Pastor Cam Lloyd | August 25, 2024
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Isaiah 11 & 12
GOOD MORNING church. If you have your Bible, I want to invite you to turn with me Isaiah Chapter 11. We are going to pick up the pace in our study of the Book of Isaiah, but this is where we will spend a good amount of our time. I want to thank Michael for being so gracious in allowing me to play a small part in this wonderful short-series, while pastor Scott spends a few months on sabbatical. I hope you have been as encouraged and challenged as I have.
I want to start this morning by giving you a bit of hope to hold onto as we wade through some difficult texts. Let’s read the first few verses of the chapter together. Most triumphantly, we read:
1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, / and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. / 2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, / the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, / the Spirit of counsel and might, / the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. / 3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. / He shall not judge by what his eyes see, / or decide disputes by what his ears hear, / 4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, / and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; / and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, / and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. / 5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, / and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
As Michael has so helpfully reminded us, this is the Word of the Lord—praise be to God.
In my studies this week, I came across a painter by the name of Paul Nash. Nash lived much of his adult life around the turn of the 19th & 20th centuries. The majority of his paintings are in the surrealist class. If you’re wondering what exactly surrealism is, the best description I can give you is that most of his paintings were super duper weird. Interestingly, Nash would not come to be known for his surrealism; instead, his paintings of war would capture the eyes of millions. But not just any war. The Great War. You see, Nash was not just any old painter in history. Nash served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the British Army and witnessed first had some of the bloodiest battles during WWI. Drawing battle scenes was not just a way to pass the time but became his job. Nash would be ordered to draw up to 10-12 detailed drawings a day of the war around him during his time in combat. And after, the paintings he would create would retell the haunting stories for generations to come. You might be tempted to think that this paintings behind me is surreal, other worldy even, if we didn’t have the history books telling us it was all true.
The scorched earth and barren tree stumps from years of trench warfair remind us of the horrors of war. But what does it do to our hearts and minds when we hear that God is capable of this? And even more. This morning, I want to assure you that today’s text is hopeful. My desire is for you to hear and believe that the God of the Bible, in His grace, has triumphed over sin and evil on our behalf. In fact, my goal is to show you three glorious characteristics of God in light of Isaiah 9-12. If you’re taking notes this morning, the outline is as follows: 1) we will see that Our God is the Gracious Judge. 2), the Triumphant King. And finally, the Praiseworthy Savior.
BODY
Like the black velvet that accentuates the brightness of the diamond, I don’t want us to miss the contrast that Isaiah is describing. Remember, God’s people were divided, and each was guilty of turning away from God to
trust in their own abilities and intellects. Most of the decisions they were making were political, but they revealed a far deeper issue. The people of God had abandoned God for things that were utterly worthless. Last week, we saw God’s grace through Judgement, specifically over Judah. Today as we bring in chapter 9 to the discussion, we see God change his focus from judging Judah, the southern kingdom, to judging Isarel, the northern kingdom. In this poem, we hear of a great warning of judgment and the calamities that will be sent by God, but it is in His judgment that God gives us a deeper meaning of his righteous grace.
- The Gracious Judge
What’s remarkable about this sobering chapter is that Israel thinks they can rebuild the world they have created all over again, by their own efforts, even after judgment. But in verse 12 we read:
For all this his anger has not turned away, / and his hand is stretched out still. – 9:12b
It’s a haunting refrain that is repeated four times over the course of chapters 9 and 10. Because of their great sin, God will hold up his hand of judgment over his people. He will hold them accountable through their captivity.
His People Held Captive
In chapter 9:8-17, we see that God will remove their corrupt leaders and prophets. But he’s just getting started. Twice here he says, “for all this his anger has not turned away, / and his hand is stretched out still.” In verse 18 – 21 we see that the people will be burned by the fires of their own wickedness and the fires of God’s wrath, but “for all this his anger has not turned away, / and his hand is stretched out still.” In chapter 10:1-4 Isaiah zero’s in on their injustice and proclaims their will be no where to hide when the judgment of God comes.
It is here we might be tempted to think in our pride this is not gracious justice. This is anger. It is true that the Bible says that God is love. No where does it say that God is anger. But a careful observation of the wrath of God should bring to mind humility not cruelty. You know why? God cares enough about his people that he is willing to get involved.
