When Faith is Tested by Difficult Circumstances. A Study from the Book of Isaiah.
If you read Scripture to know God, you know how He delights in revealing Himself to you. The Bible includes many details, some of which may appear insignificant, but every word has at least one purpose designed by God. One of the most thrilling experiences for me is when I see repeated words or concepts in different places of the Bible, and from “fifty thousand feet”, gain powerful insights. The Holy Spirit is the One who allows us to make these connections, teaching us how the Word of God is living and active (Heb 4:12). Today I want to share with you the wisdom He taught me via “the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field.”
Back in 2015, I attended a Bible study taught by my friend Lynn McCoy, with Jews for Jesus. I specifically remember the night she taught about Isaiah 7. Our extended time studying it is probably why this location was etched in my memory.
Isaiah 7:1-2
7 Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but could not prevail against it. 2 And it was told to the house of David, saying, “Syria’s forces are deployed in Ephraim.” So his heart and the heart of his people were moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind.
I want to pause for a tiny history lesson. Jacob, also called Israel, had twelve sons, and they became the twelve tribes of Israel. After Israel asked for a human king, God gave them Saul, a Benjamite. But Saul did not obey God, so the Lord anointed a man named David, of the house of Judah, to replace Saul as king. David pleased the Lord and He promised to establish His house forever. (Jesus descends from David.) In the days when King David’s grandson Rehoboam reigned, Israel was divided into two kingdoms. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin were the kingdom of Judah, and the other ten tribes, who rebelled against the house of David, were called Israel. Where we pick up in Isaiah 7, the king of Israel and the king of Syria have joined forces and want to conquer Jerusalem, the capital of Judah. Ahaz and the house of David are terrified.
If you read Scripture to know God, you know how He delights in revealing Himself to you. The Bible includes many details, some of which may appear insignificant, but every word has at least one purpose designed by God. One of the most thrilling experiences for me is when I see repeated words or concepts in different places of the Bible, and from “fifty thousand feet”, gain powerful insights. The Holy Spirit is the One who allows us to make these connections, teaching us how the Word of God is living and active (Heb 4:12). Today I want to share with you the wisdom He taught me via “the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field.”
Back in 2015, I attended a Bible study taught by my friend Lynn McCoy, with Jews for Jesus. I specifically remember the night she taught about Isaiah 7. Our extended time studying it is probably why this location was etched in my memory.
Isaiah 7:1-2
7 Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but could not prevail against it. 2 And it was told to the house of David, saying, “Syria’s forces are deployed in Ephraim.” So his heart and the heart of his people were moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind.
I want to pause for a tiny history lesson. Jacob, also called Israel, had twelve sons, and they became the twelve tribes of Israel. After Israel asked for a human king, God gave them Saul, a Benjamite. But Saul did not obey God, so the Lord anointed a man named David, of the house of Judah, to replace Saul as king. David pleased the Lord and He promised to establish His house forever. (Jesus descends from David.) In the days when King David’s grandson Rehoboam reigned, Israel was divided into two kingdoms. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin were the kingdom of Judah, and the other ten tribes, who rebelled against the house of David, were called Israel. Where we pick up in Isaiah 7, the king of Israel and the king of Syria have joined forces and want to conquer Jerusalem, the capital of Judah. Ahaz and the house of David are terrified.
King Ahaz Tested
Isaiah 7:3-9
3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-Jashub your son, at the end of the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, 4 and say to him: ‘Take heed, and be quiet; do not fear or be fainthearted for these two stubs of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and the son of Remaliah. 5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted evil against you, saying, 6 “Let us go up against Judah and trouble it, and let us make a gap in its wall for ourselves, and set a king over them, the son of Tabel”—7 thus says the Lord God:
“It shall not stand,
Nor shall it come to pass.
8 For the head of Syria is Damascus,
And the head of Damascus is Rezin.
Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken,
So that it will not be a people.
9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria,
And the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son.
If you will not believe,
Surely you shall not be established.” ’ ”
The Lord sends Isaiah and his son Shear-Jashub for a meeting at the end of the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field. Young Shear-Jashub doesn’t need to say a word, but he was born and named to be a sign for the house of David. Shear-Jashub means, “A remnant shall return.”
