Scared To Death

Fear is the hallmark of the American spirit. Anxiety pulses through our personal, family, and corporate lives. Every time the marriage of old friends breaks up or our kids plunge into destructive dependence on drugs, we become alarmed about the lack of stability in our intimate relationships. Inflation scares young families and retirees alike, who wonder how they will make ends meet.

There is so much fear surging through us that the nation could be energy independent overnight if only each of us hooked ourselves to electrodes and plugged them into the nation's power grid. We could turn off our local electrical power systems and run our automobiles and heat our houses on paranoia alone. Indeed, we are scared to death.

An episode in Isaiah 7 describes another people, the nation of Judah and Ahaz its king, who also were scared to death: "His heart and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind."

The people's fearfulness had begun with the extraordinary political and military achievements of King David 200 years earlier. David, a brilliant military commander and shrewd politician, had forged the nation Israel from a loosely knit, anarchistic collection of 12 tribes. He subjected traditional enemies such as the Philistines, forcing them to pay tribute, thereby building a strong economic base for the new kingdom.

David's successes were seen as the fulfillment of Yahweh's promise to Abraham to create a great nation in the land of promise. His poetic gifts, his winsome and passionate personality, and his faithfulness to Yahweh only embellished his memory for succeeding generations. David and his empire became the standard by which subsequent kings and subjects judged their own achievements.

There was, however, an ignoble side to the Davidic legacy. David and Solomon instituted a taxation system that fell heavily on the peasants. This income, along with the tribute paid by the conquered city-states, was used to support the elite who ran the government and religious institutions. The taxes also financed Solomon's massive public works, such as the temple and a system of forts. By Ahaz's time, these seeds of injustice had grown into bramble bushes, choking the poor and weak, and enriching the landowners and politically powerful.

The 150 years between the death of Solomon and Ahaz's ascension to the throne were marked by several significant changes. First, David and Solomon's empire broke apart. Solomon's son didn't have the political skill of his grandfather, David, and couldn't hold together all of the contending interest groups. So the nation divided into two parts: Israel, the northern kingdom, and Judah, the southern kingdom, which maintained Jerusalem as its capital. This division led to periodic intramural fights over borders and weakened defenses against foreign adversaries. It also cost both countries significant revenues: many small city-states that had been paying tribute since the reign of David quit paying. The two kingdoms were so weak they couldn't do much about it.

Another significant change was the ominous, crushing march of Assyria into the international arena. Assyria, led by Tiglath-Pileser II, dominated international relations in the Near East as no nation had ever done; by 746 B.C., Tiglath-Pileser had conquered virtually the entire area from the Persian Gulf to modern day Russia and the Sinai Desert to Greece. Tiglath-Pileser intended to invade Judah, Israel, and Israel's northern neighbor Syria. These three small countries had timber, strategic minerals, and cities whose Mediterranean ports hosted lucrative trade. Tiglath-Pileser also wanted military outposts in Judah on the border of the Sinai Desert to thwart any military adventurism of Egypt.

Ahaz had much to fear from Assyrian conquest. It was brutal. When Tiglath-Pileser rolled into a capital, he usually executed the king, impaled his principal advisers, and deported the upper classes to Assyria. In his more generous moments, Tiglath-Pileser would exact a heavy tribute in exchange for the king's keeping his head and throne. As the final act of conquest, the Assyrian king imposed his religion, the cult of the god Ashur, on the subjugated people.

At the time of the episode in Isaiah, Pekah the king of Israel and Rezin the king of Syria were conspiring to attack Tiglath-Pileser. They asked Ahaz to bring Judah into this alliance. But Ahaz, fearing Assyria's greater military power, declined their proposal. Pekah and Rezin were furious at this rejection and plotted to lay siege to Jerusalem, assassinate Ahaz, and install an ally in his place.

Everywhere Ahaz and the people of Jerusalem looked, they were under attack. Pekah, Rezin, and Tiglath-Pileser already controlled the countryside, siphoning away peasant taxes and tributes from city-states. If Jerusalem did not fall to the former two adversaries, it was likely that it would fall to the latter, who would sack the city, kill Ahaz, and deport the upper class. If Ahaz was assassinated and replaced by someone who had not inherited the mantle and mystique of David, much of the cultural "glue" that bound the religious and social institutions would be destroyed.

IT WAS HIS PANIC that moved Ahaz to consult with Isaiah. Isaiah's counsel was simple and straightforward: "Calm down! Don't get weak in the knees because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, Pekah and Rezin. The Lord himself will give you a sign. A young woman will conceive and bear a son, and his name will be called Immanuel. God is with us." The heart of Isaiah's message was that by returning to Yahweh and resting in Yahweh's promises, the people would be saved.

Ahaz did not pay attention to Isaiah. Still in a panic, Ahaz decided to make a deal with Tiglath-Pileser. He emptied the nation's vaults of their gold, silver, and jewels, loaded the treasures onto his camels, and under cover of darkness, sneaked out of Jerusalem and went to Tiglath-Pileser's headquarters. Once there, Ahaz fell on his knees before the king of Assyria, and with a quivering voice pleaded, "I am your servant, come down and rescue me."

As a result, Tiglath-Pileser ravaged Syria and Israel, killing Pekah and Rezin. Ahaz was so impressed by Assyrian power and the Assyrian god Ashur, who brought victory in these conquests, that he drew up plans and specifications for the ornate altar of Ashur, sent them to his high priest in Jerusalem, and instructed him to build this altar in a prominent place in the Jerusalem temple.

