Isaiah 37:4

Isa_37:4

Lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left

Efficacious prayer

I.

THE PERSON WHO WAS TO ENGAGE IN THE WORK OF INTERCESSION Was one of great eminence in the Church and commonwealth, a great and good man, a prophet of the Lord, and one who was indulged with peculiar nearness to Him. Persons of eminent piety will not be contented with ordinary applications to the throne of grace; they will seek till they find, and wrestle till they prevail. This was a day of trouble, as Hezekiah calls it; and therefore, it ought to be a day of prayer. Intercession is the duty of all saints. But herein ministers should take the lead. They are the Churchs watchmen, and Gods remembrancers. Zedekiah, who at one time cast Jeremiah the prophet into a dungeon, at another time desired an interest in his supplications, and sent messengers to him, saying, Pray now unto the Lord our God for us. And God often spares the wicked for the sake of the righteous, and in answer to their requests, even as the intercession of Abraham was accepted for the inhabitants of Sodom.

II. THOSE FOR WHOM THE PROPHET WAS REQUESTED TO PRAY were the remnant that was left; a certain number known unto God, and who remained after the rest were scattered or destroyed. This should teach us, that though in our prayers we should be forgetful of none, yet we are to be particularly mindful of our fellow-Christians, especially when in a state of adversity. It becomes us also to be attentive to public and national calamities, as well as to those which are personal and private, and to spread them before the Lord in prayer and supplication.

III. There is something observable as to THE MANNER IN WHICH THE PROPHETS INTERCESSION IS REQUESTED. Lift up thy prayer. This expressive form of speech may teach us to remember--

1. That the glorious object of prayer is infinitely exalted.

2. The low and mean condition of the worshipper.

3. The secrecy of prayer, according to our Lords direction, When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, &c. Lifting up a prayer may denote the same thing as David expresses by the lifting up of the soul to God, in mental and silent ejaculation.

4. The importunity and ardour of prayer. In lifting up our prayer to God, our affections should rise high, though our voice may be low and feeble.

5. The spirituality and heavenly-mindedness of the person engaged.

6. Boldness and confidence, accompanied with the hope of being heard and answered.

7. The proper end of prayer, which is not to draw the Divine Being near to us, but ourselves to Him. (B. Beddome, M. A.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

37:4 perhaps . . . God has heard the Assyrian chief of staff . . . defy the living God: Hezekiah’s hope was not based on Judah’s or his own goodness, or the presence of the Temple in Jerusalem; instead, it was based on God responding to Assyria’s blasphemy.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

That is, will declare by effect that he hath heard it: for when God deferreth to punish, it seemeth to the flesh, that he knoweth not the sin, or heareth not the cause.

Declaring that the minister’s office doth not only stand in comforting by the word, but also in praying for the people.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

hear--take cognizance of (Sa2 16:12).

reprove--will punish him for the words, &c. (Psa 50:21).

remnant--the two tribes of the kingdom of Judah, Israel being already captive. Isaiah is entreated to act as intercessor with God.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(4) Lift up thy prayer for the remnant . . .—Isaiah’s characteristic words (Isa_1:9; Isa_10:21) had impressed itself on the king’s mind. Now that town after town of Judah had fallen into Sennacherib’s hands (forty-six, according to his inscriptions—Records of the Past, i. 38), those who were gathered within the walls of Jerusalem were as a mere remnant of the people.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. It may be] Or “Peradventure.” The one hope is that Jehovah will take notice of the dishonour done to His name by the threats and blasphemies of the Assyrian king. the Lord thy God] See ch. Isa_7:13. The prophet stands nearer to God than other men. Jehovah is the living God, as opposed to the dead idols to whose level the boast of the Assyrian had degraded Him. (Cf. 1Sa_17:26; 1Sa_17:36.)

wherefore lift up] Or perhaps “and that thou wilt lift up,”—still dependent on “It may be.” The efficacy of intercessory prayer is taught and assumed throughout the Old Testament: see Gen_18:23 ff.; Exo_32:31 ff.; 1Sa_12:19; Amo_7:2; Amo_7:5; Jer_14:11; Jer_15:1, &c.

the remnant that is left] Cf. Isa_37:32. The idea is Isaiah’s; but the word is not that used elsewhere by the prophet himself.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

