God Put a Hook in His Nose?! Isaiah 37 Explained | Isaiah 37:21-38

Show Notes

Episode 669
In this episode, we dive into a lighthearted yet insightful discussion about the Bible, focusing on Isaiah chapter 37, where King Hezekiah faces the threat of the Assyrian king, Sennacherib. We read through the passage where God, through the prophet Isaiah, reassures Hezekiah of His protection against the Assyrians. The imagery of God putting a hook in Sennacherib's nose and a bit in his mouth serves as a powerful metaphor for divine control over prideful rulers. We reflect on the consequences of arrogance, as Sennacherib, who once mocked God, ultimately faces defeat and death at the hands of his own sons.

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You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome and thank you for tuning in to the Bible Guys today. I like how you said that with a snap of your fingers. Yeah, you know it's it's the second cool guy. What do you call this? Is it? Finger guns? Finger guns? Yeah? Hey, welcome to the Bible Guys. Yeah, finger guys. Super cool guy, Yeah, super cool because you pull it off. I pull it off. Let me ask you a question. Do you think people have to be cool to pull off finger guns? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, because I can't. I can't pull it off, but you always look cool when you do it. Keep doing it, I keep doing it, Chris Man, I'm not sure anybody can pull off fingers, but. Anyway, Hey, so you know in our listeners are longtime listeners, know how committed we are to excellence and broadcasting always right, always, And not only that. Our most reliable sources of news are like CNN. Yes I'm kidding. Uh So we love to bring meaningful news, yes, and useful news and reliable news to our listeners when we come across something that we feel like is important. This is and so sometimes we've read news about marriage stuff, we've read news about family stuff, we've read news about faith stuff. But this one's kind of a special interest thing. It's kind of a book review, right, and we haven't done one of these yet. So here from the very most trustworthy of sources, the Babylon B, which, if you don't know, the Babylon B is a satire website. We love it. Babylon B has this headline. Man, people are going to love reading this one, says Moses while writing Leviticus. The humor on this I love. So here here mount Sinai. Hot off the success of Genesis and Exodus, Moses express compace that everyone would love his follow up work, Leviticus. The leader of the Israelite seemed sure that the warm reception of his first two books that he had received made it a safe bet that the next installment of the series would be a smash hit. This is so fun, oh man, people are gonna love reading this one, Moses said, as he wrote a passage about how the priest was going about diagnosing mold. It's my first foray into a more technical, perceived dural genre. There hasn't been anything like it. Moses did admit that he'd been writing under the guidance of the Lord and therefore couldn't take all the credit for Leviticus. He uses my natural talent in writing, but the story ideas are all his, Moses explained. But that doesn't make Leviticus any less riveting. An advanced excerpt of the book failed the spark excitement for its upcoming release. Dathan A Benjamite said it's just a bunch of regulations, so basically a rule book. Maybe the Levites don't really like it. However, a local Levite named Seth was not impressed. This ain't it, chief, He said, it's like reading an instruction manual. Moses brother Aaron, who spoke before Pharaoh, was reportedly less than enthused by the new work. The part where me and my sons are ordained is cool, Aaron said of the book, but the part where they die after offering strange fire was much less to my liking. Moses has shrugged off early criticism of the book. Maybe releasing a preview was a bad idea. You really have to see it how it all comes together, and then bam, Leviticus. You know, it's going to be huge a publishing time. Whileviticus turned out to be a disappointment among the Israelites, Moses said he was not deterred from his next great idea to write a book detailing the numerical populations of Israelite Trible. My goodness, is brilliant. Who Ever wrote this is brilliant. I'm literally copying and pasting this right now and saying this to Dave Wilson. It's fantastic. It's hilarious. Whoa man. So if you don't know, if you're new to the Bible, stuff, where the Bible, guys, We're here to help. We are. And so the first books, at the first five books of the Bible are called the Books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Genesis tells about the creation of the world. It talks about the flood, talks about Adam and Eve and Noah and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joshua, the beginning of the nation of Israel, the promises of God. Why the world is the way it is. I mean, it's