In the end, however, Ahaz gained nothing by rejecting Isaiah's counsel. Ahaz didn't gain national security. It wasn't very long before Tiglath-Pileser was marauding against Judah. The Assyrian king didn't keep his end of the deal - only Judah's money. The Chronicler sums it up with this ice-cold comment: "Ahaz took from the house of the Lord and the king, and gave tribute to the king of Assyria, but it did not help him."

Ahaz also didn't gain economic security. Ahaz squandered the nation's wealth in a futile effort to buy national defense. He wasted an opportunity to rebuild the nation's economy, and to use the wealth to solve his most severe domestic problem: the growing disparity between the rich and poor peasants.

Lastly, Ahaz didn't gain social and cultural security. Ahaz enthroned Assyrian religion which elevated brute military power as the pre-eminent value. This new religion acidulously burned away the sinews of justice, compassion, and faith in a merciful and just Yahweh, who, in early times, had bound the nation together. Bribery, lying by high government officials, exploitation of the elderly, widows, and orphans by the rich: these were the social order of the day.

By seeking social and cultural security through military power, Ahaz accepted the practices and behavior that inevitably accompany that power - and it destroyed the very domestic stability he was seeking.

I HAVE BEEN IMPRESSED by the uncanny resemblance between the political, economic, and social fears confronted by Isaiah and the fears of our nation. Both Judah and the United States are threatened by foreign powers large and small. In our case, we are scared, not only by [other superpowers], but by a number of small countries that control oil and other strategic resources and that are not under our control. Like Ahaz, we have decided that security is found in military might, and we are squandering our national wealth to buy armaments.

Our search for security is causing us to rely on weapons so technically complex that they are virtually beyond human control. We have created the horrible risk of accidental war. Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon once described this risk [as it played out during the Cold War]:

Tensions are high over the continuing belligerence of adversary nations near the Persian Gulf; abusive exchanges have been going on for weeks; a military battle ensues. Finally, the ominous movement of U.S. and Soviet conventional forces near the region causes both nations to move into the first phases of nuclear alert.

Suddenly, at night, the Soviet early warning system reveals a massive missile attack. The attack appears to be as enormous as it is unexpected. Over 5,000 extraordinarily accurate warheads are believed to be descending, at fantastic speeds toward a vast array of Soviet targets.

It takes precious moments for the Soviet computers to assess the extent and direction of the attack. Additional moments go by as the small group of Soviet leaders, empowered to make decisions about using nuclear force, are awakened from sleep. The Soviet leaders are informed of the ominous conclusions of their strategists.

They are told that the warheads launched just under 10 minutes ago will obliterate a large percentage of the Soviet force within five minutes.

Frantic efforts to reconfirm the nature of the attack have produced conflicting signals. Although reanalysis will be available in a matter of minutes, a decision must be made immediately before the U.S. barrage arrives on target. Further delay could mean the virtual elimination of Soviet strategic power.

The Soviet leaders decide to undertake a full counterattack and to launch their missiles against U.S. military targets.

Moments later, the Soviet leadership is given correct information about the attack, only to find that because of severe overloading the Soviet computers have malfunctioned; the attack was not real. As a result, an accidental Armageddon has been launched. The missiles cannot be recalled. Inevitably, the rapid and enormously powerful U.S. response begins to bear down on the Soviet Union.

It can be argued that this scenario is little more than an overextended flight of fancy. However, it is critical to note that 147 times within the past 22 months, U.S. computer malfunctions have signaled a Soviet strategic attack. Four of these incidents were severe enough to result in orders to strategic forces to increase their state of alert. [And in one case] it took six minutes for U.S. command authorities to make a positive identification of the mistake.

(The Age of Anxiety: Emerging Nuclear Tensions in the 1980's)

To paraphrase the Chronicler's chilling indictment of Ahaz: "The people of the United States took from their wealth and paid tribute to the god of war, but it did not buy them security."

WILL OUR UNPRECEDENTED spending on weapons restore economic security to Americans? Judah was, and the United States is, mired in a miserable economy; and the increased defense spending brought Judah and will bring us even more economic strain. Tax money spent on weapons and military personnel is inflationary and deprives businesses of capital needed for rebuilding productivity.

Will our genuflection before the god of military might bring the American people together in more peaceful, secure, and just relationships? The money saved by denying the poor desperately needed food, housing, and health care will be poured into armaments. Like Judah and Ahaz, we are saying that power and greed are more important than feeding, clothing, and providing shelter for the least of the children of God. And the social conflict this is likely to detonate will make a mockery of our quest for domestic tranquility.

As a people, we are scared to death. From the president, through the major political parties, throughout business and labor, down to our homes and personal lives, fear has become a debilitating fact of life. It is driving us to seek security in foolish expenditures on weapons that are undermining the economy and eroding the values of justice and compassion for the poor.

We are forsaking our inheritance of a merciful God who can deliver us from apparent destruction, just as God delivered the children of Israel from the seemingly invincible power of Pharaoh. Instead, we are trusting the works of our hands - bombers, submarines, missiles - and in so doing, we are crushing our own people. We are grinding the faces of our poor.

In such a moment, Isaiah counseled Ahaz, and his counsel rings true today: "Calm down. Don't get weak in the knees because of all these hotheads brandishing nuclear missiles. The Lord himself will give you a sign - Immanuel - that means God is with us." It is by returning and resting in God's promises that we will be saved.

Darel Grothaus was the regional director for the northwest of the National Consumer Cooperative Bank in Seattle, Washington, when this article appeared.