Tribute

     Tribute is payment to a feared adversary to maintain peace. The nation receiving tribute are bullies, and those nations who pay tribute are victimized. Weak victims cater to the whims of tyrants to prevent bloodshed. The outcome of paying tribute is economic bankruptcy, and when that time comes, the victim is destroyed because there is no more tribute. The end result of weak people and nations is that they are destroyed. Usually, the amount of tribute required for safety bankrupts the nation who pays it just as the victim of bullies eventually runs out of fear money. Finally, the victim must stand up to bullies on even less equal footing; they fight hard with little or no wealth.
     King Sennacherib was coercing Judah and King Hezekiah to submit or face the consequences. His representative Rabshakeh dealt harshly with Hezekiah's emissaries (Eliakim, Shebna and Joah) in their own language to make it clear, do not pay heed to Hezekiah's trust in his God. The message from Sennacherib was, "Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you. Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us: this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria" (Isa 36:14-15).
     That was a bully tactic! Rabsheketh delivered the message that Hezekiah was deceiving them, that their God was weak, and they would surely die. Think on that; it was the flipside of the Serpent's deception technique. As an emissary of Satan, Sennacherib knew how to deceive quite well! In ancient times, war was most often about whose God is stronger. Sennacherib, putting up himself as supreme, actually made himself stronger than Hezekiah's God. He proposed to the representatives of Hezekiah not to depend on God to deliver them from defeat!
     The name Jesus means "Yahweh delivers", and Yahweh is God. Sennacherib was challenging Jesus. Hezekiah knew God first hand, and as such, he knew who "God delivers" actually was. Hezekiah was depending on faith in Jesus to deliver him from his enemies! In 2 Kings 18:17-19:7 Hezekiah stopped the bullying because Isiah delivered him an oracle of salvation. He quit paying tribute to Sennacherib and started paying more tribute to God!
     At first, Hezekiah was depending on the work of his own hands to deliver him from evil (tribute), but after hearing out Isaiah, Hezekiah quit paying tribute to their king and did so to his own God. Of course, Sennacherib had bullied Hezekiah into paying money, and all that God required was to pay him love and respect! Hezekiah was deficient in trusting the Lord, and all he need to do was put his trust in Almighty God and away from his own devices. Hezekiah, for the safety of his people, diminished himself and elevated God. That change in attitude is the same as what Jesus called "born again" using the example of Moses and the brass serpent. Jesus could just as easily used Hezekiah's change in attitude as the example. During his reign, Hezekiah was blessed for his trust in the Lord. He kept the Abrahamic Covenant and so did God. That was a covenant of grace.
     Hezekiah didn't deserve  prosperity. He had paid tribute to another king, but by trusting in the Lord, he was redeemed the penalty of perishing, just as born again saves us from perishing. Sennacherib, then, was a type of Satan, and Isaiah a type of Christ. Hezekiah represents those of us who have changed our allegiance from the world to God, from works of our own to trust in God!