A Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, 27 August 2006, updated 06 Jun 2021
If you had a million dollars and you knew you were about to die, what would you do with it? Would you pull it out of the bank and leave it on the kitchen table? Why not? Because you don’t want just anybody picking up your treasure at the wrong time. You will carefully think of how to pass your treasure on to your children and others you love in such a way that as little of it is wasted as possible, right?
In the old pirate-treasure stories, they make elaborate plans to hide the treasure and make special maps and instructions about where it is.
Nowadays we put money in a bank and set up legal documents to control how it is used.
Our passage today opens with talk about a treasure that is to be carefully protected.
READ PASSAGE: starting at v.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. (NAW)
Isaiah 8:16 “Bind the testimony; seal the instruction in my disciples”
This treasure is to be “Bound” = kept from getting separated and lost.
When I would bulk-mail my newsletters, the Post Office would require me to bundle my letters by zip code and state with rubber bands around them both horizontally and vertically to keep the newsletters that went to the same state or zip code bundled together.
and “Sealed” = Authenticated, and kept from the eyes of all but the intended recipient
That’s why we have envelopes.
What is this treasure that is so precious that it needs to be “bound” and “sealed”? It is God’s Word!
Commentators agree that this is talking about God’s word, but they disagree on who is doing the speaking here:
God speaking to Isaiah – majority of commentators1 (God telling Isaiah to make this prophecy hidden so that only certain people will understand it cf. ch.6 “render their eyes dim & ears heavy”)
Isaiah speaking to God –
“It would be all over if the word of God which was the ground of their life should be allowed to slip from their hearts.” ~Delitzsch
Parallel with John 17:11 where Jesus prayed to the Father, “...keep them in your name which You have given me that they may be one… 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one… 17 sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth… 20 I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word…” (NASB)
I side with the latter position here. I think this is Isaiah offering a prayer to God while thinking about the disciples he has made, and asking God to cause his prophecies and teachings to stick with his followers so that they will persevere in faith through the hard times. And he knew hard times were coming.
The word of God is precious. It is a treasure that we need to carefully consider how to pass on to the next generation. What can we do to “bind” and “seal” it in our own hearts and in the hearts of our children and our disciples?
Reading (Example of the Pent family in Ten P’s in a Pod – 30 minutes after every meal, could complete any Bible verse in public meetings)
Meditation (Mentioned 20x in the Psalms, including Psalm 119:97 “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.” Discuss Bible passage in family vespers.)
Memorizing (Cards on bathroom mirror, recite at breakfast, listen to scripture on tape, write it as part of QT)
Obeying (How many people lose their children to the world because the Bible was nothing but a reading program, not their source of life! Disobedient are sealed out.)
The next verse turns to the source of God’s word, and that is God Himself. This is the focus of where we as believers should look. We should orient our lives so that we are eagerly looking to God, as the source of our life, the source of inspiration, the source of the Bible, the only One in whom we can be satisfied.
(v. 17) And I will wait for Yahweh, who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look eagerly for Him.
In 2006, 2008, and 2010, the Barna research group conducted surveys asking the same question: “What is your highest priority in life?”
Most of the respondants, listed family as top priority.
The other three things which were commonly listed were prioritized at much lower percentages, but they were Leisure, Work, and Faith.
Interestingly, faith ranked second behind family in 2006, but was ranked last behind Work and Leisure in 2010.
What is it that YOU eagerly look forward to?
What is it you can’t wait for? Is it Sunday dinner? [Photo illustration of a giraffe at the Topeka zoo orienting his entire body to stretch up to a high tree leaf to eat.] Or maybe it’s your Sunday nap? Or a football game or a book you are in the middle of?
What do you hope for? Is it a raise? A certain vacation? A certain dress or toy?
Is this where you draw your life from; is this what is most precious to you?
I am reminded of a passage in the book of Philippians where the apostle Paul shares what he most eagerly looked forward to:
Philippians 1:20 “…my earnest expectation and hope, that in nothing shall I be put to shame, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether by life, or by death. (21) For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
Paul uses the same word “earnest expectation” in Romans 8:19ff, where he talks of the whole of creation groaning and longing with eager expectation for the “glory that is to be revealed.” Paul’s hope and eager expectation were oriented around being like Jesus and being with Jesus in heaven.
Yes, God hides His face from time to time. The nation of Israel was about to be conquered by foreign armies; the people of Jerusalem would go into exile; and after they came back from exile, there would be no prophecy for 400 years. Likewise we can’t always see God at work; we have to go through faith-stretching times when things seem to be going wrong. We still get sick, but that doesn’t mean God is not there. We are not babies any more who think that just because we can’t see something any more that it no longer exists. We still believe God is there and sovereignly in control of our world - even when it is not obvious. That is the essence of faith.
