Lately a reoccurring phrase in the Bible has been speaking to me being the faith action to “stand firm.” I first noticed this phrase in Isaiah 7 during my morning reading time and I began to reflect and meditate on this teaching and command to stand firm. I found myself asking, “What does it mean to stand firm? What does this look like? How are we as Christians to stand firm?” So before I proceed let me share with you Isaiah 7:1-9. In this passage King Ahaz is the king of Judah and the leaders of Syria and Israel planned to attack Judah and replace Ahaz in forcing Judah to join them in their resistance against Assyria.
A Message for Ahaz
1 When Ahaz, son of Jotham and grandson of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, set out to attack Jerusalem. However, they were unable to carry out their plan. 2 The news had come to the royal court of Judah: “Syria is allied with Israel against us!” So the hearts of the king and his people trembled with fear, like trees shaking in a storm.
3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Take your son Shear-jashub and go out to meet King Ahaz. You will find him at the end of the aqueduct that feeds water into the upper pool, near the road leading to the field where cloth is washed. 4 Tell him to stop worrying. Tell him he doesn’t need to fear the fierce anger of those two burned-out embers, King Rezin of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah. 5 Yes, the kings of Syria and Israel are plotting against him, saying, 6 ‘We will attack Judah and capture it for ourselves. Then we will install the son of Tabeel as Judah’s king.’ 7 But this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“This invasion will never happen;
it will never take place;
8 for Syria is no stronger than its capital, Damascus,
and Damascus is no stronger than its king, Rezin.
As for Israel, within sixty-five years
it will be crushed and completely destroyed.
9 Israel is no stronger than its capital, Samaria,
and Samaria is no stronger than its king, Pekah son of Remaliah.
Unless your faith is firm,
I cannot make you stand firm.”
The last sentence struck me as I repeated quietly to myself, “Unless your faith is firm, I cannot make you stand firm.” With what king Ahaz is facing with the message Isaiah gives him the Lord is exhorting Ahaz to trust Him. God was encouraging Ahaz to be a man of faith because unless his faith is firm, he could not expect the Lord’s protection and help. It’s as if God was saying to Ahaz, “Do you trust me? Do you trust that I can save and protect you?” Unfortunately later we read that Ahaz refuses to trust the Lord and ironically turns to Assyria for help as a way to obtain peace and security when it is God who was offering peace and security to Ahaz, but he did not stand firm in his faith.
As I was reading in my study Bible it had the following to say, “The last sentence (vs. 9) is a play on two Hebrew words: If you do not have faith (ta’aminu), you will not stand firm (te’amenu). Firm trust is the Lord is utterly essential, especially for a leader of God’s people and it must be firmly acted upon in order to demonstrate that it exists. Ahaz and his contemporaries trusted their enemy (Assyria) rather than God. By contrasts, Hezekiah later demonstrated his faith in the Lord in a similar context (Isa 36-38)” (NLT Illustrated Study Bible). It is always interesting to me to learn the Hebrew words of different passages in Scripture as often they shed further light and understanding of the Bible.
Another passage I had stumbled across the phrase of standing firm I found in Colossians 1:15-23. In this section of Scripture there are two teachings Paul is sharing with the Colossian church. The first occurs in vs. 15-20 as Paul teaches the truth that Christ is supreme. The second occurs in vs. 21-23 as Paul teaches about reconciliation in Christ. Colossians 1:15-23 reads as follows…
Christ Is Supreme
15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
16 for through him God created everything
in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
Everything was created through him and for him.
17 He existed before anything else,
and he holds all creation together.
18 Christ is also the head of the church,
which is his body.
He is the beginning,
supreme over all who rise from the dead.
So he is first in everything.
19 For God in all his fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,
20 and through him God reconciled
everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
21 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. 22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
23 But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.
Here we read of Paul writing of the truths of Jesus as the supreme creator and redeemer for the whole world to the Colossian church. Paul “applies the truth of 1:15-20 to the Colossian Christians. As people who have been reconciled to God, they enjoy a new spiritual status and need to stand firm in the truth they have been taught” (NLT Illustrated Study Bible). Again like the passage in Isaiah 7, we read of how Paul is exhorting and calling the Christians in the Colossian church to stand firm in the truths that they have been taught as new believers of Christ.
For me these passages have been speaking strongly to me in this time in my life to stand firm in my faith and truths of being a Christian. Even when the storms of life rage and the truths of Scripture are attacked and challenged, I am to remain strong in the Lord to stand firm. This has encouraged me to spend time with God to know more of who He is and the saving message in His Son Jesus Christ. Perhaps this is a day and age where we see and experience much happening in the world to the point as a Christian it can be overwhelming and make us feel powerless. But if we stand firm in the Lord in placing our faith and trust in Him, then He will be able to make us stand firm. Do we trust in Him to be our source of peace, security, comfort, healing and so much more or would we rather trust in things of the world that have nothing to do with God?
I believe that passage in Isaiah holds a valuable lesson for all of us that when the storms of life come as the the waves are powerful and winds are strong , God is all the more powerful as the waves and wind know His name. He is the Alpha and Omega and in Him we place our faith and trust as the Creator of the heavens and earth. Paul understands the importance of this when he calls the Colossian Christians to stand firm in know that Christ is supreme. Paul is reinforcing the teachings that the Colossian Christians have received and it is also important for us as Christians today to reinforce the teachings of God in our lives. The Bible being an excellent source of teaching in helping us to stand firm in our faith and placing our trust in God by drawing nearer to Him as we learn of His truths.
I am still reflecting and praying on this call to stand firm and perhaps I will have more to share on this in the future, but I wanted to leave you for now with what I feel God has been teaching me as a Christian in standing firm in the truths of the Good News and the Gospel. Blessings