The judgment of the Lord is about to come upon the Assyrian king and army. The destruction prophesied is likened to two other events in which the Lord showed a mighty hand in defeating the enemies of the children of Israel—the slaughter of Midian and the exodus from Egypt.
As the slaughter of Midian may not be as familiar as the story of the exodus, it is useful to review what the Lord did in this battle. The story is found in Judges 7. It tells the story of when Gideon led the armies of Israel against the Midianites and the Amalekites. Gideon led an army of 32,000 against an enemy that was so numerous that the scriptures describe it as follows, [they] ’lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude’ (Judges 7:12). Nevertheless, the Lord wanted to show the Israelites his great power. He instructed Gideon to send home any who were scared. 22,000 troops left, leaving him with an army of 10,000. The Lord replied, ’The people are yet too many’ (Judges 7:4), so He commanded that Gideon use only those troops who drank water like a dog, lapping it up with their tongues. Gideon was left with an army of 300 men. This army of 300 then surrounded the enemy, each with a trumpet in one hand and a torch in the other hand. In unison, they blew their trumpets. The opposing army, thinking they were surrounded by the enemy, arose in a great confusion. They began to kill each other in a great slaughter. Those that remained fled, only to be cut down by Gideon’s pursuing band of 300.
This is an excellent example to strengthen the courage of the Jews as they were greatly outnumbered by the Assyrians. How the Lord destroyed such a great Assyrian army is described as follows, ’And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh’ (2 Kings 19:35). So we see that the prophecies of Isaiah were fulfilled to perfection for he said that the ’Holy One…shall devour his thorns and his briers in one day’ (v. 17 italics added) and ’the Lord of Hosts shall lop the bough with terror; and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down’ (v. 33).