Main news for 31 July 2026

Faced with a military threat, Judah found itself before a political choice: either to make an alliance with Syria and Samaria against Assyria, or the reverse. Having sided with the Assyrians, King Ahaz awaits an attack from the north. But the prophet reminds him that the Lord is the true ruler of history, and that it is with Him that an alliance must be made.

And we too, when we find ourselves in a difficult situation, often do not know whom to turn to for help. But if we have already made a covenant with God, should we not turn to Him first of all?

The prophet and the prophetess come together, and their child becomes a living witness to the prophetic word. What is written on a scroll can be ignored if one wishes, but it is hard to resist a prophecy fixed in the name of a child living nearby.

As a rebuke to the people, the Lord set their disregard for the quiet waters of Siloam, the pool where washing was performed. Several centuries later, Jesus would send the man born blind whom He had healed to wash there. But people too often stop not only valuing but even noticing what is constantly near them. Old familiar truths begin to seem banal; people want something sharper. And so the inhabitants of the Promised Land were drawn to exotic carrion that looked fresh, to pagan ideas and morals. Very well, soon all the fruits of paganism, like the quail in the Sinai wilderness long before, together with the Assyrian hordes, will fall upon those who waited for them and called them down, and will force them to swallow more than they can bear.

But the prophet emphasizes that those who turn away from the Lord are turning away from the source of life. The words saying that one does not ask the dead about the living are severe, and they make us remember the words heard several centuries later: let the dead bury their dead. But precisely because the Lord offers life and intends to scatter the thickening darkness, He warns of the dangers of false roads, roads that seem attractive but lead to death.

Isaiah utters a prophecy about Babylon when nothing yet foreshadows either the future greatness or, still less, the defeat of this kingdom. More than a hundred years will pass before Babylon takes control of the Near East, and almost two hundred before it falls under the blows of the Persians—the Medes. But what matters to us is not that the prophet announces future events; there is, in fact, nothing surprising in this. What matters is that Isaiah sees history as the fulfillment of the will of the Almighty. The Babylonians become an instrument of the Lord’s wrath not because they want to—they never even imagine it. The upheavals experienced by the world are made up of human evil and self-will, yet their result is the fulfillment of God’s will. Thus God participates in history and determines the destinies of nations, but not in the way earthly rulers participate in it. The aims people set in their actions prove illusory, and they achieve not what they seek, but what God wills. This is why, for the prophet, the whole of human life unfolds before the face of God, and God alone is the source of salvation.