Finding the Light

Introduction

Jamie works at the library and had give a public presentation for all her co-workers. She said she was nervous before, nervous during, and wanted to puke after.

All of her co-workers said she did great.

She says all of her co-workers are liars.

Whether it be malevolent lizard people ruling the world or benevolent co-workers trying to make us feel better, we all have our conspiracy theories.

And one of the hardest things to to tell a conspiracy theorist is that things really aren’t all as bad as they seem

There is no satanic child-sacrifice happening at the local Pizza-Hut

There are no lizard people

Maybe you really did have a good presentation

Text Connection

In Isaiah 8:11-9:7 God is trying to tell us that things aren’t as bad as they seem - because there is no conspiracy that can overthrow God.

Our Connection

We can say that God is the one sitting on the throne, that he rules the nations, that he is the one who will overcome any enemy - but we often live as if the things we’re afraid of really are stronger than God.

Don’t Fall to Conspiracies

Isaiah 8:11–12 ESV

11 For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: 12 “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.

The city of Jerusalem is afraid and they have good reason to be. Let’s recap on what they’re facing up against:

Assyria has decided they ought to rule the world and have their sights set on Egypt.

On the path to their world-domination is Syria, Israel, and Judah

Syria and Israel want to band together to put up a fight, but Judah isn’t so eager to join them

So Syria and Israel plan to attack Jerusalem, overthrow the king, put their guy on the throne, and all fight against Assyria

So Jerusalem is surrounded by an ocean of bad choices.

They don’t think they can stand up against Syria and Israel by themselves

They don’t want to fight against Assyria

When they invite Assyria to help out it only makes things worse for Jerusalem

Everywhere they look they see conspiracy - and it’s not just a theory. Everywhere they look they see enemies.

When we look at that word ‘conspiracy’ in other contexts it tends to describe the overthrow of an established authority in favor of some rebel or usurper.

David was king in Jerusalem and his son Absalom conspired against him to take the throne (2 Sam 15:12)

Queen Athaliah in 2 Kings 11:14 sees that someone else is being crowned king at the temple and she shouts “Conspiracy! Treason!”

And in Jeremiah 11:9-10 God says there’s a conspiracy against him. Rather than holding God as the highest authority God’s people have turned to other gods.

Jerusalem is afraid that with all of these enemies there’s a conspiracy afoot - someone is going to catch them off-guard and take their power and position away from them.

Connect: We All Fall to Conspiracies

And conspiracies are not just for the extremely paranoid. We all fall to conspiracies of one sort or another. They generally flourish among people who face uncertainty and feelings of powerlessness.

When Bush won the election in 2000 there were questions over the results in Florida. Some proposed that there was a conspiracy, others mocked the whole idea.

Left-leaning columnist Paul Krugman wrote that “The truth is that many of the people who throw around terms like ‘loopy conspiracy theories’ are lazy bullies, then try to suggest that anyone who asks those questions is crazy.”

When power switched back to the Democrats under Obama he wrote that “conspiracy theories are supported by a lot of influential people on the right, but not on the left.”

And again when Trump was elected he wrote “It looks more and more as if we had an election swung, in effect, by a factions of our own security sector in alliance with Putin.” In other words, there was a conspiracy!

We’re not arguing about the plausibility of any particular conspiracy theory, just that when things are going our way there is no conspiracy - everything is aboveboard, honest, and without blemish. But when things aren’t going our way, suddenly we become suspicious, paranoid even.

We Have Our Personal Conspiracies

And we don’t have to limit it to big government conspiracies. We have all sorts of personal conspiracies that we tell ourselves about God or his people.

I read that God loves me and forgives me - but I know what’s really going on. There’s no way he could forgive someone like me.

God’s supposed to be the on in control taking care of things but it seems like real power belongs to all of these other people.

When life isn’t going according to plan we start seeing dark ulterior motives, we seek out a conspiracy to explain why life isn’t the way it’s supposed to be.

