A Sign Of Prosperity

Please turn your copy of the Word of God to Isaiah chapter 37, Isaiah 37. We're going to be looking at verses 30 through 32. When you have that, please stand for the reading of God's Word. And this shall be the sign for you.

This year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that. Then in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards and eat their fruit. And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. Amen. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word.

We thank you for this passage in particular. We ask that you would that you would encourage your people in the work that is to be done. That we would be people of hope and optimism, knowing the perfect plan that you have, and knowing the end as it has been revealed in Jesus' name.

Amen. So as we've been going through this section, hopefully it'll sound familiar to you as we've as I've outlined it a few times before. But at this point, all the different cities in Judah have collapsed.

The only city that remains is Jerusalem. Sennacherib has come up against it. And Hezekiah has prayed for deliverance. He has opened up the scroll where Sennacherib had the king of Syria. Sennacherib had blasphemed the Lord.

So he opens up the scroll and asks God on the basis of that blasphemy to defend his people and to defeat the blasphemer. And God responds through the prophet Isaiah and tells him that the Lord will defend him.

And then in this passage, he gives a sign. He gives a sign to let them know that he is truly on their side. He gives them a sign to let them know that this is his will being done. And it is to encourage those who would doubt whether or not any victory came from God.

It's to encourage those who would doubt whether or not the Lord is truly on their side, whether or not the Lord intends to defend them. And it's something that applies to us as well because we are people who need this encouragement as well.

Well, the Bible is very clear that we should not test God by asking for signs. There are signs that he has given and those signs that he has given should be heeded. And we are not a strong people who by nature have all the confidence and courage that is needed.

We are people who are weak. We are people who God condescends to give us strength through signs, give us confidence through signs. So we should understand what those signs look like and be able to heed them.

So as we have read this passage, let me go ahead and summarize here what the sign is. The sign is that as the people have been assaulted by siege warfare, as people have been run out from the other cities and have all collapsed into just Jerusalem, and the agriculture has gone to waste, that the only thing that they will have in the next year is whatever grows of itself.

And then whatever they have the next year is just whatever falls from that that grew the year before, right? Seeds fall from the plants, a few things grow up, essentially like wild food, but in the context of a farm.

And then the year after that, they finally have enough, they are able to collect enough seed that you're able to plant for real and resume full farming. You know, farming is not just something where you put in the effort and it happens.

You actually have to spend a few years collecting enough seed to be able to have a full farm. Now, this is the sign. It may seem like an odd sign. First of all, it's not miraculous. A lot of times when people think of a sign, they think of a miraculous sign.

Many signs that God give are not miraculous. This is just a natural sign. It explains what's going to happen, that as God gives the people peace, they will experience the benefits of peace. Moreover, it does not at first appear like a very significant sign, but you see the significance is that this demonstrates God's intention for their peace, right?

Peace in the Bible and prosperity go hand-in-hand. It's only during times of peace when there's no war that you're able to farm and cultivate and build, etc. And so the people, as they are able to farm and resume agriculture, this will be a sign.

This will be a sign of peace to them. And so you have all these different things coming together to show God's good intention for the people. Now there are a few details here that I'd like to elucidate for you.

One is the significance of the third year. It says that in the third year, they would sow and reap. Now this, on one hand, is just the the natural order of things that after a few years, they will have full farming again.

On the other hand, it does seem that there is some significance to this happening on the third year. Deuteronomy 14 28 says, At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and laid up within your towns.

And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the Lord your God may bless you and all the work of your hands that you do.

So in other words, the people have a mandate that every third year they're supposed to take what they have farmed and give a special amount of it to the Levites, whose inheritance is the Lord. So essentially they're giving God, right, as a way of thanking him for what they have produced.

So it's not without significance as its timing isn't that on the third year, on the year when they are supposed to be able to give special thanks to God for what he has done, that they will have something special from him, the resumption of full agriculture.

The next thing is the significance of planting vineyards. Vineyards are something, once again, that represent the prosperity of the people. Moreover, Scripture frequently says that the lack of wine, the lack of vineyards, it describes as a curse.

The possession of vineyards it describes as a blessing. It says in Deuteronomy once again in Deuteronomy chapter 28 verse 4 that as the people obey God blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.

So in other words, they'll have good agriculture, etc. And later on it says, later on it says, and the Lord will make you abound in prosperity and the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground within that land Lord swore to your fathers to give you.

