The Cure for Fear - The Situation

This is what the Sovereign Lord , the Holy One of Israel, says: ‘In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. You said, “No, we will flee on horses.” Therefore you will flee! You said, “We will ride off on swift horses.” Therefore your pursuers will be swift! A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee away, till you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.’ Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! Isaiah 30:15‭-‬18 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/isa.30.15-18.NIVUK The context of these verses, and indeed much of Isaiah, is that of threat. Israel and Judah were facing a serious, deadly external threat. The great Eastern superpower of the day, Assyria, had set its sights on taking Israel. On a human level, this was because of their privileged position at the centre of Middle Eastern trade routes. On a spiritual level, it was because they had turned aside from the One True God to worship idols. Disaster was coming because of blatant and defiant disobedience to God. Listen to Isaiah's opening words: Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth! For the Lord has spoken: ‘I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.’ Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the Lord ; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him. Isaiah 1:2‭-‬4 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/isa.1.2-4.NIVUK They were also heartlessly mistreating the poor and needy: Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow. Isaiah 1:16‭-‬17 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/isa.1.16-17.NIVUK And so God, fed up with their sin and their constant disobedience, sent the Assyrian army against them. It was the threat of this army that caused the panic. In fact, the historical background to these verses is described in 2 Kings: In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned for nine years. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord , but not like the kings of Israel who preceded him. Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up to attack Hoshea, who had been Shalmaneser’s vassal and had paid him tribute. But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was a traitor, for he had sent envoys to So king of Egypt, and he no longer paid tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore Shalmaneser seized him and put him in prison. The king of Assyria invaded the entire land, marched against Samaria and laid siege to it for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the River Habor and in the towns of the Medes. 2 Kings 17:1‭-‬6 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/2ki.17.1-6.NIVUK So do you see the importance of these words? The Israelites were faced with a threat. They had the choice to react calmly and faithfully. Instead they panicked and broke their treaty with Assyria. The result was their doom. And all this was completely avoidable. It really didn't have to be this way. They had a choice to change their lives. They just needed to have the faith to take it. Here, in these verses, God gives them the way out. In my next post, we will look at THE SALVATION: that is, how they could save themselves from this awful situation.