The Coming Messiah II: The Shame of Having a Plan B

The Incarnation Promise in Isaiah 7

Welcome to the Whole Council Podcast. I'm Jon Snyder and we are continuing our look at the Incarnation passages that show up from Isaiah chapter 7 beginning with verse 14 and the announcement that a child would be born to a virgin whose name would be Immanuel, God with us, which we find again of course in the New Testament when the angel announces the birth of the Messiah to Mary who at that time is a virgin.

So we started with chapter 7 yesterday and looked at the context of that amazing promise and the context was the moral, spiritual, and political decline of Judah as they follow idolatry under a new king, Ahaz.

And Ahaz, in spite of God's offers of mercy, is indifferent because he has plan B and he doesn't really believe that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the solution to this national problem. And it's easy to point our fingers at Ahaz, but think about it if your marriage is on the rocks, if your children are reaching, you know, adult ages and they're making choices that are self-destructive, the kind of choices that will last, you know, maybe generations.

We look at those things, we look at national problems, we hear the newest, you know, report from Washington or Hollywood, and we say, our nation is losing its mind, we need a solution. And, you know, and there are a thousand podcasts that will tell you, well, here's the solution, and some of them are very religious and some of them are just political.

But whatever it is, it's easy to embrace a plan B for fixing a serious crisis, and especially when we are afraid, we grasp at some plans, somebody promises this will fix us. Well, in times like that, you can go to church, you can hear wonderful statements about Jesus of Nazareth, and you can tip your hat and say, I appreciate everything that you just said, preacher, but in reality, beneath the surface, you realize that you feel you need something far greater than Christ.

And I don't just mean words about Jesus. I mean, you feel that you need something more than Christ. Jesus plus will fix our country. Jesus plus will fix my marriage. And so we listen to those wonderful statements of the Incarnation at this time of year, we hear them at church, we sometimes we hear them in through the just even the secular media, and we have this indifference.

That's a wonderful sentiment, that's a wonderful thought. It's a wonderful time of the year, but for my problems, which are real, I need a real cure, and words about Christ are not going to be enough.

We saw that last week, and what we're going to look at this week in chapter 7 of Isaiah, verse 17, down through the end of chapter 8, we're going to hit just a few of the high spots of these passages, where two big things are described.

Judgment on Judah Through Egypt and Assyria

All right, the first big thing is the judgment that's coming on the nation of Judah. God's response to Judah's continual drift into idolatry, and its even greater sin of the rejection of the hope and the mercy that God has freshly offered them, and the promise of the coming of a Messiah, God's response is judgment.

And we're going to see that two groups suffer in the judgment. There are the merely religious, or the hypocrite, who is officially a part of Judah, who is a child of Abraham physically, but is not a true believer.

And then there is that remnant, that small group that God has preserved within the nation, and this small group is made up of true spiritual children of Abraham, not just physical children, who do believe God, and who do act very differently.

And so we have the judgments described in the opening verses today, and then we move to these two groups described. And even though they are both religious groups and both suffering under the judgment, one group thinks and speaks and behaves very differently than the other group.

And the ultimate outcome of the judgment for one group is very different than for the other. And so we're going to look at how God distinguishes those two groups, because we want to make sure that as we look at these passages, are we being very honest?

Who am I? This is a mirror for my soul. What do I see about myself in this passage? Am I a believer who lives on the realities of Christ, or am I like those in Judah who claim to believe in the real God, but really, when I hear these statements about Christ again, you know, as we approach Christmas, I merely nod in agreement and I change nothing.

So we want to make sure that we benefit from the descriptions of Christ and avoid the terrible sins of those who were indifferent. Well, the judgment is described in verse 17, down through 8, verse 8.

So 7, verse 17, through 8, verse 8. And let me again say we only have time to hit these high points. And in verse 17, Isaiah says this, The Lord will bring on you, on your people, and on your father's house such days as have never come since the day that Ephraim separated from Judah, the king of Israel.

Well, in context, what he's saying is this. The judgment that's about to come because of your idolatry and your indifference toward the Messiah and the promises, it will be a judgment unlike anything we have ever experienced since the day that Ephraim left Judah.

That is, since the time that because of the developing idolatry at the end of the rule of Solomon and at the beginning of the rule of Rehoboam, since the day that God ripped ten of the twelve tribes away from the house of David, from the royal line of David.

So ten of the twelve tribes now are separated, ruled by other kings under the name Israel, and Judah to the south, those two tribes under the title of Judah are the only ones still ruled by the Davidic line.

