History of Jerusalem and Bible Prophecy

How many Christians believe world history has been shaped by bible prophecy?

Many of the world’s most important events are recorded in the Bible. Historians list 50 important events in history that would have drastically changed world history had they gone the other way. Bible prophecy covers 48 of those same 50 events and tells us what happened. These events would have greatly changed the world and some of them would have completely destroyed Christianity. This is about one of those events, and I would like comments on how it happened.

In 701 B.C., King Sennacherib of Assyria had an army of about 200,000 soldiers poised to besiege and destroy Jerusalem as he had done to all the other cities of Judah. This would have obliterated the Jewish faith and Christianity would have never happened.

History tells us that just as King Sennacherib was about to pounce on Jerusalem, something devastated the Assyrian army and spared the beleaguered city. Sennacherib returned to Nineveh and never returned to face Jerusalem again. His sons killed him and divided his kingdom into four parts.

Historians don’t want to accept the biblical account, but say that the Greek historian Herodotus gave an account of Sennacherib’s humiliation in his histories (written around 450 B.C.). He says that an army of mice overran the camp, wreaking great havoc and that is what caused the “mysterious lethal contagion” mentioned in other historical accounts. Herodotus wrote: “An army of field-mice swarmed over their opponents in the night.....(and) gnawed through their quivers and their bows, and the handles of their shields, so that on the following day they fled minus their arms and a great number fell"(Book 2:141).

Some scholars speculate that since mice are often carriers of deadly diseases, such as the bubonic plague that ravaged Europe during the Middle Ages, something similar could have happened to the Assyrian army.

But what does the Bible say about this? Certainly God could have used mice to destroy the army, but did He?

Isaiah 36:1-2 Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib King of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. Then the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem.”

King Hezikiah, after hearing these threats, went to God in earnest prayer. God heard him and answered through the prophet Isaiah, who told him God had promised complete deliverance from the Assyrians. Isaiah answered him this way: "Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD. For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.” Isaiah 37:33-35

What happened: “Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and 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.” Isaiah 37:36-37 (That’s 180,000 soldiers)

Historians unwilling to accept the Bible’s supernatural explanation keep looking for a naturalistic explanation but haven’t found one. God promised hundreds of years before that the nation of Judah would survive through the centuries and He did just that in this case and has done it ever since many times.

Is it any wonder we need to study the Bible, even to ascertain history’s truth?