Character Needed - Bible Sketches 28

CHARACTER NEEDED – BIBLE SKETCHES

Character Needed, by Robert Allen, published by Regular Baptist Press, includes 33 skits illustrating the truths of each of the verses in Proverbs 15.  These Character Needed – Bible Sketches are designed to accompany those contemporary plays, illustrating the same character traits by use of a Bible story.  

CHARACTER NEEDED

RABSHAKAH’S ANSWER

Proverbs 15:28

II Kings 18:13-19:37

Character Trait:  Courage

Cast of Characters

                        Narrator

                        Rabshakeh

                        Eliakim

                        Joah

NARRATOR:             The gates of Jerusalem were shut tight.  All around the city, as far as Eliakim and Joah could see, there were soldiers.  Beyond the soldiers were tents, stretching far off into the hills.  It looked as if the entire Assyrian army was camped in a large circle around the city.  Down below the wall, just out of arrow range, stood one of the captains of the Assyrian army, a man named Rabshakeh.  He was yelling at them in order to give them a message for King Hezekiah.

RABSHAKEH:          Speak to King Hezekiah for my lord the king of Assyria.  Why are you trusting in your God for deliverance from the hand of Assyria?  Why are you trusting in help from Egypt?  Egypt is not going to help you, and neither is your God.  In fact, it was the Lord who told us to go up against you and destroy this land.  There’s no way you can escape from us, so you might as well just surrender.

NARRATOR:             Eliakim and Joah were not the only two men on the wall. In fact, the wall was crowded with men who could hear what Rabshakeh was saying.  So Eliakim called back to him.

ELIAKIM:                  This message is only for the king.  Why don’t you speak to us in your Syrian language.  We can understand it.  But don’t talk in the Jew’s language because then all the people on the wall can understand you too.

RABSHAKEH:          Why do you think I’m speaking in your language.  My message is not just for your king.  I want everyone who hears me to know that we are going to defeat you.

NARRATOR:             With that, Rabshakeh yelled even louder so everyone could hear him.

RABSHAKEH:          Thus says the king of Assyria.  Don’t let King Hezekiah deceive you.  He will not be able to deliver your out of our hand.  Don’t’ let him tell you that God will deliver you.  Have any of the gods of other nations delivered them from us?  Where are the gods of Hamath and Samaria?  How can you expect your God to deliver you?

NARRATOR:             When Eliakim and Joah heard that, they became very angry.  It was bad enough to have him talk about their king that way.  But now he was mocking their God.  Eliakim was just about to yell some threats back at Rabshaken when Joah stopped him.

JOAH:                         Wait, Eliakim.  There’s a message here from the king.

ELIAKIM:                  What does it say?

JOAH:                         The king says not to answer him.

ELIAKIM:                  Don’t answer?  But he’s saying terrible things against Hezekiah and against God as well.

JOAH:                         The king says that he is praying for God to give him an answer.

ELIAKIM:                  So he wants God to answer instead of us?  That sounds good.

JOAH:                         Right.  That’s what he wants.

NARRATOR:             So Eliakim and Joah and all of the people on the wall remained silent.  Rabshakeh kept yelling, but no one answered him a word.  Eliakim and Joah went back to the king and told him everything Rabshakeh was saying.

JOAH:                         He says our God can’t deliver us.

ELIAKIM:                  He says that he will do to us what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, and their gods.

NARRATOR:             King Hezekiah took the two men with him and went into the hour of God to talk to the prophet Isaiah and to pray.  As they were praying, God told Isaiah that He would indeed give the Assyrian army an answer they would never forget.  That night, when they were asleep in their tents, an angel of the Lord went through the camp of the Assyrians.  Silently the angel killed one hundred and eighty-five thousand soldiers.  When the rest of them woke up the next morning, they were surrounded by dead bodies.  No one knew how they had died.  The army was so scared that they packed up and left Jerusalem behind.  God had given His answer to Rabshakeh and delivered His people from the Assyrians.