Have Trust In Hashem

The Punishment of Bnei Yisrael has begun. They are told to make a plain script of people so that everyone can see it. Yeshayahu has a third child, Maher Shlal Chash Baz. Before this kid could say "mommy" or "daddy, Ashur will attack and conquer Demesek and Shomron-I viewed this as maybe this is a metaphor, maybe Hashem could be saying that you cannot call out "Hashem" (mommy or daddy). You will not be able to. He has done as much as he could to get Bnei Yisrael to listen to Him and now he is saying that now you cannot call out "Hashem" anymore he is not there to be able to help. By the time you are calling out to Hashem they will have already attacked. The audience of this script would be Yehudah and it will be the punishment of Yisrael. The people of Yehudah will be getting their punishment next. Hashem is the one pulling the strings here. He wants the attack to happen. This is Yeshayahu's accomplishment of becoming a "prophet on record." 

Ashur is going to destroy Aram (Demesek) and Shomron. They will also destroy Yehudah, but not completely-maybe people will finally do teshuva. Sometime in the future, there will be a "shining star" born to Yehudah. Even tough Shomrono was completely attacked and punished they still did not return to the ways of Hashem. Assyria exiles the 10 tribes. Yishayahu is hoping to use this as an excuse to try and get the people to repent, change, and go back to the ways of G-d. 

In Perakim 15-17 we see the list of kings and their actions. You have Uzayahu ruling for 52 years in Yehudah. In his time you have Yeravim who ruled for 41 years, Zecharia who ruled for 6 months, Shalom who ruled for 1 month, Menchem who ruled for 10 years, and Pecachyahu who ruled for 2 years ruling in Yisrael. Then in Yisrael Pecach ruled for 20 years. During his time, Yotam and Achaz ruled in Yehudah. Finally, you have Chezkiyahu ruling in Yehudah and Hoshea ruling in Yisrael. 

While Hoshea was ruling the punishment began. Most of the kings before him had done bad in the eyes of Hashem and they continued in the ways of Yiravam. You have a whole list of kings not learning at all from each other and continuing in bad ways and not respecting Hashem and doing bad in His eyes. Then when it comes to Hoshea, he had still done bad in the eyes of Hashem, but unlike the kings before he didn't continue in the ways of Yiravam. Hoshea would send a gift to Ashur to prevent them from attacking Yisrael. Hoshea stop giving gifts to Ashur and he tries to make an alliance with Mitzraim. This is one of his biggest problems-he is not trusting Hashem to be his "alliance," and to be the one to help him with his military needs. 

I think that the biggest lesson that we learn in these Pesukim is to give all your trust in Hashem. When you are not trusting Him, then he has no reason to help. But once you say that you need help from Him and you have trust in Him and you are willing to give up something to have your trust in Him, then he will help you. 

On the past Shabbaton I went on for ncsy, we learned about love. We learned that you need to give something up for someone you love. I think that you can do that with Hashem too. A person will have a different type of love with a person than they will have with Hashem, but it is still the same concept. You need to give something up and you being able to have that trust in that person to protect you from whatever you had given up builds a relationship that will get stronger over time. If Bnei Yisrael would have realized that this is what they needed to do then the punishment could have been much less or maybe could not have even happened.