Prophet Isaiah had his own struggle with faith and trust

by Damien F. Mackey When we read Isaiah’s authoritative and unerring statements to King Hezekiah, we might be led to imagine that, whereas Hezekiah had to be taught, the prophet Isaiah was always in complete control of situations. That will prove very much not to have been the case. As the Oracle and mouthpiece of the Lord, the prophet Isaiah was empowered to utter profound and edifying statements. But that does not mean that he was a perfectly un-flawed human being. We read in: Isaiah berates King Hezekiah for trusting, not in God, but in weaponry and defence works (1) Isaiah berates King Hezekiah for trusting, not in God, but in weaponry and defence works | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu about King Hezekiah’s personal flaws of character, chiefly his pride. But that did not make him a bad king overall. When measured against the Gold Standard, King David, the pious reformer king, Hezekiah, comes in second out of all of the kings of Judah - presuming that one identifies Hezekiah with Josiah, as I do: Damien F. Mackey’s A Tale of Two Theses (2) Damien F. Mackey's A Tale of Two Theses | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu When we read Isaiah’s authoritative and unerring statements to King Hezekiah, we might be led to imagine that, whereas Hezekiah had to be taught, the prophet Isaiah was always in complete control of situations. That will prove very much not to have been the case. Who was Isaiah? I have dealt with this question now in various articles and a university thesis (2007). Isaiah was, in fact, the son of the prophet Micah, who stretches right back to embrace the prophet Micaiah at the time of King Ahab of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah: Micaiah and Micah more than just a name match (2) Micaiah and Micah more than just a name match | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu Isaiah was a Simeonite: God can raise up prophets at will - even from a shepherd of Simeon (2) God can raise up prophets at will - even from a shepherd of Simeon | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu As a non-priest, non-Levite, Isaiah, like his father Micah (a veritable Amos redivivus), and who was also Amos, was never expected to have become a prophet (cf. Amos 7:14). Isaiah appears under various names in the Bible, some of these being compatible. In the context of King Hezekiah, Isaiah was also Hosea and “Uzziah son of Micah, of the tribe of Simeon” (Judith 6:15). In the context of King Josiah, Isaiah was also Asaiah (2 Kings 22:14), and Nahum, and Jonah, and the martyred Uriah (Urijah) (Jeremiah 26:20-23). The Gath-hepher from which he (as Jonah) hailed (2 Kings 14:25) could not have been a place in Galilee (cf. John 7:52), but must have been his father Micah’s home town of Moresheth (Gath) in southern Judah (Micah 1:1). Isaiah’s father, as Amos, had been commissioned by the Lord to testify at Bethel in the north, where he was unwelcome. Bethel is the “Bethulia” of the Book of Judith, which C. C. Torrey had brilliantly shown to be, geographically and topographically, Shechem: Isaiah himself, who was (as Uzziah in Judith) a prince: “… the prince of Juda[h]” and “the prince of the people of Israel” (Judith 8:34; 13:23: Douay), must have been amongst those “captains of war” whom King Hezekiah placed in charge of Judah’s defences (2 Chronicles 32:6). Isaiah would have well known Shechem (“Bethulia”) in the north from his father’s sojourn there, and from his own experience in the northern kingdom as the prophet Hosea. With 182,000 plus Assyrians surrounding “Bethulia” and its environs (cf. Judith 7:2 NRSV), Isaiah - as Uzziah the chief magistrate of the city - would be pressurised into a situation leading to a failure in faith and trust, over the same issue as Moses had been, water (cf. Judith 6:14-15; Numbers 20:10-12). Whereas Moses would be reprimanded on high for not upholding the holiness of God before the people, Uzziah (Isaiah) would have to face a furious Judith, no doubt his younger Simeonite relative, for placing a time limit to “bind the purpose of God”. Listen to the powerful words (Judith 8:9-27 below), a true masterpiece of theology, as uttered by the young Judith, the archetypal Joan of Arc: Judith of Bethulia and Joan of Arc (1) Judith of Bethulia and Joan of Arc | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu When Judith heard the harsh words spoken by the people against the ruler because they were faint for lack of water, and when she heard all that Uzziah said to them and how he promised them under oath to surrender the town to the Assyrians after five days, she sent her maid in charge of all she possessed to summon Uzziah and Chabris and Charmis, the elders of her town. They came to her, and she said to them, ‘Listen to me, rulers of the people of Bethulia! What you have said to the people today is not right; you have even sworn and pronounced this oath between God and you, promising to surrender the town to our enemies unless the Lord turns and helps us within so many days. Who are you to put God to the test today and to set yourselves up in the place of God in human affairs? You are putting the Lord Almighty to the test, but you will never learn anything! You cannot plumb the depths of the human heart or understand the workings of the human mind; how do you expect to search out God, who made all these things, and find out his mind or comprehend his thought? No, my brothers, do not anger the Lord our God. For if he does not choose to help us within these five days, he has power to protect us within any time he pleases or even to destroy us in the presence of our enemies. Do not try to bind the purposes of the Lord our God, for God is not like a human being, to be threatened, or like a mere mortal, to be won over by pleading. Therefore, while we wait for his deliverance, let us call upon him to help us, and he will hear our voice, if it pleases him. For never in our generation nor in these present days has there been any tribe or family or people or town of ours that worships gods made with hands, as was done in days gone by. That was why our ancestors were