“If you will not believe, you surely shall not last.”

Isaiah 7:1-9, NOW it came about in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not conquer it. When it was reported to the house of David, saying, “The Arameans have camped in Ephraim,” his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake with the wind. Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the fuller’s field, and say to him, ‘Take care, and be calm, have no fear and do not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands, on account of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram, and the son of Remaliah. Because Aram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has planned evil against you, saying, Let us go up against Judah and terrorize it, and make for ourselves a breach in its walls, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” thus says the Lord GOD, “It shall not stand nor shall it come to pass. For the head of Aram is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin (now within another 65 years Ephraim will be shattered, so that it is no longer a people), and the head of Ephraim is Samaria and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe, you surely shall not last.”’”

Faith and fear are closely related; they both have a strong belief in something that is about to happen. Faith is the assurance, knowing beyond a doubt, of something hoped for, something unseen, of the best that can happen. Faith makes hope as real as this chair I’m sitting on. Fear is the strong and sometimes overpowering belief that the worst is about to happen. The prophet is asked to go toe to toe with two attacking kings, one of whom, Ahaz, is one of the worst, most diabolical kings to reign over Israel. Only by faith can he go without fear, being calm and not be fainthearted knowing by eyes of faith that God sees the two fearsome kings as “two stubs of smoldering firebrands!” Their head of power will be shattered by the Lord! And then we see the warning: “If you will not believe, you surely shall not last.”

Lord, like the disciples we cry out to You: “Help our unbelief!” Thank You for the gift of faith itself, that You are for us no matter what seems to come against us!