Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+007

 

Chapter 7 (ESV)

1 In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. 2 When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with Ephraim,” the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

3 And the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field. 4 And say to him, ‘Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah. 5 Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying, 6 “Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” 7 thus says the Lord God:

“‘It shall not stand,
and it shall not come to pass.
8 For the head of Syria is Damascus,
and the head of Damascus is Rezin.
And within sixty-five years
Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.
9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
If you are not firm in faith,
you will not be firm at all.’”

 

REFLECTION:

  1. King Ahaz of Judah missed a crucial opportunity to trust God in troubled times. He was too frightened to trust God and too vain or proud to ask for the offered sign (v14). Ahaz’s leadership can be summarized in this way: “Faith played no part in his religion or his politics”.
  2. When have you found verse 9—”If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all”— to be true for you? Recall the situation and your response.
  3. Have a conversation with God about how you can better prepare to meet some real or imagined crisis. Pray that you will not lose heart.

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

I Have Decided To Follow Jesus – youtu.be/_KOBSu_A4LU