Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Faith and Fear

December 19, 2007

Is 7:3-4,9b - 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. 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… If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.

The context of this passage is regarding God’s message to Ahaz, in that the two invading kings will not prevail. It is a practical message for us that in times of fear, we are to be careful that we do not do anything or say anything out of fear, that we quiet our hearts and our souls in His goodness and faithfulness, and not allow our hearts to be faint, but to grow strong in courage and trust. The last line is worth gold to our lives if we heed it. Faith will allow us to remain firm in our times of fear, but without faith, we will not be firm at all.

Dt 17:19-20 - It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.

All the rules for a king boiled down to this, “Remember who is the true King.” This is a great parallel to the passage for Ahaz because both are commands to trust in the true King to lead and save you. This passage is a stipulation of how Israelites are to choose their kings. Most of all, they are to fear God and follow carefully all the commands of God. They are not above their fellow Israelities and they are not to turn to the left or right. They are commanded to not let pride diminish your fear of God.