Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, written 20 August 2006, updated 09 Aug 2020
Then Yahweh said to me, “Take a large tablet and write on it with a man’s stylus, ‘To Maher Shalal Hashbaz.’ 2 And I will get faithful witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah, to attest for me.” 3 Then I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son, and Yahweh said to me, “Call his name ‘Swift is the booty; speedy is the prey,’ 4 for, before the boy knows how to cry out, ‘My father,’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away to the presence of the king of Assyria.” 5 Again Yahweh spoke to me once more, saying, 6 “Because this people has refused the flowing waters of Shiloh and there is joy over Rezin and the son of Remaliah, 7 therefore, look, the Master is raising upon them the mighty and great waters of the river, the king of Assyria and all his glory, and it will rise upon all its channels and go over all its banks, 8 and it will sweep into Judah; it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to Zoar, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, Immanuel.” 9 Break, you peoples, and be shattered. Give ear, every distant land; strap on your armor and be shattered. Strap on your armor and be shattered. 10 Consult a counselor and it will come to nothing. Speak a word, but it will not stand, for God is with us. 11 For Yahweh spoke thus to me as strength of the hand and instructed me away from walking in the way of this people saying, 12 “Y’all shall not say, ‘It is a conspiracy’ concerning all which this people [calls] conspiracy. Don’t y’all fear its fear, nor be in dread. 13 Yahweh of hosts: Him hallow, He your fear, Him dread! 14 Then He will become a sanctuary – as well as 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 among them will stumble. They will fall and be broken; they will be snared and taken. 16 “Bind the testimony; seal the instruction in my disciples” 17 And I will wait for Yahweh, who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look eagerly for Him. 18 Behold, I and the children whom Yahweh have given to me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from Yahweh of hosts, who dwells in mount Zion. 19 And when they shall say to you, “Seek after the mediums and to the wizards, the ones who chirp and mutter: should not a people seek after their God – to the living instead of to the dead? 20 To the instruction and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, then that one has no dawn. 21 And he shall pass through it, hard-pressed and hungry; and it shall come to pass that, when he becomes hungry, he shall be frustrated and curse in [the name of] his king and of his god, and face upward: 22 and he will look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; thrust into thick darkness.
When was the last time you were afraid? Really afraid. Sweaty-palmed, white-as-a-sheet, brain-spinning, fight-or-flight panicked? I had an experience like that one night in the middle of the night: I was suddenly jolted awake by a blinding flash of lightening that slammed into the house with a boom accompanied by an extremely loud vibrating sound like the sound of a burglar alarm. With my heart in my throat, I couldn’t go back to sleep; I had to walk around the house to assess the situation. Sure enough there were some appliances fried, but the house was o.k. The vastness of the power swirling around me in that thunderstorm was frightening – given the right directional forces, it could have blown my entire house away or burned a hole right through my body. I felt very small and weak in the presence of something that powerful. And that’s what fear is about, isn’t it? It is realizing that there is something very powerful out there that looks like it is going to hurt us in some way, and we are not strong enough to protect ourselves. Things are out of control and we’re going to get hurt.
Ahaz, king of Judah, had an experience like this, as we saw Isaiah chapter 7, when he found out that Syria had allied its army with the northern kingdom of Israel and was planning to overthrow Jerusalem. Through Isaiah, God had offered to allay his fear by doing a miracle for him, but Ahaz refused to obey God and place his trust in God. Instead, he placed his hope in man. He paid off the king of Assyria in hopes of an alliance that would neutralize the military threat he was facing. But two more nations joined in attacking his country, the Edomites and the Philistines. In desperation he went so far as to copy the altars and idols used in Syria, replacing the altar in God’s temple with another, and eventually closing down the temple altogether and offering sacrifices to foreign idols – even sacrificing one of his own sons.
