The audio file of this blog is found here:
Isaiah 8 vv. 12-17
Introduction
'Stop
scaring us'.
'That's
just Project Fear'
'It's not
real - this is just a big conspiracy'.
Big Pharma
Bill Gates
They're
putting micro chips in your vaccine ...
All very
much in common there with the prophet Isaiah's issues before the invasion and
captivity in the eighth century before
the Christian era.
Do you
believe me?
I PROMISE
you, Isaiah 8 is a passage with a lot in common with our time.
Let's check it out, because the fear that causes
denialism, conspiracy theories and coweringly inappropriate inactivity were all
current in the responses made in Israel to the threats in ancient near eastern
politics in Isaiah's time, and Isaiah 8 gets to the heart of the issue.
1. The setting in Isaiah
1-12
A. The context in this book
Isaiah
arrives on the scene as a Divinely prophet to pronounce judgement on Jerusalem
in the form of an invasion by the Assyrians and Babylonians and hope that would
arise out of the ruins in the future in the form of a King from David's line as
promised in 2 Samuel 7, the creation of a new covenant that God's people could
actually obey and walk in as promised in Exodus 19 and in the form of God's
blessing to the Nations as promised to Abraham in Genesis 12.
It was
this HOPE that inspired Isaiah to speak out against the idolatry and corruption
of Israel in his day.
Chapters
1-39 are the prophecies of judgement, but run through with glimmers of the hope
that is to come then the Exile to Babylon happens and from chapter 40-66 Isaiah
picks up the message of hope and unpacks and unfolds it further.
Now, our
passage crops up in the first judgement section that runs from chapter 1-12
which focuses on God's judgement and hope for Jerusalem.
Chapters
1-2 see Isaiah proclaiming judgement on Jerusalem for its' covenant rebellion,
idolatry and injustice and he says the Lord is going to send the Nations
against this old Jerusalem to besiege it and conquer it and to be like a
purifying fire to purge it and build a New Jerusalem populated by a remnant
that has repented and turned back to God.
Isaiah
says THAT's when God's people will come to the New Jerusalem from all the
Nations and learn about God's justice bringing about an age of universal peace
and harmony for ALL nations.
That
becomes the story line which gets repeated over and over throughout the book
getting filled in with increasing detail as it goes along.
At the
centre of this section we're looking at - in chapter six - comes Isaiah's enormous vision of God
sitting on His throne in Heavenly Glory in the Temple, surrounded by heavenly
creatures shouting that God is Holy, holy, holy and suddenly Isaiah is
convicted of his sin and of his peoples' sin ... he's convinced he'll be
destroyed but God sends an angel with tongs to take a coal from the altar
filled with God's holiness but instead of burning and destroying Isaiah that
holy thing cleanses Isaiah's mouth ... the holy thing cleanses from sin rather
than destroying the sinner ...
Isaiah
assumes he is done for but God says 'you're PURIFIED, now GO!'
He is
commissioned to keep announcing God's judgement, but because Israel is too far
gone, Isaiah's warnings will have a paradoxical effect: they will harden
people's hearts in the face of the coming judgement.
Israel will be chopped down like a tree and its' stump left in the ground.
That stump
itself will be scorched and burned, but after all that burning, God says this
smouldering stump will be a holy seed that will survive into the future.
WHAT is
that stump all about?!
Well, in chapters 7-12 Isaiah confronts bad King Ahaz in Jerusalem - who is living proof that good parents like David can have bad children like Ahaz - and announces that the Assyrians will be the first to lay the axe to the tree but after this destruction God will send a new King called 'Immanuel' which means 'God with us'(that's chapter 7) and Immanuel's Kingdom will set God's people free from violent oppressive Empires (chapter 9).
Isaiah
describes this coming King as a new shoot that will emerge from the old stump
of David's family.
He is the
Holy Seed from Isaiah 6, and that King is going to be empowered by God's Spirit
to rule over a New Jerusalem and bring justice t the poor and all nations will
look to this Messianic King.
His
Kingdom will transform ALL of Creation bringing peace.
And right
down in amongst all of that in the midst of all that good stuff in chapters 6,
7 and 9 lies the passage we're looking at in Isaiah 8:12-17
B. The cotext in this chapter, vv.
9-11
By the
time we get to this passage in Isaiah 8, the way of faith has been decisively
rejected.
The King
of Assyria is looked to for safety and security more than the Lord and His
covenant commitments ... His solemn promises.
