.

As a man of faith, I must cling to these three things. I must rely on Jesus as my savior, knowing full-well that his sacrifice - and my faith in that sacrifice - is the bridge that ensures my relationship with the Lord. I must place all hope in the reality of God's justice and mercy, never lacking in trust that he is on the throne and in command of all the world. I must take forward the love of God and of Jesus into the world as a light to my community, to the downtrodden, to the faithless, to the fellow believers, to the haters, to the widows and orphans, to the rich and powerful, and to all people, to the ends of the earth.

Prayer: Lord, you have told us that there are three things that endure, faith, hope, and love. I see these under attack 2,700 years ago, and today, and always and forever before, after, and in between. May I serve you today by holding to your truth, and taking that truth to others. Amen.