Through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord is exhorting King Ahaz not to be afraid of Rezin king of Syria and Pekah king of Israel, but to trust in the deliverance of the Almighty God.
King Ahaz Refuses God
Isaiah 7:10-12
10 Moreover the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, 11 “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.”
12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!”
13 Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”
Sometimes we can talk in a spiritual sounding way, while being disobedient. That’s how I see the king’s reply: “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!” Notice the Lord addresses the whole house of David after Ahaz refuses to ask for a sign. God’s favor extended towards Judah is clearly not based on their habitually good behavior, but on the covenant, which He made with David (2 Sam 7:12-14).
The Lord’s Own Sign
Isaiah 7:14, about the virgin conceiving and bearing a Son, is a prophecy about the promised Messiah, meaning “Anointed One.” Messiah is translated “Christ” in Greek. When Peter confessed to Jesus (Mt 16:16), “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” he was speaking of the Anointed One (Ps 2:2), to whom the Father said, “You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Ps 2:7-9). This particular prophecy in Isaiah 7 was fulfilled when the virgin Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit and the power of the Most High (Lk 1:35), and a bore a Son, whom she named Yeshua, meaning “The Lord saves.” We know him as “Jesus.” Immanuel, in the prophecy, means “God with us”—and surely, He is, in the person of Jesus (Jn 14:8-11).
Consequences of Unbelief
Isaiah 7:15-17
15 Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings. 17 The Lord will bring the king of Assyria upon you and your people and your father’s house—days that have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah.”
Ahaz refused to trust God about the threat from two kings, so a greater king would attack: the king of Assyria. There’s more to this story, but we’ll get to it later. Personally, I believe this is a dual prophecy, and that the latter fulfillment is still to come.
Now I want to jump forward to Isaiah 36.
King Hezekiah Tested
Isaiah 36:1-6
36 Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. 2 Then the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And he stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field. 3 And Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to him.
4 Then the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: “What confidence is this in which you trust? 5 I say you speak of having plans and power for war; but they are mere words. Now in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me? 6 Look! You are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.
Let’s stop for second and notice what we’ve read so far. Hezekiah is king of Judah and Sennacherib is king of Assyria. The Assyrian army has captured all the fortified cities of Judah except Jerusalem. Now the king of Assyria has sent the Rabshakeh–most likely a chief of staff or governor—and a great army, to deliver a message to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. He stands by the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s field, and three men of King Hezekiah’s administration go to speak with him.
The message from the king of Assyria mocks King Hezekiah’s confidence to face him in war. He suggests Hezekiah is trusting in Egypt, and scoffs, since Egypt’s unreliability is apparently well-known.
Isaiah 36:7-22
7 “But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?
8 Now therefore, I urge you, give a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses—if you are able on your part to put riders on them! 9 How then will you repel one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 10 Have I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’ ”
11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”
12 But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat and drink their own waste with you?”
13 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out with a loud voice in Hebrew, and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 14 Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you; 15 nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, “The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ’ 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make peace with me by a present and come out to me; and every one of you eat from his own vine and every one from his own fig tree, and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; 17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? 20 Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’ ”
21 But they held their peace and answered him not a word; for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.” 22 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.
Here by the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, three of Hezekiah’s men, uncounted common citizens of Jerusalem, and ultimately the king, were tested by the message from the king of Assyria.
King Hezekiah: “You Are God, You Alone”
Isaiah 37 says when King Hezekiah heard the message, he tore his clothes, covered himself in sackcloth and entered the house of the Lord. And he sent Eliakim, Shebna and the elders of the priests to Isaiah the prophet.
Isaiah 37:6-7
6 And Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. 7 Surely I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.” ’ ”
The Rabshakeh left Jerusalem, but later sent a letter to Hezekiah, again taunting them and blaspheming God.
Isaiah 37:15-20
15 Then Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying: 16 “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 17 Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. 18 Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, 19 and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands—wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them. 20 Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord, You alone.”
The word of the Lord came to the prophet Isaiah, who delivered His message to Hezekiah. For brevity, I am only including the Lord’s concluding words:
Isaiah 37:33-35
33 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria:
‘He shall not come into this city,
Nor shoot an arrow there,
Nor come before it with shield,
Nor build a siege mound against it.
