2 Kings 18:26-35

The modest request of Hezekiah's servants to speak in the Syrian language, meeting with such contempt, may serve to teach us how confident of success the blasphemer was. And it only serves to heighten the triumph of Hezekiah the more. It is hardly possible to determine whether this second speech of Rab-shakeh exceeded most in lies or blasphemy. He might perhaps, with truth, laugh at the king of Judah's military preparation, or his dependence upon Egypt. An arm of flesh is a poor security, at the best of times. But his trust in the God of the armies of heaven, for this impious wretch to defy! what an awful instance of the most arrant blasphemy was this! And to charge Hezekiah with destroying the altars of God, when in truth, the pious king had been only throwing down the altars of idolatry, in honor of the true God, was as base a falsehood. But Reader! what awful characters do such men afford, who come forward to oppose God, and his people. Here was a new Pharaoh started up, to the terror of God's people, for a season, but principally, and finally for the display of God's glory. Pause in like manner over all the temporary triumphs of the ungodly. Upon every occasion of this sort whether as it refers to your own history, or to the circumstances of the church of Jesus, I love to read Psalms 37:1.