Overview
To be sprung from the fowler’s snare is to realize that God has already set you free, and to fly. Rev. Tom Knupp opens with his boyhood on the shores of Lake Ontario, watching bird banders catch and release their birds, and a blue jay that lay half a minute on the hood of the car before it grasped that it had been let go. He then turns to Sennacherib, king of Assyria, who boasted that he had shut Hezekiah up like a caged bird within Jerusalem, and to Psalm 124, where the snare is broken and the soul is escaped. The fifteen Songs of Degrees teach us to look to the Lord as our Keeper, our Master and our Deliverer.
Transcript
Watching Bird Banders on the Shores of Lake Ontario
Today I’d like to speak to you on the topic of Sprung from the Fowler’s Snare, Freed by the Hand of God. When I was a boy learning to identify birds, on a number of occasions I’d go with my parents to the shores of Lake Ontario to watch bird banders at work. Banding birds is a government-authorized activity allowing naturalists to track birds’ comings and goings for scientific purposes.
As birds are flying low to the ground, they’re caught in nearly invisible mist nets, then freed and held until a bird bander can affix to a bird’s leg a numerically inscribed metal ring that will be later used to identify the exact time and place the bird has last been caught. Once the incident has been carefully logged in, the bird is set free. I vividly recall one instance in particular where we’d finished banding a blue jay and then set it on its back on the hood of the car.
Curiously, at first it didn’t realize that it had been released. It was only after about half a minute that it actually rolled over and flew off. Like a captured bird set free by the trapper, God’s children simply need to realize that we’ve already been sprung loose and take off.
What Is a Fowler? How Birds Were Trapped in Bible Times
Fowl is the word used for birds in the King James Version. A fowler, then, is a trapper who captures birds. Doves, quail, and partridge were some of the most delectable birds that were on the menu and trapped for food in the ancient Near East.
The Bible cites many ways that were used in Bible times to trap birds. Individual ground feeders, such as partridges, could be caught in baited traps that would deploy a string noose to ensnare their feet. Whole flocks of quails and or ducks could be captured by casting a net over the field or the pond where they were feeding.
In other instances, a previously captured bird could be hidden in the cage as a decoy. Its pitiful cries would cause its kind to alight in the vicinity of a trap where they would become easy prey. In the Moffatt Translation, Proverbs 7:23 reads, like a bird fluttering straight into the net, never dreaming its life is in danger.
Also from Moffatt, Amos 3:5, does a bird drop into the trap unless the trap is baited? Does the trap spring up unless there is something to catch? And finally in Moffatt, we have Job 18:8-10. He entangles himself in a net and sprawls within its meshes. His heels are caught in a snare and the trap closes on him tight. A noose lies hid for him upon the ground, a pitfall on his path.
Not every ensnared bird, of course, suffered the same fate. An opportunity to escape would arise quickly should the fowler inadvertently open his hand, allowing the winged victim to fly away to safety. Proverbs 6:5 says, deliver thyself as a bird from the hand of the fowler.
In other instances, the captive’s frantic actions might break the string noose securing its feet, allowing it to get away unharmed. Sometimes men in their captivity can be likened to a captured bird. The Assyrian king Sennacherib thought he had cornered and would overrun Judah.
Sennacherib Boasted He Had Shut Hezekiah In Like a Caged Bird
Here are the words that he had inscribed about it. I besieged, I captured 200,150 people, small and great, male and female. Hezekiah himself like a caged bird within Jerusalem, his royal city I shut in.
Have you ever felt like a caged bird that’s been shut in? How would you ever get out? Who would release you? Sennacherib had boasted that his rival Hezekiah was reduced to being like a powerless caged bird, shut in and unable to get out from the trap that had been set for him. God described Israel’s ultimate release in Psalm 124 as escaping out of the snare of the fowlers. Psalm 124:7, our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers.
The snare is broken and we are escaped. Sennacherib, the king of Assyria’s siege and the subsequent deliverance of Judah must be an important topic to God for he devotes chapter after chapter to it in 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Isaiah, and Psalms. There must be lessons for our edification here and there are.
