| Isaiah 37:6 And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
Let God Speak for Himself
Who has a greater capacity to cause you confusion or anxiety or trouble? Is it someone who obviously speaks for the devil, or someone who claims to speak for God, but in actuality speaks for the enemy? It would be fairly easy for many of us to dismiss a militant atheist or maybe even to have some level of pity on him. But what about a man who has been to seminary, a very educated person? What if he knows the Bible well, but he uses what he knows to make claims about God that stir confusion, anxiety, and trouble?
In Isaiah 36 Sennacharib, king of Assyria laid siege to Jerusalem. His commander verbally attacked the Jewish people two ways. First of all he said, "Don't trust your god. No countries' gods have been able to defend them to this point and your God won't be the first." Now that was an obvious attack, but it was fairly easy for the people of Israel to rebuff. It was easy to see his comments for what they were: an attack on their God.
The second kind of attack he gave was much craftier because in Isaiah 36:10 he basically says, "Look, I'm not here by myself. God sent me here. God is against you. And God is for me and has told me to come conquer you." He claimed to be speaking for God, and it was calculated to inflict fear and confusion in the hearts of Israel. What made this man dangerous is that he claimed to be speaking for God.
Here's the important truth: Let God speak for Himself and beware of the words of a person who appeals to the authority of a God he does not know. That means it's important for all of us to know what God has actually said. We hear a lot of things every day. Some of them are discouraging and some are crafty, but all of them should be weighed in light of what God has actually said for himself in his word, the Bible. A people who know the Bible and ask God to help them understand it will not be easily misled.
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