7:1 Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the
son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the
son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against
it, but could not prevail against it. 2 And it was told to the house
of David, saying, “Syria’s forces are deployed in Ephraim.” So his heart and
the heart of his people were moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the
wind.
3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet
Ahaz, you and Shear-Jashub your son, at the end of the aqueduct from the
upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, 4 and say to him:
‘Take heed, and be quiet; do not fear or be fainthearted for these two stubs of
smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and the son of
Remaliah. 5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted
evil against you, saying, 6 “Let us go up against Judah and trouble
it, and let us make a gap in its wall for ourselves, and set a king over them,
the son of Tabel”— 7 thus says the Lord God:
“It shall not stand,
Nor shall it come to pass.
8
For the head of Syria is Damascus,
And the head of Damascus is Rezin.
Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken, so that it
will not be a people.
9
The 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 was twenty years old
when he became the king of Judah. His reign was marked by unbelief in the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He turned instead to deal making with foreign
kings and adopted their idols, even setting up one of the gods of Assyria in
the Temple in Jerusalem and forcing the priests to offer the daily sacrifices
on its altar. He died at 36 after a weak and unfortunate reign as king.
It was all unnecessary. He could
have enjoyed safety from his enemies, independence, and the calm assurance of
God's favour. The truth is he had it but never benefitted from it. Through
Isaiah God told him that Syria and Israel would not be successful against him
and they weren't. The prophecy given in these verses by Isaiah came to pass but
he never lived to see it. Unbelief drive him to make desperate alliances that
crippled him financially and spiritually. The worst part was he lived in
constant fear. Self-preservation ruled him and in the end destroyed him way
before his time. It's a great responsibility to take your life out of God's
hands and into your own. When you are a king it is that much greater of a
responsibility.
We may think we aren't kings and
never will be. It may be true that we don't rule empires but we all have a
circle of influence and care. Have you given that care to Him or are you
desperately trying to rule on your own?
God didn't forsake Ahaz. He
talked to him. He made him promises. He kept those promises. Unfortunately
Ahaz's unbelief prevented him from resting in them or seeing them come to pass.
How about us? Are we resting or
fretting? Do we worship at God's altar of grace or are we taking the burdens on
our own shoulders and worshipping at the altar of self-preservation?
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