Remember Isaiah 1-5 reveals the spiritual disasters that we are. But in Isaiah 6-11 we see our gracious God triumphant over our failures. And one thread that is woven all throughout the book of Isaiah is that although God must purify his people through judgment, he has a overarching purpose of grace. We saw this in the commissioning of Isaiah in chapter 6 when Isaiah took the heavenly coal to his lips.
I heard one pastor say, “[God’s] wrath is not moody vindictiveness: it is the sole determination of a doctor cutting away the cancer that is killing his patient.” And the scalpel that God uses to remove the cancer is an unlikely one. Now Isaiah turns his attention to Assyria, the tool that God will use to hold his people captive. In 10:5-6 Isaiah says:
5 Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; / the staff in their hands is my fury! 6 Against a godless nation I send him, / and against the people of my wrath I command him, / to take spoil and seize plunder, / and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
Last week we heard of Judah’s foolish decision to partner up with this pagan nation. Heres the thing, when God’s people feel abandonded by God they almost always turn to worldly things and powers to solve their problems. Seldom will we turn to God. And this time, just like it always does, it puffed Israle up. But we know that… “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” – James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5
Cozying up to world would be Judahs downfall as well as Israel. This is remarkable. God, in his providence, is actively using creation and history, even the wrongs of man, for his own purposes. It might seem that all of human history is in complete chaos. But God is the one in complete control. In world politics, we refer to nations as sovereigns. But, Isaiah sees two sovereigns: the domain of man (little s) and the domain of God (big S). Whether we like it or not, God is in control of the domain of man. This is why we should not lose heart at election results and policies being past. He is the one true sovereign over them all.
But that is not how Assyria sees it. Rather quickly, in chapter 10, we see God’s tool attempting to exceed its divine mandate.
His Tool Laid to Waste
12 When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes. 13 For he says: / “By the strength of my hand I have done it / and by my wisdom, for I have understanding; / I remove the boundaries of peoples, / and plunder their treasures; / like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones.
The tool thinks it is he who is in control. Isaiah says:
15 Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, / or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? / As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, / or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood!
Because of their pride and their evil motives, God will turn his judgment from His people to the Assyrians. One writer put it, “being used by God does not exempt humility before God…God is able to [allow] evil without being compromised by it. He holds every useful villain accountable, and no one is getting away with anything, not even arrogant speech or boastful looks.”
When he, the human world power, reaches his hand in to steal from God, as verse 14 illustrates, he doesnt see that he has plaugued himself with no medicine to counter act his inevitable demise. Brothers and Sisters, may we not wallow in despair when the news of tragedy or chaos updates into our newsfeeds or our lives. “Whether the opposition to our joy is little briars and thorns or a vast forest, makes not difference to the Fire.”
When I was a kid, I spent much of my time outside, hiking around in the woods. One of my family’s favorite places to go on a stroll was through Baker’s Mountain. Admittedly, this was not much of a mountain. It was more like a heavily wooded mound. But we loved it! One of my favorite parts of home is that no matter what direction you drive to my family’s house, it is always somewhere in the background. I remember coming home one afternoon from work the summer I graduated from college. My eyes widened as I saw a huge billow of smoke coming from the top of Baker’s mountain. She was on fire! It was like our own redneck Mount Sinai.
I remember hiking Bakers Mountain a few months after the fire. Imagine sending a child into Bakers Mountain State Park to catalog all the trees. It is a ridiculous idea. But In the fall of that year, it would have been quit possible for a child to count them. That is the image Isaiah is painting here. 10:19 says:
The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few / that a child can write them down. Isaiah doubles down on this imagery similarly in verse 33 when he illustrates God not as fire but a lumberjack over Assyria.
33 Behold, the Lord God of hosts / will lop the boughs with terrifying power / the great in height will be hewn down, / and the lofty will be brought low.
It is similar language that we saw in Isaiah 6 of how God will destroy Israel. Only this time, there is no promise of a remnant for Assyria. As we take in the scene around us, all we can see so far is scorched earth and tree stumps. God’s people and His enemies have been laid to waste. - The Triumphant King
In the most cinematic way, our focus cuts through the earie silence and smoke and pans in to one particular stump in the midst of this waste land. And in the disfigurement and destruction of this stump, we see a tiny bit of life. Triumphantly we read:
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump oflJesse, / and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
This is not the first time Isaiah mentions this picture of hope. In 9:6-7 we read of a child being born to us. And this child would be endowed with many names. Isaiah is speaking of the Messiah, the anointed one who will be the salvation of God’s people. Both Isaiah 9 and 11 agree that this child will be from the line of David. However, chapter 11 goes deeper into his qualifications.
