From vain hope to false hope

In his commentary on Isaiah 36, John Calvin moves from the devastatingly clever speech of the Rabshakeh to make a general observation on the strategies used by Satan to discourage and confuse Christians. The evil one will persuade us to forsake a vain hope (ex. Egyptian military intervention, a large retirement savings account) in order to direct us to a false hope (ex. Assyrian generosity, government intervention in the financial system). God, however, calls us to forsake both vain and false hopes in order to direct us to the only true hope: his grace to sinners through the Cross of Christ.