Scripture Daily

Context No. 1721 of 4322 · Isaiah

Context · Reflection

Isaiah 9:8-21: in context

8The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it falls on Israel. 9All the people will know, including Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in pride and in arrogance of heart, 10“The bricks have fallen, but we will build with cut stone. The sycamore fig trees have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.” 11Therefore the LORD will set up on high against him the adversaries of Rezin, and will stir up his enemies, 12The Syrians in front, and the Philistines behind; and they will devour Israel with open mouth. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. 13Yet the people have not turned to him who struck them, neither have they sought the LORD of Armies. 14Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed, in one day. 15The elder and the honorable man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail. 16For those who lead this people lead them astray; and those who are led by them are destroyed. 17Therefore the Lord will not rejoice over their young men, neither will he have compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is profane and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. 18For wickedness burns like a fire. It devours the briers and thorns; yes, it kindles in the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke. 19Through the LORD of Armies’ wrath, the land is burned up; and the people are the fuel for the fire. No one spares his brother. 20One will devour on the right hand, and be hungry; and he will eat on the left hand, and they will not be satisfied. Everyone will eat the flesh of his own arm: 21Manasseh eating Ephraim and Ephraim eating Manasseh, and they together will be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

Isaiah describes a people struck by disaster but refusing to learn from it. When calamity falls, when the bricks come down and the fig trees are cut, the proud of Ephraim and Samaria respond not with humility but with defiance: the bricks have fallen, but we will build with cut stone; the sycamores are felled, but we will plant cedars. They meet the blow with self-confident resolve to rebuild bigger and better, rather than turning to the God who struck them. And the sober refrain tolls through the chapter: yet the people have not turned to him who struck them; for all this, his anger is not turned away.

The proud response of Ephraim is worth pausing over, because it is so recognizable. Disaster strikes, and instead of asking what God might be saying, instead of turning to him, they square their shoulders and vow to rebuild grander than before: the bricks fell, but we will build with hewn stone; the fig trees are gone, but we will plant cedars. It sounds admirable, even inspiring, this refusal to be beaten, this determination to come back stronger. But Isaiah names it as pride, because it is self-reliance that refuses the summons in the blow. The calamity was meant to turn them back to God; and they responded by trusting their own resolve and resources to fix it, never turning to the One who had struck them. There is a searching warning here for how we meet our own disasters. The admired response, in our culture as in Ephraim's, is grit, resilience, the confident vow to rebuild and come back stronger; and there is a place for perseverance. But when a blow falls and we meet it only with self-confident determination to fix it ourselves, never pausing to ask whether God is calling us through it, never turning to him, we may be doing exactly what Ephraim did, mistaking pride for strength. The wiser response to calamity is not only to rebuild but first to turn, to ask what God is saying, to seek him rather than merely to trust our own resolve to build bigger. The bricks have fallen, they said, but we will build with cut stone, and they did not turn to God; and the passage counts that defiant self-reliance not as courage but as the pride that would not learn.

When disaster strikes, do I meet it only with self-confident resolve to rebuild bigger and come back stronger, never pausing to ask what God might be saying or turning to him, and can I learn from Ephraim's proud response not to mistake self-reliance for strength, but to turn first to the God who may be calling me through the blow?

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