Monday, May 27, 2013

רבשקה's Message

רבשקה, the messenger for Assyria, used psychological warfare to get the Jews to abandon G-d and therefore surrender to Assyria. They told them a number of things that made them question G-d and his abilities. He greatly offends חזקיהו because he makes an implication that חזקיהו is not the greatest king. He was great at psychological warfare because he made many statements that successfully questioned חזקיהו's faith. רבשקה started out by saying that חזקיהו put his faith in Egypt while Egypt was very weak. If G-d really was on their side, wouldn't Hashem make Egypt stronger? He also mentioned how he removed the במות and questioned his action. What if you got rid of something G-d created for a reason and wanted? He also mentioned שומרון. Hashem never saved שומרון from Assyria. Why will he save you? He also said that G-d sent Assyria to attack them. Hashem wanted this for you. 

רבשקה says this in Hebrew so everyone can understand. חזקיהו tells him to speak in a different language, so that everyone else doesn't hear what's going on. But רבשקה doesn't change the language he speaks in because his purpose was for everyone to hear, so that they would panic and surrender. This was a great method that he used. He made sure that the whole area would start panicking therefore forcing חזקיהו to surrender. But this didn't end up happening. חזקיהו kept the people peaceful enough. ישעיהו was sent to get a message from G-d telling them that He will not let Assyria attack ירושלים. 

If ישעיהו had not gotten reassurance from G-d, they may have given in to Assyria because their ideals were questioned, and they were scared because of the psychological warfare that scared everyone. 

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