April 11, 2011

Isaiah 8:1-9:7
One of the most amazing things about the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ is that He is with us. “Immanuel” simply means “God with us.” If we were to judge by our circumstances as to whether or not God is with us, we might easily conclude, “No, He is not.” In Isaiah & Ahaz days, it would have been easy for Ahaz to conclude that God was not with them. When it came to the end of Ahaz’ life, he was not evaluated as a good king (2Kings 16:1-4), but from Isaiah it would seem that he was at least toying with the idea of being a Yahweh follower. For the sake of His people and His eternal plan, the Lord was with the nation at this time.
Do you get the precarious circumstance that had befallen Judah and Ahaz at this time? Assyria was riding to the zenith of its world domination at this time. Israel and Syria were quite concerned and were convinced that only a strong alliance between Syria, Israel, Judah and Egypt could muster the force needed to with stand the surging tide of Assyria. Syria and Israel were threatening Judah with military force to join them voluntarily or be militarily subjugated to join them. Kind of a strange concept it is to force another country through military intimidation to join you in conquest. Yet it is a concept that has been used through the millennia by many countries. Indeed, Chengis Khan used it extensively to build the largest empire the world has ever seen. So what should Ahaz do? Join Syria and Israel in an alliance to fight Assyria? Or should he resist Syria and Israel, and if successful, what would he do if Assyria beat Syria and Israel? Ahaz was playing the field sacrificing to every god in order to try gain the right advantage to expand his kingdom.
Enter Isaiah with an unwanted but much needed message. “God is with you. Don’t worry about Syria, Israel or Assyria. Depend totally on the presence of the One who is.” It wasn’t what Ahaz wanted to hear. God even makes Isaiah’s coming children to be a prophetic illustration of what he was going to do. God would be with them. Assyria would come in like a gentle but unstoppable flood. It would drown Syria and Israel. It would come up to Judah’s neck but not overwhelm them. Ahaz should not fear this but fear the Lord who was with him. Isaiah’s children are a sign in that even though they were just conceived, all these things would be accomplished before his son could talk.
The Lord brings us a similar message today. We are not to fear our circumstances but fear Him because He is with us. We are not to pursue man’s solution but rather trust in His presence. It is a difficult thing to do when everyone else is running after what seems to be right to them. But He tells us to wait upon Him. He ordains our children to be signs of waiting upon Him. Where is the American church today? Never has there been so great a proliferation of programs and schemes to build the church as we have seen, and yet the futurists tell us that we are losing this generation. Maybe it is because we have been trusting in the hand of man rather than truly turning and trusting in the God who is with us. We must somehow live so that the fear of God is upon us. I am convinced that can only be done as we go back to the Word (law and testimony) and listen to what the Spirit says to us through it. He will show His glory in that manner. His glory will be revealed as He is with us. As He is with us, we experience that He indeed is the Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john