Sunda, January 11, 2026 PM

All right, let's open our Bibles and turn to Isaiah chapter 8. We're gonna be reading from Isaiah chapter 8, verses 11 through 22. Let's begin with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, for it is timeless, it is eternal, it is clear, it is true, it is full of what we need to hear.

So Lord, I pray that you would help us to hear it well, that you would help us to rejoice in its truth. Take it to heart, and that by it you would encourage us and that you would change us and direct us.

Lord, I thank you that, although this was written very, very long ago, it is still living and active and very sharp, getting to the heart of the matter that lies within us. And so we thank you for this and pray that you would bless our study tonight, in Jesus' name, amen.

The Word of God in Isaiah 8

Okay, beginning in verse 11, Isaiah 8. For the Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, do not say a conspiracy concerning all that this people call a conspiracy, nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.

The Lord of hosts, him you shall hallow. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. He will be as a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

And many among them shall stumble, they shall fall and be broken, be snared and taken. Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples, and I will wait on the Lord who hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.

Here am I and the children whom the Lord has given me. We are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts who dwells in Mount Zion. And when they say to you, seek those who are mediums and wizards who whisper and mutter, should not a people seek their God?

Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony, if they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. They will pass through it hard-pressed and hungry, and it shall happen when they are hungry that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God and look upward.

Then they will look to the earth and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish, and they will be driven into darkness. So here in chapter eight, it is a passage that is carefully paired with chapter seven.

There's an ongoing understanding in this section of Isaiah that the answer to the children of woe is the child of hope. But the problem with the children of woe is that they don't listen. They don't respect the Lord.

They don't fear him. He doesn't mean very much to them anymore. So God gets their attention with this sign that he gives to King Ahaz by his prophet, the sign of Emmanuel, a sign that God says, you may be distant from me in your hearts, but I am all up in your business.

I'm bringing the invasion, I'm bringing the curses, and you're not going to avoid me. Emmanuel, God with us. Do they believe him? Do they think much of this word that he has given to them?

They should.

Chapter eight shows that this word will certainly come to pass. God calls his shots before he even takes them, and he's always 100 correct. He has his prophet write the name Meher Shalalhashbaz on a shiny piece of metal in front of everyone, a very large billboard announcing the invasion.

The prophet even names his second born son that name to get everyone's attention. And the invasion happens exactly as God said it would. So yeah, you should pay attention to the word of God. It is unsurpassed, unsurpassed.

And this is where we come to verses 11 through 22. And God is saying to his prophet Isaiah, I don't want you acting like these people. I don't want you taking on their customs. I don't want you being indistinguishable from them.

You need to stand out. You need to be different. Don't say a conspiracy the way they talk about the conspiracy. Don't walk in their ways, take on their assumptions, think the way they think, feel the way they feel.

You have no obligation to that. Isaiah needs to be different so that he is of some value to this people. He, like John the Baptist and the other prophets, have to stand apart from where the people are at so they can call them out and away from their way of thinking and their way of life.

There needs to be some kind of turn, some kind of repentance. If Isaiah is just like them, he uses their language, has the same mindset that they do, then why should they ever change? And so God says to his prophet, in verse 11, he says that I should not walk in the way of this people.

Here's a particular way to not conform to this people. Verse 12, do not say a conspiracy concerning all that this people call a conspiracy, nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. The opposite of that is going to be hallowing the Lord of hosts, fearing him.

That would be the opposite of taking up this great theme of conspiracy and the way that they're wrapping their lives around this theme and this idea. Isaiah is not to be caught up into that orbit. Now the term conspiracy is used in various places throughout the Old Testament to speak of internal treason.

This particular Hebrew word is used to speak of internal treason. There's some problem within the camp. For example, it was used to describe what Absalom was doing against his father David and how the people were divided and various counselors and warriors were ending up on various sides.