It's a great mercy that God preserved too, but it was a terrible blow to the nation, and God is saying the judgment that is coming is going to be a blow like that. And what is the judgment? He says it's the king of Assyria, okay?

The one you've hoped in. And then what comes in is a series of metaphors where God describes the coming judgment in these word pictures, and these always are helpful to us because it's one thing to have a very long explanation, and at the end of the explanation you think, now exactly what did he say again?

I forgot the first part. Simple word pictures, they tend to stick with us. So I'm going to give you those quickly. In verse 18 and 19, the first picture is that God whistles and flies and bees are summoned from across the earth to come and live in Judah, and they're going to cover every aspect of the life of the Jews there in Judah.

Every place you go, you see flies covering things or bees covering things. And he tells us in those two verses, in verse 18 and 19, that the flies represent Egypt and the bees represent Assyria, and there are reasons for that.

You can look at a commentary and see that. Now what I want to point out about that first description of judgment is this. Egypt and Assyria in the book of Isaiah are the two main nations that the Jews in Judah hope these nations will save us from our problems.

So these are the plan B's. These are the false hopes, and both of them come to nothing. Both of them fail. Notice that in God's dealing with his people, the judgment fits the crime. That is, how God disciplines his people is part of the lesson that they need to learn.

And in this case, it's very clear. You hope in Egypt to fix your problems instead of God. So I will cause Egypt to be like an insect that covers your land and is a pestilence to you. You hope that Assyria will save you from your problems instead of repenting and returning to the living God and throwing out your idols.

You've chosen a political solution, Assyria, but I will cause Assyria to be a pestilence that covers your land. And in the book of Isaiah, we see this play out. What's the application for us today? If you hear wonderful descriptions of Jesus Christ and you acknowledge that those are sweet words and you appreciate those words, but you have a plan B that you hope in, in place of really trusting, following, and obeying Jesus of Nazareth, do not be surprised when your plan B is the very thing God uses to judge you.

When your empty hope becomes the thing that turns against you and spreads the ruin of unbelief and pride throughout all of life. And so you say, my marriage is in trouble, but I have this plan. Why not follow Christ?

Well, that's nice, but I need something more substantial. I have this plan, and this plan ends up producing such misery. Second, in verse 20, God switches the picture and He talks about a razor. So think of a straight blade, you know, an old-time razor.

God says, actually, I'm coming to you with a razor, and the razor is Assyria, and I will shave you. And in the Hebrew, the English kind of has a euphemistic translation, so it's not quite so embarrassing if you read it in English, but if you read it in the Hebrew, everyone would get the point from head to toe.

I will shave you, and I will march you in front of the people like the Assyrians are going to do. When a nation conquers another nation on the battlefield, you know, how they treat the conquered nation says a lot about the conquerors, and as I mentioned, Assyria is pretty cruel.

So the Assyrian armies would often take the soldiers of the conquered nation, and they would take those prisoners of war, and they would strip them and shave them, which in that culture was a particular, especially, you know, for the men with the beards, it was a particularly cruel thing.

It was a way of saying that you are utterly defeated, and it was a way of bringing shame on top of defeat. And they would just march them in a line behind their chariots back to Assyria to become slaves, but they would be marched in a way that would be just so humiliating, public humiliation.

And then, you know, the way that that would work is, if you're the next little country and Assyria says surrender or die, you say, I surrender. You know, I don't want to see our men killed in battle or, you know, humiliated and marched back to Assyria to be slaves.

If we have a plan B that causes us to be indifferent to the words that describe Christ in this book, not just Isaiah, but the entire book, so that Christ is really not the one who captivates us, and His commands are not the ones we risk everything to follow, do not be surprised if, in the ruin that comes following rejecting Christ, do not be surprised if that is public.

If you think that you can hope in an idol a plan B and reject Christ, and if it fails, it'll be a private failure, I think you will be bitterly disappointed. When we reject God privately, God often teaches others by the public display of our humiliation.

My idol failed me, and it failed me publicly. Third, He describes workers who no longer have farms, but they have a cow and two sheep and curdled milk. What's that about? Well, when God judges Judah, there will not be enough men left in the land to work the vineyards and the farms, and so He describes that these well-kept farms that were very productive, that with no people to work them, they become overgrown, and they become wild land again, and wild animals trample through the vineyards that used to be kept perfectly, and hunters hunt where you used to farm because now it's all overgrown, and the picture is just ruined.

These farms that God gave back in the days of Joshua, when He gave the land to His people, they didn't plant those farms, other people did, and God removed the pagans from the land and gave it freely to His own people.

