Iron & Altar

Take care you remain tranquil and do not fear; let not your courage fail before these two stumps of smoldering brands... Unless your faith is firm, you shall not be firm! - Isaiah 7:4a, 9b

The king's heart was trembling like a forest in the wind. Two enemy armies were marching on Jerusalem. And the prophet arrives with the most counterintuitive instruction possible: remain tranquil. Do not fear. These are stumps. The fire in them is almost out. They look like catastrophe. They are not.

Unless your faith is firm you shall not be firm. The Hebrew he'aminu and te'amenu - the believing and the being-established - share the same root as amen. The standing is the faith. Not the strategy. Not the fortification. The faith is what makes the man stand or fall.

Chorazin and Bethsaida saw the most and repented the least. The danger of proximity to the works of God is familiarity - the miracle witnessed so often it no longer produces the sackcloth. The man who has seen much and repented little is in a more serious position than the man who has seen little and would have responded to more.

These are stumps of smoldering brands. Name the two enemies currently assembled against your peace - the specific fears that are making the heart tremble like a forest in the wind. Name them precisely as stumps: the fire almost out, not the conflagration they appear to be. Then name the faith on which you are standing. And carry [name]: Lord, let him name the stumps as stumps. Let his faith be firm. Let the amen of his believing be the standing that holds when the armies have assembled.

Lord, let not my courage fail before stumps. Let my faith be firm so that I shall be firm. And let the works I have seen produce the repentance they are calling for - before the judgment day makes it too late. Precious Blood of Jesus, save us. Amen.