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Context No. 1027 of 4322 · Isaiah

Context · Reflection

Isaiah 7:1-9: in context

1In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. 2David’s house was told, “Syria is allied with Ephraim.” His heart trembled, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest tremble with the wind. 3Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shearjashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller’s field. 4Tell him, ‘Be careful, and keep calm. Don’t be afraid, neither let your heart be faint because of these two tails of smoking torches, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. 5Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have plotted evil against you, saying, 6“Let’s go up against Judah, and tear it apart, and let’s divide it among ourselves, and set up a king within it, even the son of Tabeel.” 7This is what the Lord GOD says: “It shall not stand, neither shall it happen.” 8For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim shall be broken in pieces, so that it shall not be a people. 9The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.’”

King Ahaz of Judah is terrified. Two enemy kings, Rezin of Syria and Pekah of Israel, have allied and marched on Jerusalem to depose him and install a puppet. The house of David shakes with fear like trees in the wind. God sends Isaiah, with his son whose name means a remnant will return, to meet Ahaz and steady him: be careful, keep calm, do not fear these two smoldering stumps of firewood; their plot will not stand. God even tells him the enemy's plan will fail and names a time. And then the pivot on which everything hangs: if you will not believe, surely you will not be established.

The whole encounter turns on that final sentence, a play on words in Hebrew: if you do not stand firm in faith, you will not stand at all. Ahaz is being handed a promise, the threat will fail, the two kings are already burnt-out embers, do not be afraid. But the promise has to be believed to do him any good. His security does not finally rest on his walls or his alliances but on whether he will trust the word God has spoken. And Ahaz, as the story unfolds, will not; he will look instead to Assyria for rescue, trusting the empire over the promise, and it will cost him. The passage lays bare a permanent truth about fear: when we are shaking like trees in the wind, the steadying word from God is always be careful, keep calm, do not fear, and the question is always whether we will actually believe it. Faith is not a feeling here but a stance, standing firm on what God has said instead of scrambling for a visible rescue. If you will not believe, you will not be established; belief is what makes a shaken person stand.

When two enemies seem to be marching on me and my heart shakes like a tree in the wind, will I actually believe God's steadying word, or scramble for a visible rescue as Ahaz did?

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