His Qualifications
In 11:1-3 we read that this is no ordinary man or even king from David’s line. The Davidic Dynasty was central to the hopes the people of God had for this Messiah. But that didn’t mean a whole lot at the moment, for the house of David had proved to be more of a disappointment than the saviors of the people. After all, Ahaz had this royal lineage. But Isaiah says that this shoot is coming from the stump of Jesse. This is interesting. Rather than highlight the pomp and glory of King David, regarded as the greatest king in Judah, the messiah is promised to come from the one who could create a royal house out of a peasant family.
Brothers and sisters. This is what God does. He creates beautiful things out of nothing. Deliverance is God’s gracious gift. It is clear in our salvation that he offers through the one true Messiah, Jesus.
Further, this Messiah would be anointed, not with oil such had been the case of all the other kings, but with the Spirit of the Lord:
2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, / the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, / the Spirit of counsel and might, / the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
You see, Jesus is not interested in ruling with the limited human qualities that we so often attribute to our ruling authorities. He has Spirit-empower qualities that he weilds to create for us a kingdom we had no idea we needed. The Messiah has wisdom and understanding for leadership, counsel and might to wage war against our most real and terrifying enemies, and he has kowledge and the fear of the Lord underscoring his Holiness. And it is this Fear of the Lord that his most precious as verse 3 indicates.
We tend to think that Jesus is great but when it comes to real world stuff, he is weak and incompetent. In turn, we think much of ourselves and simultaneously undercut the true Christ that is able to save us out of our calamities and captivities. It is not us that has received all treasures of wisdom and knowledge. As Paul highlights in Colossians 2:3, it is Christ who has these things. Even the most pure and objective leaders must make decisions upon what they see. But as Ray Ortlund says, “His insights penetrate through appearances.” Meaning his judgements are righteous and do not simply look on the outside. Praise the Lord he looks deeper!
And with His qualifications, Isaiah 11 describes his performance. Namely, he will bring justice to the needy.
His Performance
4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, / and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; / and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, / and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
One of the reasons for God’s judgemt of His people was becuase of how they delt with the poor. As we learned last week, God loves small humble things. This picture is seen most perfectly in Jesus. While on earth, Jesus did not have any political power in his community, but during his ministry, as we have seen in the gospel of Luke this past year, Jesus has given us a picture of what his kingdom will be like. The hungry will be fed and the poor will be clothed. We will find their deepest needs satisfied only in Jesus Christ.
In reality, this is something we all can get behind. Our world cries for justice every day. You don’t have to be a Christian this morning to desire that. To want justice for this group or for that person. Many people are for justice but find themselves unable to deliver it. It is because we are limited in our abilities. Those who have children know this. When both come in rambling on and on that the one sibling did this and the other did that. How do you decide on the right move to make? Pick the loudest or the one that came in first? Hint: its probably the bleeding one that deserves justice. But what about complex court cases?
The good news is that Jesus is most qualified to deliver us from our failures and from our rebellion. When we lay aside our human efforts to justify ourselves or the world around us, we begin to trust in him who desires to recreate a world for us we didn’t know could exist.
His Results
In the kingdom of Christ we read:
6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, / and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, / and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; / and a little child shall lead them. / 7 The cow and the bear shall graze; / their young shall lie down together; / and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. / 8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, / and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. / 9 They shall not hurt or destroy / in all my holy mountain; / for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord / as the waters cover the sea.
The results of his reign are jaw dropping. Almost too good to be true. When Isaiah 9 says the he will be the Prince of Peace this is what it looks like. Whether Isaiah is speaking figuratively or literally, the effect of the Messiah’s rule will be perfect peace. It is difficult to fully comprehend a world where things that were hostile and dangerous becoming gentle and safe. Jesus has the ability to put back into joint the creation he so inteaded when he spoke it into being. A few years ago, our staff was cleaning out thre church building in prepariotion for the new building debuit. Hunter Coultrap and I found ourselves together throwing stuff unto a dumpster. In a quick but chaotic set of unfortunate moments, Coultrap found himself on the ground with a banged up knee and a shoulder out of joint. After some gruesome, yet, heroic attempts to re-set his own arm, we arrived at the hospital to get him some proper medical attetion. But what if Hunter decided that in the waiting room he just asked for some pain meds. Instead of having his arm forced properly into place, he decided to walk out with a mere bandaid for his problem instead of a solution.
