Conspiracy v. Faith

Judah is threatened by an alliance of Syria and Israel, who are frightened by the expanding Assyrian empire. The Lord’s response, through Isaiah, is to offer the sign of Immanuel. That is an assurance in the face of imperial invasion.

The Assyrians are going to flow into the land, the king of Assyria with all his glory, all his chariots and soldiers in shining armor, all his false winged glory-cloud. And it will fill the land, but this is not just any land, this is Immanuel’s land. And Immanuel is there, with them, in the midst of the crisis. Immanuel doesn’t run away to high ground when the flood comes. If Immanuel’s land is flooded, if Immanuel’s people are nearly drowned, Immanuel is nearly drowned along with them.

But that is not all that Immanuel promises here. As soon as Isaiah mentions Immanuel, the whole tenor of the prophecy changes. Immanuel is with Judah in suffering, but Immanuel is also a sign that Yahweh will not leave the nations unpunished. Drawing on the imagery of Psalm 2, Isaiah assures Judah that the nations that plot and clamor against Judah will be shattered. The peoples will gird themselves for war. They will adopt a plan and make a proposal. But it will not stand, it will not come to pass. The nations will be broken, shattered; their plans will be thwarted. The nations that invade Immanuel’s land will be frustrated.

And this is why the Lord warns Isaiah and those who are with him not to join with the people in their conspiracy-mongering. Verse 11 uses exodus language to describe the Lord’s speech to Isaiah. The Lord speaks to Isaiah “with a mighty hand,” the mighty hand of the Spirit that the Lord stretched out against Egypt, the mighty hand that Yahweh used to yank Israel from Pharaoh. That mighty hand is stretched out when Yahweh speaks. Yahweh’s word is an exodus event. Every time Yahweh’s word comes, He pulls people from Egypt and from the way of the people, and puts them in a new way. That’s what happens to Isaiah and his company.

The way of the people is a way of fear. They are full of conspiracy fears, and there really are conspiracies. We can sympathize with the conspiracy hysteria. Syria and Israel are plotting against us. They plan to invade. They are plotting to replace Ahaz. Assyria is planning to invade. There are conspiracies and plots everywhere. The land is full of political intrigue. And the people are in fear and dread of the plots.

Yahweh’s word reaches out and grabs hold of Isaiah and puts him on a different way. This too is a way of fear, but the fear has a different object. Instead of fearing conspiracies and plots and surfing the web to find the latest danger from the CFR or the Illuminati or al Quaeda, Isaiah and those who are with him, we should fear Yahweh. Yahweh is our dread. Because Yahweh has spoken with a strong hand, He has turned Isaiah and his children from fear of conspiracy to fear of Yahweh.

Faith and fear, faith and conspiracy-mongering are mutually exclusive. Fearing the turmoil of the nations, getting all stirred up by what stirs up the world around us, that is opposed to having Yahweh as our fear and dread. We can either fear conspiracy, or we can hallow God’s name by fearing Him and finding our refuge in His sanctuary, among His people. We cannot do both.