There was a conspiracy within. There was an attempted coup wherein Absalom was trying to take the throne from his father David early. There was also a conspiracy within the camp when many rightly understood it was time for wicked Queen Athaliah to die in 2 Kings chapter 11.

Maybe you haven't heard about old Athaliah, but she deserved everything she got. But there was a conspiracy against her, and the word shows up there as well. And there's a different word that is most commonly used for external conspiracies, something that is happening on the outside, that there is an intersection of forces and events that are coming from the outside.

But that word isn't used here. But it seems that that might fit better because when we look back, we know what the conspiracy is. In chapter seven, verses four through seven, we know what has gotten everybody's attention and what they're afraid.

And it's not apparent at the beginning that it's an internal conspiracy. It seems like it's coming from the outside. So Isaiah chapter seven, verses four through seven, the word of the Lord through Isaiah to Ahaz, verse four, and say to him, say to the King Ahaz, take heed and be quiet.

Do not fear or be faint hearted for these two stubs of smoking firebrands. For the fierce anger of Rezan and Syria and the son of Amalia, which is Pecah, the king of the northern kingdom, Ephraim, because Syria and Ephraim and the son of Amalia have plotted evil against you saying, let us go up against Judah and trouble it and let us make a gap in its wall for ourselves and set a king over them, the son of Tabel.

Thus says the Lord God, it shall not stand nor shall it come to pass. This is what is making the heart of the king and the heart of the royal house and the heart of the people in Jerusalem shake like a leaf in the wind, verse two, chapter seven.

They are totally obsessed with this conspiracy. They're afraid of Ephraim. They're afraid of Syria, afraid of what they're going to do next. Yes, it's pretty difficult to take Jerusalem. It's a heavily fortified city.

So how are they gonna undo Ahaz and the house of David? The conspiracy is this. Our enemies are gonna find some way through the wall. They're gonna break a hole in the wall. They're going to sneak in.

They're going to institute some sort of usurpation from within. They're gonna put a false king in place. There's going to be a coup. This is the conspiracy that they are sharing with one another. And I think that they're using the term, that the term is being used of the internal conspiracy rather than the external because of this particular reason that something's gonna happen from within.

Even now, Ahaz is suspecting that there are those within Jerusalem who are going to take the side of Ephraim and take the side of Syria, and that if they can just get their puppet king in there, then there's going to be an overthrow, and Ahaz is gonna lose his power.

Perhaps Ahaz suspects he's not as popular as he wishes he was. Now, where does that put Isaiah? Isaiah, who confronts the king, tells him, you've got a problem. Isaiah, who says, the word of the Lord is, you should not be afraid of Pekah, king of Ephraim.

You should not be concerned about the king of Syria by the name of Rezin. You ought not to be concerned about them. Hang on a second. The official word from the palace is that they are enemies number one and number two.

The official word of the people who are loyal to the king is that we all ought to be very, very concerned about Syria and Ephraim. These are the threats. These are the problems.

Why?

Because they're gonna try to stir up some things in Jerusalem and overthrow the king. So where does that put Isaiah, who comes and says, no, they're not the threats. Oh, don't worry about them. They'll be gone soon.

Hmm, Isaiah, what side are you on? Isaiah says, the real problem, of course, is this king of Assyria, Tiglath-Pileser II. I mean, when he comes, he's gonna be the real threat. Hang on a second. Didn't the royal house of Ahaz just make an alliance with Tiglath-Pileser II?

Send him a bunch of silver and gold from the temple to hire that king? What is, Isaiah, whose side are you on?

Right?

This happened to Jeremiah as well. Jeremiah and Isaiah stand in this situation that they're preaching against the pride, the arrogance, the rebellion, the hard-heartedness of the king and his servants, and it sounds like they're taking the side of the enemy.

Jeremiah got accused of being an ally of Babylon. They threw him in a pit, fed him bread and water, because they thought he was allying against Jerusalem, taking the side of the Babylonians, when he was simply preaching the word of God.

