““ ‘Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them! Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the Lord? The Lord himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’ ” Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. “Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Have the gods of any nations ever delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? Who of all the gods of these countries have been able to save their lands from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand? Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? ”” – Isaiah 36:8, 10, 15, 17-18, 20; 37:11 NIV

The king of Assyria uses many of the same attempts to persuade the Israelites as Satan uses against people now as well, so this passage is very applicable to us. First the Assyrian king uses bribery by suggesting to give Israel many horses. This is worldly logic and involves the idea that worldly wealth can buy you anything and create any outcome you want, which definitely isn’t true since God is ultimately the one that decides outcomes. The second attempt comes with him claiming to be for the Lord but this isn’t true obviously since the people know the Lord’s will and his hopes for the Hebrew people. The king then sows seeds of doubt into the people toward the Israelite king and God. God has proven himself to be trustworthy, so that also isn’t a good persuasion. He then tries to entice them with bread and wine. The Israelites land was promised to be flowing with milk and honey so they shouldn’t be so easily be enticed by bread and wine. Next he goes on to seed more doubts about God not being able to deliver the Israelites since the gods of other nations didn’t deliver them. Obviously the living God of Israel is not like any other God since all other gods can’t save like he can. He can choose whatever he wants to happen. This is typical of the schemes of Satan. He bribes, lies, sows seeds of doubt, entices, and tries to disuade us from living out a godly life using any sort of strategy he can. Be very aware of not only the types of strategies he uses, but also of how fast he switches between them. We already saw 3-4 strategies in this one interaction alone. Also be wary of how convincing they can be especially in times of hardship. Do not give up on hope in God and what he has promised. He promises to do right by us if we do right by him.