ISAIAH 8

Isaiah 8
Good morning. If you have your Bible, please turn to Isa ch.8. I also want to welcome the college students to our church. We are so glad you are back in Boone. I hope you will join us at 6pm tonight for College Connection. Our church has joyfully welcomed students for 46 years, & we are so excited about this year. God is at work.
Many of you know this, but our senior pastor, Scott, is 1 month into his 3-month sabbatical. He is studying the reformation in Germany right now, so he is a very happy man. But we’re happy too, because we get to study the amazing book of Isaiah. We have only made it through 6 chapters in 3 weeks, so we will need to pick up the pace. But I think it was important for us to go slow through these first few chapters so we can grasp Isaiah’s message. If you are just returning to Boone, allow me to briefly catch you up.
This is where we left Isaiah last week – at the end of ch6 his face was glowing from his encounter with God, but his heart was heavy because he would have to preach to a nation that didn’t give a rip about God. In many ways, this is where the book begins. In chapter 7, Isaiah will begin to preach a message of hope to the new King Ahaz, but he didn’t want anything to do with it. He could figure out his problems on his own. I got it Isaiah, go away.
•The River (8:5-10) • The Rock (8:11-15) • The Light (8:16-22)
I know this sounds like 3 radio stations. But you’ll remember it this week. And every time you drive past a river, or see a giant rock, or watch the sun come up, you will remember to live God’s way – even if everyone else has rejected him.
So, let’s look at the river. What can a river teach us about living faithfully for God? We will start in chapter 8, verse 5. We’re going to pick up in the middle of the conversation, so you’re going to have to focus. I’ll explain it in a minute. [5] The LORD spoke to me again: [6] “Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoice over Rezin and the son of Remaliah, [7] therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks, [8] and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.”
Over the past few weeks, we have been getting to know King Uzziah. We learned that he was a decent king that made the nation rich, but he was a horrible spiritual leader, and in many ways, he led the nation to this place of spiritual laziness. But in ch7, Uzziah was dead, & Ahaz, was on the throne. Ahaz would turn out to be one of the worst leaders in the history of the nation. To be fair, Ahaz faced a significant crisis & he was only 20 years old when he took the throne. The city of Jerusalem was preparing for war. They had not experienced any adversity in the past 50 years, so nobody was ready for this, let alone their insecure 20-year-old king.
Here’s how it unfolded (all of this is in ch.7). The 2 small nations that surrounded Judah (Syria & Israel) were planning to attack Jerusalem to take out their young King Ahaz & install a puppet king. They wanted to form a 3-nation alliance to mount a defense against the far greater threat of Assyria in the North. But King Ahaz in Jerusalem didn’t want to be part of this puny little clique. He had a different plan up his sleeve. He would quietly strike a deal with Assyria to get out of this jam. If he could partner with Assyria, Judah would be practically invincible. Problem solved!
That was ch7. In ch8, Isaiah let us know how he felt about this. He said that Ahaz’s thirst for power would ultimately drown him. If you want Assyria, Ahaz, then you will get Assyria! The same power you trust will overwhelm you. They will get you out of a jam today, but be warned: in v8, their outstretched wings will fill your land. That’s a powerful image, considering that the Assyrian god is always pictured with outstretched wings. They will defend you today, but they will rule over you tomorrow.
Isaiah compared Ahaz’s thirst for power to a river. This is a brilliant analogy. All the great cities of the world have a River. Just 2 weeks ago, we saw Paris boast in the Mighty (Sayne) Seine. In June, a group from our church took a long walk down the Ancient Tiber that cuts thru Rome. The Assyrian & Babylonian Empires had the Euphrates & the Tigris… But where was Jerusalem’s River? They don’t have one. At the time, their only water source was a very gentle & unpredictable brook that flowed into the Kidron Valley. It was embarrassing. But there could not have been a better location for the city of God. God’s people did not need a river; they had him! The gentle brook was a constant reminder that God was their strength; God was their source of life.
OK, this is a nice object lesson, & it might work in times of peace, but how in the world would it help Ahaz in war? If they stood any chance of surviving, they would need to fight, right? This is how the real world operates. You fight power with power. Only the strong survive. But Isaiah wanted to show Ahaz a different strategy to stand up to the Assyrian threat. Do you know what it was? It was a baby. I’m not kidding. This was God’s majestic plan to take down Asshur, the god of war. If you read chapters 7 thru 9, you will find no less than four babies. •Isaiah will meet King Ahaz with his own child on his hip. •He will predict that a child will be born from a virgin whose name will be God with us. •Isaiah will have another baby in chapter 8, & •in chapter 9, an eternal son will be born to sit on David’s throne. God will defeat Assyria by assembling a nursery. Don’t you love our God? He outwits the wisdom of the wise by becoming weak.