There's a sense amongst the leaders, right? We're doing poorly and having trouble, because of internal traitors working to subvert the common good. Now, how common is that story? It's not a news story.

Think about that. We're doing poorly and having trouble because of some internal traitors working to subvert the common good. How often is that story on your doom scroll? How often is that the story in your email?

How often is that the story on the news? That's everyone's story. You just kind of put in the particulars that fit your narrative, and it often is the approved narrative. And because this is the story, why is this the story?

It is calculated to absolve guilt. It's not our fault we're doing badly. It's those other people behind the scenes. It's those traitors and enemies. That's why we're having trouble. It's not us, it's them.

It's a comforting thing. Oh, it's not my fault. It can justify action. We don't live in a unique era as if rumors and propaganda started 15 minutes ago. We live in a world with competing conspiracy stories.

What else is new? But what is there to gain by playing the same game of fearing men and what men may have done what man may do? This is not a denial that men conspire to maximize the efficacy of their sin.

They do.

Men conspire to make their sin work really well, and the Bible is full of those examples. But it's also not something that should be what stops us or moves us, that makes us or breaks us. This isn't the main headline of our story.

And so God says to his prophet, do not say a conspiracy concerning all that this people call a conspiracy. After all, this people, I mean, what is their character anyway? Do they have a really good stellar character?

What's their relationship to truth? I mean, if we read the first five, six chapters of Isaiah, what kind of people are these? Are we going to just take their lines and take their words and take their stories and say, oh yeah, that's the truth?

That would be inadvisable. I'm sure there were many compelling stories being bandied about to prove the current conspiracy theory, villains being propped up by effective storytelling, and anybody who wouldn't show up and join the daily hate would become suspect participants in the conspiracy.

Now, he's not to use that language. He's not to reinforce that message. And no matter what pressure or tactics were applied to him, because God says, do not be afraid of their threats. As soon as he says, don't use their language, God backs it up with, and don't be afraid of their threats.

Because as soon as you stop using their language and stop agreeing with their narrative, guess what? They're going to threaten you to make you try to comply. Isaiah, you have a voice. Your voice should sound like our voice.

Now, it only makes sense that those who are being deceived and thus controlled by fear would also employ fear as their go-to tactic to enforce the uniformity that their worldview demands. Everybody must say the same thing or else.

So all kinds of threats. Maybe Isaiah, like Micaiah, had already gotten the call. Remember Micaiah? King of Judah goes and partners with Ahab, King of Israel. They're going to combine their armies, and they're going to go out, and they're going to fight their common enemy.

And the King of Judah says to Ahab, what does the Lord say about this? I mean, is he on our side? And Ahab says, watch this. And he gets his 400 prophets together, and he says, okay, fellows, should we go fight?

And all the 400 prophets say, oh, yes, King Ahab, you will be victorious. And the King of Judah says, yeah, do you actually have a real prophet around here somewhere that we could talk to? And Ahab says, well, there's one guy, but I hate him.

Micaiah, he never says anything good about me. And the King of Judah says, we better look him up. We're going to need an actual word from the Lord here. So they send servants out to Micaiah, and when they show up, they find him, and they say, hey, Micaiah, we need you to come give us the word of the Lord about this situation.

But just know, everybody's already said it's good to go. So you might want to get with the program. Micaiah says, I'm only going to say what the Lord tells me to say. He was under threat to comply. When he gets there, Micaiah being the funny guy that he is, he's asked the question, he sees the room, and he says, oh, yes, King Ahab, this will work out really well.

And everyone knows he's being sarcastic. The King Ahab says, how often have I told you you're supposed to tell me the truth? So he does, and it's not good news, and they don't like Micaiah, he gets in trouble.

And yet he did not use the same language that everyone else did. He said what was actual and true, and he was threatened, and he suffered because of it. And not only is the prophet not to be afraid of their threats, and not to use their language, but also not to be troubled.

