Hold a U.S. penny in your hand. What words are stamped in the metal?

On November 20, 1861, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase instructed the Director of the Philadelphia Mint, James Pollock, to prepare a motto for use on the currency of the United States of America. The motto was to include a reference to God. He reasoned that “No nation can be strong except in the strength of God, or safe except in his defense. The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins.” The chosen motto—In God We Trust—first appeared in 1864 on the two-cent coin, and on July 30, 1956, the President and Congress approved this simple phrase as the national motto of the U.S.A.

Now, in a time when the country and some of her leaders appear to be turning away from God, can we still trust in him? Should we? The Israelites faced similar questions as both godly and idolatrous kings reigned over their nation.

Isaiah’s prophecies gave Israel three reasons why they should have placed their trust in God regardless of the circumstances surrounding them. Although Israel ignored his messages, we still have the opportunity to take encouragement from Isaiah’s words.

Isaiah executed his role as a prophet in a context of waxing and waning faith, of pluralism and persecution, of wars and political instability. Although King Uzziah embarked on his reign doing right in the eyes of the Lord, by the time he died in 740 b.c. he’d been afflicted with leprosy for his pride. Uzziah’s son Ahaz showed even less faithfulness. He led the people astray by worshiping foreign gods. Moreover, instead of trusting the Lord, he signed a vassal treaty with the pagan nation of Assyria. Although his son Hezekiah temporarily guided the people back to God, Hezekiah’s heir, Manasseh, returned to Baalism.

In the year of King Uzziah of Judah’s death, in response to Israel’s unfaithfulness to the covenant, God assigned Isaiah son of Amoz the role of prophet. To prepare Isaiah for his commissioning, the Lord first granted Isaiah a vision of his supreme holiness. The knowledge of his sinfulness and the sinfulness of his people overwhelmed Isaiah. “Woe to me!” he cried out. “I am ruined!” (Isaiah 6:5).

Proclaiming a woe was the same as proclaiming a nation or person’s doom through God’s judgment. Isaiah recognized that he was not worthy to serve God based on his own merit. What he merited was punishment. Isaiah had to undergo this humbling experience before he could be fit to serve as God’s messenger.

His first-hand experience of the gap between a human being and “the King, the Lord Almighty” (6:5) also instilled in him the trust in God he needed to volunteer for a mission that, according to some historical sources, would lead to his execution during Manasseh’s reign. In addition, having this personal trust in God allowed him to speak with conviction about the reasons why the Israelites should trust God regardless of their circumstances.

Jerusalem would not fall to the Babylonians until after Isaiah’s death, but Judah had already begun its decline during his ministry. Because of the hardships they faced, the people questioned God. Why wasn’t he solving all the problems in their nation? Why did the situation seem to be getting worse rather than better? They concluded that God either didn’t know or didn’t care what was happening to them (40:27; 58:2, 3).

A current theology known as open theism has sought to use a similar explanation for why bad things happen. Open theists claim that God does not know the future choices humans, angels, and demons will make. Consequently, God does not know the future. The way things work out often surprises God. God sometimes regrets the choices he makes, and God changes his mind and his plans along the way.

God gave a firm answer to the Israelites then, and it still answers the open theists now. He spoke through Isaiah and announced, “I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please . . . . What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do” (46:10, 11).

The world is not running randomly. The nations and their leaders are fulfilling their roles in God’s predetermined plan for the course of history (chapters 13–23; 40–55).

“Trust him,” Isaiah said, “because he has a plan in place and he’ll bring it to pass.”

The people had sinned and God would punish them by allowing foreign nations to attack them and drag them into exile. Upon the revelation of this plan, God summoned the people to repentance: “The Lord Almighty called you on that day to weep and to wail, to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth” (22:12).

Instead of repenting, they turned farther away from God. Their attitude was, “Why should we trust in God when his plan is to discipline us and allow us to suffer?” They engaged in feasting and revelry, saying “Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die!” (22:13).

Isaiah must have felt frustrated over their deafness to his message even though God had warned him from the beginning that the people wouldn’t listen (6:9, 10). He tried to tell them that the purpose of God’s chastisement was to bring them to repentance. When they finally repented, God would restore them. In the New Testament, Hebrews likens this part of God’s plan to a father who disciplines his son to teach him right from wrong: “God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness” (Hebrews 12:10). He shakes us from our sinfulness and apathy and builds a Christ-like character (Romans 8:28, 29).

Although we can’t always know why God allows us to suffer (it is not always to discipline us) we can know that it is all part of his plan, which will culminate in his victory over sin, death, and the devil. Sometimes that plan includes allowing bad things to take place, but from the wreckage, he brings blessings. The Lord has promised that his plan ends with the restoration and salvation of his people.

“Trust him,” Isaiah said, “because his plan is good, and he fulfills his promises.”

Out of fear of the powerful Assyrian empire, the Jews turned to divination (Isaiah 2:6) and spiritism (8:19), trying to consult the dead for guidance. Moreover, instead of directing their prayers and worship to God alone, they fashioned idols and pleaded with those idols to save them (44:17). In response, the Lord again put his words in Isaiah’s mouth.

A man, Isaiah said in Isaiah 44:9-20, cuts down a tree. Half of the tree he uses for firewood to bake bread and roast meat. The other half he fashions into an idol and worships as his god. He is blind, and his heart is deluded.

The people were worshiping something they created rather than worshiping the one who created them. Isaiah encapsulates his description of their foolishness with a description of God as the almighty creator (Isaiah 44:24-26) and the only God (Isaiah 44:6-8). Although we don’t build idols with our hands anymore, when we’ve been in a difficult situation for a long time, it’s just as easy for us to exalt a new job, a new love interest, or a new leader as the solution to the problems in our lives. Or to the problems in our country.

As Isaiah told his contemporaries, we should trust in God because he is the only one who can hear our prayers and answer them. No circumstance is too great for God to handle. People fail us and are limited in power, but God never fails us. He has the unlimited power needed to ensure that what happens is in our best interest. Ultimately, the reasons for trusting God are founded in this overarching message.

“Trust him,” Isaiah said, “because he is the Almighty, the loving, the holy, the just, the creator, the only God.” |L