Fear Not-"God Is With Us!"

Isaiah warns:  Be injurious, O you peoples [opposed to God's covenant people], and be shattered to pieces; and give ear, all you in  distant parts of the earth!  Gird yourselves, and be shattered to pieces!  Plan out a scheme, and it will be broken up!  Speak any word, and it will not stand, for God is with us!"  (Isaiah 8:9, 10)  Some years later, during the reign of Ahaz' faithful son Hezekiah, these words  come true. When the Assyrians threaten Jerusalem, Jehovah's angel strikes down 185,000 of them.  Clearly, God is with his people and the royal line of David.  (Isaiah 37:33-37)  During the coming battle of Armageddon, Jehovah will likewise send the Greater Immanuel not only to dash His enemies to pieces but also to rescue all those who trust in Him. -Psalm 2:2, 9, 12. 

 Unlike Jews in Hezekiah's time, Ahaz' contemporaries lack faith in Jehovah's protection.  They favor a confederacy, or "conspiracy,"  with the Assyrians as a bulwark against the Syro-Israelite league.   However, Jehovah's  "hand"  prods Isaiah to speak against  "the way  of this people," or the popular trend.  He warns: "The Object of their fear you men must not fear, nor must you tremble at it.  Jehovah of armies -he is the One whom you should treat as holy, and he should be the One causing you to tremble."  (Isaiah 8:11-13)  With this in mind, Jehovah's servants today guard against conspiring  with or putting their trust in religious councils and political leagues.  Servants of Jehovah have full confidence in God's protective power. After all, if 'Jehovah is on our side,m what can earthling man do to us? -Psalm 118:6.

Isaiah goes on to reiterate that Jehovah will prove to be "a sacred place," a protection, for those trusting in him.  In contrast, those rejecting him  "will be certain to stumble and fall and be broken, and to be snared and caught"-five vivid verbs that leave no doubt about the fate of those not trusting in Jehovah.  (Isaiah 8:14, 15)  In the first century, those rejecting Jesus likewise stumbled and fell.  (Luke 20:17, 18) A similar outcome awaits those today who fail to give allegiance  to the enthroned heavenly King, Jesus. - Psalms 2:5-9.

In Isaiah's day, not all are stumbled.  Isaiah says: "Wrap up the attestation, put a seal about the law among my disciples!  And I will keep in expectation of Jehovah, who is concealing his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him."  (Isaiah 8:16, 17)  Isaiah and those who heed his teaching will not abandon God's Law.  They keep  on trusting in Jehovah, even though their delinquent compatriots refuse to and thus have Jehovah conceal his face from them.  May we follow the example  of those trusting in Jehovah and have the same determination to cling to pure worship! -Daniel 12:4,9; Matthew 24:45; compare Hebrews 6:11, 12.

Next time: "Signs" and "Miracles"

From the Book Isaiah's Prophecy Light for all Mankind