Brothers and sisters, we have grown accustomed to a broken world. We come to God desiring Him to make our problems go away or at least a little bit better. When in realty we do not want God and we sure as heck dont want to encounter his holiness. We would rather settle for a distant faith while living in a broken world with our own abilities to overcome our circumstances. When Christ is offering a better life. A complete life. And his desire right now is for all those who are lost, who are wondering this broken world in search of something better, to see Him as your only solution to your problems, to the cure of your addiction and your afflictions. To your failures!
Run to Jesus this morning. If you have known him but have functionally abandoned him. If you have never embraced him. Run to him. Verse 10 says:
10 In that day the root of Jesse,
He’s not just new tender shoot coming up out of the mud. He is the root. He has always been there. His will
and his plan are firmly planted.
who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.
Isaiah is saying, Jesus is the banner standing tall in the midst of a battle. Run to him and dont retreat.
In the movie The Patriot, an awesome movie, I am not condoning… The setting of the American revolution. In the final battel scene, there is this point where the fight has gotten close and personal. You have the Royal arm on one side and the continental army and the malitia, led by Mel Gibson of course, on the other. And there is this moment were the Americans begin to retreat. At that same time Mel Gibson sees a clear opportunity to take out the antagonist of the film, and avenge his murdered son. But in the midst of the chaos, he hears “retreat!” And out of the corner of his eye he sees the flag bearer running the other way. Now he has a decision to make. Avenge his son by killing Mafoy’s Dad (you heard me) or change the course of the battle. In a split moment he body checks the flag bearer and claims the American Flag for himself and he begins to run in opposite direction. Its such a powerful moment that the men almost automatically turn around and begin to fight again. There’s this one guys that starts to retreat, hes got a bayonet sticking out of his arm, and he sees the flag and begins to run the other way. It’s awesome.
Jesus Christ is the banner. He is firmly planted and will never move. Church, no matter the earthly outcome of this life, he is pointing you on to eternal salvation. One day, we are going to be so amazed at the multitudes that have had their faith become sight. Jesus is not just calling you hes calling a people from every nation to himself.
And it is at this moment Isaiah breaks out into song. Isaiah sings in chapter 12:1: - The Praiseworthy Savior
You will say in that day: “I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me.
The Comfort in His Salvation
You say, wait a minute. This is a different tune than before. A moment ago we were wensing under the terrifying refrain ““for all this his anger has not turned away.” Which is it? He wont relent but he eventually does? Yes! You see we all want justice, the only problem is we have failed to see that we are all guilty. The righteous hand of justice stings, but what proceeds from judgment is always salvation. Another way of putting it is the way Isaiah puts it when he says comfort. Comfort for his people is always his goal.
Listen, you might not be a big fan of movie sequals. Im not so sure I am. If they ever decided to make a Patriot II im sure it would not be so good. But brothers and sister Comfort is always the sequel to captivity. What is our comfort, you might ask? It is Jesus.
Isaiah sings,
God is his salvation and his song.
Salavtion is not merely something that God offers but it is who he is. And as we draw water from the wells of salvation, it is only natural we respond by burst out in song.
The Cascade of His People
4 And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. 5 “Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. 6 Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”
Look at what Isaiah marries in this short chapter. Isaiah is singing praises to God because of God but mentions the nations at the same time. This small remnant will flow like a raging river. Multitudes will come to praise our God.
An interesting question Tim Chester presents is,” Do we burst out in song [upon hearing the news of our salvation] or burst out the door?” Again Yes! As Piper famously states at the beginning of his book on missions, “Missions exist because worship doesn’t.” Worship is missions and missions is worship. That’s why the picture Isaiah paints here is so glorious. He commands us to shout of the work of God from the rooftops.
CONCLUSION
Why? — Maybe as you were listening this morning, instead of having praise for God you have questions. When I was writing this sermon on Friday, my dear brother came into my office and reminded me of a passage in Lamentations 3, a book full of holy laments. Lamentations 3:33 says this:
for he does not afflict from his heart
Isn’t that good news? What does he do from his heart? He saves! May you trust in the God of our salvation today and every day.