2 Kings 19:35

God is wonderfully patient with the cruelty and arrogance of His enemies. That does not mean He is indifferent, as many would like to think. He gives time for repentance. But when it is clear that men will not change, sudden and awesome judgment falls from a righteous God. Hezekiah had trusted God, and though the answer seemed slow in coming, it did come in God's time. In one night the angel of the Lord killed 185,000 men in the camp of Assyria! What a shock to those who remained!

How foolish the great men of this world can be! They boast in their own achievements and challenge the Almighty God without a thought… One angel from the Lord was enough to destroy the best of Assyria's army. One angel was enough to send Sennacherib back to his own land, to meet the judgment God had reserved for him, just as Isaiah the prophet had said.

Sennacherib had never counted on meeting such an opponent. He had never thought that his letter would be read by the eye of the living God. He expected to meet flesh and blood, sword and spear, as he had always been used to meeting. But look — a man of faith prays, God hears, and out goes the angel of the Lord, and in a moment mows down 185,000 men… So we see something of Hezekiah's vast resources. He knew the value of being alone with God. He felt more comfort and real power in the secret of God's presence than when surrounded by troops of armed warriors. He knew something of the reality of the words the Apostle later wrote: "When I am weak, then I am strong." And we may say this: if Sennacherib's army had been millions instead of thousands, the angel of the Lord would have thought just as little of sweeping them all off the face of the earth in a moment. When the Lord decides to act for His people, in answer to their prayers, He takes no account of anything or anyone.

The Old Testament speaks of the morning many times. Look at those verses, and you cannot miss how much they matter for us today. The night of Egypt's slavery ended "when the morning appeared" (Exodus 14:27). The power of the idol Dagon lay completely overthrown in the "morning" (1 Samuel 5:4). The Assyrian army lay completely defeated "in the morning" (2 Kings 19:35). How wonderfully the Lord Jesus speaks in John chapter 16 about the joy His own would have on that resurrection morning! Their sorrow would become joy. So the joy of victory "comes in the morning."

Perhaps Sennacherib realised that Hezekiah's God was greater than he himself was. He left Jerusalem with the rest of his army and returned to Nineveh. But there he did not turn to the true God, as his experience told him he ought to. Instead, while he was worshipping in the temple of Nisroch, his false god, two of his own sons killed him. They escaped to the land of Ararat. Nisroch was no protector of his deluded worshipper. But the living God was behind this judgment on Sennacherib. Though the wheels of God's government grind slowly, their results are absolutely certain.

That night the judgment stroke fell. The whole Assyrian army of 185,000 men was struck down by the angel of the LORD. As prophecy, it stands for the end of the Assyrian. He will enter Israel's land during the great tribulation, and he will perish like Sennacherib's army.