Of course, if you don’t know the power of this God, this strategy makes no sense. Ahaz was too young & insecure to get it. So, he huddled up with the powerful Assyrian dignitaries. They made him feel strong. They also convinced him to sacrifice his own son to the god of war. The world’s power destroys everything in its wake. But Isaiah showed us what God’s way looks like. While Ahaz was plotting his battleplan, Isaiah was a few streets down changing diapers, faithfully caring for the weak. If you want to know how to live for God in a world that is falling apart, surround yourself with children & needy people. (This makes me wonder, figuratively speaking, what water source feeds your home. Do you live by the mighty rivers, or the gentle brooks? If you want to know, ask yourself if small people are welcome there. Are hurting people & broken people comfortable in your home?) God’s people are always found by the gentle waters of Shiloah.
In these verses, God warned Isaiah to resist the way of this people. Specifically, he did not want him to get caught up in the web of their fears & conspiracy theories. In times of political upheaval, fears & conspiracy theories run wild. They are intoxicating & juicy. They help us make sense of a broken world. Does this sound familiar to anyone? It is so easy to get pulled into their orbit, so God warned Isaiah to refuse the way of the world.
There is good evidence that the specific conspiracy revolved around Isaiah himself. The text does not say it, so it is speculation, but we do know this happened to Jeremiah. These faithful prophets had to bring difficult & controversial messages to the kings. Assyria will destroy you; Babylon will take you away. The kings did not like that; it was their responsibility to protect the nation. So they accused the prophets of conspiring against the state. Can you imagine how painful this would have been for Isaiah if he had been labeled as a conspirator? Nobody loved the nation more than he did, but they blamed him for tearing it down.
Our world pulses with anxiety & fear. Perhaps you are worried about an economic meltdown. Maybe you’re worried that the wrong candidate will get into office. Maybe your fears are more local, and you’re worried about losing your reputation or your job. These fears will overwhelm you until you come to terms with your ultimate fear. You will drown yourself in cable news & theories & plots.
But if you draw near to God with a humble heart – and come into the sanctuary, as Isaiah says in v.14 – he will not crush you; he will defend you. He will be your refuge. It’s amazing, because sinners do not belong in the sanctuary (sanctuary means holy place), but this is the only place where they can find freedom from their fears. We are saved from God’s wrath by running to him. But if you run away from the fear of the Lord, like Ahaz did, & do not honor him as holy, the same rock that would have been your refuge will crush you. He will become a rock of offense & a stone of stumbling. You can be hidden or crushed. (This makes me wonder whether you are hidden in God, or exposed? If you want to know, ask yourself about your fears. Are you getting caught up in conspiracies? Do you spend more time plotting your next step or praying/trusting? When you take refuge in the Lord, you still have to make plans; you just do it with a calm & non-anxious presence, because your greatest fear has been resolved by the blood of Jesus).
When you reject God’s light & wisdom, you must light a torch to make it through the darkness. And there are plenty of torches. We love quick fixes, life hacks, & self-help strategies. Just like power & conspiracy theories, they can get you out of a jam. They’re useful. We must be very careful because even Christians can be attracted to these flames. I had lunch with a friend (he doesn’t live here, so don’t try to guess who it is) who was going through a dark season of his life, & he was navigating it exclusively through the little torches of human wisdom. There was no prayer, no Scripture, no godly influences. His big breakthroughs were nothing more than little life hacks that would soon flame out. Church, we have something better.
I love how Isaiah responded to the darkness in verse 20. To the teaching & the testimony! Isaiah would gather with his disciples & devote himself to studying God’s word. He would treasure it, read it, memorize it, teach it, and wait for God’s promises to come true. This is how you live for God in a world that has rejected him. To the teaching & to the testimony!
(Which light are you huddled around? Do you seek God in his word, or are you trying to hack your way through the darkness by the fading light of human wisdom?)
Isaiah devoted himself to the word of God, even though it did not take root in his wicked generation. But he knew that God’s word never comes back empty. It always accomplishes his purpose in his sovereign timing in his sovereign way. As Isaiah waited on the Lord, God showed him a stunning vision of the future. At the beginning of chapter 9, he predicted that a light would dawn in Galilee, quite unexpected & undeserved.
These words were fulfilled in Jesus. He would come to his people in Galilee as a baby and grow up to be a gentle & meek savior. He would offer the gentle waters of salvation to anyone who would humbly come to him. He would be a rock & a refuge, sheltering those who feared the Lord, but he would also be a stone of stumbling to those who rejected him. He was the light of the world & he came to rescue his people from the kingdom of darkness. God was unexpectedly shining his face on his people once again.
Of course, this was still 750 years away, but Isaiah patiently waited for it to come. He lived in a dark world that had rejected God, but he showed us how to live a faithful life of obedience. He surrounded himself with children & needy people. He lived a humble & quiet life. He turned off the chatter on the cable news & feared the Lord. He gathered a group of disciples & devoted himself to study the word of God together. And he kept on preaching.