Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Isaiah 8:2


Copyright Ó 2012 J. Neely
Isaiah 8:2

2 And I took [`uwd] unto me faithful ['aman] witnesses [`ed] to record, [`uwd] Uriah ['Uwriyah] the priest, [kohen] and Zechariah [Zakaryah] the son [ben] of Jeberechiah. [Yaberekyahuw] KJV-Interlinear

2 "And I will take to Myself faithful witnesses for testimony, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah."  NASB

Now, here is another point to make note of, regarding the authenticity of Isaiah’s prophecy.

Isaiah is a known prophet.  God is a known God.  That should go without saying.  Both have reputations that are widely known, not only back in Isaiah’s day, but even in our current day. However, how many people regard their words as authentic or sound or something beyond story telling?

Well, back then, apparently not many, just as in our current day, not too many folks regard the Bible with genuine authority.   Do you?

And here is Isaiah writing down the word of God and ready to post it for all to see, but in order for people to believe these words, that they are indeed from God, that they are indeed a true prophecy before the fact and not a made up writing after the fact, here Isaiah is giving the writing to two people of questionable reputation, to authenticate and verify his writing.

Is God not good enough for this?  Is Isaiah not good enough for this?

When a people lacks spiritual resources within their souls, then they will look to lesser figures for confirmation of something just to make sure it is valid.  This leads to all sorts of misinformation practices such as in the current state of many contemporary media outlets in our day.

But here is Isaiah asking Uriah the priest to confirm the writing.  Uriah is a disgusting sort of fellow, who was a joint conspirator with Ahaz in other activities, 2 Kg. 16.

Likewise, Zechariah’s identity is not certain to us today.  He may have been the same as was mentioned in 2 Kg 18, or 2 Chron. 29.  And even though we are not certain of his identity, that brings out another flaw in the thinking of the general public in Isaiah’s day.

Looking to someone who was high in government or in the priesthood, but who have questionable identification and/or reputations is a spiritual character flaw of a negative or dysfunctional people.

And yet the message was written to the general or common person, but is authenticated in order to give it even more credibility, by people who are either unknown or despicable.

Does this happen in our world today?  Are there leaders who possess power, for which they have no truthful qualification, and yet the vast majority will believe them over say, God?

God provides us all with promises.  God expects responsibilities from us.  God places obligations on us.  God gives us a proven and established spiritual process for phenomenal success in our life. 

But who among us accepts these things without question.  Who among us pursue our spiritual life with legitimate aggressive vigor and passion as God intends.

Most folks look to the Bible with public approval, but with private reservation and conditions which they place in their life, and ahead of Gods mandates.  And then they look to other less authoritative figures for approval and confirmation of life's truths.  And of course that leads to poor decisions based on poor facts or circumstances.

People listen to sales personalities in politicians.  Kids listen to the lyrics of music for their philosophical truths.  Many folks will listen to strangers before they will listen to a known source.  The unfortunate result is that even if some legitimate truth comes along, then it will probably get ignored or overlooked unless something or someone supports it.

And so a spiritually weak society, will disregard truth unless it is supported by substandard sources, but even that support is not enough to sustain a society for very long.

God sent promises, even prophetic statements of certain future events, but even that reassurance will not sustain the people of Judah.  They will continue to fall away from God until it is too late.

God sends us promised and certain results as a result of a pursuit of a legitimate spiritual life.  But who believes it, who pursues it, who even knows how to pursue their spiritual life, without making up their own rules and procedures for life?