We are CHRISTians. That means that Christ is the most important person in our lives. It means that we long more than anything else to see Jesus face to face and be perfect with Him. Look to God and orient yourself with longing and eager expectation toward Him.
It’s like a compass. Once the needle is magnetized, it points North. Once God had begun working in us by His Holy Spirit, we point to God and His word.
What happens when we live out lives of faith, looking earnestly to God and treasuring His word? We become a testimony to the world around us. When we live out a different worldview that shows that God is valuable instead of power and possessions it is a sign and a wonder to the world. Not only us, but our children as well.
(v. 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.
Notice Isaiah does not say, “I and my children,” but “I and the children God gave me.”
Psalm 127:3a says that “Children are a gift from Yahweh...”
You do not have the right to control your children toward your personal ends, you are merely taking care of God’s children as a steward to serve His purposes for that child.
Think about using that phrase “the children God gave me” in your everyday thinking and speech and see how it changes the way you think about - and treat - your children!
Those children who live in your house do not ultimately belong to you; they belong to God, and God intends to use them as well as you as a testimony of Himself to the world. He did this in Isaiah’s case through giving special names for Isaiah’s sons:
Shuar Shuv, his firstborn meant that after the exile, “A Remnant Shall Return,” Israel would be restored in faithfulness, and the Messiah would come after that.
and his second son, Maher-Shallal-Hash-Baz meant that the world powers would change soon (the Syrian empire would be taken over by the Assyrian empire) and their spoils of war would be “Quick Booty; Speedy Prey.”
Isaiah’s own name spoke of the very orientation that God’s people should have towards their God; his name meant “Yahweh saves.”
How can you and you and your children point to God and His promises like Isaiah and his sons did?
We can start by giving them meaningful names that point to God, His word, and His work.
We can teach our children to love God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength. (Magnetize that little needle to point to God. Pray for the Holy Spirit actually to do it!)
We can live a life that is oriented around God and His word so that the world comes face-to-face with what it means to be a Christian and wonders at the difference between our life and theirs. This may make them uncomfortable – they may not understand how to deal with us if we do not curse or gossip because our pure speech exposes how bad their speech is, but we are here on earth in order to be signs pointing to God.
We can talk to the people in the world around us about God and what He has done for us.
We can prepare our children to be witnesses in the world around them by teaching them how to share their faith (and defend the faith).
There may even be occasions when God leads you to pray for God to do something specific in someone else’s life and to tell that person about what you are praying for, so that when God does it, they know it was a sign from God.
It may be praying for healing from a sickness or for God to rescue their child from some trouble, but it must be prayed according to the will of God with a pure desire for God to be glorified. When I lived in Denver, one of our neighbors, who was obviously uncomfortable talking about spiritual things, was childless and wanted to have children, so I told him we would pray for God to give them a child. I wanted him to consider the reality of a personal God being involved in his life in this way. (We moved shortly thereafter and lost track of them, so I don’t know if God ever did give them a child, but there is at least an example of seeking to introduce signs personally into other people’s lives.)
You and your children are in the world today in order to be road signs. You’ve got a big arrow on your back, and the way you live your life is going to point that arrow in a certain direction. If you have oriented your life toward God and His word, the big arrow on your back is pointing to God. You and your children were put here on this earth in order to be signs that point to God. Most people in the world are pointing in the wrong direction. We need to point them in the right direction.
(v. 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.
You see, when they point in the wrong direction (consulting psychics – or any other source of information that is not oriented toward God), we should turn them around and point them in the right direction and say, “To the Bible!”
The Hebrew word here translated “instruction” or “law” is the word “torah” which is traditionally used to designate the first five books of the Old Testament.
The “testimony” could refer to the history & wisdom books that had been added by Isaiah’s time.
These words are speaking of God’s word, the Bible. We must continually point people back to the Bible – “to the law and to the testimony!”
Now, do you think anyone will really ever say to you, “Hey, let’s go consult a medium”? It’s not as far-fetched as you might think. There’s a palm-reading psychic’s office downtown, and you’ve probably met someone who has been to a medium to have their palm read.
The latest version of the World Christian Encyclopedia estimates over 100,000 people in the USA are officially associated with spiritist “churches,” where they talk to evil spirits during worship services. Worldwide there are over 100 million people who practice spiritism as their primary religion.
When I typed “spiritism” into a search engine, I got half a million hits.
Then I tried typing in “Ouija.” I got 2 million hits. (That was in the year 2006; it’s probably more now.) Ouija boards are marketed as harmless games, but they are another form of consulting with evil spirits – they involve getting a power outside of yourself to move a pointer to letters of the alphabet to spell out messages. I even saw a link to a website where people can do Ouija online! Communicating with unholy spirits is dangerous, and Christians should have nothing to do with it!
