Bible Reading for July 22 – Isaiah 31-34

The people of Jerusalem had big, big problems. They were being threatened by the most powerful country in the world, the Assyrian empire, and there was no way they could mount any sort of effective military defense against an invasion. What could so few possibly do in the face of such a great army?

Well, the commonsense thing would have been for them to reach out to another great power in the region – Egypt. Yes, they all knew the Egyptians had enslaved their ancestors for hundreds and hundreds of years, but what could be wrong with making an alliance with them in such desperate times? Just as the Western Allies cooperated with the Communist Soviets to defeat Hitler, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?

Well, how are we Christians dealing with our current problem, the worldwide pandemic? Are we making common cause with Fear, scaring people into healthy practices such as handwashing and mask-wearing? Are we hanging out with Hate, looking down on those who disagree with us about the efficacy of these measures? Like the ancient people of Jerusalem, do we catch ourselves thinking that the ends justify the means?

And who do we think will bring our problems to an end? Are we looking to our doctors and nurses? To our researchers? To our governments? While all of these may indeed do valuable service, the fact is that we are all just as helpless in the face of this virus as the people of Jerusalem were with the Assyrian army outside their gates. After all, there’s still a lot we don’t know about how this virus is transmitted, and if it mutates too much, it could make whatever vaccines we develop impotent.

But the fact is that the most recent worldwide pandemic, the influenza outbreak of 1918 and 1919, simply faded away – while our quarantines, personal hygiene and cleaning regimens certainly helped, scientists still don’t know exactly why the disease was so deadly or why it mutated into a much less harmful state. And in the same way, just as Isaiah 31:8 predicted, the Assyrians would eventually be destroyed, and without the Judeans having to lift a finger (Isaiah 37:36). God would do for the people of Jerusalem what they could not do for themselves.

So, why should we try to protect ourselves by appealing to hatred and fear? Indeed, why should we place our faith anywhere but in the Lord?

Isaiah 31:1-9 (NASB)

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, And rely on horses, And trust in chariots because they are many, And in horsemen because they are very strong, But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD!
2 Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster, And does not retract His words, But will arise against the house of evildoers, And against the help of the workers of iniquity.
3 Now the Egyptians are men, and not God, And their horses are flesh and not spirit; So the LORD will stretch out His hand, And he who helps will stumble And he who is helped will fall, And all of them will come to an end together.
4 For thus says the LORD to me, “As the lion or the young lion growls over his prey, Against which a band of shepherds is called out, Will not be terrified at their voice, nor disturbed at their noise, So will the LORD of hosts come down to wage war on Mount Zion and on its hill.”
5 Like flying birds so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it; He will pass over and rescue it.
6 Return to Him from whom you have deeply defected, O sons of Israel.
7 For in that day every man will cast away his silver idols and his gold idols, which your hands have made as a sin.
8 And the Assyrian will fall by a sword not of man, And a sword not of man will devour him. So he will not escape the sword, And his young men will become forced laborers.
9 “And his rock will pass away because of panic, And his princes will be terrified at the standard,” Declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.