favored surrender to Rabshakeh, or had some private understanding with him as to his own protection.

Verses 4 to 10. We have commented on this speech in the readings from 2 Kings xviii. This Rabshakeh (perhaps a renegade Jew) makes four points: 1. The vanity of trusting Egypt. Sennacherib had not yet defeated Tirhakah (chap. xxvii. 9) so he does not enlarge upon this. 2. As Jehovah had permitted Samaria to be overthrown because of their sins, so he trumps up a charge against Hezekiah, and claims that the Lord will not protect him. 3. The greatness and power of the Assyrian army. 4. A direct commission from the Lord to destroy the land. It was a strong address.

From Principal Douglas:

Rabshakeh's message is in the name of "the great king," apparently an Assyrian title (compare chap. x. 8). On the other hand, he never gives the title of king to Hezekiah. But he mocks Hezekiah's confidence, making it rest upon Pharaoh, who would prove an unreliable support, as Isaiah himself had said in chaps. xxx. and xxxi. If Hezekiah rested on Jehovah, he had at all events taken away Jehovah's high places and altars: Rabshakeh might have information that many disliked this effort in the direction of spiritual religion (2 Kings xviii. 3-6), and he was cunning enough to make use of this knowledge to Hezekiah's disadvantage. He then makes an offer of two thousand horses, on which he is sure that Hezekiah is not able to place riders. And having thus exposed Hezekiah's weakness to contempt, he claims to have had a commission direct from Jehovah to destroy Judah, perhaps again with a reference to the men who were opposed to Hezekiah's religious policy; these malcontents might even have reported to the Assyrians the words of Isaiah a generation earlier (x. 6, etc.).

Text for the day, verse 4.

Saturday, February 26th.

Isaiah xxxvi. 11 to 22.

Verse 11. "The Assyrian and the Hebrew are both Semitic languages; yet, through natural development and through the influx of foreign words into Assyrian, it was practically unintelligible to to the Jews (xxvii. 11; xxxiii. 19). Syriac was nearer to Hebrew; yet it was so different that an uneducated citizen of Jerusalem would scarcely follow one who spoke in it." We can quite understand the request of Hezekiah's servants; and we can also understand Rabshakeh's refusal.

Verse 12. This was a coarse and brutal reply and reveals the character of the man who had laid claim to a commission from the Lord in what he was doing. His commission came from an entirely dif ferent quarter.

Verses 13 to 15. With great cunning Rabshakeh seizes upon the point that the injudicious request of Hezekiah's servants had suggested to him, and addresses himself directly to the people upon the wall and seeks to turn them against Hezekiah. "Let not Hezekiah deceive you." "Neither let Hezekiah

make you trust in the Lord.""Hearken not to Hezekiah." "Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, The Lord will deliver you." We can gather from these words what the character of Hezekiah's testimony had been and how God had strengthened him to take his stand for the defense of the city. To Rabshakeh and to Sennacherib, his master, this one man Hezekiah, with his faith in Jehovah, stood as the only obstacle in the way of their gratifying their ambition, and taking possession of Jerusalem. So Satan felt when our Lord Jesus was upon the earth, and so he feels as to the church of Christ today.

Verses 16 to 20. Sennacherib was in haste to go on to Egypt and conquer Pharaoh and did not wish to be detained in a lengthened siege of Jerusalem; therefore this specious plea of Rabshakeh to the people to forsake Hezekiah and come out to him. He promises to leave them undisturbed in the enjoyment of their homes for a time, but intimates their removal by captivity to "a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards." This suggestion was hardly wise. It made them think of what a happy land God had given them where they were, and would be likely to nerve them to fight for it.

Verses 21 and 22. "The king's commandment was, Answer him not." So Christ bids us to have no parleying with the world (Eph. v. 11 and 12). From C. H. Spurgeon:

There are many of you that are poor. I saw you smile when I spoke to the rich; I will have at you also. If we are to humble ourselves this day as a nation, ye have cause also to humble. Ah, my God, what multitudes there are of men who deserve but litttle of their employers, for they are eye-servers, men-pleasers, and do not with singleness of heart please the Lord. Were men better workmen, their masters would be better. How many whose time is bought and paid for steal it for something else. And how many there are in what are called the lower ranks-and God forgive the man that invented that word, for we are, none of us, lower than the other before the Judge of all the earth-how many are there that do not know what it is to look up to God and say, "Though He has made me a servant, I will discharge my duty and I will serve my master and serve my God with all my might." Many are the sins of the poor. Humble yourselves with the rich, bow your heads and weep for your iniquities; for these things God doth visit us, and ye should bear the rod.

Text for the day, verse 21.

Sunday, February 27th.