34 By the way that he came,
By the same shall he return;
And he shall not come into this city,’
Says the Lord.
35 ‘For I will defend this city, to save it
For My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’ ”
Isaiah 37 goes on to recount how the angel of the Lord went out at night into the camp of the Assyrians and killed 185,000 people. Afterwards, Sennacherib king of Assyria returned home to Nineveh. And while he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, two of his sons killed him with sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. And another son reigned in his place.
What’s So Special About the Aqueduct?
You might be thinking, “It’s awesome how God destroyed these Assyrians for the glory of His name, but what do you think is significant about the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field?”
At this exact location, two kings of Judah were tested. One failed. The other passed. I’m sure the Rabshakeh had no idea about the earlier meeting there involving a different king of Judah, but the Lord knew. I am confident He sovereignly sent the Rabshakeh to that spot and included this detail in His Word so we could make the connection.
NIV84 renders the Lord’s exhortation to Ahaz in Is 7:9: “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.” “Stand firm in your faith” is a verb from the root אמן (aman) often translated “believe”, which has a fuller connotation of trusting. Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible says, “Conviction based on testimony that something is true or that someone is reliable. As used in the Bible, to believe in God involves the element of trust, not mere acknowledgment of his existence.”[1] It is the source of the word, “Amen.”
[1] Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Belief, Believe. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 1, p. 276). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
Ahaz Trusted in Man
2 Kings 16 offers a greater perspective on King Ahaz. It says he walked in ways of the kings of Israel (that is, he was wicked, worshiping false gods), and even sacrificed his son in the fire. Then it speaks of the threat he faced from the king of Syria and the king of Israel, and this is how he handled it:
2 Kings 16:7-9
7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who rise up against me.” 8 And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasuries of the king’s house, and sent it as a present to the king of Assyria. 9 So the king of Assyria heeded him; for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and took it, carried its people captive to Kir, and killed Rezin.
We see King Ahaz was trusting in a man to save him—the king of Assyria. Ahaz prostrated himself before the king of Assyria, even stealing from the house of the Lord to offer a bribe. It’s like the Lord was saying to Ahaz, through the prophet Isaiah: “You trust in the king of Assyria instead of Me? I will bring the king of Assyria to attack you.” And this is exactly what happened in the days when Hezekiah was king of Israel.
vasilevkirill/Depositphotos.com
Trust in the Lord, the Only Savior
As I write this today, the world is largely shut down from the threat of COVID-19, the disease caused by the newest strains of Coronavirus. Like these men whose faith was tested by the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, we were just going about our business in ordinary places when people started dying and we were encouraged to shelter in place. There’s a real temptation to look to men or government to save us, but that would be a terrible mistake. Whoever or whatever we trust in to save us, if not the Lord, will eventually prove to be a snare. Yeshua is the One who saves. He is the only one who can save our souls (by His blood, which He shed on the cross to cover our sins). He also promises to provide for the needs of His children, just like He feeds the birds and clothes the grass of the field (Mt 6:25-34).
As Coronavirus or some other threat closes in, I pray we would hold fast, choosing to trust fully in the Lord, just as King Hezekiah did, who saw the deliverance He brought about.
Trust in the Lord, the Only Savior
vasilevkirill/Depositphotos.com
As I write this today, the world is largely shut down from the threat of COVID-19, the disease caused by the newest strains of Coronavirus. Like these men whose faith was tested by the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, we were just going about our business in ordinary places when people started dying and we were encouraged to shelter in place. There’s a real temptation to look to men or government to save us, but that would be a terrible mistake. Whoever or whatever we trust in to save us, if not the Lord, will eventually prove to be a snare. Yeshua is the One who saves. He is the only one who can save our souls (by His blood, which He shed on the cross to cover our sins). He also promises to provide for the needs of His children, just like He feeds the birds and clothes the grass of the field (Mt 6:25-34).
As Coronavirus or some other threat closes in, I pray we would hold fast, choosing to trust fully in the Lord, just as King Hezekiah did, who saw the deliverance He brought about.
