Isaiah 31 - Living in a Fantasy

1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the Lord! 2 And yet he is wise and brings disaster; he does not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers and against the helpers of those who work iniquity. 3 The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. When the Lord stretches out his hand, the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they will all perish together. 4 For thus the Lord said to me, “As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey, and when a band of shepherds is called out against him he is not terrified by their shouting or daunted at their noise, so the Lord of hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill. 5Like birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it; he will spare and rescue it.” 6 Turn to him from whom people have deeply revolted, O children of Israel. 7 For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you. 8 “And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man; and a sword, not of man, shall devour him; and he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be put to forced labor. 9 His rock shall pass away in terror, and his officers desert the standard in panic,” declares the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

Target Date: Sunday, 22 September 2024

Word Study/ Translation Notes:

Thoughts on the Passage:

Many commentators (M. Henry, for one) consider this chapter an abridgment of 30.

LOST 3 Pages of notes on iPad. Unrecoverable. Arrrgghhh!

1 – There are two great errors of the people: 1) Failing to look to God in faith, and 2) Failing to consult (pray and listen to) God.

The first is easily analogous to the temptation of Jesus. He had the POWER to turn the stones to bread, but He did not have the warrant from God.

The second echoes James – You do not have because you do not ask.

These errors make us do many foolish and sinful things.

1 – Everyone knew Egypt was a waning power, old and weak. Only a fool would place their trust in them.

And while we might blame the king, the people had driven him to this great sin. Will a king stand against the faithlessness of his people?

1 – The Jews of that day were living in a fantasy that they could be rescued by their own wisdom or strength.

What kind of fantasies do we live in today?

The drunkard indulges in momentary pleasure, but he will still have to awaken the next morning.

Pornography provides no fulfillment; it feeds its own thirst without providing any satisfaction.

It is like drinking salt water – the more you drink, the thirstier you get.

Drinking from these sins of fantasy will never slake your thirst.

We turn to movies, television, and books to offer us escape to fantasy from our daily lives – but what do they deliver?

When you watch a superhero or read about a millionaire (or billionaire) and their fantastic romance, how do you feel about your own life, your own spouse, your own kids, or your own home?

Does this entertainment represent anything but vanity, vapor, chasing after the wind?

That is even the draw of many video games – immerse yourself in a world where you are powerful, in control, or wealthy.

And the dissatisfaction you feel when you shut the game off and re-enter your real world lingers.

It calls you back, as strong as any novel set down at its climax, to come and take back up your power in fantasy.

Even our idle time can be taken up with fantasies, what the Bible calls lusts:

16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. - 1 John 2:16–17

1 – Although some, including M. Henry, speculate that the Egyptians may have made the worship of their gods a condition of their aid, this is not necessary to cause the response of God toward their faithless actions.

We do not need to be compelled to worship false gods;

The very fact that they sought out the Egyptians ADMITTED that the people trusted the Egyptian gods more than they trusted the True God.

They looked to the gods of Egypt and thought, “Their gods made them strong, while our God has left us weak.”

They did not realize, they did not understand, that the True God, YHWH, orders every nation, raising them up and knocking them down. The Egyptians were ascendant for His purposes; they decayed for His purposes also.

2 -In modern speech Isaiah might have said, “You know, God knows a little something, too.”

Applications:

We do not, in general, WANT to rely on God. We want Him to give us stuff so we can rely on His gifts and blessings, but not on Him.

For many, it is the height of desperation to rely COMPLETELY on God; it tells us we have no other means at our disposal to do what we want.

So for those things we want to acquire, we would rather trust in what we have than in trusting in God who gives what we need.

For our church, we have been offered a building for which we are truly grateful; it would be a tragedy indeed if we, in the future, relied more on our cash reserves than in the provision of God for our needs.

This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t save and plan for any growth God may bring – He uses ordinary means after all.

But it does mean we should always live in dependence on Him, even for the daily needs and weekly needs of our church.

He provides by offerings, yes, but much more provides WHEN WE ASK HIM. And we must never forget that.

Sermon Text:

As we read through this short chapter this morning, many things may sound really familiar to you.

The 31st chapter serves as a summary, a wrap-up, of the message of chapter 30.

But in its brevity, it brings into laser-focus the sins of those who are seeking worldly solutions:

1. They do not look to the Holy One of Israel,

and 2. They do not consult (pray to or listen to) the LORD.

