Impact Tuesday - Fearlessly Trusting God's Word

Introduction

How it relates to living fearlessly for Christ. The opposite of fear is what? FAITH

My goal tonight is that you see areas of your life where you have misplaced trust and for you to see your great need to trust God.

Tonight we are going to dive deep into the Old Testament book of Isaiah. Isaiah was one of what we refer to as major prophets, just because his book is one of the longer ones.

To understand the context of what is going on in this passage we need to talk about the way the nations were divided in the ancient world. I always struggled with the crazy sounding names and who was king of what nation and who they were in relation to this other nation. But I’m going to try and simplify it a little for you and help you understand what is going on here.

After King Solomon’s reign, Israel was split into two kingdoms. This split was primarily as a result of Solomon’s dad, David’s sin with Bathsheba. Kind David had repented of his sin but our sin has consequences. The consequences in this instance was that his kingdom was divided. There was the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. The Northern Kingdom was known as Israel and the Southern Kingdom was known as Judah. These kingdoms had conflict with one another. Judah was ruled by a wicked dude named Ahaz. Now, around them are some other small kingdoms like Edom, Aram, Syria, and Philisita. The smaller kingdoms of the area were often dominated by other, larger empires. Additionally, some of the smaller kingdoms would form alliances against another kingdom.

The entire region where these tiny kingdoms were located was threatened by a larger, militaristic nation called Assyria. Assyria was like the 800 pound gorilla in the area. It was the monster under the bed. It was violent and ruthless and expansion minded. They were like the Nazis of the ancient near East. Assyria was ruled by a guy named Tiglath-pileser III. You probably don’t have a class mate named that. He wanted to get Egypt because it was valulable for food production. In order to get Egypt though he would have to go through these other kingdoms. Palestine was in the way. You need to know this about Assyria so that this next part has the crazy impact that it needs to.

Isaiah 7:1–2 ESV

In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with Ephraim,” the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

The kings of Israel and Aram get together and form an alliance against Judah and King Ahaz. They decide to attack it. So they go up to wage war against Jeusalem, the capital but couldn’t yet mount the attack. Ahaz and his people find out about this alliance against them and forthcoming attack and they are freaked out.

It says they shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. Why freak out? Well, they were about to be under attack. The kings of Israel and Judah had as their end goal to take over Jerusalem and end the line of David and install their own king who they could control. Now if you’re familiar with prophecy there was a very significant thing about the line of David. The Messiah was foretold to come through the line of David. So this is a significant plan that these kings have at work. And then you have in their way, Ahaz, who is a wicked dude as well and he’s terrified. We see a people in crisis. True faith is revealed in times of crisis.

True faith is revealed in times of crisis.

When the pressure is on us, what we really are will spill out. I used to ask students this question: When you squeeze an orange, what comes out? Orange juice, right? When you squeeze a Christian what comes out? Some jabroni in the back is thinking “Christian juice.” No, what comes out should be Christ like faith. When there’s a big scary thing happening all around you and you’re right in the middle of it with seemingly no way out will your life reflect that you have true faith in God, in His goodness, in His plan, in His Word, and in Jesus the Son, or will your life reflect that your fear is faithless?

The people of Jerusalem had a faithless fear just the same as their leader. Our times of crisis are not without purpose. There are things that we go through in life and we look at them as hardships and they truly are hard things but God has a purpose in them. God’s purpose in this was that Ahaz would see how empty his soul waas and that he would see his deep need to trust the Lord. But instead of learning this lesson, wicked Ahaz has another idea.

Can I just say this real quick? Not every idea you have is a God idea. Sometimes your ideas and my ideas are really bad. We try to spiritualize them but just remember not every idea you have is a God idea. Measure it all by His Word. That point is free.

So God sends Isaiah to Ahaz to try and reach him about what is going on.

Isaiah 7:3–9 ESV

And the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field. And say to him, ‘Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah. Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying, “Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” thus says the Lord God: “ ‘It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. And within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.’ ”

The king of Judah was wicked to the core. This is a guy who sacrificed his own son in fire. Wicked dude. At this point, Ahaz is scared. He’s afraid that he’s going to loose his security as king. He might lose power. His succession plan and legacy would be at stake. He comes up with this plan. 2 Kings 16 explains the plan or scheme. Basically, he sends some people to Assyria to request their help in the defense of his kingdom.