Since Ahaz didn’t respond the first time, God gave Isaiah a second and very similar message shortly afterward, which is recorded in chapter 8. Remember that the prophecy in chapter seven stated that in a short time, the northern kingdom of Israel and the country of Syria would no longer pose a threat. The time is getting shorter before the fulfillment of that prophecy; in fact, some people might get the news of Isaiah’s prophecy AFTER the fulfillment had happened. (They didn’t have newswires and internet and telephones back then, so news traveled more slowly.) So, just to insure that people would know that the prophecy happened before the fulfillment, God had Isaiah write it down and get notary publics to witness it. Now, if anyone had any question as to whether Isaiah delivered the prophecy before the fulfillment or not, they could go to the library, check out the slate where he wrote the prophecy down, and see the date that it was notarized. They had libraries with slates like this in Assyria during Isaiah’s time, so I’m assuming they had something like that in Jerusalem too. Isaiah was to write with a common man’s pen so that the common man could read it, and not just the university professors and academic elite.
And he was to write “lemaher shallal hash baz.” Whooo. What’s that mean? That’s Hebrew for “Belonging to: Swift booty; speedy prey.” Kinda like those sweatshirts that say “Property of Kansas State University,” only this was the name of Isaiah’s second child. He was named this strange name because God wanted to speak through his very existence that wealth should not be idolized; what is captured and hoarded by one conqueror this year will be conquered and prized by another conqueror in another year. The money that Rezin and the son of Remalaiah had plundered from Ahaz’s country would soon be sitting in the treasury of Tiglath-Pileazar, king of Assyria. By the time Maher-Shallal was born, it would only be a year before his name was fulfilled as a prophecy.
Now, although some of the words are the same as the sign of the virgin birth of Immanuel prophesied in the previous chapter, this is not the fulfillment of that sign, rather it is short-term fulfillment of a short-term prophecy intended to reassure God’s people that in the long term, God would certainly fulfill His long-term prophecy of a Messiah-Immanuel. But for the short-term, this is just Isaiah and his wife, the prophetess having their second child.
But these cataclysmic events swirling around Ahaz and Isaiah were fearsome, and God lets the drama play out a bit in verses 6-8. He is describing the very things Ahaz was afraid of. It starts in the northern Kingdom which rejected the line of David from which the Messiah would come when they chose to follow Jeroboam. I believe that this is what it means by the “waters of Shiloh” – although this is the first mention of Shiloh chronologically in the Bible, there was a stream that flowed from under the Temple mountain which gave water to the royal household named Shiloh. To carry on the metaphor, God speaks of the army of Assyria overrunning Israel as though it is the Euphrates river overflowing and drowning Israel. The Euphrates River was the edge of the Assyrian empire for some time, but in the coming years they would send their armies well past that boundary to sweep into Syria and Northern Israel, and even into Judah – southern Israel! Like a lake spreads in the shape of a wing as the river valley floods, so it would get neck-deep in water, as it were, in Ahaz’s country.
But no, it’s not Ahaz’s country, it is Immanuel’s land. And Isaiah cries out Immanuel’s name, as if to say, “Oh God, you’re getting dangerously close to destroying the people You formed for your Name!” But, he continues in faith, believing that Assyria would ultimately fall because “God is with us and He will be with us.” Notice what Isaiah does there in verse 10 and how dramatically it changes the tone of his message from one of despair to one of defiant hope! What is it that can change fear to triumph like this? Is it another political alliance? Is it a new business plan? Is it a new computer game? A new friend, a new doll? No! It is hope in Immanuel/God with us. Jesus is our source of hope and consolation. Do your worst, Satan; make your plans to overthrow Jerusalem, Rezin and Pekah; do your worst, wicked world; you will be shattered in the end, and my God – my God and I – will have the last laugh together!
This is faith. Taking God at His word and acting on it. Not fearing what everybody else fears, because God has commanded us not to be afraid of those things. Ahaz was afraid of Israel and Syria; Isaiah is not afraid of them anymore; he is rejoicing in God! “Do not fear what they fear.” I count 100 times that this command, “fear not/do not be afraid,” occurs in the Bible.
v. 12 “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy”
Conspiracy is a plan to commit a crime. We believe that God decides what is right or wrong, but there are others who believe that they can decide what is right and wrong. This makes us look different from the rest of the world, because we call different things treason.