It may be the Lord thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh,.... He had heard them; but the sense is, that it might be that he would take notice of them, and resent them in a public manner, and punish for them; and this is said, not as doubting and questioning whether he would or not, but as hoping and encouraging himself that he would: and it may be observed, that Hezekiah does not call the Lord "my God", or "our God", because he and his people were under the chastening hand of God for their sins, and were undeserving of such a relation; but "thy God", whose prophet he was, whom he served, and to whom he was dear, and with whom he had an interest; and therefore it might be hoped his prayer to him would be heard and accepted, and that through his interposition God would be prevailed upon to take notice of the railing speech of Rabshakeh:

whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God; who has life in and of himself, and is the fountain, author, and giver of life to all others; him he reproached by setting him on a level with the lifeless idols of the Gentiles:

and will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard; reprove him for his words, take vengeance upon him, or punish him for the blasphemous words spoken by him against the Lord and in his hearing: to this sense is the Targum; and so the Syriac and Arabic versions:

wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left; lift up thy voice, thy hands, and thine heart, in prayer to God in heaven; pray earnestly and fervently for those that are left; the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, the other ten having been carried captive some time ago; or the inhabitants of Jerusalem particularly, the defenced cities of Judah having been already taken by the Assyrian king. The fewness of the number that remained seems to be made use of as an argument for prayer in their favour. In times of distress, men should not only pray for themselves, but get others to pray for them, and especially men of eminence in religion, who have nearness of access to God, and interest in him.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

It may be the Lord thy God - The God whom thou dost serve, and in whose name and by whose authority thou dost exercise the prophetic office.

Will hear the words - Will come forth and vindicate himself in regard to the language of reproach and blasphemy which has been used. See a similar use of the word ‘hear’ in Exo 2:24; Exo 3:7.

To reproach the living God - The revilings of Rabsbakeh were really directed against the true God. The reproach of the ‘living God’ consisted in comparing him to idols, and saying that be was no more able to deleted Jerusalem than the idol-gods had been able to defend their lands (see the note at Isa 36:18). The phrase ‘the living God’ is often applied to Yahweh in contradistinction from idols, which were mere blocks of wood or stone.

For the remnant that is left - For those who survive; or probably for those parts of the land, including Jerusalem, that have not fallen into the hands of the Assyrian. Sennacherib had taken many towns, but there were many also that had not yet been subdued by him.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

4. It may be — Peradventure, possibly, perhaps.

The Lord thy God will hear — Jehovah will not fail to inflict vengeance on the blasphemy poured on his name this day by Rabshakeh, in behalf of his master, Sennacherib. The king puts this timidly, as though he hardly dared to hope; yet he does, and opens the apodosis of the sentence with a wherefore, or therefore, lift up thy prayer, namely, to Heaven. The idea here is, not merely a mental prayer, but one of deep struggle, of importunity and strong utterance.

For the remnant that is left — Namely, Jerusalem and its people. This city only had been prepared to resist invasion. All the villages round about were open to sack and overthrow.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

It may be the Lord... will hear; i.e. "will notice," or "will punish." If Isaiah laid the matter before God, and prayed earnestly, it was possible that God would intervene to save Judah, and punish the blapshemous words uttered. The living God. In opposition to the dead idols of the heathen, which had neither life, nor breath, nor perception. (see Psa_115:4-8 Psa_135:15-18) The remnant that is left. It is usual to explain this of Judah generally, which still survived, although Israel had been carried away captive. But perhaps the contrast is rather between the numerous Judaean captives who had been taken and conveyed to Assyria by Sennacherib when he took the "fenced cities", (Isa_36:1) and the portion of the nation which still remained in the land. Sennacherib says, in his annals, that he took "forty-six" cities, and carried captive to Assyria above two hundred thousand persons ("Records of the Past," vol. 1. p. 38).

Responsibility of prayer-leaders.

The message sent to Isaiah, the prophet of God, was this: "Pray for us; be our leader, our intercessor." "Wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left." Scripture singles out Samuel and Moses as great prayer-leaders, or intercessors, but we can add Joshua, David, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Apostle Paul, drawing further illustrations from each of these. The Prophet Jeremiah has a very striking sentence, which indicates the power that prayer-leaders have with God: "Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people". (Jer_15:1) Isaiah, in our text, was sought by Hezekiah in his trouble, because he was a prayer-leader, an intercessor. We note that the things about men which are really most important are not the things which most readily attract attention. We need to get the view of men which God takes, if we would get the true view. Some of the best gifts bestowed on the Christian Church are undervalued; the endowments which give men public prominence are thought much more of than those spiritual powers which are men"s best possessions. To some men God gives, in unusual measure, the power of prayer. There is a remarkable difference between good men in this gift and power of prayer. We see the difference in our children. Some of them are able to move and persuade us so that we find it most difficult to refuse them anything. And men and women seem to have a like power in their relations with God a most responsible power., Some of us can never rise above the orderly habit of prayer, and treat it as a matter of duty; but others have such praying frames of mind that, at any moment, they seem able to go in to God. There are men among us who are true prayer-leaders whose utterance is full of petition, who are able to seize the souls of their fellow-worshippers, be their mouthpiece, and carry their desires within the veil; while other good men can only pray before us, and fail to awaken responsive prayer-feelings in our hearts.

