vii. 4. _Take heed, and be quiet; fear not._
+I. "Take heed."+ This is just what Ahaz fancied he was doing. He was
taking heed to the alliance which had been formed for his overthrow,
and he was at that very moment doing his best to frustrate it--by
strengthening the fortifications of Jerusalem, and by summoning the
king of Assyria to his help. This seemed to him and his court
supremely wise: it was eminently foolish. He was taking heed
exclusively to the danger, and had no attention left for the
Divinely-provided defence against it. That defence lay in God's
promise made to David (2 Sam. vii. 12-16). From one point of view, it
may be said that in allying themselves for the destruction of the
royal house of David, Rezin, Pekah, and the son of Tabeal embarked on
an enterprise foredoomed to failure; they might as well have
conspired to prevent the sun from rising any more in the east. That
the descendants of David should reign in Jerusalem and that the sun
should rise in the east, were both guaranteed by the same thing--the
will and appointment of God. Resistance was as vain in the one case
as in the other--that is, while the conditions attached to the
promise made to David were observed. For there were conditions
attached to it (1 Chron. xxviii. 9; 2 Chron. xv. 2). It was to this
great promise and to its essential conditions that God would have
Ahaz "take heed."
_"Take heed"_ is good counsel to give to every man standing in
covenant relations with God. Many of us stand in such relations to
Him, both as the result of the relations in which our parents stood
to Him (Ex. xx. 6; Deut. vii. 9, &c.), and as the result of our
personal acts; "the seed of the righteous," we have ourselves
voluntarily taken the Lord to be our God, and have solemnly sworn to
walk before Him in righteousness all the days of our life. Let us
then evermore "take heed" to this covenant which God has condescended
to make with us. It lays upon us great responsibilities, but it
secures to us glorious privileges. Conspicuous among them is this
that we need not fear the might of any of our adversaries, whether
they be those of the body or of the soul (ch. liv. 17).
+II. "Be quiet."+ Or better, "_And_ be quiet." Quietness would follow
naturally from right heed-taking. What was Ahaz doing? He was
straining every nerve to do for himself what God had promised to do
for him. God had promised to defend Zion and her king, and if Ahaz
had had faith in God's promise, the appeal to Assyria for succour
would never had been made. Alas! how often have better men than Ahaz
failed in this very respect. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the founders
of the Hebrew nation, all fell into grievous sin through the want of
faith in God's promises which led them to try to do for themselves
what God had promised to do for them (cf. Gen. xv. 1, and xx. 11-13;
xxvi. 3 and 7; xxv. 23, and xxvii. 24). To what a shameful state of
degradation was David brought by the same cause (cf. 1 Sam. xvi. 13
and xxi. 12, 13). How many imitators they have had! God has promised
that His people shall be safe and prosperous; but not taking heed to
His promises, to how many tricks and devices have they had recourse
to secure for themselves the blessing God would surely have sent to
them if they had been obedient and believing, and into what shame,
misery, and ruin have they plunged themselves.[1] Let their sins be
to us as beacons; let us "take heed" to God's covenant on both its
sides, and be quiet (Ps. xxxvii. 3-9).
+III. "Fear not."+ Yet there seemed good reason for fear. It was
really a powerful confederacy that threatened Ahaz with destruction.
Looked at on its human side, it was no groundless panic that had
smitten him and his people. Yet the pain of mind and heart which they
endured (ver. 2), they endured needlessly. They were really in no
danger for their enemies. Their danger lay only in the unbelief and
stubbornness of their own hearts. They had but to return to the Lord
and they would find Him a refuge and strong tower, as their fathers
had done aforetime. _"Fear not"_ is the counsel which I give to God's
people to-day. Some of you are fearing greatly; some concerning
temporal things, some lest the spiritual conflict you are waging
should issue in defeat and eternal ruin. "Take heed" to the promises
God has made to you in both these respects; "be quiet," and fret not
yourselves in any wise to do evil; with calm and courageous hope wait
for the fulfilment of these promises; instead of yielding to
distressing, utterly unnecessary, and God-dishonouring fears, say
with David (Ps. xxvii. 1, xxxiv. 22).