The major players in this drama are Hezekiah, the believing king of Judah, who with the help of God and in league with the prophet Isaiah led Jerusalem to victory against Assyria. Isaiah, God’s prophet and confidant of Hezekiah. Sennacherib, the unbelieving king of Assyria, who had taken Samaria and now besieged Jerusalem, and Rabshakeh, Sennacherib’s chief cupbearer and his personal emissary against Judah.
How Judah Became Assyria’s Obvious Target
So just how was Judah able to escape as a bird out of the snare? To understand that we’ll need to go back to the start of the story. Some 20 years earlier, the idolatrous northern kingdom of Israel had fallen to Assyria. The ten tribes of the children of Israel were then deported across the Assyrian Empire and unbelieving peoples were relocated to Israel’s capital of Samaria in defense against future revolt.
The southern kingdom of Judah was comprised of the two remaining tribes, Judah and Benjamin. They became Assyria’s obvious target. We’ll start in 2 Chronicles chapter 32.
I’ll be in the first verse. After these things and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came and entered into Judah and encamped against the fenced cities and thought to win them for himself. Sennacherib’s strategy was to first attack the fortified cities on the western side of Judah and then to send his emissaries to besiege and intimidate Jerusalem, causing them to fear that they would also be invaded.
Judah’s ally in the fight, the Egyptian king Tirhakah, a black pharaoh from Nubia, was apparently unable to arrive and assist in directly repelling the attack. Having successfully breached the borders of Judah, the king of Assyria sent his chief cupbearer Rabshakeh to Jerusalem to shout aspersions against the city’s defenders. He spoke in Hebrew rather than his native Aramaic so that everyone within earshot on the city wall could be exposed to the intimidation.
Rabshakeh Shouts Aspersions Against Jerusalem
This is in Isaiah. We’ll be in chapter 36 starting in verse 4. And Rabshakeh, Sennacherib’s cupbearer, said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest? I say, sayest thou, but they are but vain words. I have counsel and strength for war.
Now on whom dost thou trust that thou rebellest against me? Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed on Egypt, whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt all that trust in him. But if thou say to me, We trust in the Lord our God, is it not he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away and said to Judah and Jerusalem, You shall worship before this altar.
Verse 10. And am I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said unto me, Go up against this land and destroy it. Hezekiah did not want to allow these fiery darts to penetrate his own believing heart.
He therefore gathered his counselors to pray for the people and beseech God on Judah’s behalf. Hezekiah then turned to the prophet Isaiah for guidance. We’ll go now to second Kings.
Hezekiah Turns to Isaiah the Prophet for Guidance
We’ll be in chapter 19, the first verse. And it came to pass when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household and Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth to Isaiah, the prophet, the son of Amoz.
And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble and of rebuke and blasphemy for the children are come to the birth and there’s not strength to bring forth like a pregnant woman unable to deliver. It may be the Lord thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh whom the king of Assyria, his master has sent to reproach the living God and will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard. Wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left.
So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah and Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall you say to your master, Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Behold, I will send a blast upon him and he shall hear a rumor and shall return to his own land and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. After this prophetic assurance from God, Hezekiah took courage and set about to prepare the kingdom for war.
Be Strong and Courageous: More With Us Than With Them
For this will be in 2 Chronicles chapter 32 verses 6 to 8. And he sent captains of war over the people and gathered them together to him in the street of the gate of the city and spake comfortably to them saying, Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria nor for all the multitude that is with him for there be more with us than with them. With him is an arm of flesh but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.
Hezekiah was able to encourage the people because he himself had been lifted up by the words of the prophet Isaiah. He boldly exhorted the people to lay aside all doubt and trust in the Lord their God and none other. With the promise of God’s presence leading them to the victory, their hearts could be comforted and at rest.
Rabshakeh however had not finished his campaign of intimidation. This time he put his taunts in a letter. Hezekiah was not going to back down.
Hezekiah Spreads the Letter Before the Lord
He laid the letter out in God’s presence before starting to pray. We’ll now be in 2 Kings chapter 19 verse 14. And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers and read it.
And Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, O Lord God of Israel which dwelleth between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone of all the kingdoms of the earth, thou hast made heaven and earth. Lord, bow down thine ear and hear.
Open, Lord, thine eyes and see and hear the words of Sennacherib which hath sent him to reproach the living God. Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone.
Therefore they have destroyed them. Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only. Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, that which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, I have heard.
This is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him. Isaiah then proceeded to lay out all the things that God would do to set things straight. We’ll pick up the record in verse 27 where God speaks to Sennacherib.
I Will Turn Thee Back By the Way Which Thou Camest
2 Kings 19:27. But I know thy abode and thy going out and thy coming in and thy rage against me. Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose and my bridle in thy lips and I will turn thee back by the way which thou camest.
God then turns his attention to his people in Judah. Verse 29. And this shall be a sign unto thee.
Ye shall eat this year such things as grow themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same. And in the third year sow ye and reap and plant vineyards and eat the fruits thereof. And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant and they that escape out of Mount Zion the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this. Finally God lays out what would be the final resolution of the conflict. Verse 32.
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 shield 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 servants David’s sake.
The Angel of the Lord Smites 185,000 Assyrians
And look what then happened. Verse 35. And it came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred, four score, and five thousand.
That’s a hundred eighty-five thousand. And when they arose early in the morning behold they were all dead corpses. I guess he can’t get any deader than that.
So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went and returned and dwelt at Nineveh. And it came to pass as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword and they escaped into the land of Armenia and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead. Who could have anticipated this ending to the saga? Too often we look to men for deliverance and fail to acknowledge that the Lord God with his son Jesus Christ is our one and only true deliverer.
The Fifteen Songs of Degrees and Hezekiah’s Added Years
When we relinquish the battle to him and refuse to take the responsibility back we can rest in the knowledge that he will take care of the things beyond our control. In the book of Psalms, the songs of the degrees, Psalms 120 to 134, celebrate Hezekiah’s deliverance that we’ve just studied. Each of these songs bears the label a song of the degrees.
There are 15 songs of the degrees in total. 15 corresponds to the number of years that God added to Hezekiah’s life after his sickness unto death during Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem. 10 of the songs of the degrees were written by Hezekiah himself.
10 corresponds to the number of degrees by which God caused the sundial to go backward as a sign that he would heal Hezekiah. Let’s take a look at some of the keys to deliverance recounted in these psalms. We’ll consider looking to the Lord as our keeper, looking to the Lord as our master, trusting God for peace, trusting God for justice, and trusting God for deliverance.
Looking to the Lord as Our Keeper
First, looking to the Lord as our keeper. For this we’ll go to Psalm 121, verse 1. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
God, who made heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands. Note that in the next three verses there are repeated uses of the word keep. Verse 3, he will not suffer thy foot to be moved.
He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper.
The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day nor the moon by night. Note in the next two verses the repeated uses of the word preserve.
The Lord will keep, keep, keep us and preserve, preserve, preserve us. Verse 7, the Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul.
The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and even forevermore. Next we’ll look at looking to the Lord as our master. When we look with expectancy to God and not men, he can show his marvelous mercy, leading us up and out.
Looking to the Lord as Our Master
Psalm 123, verse 1. Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.
Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease and with the contempt of the proud. Now let’s consider trusting God for peace, and this is in Psalm 125, verse 1. They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even forever.
Trusting God for Peace
For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity. Do good, O Lord, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts. As for such as turn aside under their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity, but peace shall be upon Israel.
Trusting God for justice. A common temptation is to become discouraged when justice is not rendered in the here and now, but we need not worry ourselves about that, for God is righteous, and he’ll see to it that all is repaid. Psalm 129, verse 4. The Lord is righteous.
Trusting God for Justice
He hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked by which they would bind us. Let them all be confounded and turn back that hate Zion. Let them be as the grass upon the housetops which withereth afore it groweth up, wherewith the mower filleth not his hand, nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom.
