It is is easy to go wrong in the dark. To get confused by what is going on. To become lost and to lose track of where we are.
More than that it is easy in times of darkness to lose track of who we are, and of how we should get direction for how to live. A few days ago I read these words in 2 Kings:
5 Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to wage war on Jerusalem, and they besieged Ahaz but could not conquer him. 6 At that time Rezin the king of Syria recovered Elath for Syria and drove the men of Judah from Elath, and the Edomites came to Elath, where they dwell to this day. 7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.”
2 Kings 16:5-7
Ahaz in this section is the king of Judah – the southern kingdom of God’s people, the one tribe that remained loyal to the house of David. The northern kingdom are at this point ruled by Pekah, and he has allied with Rezin, king of Syria to attack Judah.
Ahaz is worried. Judah has fought off Israel before, but now they are allied to Syria and the Edomites are ready to join. Judah will be under threat from the north, and with the potential for her eastern flank to be vulnerable too.
In Isaiah 7-8 we are told that Isaiah meets Ahaz at this moment and tells him to stand firm, and not be afraid. He is to fear God and trust him – and if he trusts God he will stand firm – if not he will not stand at all.
In Isaiah 7-8 we get a glimpse into Ahaz’s stubbornness, but we don’t read how the story ends. In 2 Kings we see how Ahaz responds. Instead of trusting God he seeks to ally with the superpower of his day – the Assyrian empire. The Assyrians were brutal, bloodthirsty and effective military conquerors – so Ahaz decides they will be the people to help him fight off the northern threat.
His policy seems effective, in the short term at least:
8 Ahaz also took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king’s house and sent a present to the king of Assyria. 9 And the king of Assyria listened to him. The king of Assyria marched up against Damascus and took it, carrying its people captive to Kir, and he killed Rezin.
Judah survives to fight another day. Ahaz has kept his kingdom intact, and in a shrewd political move that you can read about if you carry on in 2 Kings he copies the Assyrian way of worship for the temple in Jerusalem. At the level of human politics it is sensible realpolitik. But read with more careful attention, and you see that it is actually disastrous loss of identity.
Go back to the start of Ahaz’s words to the Assyrian king: “I am your servant and your son” – some translations have vassal instead of son, but the literal translation is “son”. Remember who is speaking. Ahaz, king of Judah, David’s son. Remember what is said about David and his son in 2 Samuel 7:
4 But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, 5 “Go and tell my servant David, …
2 Samuel 7:4-5
Moreover, the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, 15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me.[c] Your throne shall be established forever.’”
2 Samuel 7:11-16
Notice the key words. David was Yahweh’s servant, and David’s offspring was to be Yahweh’s son. Because David, in 2 Samuel 7 is not to build the temple, a house for Yahweh – instead Yahweh will build David a house. David’s throne is established by Yahweh.
And so when we read of an king of Judah, of a descendant of David, who looks to the king of Assyria and says to the Assyrian king “I am your servant and your son”, and who asks the Assyrian king to be his deliverer we know that Ahaz has gone badly wrong.
Instead of remembering who he is in relation to Yahweh, and trusting in Yahweh’s promise that his kingdom will be established forever he looks at the political circumstances of his day and concludes that his only option is surrender to the sensible choice. He bows to Assyria.
As we read on in Kings we will come to a king – Hezekiah, who will trust in Yahweh’s deliverance and will see Yahweh establishing him on the throne. But then we will see king after king who fails to trust Yahweh’s deliverance. We will see kings who trust in Egypt’s military assistance. Kings who seek the aid of foreign gods. Kings who sacrifice their children to human idols.
David’s line is exiled in Babylon, and all seems lost. The nation returns, but there is no Davidic king. Only governors of a tiny province in a vast pagan empire. It isn’t until the page turns on Matthew’s gospel when we read of the beloved son of God, the perfect servant of God – Jesus – whose name means Yahweh delivers, that we see the filling out of this promise to David all those years before.