Because as soon as he begins to say things differently than everyone else around him, and they begin threatening him, he begins to feel troubled in his soul, maybe I'm doing something wrong. I'm causing such a ruckus.

I'm saying things that so many people disagree with. Maybe I'm making all these people upset, maybe I'm the one who's wrong. But God tells his prophet, don't be troubled. Don't be troubled. Even though Isaiah preaches the word of God to those who have deaf ears and blind eyes, according to chapter six, that was his calling.

Though he goes against the grain, and knows that judgment will be the outcome, though so many oppose his teaching, and would silence him forever, he is to live untroubled. The term troubled has the idea of trembling, of dread, fear, being oppressed, being terrified.

Isaiah has to have none of that. None of that. Now, Isaiah's ministry, where he's gotta be separate and different, and say what God has to say, and even though the people will not like that, he's not to let that put him into a troubled state.

He's not to drag himself about in morose piety, or to live in daily fear of persecution and oppression. The threats are to have no effect. The opposition is to have no effect.

Why?

Why?

Verse 13, the Lord of hosts, him you shall hallow. Let him be your fear, let him be your dread. So, before we dig into that name and title next time, there is another passage that I think is very similar to this, and it's in Acts chapter four.

Boldness in the Face of Threats

It's in Acts chapter four, and we have Peter and John, who had gone to the temple at an hour of prayer. They come to the gate beautiful, they find a man who was lame there, been lame all this time. He's healed in the name of Jesus, and he goes walking and leaping and praising the Lord.

Everyone's attention is drawn there. They think Peter and John are something special. They say, no, it's not us, it's the Lord Jesus Christ, whom the Lord rose from the dead. Like, you know who Jesus of Nazareth was, you know that he was crucified on the cross, and a lot of you were a part of that, but God raised him from the dead, and it's in his name that this man has been healed, and it's in his name that your sins can be forgiven, and they preach the gospel for hours in the temple, until the temple guard, because of the fury of the Sanhedrin, come and arrest Peter and John, and they throw them into prison.

They're put on trial, great pressure tactics against the Sanhedrin to keep them quiet, but then they're let go, verse 23 of Acts 4, and being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all the chief priests and elders had said to them.

So when they had heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, you are God, who made heaven and earth, and the sea and all that is in them. He's the Lord of hosts. He's the Lord of hosts.

He's the creator of all things. Verse 25, who said by the mouth of your servant David, why do the nations rage and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and their rulers were gathered together against the Lord and his Christ.

See, just as God said in his words, so it came to pass. For truly against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done.

Look at the word of the Lord. Look at the power of God. Now, Lord, look on their threats and grant to your servants that with all boldness, they may speak your word, with all boldness, without apology, without apology, without walking around thinking, oh, I feel bad that I made others feel bad, without equivocation, with all boldness, they may speak your word.

See, Lord, look on their threats. It's the threats that might keep us quiet. It's the threats that might make us tell it slant instead of tell it straight. It's the threats that might trouble us and keep us awake at night and bothered.

No, look on their threats and grant to your servants that with all boldness, they may speak your word. By stretching out your hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant, Jesus.

And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God with boldness. So the saints, the early church we have here, Peter and John, the Sanhedrin gathered together, they bring them before them and they say, now look, you're not allowed to say certain things anymore.

And they say, well, there's obeying God or obeying man, so what do you think we ought to do? You're gonna be the language police, you're gonna tell us what we can say, what we can't say, but you're not in charge, God is, and so we're gonna obey God instead.

Now, that didn't mean that the threats went away, didn't mean that the fear wasn't present, it was, and so what did they do? They went and they prayed and they recognized the power of God, the surety of his word, called upon him to help them and God answered and gave them the boldness that they needed to speak the word the way he said it and not the way that everyone else around them was saying it.

So, do not say a conspiracy concerning all that these people call a conspiracy, nor be afraid of the threats, and that last part I think is just super important, nor be troubled, nor be troubled. Well, let's close by singing the doxology together.