a brilliant book. It's fantastic. And then Exodus is it talks. Genesis ends with Joseph being in Egypt and rescuing his people. But then between Genesis and Exodus, the people become enslaved by is by Egypt, and then God sends Moses to rescue them, right, and so then he leads them out. He gives them the Ten Commandments. You know, they make movies out of these two books, right, and then Leviticus comes in. It's all the rules for what they can eat but they can eat, how they build their tabernacle, how they manage civil government, and all these things right now, and then numbers after that. The fourth book is really about how God had Moses divide up the nation and begin to build kind of tribal identities. They already had them, but began to kind of acknowledge them and build this cohesive nation. That's really what it was. There's a lot of counting, a lot of numbers. It's kind of a dry book. And then Deuteronomy is a rehash of those two books. Right, So his first two books are killer and then the last three books are kind. Of which is why why it's so brilliant. It's hysterical. Yeah, yeah, So you know, if you start the Bible start reading the Bible. If you never read the Bible consistently and you want to pick it up, we actually don't recommend that you start from the beginning goes straight through in terms of developing habits and things like that, like eventually, yes, of course reading through it is important. Yeah, I do recommend Genesis, but I just tell people, hey, don't don't feel obligated to just keep going to the end, because it's not written that way. Right. Well, that's what I was trying to say, if I didn't say it clearly, is that people say, oh, I'm just going to read it from the beginning like a book, all the way to the end, right, So and so they go Genesis, Exodus, and then they just can't make it through, and people just say they're just like I just I just I couldn't make it, And then that will discourage you so much to where you'll stop reading because they're so long too. So the discovery is, you know, when you pick up a novel my dad just passed away, my mom brought my dad loved Louis Lamore. You ever read the old Cowboy books? I never did, No, I've read them all. But so my mom brought my dad's entire He has every single Louis Lamore book and he brought she brought them all. Well, a Louis Lamore book novel, you know, it's gonna be some cowboy book and it's one hundred and fifty pages, two hundred pages or whatever. You start at beginning, they begin to create there's some kind of problem that happens, and then it's resolved by the end. And so that's how you read a novel. And people make the mistake of thinking that's you read the Bible, and what they miss out on is that the Bible is actually a collection of sixty six books right right, and each of the books has its own purpose. But if you're trying to figure out how do I get to know God, that's not in book one in Genesis, you need to get back in deeper into the book. And so so you know, that's the confusing part about sometimes about the Bible. And so what do you recommend? Where do you recommend people start off? The Book of John John, so in the New Testament, the Gospels of the first four books of the Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, all of them record the events in the life of Jesus. Right, So a lot of times that can get repetitive too, because. You'll be like, hey, didn't I just read this, And it's. Because the different authors recorded some of the same events from Jesus' life. So so I'd say start with the Book. Of John and then and then move forward, and then move into the Book of Acts and then the writings of Paul and then that's that's the best way. And I think by the time you get to the end of the New Testament you will have developed a really strong habit of reading straight through. Yeah, so that's that's where I recommend it. Yeah, that's great. And if you're looking for the Book of John, it's two thirds of the way through the Bible, so you get to two thirds of the way back that's where John is. Or you can just use the the table contents in the front of your Bible and find it, sure John and find it. Yeah, it's great. Any of those are really good ones. So speaking of good books, Isaiah is in is a good book in the Bible. We like it, and that. Happens to be where we are. But you were going to say something like profound and you're like, speaking of your books Isaiah's good. Yeah, that's it. So we're always we're always trying to figure out the worst possible transition, yes, out of the goofy thing into the second half. But Isaiah we've been reading from, and he is a prophet and he also works with King Hezekiah. So yesterday we read the first half of Isaiah chapter thirty seven where Hezekiah runs to God while the king of Assyria is threatening to wipe them out and mocking Hezekiah's God. Right, so that's kind of what happens. Well, let's pick up in the second half of