Assyria was a unique superpower of the ancient world. It was one of the first, really, to attempt to bring the whole known world under one (taxable) roof. It set out to accomplish this by using military might and brutality. It says something of your tactics when the Babylonians, the Persians, and Rome (with its practice of crucifixion) looked on you as barbaric.
It's no wonder the Israelites were terrified. Who were they, after all? Hardly a blip on the radar. And yet somehow they'd drawn the attention of the Assyrians. What were they to do? Who was there to help? Maybe Egypt! If they hid in Egypt, Egypt might be able to stand up to Assyria.
Israel, when Isaiah 30 was written, was a divided people: they were divided between their hope in Egypt to protect them from Assyria, their fear of Assyria, their sense that "the old God" was no good, and their sense that somehow He was their only hope.
We regular people are always finding ourselves caught in the cogs of Empires shifting. One Empire rises up and ruins the old Empire. The new Empire fades under a bloated, decaying, infrastructure and governmental hubris. It becomes the old Empire. Another arises. But you and me today, and the Israelites of old, don't know whether to surrender, flee, fight, or hide. And the one thing that looks least appealing of all is faith.
Isaiah writes the words of God, "Thus said the LORD God..." What does the LORD God say to this people in that situation? "...In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and trust shall be your strength."
What we need is salvation and strength. Salvation beyond the bounds of Empires. Strength to endure their cursed rage and decay.
In recent weeks we have been considering the way the Lord gives us strength through the Word of God. But this does not happen through osmosis or magic or any non-participatory means. We must be quiet; we must trust.
"IN QUIETNESS"
Be still. "He makes wars to cease... 'Be still, and know that I am God'." (Psa 46:9-10)
What does it mean to be still, to be quiet? It means to stop talking. Stop the scurrying, anxious, internal-monologue of plans, planning, preparations, and productivity.
"The Holy One of Israel," He is called in Isaiah 30:15. That is, the utterly unique, one-of-a-kind, deity who has attached Himself to, yes, you, little lambs. Let those words sink in. Let them give you strength.
And it is only when we grow still, and be quiet, that His strength is able to flow to us in His Words. How else could He give strength to us through His words, if we're jabbering away? Counseling? Advising? Explaining? Devising?
Until our words cease...
"AND IN TRUST"
"The word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard." (Heb 4:2)
Scripture makes extraordinary claims.
But so does life, our fears, the hubris of the world...
So they must be stilled, quieted, before we are able to hear, and then to trust these other, better, words.
"Trust" in Isaiah 30:15 is parallel to "Rest" (in the previous phrase). To trust is to put ourselves, our futures, in the hands of these words. To rest ourselves, aspirations, fears, hurts, in them. To trust... in His Word.
When we put ourselves in them, they come into us.
We give our weak selves to God's strong truths, and His strength He gives to us in those truths.
Getting strength from God's Word is not a task to add to things I'm doing in order to fix my life. God's Word calls me away from all that. It calls me away from the life I've sketched for myself (based on blueprints inherited from "the futile ways... of our forefathers," 1Pet 1:18). It calls me to that which is life indeed.
There I may receive strength to live in the world--yes, even this world.
But we can't do it without God's Word. We can't do it without God's strength. Assyria won't show mercy; Egypt won't save. But with God's Word in me, I can say to Assyria, "I don't fear the one who can only kill the body"; and to Egypt, "There is salvation in no other name than Jesus Christ, my LORD."
Faith can be hard. But it's the only thing that can connect us to the One who saves, who gives His people strength.
Photo by nikko macaspac on Unsplash