So once again, they would have good agriculture. But later it describes this lack specifically talking to talking of vineyards as being the result of a curse. You shall betroth a wife. This is Deuteronomy 28 30.

You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall ravish her. You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruits. Well, what's happened to the people?

Well, they've they've built houses as houses have been taken over at this point as the cities have been evacuated. They've planted vineyards. They've not been able to enjoy the vineyards because God has sent enemies against the people fulfilling the very curse that he established in the law of Moses that as the people disobey they would not be able to enjoy their vineyards.

It says in verse 39 of the same chapter, You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them. And so even naturally they would not be able to enjoy to enjoy the fruit of the vineyard.

And if you think about it, what is a vineyard for? It is for pleasure, right? There's nothing there's nothing that anyone needs from a vineyard. You don't need wine with your meal. In a lot of ways, it's a luxury.

Right, I know what it's like to eat struggle meals. When I was in college, my parents had given me, you know, they supported me through the first couple of years of first few years of college and they had given me some money to live on.

I was living off campus with my grandfather, so it wasn't on like a standard meal plan or anything. And I never had a I never thought twice about how much they gave me or anything like that. Later on, my mom has told me that that she wishes that they had given me more and looking back it was it was a bit little for a for a teenage boy, you know, 18, 19 at the time.

So I know what it's like to have only enough money just to buy ramen in bulk so that you know, you're able to get through. And there was one there was one time I bought a 15 bag pound, 15 pound bag of potatoes to make sure that I make it through the next week.

Now, I grew up in a home where you know, even ordering soda when you're out at a restaurant was considered, you know, a bit of a splurge, you know, for a special occasion. I know that a lot of people don't think of it that way.

You look at the taco bell down here and they've got the EBT sign that lets you know that even if you're poor you can still order the Baja Blast, right? But this is not this is not the way that people usually think about special drinks, right?

Like wine, something that is specifically for pleasure is a luxury. It's not something that's absolutely necessary. And so as the people have vineyards, this means that God is going to bless them with being able to enjoy things beyond just the bare necessities of life.

And then it speaks also here of the remnant. It speaks of this few that are left that have come into Jerusalem, but they will go out. They will be able to repopulate the land. It says that the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

And so this is the, this is a sign. Why is this sign needed? That might be another question that comes to your mind. The people are about to experience victory in defending against the king of Assyria.

He's coming. You know, we're not given specific dates, but this is in short order. In short order, they're going to be attacked and 185 ,000 of the Assyrians are going to fall in a single night. Why would he give a three-year sign if this is a matter that will be fulfilled in a matter of days or weeks?

Why would he give a three-year sign for something that's happening soon? The answer is this is not a sign for what's happening soon. This is sign for God's long-term intentions for the nation. He has confirmed through the prophet Isaiah to Hezekiah that Sennacherib will be defeated.

The king of Assyria will be defeated. But he is also confirming by this sign that he intends to continue to bless the people. Not to just spare them from one enemy and then that be it. They just fizzle out as a single city remaining.

But that they would be able to grow as a people completely over the years. That are to come. And so this is a sign to their to their long-term trajectory towards God's long-term purposes for them. Now as we look at all this, just as with many things throughout Isaiah 36, 37, 38, 39, there are a number of callbacks to earlier parts of Isaiah.

And what we should see here is not merely what's contained in this few set of verses about his good intentions for the people. But there is enough here that someone who has read the rest of Isaiah, someone who has read the New Testament, should recognize that there are promises here for us as well.

You notice first of all the contrast in sign or rather the comparison in signs that are given to Hezekiah and the sign that was given to Ahaz. Now we've pointed out before that Ahaz is confronted by Assyria.

At the washer's field. Or excuse me, Hezekiah was confronted by Assyria at the washer's field. Just as his father, the king of Judah, Ahaz, had been confronted by Isaiah at the washer's field about whom he would trust.

And Ahaz was told to ask for a sign. He did not ask for a sign. But a sign was given to him. It was the sign of Immanuel. A sign of a child. Now there are a lot of very similar things about that sign of a child that were given to Ahaz.

In Isaiah 7, it speaks to this sign. It says,. So in other words, it speaks of God's good intention to spare them from the enemies that were currently attacking them at that time. But because he did not trust, it said the Lord would bring upon them the king of Assyria.

Now this sign that was given of Immanuel, if you weren't here when we went through Isaiah 7 and 8, or if you're not familiar with this passage in context and you're only familiar with it in the New Testament context, the sign of Immanuel is not just the sign of Jesus, the virgin birth.