What
follows is terrible to consider, but as Alec Motyer says in his commentary on
Isaiah: "What now follows has the inevitability of Biblical logic: the
alternatives to the way of salvation are always ways of destruction ..."
(Motyer 1993 p. 88)
And yet, vv. 9-22 of this chapter contrast the choices and the experience of the worldly ones and the remnant ... the godly and the ungodly.
It's now all about the
contrasting attitude of the faithful remnant and NO LONGER about the
'nationalist' but faithless descendants of Abraham.
I need to
point out the reference in v. 8 which over-arches this account of the
experience and the outcome of the faith and faithlessness of Jerusalem and of
Israel in this chapter.
The great
hope in the darkness of chapter 7 was of Immanuel, the coming Messianic King
named as 'God with us'.
In 8:8 we read of the great flood water of the Euphrates ... which was the mighty water-course of Babylon, the invader and the instrument of God's judgement, storming into Judah with the cry of woe:
"Its
outspread wings will cover the breadth of your land,
Immanuel!’"
It is a
weird bit of language which translators struggle to translate because it sounds
so ... well ... 'it can't mean that'!
What it
says is that the raging torrent of the conquering forces from Babylon are
flooding through the land 'BECAUSE God is with us'.
This
terrible experience, this judgement (in this case war but it could as easily
have been plague and pestilence) is coming on Judah and Jerusalem BECAUSE God
is with us ... not because He's abandoned them at all!
It is the
sign of the faithful covenant God being with them not having abandoned them
that He brings the consequences He has promised on spiritual adultery.
And to the
faithful amongst His people ... there's a very strange but tough truth comfort
in what Isaiah says there.
The first
sign of His coming in faithful judgement is v. 9's international collapse.
Now please
bear in mind where this prophetic passage sits in the development of God's
dealing with His people.
There will
be terrible things happening.
And the
impact of those things will be to separate - to some extent - the sheep from
the goats AMONG HIS HISTORIC PEOPLE.
What we're
about to look at in this passage is all about the different attitude of the
faithful remnant amongst God's people ... what marks THEM out from the rest.
At the
start of such difficult times there is this visible phenomenon ... for the sake
of OUR discussion let's call it 'the Church'.
But hard
times put the pressure on and what defines the faithful remnant that didn't
turn back and get destroyed is the attitude of the faithful amongst the visible
'church'.
This is a
huge turning point in the flow of Biblical theology here ...
Motyer:
"The importance of the present section is tha it brings us to the point of
definition in the doctrine of the remnant. 'A remnant shall return' no longer
means simply that there will always be survivors to continue the nation on
earth but that there is a distinction between the secularised, politicised
professing people of God and those, within that people, who turn to Him in
repentance and faith, who look to His Word and obey it."
If you
block out the small subsections and analyse the structure of this passage it all centres down onto vv.
12-15 ... the fear of the ungodly in v. 12 mirroring the fate of the ungodly in
vv. 14b -15 then inside that the fear of the godly in v. 13 and the privilege
of the godly in v. 14a.
The key
issue in the definition of the faithful remnant as opposed to the ungodly
amongst the apparently godly is this issue of who, what and how you respond to
this thing we call 'fear'.
It's
absolutely fascinating to see how the structure highlights this issue and I've
seen 'Fear' as important enough and as counter-cultural enough to produce a podcast on this that you can access here:
It's Time we had a chat about Fear ...
These with the subject of what fear is and how to relate to it in a godly way. It's a
sort of lecture/ interaction with a work by John Flavel dating from 1684 but
INCREDIBLY relevant to our current experiences in Wales.
But before
we get too carried away, let's have a look into the text.
2. International
collapse, v. 9
"Raise the war cry, you nations, and
be shattered!
Listen, all you distant lands.
Prepare for battle, and be shattered!
Prepare for battle, and be shattered!"
This
sounds pretty terrible but it's important to note that in the conflict of the
Nations being foretold here, the Remnant are going to be secure, but they will
not be immune from the consequences of the conflict.
They
aren't immune to the calamities of the people they are part of, but in all of
it they have their transforming fear of God and surrounded by the hopelessness
of the rest they have God and His promise to cling on to.
3. Fruitless
consultation over the crisis, v. 10
The thing
about those who aren't leaning on God and fear consequences rather than their
Creator is that they set about solving problems on their own.
Faith of
COURSE acts, but in all of that faith relies primarily upon its' Creator ...
and that's a distinguishing feature of the FAITHful Remnant.
So Isaiah
speaking for God directly addresses the more powerful nations that are party to
the treaties the godless Israelites run to for refuge.