Isaiah chapter thirty seven. We'll start off with the verse twenty one. We'll just read it, I think the end of the chapter. It says, then Isaiah, son of Amas sent this message to Hezekiah. This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. Because you prayed about King Sanakrab of Assyria, the Lord has spoken this word against him. The Virgin daughter of Zion despises you and laughs at you. The Daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head in derision as you flee. Whom have you been defying and ridiculing against Whom did you raise your voice? Whom did you look with such haughty eyes. It was the Holy One of Israel. By your messengers, you have defied the Lord, you have said. With my many chariots, I have conquered the highest mountains, yes, their modest peaks of Lebanon. I've cut down its tallest cedars and its finest cypress trees. I've reached its farthest heights and explored its deepest forests. I've dug wells in many foreign lands and refresh myself with their water. With the sole on my feet, I have stopped up the rivers of Egypt. Have you not heard? I decided this long ago. Long ago, I planned it, and now I'm making it happen. I planned for you to crush fortified cities into heaps of rubble. That is why the people have so little power and are so frightened and confused. They are as weak as grass, as easily trampled as tender green shoots. They're like grass sprouting on a housetop, scorched before it can grow lush and tall. But I know you well, where you stay and when you come and go. I know the way you have raged against me. And because of your raging against me and your arro against which I have heard for myself, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth. I will make you return by the same road on which you came. Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, here is the proof that what I say is true. And then God tells has Akiah, this year you will eat only what grows up by itself, And next year you will eat it springs up from that. But in the third year you will plant crops and harvest them. You will ten vineyards and eat their fruit. And you who are left in Judah, who have escaped the ravages of the siege, will put roots down in your own soil and grow up and flourish. For a remnant of my people will spread out from Jerusalem, a group of survivors from Mount Zion. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven's armies will make it happen. And this is what the Lord says about the King of Assyria. His armies will not enter Jerusalem. They will not even shoot an arrow at it. They will not march outside its gates with their shields, nor build banks of earth against its walls. The king will return to his own country by the same road on which he came. He will not enter this city, says the Lord. For my own honor and for the sake of my servant David, I will defend this city and protect it. That night, the angel of the Lord went out to the Assyrian camp and killed one hundred and eighty five thousand Assyrian soldiers. When the surviving Assyrians woke up the next morning, they found corpses everywhere. The then king Senakreb of Assyria broke camp and returned to his own land. He went home to his capital of Ninevah and stayed there. One day, while he was worshiping the temple of his god this Rock, his sons, a drama Lek and Schererzer killed him with their swords. Then they escaped to the land of Errat, and another son, Esar had On became the next king of Assyria. Wow. Yeah, I mean, well there you go. So he went home and then got killed by his two. Sons worshiping in the temple of his false god. Wow wow, isn't it crazy? Yeah? And so God sounds a little ticked off it at at the pridefulness of Senacrib. Right. Well, you know somebody who you know, it's it's it's exactly like so I just made reference yesterday in the podcast that that it sounded like David right, oh when he says, who is this philistine? That'll if I the the the living God, and that's that's sort of that's sort of how I felt when I watched have you seen these series? David? So it's on you know, streaming right now, and uh, they're they're walking through David. It's it's pretty darn good. It really is in terms of like the actual you know, dramatization, the the the especial effects. I mean, it's it's top notch. There's only two things about it that I already mentioned them before that I didn't like that weren't quite accurate. Uh they were very minor things, but still things are things, right Johnny Tiller right, So so I uh so I didn't like that, but everything else about it was just pretty phenomenal. But anyway, all that's say, uh, the feeling that you get when you experience this recreation of somebody standing up there and saying, I defy this God of yours, and all of a sudden, the nation of Israel cowards because he's such a giant and and and this guy is being allowed to be a bully. He's being allowed and. You just feel like somebody rise up and shut