It is a sign of Isaiah's own son who is born. Isaiah chapter 8 says, And I will get a reliable witness, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeroboam to attest for me. And I went unto the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son.

Then the Lord said to me, Call his name Mehershal al-Hashbaz. And this is all, now he's given this name Mehershal al-Hashbaz, but before this he's called Immanuel, after this he's called Immanuel. And it says before the boy knows how to cry, My father, My mother, right before, and Isaiah 7 when it's talking about Immanuel it said, Before he knows the good or the evil, before he can cry, My father, My mother, the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.

It's a very similar sign. It's not a miraculous sign, it's a natural sign. The prophet has a son. And the timeline that is given is a very similar timeline. It's before the boy knows, you know, any significance about discerning good or evil, before he's able to cry, My father, My mother.

You know, how long is it before children can cry, My father, My mother? You know, usually they can start talking after, you know, after a year or so, etc. Right? This is the time frame of this promise that is being given to Ahaz with the sign of Immanuel.

This is a time frame that's given to Hezekiah with the sign of the fields over three years. Now, what does that tell you? When Matthew interprets the sign of Immanuel that is fulfilled through Isaiah having a son as being more completely fulfilled through Jesus, who is given, who is truly God with us in a more significant and literal sense than was the case with Mehershal al-Hashbaz.

What Matthew is doing is not merely interpreting, or sorry, providing a divinely given interpretation on the passage. I believe he's also teaching us how to interpret these things in general. And so, if we see a sign that is a parallel sign given to Hezekiah after a sign that was given to Ahaz that followed a very similar pattern, that we would be myopic if we saw this as only applying to them at that time and not realizing the implications for a Messiah, for God's purposes in His kingdom that is born and grows from the time of the New Testament and His good intentions for that as well.

I'd also call your attention in Isaiah 37 to this phrase that is used at the very end of this giving of the sign. It says, Now, just a few things about that. God's zeal, it's a zeal for His own honor.

We've talked about why that would be the case here. Sennacherib's blasphemy is offensive to God, and in order to protect the goodness of His name by His own zeal for His name, He will destroy Sennacherib.

It calls Him the Lord of hosts. I mentioned last week that that refers to Him as the God of armies, right? He has armies of angels. He can destroy whatever large human army comes against Him. So, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Now, that phrase is only used two other times in Scripture, and one of those times is in the parallel passage in Kings, right, where it's quoting Isaiah. Okay, so that's not really a different passage.

That's a passage quoting this passage. The other only time that this is used is in Isaiah 9. Let me read for you that passage. Isaiah 9, 6, and 7. Amen. So, here you have this promise, this phrase that was applied to what?

A messianic figure. It's applied to the Messiah. The parallel sign given to King Ahaz, Emmanuel, we know from the New Testament this applies to Messiah. We know from this phrase in Isaiah 9, this is referring to the Messiah.

This is referring to the Son of God. It's referring to Jesus Christ. So, once again, if we were to look at this sign about fields growing after three years and just see it as a fairly mundane thing that's just for a particular people, we would be missing out on the greater significance of this passage in light of redemptive history.

Now, let me call to attention a few other things. It talks about, they shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. Isaiah 11, 1 speaks in very similar language. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

And as you read through this passage, it becomes very clear that this is speaking of the Messiah. This is speaking of Jesus Christ. This making root and growing up and bearing fruit, what does it ultimately apply to?

It ultimately applies to Jesus Christ, and it applies to His church. As we are the branches in that vine, we enjoy the blessing of the prosperity that God has given out of zeal for His own name through Jesus Christ.

And one last connection to earlier in Isaiah, you remember there was a song given to the vineyard. There's a song about a vineyard in Isaiah 5 where the vineyard has sinned against the Lord, and so He destroys the vineyard.

And then later on in Isaiah 27, He sings to the vineyard about how He will restore it. And so this statement about the remnant going out, the band of survivors, this all, the taking root and the bearing fruit, this all alludes back to that as well.

It said in Isaiah 27, 6, in days to come, Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with its fruit. What's that picture, filling the whole world with its fruit?

Is it really just talking about the promised land? Is it really just talking about Judah expanding across the land of Israel, across the land of Canaan, so that it recovers the land it originally had?

Or is it not talking about something more? When you see Isaiah prophesy about God's people spreading across not just that land, but across the whole earth, the whole world, it's talking about the expansion of the gospel.