"Devise
your strategy, but it will be thwarted;
propose your plan, but it will not stand,
for God is with us"
You can
see these powerful military allies ... godless nations that will plunder
Jerusalem's Temple and whose pagan gods will come as part of the package ...
are going to bring nothing but disaster.
Ally
yourselves with them and you will share in their destruction.
I'm
reminded of Psalm 146: "Do not put your trust in princes,
in human beings, who cannot save.
4 When
their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to
nothing.
5
Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God."
Something
a little bit unusual happens next ... but there's a really good reason for why
this happens here, just in terms of the gathering of the faithful Remnant of
the people.
4. Isaiah set apart from the people by the Word of the Lord, v. 11
"This
is what the Lord says to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to
follow the way of this people ..."
Two things
here to notice ...
Firstly
God makes a POWERFUL impression on Isaiah as He speaks ... Heb “with strength
of hand/power.”
Secondly,
God warns Isaiah in this powerful way to separate himself from his people - Heb
“he warned me against (or “from”) walking in the way of these people,
saying.”
The NET
translates really helpfully:
v. 11
"Indeed this is what the Lord told me quite forcefully. He warned me not
to act like these people:"
The
Remnant STARTS with Isaiah, and it starts with separating himself from the
crowd.
And it was
the Word of the Lord that exerted the necessary pressure on Isaiah to distance
himself from the people.
As Motyer
(an Anglican minister) puts it: "His separation was not self-appointed
exclusivism but (like all true separation) obedience to the Word of God."
I can't
see anything to object to in that!
So HOW is
Isaiah to express his difference from his people?
5. The fear of the
ungodly, v. 12
"‘Do
not call conspiracy
everything this people calls a conspiracy;
do not
fear what they fear,
and do not dread it."
I need to
point out here that the verbs Isaiah uses now switch decisively into the plural
...
Here are
things Isaiah needs to stand apart from ... and it starts by specifying the
rejection of the rumblings of the conspiracy theorists.
Conspiracy
theories ultimately thrive on feeding fears and on the suspicion that there is
NO Sovereign God in control - active, operating authoritatively in this world,
working out all things according to His purposes and His Providence.
In all
thirteen of its' other occurrences in the Old Testament the noun used here
translated 'conspiracy' refers to internal rebellions .... to treason.
It's not
easy to work out what actual rebellion v. 12 is referring to but it seems
likely that the security treaty King Ahaz was negotiating with Assyria in
preference to relying on the LORD is what's being referred to ... and it''s
being referred to as treason, against the LORD.
Not
entrusting your destiny to Him is treason against the great King, because it
effectively puts its' trust in man, and not in the Sovereign Lord.
The
non-Remnant have a fresh definition of 'treason' ... and Isaiah is to preserve
the theologically accurate and actually faithful one, in distinction from them.
Motyer: "Those who lived under the word and
promise of God were thus called to hold aloof from popular clamour for the
supposed safety of political alliance and worldly armed strength."
Maintaining
the fear of the godly as opposed to the de facto godless is absolutely key to
that enterprise.
Isaiah and
those who will become his disciples - the faithful remnant - are to have no
part in a fear-ridden society but to stand out for their distinctly different
lifestyle ... calm in reliance on God in the midst of life's big storms and
apparent threats.
6. The fear of the
godly, v. 13
However,
it is CRUCIAL to notice that Isaiah and the Remnant are not in any sense
conventionally fearless.
"The
Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy,
he is the one you are to fear,
he is the one you are to dread."
Life in a
fallen world can be utterly fearful ... the faithful are not immune from that.
But the
key thing is who or what in response to your fallen experience you will chose
to fear.
Only the
fool is the person without fear, because (as Flavel points out in his Treatise on
Fear) fear is natural and natural fear is useful to mankind in a fallen world.
So where
you place your fear is at least as important as where you place your faith ...
in fact they are both the two sides of the very same coin, and where you place
them will determine your outcomes.
Fearing
God above all will protect you from the mis-steps you will take on your own
initiative, if the fear of mankind gets to dominate your thinking.
Fearing
God above all will characterise His faithful remnant, will protect their
eternal destiny and will lead them into the privileges of the godly.
7. The privilege of the
godly, v. 14a
NET
helpfully translates: "He will become a sanctuary ..."
Because
the metaphor of protection (“sanctuary”) does not fit the negative mood that
follows in vv. 14b-15, some contend that the Hebrew word miqdash, “sanctuary”
probably needs to be emended to an original moqesh, “snare”, a word that
appears in the next line
But why
would the scribes who copied this manuscript get the word wrong here but not in
the very next verse?
