"The Lord has sent a message against Jacob; it will fall on Israel. All the people will know it---Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria---who say with pride and arrogance of heart, 'The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stone; the fig trees have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.' But the Lord has strengthened Rezin's foes against them and has spurred their enemies on. Arameans from the east and Philistines from the west have devoured Israel with open mouth. Yet for all this, His anger is not turned away, His hand is still upraised." (Isaiah 9:8-12) As we learned from our study of the kings, the northern kingdom of Israel fell approximately 130 years before the kingdom of Judah fell. The fall of Israel is coming soon, so Isaiah's message is timely.
We know the Lord is referring to the northern kingdom because, as He often does, He uses the name of "Ephraim" (the largest tribe of the northern kingdom) synonymously for "Israel". He also makes reference to Samaria, which was the capital city of the northern kingdom. In addition, He speaks of King Rezin of Aram, who was allied with King Pekah of Israel in Isaiah's day, and states that the enemies of the nation of Aram will become enemies of Israel as well. Militarily and politically this makes sense; it's natural that Aram's enemies would view Israel as a threat now that Israel's army was combined with Aram's army.
Although the king of Israel threw in his lot with the king of Aram, it was at great cost to him. It must have been galling to have to ally himself with a Gentile king in order to try to protect Israel from Assyria. It must have stung to have to agree to whatever demands the king of Aram made upon him and to appeal to King Ahaz of Judah, upon whom Pekah looked down, to join the army of Judah with the combined armies of Israel and Aram. (Ahaz refused, which is what led to Pekah and Rezin plotting to remove him from the throne to install a man of their choosing in his place.)
If the king of Israel had bowed to the Lord and appealed to Him for help, and if Pekah had repented of his sinful and idolatrous ways, he would never have had to be in league with anyone. His nation would have been protected by Almighty God, no matter how big an army marched out against him. But his spiritual failures led to political and military failures. His poor spiritual condition led to allying himself with a heathen Gentile king who, no doubt, looked down on him. This unwise decision is likely what led to Pekah's assassination by his own army captain (Hoshea), who killed him and assumed the throne. Hoshea was not as spiritually wicked as Pekah or as several other kings who preceded him, according to 2 Kings 17:2, and he wanted to ally himself with Egypt against Assyria, not with Aram.
Things will keep going from bad to worse in the northern kingdom because the hard times don't cause the king or most of the people to repent of their waywardness against the Lord. "But the people have not returned to Him who struck them, nor have they sought the Lord Almighty." (Isaiah 9:13) The Lord disciplined them not to destroy them but to heal them. The hardships were intended to help them take stock of their lives, recognize what they were doing wrong, and repent of their sins. Like any loving parent, the Lord wants His children to walk in the right ways so they can enjoy the fruits of godly living. When the child goes astray, it's the parent's responsibility to correct willfully wrong behaviors, and that is exactly what the Lord is doing by allowing other nations to plague Israel here in the book of Isaiah. Since He created human beings with free will, it's up to the people how they respond to this correction. They can respond appropriately and have the Lord on their side or they can respond inappropriately and suffer the consequences of making themselves His enemy.
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