I THE GREATNESS OF PRAYER THAT RISES TO BE INTERCESSION. Man"s power of prayer is a faculty full of high possibilities. It may rise even to this it may go beyond all self-spheres, and become intercessory. While prayer keeps in the self-sphere there is a certain narrowness and even meanness about it. It is all concerned with what we want, and what we feel, and we are greatly comforted if we have any fervour of emotion in such prayer. But we feel that a course of daily prayer from which the interceding element is removed would be most injurious to the spiritual life. It lacks the generous, sympathetic, unselfish element, and it will very soon lack fervour and faith. No one can long keep up a prayerful life, and persist in praying altogether about himself. Power comes, love grows, when prayer includes intercession. Limitations of earnestness and importunity pass away; the soul is free to urge its pleas with persevering instancy; we can ask for another what we dare not fashion into a prayer for ourselves. The prayers of Scripture are, for the most part, intercessory. Illustrate Abraham"s for Sodom; Moses", Joshua"s, Samuel"s, for the people of Israel in their distresses. Daniel prays with his window open towards desolate Jerusalem, that he may be reminded of the captive people. Our last sight of Job finds him in the attitude of the mediator, praying for God"s mercy on his mistaken and cruel friends. And the Apostle Paul writes again and again of the constancy of his intercessions. We may learn the secret of the poverty and formality of much Christian praying. It has so little intercession in it. When some beloved friend is smitten down with imperilling sickness, our prayer suddenly gains strength, and becomes a thing full of fervour and pathos. All our souls then go out in strong crying and tears. But this power might be in our praying always. We might be not only prayerful men, but also prayer-leaders, carrying the burdens of others to the throne of grace, and ourselves sanctified through the carrying.

II THE POWER OF INTERCESSION THAT MAY BE IN A SINGLE INDIVIDUAL. Any one of us may have the gift of intercession. One man, one woman, even one child, may bring down the Divine benedictions as refreshing rains upon us. We may kneel for others before God. We may win the blessing, prevailing with God, for men. Illustrate from the life of Moses. Note three great interceding-times:

(1) at Rephidim;

(2) matter of golden calf;

(3) return of spies.

Or from the life of Samuel, who may be regarded as the most consistently beautiful character in the Bible. Note two cases:

(1) battle with Philistines;

(2) matter of asking for a king.

But what responsibilities rest on such men! On such men living amongst us now! Who can tell what the Church of God would become, if interceders would but intercede? Plead that, in these times, we need to be often recalled to the power of prayer. "We have not, because we ask not." The Prophet Isaiah has a wonderful conception. He represents God as looking out upon men in their sin and sorrow and shame, and saying, "I saw that there was no man, and I wondered that there was no intercessor." It may be so still God may look into our family lives, and wonder that there is no intercessor. He may look at our Churches, and wonder that there is no intercessor. Oh for a multiplying of men and women who say, "I can pray. I can intercede. I can plead for Jerusalem"! R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

“If peradventure Jehovah thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which Jehovah thy God hath heard, then shalt thou lift up a prayer for the remnant (that is still) found (here).” It was because Hezekiah thought Jehovah might hear, that he asked Isaiah’s prayers in his behalf. The reproach and blasphemy of the Assyrian consisted mainly in his confounding Jehovah with the gods of the surrounding nations (2Ch 32:19) in antithesis to whom, as being impotent and lifeless, He is here and elsewhere called the living God. To lift up a prayer is not simply to utter one, but has allusion to two common idiomatic phrases, that of lifting up the voice, in the sense of speaking loud or beginning to speak, and that of lifting up the heart or soul, in the sense of earnestly desiring. The passive participle found is often used in Hebrew to denote what is present in a certain place, or more generally what is extant, in existence, or forthcoming. The meaning ‘lift’, which is expressed in the English version, is suggested wholly by the noun with which the participle here agrees. As to the application of the whole phrase, it may either be a general description of the straits or low condition to which the chosen people were reduced (as the church at Sardis is exhorted to strengthen the things which remain - Rev 3:2), or be more specifically understood in reference to Judah as surviving the destruction of the ten tribes (compare Isa 28:5), or to Jerusalem as spared amidst the general desolation of Judah (compare Isa 1:8). In either case, the king requests the prophet to pray for their deliverance from entire destruction. This application was made to Isaiah, not as a private person, however eminent in piety, but as one who was recognized as standing in an intimate relation to Jehovah, and as a constituted medium of communication with Him. In like manner God Himself said to Abimelech of Abraham: ‘he is a prophet, and shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live’ (Gen 20:7).

In recognition of this same relation, Hezekiah twice says ‘thy God’, (i.e., ‘thine in a peculiar and distinctive sense’). This phrase is, therefore, not to be regarded as an expression of despondency, nor even of humility, on Hezekiah’s part, but as a kind of indirect explanation of his reason for resorting to the Prophet at this juncture.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Prophecies of Isaiah (1846–1847; New York: Scribner, 1870–1878) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

and he brought proof with the words (וְהוֹכִיחַ) He told his strength and showed his success. The word והוֹכִיחַ is eprober in O.F., to prove.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.