Now, on a Sunday morning, you might expect a preacher to stand up here and tell you how sinful these things really are, and how the people should not have done that.

After all, we know, if we look just a few chapters ahead in this book, that God has already planned to miraculously save them in this moment.

Instead though, I would like to look at how completely UNDERSTANDABLE it was for the people of God to react in this way.

There really is no mystery here.

We can shake our head at these faithless Jews all we like, and we can read the declarations by God against them,

But what they were doing makes a lot of sense.

For almost 4000 years of recorded history, the most powerful force on any battlefield was the horse.

First in chariots, then as riders, these cavalry soldiers were worth far more than dozens of foot soldiers in battle.

In fact, this all may seem like ancient history, but horse cavalry were the dominant force on battlefields until only about 100 years ago, in WW 1.

It is only since then that horses have been replaced by tanks and, later, by planes, helicopters, and missiles.

All that to say that we might read the first verse of this chapter in this way:

Woe to those...who rely on tanks, who trust in planes because they are many and in missiles because they are so very strong.

The Assyrians had these things; the Egyptians did, too.

But Israel and Judah didn’t have these great weapons of war.

And so it makes perfect sense that if the Assyrians had invaded the land, the people of Judah needed to find somewhere to get those weapons too.

Because worshipping God is one thing, but trusting Him to save you from a great army is quite another.

That’s what they were thinking.

God was ok for praying to for rain or for harvests or for health, but scary men with swords is quite another.

Can you understand that?

Have you thought the same thing sometimes?

“I will trust God to save my soul, but I’m not so sure about whether I can trust Him to care for me here.”

The truth is, for many of us in many ways, we really don’t want to RELY on God for what we need.

We would much rather He give us enough up front and let us manage it.

We might pray, from the model prayer,Give us this day our daily bread, - Matthew 6:11

But we would feel much better, much safer, if our pantry is full and our fridge is overflowing.

We think we can trust Him more if He will just give us what we need BEFORE we need it.

Our faith is weak, far weaker than we realize, because we do not live in DAILY, moment-to-moment, reliance on the Providence of God.

Our prayers are for abundance, not necessity, if we even bother to pray at all for these things.

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. - James 4:1–3

We pray before our meals, as we should, but so often consider what is set before us the labor of our own hands.

Even when we are blessed, even when we receive a good gift from a brother or sister, we often covet.

Please allow me to illustrate:

If a friend of yours invites you for a day at the lake, riding their boat, are you grateful to God for that day of blessing,

Or do you tell yourself that someday you will have a lake house or a boat of your own?

If someone gives you tickets to a game, do you thank God for their kindness,

Or do you begin to consider how you can get season tickets as well?

If you see someone’s husband or wife doing some kindness for them, do you thank God for the grace He has shown your friend,

Or do you resent the fact your spouse never does that for you?

Not only does our covetousness lead us to pursue the wrong things in the wrong ways, it blinds us to the blessings WE receive from God’s providence.

I don’t care how unfortunate or unblessed you may feel, there is someone who covets something you have.

And the reason we covet is that we do not trust God enough in the daily things to think He will come through for us.

We are not looking for His kindnesses in our life;

We see mostly what we DON’T have.

And so we ASK WRONGLY, as James puts it, to spend it on our passions.

And so we, too, go to Egypt.

To understand what I mean when I say that, let’s begin with this:

No one in their right mind believed that Egypt could help.

They were long past their prime – hundreds of years since they had been great.

They couldn’t even help themselves – they had been invaded by what is now Sudan around this time – a long way to their south.

To expect useful aid from Egypt was a fantasy.

A vain hope, at best.

Egypt had no interest in saving Judah’s kingdom, and certainly no interest in facing the Assyrians there.

But even acting on this thin hope is, in a way, UNDERSTANDABLE.

Because we see people living in fantasies every day.

Fantasies, as opposed to living in faith to God from moment-to-moment.

Fantasies are the inner land that covetousness reigns over.

The hidden realm of our hearts;

The part we can often keep hidden, safely just to ourself.

But this realm of fantasy is the great factory of idolatry that is hidden inside each of us.

It prevents us both from perceiving the goodness of God to us, and from seeking His way.

It keeps us from looking to the Holy One of Israel or consulting the Lord!

It is this part of our hearts that draws us out of the reality of our lives into “what might be” or “what we wish it would be”.

So that rather than working to make our lives better, godlier, holier, and more spiritual, we indulge in “what might be.”