this guy up. You know, who's just mocked God. He just openly mocks God. And I'm telling you that the emotion of that is just so strong, and I could even imagine how, you know, times a million, how God must have felt, you know, with with his arrogance as he openly says, you're God, this fairy tale guy of yours. Is not going to destroy you from my hand. And so yeah, I would imagine that's probably the reason why the angel came and single handedly took out one hundred and eighty five thousand Syrians. Yeah, well, you know, God hates pride. Yeah, pride is one of the things that you read in the Book of Proverbs. Solomon lays out these seven things that God hates, and one of those is that prideful. Look right, God just despises it when people think the spirit and when people think they're all that right. So this king Sanakreb is like, he says, listen, who are you ridiculing? Man? You think you're the one that came rolling into Lebanon and took those trees? You think you're the one that did. God said, I was planning this a long time ago. I was planning to bring judgment on Lebanon. I was planning to bring judgment on all these countries that you've already defeated, and you were just a tool, dude, and you're still just a tool. That's right. That's that's what God's saying to him. I always plan to do this. But now I know you well, I know where you stay, I know when you come and go. I know the way that you've raged against me. And so instead of acknowledging me, you think you did all this yourself. And God says, listen, I know where you live, and you're going to pay. And that's exactly right, isn't that what he says? I know you well, where you stay, when you come and go, I know what you've said about me, right right, he says, I'll put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth. Yeah that's incre Oh that's a word. Yeah. So we had a I worked for a while for one of the wealthiest men in Michigan, and after he made his massive fortune, he bought uh two ranches in Metamora and they were side by side. So he owned about at the time about five hundred acres and one side was just for his estate. It was beautiful. I worked in the landscaping side of his estate. The other was a cattle ranch. And he was a hobby a hobbyist cattle breeder, and it was just it was so different from the career that he built his wealth on. So he began breeding world champion blank black angus beef. So he owned a couple of the top breeder bulls in the world. One named black Jack at the time that was worth million upon millions of dollars. The other was Regal. Regal was worth millions of dollars. Regal lived on our ranch. Blackjack lived in Kentucky, but Rego lived on our ranch. And so we go horse around with him sometimes. So you got this eighteen hundred pound nineteen hundred pounds, just giant chunk of muscle. Yeah, right, huge. Now, black angus bulls don't have big horns. They got these big flat heads and they'll just smash you. They'll smash you against the fence. So on more than one occasion, that was in my twenties. So we were dumb and we would horse around with regal. Sometimes we'd get him in a pen, but you could grab the hook in his nose, the ring in his nose, and we could move him wherever we wanted to. Wow, there was eighteen hundred pounds of muscle right could kill us without even thinking. But you grab that hook, give a little tug. He immediately because it was put in his nose when he was young, when he was little, right when he couldn't fight back, and it would immediately pull him back into this moment where okay, one, it was uncomfortable too, It's just what he had to do. He had to follow you, and it was amazing. Now I rarely ever got out in front of him purpose, but we grab that hook, we can move h where we wanted moving. And this is what God is saying is I'm gonna humble you. You are so willful, you are so prideful. You think you're doing all these things. I'm gonna put a hook in your nose. I'm gonna put a bit in your mouth like a horse again, same things, pound horse. Yeah. Not only am I going to make you do what I want you to do, but I'm gonna do it with these Yes, you're going to become. You're going to become this great power that could be controlled by something as small. As a bit yeah or a hook. Yeah, which is amazing. I'm going to put a bradle on you. And the way he did it was he sent one angel. You want to do you ever think about how powerful angel a? Remember the pastors we just read yesterday or a couple days ago, it said that God surrounds you with his angels. Yes, you want to know how much protection you have? One angel kills one hundred and eighty five thousand Assyrian soldiers. Yeah, so this would make a good episode of something, right, so you know, if you if you if you thought that the battle. Or a good story in a book, yes, yes, like God thought of that already. Yeah, hey, let's write this down. I'm thinking of the battle scene in the Colisseum and Gladiator we're