Part 3, King Ahaz, Isaiah 7 (part 2 was on Jan 13)
Ahaz, the twenty year old king of Judah, is scared out of his wits because two other kings have decided to severely punish him for not going along with their narrative. They even “plotted his ruin, saying ‘Let us invade Judah; let us tear apart and divide it among ourselves and set up our own king instead’” (Isaiah 7:6).
God, meanwhile, assures Ahaz he has nothing to worry about, but it depends on Ahaz believing him (verses 7-9). To give Ahaz’s faith a boost God says to him. “Ask the Lord God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.” It’s like handing Ahaz an Aladdin’s lamp, and saying, “Go on, whatever you wish for, it’s yours.”
Well, I can think of three wishes I’d ask God for if I was Ahaz: First, nail those two pompous half wits to the wall. Second, don’t let any more of my people die at their murderous hands. And third, give me your strength and wisdom to lead your people your way.
But Ahaz puts on a noble face and in a pious voice he says, “Oooo, no, no, no – I’m not going to do that, because I could never make demands like that on God.”
Now, let’s see if I can get my mind round that….er….no, I can’t. And neither could Isaiah, because he yells at Ahaz, “Then listen to this, government of David! It’s bad enough that you make people tired with your pious hypocrisies, but now you’re making God tired too.”
I wonder if our governments could learn a lesson from that, since these stories were written as “warnings” for us as well (1 Corinthians 10:11). Because Isaiah – speaking for God – puts the entire blame for this awful display of arrogant stupidity and slushy piousness on the government.
It really was arrogant stupidity too, because Ahaz was being offered a wonderful no risk solution that would keep both himself and his people safe. But he turned God down – censored him, if you please – in preference for a great show of his own sense of importance and piousness, and sugar coating his idiocy by sounding all humble and righteous.
Well, God wasn’t having any of it. Which is jolly encouraging, because we have leaders like Ahaz in our governments today too, who are just as tiresome with their platitudes, hypocrisy, false humility, and virtue signalling.
It’s good to know, then, that God’s fed up with them as well, so I look forward to reading what God does next with Ahaz….(part 4 next Friday, Jan 27)
Buck To Basics 
As I was reading this post, a well-known idiom came to mind: “Stupid is as stupid does.”
I thought I would look up the actual meaning of this phrase, and here is a paragraph I came across in english-grammar-lessons.com.
“The phrase means that stupid people will do silly things, and you can single them out by looking at their methodology and results with handling tasks. However, woke groups are targeting the use of this phrase, saying that the word ‘stupid’ is derogatory.”
There’s nothing more STUPID than “political correctness.”
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