Isaiah 8:5-8:
The Lord spake also unto me again, saying,
Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly,
and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son;
Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many,
even the king of Assyria, and all his glory:
and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks:
And he shall pass through Judah;
he shall overflow and go over,
he shall reach even to the neck;
and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.
We commonly see water imagery used either terms of its refreshing and life-giving qualities, such as with the patriarchs meeting their wives at wells, or with Naaman the Syrian being cleansed from his leprosy, or otherwise in terms of its violent and destructive potencies, as with Noah’s flood, or the Egyptians being drowned in the Sea. It is rare, however, to see both these aspects being so clearly foregrounded in one place as they are in this passage. This reminds us that the water motifs of Scripture are all mutually informing; I tend to think that there is actually one grand Water motif that presents different aspects in different moments.
When we think about the frequent associations made between water and the Spirit, this makes sense: the life-giving Holy Spirit from whom God’s elect drink their fill is the same violent storm water who washes away the wicked. There is a “not whether but which” logic to how we relate to the Water that proceeds from the Father and the Son. Either we will be cleansed, refreshed and renewed by the gentle waters of blessing, or we will be overcome by the violent storm waters.
Since Judah has refused to drink from God’s gentle waters within the land, God will bring upon them the violent storm waters of the Gentiles. Recall that Israel (or now, Judah) is the habitable and well-ordered dry land, while the Gentile kingdoms are stormy seas, which we want to keep from overflowing the banks into Israel. Alas! God’s judgment upon faithless Judah takes the form of a geopolitical “flood”, bringing chaos to the land.