Conspiracy theories abound, especially in times of crisis. In the church, conspiracy theories are given additional credence when combined with wild eschatological themes. For example, the recent claim that a forthcoming Covid vaccine is the mark of the beast. False-prophets have enriched themselves by peddling fear and lies among the people of God.
This kind of scandalous preaching was strongly rebuked by the Prophet Isaiah who declared,
You are not to say, ‘It is a conspiracy!’ In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it (Isaiah 8:12).
Isaiah does not deny the presence of conspiracies. In fact, the Scripture is clear that humans are consistently conspiring against the rule of God. The Psalmist declared, “Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the Lord and against His Anointed (Psalm 2:1-2).
Conspiracies emerge out of times of crisis. The crises of Isaiah’s day were the death of King Uzziah after a long and prosperous reign, the assent to power of the ungodly King Ahaz, and the impending danger of the Assyrian Empire. The crisis was real. The conspiracy was real – King Ahaz was conspiring with the Assyrian King. Again, Isaiah does not deny the crisis or the conspiracy. But he reminds us that the real conspiracy is not a proposed treaty with the Assyrians. The real conspiracy is a crisis of faith, the failure to trust God for the future. Speaking to the conspirators, Isaiah declared,
Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted; State a proposal, but it will not stand, For God is with us (Isaiah 8:10).
Isaiah’s denunciation of the conspiracy is rooted in the Kingship of Yahweh. The death of King Uzziah provoked a national crisis. In this crisis, Isaiah “saw the Lord sitting on a throne” (6:1). Earthly rulers live and die. Nations rise and fall. But God eternally rules the affairs of humanity. The conspiracies of human rulers are doomed to fail because “God is with us”. In spite of human evil, God guides history to its ultimate conclusion – the judgement of this present age and the advent of New Creation.
Because God is with us, the people of God are not to fear the conspiracies (real or imagined) of national and international politics. Instead the people of God are to fear God.
It is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, and He shall be your dread” (Isaiah 8:13).
Often, we are tempted to deify earthly rulers, to give them an undivided allegiance, and give them messianic qualities. This is nothing less than the spiritual delusion of idolatry (Jeremiah 10:3, 8). Isaiah reminds us that only God is holy; only God is worthy of undivided allegiance; and only God is the ultimate guarantor of security.
We should fear God because God will be “to Israel and Judah… a stone that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall” (Isaiah 8:14 NLT). In other words, because the people have given their allegiance to human rulers, and have become disillusioned (or blinded) by conspiracies, God will judge them all. Peter warned that judgement begins “with the household of God” (1 Peter 4:17).
As I write this, we are just weeks from a presidential election in which political parties are proclaiming their respective visions of a civil religion. Christians on the right and left are declaring their political allegiances. Could it be that God will be to Republicans and Democrats “a stone that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall”? The incompetence of the political gods will be revealed. Their collapse will plunge their followers into darkness. “Then they will look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven away into darkness” (Isaiah 8:22).
The only remedy for the despair of darkness is the light of Christ.
The people who walk in darkness will see a great light… For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders (Isaiah 9:2, 6).