Trusting God for Deliverance
And finally, trusting God for deliverance. Our enemy’s ability to wreak havoc may seem on the verge of overwhelming us. From a senses point of view, it can seem as if all our defenses have been destroyed.
However, when we recognize our Helper is Lord of heaven and earth, we can rise up to believe God and become the ones that got away. Psalm 124, verse 1. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say, If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us, then they’d swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us. Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul, then the proud waters had gone over our soul.
Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken and we are escaped.
Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Psalm 91, verse 3 states, Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome or deadly pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust.
His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. And finally, Psalm 55, verse 6 says, And I said, O that I had wings like a dove, for then would I fly away and be at rest. Today we rest on the accomplished work of Jesus Christ for our deliverance.
Resting on the Accomplished Work of Jesus Christ
We know and believe that with respect to our victory, it is finished. Martin Luther aptly sums this up in the hymn, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing.
Were not the right Man on our side, the man of God’s own choosing. Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is he. Lord Jesus Christ his name, from age to age the same, and he must win the battle.
Thank God, our Savior, that through his Son, Jesus Christ, he has sprung us loose from every form of oppression and slavery. Let’s look to the Master for justice and deliverance, knowing the ultimate victory is ours. Amen.
Key Takeaways
- Like a banded bird set free by the trapper, God’s children simply need to realize that we have already been sprung loose, and take off.
- A fowler is a trapper who captures birds; Proverbs 7:23, Amos 3:5 and Job 18:8-10 describe the net, the string noose and the pitfall hid upon the ground.
- Sennacherib had it inscribed that he shut Hezekiah up “like a caged bird within Jerusalem, his royal city”; Psalm 124 answers that the snare is broken and we are escaped.
- Hezekiah spread Rabshakeh’s threatening letter out before the Lord before he began to pray, and Isaiah brought back God’s word that Assyria would return by the way he came.
- That night the angel of the Lord smote 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians: deliverance came from God, not from Judah’s Egyptian ally.
- The fifteen Songs of Degrees (Psalms 120-134) celebrate that deliverance; fifteen for the years added to Hezekiah’s life, and ten written by Hezekiah for the ten degrees the sundial went backward.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it mean to escape the snare of the fowlers?
A fowler is a trapper who catches birds, and the snare is the trap he sets. In Psalm 124 God describes Israel’s ultimate deliverance as escaping “out of the snare of the fowlers”: our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers, the snare is broken and we are escaped. The picture is that deliverance comes not from the captive’s own struggling but from God breaking the net.
How was Judah delivered from Sennacherib’s siege?
Hezekiah refused to give ground before Rabshakeh’s taunts. He spread the threatening letter before the Lord and prayed, and Isaiah told him the king of Assyria would not come into the city but would return by the way he came. That night the angel of the Lord smote an hundred fourscore and five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians, and Sennacherib departed and returned and dwelt at Nineveh.
What are the Songs of Degrees, and why are there fifteen?
The Songs of Degrees are Psalms 120 through 134, which celebrate Hezekiah’s deliverance; each of them bears that label. There are fifteen in all, matching the fifteen years God added to Hezekiah’s life after his sickness unto death during Sennacherib’s siege. Ten of them were written by Hezekiah himself, matching the ten degrees by which God caused the sundial to go backward as the sign of his healing.
Scripture References
Proverbs 7:23; Amos 3:5; Job 18:8-10; Proverbs 6:5; Psalm 124:7; 2 Chronicles 32:1; Isaiah 36:4-7, 10; 2 Kings 19:1-7; 2 Chronicles 32:6-8; 2 Kings 19:14-21a; 2 Kings 19:27, 28; 2 Kings 19:29-31; 2 Kings 19:32-34; 2 Kings 19:35-37; Psalms 120-134; Psalm 121:1-8; Psalm 123:1-4; Psalm 125:1-5; Psalm 129:4-7; Psalm 124:1-8; Psalm 91:3, 4; Psalm 55:6
This text was prepared from the audio of the teaching. Please check the scripture references in your own Bible.