on the field Patriot Day or Brave Heart or saving Private Ryan from that matter, right where it's like there's a raging battle scene that takes place where you can measure what's happening. Well, you know, we've also seen movies that are ridiculous where one where you know, entire armies fall victim to you know, one superpower like one soldier. Right, So it's the Captain America or the Seven Rings. I mean, it's just you know, you name it, right, it's there. And so this one angel takes out one hundred. And five Come on, I mean visually, how could you not see that in your brain? Yeah? It's amazing, Yeah, it is amazing. Ye. And then he left just enough so not everybody died. One hundred and eighty five thousand died, right, right, So he leaves enough. They wake up the next morning and there's corpses everywhere. Can you imagine how horrifying that would be? And then he lets Sanakra live the king right right, And so there's that hook in my nose, there's that bradle of my mom. Go home, and he does the Bible says, literally, he goes home with the tail between his legs. He breaks camp, returns his own land. He went home to his capital in Nineva and stayed there, right right? What was his He was thumping his chest, saying, I conquered everybody, and everybody's afraid of me, right, and. I'll go where I want. I'll conquer what I want. In fact, I've got plans to go three other places. After you and then go home and stay at Nineva yep. And then he gets he gets wiped out, right, he gets murdered by his own sons. And I had a hard time saying those names. Hey, I want to show you this. Look at this. So we had somebody regular listeners, a husband and wife. Yes, and they sent you and me a letter, and they sent us this little book and it says I just talked to her on Sunday. A guide to pronouncing Biblical names. Yes, right, and uh so I looked it up. You could use it today. Well, I tried on this one. So it did not have the Sr. Hadden in there for some reason, but it did have that a drama lik one a drama lik a drammel yeah, so as the e h yeah, it's a drama. When I was an Israel they taught me how to count to ten in Arabic. And I don't remember any of it now because it was in two thousand and nine, but I remember the number five is come say and it's and it's and and so I remember like practicing it enough to where they were. Like, wow, that's as good as as us. Yeah. Well, and I was like, oh cool, I can say the number five. Well you can get five or something somewhere five part to something, say, oh, he wants five of those. Yeah. So God does bring judgment right. And so here's a lesson for us to remember. Again. One king operated from his prideful place, thinking he was in control, and he missed out in the fact that this was always God's plan, that God, God was the one to doing it. The other king ran to God and said, God, I don't know where to turn. Would you bend down to me, would you hear me? Would you reach out and help me. So one king in humility gets God's favor. The other king in his pride winds up getting wiped out. That's good, that's really good. That's what happens. And God does it. It's funny. He's got one hundred and eighty five. That seems like a big army to me. If one hundred and eighty five thousand soldiers are killed and the rest of the army packs up and goes back, there were hundreds of thousands, sure, right, seems like a big army. Yeah, And God goes, yeah, you know how I told you nothing to me. I'm just gonna send one of my because it says he's the God of Heaven's armies, armies. Right, so how many people are in one of God's armies. I don't know how many angels are one of God God's armies, but he has armies, the armies of heaven. And then he just goes, I'm just gonna send one of my soldiers to wipe out I don't know in eighty five thousand years. Right. It just lets you know we serve a big God, a great God. He's powerful, and God will have his way. So either we can be Snakreb and puff ourselves up and think we did it, or we can be Hezekiah and go to our knees and say, God, we need your help and we trust in you alone, and you see how it works out. Yeah. And then also another maybe perhaps sermon that's in this chapter is don't think that just because you have success that. It was by your hand. It was God who gave you the ability, God who gave you everything. And so here you know, Sinakram thinks that he's accomplished things by his hand, and God's like, no, I'm I'm having. My will and my way through your life. You are a vessel. You are a tool. And I'm going to do what I want to do through your life. Well, you know, the broad strokes. Of our lives are no different than that, right, right, So God's going to have his will, and you know, your whole life is is you know, sure you have talent, you have ability, but behind it all is God, Yes, every bit of it. Yep. So well that is a great place to end. And so hopefully we'll pick up tomorrow and we'll see that on the Bible. Guys,