handed over to the sword and to pillage, and so they suffered a great catastrophe before our enemies. But we know no other god but him, and so we hope that he will not disdain us or any of our people. For if we are captured, all Judea will fall, and our sanctuary will be plundered, and he will make us pay for its desecration with our blood. The slaughter of our kindred and the captivity of the land and the desolation of our inheritance—all this he will bring on our heads among the nations, wherever we serve as slaves, and we shall be an offense and a disgrace in the eyes of those who acquire us. For our slavery will not bring us into favor, but the Lord our God will turn it to dishonor. Therefore, my brothers, let us set an example for our kindred, for their lives depend upon us, and the sanctuary—both the temple and the altar—rests upon us. In spite of everything, let us give thanks to the Lord our God, who is putting us to the test as he did our ancestors. Remember what he did with Abraham and how he tested Isaac and what happened to Jacob in Syrian Mesopotamia, while he was tending the sheep of Laban, his mother’s brother. For he has not tried us with fire, as he did them, to search their hearts, nor has he taken vengeance on us, but the Lord scourges those who are close to him in order to admonish them’. Perhaps, now, too, we can begin to understand what has puzzled so many commentators, Why King Josiah, upon the discovery of the Book of the Law, did not send his delegation to consult any of the outstanding male prophets of the time, but a woman, Huldah. For Judith was that woman, Huldah! Judith and Huldah (DOC) Judith and Huldah | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu And this explains Uzziah’s reply to Judith: ‘Today is not the first time your wisdom has been shown …’ (vv. 28-31): Then Uzziah said to her, ‘All that you have said was spoken out of a true heart, and there is no one who can deny your words. Today is not the first time your wisdom has been shown, but from the beginning of your life all the people have recognized your understanding, for your heart’s disposition is right. But the people were so thirsty that they compelled us to do for them what we have promised and made us take an oath that we cannot break. Now since you are a God-fearing woman, pray for us, so that the Lord may send us rain to fill our cisterns. Then we will no longer feel faint from thirst’. As Huldah, Judith had boldly responded to King Josiah’s delegation with: ‘Tell that man …’ (2 Kings 22:15). It sounds blunt. She must have known the young king well, was reputedly his mentor. And now, again, with similar Joan of Arc like forthrightness Judith continues, seemingly brushing aside Uzziah’s comments. ‘Listen to me …’ (Judith 8:32-34): Then Judith said to them, ‘Listen to me. I am about to do something that will go down through all generations of our people. Stand at the town gate tonight so that I may go out with my maid, and within the days after which you have promised to surrender the town to our enemies, the Lord will deliver Israel by my hand. Only, do not try to find out what I am doing, for I will not tell you until I have finished what I am about to do’. Judith 8:35-36: Uzziah and the rulers said to her, ‘Go in peace, and may the Lord God go before you, to take vengeance on our enemies’. So they returned from the tent and went to their posts. What incredible, total faith and trust in God! Virtually unprecedented in human history – at least in the Old Testament. No wonder that Judith stands as a type of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Another commentator who is amazed at Judith’s firm faith is Toni Craven, as I noted in my university thesis (2007, Volume Two, p. 68): Craven, following Dancy’s view that the theology presented in Judith’s words to the town officials rivals the theology of the Book of Job, will go on to make this comment: “Judith plays out her whole story with the kind of faith described in the Prologue of Job (esp. 1:21 and 2:9). Her faith is like that of Job after his experience of God in the whirlwind (cf. 42:1-6), yet in the story she has no special theophanic experience. We can only imagine what happened on her housetop where she was habitually a woman of regular prayer”. Isaiah (as Jonah) fails again I'm going down I'm going, down, down, down, down, down Yes, I'm going down, yes I'm going down, down, down, down, down Yes, I've got my feet in the window Got my head on the ground Albert King That just about describes the career of Jonah, “going down”. Going down to Joppa; going down to the ship; going down “below deck”; going down in the storm; going down into the depth of the sea; going down inside the big fish. By stark contrast to Judith, who was completely God-centred, His will being paramount, Jonah self-centredly did not want an opportunity of mercy afforded to the Ninevites. Had he not only recently had a front seat view of the rout of the mighty Assyrian army? Had not the Great King of Assyria, Sennacherib, only recently been assassinated by his sons? Now, with Assyria in chaos, was the time for God to strike that wicked people for good. But, no, here is God commissioning Jonah to Nineveh, as He had once sent his father Amos to Bethel. Jonah knew that God was merciful - mercy is in fact His first and greatest attribute - that He was about to offer the pagan Ninevites a chance to repent. And Jonah was having none of it. Even to the very end, with the miracle of mass conversion going on in the city, Jonah was meanly waiting in the east of Nineveh for the outcome. More concerned about shelter from the burning sun than the fate of an entire city. And that is how the Book of Jonah ends, with an angry Jonah (4:9): ‘I’m so angry I wish I were dead’. The poor man, by now of great age, will have – according to my revision – yet one more opportunity to run away, to ‘go down’ to Egypt to escape his persecutors, now as the prophet Uriah (Urijah) (Jeremiah 26:20-23). The great prophet’s misery will soon be at an end. He will be hauled back to Jerusalem by the emissaries of King Jehoiakim (= Manasseh) and slain with the sword. This is, in fact, tradition’s Martyrdom of Isaiah.