I don't
buy that.
those who rebel against him by relying on their own wits and alliances - the help of man - rather than relying on Him a contrast that works out in the rest of v. 14.
Now,
'sanctuary' is a holy place not an asylum-seekers camp.
It is the
place where the Lord comes to dwell amongst His people ... but where He comes
(as in the Tabernacle and the Temple) in the tangible reality of His holiness.
It was a
holy place, but it was also a place of sacrifice for sin where provision was
made for sinners to be made safe and welcome when they entrusted themselves to
Him in His holy presence.
The
appointed means and way of grace allowed some to enter His fellowship and
presence ... but that same presence to those who didn't come that way always
spelled to the unfaithful non-Remnant their doom ...
8. The fate of the
ungodly, vv. 14b-15
To those
who do not stand apart as His faithful remnant, He is a stone of stumbling, a
trap and a snare
Just as
the idolatry of the nations they sought alliances got installed at the bricks
and mortar Jerusalem temple became a trap and a snare ...
"
for both Israel and Judah he will be
a stone
that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.
And for
the people of Jerusalem he will be
a trap and a snare.
15 Many
of them will stumble;
they will fall and be broken,
they will be snared and captured.’"
Motyer:
"The same God in His unchanging nature is both sanctuary and snare; it
depends on how people respond to His holiness."
The first
pair of words ("a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that
makes them fall") flesh out the people's attitude to God ... they
ignore Him and therefore trip over Him.
The second
pair of words (for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a
snare") describe God's hostility to them over their rebellion.
Now this
all works out in vv. 16-22 as the consequences of fearing mankind more than god
get worked out.
9. Consequences, vv.
16-22
Firstly, the faithful need to separate themselves out.
A. Isaiah and
disciples set apart for the Word of the Lord, vv. 16-18
"Bind
up this testimony of warning
and seal up God’s instruction among my
disciples.
17 I
will wait for the Lord,
who is hiding his face from the descendants
of Jacob.
I will
put my trust in him.
The
faithful remnant here say 'I will wait for the Lord'.
But of the
others v. 21 says 'they will .... curse their God."
Ahaz
alienated God's favour by seeking foreign military alliances rather than God.
Isaiah and
his disciples aren't immune from the suffering that led to ... but a the clouds
of what was coming were gathering, they were sustained by an expectant, sure,
patient hope.
That's the
way of the remnant, but the fearers of mankind fell into despair.
Isaiah's
testimony is utterly distinct from them:
18 Here
am I, and the children the Lord has given me.
We are
signs and symbols in Israel from the Lord Almighty, who dwells on Mount
Zion."
In the
course of the history that Isaiah prophesies, the Temple on Mount Zion, the city
of Jerusalem and its' inhabitants will be conquered militarily, destroyed and
scattered abroad.
But God
still dwells on Mount Zion throughout all of it, and His faithful remnant are
His signs and symbols standing out for their covenant keeping God amongst the
historic people of Israel.
Have you
noticed that Isaiah and his followers are a sign?
Have you
ever wondered where you get a name like Isaiah?
Isaiah's
name is a name that means simply: 'God saves'
B. Fruitless
consultation, vv. 19-20
But in spite of these signs they were given, the
fear of man crowding out the fear of God, King Ahaz and the nation rejected the
fear of God for the fear of mankind, turned openly to spirits and to mediums in
the ensuing fear that gripped them, utter darkness lies ahead of them along
that road ...
C. National collapse,
vv. 21-22
So, verses
19-22 predict the ensuing national collapse.
Why did it
get so bad as this?
Because
they feared man more than God, succumbed to the fear Flavel describes as sinful
fear, and jumped from the high board of God's covenant care.
It is a
terrible way to discover that your negligent actions have emptied your swimming
pool.
Conclusion
It appears
then, from the verses at the central focal point of the structure of this
passage, that where you put your fear is at least as important as where you
place your faith.
At the end of this fearful year 2020 and at the dawn
of this New Year 2021, that truth comes as a particularly fresh revelation to
me.
Let's
resolve as we head into 2021, not really knowing what it is that this year
holds for us, to renounce the fear of mankind and to fear the loss of the
fellowship and careful support of the One Who has loved us with an everlasting
love.
Let's
resolve not to let our fears drive us to put our trust in alliances or
allegiances, deals or vaccines, politicians or medics ... but to thank our
Father God Who we can trust with all the issues these things raise and bring
His faithful remnant with Him into Glory.
The best of anything else we aspire to pales towards insignificance in comparison.
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