Isaiah compares Eliakim to a nail fastened into a sure place-not hammered in, as we would do, but built into the solid wall; and on this nail all manner of vessels for the Master's use were hung. Not only large and costly flagons, but even tiny cups that a child's small hand might use.

(Read Isa. xxii. 13-24; Rev. iii. 7.)

16. HEZEKIAH'S TROUBLE.

Isaiah did not speak only of things which were to happen, he sometimes spoke and wrote of things which were happening.

In the days of good King Hezekiah a terrible enemy came against Judah. This was the mighty King of Assyria. He was called Sennacherib. He brought an immense army into the land, and fought against many of the walled cities and took them. Then he came to Lachish, and sat down with his army before it. It was not far from Jerusalem, only about twenty-four miles.

From this place he sent his general Tartan, and his cup-bearer Rabshakeh, with an insulting message to Hezekiah. The king did not go out to meet them himself, but sent Eliakim, his good treasurer, and Shebna, who was a scribe, and Joah the recorder, to receive them. The meeting took place in the highway of the fuller's field, near the large pools of water. Hezekiah's servants should have taken heart when they remembered the encouraging words God had told Isaiah to speak to King Ahaz in that very place. But their hearts failed them as they listened to Rabshakeh's taunting words.

He mocked them first for trusting to Egypt, such a broken reed that it would pierce the very hand that tried to lean on it. Then he offered to give them two thousand horses if they could put riders on them. And oh bitterest taunt of all, he said he had a commandment from the Lord, who had said to him, "Go up against this land and destroy it." Then he offered his advice. He told them to make friends, to make an agreement with Sennacherib, and he would let them remain under the shelter of their own vine and fig trees; or, if they were taken away, it would be to a land rich and fruitful like their

own.

But what did Eliakim and Shebna answer to all this? Not one word. For so had Hezekiah commanded them, "Answer him not."

But they were filled with fear and grief as they returned to the king with their clothes rent, and told him all that Rabshakeh had said.

(Read Isa. xxxvi.; also 2 Kings xviii. 17-37.

17. HEZEKIAH'S DELIVERANCE.

This was a sad time for Judah's king. He too rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth. But he had a refuge. He betook himself to no earthly king, but went straight to the King of kings, and in His temple offered up his supplications.

Then he sent Eliakim and Shebna, and the eldest men among the priests, all dressed in sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet. They entreated him to pray for them, for it was "a day of trouble, rebuke, and blasphemy."

Isaiah had a message ready for their master Hezekiah: "Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the word wherewith the King of Assyria has blasphemed Me. I will put a spirit into him (that is a spirit of fear), and he shall hear a rumour, and return to his own land, and die there by the sword."

After this Rabshakeh returned not to Lachish but to Libnah, where Sennacherib was fighting. As he had other enemies coming against him, he wished to bring the war in Judah to an end. So again he sent messengers to Hezekiah. This time they brought a letter. It told him how vain it was to trust in his God, when none of the gods of the other nations had been able to deliver them.

Again Hezekiah went to the King of kings. In God's house he opened his letter, and spread it before "the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, who was God alone of all the kingdoms of the earth."

He prays thus: "Incline Thine ear, O Lord, and hear; open thine eyes, O Lord, and see; hear all the words which Sennacherib hath sent to reproach the living God."

Then he asks for deliverance: "O Lord our God, save us from his hand." Why? "That all the kingdoms may know that Thou art the Lord, and Thou only."

As soon as the prayer was offered up, the answer came. Isaiah sent a message from the Lord to Hezekiah with the wonderful assurance, that in spite of the multitude of Sennacherib's chariots, in spite of his great array, he should not enter the city of Jerusalem, nor shoot an arrow at it, nor even begin a siege by casting up a bank against it.

This mighty deliverance was to be granted for three reasons:-First, because Hezekiah had prayed to God for help; second, because of David, His servant; third, because of His own name, which had been blasphemed.

For at least three years Judah was to dwell in safety. In token of this, God, who knew their unbelieving hearts, granted them a sign. In the first year, they were to eat such things as grew of themselves. In the second, they would find sufficient food still springing up. But in the third, they were to go back to their usual way of sowing and reaping and planting their vineyards, and so should again have abundance. Hezekiah and his people had the promise and the sign of its fulfilment, and that fulfilment came speedily, and in a way never heard of before. God sent forth one of His mighty angels in the dead of night, and slew 185,000 men of that great army. In the morning these corpses lay on the ground.

"The face of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,

And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still."

No wonder their king fled in terror to his own palace in Nineveh. But he had not learnt to fear the God of Israel. He still worshipped his own gods; and one day when bending before his god Nisroch, his two wicked sons came in and slew him with the sword. But they did not inherit their father's throne, for they had to flee away; and they found shelter in the land of Armenia, and their brother Esar-haddon became king.

(Read Isaiah xxxvii.; 2 Kings xix.)

18. HEZEKIAH'S SECOND TROUBLE AND

DELIVERANCE.

This

Another trouble soon came to Hezekiah. time it was not his throne nor his possessions that were in danger-it was his life. Some people think sickness is the worst trouble of all. Satan, when speaking of God's servant Job, says, “All that a man hath will he give for his life."

When Hezekiah was lying on his bed very ill, a messenger was sent to him. This was the prophet Isaiah. The message he brought was a solemn one. "Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live."

Again, in his trouble, Hezekiah betakes himself to his God. He turned his back to all his attendants, and with his face to the wall he wept sore. He reminded God how he had walked before Him "in truth and with a perfect heart, and had done what was right in His sight." He makes no petition. He knew that God read his heart; saw his anxieties about his kingdom; his dim light about the future world. He did not lie long in his speechless agony. Again God's messenger was sent to him. Isaiah had not reached the middle court of the palace when God told him to return to the king's sick chamber. This time he brought a gracious message, first to the king and then to his people. "Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up to the house of the Lord. And I will add unto thy days fifteen years."

This was the promise to the king; and now for the promise to the people: "I will deliver this city