Sermon Tone Analysis

Much of what I have to say this morning I must give credit to David Strain, pastor of First Presbyterian in Jackson, Mississippi.

His thinking has heavily influenced my preparation in working through today’s passage.

Here in Isaiah 7, we see that the people of God are in big trouble.

The future looks bleak indeed and into the midst of their fear-filled season of life God gave them a great sign of hope, real-world hope.

He gives them the basis of real hope and the source of solid joy.

This is something they needed, a cure for scared, hurting people, both in Isaiah’s day and in ours.

I.

The Setting, 1-9

Verses 1 and 2 set the scene.

We have four major players (actually, five, but we’ll get to that in a little bit).

It’s the year 734 BC.

God’s people in the Land of Promise have divided into two kingdoms.

The southern kingdom of Judah has Ahaz, Uzziah’s son, the descendant of King David, ruling over it.

Ahaz (Judah)

Pekah (Israel)

Rezin (Syria)

Tiglath-Pileser III (Assyria)

God (Heaven and Earth!)

And to the north, Pekah the son of Remaliah, rules the kingdom called Israel.

Just to the east and north of Israel, we have another player, Rezin, King of Syria.

And at this point in history, the whole region is under the threat of military conquest from the the King of Assyria, Tiglath-Pileser III.

Assyria was the super-power of the day.

As you can imagine, it is a time of international intrigue and escalating, regional tensions, as it is all about power, prestige, and protection.

Pekah King of Israel, doesn’t want to pay tribute to Tiglath-Pileser to buy him off, but he doesn’t want to be crushed under his boots either.

Pekah decides to pair up with Rezin, king of Syria, to form a defensive alliance.

Down south, Ahaz, King of Judah, is left vulnerable not only to the ravenous appetite of Tiglath-Pileser and the Assyrian Empire but also faces the threat of the northern alliance with which he refuses to join.

And so, verse 2, we discover that Rezin and Pekah have decided to come and teach Ahaz and the people of Judah a lesson.

(Strain)

And so verse 2, “When the house of David (the king of Judah) was told, ‘Syria is in league with Ephraim,’” (Ephraim is another way to refer to the northern kingdom by their largest tribe), “the heart of Ahaz and his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.”

Judah is in turmoil; the people are in full freak-out mode.

Everyone is on edge, full of fear.

Their future looks bleak, with the expectation of an attack from the northern alliance at any moment.

Ahaz is preoccupied in preparations for a siege that he expects to come at any minute.

He is out inspecting the water supplies for Jerusalem.

And here is where the fifth player enters the story: the God of this universe.

Notice God’s word for Ahaz:

What is the Lord’s word to him: “You are facing threats from every side.

If you’re not firm in faith you will not be firm at all.”

What God is telling him is that if your faith in Me isn’t the stable foundation for your life, Ahaz, when all other ground is sinking sand, then you will certainly fall in the end.

I’m the only stable foundation.

Stand firm in faith.

Stand firm in Me.”

And it’s a message we need to be reminded of as well.

Don’t we live in difficult, challenging times, too?

The plotting and the political intrigue that surrounded Ahaz in our chapter this morning reads like a news report from the front lines of the Middle East even today.

Know this: whether our fears are generated by political uncertainty or by personal insecurity, many of us find today that we must fight fear and fight for faith these days.

This passage has a couple of things to say to help strengthen us in the fight for faith:

A faithful remnant will be preserved

The first of them you can see if you look back at verse 3. Notice Isaiah is told to take his son along with him for the confrontation with Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the upper pool.

Now in this part of the book of Isaiah, it’s important to notice that his sons are named and their names have symbolic significance.

His firstborn is here in chapter 7; another son is mentioned in chapter 8. His firstborn here is called Shear-jashub.

Shear-jashub means “a remnant shall return.”

And if you look back at the end of chapter 6, you’ll see that God was pronouncing coming judgment on Judah, on His people.

The people, He said, will be like a stump.

And yet the stump that is left, He calls “a holy seed.”

A faithful remnant will be preserved.

Taking Shear-jashub along with him was maybe too subtle for Ahaz to get, but a way to remind him of that promise: A remnant shall return.

It may or may not have triggered a remembrance in Ahaz, but it should for us as we read and hear Isaiah.

Judgment is coming.

These are difficult days.

but in and through it all, we must remember that God loves His people.

He is committed to His people, committed to His Church.

Then a second encouragement for faith in difficult days is there in verses 4 to 9.

The Kingdoms of Men Will Be Obliterated

There are threats, yes.

But....

God commands Ahaz not to be afraid.

He has called Rezin and Pekah “two smoldering stumps of firebrands.”

The Lord spells things out for Ahaz.

Look at Verses 7-9, Is. 7:7-9

Ahaz, those plots against Judah, against God’s people?

It’s not happening.

They’re but men.

I am God.

They will pass from the scene,and their kingdoms will be just pages in the history books.

When the fear of men steals our hearts and we worry about what others will say or do – whether they are lawmakers and leaders or employers or family members or friends, it helps to remember they’re only human beings, and our confidence does not rest in them.

Our value and worth does not derive from them; what their opinion and actions toward us really, in the long run, don’t matter.

Our hope is not the product of their good favor.

You see, Ahaz was giving far, far too much credit to the power of men and not nearly enough to the sovereign Lord who rules over all.

Isaiah himself has had to learn that very lesson in the chapter prior to this one that Clint preached from lst week.

If you were with us, you remember what happened.

In the year that Ahaz’s father, King Uzziah died, that was the year when things really began to look grim for the future of God’s people.

The king is dead, the enemies are coming, but the Lord is still on the throne.

Nations rise and fall, earthly kings come and go, prime ministers and presidents and premiers and politicians, pundits and polls, pop culture, personal convictions – they ebb and flow.

But while earthly leaders inevitably fail, God has taught Isaiah to say, and He’s trying to teach Ahaz here to say, and He wants you and me to say, “On Christ the solid Rock I stand.

All other ground is sinking sand.”

Christ is a solid Rock.

Standing there we are secure when all other ground is sinking sand.

And yet the Lord, in His kindness, is still not done with fear-filled Ahaz.

He’s given him these two reminders of His faithfulness.

There’s a third, a third encouragement to believe in these difficult days.

II.

Ask a Sign of the Lord Your God? 10-14

Ahaz is then invited to ask for any sign that will bolster his faith, that would confirm to him that God would, in fact, protect His people.

It’s an extraordinary offer on God’s part.

“Ask a sign of the Lord your God.

Let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”

God is writing Ahaz a blank check!

He can fill in any amount!

The only limit is his imagination.