Isaiah 7:9
9 And the head [ro'sh] of Ephraim ['Ephrayim] is Samaria, [Shomarown] and
the head [ro'sh] of Samaria [Shomarown] is Remaliah's [Ramalyahuw]
son. [ben] If ye will not believe, ['aman] surely ye shall not be established. ['aman] KJV-Interlinear
9 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. "'" NASB
And here is the premiere
principle that all people should live by.
‘If you will not believe,
then you will not last.’
Samaria is the capital
city of Ephraim. By implication,
Jerusalem will never be the capital of Israel, the northern country, as that
country has departed from God.
Jerusalem, or better stated, the symbolism of Jerusalem, the city of
peace, the city of Gods plan, will never depart from Gods plan.
Gods plan will never
originate from humanity or Satan or anything having to do with this world.
Likewise, anything
dealing with this world, with humanity, with Satan, will never overcome or take
over Gods plan and control over history or anything else.
Ephraim is just another
country that opposes God. Samaria is
just another city that promotes itself as a capital, but really is the capital
of nothing.
The king of Ephriam,
Pekah, is not even worth having his name mentioned. The king of nothing, is nothing.
Therefore, since anything
of this world is equivalent to nothing, and since Gods promises are equivalent
to everything, then which is the better to rely on?
And so our principle for
today’s study. If you do not rely on
God, on Gods promises, then you will not stand, but fall in life.
When you were young, your
calamities in life were probably related to social relationships.
When you were older, then
your problems were probably related to mid-life crises of sorts.
And as you get older,
then your health, your concerns for family, your accumulated disappointments of
life or whatever, become the center of your worries in life.
In any of these things,
where are the promises of God? Where is
the ‘stand fast,’ attitude?
The words, not believe,
mean quite literally, to hold this faith fast, or to stand fast. So, if you will not stand fast in your faith,
then your life will not be established in truth.
In the spiritual life,
your growth is accomplished by means of several mechanisms, and pressure and
suffering and adversity in life, are provided by God in order to prove or test
your spiritual worth.
You will either look to
God, when you are under pressure, or you will not.
Most people do not.
The typical tendency is
to complain, to gripe, to blame, to give up, to withdraw from your
responsibilities to yourself or to others. Those are easier paths, but they
never solve anything. They only produce
more and greater problems. Lives fail,
marriages fail, families fail, nations fail, and on and on goes the negative
process.
And so Ahaz was probably
looking at Isaiah with skepticism and doubt, and Isaiah slammed him with this
very obvious but tough principle. Doubt
God and you yourself will fail.
Gods plan will continue
regardless of your attitude or beliefs.
Your negative attitude and bitterness will serve only to ruin yourself. God gives us all opportunities to experience
suffering and problems in life. We will
all experience different problems. We will
experience different types of problems at different points in our life.
None of us are here to be
served with silver and gold lives. We are
all here to be prepared for the next life.
And that preparation is
for your growth not only in knowledge, but in understanding and the development
of faith, such that you will be able to withstand anything this world throws at
you.
I saw a bumper sticker
once that said, ‘Discover truth, read the Bible.’
Anyone can read the
Bible, and never figure anything out.
But to find truth, you
need to pursue Gods defined spiritual process, in full, namely fellowship through
confession, study through instruction, listening through concentration,
learning through repetition, and growth though application.
This whole exercise is
the circle of wisdom, by which we develop faith, or the muscle of our soul.
No exercise, no
muscle. No muscle, no strength. No strength, no stamina. No stamina no success.
So, stand fast, means to
get up when you are down, and keep moving in your spiritual life and in
everything else.
Never allow depression, anxiety,
or failures of any sort, defeat you, because God has made you many promises,
and even the smallest of a single one Gods promises, is infinitely greater than
all of the problems of the world combined.
And, you have many, many
promises from God.
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