We start to believe that maybe God doesn't have as much control as we thought he did.

Making God Holy

So Isaiah reaffirms God’s character for us.

Isaiah 8:13–15 ESV

13 But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. 14 And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 15 And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”

God is Holy

This should remind us of Isaiah 6 when Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on his throne in the temple, with the Seraphim shouting “Holy, holy holy, is the Lord of all armies!”. This vision happened right at the death of one of Jerusalem’s best and long lasting kings. When life starts getting scary we need to remember that God is holy and sitting on his throne.

He can’t be bribed

He can’t be blindsided

He can’t be outwitted or overcome

A Sanctuary

As such, he could be our sanctuary - a holy place for us to find refuge in, free from fear, where we can trust him to take care of it all for us.

When we think the sky is falling we take refuge in that fact that God rules the nations

When we think our sin is is going to destroy us we find safety in his love and forgiveness

When we think there’s nothing but terror and deception on every side we find sanctuary in his paths forward

Or A Snare

Or he can be a stone we trip over. When we don’t see God as holy, or as the most powerful - when we believe in the conspiracies that say someone else is pulling the strings - what do we naturally do? We start trusting in someone or something else.

And this is exactly what Ahaz, the king of Jerusalem did. Instead of taking refuge in God he believed the conspiracy that Assyria was the one in charge - and that’s who he trusted, and that’s who nearly wiped Jerusalem off the map just a few years later.

Making the Right Choice

So we need to be careful about who we listen to.

Isaiah is commited to God’s word:

Isaiah 8:16–18 ESV

16 Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching among my disciples. 17 I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. 18 Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

Trusting God’s Word

Isaiah says that God’s hiding his face from his people. He can’t see him, but he can hear him. He’s taking the testimony and the teachings - all of God’s revelation that he had - and saying this is who I’m listening to. He’s standing with the children that the Lord has given him as signs - the sign’s of hope in

His son Shear-Jashub - that even though destruction is coming a remnant will return

Immanuel - That God is with us no matter how much we’re told otherwise

Maher-shalal-hash-baz - That this is all true no matter how quickly the disaster is approaching

We bind up God’s word in our heart, commit ourselves to it. We wait for God’s salvation in God’s time while refusing to give up, give in, or run away.

Transition: Or we could see what someone else has to say. As Isaiah and his disciples trust in God’s word, the rest of Jerusalem decides to get advice from some other folk.

Trusting Dead Men

The Israelites are getting all of their information from dead people!

Isaiah 8:19 ESV

19 And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?

The ancients believed that the spirits of the dead could offer insight into the divine realm and give them an insider view on what those gods were up to. With all of this news you could work your way out of a tight spot and escape disaster.

But what can a dead man teach you?

You can learn from Confucius, Aristotle, the Stoics, or any life-style coach how to live your life. They will all tell you “This is the right way to live. This is how one flourishes as a human.” And do you know what happened to all of those people who claimed to have life all figured out?

They died.

We look to dead men how to live life, but do we ever consider how their life ended?

Connect: Where Do Our Conspiracies Come From?

Some conspiracies can sound really plausible until you consider the source.

The lizard people ruling the earth conspiracy theory came form a guy named David Ickes. His qualifications? He was sports broadcaster and watched the Matrix films.

Edgar Welch ran into a pizza shop firing his weapon, expecting to find a sex dungeon full of slaves but instead found a broom closet. He heard about it on Reddit.

The moon landing is fake because Stanley Kubrick hid his confession in his movie The Shining.

Whenever we’re led to doubt the goodness and power of God, we have to consider the source.

Anxiety tell us that God’s not the one in control

Doubt tells us that God's people aren’t all that their cracked up to be

Fear tells us that God doesn’t mean it when he says he loves you

Pride says you ought to be the one in control - not God

And like all conspiracies, it gets deeper. That’s the devil telling you all of those things. He’s the one who wants you to be full of anxiety, doubt, fear, and pride. Because he’s the one conspiring against God, trying to get us to remove him from his rightful place so that Satan can be there instead.