I have called covetousness the “Great American Sin”, and I stand by that.

Of all the Commandments, the Tenth is trampled more perhaps than any other.

It is no accident that the Ten Commandments of God begin with the prohibition of idolatry and end with the destruction of the idol factory in our hearts.

Covetousness sets up within each one of us a great structure of fantasy,

And if we are not constantly engaged with dismantling it, we are easily overtaken by its products.

Fantasy has nothing to do with reality, or even wisdom.

It holds our heart captive to those things we would set our desires on in this life.

Even the drunkard who dances as the life of the party has to awaken the next day. It doesn’t matter what she tells herself about the liquor she consumes.

Pornography inflames lust, but provides no fulfillment at all.

No person to connect with – just images of fantasy.

It feeds its own thirst, increasing it rather than satisfying it.

Like drinking salt water – the more you drink, the more desperately thirsty you become.

We turn to movies, or television, or novels to offer us escape to fantasy from our daily lives.

But when you watch a superhero, are you more powerful?

When you read about a millionaire (or billionaire), are you wealthier?

When you watch or read a romance, are you MORE satisfied with your real-life relationship? Doubtful.

Many, most , of our entertainments are covetous vanity, chasing after wind.

That is the draw of many video games – to immerse yourself in a world where you are powerful, in control, or wealthy.

And the dissatisfaction you feel in your REAL life lingers when you shut the game off or set the book down or walk out of the theatre, or empty the bottle.

They each call you back, inviting you to revel in that fantasy again.

In our idle moments, when we are alone with our thoughts, where do our hearts go?

Does your heart turn to godly things, or to covetous things no one will ever know?

Do you practice the command of Scripture:

do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:6–7

Think about the last time you were in the middle of one of these things: idle thought, a book, movie, game, or the like.

When your spouse or your parent or your child or someone else from your life called out to you and took you away from that thing, how did you feel?

Did you move immediately to their aid, or was there just one more page, one more paragraph, one more level, one more minute before you could be bothered with them.

Or when you you knew something necessary was waiting to be done, did you put it off to engage in this fantasy world?

There used to be a bubble-bath commercial with the tag line: “Calgon, take me away!”

Is that the cry of your heart to the fantasies you have surrounded yourself with?

Does this sound like your prayer to the idols your heart has made?

Because the message Isaiah has here in this chapter is this: God loves you, and He hates your idols.

He wants you to live in the reality of His providence, not in the fantasy of your own power or control.

We see it in vv. 6-7:

Turn to him from whom people have deeply revolted, O children of Israel. For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.

From where did these idols come? From Egypt.

They are the useless gods of the useless nation.

Some may think that part of the conditions the Egyptians had for their aid was that the Jews would worship the Egyptian gods, but I don’t think it is necessary to even speculate that.

The practical atheism the people of Judah showed in crying out to Egypt proved they trusted the Egyptian gods more than the True God.

For them, the Egyptian gods had made Egypt strong, a power to be feared;

But YHWH had not given Judah horses or power or political strength.

And they didn’t value anything God truly was, nor did they apprciate anything He had done.

For them, they would proclaim, “Egypt’s gods made her strong; YHWH has made us weak.”

False gods have the tendency to not make requirements, to not give commandments, nor to give laws and judge the people on them.

But the Holy God of Israel IS holy; He makes laws; and He requires they be kept perfectly.

But that is because He is REAL, and TRUE, and HOLY.

He is the One who orders all things.

He is the one who raised Egypt up for her time and crushed her in her time.

He is the one who, in v. 3 - stretches out his hand, the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they will all perish together.

All the horses and chariots and warriors of Egypt and Assyria, and it just takes the extended hand of God to stop them all.

But false gods also have no ability to save.

But the Holy One of Israel, the God whose “fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem” (v.9), is the Holy God who has made a way for sinful people to come to Him.

Through a way made in Jerusalem, inaugurated on Mt. Zion.

Where God provided for Himself a Lamb, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

Who puts to flight imaginations, bringing every thought to the captivity of Christ.

Who is, in Himself, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Jesus Christ, the Righteous.

No other god, no other name, is given where people may be saved except for Jesus Christ.

And the grace He offers is REAL and FREE, not a fantasy of hope.

The forgiveness He offers is more real than an acquittal before the Supreme Court.

Because His salvation endures forever, guaranteed by the fact that all our well-deserved condemnation has been paid in full by Jesus Christ.