The very gifts that God has given us when He came and was merciful to us in the early days of our conversion, if we're not careful, our indifference toward Christ can result in a judgment where those gifts are lost.

Not that we lose our salvation, but areas of life that used to be wonderfully productive of Christlikeness, now no crop seems available. And for the Christian, God will discipline us, and there is repentance and return and restoration, but it can be very bitter.

But for those who all they have is religion and have never belonged to Christ, you know, this is a picture of just utter hopelessness, the ruin of your idolatry spreading everywhere. So you don't have a farm anymore, you just have a cow and two sheep.

Now you do have milk, but there's not enough people around you to share with, so your milk that you do get from the cow, well, it it curdles, and so you end up having for your food milk, curdled milk, and wild honey from the land.

It's not milk and honey, like back in the days of Exodus, where the promise is that the land flows with plenty. It's a picture of poverty and isolation. You have one cow, two sheep, not a farm, and you don't even have enough people to share with.

People have been carried away by the enemy, and so it's just you and your rotting milk. Finally, let me just hit one more. He describes two rivers, Shiloh and the Euphrates. The Shiloh River is a calm river that flows from a pool outside the city of Jerusalem, and through a series of aqueducts and waterways that the Jews built, it flows into the city.

Now this was critical when armies came and gathered around the city and besieged the city, because you could still have water that would reach the city. Otherwise, Jerusalem had no water source. In spite of its very easily defended position on on the mountain there, with its walls, it was hard to capture Jerusalem, but it was not hard to starve them out or to dehydrate them, because they had no water supply.

So the Shiloh River and its aqueducts is the river that fed the city. Now, when Isaiah first met Ahaz in chapter 7, it was at the source of that river. That river represents God's promises, the calm, happy life of a person who trusts God's.

The Euphrates is the Assyrian River, and it was known for its violent seasons of flooding and overflowing, and so God basically says this, you rejected the sweet flowing rivers of my mercy and my promises, and instead you've hoped in Assyria.

Well, this is what will happen. Assyria will come, and like the river Euphrates, it will jump its banks, and it will flood Israel to the north and the Arameans, and it will wipe them away. And it does.

Within two years, Assyria takes Israel captive, but it will also jump its banks and flow south, and it will reach Judah, and it will reach the people of Judah up to the neck, which probably is a symbol of up to the capital city.

So the Assyrian armies cover the land of Judah. They surround the capital city. We know later, during the days of Hezekiah, Sennacherib is the king of Assyria, and he cannot take the city because God protects the capital city.

The ruin of self-dependence, of self-rule, of having a plan B, an idol that I'm hoping in to fix my nation, my family, myself, that ruin will spread like a flood. Well, that's the description of judgment.

The Remnant, the Hypocrite, and the Fear of God

Very quickly, there are two groups that suffer judgment. There are the truly godly remnant, and then there are those who appear to be God's people but are not. How can you tell the difference? Well, in verse 9 to the end of the chapter, we find God speaking.

First, in verse 9 and 10, He says to the nations, you know, you can make plans against my people, but I will still shatter you. You will not destroy Judah. But then in verse 11, to the end of the chapter, we find those two groups within Judah.

So not the external enemies, but the people within Judah, the hypocrite and the true believer. And they are easily distinguished by a few things. Quickly, the true believer, even though they suffer in a time of judgment because the whole nation is suffering, so the true believer is suffering.

You can just think of the life of Jeremiah. The nation is under God's judgment. Jeremiah suffers the same hardships, even though he's godly. Daniel is carried away to Babylon, even though he's godly. He still suffers the same impact of judgment.

But the true believer behaves differently, and the ultimate outcome is very different. So the true believer, in verse 11 and then again in verse 16, 17, and 18, it shows that it is the Scripture, it is the Word of God, that fashions their perspective on what's happening.

So they, in a sense, they watch the newscast. Assyria takes more land. Assyria gets closer, and they realize that they have to interpret these events through Scripture. What is God doing? Not just what are our enemies doing, but how is God behind this?

Is that you? Do you listen to the newest report from the Capitol, and you say, you know, the Democrats are doing this, or the Republicans are doing this, or the courts are doing this? Those bad people.

Do you ever step back, and instead of just saying what your political groups say, the ones that you agree with, instead of just being in an echo chamber, you know, with social media, and you just repeat the same old catchphrases, you step back and you say, have you ever considered what God might be doing through these things?

Second, because they view things through the Scriptures, they do not run around saying, it's a conspiracy, and they do not run around being terrified of what other people are terrified of. Now, it's a conspiracy.