Don’t listen to sources that have no idea what they’re talking about.

Israel listened to dead men and wound up just the same as them.

When you listen to devil you’ll get his results too - the lake of fire.

As much as the devil wants to tell you how the world really works, if you believe all the fear and doubt he sows you’ll only end up being in the dark.

Isaiah 8:20–22 ESV

20 To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. 21 They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward. 22 And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.

When doubt is cast on God’s word we need to remember Genesis 1. God said let there be light, and there was light. When God speaks, the universe obeys. Just as sure as there is light out there, we can be sure that what God has said elsewhere is true - it’s the way things really are.

But if we don’t trust in his word, Genesis 1 tells us what life is like without it:

It’s dark

It’s formless and empty

With nothing to keep us afloat in the waters of chaos

Transition: So after God discredits the conspiracies Israel is listening to, he tell us all how things are really going to shake out.

Who’s Really In Charge

Isaiah 9:1–2 ESV

1 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

God says that one day his light is going to shine, even in the places that were hit by Assyria the hardest. One day God’s word is going to be vindicated and all that he’s promised will come to pass. Everyone is going to see things as they actually are - that God has been in control the whole time.

Isaiah 9:3–5 ESV

3 You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. 4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. 5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.

When God’s people thought they were going to be wiped out, God multiplied them.

When they thought they were going to lose everything he increased the harvest and divided the spoil.

When they were at their weakest God would shatter their oppressor, just like Gideon was the weakest during the Midianite oppression yet rescued all of Israel.

And everything that belonged to the enemy will be tossed into the fire.

Connect: That day is for us too, when we see that all of fears couldn’t stand up to God. that all of our doubts were unfounded. That all of our paranoia was for nothing. When it looks like everything is going down the drain we need that light is going to dawn again - but only through the power of God’s word.

And here’s how that day comes about. There will be light because…

Isaiah 9:6–7 ESV

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

When it comes to biblical prophecy we see that they can be fulfilled in multiple phases. There’s the immediate fulfillment relevant to the time it was written in, and then there might another way in which Jesus fulfills it in a bigger and better way.

For example, we saw a pattern in Isaiah 7 - a child was announced that stood as a sign of salvation from Assyria. when Jesus was announced to Joseph we were told that he would save us from something bigger, sin itself. Isaiah 7 had immediate meaning to its day and it set the tone for who Jesus would be.

Isaiah 9:6-7 I think is one of the few prophecies that directly and exclusively speaks about the coming Christ. Matthew 4:15-16 quotes from here to describe Jesus.

No king ever compared with this child’s description.

This child is described as “Mighty God” and “Everlasting Father” - hardly appropriate for anyone but God

He will uphold his kingdom forever

In short, God shows us the truth, he shows us how life really is, by pointing at Jesus. You want to know who’s really in charge and pulling the strings? Take a look at how things played out for Jesus:

Who was betrayed by one of the twelve

Who lost all of his disciples as they fled from him that night

Who was stripped of everything he had

Who faced a conspiracy that put him to death

And then got up three days later.

That, God says, is proof that he alone runs the world. That is how things are going to shake out for everyone who trusts in the Word that became flesh. No matter what conspiracy we face, real or imagined, it can never put us down when we are with God.

We don’t find our way out of the darkness through more darkness. We don’t listen to dead men who can’t get back up. We follow the light of the world who lives forever.

Conclusion

What’s the world telling you about God lately?

That he doesn’t care?

That he doesn’t love you?

That you’re all alone?

Don’t fall for the conspiracy theories. God is the only one who can tell you how life really is, and he’s got some good news for you.

You don’t have to be in the dark

You don’t have to be afraid

You don’t have to listen to dead men

He has shone you that his light overcomes the darkness, that his life overcomes death for anyone who is in Christ.

So if you’re tired of living in the dark, why don’t you come to the light and come forward as we stand and sing?