Isaiah is sent by God to Ahaz to tell him to not do that and that it would be the end of him, the end of the northern kingdom and his kingly line and even of Judah. He tells him not to do that.

If you look at verse 3, Isaiah gets sent to the conduit of the upper pool. Why? Well, Ahaz is there, probably securing his water supply. In the event of an attack or siege, you want to have a secure water supply. This makes sense. What seems a little strange to us is that Isaiah was told to take his son with him to speak with Ahaz. Now his son had a strange name, at least to us. Shear-jashub. Anyone have that as a middle name? Probably not. It means, “a remnant will return.” Name meanings were a big deal in the scriptures. So, Isaiah is told to bring his son with him, whose name is not insignificant to the story. In fact, it further emphasizes the direness of the situation here.

Destruction was coming. Dark times were on the way. Exile is coming. The question is whether you’re in the remnant or not. It is assured and certain that a remnant will survive and return but it was a question as to whether Ahaz would be in that remnant or would be destroyed.

Basically, Isaiah’s message from God that he delivers is to not be afraid of those two kings up north. They’re small. Two smoldering sticks. They’re nothing. Duncan says God doesn’t even use the king’s name but calls him “the son of Remaliah.” It’s almost like God is saying to each out for the king of Syria and then ole what’s his name. It’s a way of dismissing him, and pointing out to Ahaz that those guys are not his real problems. Those guys are going to pass away. God’s message is that Aram(Syria) and Israel are going to fail in their plan.

Trusting in the wrong thing is disasterous.

Ahaz was trusting in Assyira and his alliance with them for help and for salvation from this situation. He had really turned his back on obedience to the Lord. Remember, this dude was wicked. God was pointing out that Ahaz’s salvation is not going to come from politics. He had commanded them long ago not to entangle themselves in alliances with pagan nations and yet here they were. The reason was that it would corrupt them. It had. So, Ahaz looked to Assyria for help instead of looking to the Lord. He trusted in a political answer or a salvation through political means.

Verse 9 - Basically Isaiah tells Ahaz that if you don’t stand firm on this message, the Word of the Lord and you don’t listen then you’re going to fail and nothing else that you do will matter. His only hope was to listen to the Word of God.

As it turns out, Ahaz would be attacked by Assyria eventually… the very kingdom he was flirting with.

Faith is only as good as the object of that faith. Let me say that another way. Your faith is only as good as what you have faith in.

True fearlessness comes from taking God at His Word.

As we understand this particular story and what is happening, we need to focus in on why it is significant. Wars and invasions happen all the time. Why was this one different? Well, Isaiah offers a sign. God knows that Ahaz has already made up his mind but he basically tells him to pick a sign, any sign and He will give it to him. When Ahaz refuses to ask for a sign, he’s not trying to be obedient. He’s already made up his mind and isn’t going to listen to some guy like Isaiah without military training and experience about defending his kingdom. He decides not to listen to the Word of God.

God gives a sign anyway. Isn’t that great? God’s decisions doesn’t depend on us. He is sovereign and in control. He gives us the opportunity for obedience but He is going to work out His plan. We see that right here. So Isaiah pronounces this sign that would happen.

Isaiah 7:10–17 ESV

Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria!”

Conclusion and application:

I want you to see something: This story begins with an invasion and ends with a very different invasion...

In verse 14 we have it foretold that a virgin will conceive a child. Now for the last hundred or so years many liberal commentators have called into question the proper translation of this passage. So we want to accurately understand what Isaiah says to Ahaz here and it’s significance.

He calls the child Immanuel which means God with us. Eventually God would not send prophets like Isaiah with His Word but He would wrap Himself in flesh and come to earth and dwell among His people, teaching them the Word Himself, in person. The very Word of God would be made flesh and dwell among us. (John 1)

Gospel connection

Who are you trusting in when your life falls apart? When the 800lb gorilla is bearing down on you? Who do you go to? God sent Jesus, God in the flesh so that we would be reconciled to God through Jesus’s death on the cross in our place, for our sin. He rose to prove that God accepted that sacrfice as payment for our sin and it proves to us that Jesus is God. It proves that He always keeps His Word. You can live fearlessly when you take Jesus at His Word. You need to know what He has said. Do you know His Word?

Pray