back to index12-09-2015 Wed Bible Study
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>> Heavenly Father, we wanna thank you for this evening. 00:00:07.520 |
And we thank you, Father God, for the opportunity for us to come and study. 00:00:11.920 |
We ask, Lord, that your living word would have its purpose, 00:00:16.200 |
help us to be focused, energized, strengthened. 00:00:24.720 |
our lives may all of it, Lord God, be aligned with what you desire for us. 00:00:29.280 |
So we pray for your blessing this evening, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. 00:00:44.360 |
we're focusing on chapter seven and eight today, chapter seven and eight. 00:00:54.080 |
Were the questions a little bit harder today? 00:00:59.400 |
I made it so that it required a little bit more work than normal. 00:01:04.280 |
How many of your tables don't have this sheet? 00:02:04.400 |
Just take what you need, let the people come later, they can look for it. 00:02:24.360 |
I hope you guys had an opportunity to read Second Kings chapter 16, not 15. 00:02:30.680 |
I hope you didn't read chapter 15 and then say, it's kind of hard. 00:02:50.120 |
Basically, the story behind it is that the king of the Northern Kingdom, 00:03:27.320 |
That's the guy that they want to appoint in Judah. 00:03:38.120 |
I think it'd be better if you just read through it. 00:03:49.880 |
So basically, Pekka, the son of Romalia, Romalia? 00:03:55.200 |
Yeah, Romalia, and the king of Assyria, they basically joined forces. 00:04:01.120 |
But basically what happened was, they wanted to join forces to attack Assyria, 00:04:09.600 |
But what the southern kingdom does, instead of aligning themselves with 00:04:15.400 |
Israel and, okay, give me a second, let me get this straight out of my own head. 00:04:29.760 |
So the king of Syria and the king of the northern kingdom, 00:04:36.240 |
they actually come and ask the king of the southern kingdom 00:04:52.560 |
asked the southern kingdom to join forces against Assyria. 00:05:02.800 |
So, but Ahaz, the king of the southern kingdom, 00:05:08.080 |
basically thinks that this is not a good alliance. 00:05:12.400 |
Instead of joining with them, who does he join forces with? 00:05:17.640 |
And so because he joins forces with Assyria, the two kings get mad at 00:05:23.240 |
the southern kingdom, and they join forces to come and attack them, right? 00:05:32.040 |
You're looking at me like I'm saying something you've never heard before, okay? 00:05:35.520 |
So they come down to attack the southern kingdom, but 00:05:39.440 |
the southern kingdom, remember, they have alliance with Assyria. 00:05:42.600 |
And so Assyria comes and actually protects them, and 00:05:52.400 |
Because everything we're talking about is about that event, okay? 00:05:56.400 |
It's about that particular event where King Ahaz 00:06:04.880 |
And so even though they experience temporary success, 00:06:08.440 |
God basically is going to bring judgment upon them, right? 00:06:12.160 |
For not trusting in God and trusting Assyria, he says, basically what he's 00:06:16.160 |
saying is, you've experienced temporary relief from whatever suffering that you 00:06:20.640 |
thought was going to come because Assyria got on your plan, but 00:06:24.040 |
Assyria is actually going to turn on you, and they're going to come attack you, okay? 00:06:28.920 |
And so that is the historical backdrop behind what's happening, okay? 00:06:34.240 |
So chapter seven through chapter 12, basically is kind of one theme, 00:06:39.960 |
and that theme is, what happens to a nation that doesn't believe in God, 00:07:10.400 |
Ahaz, which is this king, and then the fourth king? 00:07:13.880 |
Hezekiah, okay, so we're not there with Hezekiah yet, okay? 00:07:18.480 |
So out of the four kings that, the period that Isaiah prophesied, 00:07:23.440 |
and out of the four kings, who was good and who was bad? 00:07:39.200 |
Okay, he didn't remove the high places, basically it was idolatry, right? 00:07:47.160 |
And then Ahaz was bad from the beginning to the end, 00:07:52.760 |
So what's happening here is, Dorian, who's right? 00:07:58.160 |
So it was during a period when Israel was actually just completely under Ahaz's reign, 00:08:07.880 |
Last week, the prophecies are against during a period when Uzziah was reigning, right? 00:08:14.680 |
So judgment is coming upon Uzziah and his kingdom, although Uzziah was a good king for 00:08:19.080 |
the most part, but he didn't get rid of all of the idols. 00:08:22.320 |
So he says, because he didn't completely obey, the judgment of God is coming. 00:08:30.720 |
