Isaiah 8:1-10 [NLTse]
1 Then the Lord said to me, “Make a large signboard and clearly write this name on it: Maher-shalal-hash-baz.” 2 I asked Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah, both known as honest men, to witness my doing this.
3 Then I slept with my wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said, “Call him Maher-shalal-hash-baz. 4 For before this child is old enough to say ‘Papa’ or ‘Mama,’ the king of Assyria will carry away both the abundance of Damascus and the riches of Samaria.”
5 Then the Lord spoke to me again and said, 6 “My care for the people of Judah is like the gently flowing waters of Shiloah, but they have rejected it. They are rejoicing over what will happen to King Rezin and King Pekah. 7 Therefore, the Lord will overwhelm them with a mighty flood from the Euphrates River—the king of Assyria and all his glory. This flood will overflow all its channels 8 and sweep into Judah until it is chin deep. It will spread its wings, submerging your land from one end to the other, O Immanuel.
9 “Huddle together, you nations, and be terrified. Listen, all you distant lands. Prepare for battle, but you will be crushed! Yes, prepare for battle, but you will be crushed! 10 Call your councils of war, but they will be worthless. Develop your strategies, but they will not succeed. For God is with us!”
Message
u King Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king over the nation of Judah, and he ruled for sixteen years. He was the father of Hezekiah. Ahaz was unfaithful to the Lord, following instead the gods of Israel, even sacrificing several of his sons as burnt offerings.
During Ahaz’ reign, the northern nations of Aram and Israel formed an alliance to attack Judah. Ahaz, his nobles, and all of Judah were panic-stricken. So the Lord sent the prophet Isaiah to speak His Word to King Ahaz: (This is from Chapter 7, immediately before our reading) “This invasion will never happen; it will never take place; 8 for Syria is no stronger than its capital, Damascus, and Damascus is no stronger than its king, Rezin. As for Israel, within sixty-five years it will be crushed and completely destroyed. 9 Israel is no stronger than its capital, Samaria, and Samaria is no stronger than its king, Pekah son of Remaliah. Unless your faith is firm, I cannot make you stand firm.”
History tells us that Ahaz did not believe God’s Word, and so Aram and Israel had great victories over Judah, taking land, cities, captives, all their valuables, and eventually besieging Jerusalem. In addition to Aram and Israel, on account of Judah’s weakness, Edom and Philistia attacked and plundered regions near to them, as well. (History speaks of it all as the Syro-Ephraimite War.)
And yet Ahaz remained unrepentant. And instead of seeking help from the Lord Ahaz took gold and silver from the Temple and from the Royal Treasury and sent it with emissaries to the king of Assyria, in the hopes of purchasing his aid.
And in our reading today the Lord speaks of these things through the prophet Isaiah: “My care for the people of Judah is like the gently flowing waters of Shiloah, but they have rejected it.” What does that mean? Well, the Gihon Spring is an intermittent spring, one of the world’s major intermittent springs, which means that it doesn’t produce a steady flow, but intermittently gushes water out. And in the case of the Gihon (which means gushing) enough water to satisfy the area’s inhabitants, as well as to irrigate the surrounding lands.
Because water only pours out irregularly, in ancient times a channel was dug directing the water to a catch basin that was calledthe Pool of Shiloah, (in the New Testament, the Pool of Siloam). And the Lord likens His reign over Judah to the gently flowing, intermittent, rippling waters of the Pool.
Quite a contrast to the “mighty floodwaters” of Assyria. The Tigris River was – is – a mighty watercourse, strong and overflowing: A river which could carry ships for trade, travel, and commerce; a river, because of the way they had moated it about their city, provided excellent protection, as well. Ahaz and Judah saw Aram and Assyria as nations going in the right direction: Nations with real leaders, gods winning wars and men and women of influence and prestige. “We ought to be like them,” Ahaz and his nobles were saying.
And in comparison what was Shiloah, that little brook, that intermittent spring filling up that little pool that God had provided. They held the Shiloah in contempt. They held the Lord in contempt. But what they hoped would save them all but overwhelmed them! Because, yes, the Assyrians overran Aram and Israel, but they kept on coming to eventually lay siege to their own capitol, Jerusalem, itself!
And it is likewise with us, the very things so many boast as being able to save them are in reality the very forces that end up drowning them in sorrow and despair. The rich person’s wealth when they look to their wealth for deliverance; the drunkard’s bottle when looking to the bottle for comfort; the self-confident strong-willed person when looking to their strong-will for the strength they are needing – all of it simply dragging them down. Salvation is to be found in the waters of Shiloah which flow softly, graciously, mercifully. Only in the way of grace, through Jesus Christ. That is the only way of salvation. There is none other.
If Christ does not rule us, a mob of tyrants will: Our own passions; our own evil habits; the fascinating sins around us. They soon cease to be the helpers they once seemed, and become oppressing tyrants.
Today is New Year’s Day, a day famous for making resolutions about how we’re going to live our lives differently in the year ahead. And so I ask you, “Who are you today? Whose are you today? Who and what are you living for today?”
Now don’t answer too quickly. We can all lose our way over time. We can find that concern for our retirement has taken the place of our zeal for Christ. We can find that our hobbies have eaten up precious time that could be spent on loving actions to draw people into Christ’s Kingdom.
Here on the first day of the 2012th Year of Jesus’ Reign, are you satisfied with the kind of husband or wife you’ve become? Or with your soul set on Christ, do you know how far you still have to grow? Are you a parent the way God parents us? Is Christ and being like Him in every way your goal? Or are you content with at least not being as bad as your neighbor? Are you honest at work? Dependable? Giving what you do all you have to give, as though you were working for the Lord God Himself?
Even our faith can suffer from wrong focus: We can be at ease with our salvation now that we’ve believed in Christ: Comfortable because we go to church and attend our studies and serve on our committees. But we can also so these things without “coasting” on them, so aware of how much more the Lord has for us than we’ve received from Him so far: More for our relationships; more for our words and actions; so much more.
Some examples: Are we set on wearing what we like, or do we think the Lord might have us dress a bit differently in 2012? Is our study and prayer life all it could be, or do we think the Lord would have us revitalize our time with Him? Is our Christianity good enough, or are we set here at the start of 2012 to keep following hard after Christ?
The Lord is a gently flowing stream: Sometimes quiet, other times gushing! And we can be wowed by the constantly rushing Rezin’s, and place too much hope in the eye-catching Assyria’s around us. And yet by the power of the Holy Spirit the cross of Christ demonstrates our Father’s absolute authority over even the wrong choices that would overwhelm us!
Will you – with me, today – reject and repent of imitating anyone or anything but Christ? Will you – with me, today – reject and repent from hoping in anyone or anything but Christ to save?