Tuesday 13 July 2010

Background

This passage takes us to the same crisis that we saw yesterday, but at a slightly different time.The northern kingdom of Israel (also called Ephraim) is in analliance with Syria (or Aram) and is attacking the southern kingdomof Judah. An attack on Jerusalem has failed, so now the two alliedkings plan to isolate Jerusalem and to replace Ahaz with anotherking (called the "son of Tabeel"). It is not surprising that Ahazand his people are described as shaking like trees being blownaround in the wind.

Verses 8 and 9 include a word play using a word which probablymeans both 'head' and 'poison'. At the moment, Judah is threatenedby an alliance between Aram (whose capital is Damascus and whoseking is Rezin) and Ephraim (whose capital is Samaria and whose kingis Pekah, son of Remaliah). It appears that what Isaiah was sayingwas that as soon as Rezin and Pekah are replaced then the threatwill disappear.

Isaiah urges Ahaz to stand firm and he does so using another wordplay. The basic word that Isaiah is playing with is the word fromwhich we get 'amen'. So, very roughly, the second half of verse 9says, "If you do not 'amen' you are not 'amened'". The word inHebrew can cover a range of meanings including 'be firm', 'havefaith' and 'be faithful'. So the first half of the verse called onAhaz and the people of Judah to find firmness of purpose in theirfaith. What is implied in the Hebrew but difficult to convey inEnglish is that 'standing firm in faith' does not mean simply'believing what God says' but also 'being faithful to God'.

There are several ways to translate this verse. One possibleparaphrase would be, "If you hold firm to the ways of God, God willhold you firm against this threat".

To Ponder

What are the situations today where people needto 'hold firm to the ways of God'?

We think of prophets as predicting the future,yet often what they really do is interpret the present. Who are theprophets today?