A little earlier in Judah’s history, we see this same Hebrew word for “conspiracy” yelled by the evil queen Athaliah at the Godly priest Jehoidah who had placed little Joash on the throne. “Treason” she cried. But it is a matter of perspective what treason is. If you believe God is the one who should be in control and you are doing what He wants, then you would have to say that the queen was the one committing treason to undermine God’s control of His people.
Ahaz was going to do the same thing. He was going to accuse Isaiah of a treasonous conspiracy to undermine his kingly authority to form an alliance with the king of Assyria. Ahaz didn’t want Isaiah criticizing him for trusting in the Assyrian army instead of trusting in God, so he would call Isaiah’s prophecy treason. However, it is a matter of perspective: God considered the alliance with Assyria to be an act of treason against the faith that Ahaz should have exercised in his God.
Throughout history, God’s people have been falsely accused of treason, for instance, in Nazi Germany, when Christians like Dietrich Bonhoffer and the Ten Boom family stood up for Biblical truth and were killed for it. Christians today are still being beaten and imprisoned in China, Southeast Asia, India, Central Asia, and Arabia because their obedience to God is a threat to the power of their government which believes it is treason to follow the Bible.
You will find that if you live according to the Bible, some people will be threatened by you because they want to make the rules for you to live by, and they don’t want you upholding a standard that makes them uncomfortable. They may exclude you from their friendship because their conscience is pricked when you talk with them – and they don’t like that. They may make fun of you for your old-fashioned faith, but it is because your faith is a threat to their man-centered religion.
The apostle Peter quotes from Isaiah 8 when he talks about this very issue of persecution in his first letter (1 Peter 3:12-16) “...the Lord’s eyes are on the righteous, and His ears are toward their request, but the Lord’s face is against doers of bad. And who is the one who will do y’all wrong if y’all become imitators of what is good? However, if y’all suffer on account of righteousness, you are blessed. But don’t y’all begin to fear their fear, nor shall y’all be agitated, but y'all must begin to sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord, ready always for a defense toward every one who asks of you a word concerning the hope in you, but with meekness and fear, maintaining a good conscience, so that in what you are talked down about, the abusers of your good conduct in Christ might be put down.”
“Do not fear what they fear”
Difference in what you fear: God instead of man
Matthew 10:28, Jesus said, “Don’t start being afraid of those who kill the body but do not have the power to kill the soul, but fear rather the One with power to destroy both soul and body in hell!” When we are more afraid of disobeying God than we are of people being upset with us, our life will look very different from the rest of the world.
In Hebrews 11:23-27, God tells us that the life of Moses was one of fearing God instead of man. It says, “With faith, Moses, after he was born, was hidden for a 3-month-period by his parents because they saw the child was a fine one, and they were not frightened by the order of the king. With faith, Moses, after he was grown, declaimed being called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, having chosen instead to be ill-treated together with the people of God than to have temporary enjoyment of sin, having decided that [experiencing] the insulting of the Messiah was greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, since he was looking off to the payback. With faith he left Egypt behind, not having been frightened by the wrath of the king, for he persevered as one who sees Him who is unseen.”
I remember one time my daughter Grace went to the park with me. It was a short drive, and after a couple of hours of playing at the park, she decided she wanted to walk home. I had to take the car home from the park, so I drove along the street beside her as she walked up the sidewalk. Tell me, how would she have felt if a mean boy came down that sidewalk? What if he started saying threatening words to her? Would she be afraid? Not very, because she knows her Papa would jump out of the car and teach that boy a lesson if he did anything to threaten her. Our fear evaporates when we know that our God is with us and is big enough to handle any threat that comes our way.
Difference in How God treats you
He is a Sanctuary for those who fear Him
Isaiah 4:5-6 “Yahweh will create over the whole habitation of mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory shall be spread a covering. And there shall be a pavilion for a shade in the day-time from the heat, and for a refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain.”