That's kind of a difficult passage. It could either mean, don't go around talking about the conspiracy that we know about in this chapter, and that is the conspiracy of Israel and the Arameans against King Ahaz and Judah.

In other words, yes, it's a conspiracy. Of course it's a conspiracy. Sinners are always conspiring, but the believer does not have to be caught up with the newest conspiracy. And so, while that's all that the world can be gripped by, the believer knows that there is a higher kingdom, and a higher king is ruling these things.

And while we don't stick our head in the sand, and we don't step back and have this fatalistic attitude of, well, God will do whatever God will do, we respond to what the Scripture says we should do. How do we love our enemies?

How do we behave in a time of persecution? How do we behave in a time of ease, when the world would, you know, entice us? The Scriptures are very clear about that. So, we follow Christ through the midst of all the frantic fear of our culture, as it runs around saying, conspiracy!

Is that us? When you hear the descriptions of Christ in Scripture, do those hold your heart, so that you are not terrified by what terrifies the people around you. It's not that you don't care, it's that you are in the grip of a greater kingdom that cannot be shaken, and that impacts how you respond to the present crisis.

Well, what they do fear, it says, is they fear God. God is to be the one they fear. That is that holy, clean fear. They stand in all of God. He is their dread. If you're going to be gripped by something, the big story of the day is God, not the newest thing that the enemy does, the newest thing that these people do.

So, the newest conspiracy doesn't grip you, but the reality of God does, and it holds you on course. Now, that's the true believer. Those that are merely religious, they have a very different response.

They are terrified of everything. They do go around frightened by every new conspiracy. That's all they can seem to talk about. They want to talk about what's going wrong, what everybody's doing wrong.

And, you know, that just fills their time, so that it fills their talk at work, at home. It's what they watch on television. It's what they talk about in social media. The conspiracy, not God. They're not in the grip of the bigness of God.

They're in the grip of the bigness of the problem. And then it says, God becomes to them through this Messiah. The Messiah is a stone of stumbling, a snare, a rock that will crush them. Or, He is a sanctuary to them.

To the true believer, God becomes a sanctuary through the work of the Messiah. A safe place, a pure place, even though we live in a very unsafe atmosphere. For the unbeliever, who shows up at church, agrees with the sermon on the surface, but will not apply Christ to the life.

Plan B is gripped. Christ becomes a stone that they trip over. Christ becomes a stone that crushes them. We can see this in the New Testament, in 1st Peter, chapter 2, where those that will not obey Him, He becomes, instead of a choice stone laid by God, He's a stumbling stone.

Romans, chapter 9, Paul says, these Jews, who will not pursue righteousness through faith in Christ, but pursue righteousness by their own law-keeping, Christ has become a stumbling stone. So, ignoring all that He is, we trip over Him and fall to our death.

So, very different outcomes. The true believer goes through a time of judgment, among other people that are going through a time of judgment, but instead of being frantic, they are gripped by the bigness of God.

He is the one that they fear, or they stand in awe of, and the Scriptures fashion their perspective. And in the end, there's wonderful rescue. We'll see that. But for the unbeliever, who goes to church and thinks they're a believer, they don't apply the descriptions of Christ.

They feel they need something more than Jesus. Plan B. They are frantic. They are always talking about the newest conspiracy, the newest wrong, and fearing that and ignoring Christ, they trip over Christ.

At the end of the passage, it describes the unbelievers as on this terrible, miserable journey. And so, they're on this journey, and you can think of the exile to Babylon. And so, they're journeying, you know, in judgment to Babylon, and it says they curse their King and God.

And that, I believe, is a really apt summary of much of what we hear from religious people, who are not being careful, not having their worldview, their view of the present circumstances fashioned by Scripture.

They frantically run around, and then when Plan B fails them, and they feel the ruin of that sweep through their lives, their family, their workplace, their nation. They curse their leaders. We hate those people.

We hate our president. We hate our congressmen. It's all their fault, and they blame God. And much of what we see online, much of what we hear at work, or standing in the line at the grocery store, or, you know, as we sit in the stands watching our kids play sports, much of what's said is just that.

It's our leader's fault. It's God. God's failed us. We just use different words. Well, that's the bitter consequences, and that's the two different groups and the differences between those groups who pass through the judgment.

No More Gloom in Isaiah 9

Next week, we'll look at chapter 9, and there opens, instead of the dark gloom and despair of the end of chapter 8, with people cursing leaders and cursing God, in chapter 9 it says, no more gloom, you know, no more darkness.

A dawn is coming, and it centers around the coming of Emmanuel.