The Book Of Isaiah. Day 31, Prepare For Battle

King Ahaz of Judah thinks he's going to have to fight a battle against King Pekah of Israel and King Rezin of Aram. But the Lord has promised him, through the prophet Isaiah, that this threat will be overcome within a short time. He need not worry about this allied army; he needs to trust in the Lord and revere Him. If he does this, no army can stand against him. But as we learned from our study of the kings, Ahaz will pay the king of Assyria a great deal of money in order to "buy" him as an ally. He will even commission the construction of an altar to an Assyrian god and order it to be placed in the temple, with the Lord's altar relegated to an out-of-the-way place, and he will command all of his own sacrifices and offerings to be made upon that altar. He will even command all of the people's sacrifices and offerings to be made upon that altar, whether the people want this or not.

The nation that is currently Judah's friend will soon make itself a foe. The Lord is going to allow Judah to be plagued by Assyria because the king and so many of the people are placing their trust in Assyria (and in pagan gods) instead of trusting in the Lord. The nation must brace itself for battle---not a battle against Israel and Aram but a battle against Assyria. 

Isaiah says, "The Lord spoke to me again: 'Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoices over Rezin and the son of Remaliah, therefore the Lord is about to bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates---the king of Assyria with all his pomp.'" (Isaiah 8:5-7a) This passage is generally believed to indicate that there was a growing political group in Judah whose members wanted to submit to the allied forces of Israel and Aram. The Lord says people of Judah are "rejoicing over Rezin" (the king of Aram) and "the son of Remaliah" (Pekah, king of Israel). This indicates that a not-insignificant number of people in Judah are dissatisfied with King Ahaz and are putting their support behind these two other kings. Perhaps they believe Judah should join with Israel and Aram to form the largest coalition of nations and armies of the era, thereby relieving all three nations of the threat of invasion from Assyria, Egypt, or any other country on earth.

The Lord refers to the stream of Shiloah which lay just outside of Jerusalem because it is a vital source of water for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The Lord refers to this gently flowing stream as a symbol of Himself---Himself as the source of their provision. So we see that some of the people are not only rejecting Ahaz, their earthly king, but are rejecting the Lord, the King of kings. The Lord promised the tribes of Israel before He ever brought them into the promised land that if they remained faithful to Him, He would protect them from every enemy. It wouldn't have mattered how many nations banded together to come against them; the Lord would have given them victory. They would never have had to worry about the size of anyone's army, even if they themselves were desperately outnumbered, because the Lord would have been on their side. But they have been dabbling in idolatry for a long time. They have not yet fallen as far into it as the citizens of the northern kingdom of Israel, but they eventually will. Therefore, in saying that they have rejected Shiloah, the Lord is saying they have rejected Him. They are instead calling upon the king of Assyria, whose nation was founded along the Euphrates River, and just as a large river can rush in and inundate the plains, the Assyrian army to rush in and inundate much of Judah's territory.

We will reread verse 7b and go on from there. "Therefore the Lord is about to bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates---the king of Assyria with all his pomp. It will overflow all its channels, run over all its banks, and sweep on into Judah, swirling over it, passing through it and reaching up to the neck. Its outspread wings will cover the breadth of your land, Immanuel." (Isaiah 8:7-8) It's only by the mercy of the Lord that the Assyrians will not be able to take Jerusalem, which is why the prophecy says that the enemy will come "up to the neck". The "head" of the nation is Jerusalem and the Lord will prevent it from falling to the Assyrian army. 

Although Judah will not be conquered by the Assyrian Empire, as Israel and several other countries will be, Assyria will be a continual threat to Judah and will cause much distress and destruction upon Judah. "Raise the war cry, you nations, and be shattered! Listen, all you distant lands. Prepare for battle, and be shattered! Prepare for battle, and be shattered! Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted.; propose your plan, but it will not stand, for God is with us." (Isaiah 8:9-10) The Lord has determined that some nations will fall to Assyria. The Lord has determined to discipline Judah by Assyria but not to allow Jerusalem to fall to this enemy. Therefore, the concluding verses of our text today are both a warning and a word of comfort. The warning is that the same thing can happen to Judah that will happen to other nations if the people don't turn back wholeheartedly to the Lord. During the days when the Assyrian army comes to lay siege to Jerusalem, a better man than Ahaz will be occupying the throne and he will be a godly influence on the people. Because of this, the Lord will have mercy on Jerusalem and will repel the enemy. If the people had remained in their revived spiritual state, the Neo-Babylonian Empire would never have been a threat to them, but eventually they will fall farther from the Lord than they ever have been before.

Sometimes the enemy is not who we think it is. We can actually be our own worst enemy---a far greater enemy to ourselves than anyone or anything else can ever be---when we drift away from the Lord and place our trust elsewhere.