Everything in this should teach you, if you're making these connections, that it should be an encouragement to you as you go about the work of the kingdom. God's kingdom is not something that He started and then has neglected.

It's something that He has every good intention of completing. You know, as you look in your own life and you wonder whether or not He is going to bring about the work that He started to completion, the Bible tells us in Philippians that He finishes every work that He starts.

Paul is certain that he will not back down from that work. So as God works in you, as He has done some work in your life, even though it may be small at the start, you know, as you see it blossom into fruitfulness, this is reason for encouragement.

And not to overfit the data, I am not trying to, don't hear me as over-interpreting this prophecy, but if you look at this prophecy that talks about the first year, the second year, the third year, just look at the church.

In the first century, very difficult. Second century, lots of persecution. Third century, finally, throughout that century, near the first quarter of the century, persecution begins to let up and the church is permitted to truly flourish.

Now once again, I am not saying that this prophecy is talking about years we are supposed to interpret as centuries. I am just saying, look at the way that this natural sign is given to encourage us about God's good intention for His people.

First year, a little bit of seed. Next year, a little bit more. Year after that, resume full agriculture. You look at God's church persecuted in the first few centuries and then able to grow much more after that.

What does that tell you about God's good intentions for His church? What does it tell you about the attitude that you should have toward the work that God is doing? Should you, like the people in Jerusalem are tempted to do, be very timid about the situation.

Okay, maybe He destroys Assyria, but then how do we know He's not going to bring another nation against us? How do we know that He is not going to allow us to wither away and die out? How do we know that He is truly doing what is good?

And the answer is by building up His people. And so you should see all that and you should be eager to do the work of the kingdom without discouragement, knowing His good intentions. Having seen the work that He's done in yourself, if you are one who trusts in the Lord, having seen the work that He has done in His church globally, you should be able to approach that and give generously.

For example, right, you should be able to give without a concern as to whether or not, you know, certainly be wise in the way that you give, but there should be no concern of, well, is this work that God is doing really worth my investment or is my money best spent elsewhere?

You can do this with the way that you care for others, right? A lot of times you might invest in someone thinking that, well, I don't know if this is really worth it. This person seems fairly hopeless.

If God does not have good intentions to build up His church through the power of His Spirit, then yeah, doubt away. But He has let us know by what He has done in growing the church that He intends to complete the work that He has started.

You know what, as you attend church meetings, not knowing whether or not, don't be tempted to feel like you don't know whether or not it's accomplishing any purpose, whether or not God receives our worship.

He does. He has stated His intention for the goodness of His kingdom, for the good of His people. So, attend faithfully knowing what He has done in Jesus Christ's intention to complete every last one of these works.

Do not, do not be cowardly when it comes to proclaiming the gospel. Declare the gospel boldly to others. You know, many people are uncertain about sharing that word because they don't know whether the other person's going to receive it.

They don't know whether or not they will end up seeing the truth of it. Now, Paul says in Romans that he's not ashamed of the gospel of God because the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

He's not ashamed because he will not be put to shame, right? There's nothing that's going to be revealed that's going to show that he was wrong. And so, you can know that that person that you proclaim the gospel to is not someone who will never know the truth.

Now, they might not bend the knee. And so, that when they find out, it might be outside of this life. But, they will know. You will not be ashamed. And if you do not heed the signs that He has given as a way of encouraging you, you will be tempted.

None of us have been built with such kind of strength. God is not giving any of us the kind of constitution so that we would not need Him or the signs that He has given to encourage us in the way. But, He has told us to look at what He has done in giving Jesus Christ and expanding a gospel across the world and building a church that has grown in such quantities that there are some, there are things that should fill us with a deep confidence about what is being done, that we should not be discouraged in the work as we have difficulties with any kind of sin that we face, with any kind of disagreement between brothers, any kind of rifts in relationships, anything that needs to be addressed.

There is hope because God has not only proclaimed His good intentions for the church, but He has given us the signs of the continuing prosperity of the church in order to encourage us. And when you read this passage, and I know that as I first read this passage, few of us are are deeply familiar with it, and so just seems like a passage about farming.

But your heart should leap as you hear this passage just as much as it leaps when it hears the promise of Emmanuel because that is the depth of intention here. It is about God's good intentions in His Messiah to build up His church.

Amen. Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you would encourage this people, pray that you would give us everything that we need in order to do the task you have put before us, and I pray that we would do it with joy and with great optimism and hope.

In Jesus' name, amen.