Isaiah 36:2

Rabshakeh is a title that seems about equivalent to field commander. The word literally means "chief cup-bearer," but this appears to have been the name of the original office from which the present one evolved. The chief cup-bearer was the king’s personal advisor (cf. Nehemiah 1:11). Lachish stood about 30 miles southwest of Jerusalem. A bas relief, now in the British Museum, shows Sennacherib besieging Lachish. [Note: See J. B. Pritchard, ed., The Ancient Near East in Pictures, pp. 129-32.] Interestingly, the place where the Assyrian commander took his stand near Jerusalem was the same place where Isaiah had stood when he urged Ahaz to trust God 23 years earlier (cf. Isaiah 7:3). 2 Kings 18:17 records that three military officials represented Sennacherib, but Isaiah referred to only the speaker among them. It was because Ahaz failed to trust God earlier that the Assyrian official stood there now (cf. Isaiah 8:5-8). The very nation that Ahaz had trusted proved to be the greatest threat to her safety only one generation later. Father and son both faced a threat of destruction, both recognized the inadequacy of their own strength, but one trusted man and suffered defeat whereas the other trusted God and enjoyed deliverance.