Isaiah 31

The people of Judah had a choice. The Assyrian Empire was conquering every country in its path. They were next. 

Isaiah wanted them to repent and trust in God for protection. They put their faith in an alliance with Egypt instead: 

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the Lord. 

 -- Isaiah 31:1 

But Egypt couldn’t actually help. They were an aging empire living on past glory. Their armies had little chance against the Assyrians. This is how the Assyrian general who led the invasion of Judah described them: 

Look, I know you are depending on Egypt, the splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. 

-- Isaiah 36:6 

But help from the Egyptians was at least something. They had horsemen and chariots. It was tangible. Isaiah, on the other hand, was telling them to hope in an unseen God. 

His advice was in line with the rest of the Old Testament. God prohibited His people from having chariots after the exodus from Egypt. (Deuteronomy 17:16) It’s hard to overemphasize how crazy that would have seemed. It would be like a modern army not having tanks. 

It was the ultimate test of faith. Did they have the courage of their convictions? If they really believed they were following the all-knowing and all-powerful Creator of the universe, they should have no trouble believing they could win wars without the latest and greatest military technology. But, of course, all that stuff is easier to believe in theory than practice. 

Anyone can say they believe anything. Talk is cheap. It only means something when it is backed up by actions. 

That's why God often told His people to fight with one hand tied behind their back. Before a crucial battle in the initial conquest of the Promised Land, He had a general named Gideon repeatedly shrink the size of his army, from roughly 32,000 men all the way to 300: 

The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’” 

-- Judges 7:2 

A few hundred years after Gideon, a prophet named Elijah was battling a Jewish king who worshipped a god named Baal. He set up a challenge between himself and the prophets of Baal. Both sides would build an altar on a mountain and pray to see which would light on fire. But instead of trying to make the process easier, Elijah poured gallons of water on his altar. 

Photo: Fs999

The point was that God didn’t need help from human beings to accomplish His ends on the earth. He could do it on His own. When lightning struck and lit Elijah’s logs on fire, it was all the proof that he needed. 

Imagine being Elijah in that moment. Better yet, imagine watching him. Maybe you would have believed what he was saying or maybe you wouldn’t. But you couldn’t question whether or not he did. He was all-in. 

Isaiah was telling his people to do the same in their moment of crisis. The size of their military (and their military alliance) would not save them against Assyria. Only God could.

The military is a tool that believers have turned into an idol since the beginning of time. The greatest misunderstanding that people had about the coming of Jesus Christ was that he would lead an army against the enemies of God. The Jewish people were like Luke Skywalker heading to Dagobah in The Empire Strikes Back, looking for a mighty warrior named Yoda to lead them. But he found a tiny hermit who spoke in riddles instead. 

  

Yoda: Help you I can. 

Luke: I don’t think so. I’m looking for a great warrior. 

Yoda: Great warrior? Wars not make one great. 

Jesus, like Yoda in the original Star Wars movies, never fought in any wars. He had no interest in armies. He came to Earth as a penniless carpenter and told people to submit to the Roman authorities and love their neighbors. He listened to God and trusted Him with the outcome. 

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 

Who, being in very nature, God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death -- even death on a cross! 

-- Philippians 2:5-8 

That is the relationship all believers should have with God. The people of Judah weren’t supposed to put their faith in military might like the Assyrians. They had the strongest army in human history at the time. They thought they would be safe if they crushed everyone around them. 

But it didn’t turn out that way. Assyria fell almost as quickly as it rose, taken down by an even bigger and more vicious empire in Babylon. They, in turn, fell to the Persians, who fell to the Greeks, who fell to the Romans. Empires come and go. Militaries crumble under their own weight. Chariots rust. So do tanks and aircraft carriers. 

The American military certainly seems invincible. We spend more money on our armed forces than every other country combined. We control more of the planet than any country ever has. Every politician, regardless of party, tells us our military is the greatest force for good the world has ever seen. The "defense" budget always goes up, no matter what else is happening in the world. 

The answer is always the same. Give more money to the military. Put more hope in the military. Listen to the leaders of the military. They have the answers. They will keep us safe. 

But that's not a Biblical response. No army is invincible, no matter its size and power. No soldier is, either. David killed Goliath with a slingshot. Gideon killed thousands of men with a few hundred because God was helping him. The other stuff didn’t matter. 

Isaiah told his people not to trust in Egypt. Only God could stop the Assyrian army. And that is exactly what happened. Almost 200,000 Assyrian troops marched to the gates of Jerusalem, only to be decimated in one night by a mysterious plague. 

"As a lion growls, a great lion over its prey -- and though a whole band of shepherds is called together against it, it is not frightened by their shouts or disturbed by their clamor -- so the Lord Almighty will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights.

Like birds hovering overhead, the Lord Almighty will shield Jerusalem; he will shield it and deliver it, he will 'pass over' it and will rescue it."

 -- Isaiah 31:4-5

Miracles happen all the time. The hand of God is everywhere in history, once you know where to look for it. There is never any reason to be afraid. Just believe what God has told us. 

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all -- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 

Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died -- more than that, who was raised to life -- is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 

-- Romans 8:31-35