Perhaps better than any time in the last 100 years we in the UK know that our political rulers cannot save us, that they cannot bring about the wholeness that we crave. In my lifetime I have never felt so starkly the brokenness of our politics. In the darkness and gloom of a bleak election campaign where empty promises are shouted across streets filled with broken people desperate to work out how to make ends meet.
After three and half years of refusal to acknowledge difference, refusal to allow that the other side might have a point, of refusal to work out what compromise we could make about the way forward as a nation we are tired and weary of words. We hear promises that seem empty. We have a leader for whom words seem like toys.
In such darkness and gloom we need a word from outside. A word that can be trusted. A word that is solid. We need a light to shine on our paths. We need rebuilding and wholeness. We fear as Israel in Ahaz’s day feared. We fear the collapse of all that we know and hold dear. We are tempted to make things work at least for us, for now, by turning to the idols of money and power – or at least of amusement and comfort – even in our churches.
We need to listen to the words spoken into the darkness of Ahaz’s day as the Assyrian empire swept all before:
The people who walked in darkness
Isaiah 9:2-7
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone.
3 You have multiplied the nation;
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
4 For the yoke of his burden,
and the staff for his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.
5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult
and every garment rolled in blood
will be burned as fuel for the fire.
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon[d] his shoulder,
and his name shall be called[e]
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
The answer to our darkness is a child. Into the darkness. Into the brokenness. Into the wind and the rain our God gives his son. He gives his son that we might learn to lives as beloved children of our heavenly Father.
He brings the government, not by shouting loudly, and not by shouting down his enemies. The Son of God is the true Servant of God. The one who does not raise his voice or cry out in the streets. The one who does not break a bruised reed, or snuff out a smouldering wick.
As the True Servant and the Real Son he comes that we might truly be sons and servants of the living God. He comes inviting us into the life of God. To experience the love of the Father poured out on his beloved through the Spirit he freely gives.
It as we live in that love that we as individuals and communities turn our hearts to him that we can show the way of true wholeness. It as we turn our hearts to him, and as he pours his life on us that we can show the light in the midst of our dark streets, in the midst of our fear and in the midst of our broken society.
We have to trust in the God who came to a manger and defeated his enemies by his death and resurrection.
The hope of our nation is not a political leader. Whoever wins on Thursday it seems entirely possible that within 4 weeks, 4 months or 4 years we will have in this land very many even more disillusioned people as promises are broken, or cannot be met. In either case we might very well turn as a nation to leaders who promise to restore us and make us great again, if we will only give them our trust and our loyalty.
As Christians we need to be ready to stand firm when such demands are made. We must remember we are children of the living God, servants of the King, who have received his spirit which does not make us a slave to fear. We must plead with God to pour out his Spirit on us so that we can stand firm in our faith – not fearing what others fear, but remembering that our God is with us.
We must pray that God would do what he has done before in our land and stir up Christians to live such changed lives that the world takes note. Some of us need to be ready to stand firm in the political arena – being salt and light in whatever way is possible in our day – whether in party politics or in some other sphere of public life. Others are called simply (but never easily) to being that salt and light in our workplaces, in our neighbourhoods and in our families.
Whether those efforts lead to transformation – or simply require that we live faithfully in an ever darkening landscape all of us are called to be part of communities that show what it means for God to live with us now, looking forward to the day when the whole world will be transformed and set free. To the day where there will be no more darkness.
Until that day we live now showing the light that has dawned. Showing that in the one who came to be God with us we can live out fully our identity as servants and children of the living God who do not need to fear the darkness. Servants and children of the living God ready to live for him no matter how dark the darkness feels because we know the light is stronger, and will shine out the clearer.
I love this song as a prayer for our nation – I love the way it plays on familiar words to return us to the true source of hope and glory. The video isn’t perfect – but I like that it is all based around the city. One day the best of our cities will become part of God’s transformed garden city in a world made new – until that day we pray these words – and how our nation needs these prayers right now.
Joshua's Tree 