God talks about judgment, but He also talks about, what else does He talk about? 00:08:37.280 |
There's a lot of talk about redemption, right? 00:08:40.120 |
In fact, at the beginning of it, He's actually pleading with Israel to come and do this, 00:08:48.100 |
So the theme of this passage, or at least I titled it, The Good and Bad of Emmanuel, 00:08:55.720 |
There's a dual nature of Emmanuel that we're going to see. 00:08:59.240 |
The famous passage in Isaiah chapter 7, 14, when the virgin shall have a child through 00:09:05.840 |
And so the theme of this text in chapter 7 and on, but in particular the first two chapters, 00:09:11.840 |
chapter 7 and 8, is about the presence of God. 00:09:14.680 |
Typically, when we think of the presence of God, depending on who you are, if you are 00:09:22.180 |
somebody who's expecting judgment, when God comes, it means judgment, right? 00:09:28.100 |
If you're somebody who's waiting for redemption, if God comes, it means redemption. 00:09:33.820 |
He says that Emmanuel is going to come, but we're going to talk a little bit more about 00:09:39.300 |
But when he says the prophecy that I will give you a sign, and the sign will be of the 00:09:44.220 |
Emmanuel, the virgin birth, is that a promise of hope or is that a promise of devastation? 00:10:01.740 |
Again I apologize if I put the wrong text up. 00:10:06.020 |
So today I'm going to go over it a little bit differently. 00:10:09.460 |
Based on some of the conversations I had, a lot of you guys had questions about the 00:10:12.740 |
questions that I asked you, that you kind of wanted me to answer some of these. 00:10:16.820 |
So today I outlined the study based upon the questions. 00:10:22.060 |
So if you take previous week's questions that you have and just follow along the questions, 00:10:26.620 |
that's how we're going to be covering it today, okay? 00:10:31.060 |
So that's how it's organized if you look at it, if you haven't figured that out already, 00:10:35.980 |
Why is God helping Ahaz considering how wicked he was? 00:10:39.100 |
So if you look at chapter 7, verses 1 through 9, God sends Ahaz to, God sends Isaiah to 00:10:46.500 |
Ahaz and basically he's encouraging him to trust him, right? 00:10:56.940 |
He sends him the Naqtivey of Syria and Ephraim, and Ephraim is just another name for the northern 00:11:01.740 |
kingdom because God will deliver him from their hands. 00:11:06.060 |
These two kingdoms are like two smoldering stumps of firebrands. 00:11:08.700 |
In other words, you don't need to fear these kingdoms, right? 00:11:12.660 |
They may be, you might be afraid of them right now, but in my eyes, all they are is a smoldering 00:11:22.540 |
The final blow just hasn't come yet, it's going to come, so there's nothing to fear, 00:11:27.580 |
So basically God is sending Isaiah to encourage him that don't be afraid of these two things, 00:11:34.660 |
These two kingdoms, they're not going to be able to ultimately harm you. 00:11:41.020 |
God is faithful to his own people and his own promises. 00:11:43.620 |
So even though Ahaz is a wicked king, God's faithfulness to the nation of Israel still 00:11:50.380 |
We talked about that even Sunday, about how God is faithful, because of the wickedness 00:11:55.400 |
of the nation of Israel, has God forsaken the covenant that he made? 00:12:02.060 |
Here's King Ahaz, even though he was a wicked king, he still considered them his nation, 00:12:10.140 |
So God is not pleading with Ahaz because Ahaz was a king who deserved it, he's trying to 00:12:19.180 |
So Isaiah's son's name, there's three children's names that are mentioned, right? 00:12:25.500 |
His first son, Shir Jashu, which means a remnant, shall return. 00:12:30.460 |
So remember we talked about that, how the theme in chapter 7 and 8 is about Emmanuel, 00:12:38.900 |
and it is a promise of redemption, but it's also a promise of judgment, right? 00:12:44.020 |
So that name, like it does in oftentimes, it reflects what God is doing, it reflects 00:12:53.180 |
And so the first name is a remnant shall return. 00:12:56.660 |
But another way to interpret that is only a remnant shall return. 00:13:04.580 |
So in one sense it's a promise of redemption, that despite the destruction, despite the 00:13:09.060 |
fact that war is coming, you're going to lose, right? 00:13:13.940 |
But another way to interpret that is because of your wickedness, because you didn't trust 00:13:18.260 |
in God, only a remnant is going to come, right? 00:13:21.780 |
