NEW ARTICLE
The Death of Sennacherib: A Case Study in Prophecy
The study of Bible prophecy is a most fascinating engagement. In his monumental work, Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy, the late Professor J. Barton Payne contended that the Bible contains 1,817 prophecies which embrace 8,352 predictive verses. These, he said, consume about twenty-seven percent of the whole biblical text (1973, 674-675). In this brief article we will consider but one of these prophecies.
Sennacherib was a monarch who reigned over the ancient Assyrian Empire for twenty-five years (705-681 B.C.). His name is found thirteen times in the Old Testament. Most notably he is mentioned in the Bible in connection with his invasion of Syria and Palestine in 701 B.C. He came west to put down a revolt in Phoenicia, then in Judah, over which Hezekiah reigned (for twenty-nine years) as the thirteenth king of the southern regime. The biblical text reads as follows:
Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them (2 Kings 18:13).
Assyrian records state that he took forty-six fortified cities and captured numerous other smaller communities. Sennacherib bragged that he took 200,150 captives (men and women, young and old). He further stated that he shut up Hezekiah as a prisoner in his royal palace “like a bird in a cage” (Pritchard 1958, 200).
His army surrounded Jerusalem while the king himself remained for a while at Lachish, some twenty-five miles southwest of the Holy City (18:14; but see 19:8). This minimal achievement powerfully supports the Bible record, namely that the Assyrian ruler did not capture Jerusalem. He was known to boast of his victories; but regarding Jerusalem he was silent. This is an important point. (A copy of the Sennacherib Prism resides in the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago; another, the Taylor prism, is in the British Museum in London.)
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EDITOR’S CHOICE
The Connection between Religion and Morality
There are exceptions to most every rule. And exceptions are precisely that; they are exceptions. Let me explain.
There are some people who have no religious philosophy. They profess not to believe in any Supreme Being. In spite of this, they lead reasonably respectful lives. They do not murder, commit adultery, or embezzle from their employers.
On the other hand, there are those who profess to be quite religious, and yet, clearly, they are as far from godliness as one can be. The notorious Ku Klux Klan is an apt illustration of the disconnect between “profession” and “possession.”
As a general rule, however, the person who truly believes in God, and who has some sense of the moral principles set forth in the Bible, is a better person. He is less to be feared in the neighborhood, and is more likely to be a savoring influence in his community.
George Washington once warned that it is folly to suppose that “morality can be maintained without religion.” Studies repeatedly have shown this statement to be true.
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