“psychographed” books, supposedly dictated by the dead, are booming... More than 6 million Spiritist books were printed in Brazil in 2003… One spiritist put it this way, "Spiritism is very real to me and to millions because it shows a path for life and provides answers.” [WORLDWIDE RELIGIOUS NEWS]
People want answers in life. People want to know what their future will be like, and what to do when they are faced with a decision. People are curious about the spirit world and life after death.
Where do you go when you need this kind of information? To the encyclopedia? To the Television? To the internet? (heaven forbid!) To other people? No! We are Christians with our life oriented toward God and His Word. We go to the Bible and to prayer when we want to know something.
The apostle James wrote at the beginning of his epistle, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God!” Our first thought should be, “God what do you have to say about this?”
Do dead people know how you should live your life? No way.
When the women came to Jesus’ tomb, the angel told them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here; He is risen.” (Luke 24:5)
Our faith is oriented around life, the living God, Jesus who conquered death; we have eternal life. We have nothing to do with death.
We have no business trying to consult the dead; we have the Spirit of the living God inside of us and the written word of God beside us to help us know everything we need to know!
If we are oriented towards God’s word so that we go there when we need answers, then the Bible will become our standard for judging whether something is good or bad. As Isaiah says here in verse 20, if an information source “does not speak according to this word [from God], then it has no dawn.” There is no promise of any light from that source.
If you hear someone say that Jesus did not claim to be God, don’t take their word for it, go to the Bible! What does God say?
If you hear that Jesus returned in 70 AD and we are now living in the new heavens and new earth, don’t take their word for it. What does the Bible say?
If they tell you that the earth is billions of years old and that dinosaurs could not have lived with man, don’t take their word for it. Search the Scriptures.
If they tell you that your parents don’t know what they’re talking about, go to the Bible, and do what it says!
If we are Christians, our lives must be oriented around God’s Word and we need to go to the Bible every time we need to know something.
The apostle Luke praised the people in Berea for this very thing in Acts 17:11, saying “Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” We must examine the Scriptures every day to see what is true and what is not.
If we do not use the Bible as our standard, life is bad news. The final verses of this chapter describe what it is like to have no light - to live a life that is not oriented by God’s word.
(v. 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.
The price of turning away from God is not worth it.
This is a bleak picture – some of it is a repeat of Isaiah 5:30 – describing the land of Judah as it would look after being destroyed by invading armies.
Some of you can remember what life was like before you were a Christian.
Edward Perronet, a preacher during the Methodist revivals in the late 18th century, put it this way in his hymn, All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name: “Sinners whose love can ne’er forget the wormwood and the gall.” The bitterness of having no friend in heaven and no hope on earth is pictured by Isaiah as hunger and darkness and frustration.
There is no hope - no light - anywhere but in Christ. It is His light that dawns at the beginning of Isaiah chapter 9.
As an illustration of this point, I want to share with you a letter which I received shortly after I composed this sermon. It was written by an acquaintance that I had made when he was in high school, and for whom I had prayed over the course of several years. He wrote:
“When I graduated from high school, two years passed while I began to run from the Lord and into a world of alcohol and drugs… I had to drop out of [college] due to my lack of a high enough grade point average and began seeking a career in music while bartending for my financial needs. Due to my drug use, I could not hold a job for very long and ... could not pay my bills. I jumped from place to place, living with band mates or girlfriends. Many nights neither were available and I resorted to sleeping in my car in places not considered safe. I was arrested many times, twice for drug felonies… Both charges required me to go through a drug rehabilitation center which was both medical and secular. Both times I began using immediately afterward…. One night as I sat alone… my eyes were suddenly opened to the life I had created. I dropped to my knees in the rain and prayed for the Lord to take me out of the life I created, because I did not have the strength to leave. Over the next month, I lost my job, my band broke up due to my guitarist being arrested for heroin, and my girlfriend kicked me out… I got an unexpected phone call from my father who said if I really wanted help, he had heard of a different type of treatment center… [that] is a faith-based program for addiction. I instantly remembered my prayer in the rain and knew this was where I was supposed to go… Two weeks into the program, I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ… and over the next three months He brought me into a deeper and more meaningful relationship with Him than I ever thought possible. . I was taught that drugs and alcohol are part of a condition that we all struggle with… sin. I learned that though I was powerless over sin and my life had become unmanageable, through Jesus Christ I could be restored to a right relationship with God the father… The Bible study… helped me get… a better understanding of what God’s path is for me… Many of you know about the life I have led and have been a part of a mighty prayer team… I give my greatest thanks and praise to the Lord for your perseverance during those times… I would like to request your continued prayer support for discernment of God’s ‘Lamp unto my feet.’” [endquote]
Psalm 119:105 says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” You who are holding Bibles in your hands are handling an awesome treasure! Bind it to your heart, seal it in your mind, orient your life toward it, point others toward it, use it to judge all of life, and it will be a light to your path.
1Soncino, Targums, JFB, Gill, Young. I only found Kimchi, Delitzsch to support the second view.