Psalm 31 “It is in You, Yahweh, that I have taken refuge; I will not ever be ashamed. Deliver me in Your righteousness! Incline Your ear toward me; rescue me quickly! Become for me a mighty rock - a house with secure places - in order to cause me to be saved (for You are my rock-mountain and my secure place), so, for the sake of Your reputation, guide me, and lead me.… 19 How great is Your goodness, which You have hidden away for those who respect You, [which] You worked out for the ones who take refuge in You before the children of mankind! You will cover them with the cover of Your face away from bondage to mankind; You will hide them in a pavilion away from strife of tongues.”
Psalm 27:5-6 “For He will conceal me in a shelter during a bad day; He will hide me in a hiding-place of His tent. He will lift me up into a landmark-rock. And now my head will be lifted up over my enemies around me, and I will sacrifice there at His tent sacrifices of applause. I will sing there and I will play music there to Yahweh!”
Stumbling block, snare, trap
Matthew 21:43-46 Jesus said, “...I’m telling y’all that the kingdom of God will be removed from y’all and will be given to a people which is producing its fruits, and the one who falls upon this stone will be smashed, and upon whomever it happens to fall, it will blow him to smithereens. And upon hearing His parable, the chief priests and the Pharisees knew that He was speaking concerning them, yet, as they were seeking to grab Him, they were frightened of the crowds since they were treating him like a prophet.” (The Pharisees feared men, so the kingdom of God was taken away from them.)
Romans 9:29-33 “And, as Isaiah hath said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We had become as Sodom, and had been made like unto Gomorrah. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who followed not after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith: but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by works. They stumbled at the stone of stumbling; even as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence: And he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame.” (By focusing on human works instead of faith in God, the Jews by and large tripped and stumbled over Jesus, but the Gentiles who did believe in Jesus were saved.)
1 Peter 2:6-9 “...it is contained in Scripture, ‘Look, I am laying a stone in Zion – a precious, select cornerstone, and the one who trusts in Him shall never be put to shame.’ This Precious One therefore is yours – for you who believe, (but as for those who remain non-compliant, ‘this stone which the builders rejected became the corner stone.’ And [this] ‘stone of stumbling’ or ‘rock of scandal’ which they stumble upon while being non-compliant with the Word, is that into which also they were appointed.) Y’all, however, are a select kind, a priestly royalty, a holy ethnicity, a people made to be around [Him] in such a way that y’all might extol the virtues of Him who called y’all out of darkness into His marvelous light...”
I have often heard it said that one of the greatest fears people have today is of public speaking. I still find the thought of showing up in the pulpit on Sunday morning frightening. But Jesus taught us in Luke 12:11-12 “…when they bring you before the synagogues, and the rulers, and the authorities, be not anxious how or what you shall answer, or what you shall say: for the Holy Spirit shall teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
What are you afraid of?
Death, financial loss, evil spirits, injustice, evil men, poverty, sickness, war, future, slander, calamity?
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:35-39
“Do not fear what they fear; don’t be terrified, Jehovah of hosts: Him hallow, He your fear, Him dread.” (Isa. 8:12b)
“Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32)
Foemen, Fear, and Faith (Isaiah 8)by amoswilson |
From
every angle foemen press with danger drawing near,
And every
hour heightens stress -- new worries and new fears.
I built a
wall in human might and made a well-laid plan.
But it has failed
and lost my fight; so much for trust in man.
I have no hope then
left to me -- so surely I will fall.
I'll sink into obscurity, a
ridicule to all.
Yet I'm not focused on the truth, but act like
I'm alone.
My foemen are surrounded, too; my Father's on the
throne.
So he who trusts in human plans will surely plot in
vain,
So to the Lord I lift my hands. I'll not be put to
shame.
I'll fear no men's conspiracy, but stand in faith
unfazed,
I'll hope through all calamity to see my Father
praised.
Within God's walls I rest secure, my foemen
disappear.
In Jesus' strength I shall not swerve; He casts out
all my fear.