When Isaiah wrote, ‘A thousand will flee at the threat of one’, did he think of the song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32:30)?
In any case, the state of affairs at that moment was exactly the same as how Moses described it in Deuteronomy 31: the people of Israel relied more on their own strengths than on God. To be strong against the threat of the expanding Assyrian Empire – northern Israel had already been wiped off the map – they sought support from Egypt and not from the Lord. The fear of the threat was suppressed by looking at the power of the army; the mighty army of the Assyrians should be faced by an equally mighty army of Jews and Egyptians…
It almost sounds ridiculous when amidst the threat of destruction a prophet stands up to say, ‘In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it!’
Just imagine that we were suddenly notified that an enormous Islamic army from the Middle East was marching on Europe, threatening to overrun Europe… What would be our first reaction? Hope for NATO to save us? Or would we seek our strength in quietness and trust? Some people will perhaps be so clever as to say, ‘We should do both…’
Whoever has learned to trust God and His word knows that doing both is out of the question.
For - actually - it was not the army of Hitler we fought, and it will not be Russian or Chinese armies we will face, but it will be the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. And whether those inspire people and armies or not, only through repentance and rest we can truly find salvation.