God Battles For Jerusalem and Hezekiah Against Sennacharib
In about 726 BC the nation of Israel was a divided nation, as it had been for about 240 years. Around Jerusalem, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin with their Levite priests held power, and the kingdom was called 'Judah'. The other tribes and their Levites held the rest of the land, mainly in North Israel, which was then being referred to as 'Israel'. Ephraim was often their strongest tribe in the North.
Judah, in the South, was still fairly faithful to God, under good king Hezekiah. But the Northern tribes were playing fast and loose with God's rules, taking up the ways of the neighboring peoples, marrying their wives, and worshipping their false gods right along with the God of Israel. God had been warning them through prophets to cease this shameful betrayal, but they ignored those prophets.
The then mighty empire of the region was Assyria, under King Sennacharib, who was battling and subjugating everyone around them. In God's chosen time, the Assyrians marched on Israel, and the Northern tribes, unprotected by God because of their disobedience, were badly defeated and taken away to what is basically southern Russia today to be resettled as vassal nation to Assyria. Then Assyria campaigned into Judah. Eventually Jerusalem found its walls surrounded by the gigantic Assyrian army.
The Assyrian King's messenger walked forward and laid out their options. He said that it would be best for Jerusalem to open its gates and surrender. He reminded them that no nations walls had survived his armies assaults. And he told them that no people's gods had been able to help them against him and his army. He told Judah that their God was no exception, and that they shouldn't expect their God to be able to help them against a general like him or an army like his. He would destroy Jerusalem unless they gave up.
Hezekiah, a God fearing king, was frightened none the less. He left the walls and went into the temple of God to pray, putting on sack cloth to humble himself. He basically said to God "We are your people and we trust in you. We need you or else this huge army is going to destroy us."
As he prayed, God heard him and was pleased by him. God had His prophet Isaiah go to the king and comfort him with God's words. God said not to worry, that this army was not going to conquer them as it had all other peoples it fought. It wouldn't even shoot an arrow in His city. He was going to send it back home humbled by the hand of His angel.
In the night, as the vast Assyrian army slumbered, encamped around the walls of Jerusalem, God's angel walked among them killing 185,000 captains and soldiers. They simply never woke up, dying from a heaven sent, quick spreading plague of some type. Imagine being in an army that has just lost 185,000 soldiers for no apparent reason in one night!! We can assume that morale was affected. They packed up and left without even launching an assault on Jerusalem. As God had predicted, they never even shot an arrow - not in His city!
This happened in about 726 BC, when the world's population was much smaller. It might rank as one of the greatest battlefield losses of life of all time if you adjust for the percentage of the world's population that it then represented. Many entire wars haven't caused this level of casualties.
This news must have stunned the then known world, and the name of Israel's God was
heard of by great numbers of people in many countries throughout the Earth. God wants all people in all places to hear of Him and come to Him. Deeds like this helped people to know that no one had a God like this God of the Abraham, Jesus's Father. No one!!