King Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem listened inside the city walls as the arrogant Rabshakeh, the representative of Sennacherib, King of Assyria, called out in Hebrew, threatening the city. The Assyrian army, infamous for ruthless violence against civilians, had been sent against Judah. The Rabshakeh lifted his eyes in pride against the Holy City, in defiance of her God. “Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?” he boasted (2 Kings 18:35, Isaiah 36:20). And he offered them his king’s terms of peace. He offered that if they would make peace with him, that he would “take [them] away to a land like [their] own” (2 Kings 18:32, Isaiah 36:17).

Our enemy, the devil, propositions us every day. Those held captive by his deception rage against the Lord and against His Anointed. He offers that if we will make peace with him, if we will renounce the ultimate authority of the Word of God, if we will abandon the Lord’s account of His creation of the world, if we will compromise the gospel by removing the acknowledgement of sin from the equation, if we will bend our knees to his altar and validate other philosophies and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, then we will be tolerated and allowed to live peacefully in a land like our own.

There’s only one problem with that. I don’t want a land like my own. I don’t want to eat something that’s like food. I don’t want my wife to be like a woman. The Lord has promised us something better than that. Further reading in 2 Kings 19 and Isaiah 37 will show that the Lord judged Sennacherib. He will judge those who defy Him and who hate His Son, who was crucified for them. He will judge those who claim to belong to Him but accept the world’s offer of peace. Repent, and be saved. God’s wrath was not intended for us; that’s why Jesus was sent. But, if we scorn the sacrifice that He made in our place, then we will be allowed to have it our own way. There is grace now for any who will call upon Him.