Clever tactics of discouragement and how to resist them
2 Kings 18:17-37
In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis imaginatively describes the tactics of Satan to discourage and lead Christians astray. His fictional character, Screwtape, is an experienced senior demon, who instructs his nephew in the art of temptation. The nephew’s ‘patient’ has recently become a Christian and the inexperienced demon thinks that the best strategy in making the man turn away from his new-found faith is to marshal logical arguments or lead him into grave moral sin. Screwtape, however, recommends a more subtle approach, a gradual shift away from God, an almost imperceptible drifting. In our story of Hezekiah, the Assyrian delegation demanding the king’s submission to Sennacherib is likewise subtle and cunning in the way it undermines trust in God.
No one can help you!
While the three emissaries are matched by Hezekiah’s three officials (2 Kings 18:17-18),[1] the Assyrian envoy undercuts Hezekiah’s authority by never referring to him as king (2 Kings 18:19, 22, 29-30). He also undermines any hope that God’s people can be rescued. The message is simple: no one can help you, not others, not God, not you yourself. Egypt in the south-west would have been Judah’s natural ally against the common northern enemy of Assyria, but the Rab-shakeh describes Pharaoh as a crushed reed, too weak to lean on for support (2 Kings 18:21). In a masterstroke, he also raises doubts about God’s willingness to help, interpreting Hezekiah’s destruction of alternative worship sites in favour of Jerusalem as against God’s will (2 Kings 18:22). He even claims the Lord’s approval for Assyria’s coming as an act of judgment on Judah (2 Kings 18:25)! At the end of his speech, the Rab-shakeh will claim that God could not help even if He wanted to – just look at the evidence! None of the gods of other nations could resist the mighty Assyria, how then could tiny Judah’s God (2 Kings 18:33-35)? Finally, the people’s own strength is contemptuously dismissed, since Judah would be unable to muster enough fighting men, even if Assyria provided the horses for them (2 Kings 18:23-24).
Faithfulness to God or surrender?
At this point, we discover that the Assyrian address was given in the local tongue rather than in Aramaic (the diplomatic language of the time), so those listening in on the walls would have understood this devastating speech (2 Kings 18:26). Neither will the Rab-shakeh give up the advantage to discourage the fighters as well and he now addresses them directly describing in gruesome detail the effects of the future siege (2 Kings 18:27). This then is juxtaposed with the glowing description of prosperity and peace that awaits the defenders if they surrender (2 Kings 18:31-32) – as long as they can ignore the fact that they will be deported as slaves to another land.
Tactics of discouragement and how to resist them
Many of the tactics we observe in this story find their echoes in our lives. When we are in trouble, it may feel that no one can help us. How could friends, counsellors, doctors, advisors and so on make a difference to our difficulties? We cannot even help ourselves! In those discouraged moments we may feel that God cannot pull us out of this mess, either – and perhaps He does not even want to. Dormant guilt rises to the surface, and we think that we are too bad and too sinful for the Lord to intervene on our behalf. We might even believe that our challenges are God’s direct judgment on us. When we are tempted to take a shortcut out of our troubles, it is also typical how the consequences of staying faithful to God may look dire, while surrender to the enemy seems to promise a hopeful outcome. How Hezekiah finds his way back to trust in the Lord we shall see later, but for now, it is important to note that Satan’s tactics, like the Assyrians’ here, are a combination of half-truths and lies. We must fight the thoughts that undermine our trust in God with truth. Repentance is always an option for genuine sin, and we can take our doubts and guilt to Him. Those who seek the Lord with an open heart will find Him to be for us (Rom 8:31-39), able and willing to help those who cry out to Him.
[1] Although some translations leave the Assyrian officials’ description untranslated, these are not personal names but titles indicating roles. The Tartan means the ‘viceroy’, the highest official after the king, the Rab-saris is literally the ‘chief eunuch’, who was often dispatched on military duties ahead of the Assyrian army and the Rab-shakeh was the chief butler, in this case likely used because of his skills in speaking Judah’s language. Mordechai Cogan and Hayim Tadmor, II Kings, AYB (New York: Doubleday, 1988; repr., New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), 229-30.
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