Thus saith the Lord GOD, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass.

Isaiah 7:7

Explanation:
At this point in Israel’s history, Israel was divided in two. 10 tribes of Israel, sometimes referred to as Ephraim which was one of those tribes, made up the northern kingdom. Judah was the southern kingdom, and was made up of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin. King Ahaz was the king of Judah at this time. In verse 1 we learn that the northern kingdom and the nation of Syria had gone to Jerusalem to make war. They had made a pact together to fight Judah. When King Ahaz heard this he and his people were quite fearful (v.2). God tells Isaiah to take his son Shearjashub and go speak to Ahaz while he is inspecting the water supply (v3). He tells him to tell Ahaz not to fear (v.4). He tells Ahaz of their plot (v.5-6). Their plan was to defeat Judah and set up a new kingdom and then share in the spoils. They even have an idea of who the king of the new kingdom could be.

Now if you were the king of a kingdom, finding out that there is a plot to war with your people and take over is never a fun message to receive. If you were ever going to receive this message, to receive it this way would be the best. Why? God was the one telling him, through the prophet Isaiah, exactly what was going to happen. Why was this good?

1. God always tells the truth. Any military leader will tell you that a large part of warfare is having the right intelligence. Much of the information you receive you may not be able to trust. In this situation the person giving the information could be fully and completely trusted.
2. God was intervening. Not only was God telling him what had happened, He was also telling Ahaz what was going to happen. In today’s verse Isaiah makes it clear that according to God the plans of these two kings will not stand, and will not come to pass. God was intervening by communicating this to Ahaz and by making sure that this plot would not happen.

Application:
Two truths we can say at this point in the passage that would apply to our lives are as follows:
First, God can be trusted. If God says something to us it is true. If he says something will happen, it will happen. He cannot lie. If we build our lives on what He has said our ways will be established.
Second, God is active. Sometimes we think that God is up in heaven, unconcerned with what is going on in our lives. We tend to think that there are so many “important” things happening in the world, how can God be concerned with the things that concern us? The truth is that God is big enough to handle everything. He tells us to cast our cares on Him. Although sometimes we feel like God is silent we should not take his silence as absence. He has spoken to us through His Word. Even though it may not seem like He is working, it does not mean that He is absent. He loves us and wants what is best for us and that which will bring Him glory in our lives.

Response:
• What has caused you to believe that God is not trustworthy?
• What has tempted you to believe that God is not active?