Isaiah xxxvii. 1 to 7.

Verses 1 and 2. Three things that are recorded as having been done by Hezekiah in this time of extremity and trial. 1. He humbled himself anew. and abased himself more deeply before God. He had put on sackcloth before, he now "covered himself with sackeloth." 2. He "went into the house of the Lord." See in 2 Chron. vi. 24 and 25, the promise that led him there and the word of God that he would plead there. 3. He sent messengers to Isaiah

that he might pray for the people. We have in this a warrant in asking godly men to pray for us.

Verses 3 to 5. The weakness and helplessness of Judah before their powerful enemy, is strikingly set forth by the words of the messengers. Compare with Isa. lxvi. 5 to 9. If this latter was the closing utterance of the great prophet, it is interesting to note how Hezekiah's words were kept in memory by the Spirit of God, and this comprehensive answer dictated. Note specially Hezekiah's request, "Lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left." He knew that the nation as a whole, had apostatised from God, and departed from the covenant. The Lord could only be entreated for the righteous'remnant who were still faithful. See Isa. i. 9; x. 22; Ro. ix. 27, etc. It is important to see this principle in God's dealings with Israel. A covenant was made with Abraham for his seed, and there has never lacked a seed for the covenant. There has been from generation to generation among the Jews, no matter how grievous the apostasy of the mass, a righteous remnant who inherited and passed on the blessing. There is still such a remnant waiting for "The Hope of Israel," the coming of Messiah.

Verses 6 and 7. This is the calm reply of a man to whom God had revealed all that was now transpiring, and told him what the issue should be. Four things would befall Sennacherib: 1. "I will send a blast upon him." 2. "He shall hear a rumor." 3. He shall "return to his own land." 4. "I will cause him to fall by the sword."

From Andrew Murray:

O it is a serious life here upon the earth, where God gives permission for Satan to set up his threshing floor even in the church. Happy are they who with deep humility, with fear and trembling, distrust themselves. Our only security is in the intercession and guidance of Him who overcame Satan. Farbe from us the idea that we know all the depths of Satan, and are a match for all his cunning stratagems. It is in the region of the spirit, in the invisible, that he works and has power, as well as in the visible. Let us fear lest, while we have known and overcome him in the visible, he should prevail over us in the spiritual. May our only security be the conviction of our frailty and weakness, our confidence in Him who certainly keeps the lowly in heart.

Text for the day, verse 1.

Monday, February 28th.

Isa. xxxvii. 8 to 20.

Verse 8. Libnah and Lachish, were southwest of Jerusalem, toward Egypt. Libnah was twelve

WOULD YOU

miles nearer to Jerusalem than Lachish, so that Sennacherib had moved his forces toward that city after Rabshakeh had left him as in ch. xxxvi. 2.

Verse 9. Rabshakeh had brought back his forces from Jerusalem to rejoin Sennacherib because of the threatened advance of the Egyptians.

Verses 10 to 13. This message from Rabshakeh to Hezekiah was in writing, and was the more blasphemous and insulting to God on that account. Nothing could be more direct as a challange to the Almighty than the language here used. The bold blasphemer laughs to scorn the words that have been reported to him as uttered by Isaiah, that "Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria." He charges God with deceit, and de nies His power; he enumerates the conquests of his Master, and points to the long line of fallen cities from Nineveh to Jerusalem that have marked his progress and says scornfully, "And shalt thou be delivered?" Let us conceive Hezekiah with this letter before him, and the news coming immediately behind it, of the great victory of Sennacherib over the army of Tirhakah and that the entire host of the Assyrians were on the march toward Jerusalem and we can see the trial of his faith.

Verses 14 to 20. Hezekiah had found it a good thing to go before the Lord, and so he takes this letter with all of its insults and blasphemy and "spreads it before the Lord." See how great God is to this man of faith. "Lord of hosts." "God of Israel." "God alone of all the kingdoms of earth; thou hast made heaven and earth." The man who thus knows God, can laugh at all the threats of man. The argument of the 20th verse is beautiful: "Save us, that all may know that thou art the Lord." So Eph. ii. 7 and 8.

From Dr. Chas. S. Robinson:

"The all-wise God often speaks of 'remnants'; He seems to love minorities; He once said He would save Sodom for the sake of fifty good men in it, then for forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty, ten, if so many even as that could be found. The history of the chosen people is crowded with cheering words for any solitary few righteous men, who are browbeaten or overborne by the persecutors around them. When He punishes or threatens, He declares the remnant shall return, the remnant shall be saved, the remnant shall begin anew, He will gather the remnant, it shall be well with the remnant of His chosen. So there is always a hope from above for the discouraged.

Text for the day, verse 20.

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