So in one sense it is an encouragement, in another sense it is a warning of rebuke, right? 00:13:26.420 |
And you'll see that dual nature all throughout these two chapters. 00:13:31.420 |
Remember we talked about that last time, how judgment is coming, and how he says, remember 00:13:37.660 |
the previous text, from before the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of His Majesty, 00:13:44.340 |
When he rises terribly on the earth, so he talks about the splendor and terror in the 00:13:52.340 |
So when God shows up, there's terror for some, and then there's splendor and glory to others. 00:13:59.260 |
And so we see that dual nature all throughout the text. 00:14:01.460 |
Like God's judgment isn't that he comes and all of a sudden he does one to another, but 00:14:05.980 |
just by his presence, some are terrified and some have hope. 00:14:16.380 |
What does it mean to put the Lord to the test? 00:14:21.780 |
When God tells Ahaz, at the end in verse 9 it says, "If you are not firm in faith, you 00:14:31.420 |
And so the next verse it says, "Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, 'Ask a sign of the Lord 00:14:35.700 |
your God, let it be deep at Sheol or high as heaven.'" 00:15:04.220 |
Where in the scripture do you find where it says about testing God? 00:15:14.580 |
So in Jesus' temptation it says, "Do not test the Lord." 00:15:20.580 |
Do you remember another place where it says about testing God? 00:15:34.100 |
"Do not put your Lord to the test at the waters of Nazareth." 00:15:56.300 |
So if you look at the scripture you'll find there are places in I think Numbers, Deuteronomy, 00:16:04.460 |
And then if you go, you see an example of Gideon testing God. 00:16:08.500 |
And then we see an example in Malachi where it says to give tithe. 00:16:13.340 |
And then it says, "Test me to see if I will bless you." 00:16:18.580 |
In one sense it says not to test the Lord, in the other sense it says to test me. 00:16:22.100 |
So when it says not to test the Lord, what is the meaning behind that? 00:16:26.660 |
Basically if you look at the text of Deuteronomy and Numbers, it's prohibition against unbelief. 00:16:36.540 |
Testing basically means not to believe in Him. 00:16:39.200 |
So what we see in Gideon and Malachi when it says test me, what is he saying? 00:16:47.860 |
Put your trust in me and you will see that my promises will be true. 00:16:58.780 |
You know how even when we ask questions there's a difference, at least I've noticed, between 00:17:07.260 |
Asking questions is a genuine desire to seek an answer. 00:17:10.420 |
Questioning is you've already made up your mind and I'm putting you to the test. 00:17:16.500 |
So the testing that is prohibited is coming to God and saying, "Hey, you're not good. 00:17:24.500 |
Where you're coming to God and saying, "Well, can I put my trust in Him? 00:17:29.700 |
Is this a being that I can put my full confidence? 00:17:33.900 |
So in Ahaz's situation when he says, "God says to test me, what is God doing?" 00:17:40.580 |
Just like what he was doing in the first nine verses. 00:17:43.260 |
He's basically telling Ahaz, "Don't put your confidence in Assyria. 00:17:47.540 |
Don't be fearful of these two stumps that are coming." 00:17:54.220 |
And so he says, so he's basically pleading with Ahaz and the nation of Israel, "Test 00:17:59.900 |
Ask me and I'll show you that what I'm saying is true." 00:18:09.220 |
Here's the passages if you're writing it down or it's already there. 00:18:14.700 |
God's giving every opportunity for him to repent but he comes and he says, "No, I don't 00:18:21.460 |
And so if you read it superficially, it almost sounds like Ahaz is like, "Oh, I can't do 00:18:30.700 |
It sounds like a man of faith but we know that that's not who he is. 00:18:36.500 |
The fact that he already made an alliance with Assyria against the will of God already 00:18:46.380 |
So if you look at the response of verse 13, if there was any doubt that his response was 00:19:01.180 |
not in a response of honoring God but of unbelief, Isaiah responded and he said, "Hear then, 00:19:08.620 |
O house of David, isn't too little for you to weary men that you weary my God?" 00:19:13.380 |
In other words, his response to God was a statement of unbelief. 00:19:19.540 |
It wasn't just, "Oh, how can I test my Lord?" 00:19:32.460 |
I'm usually short enough where everybody can see me. 00:19:52.660 |
So clearly his response was a statement of unbelief even though God is pleading with 00:19:58.860 |
Again, it's not because Ahaz deserves it, it's because God loves his people. 00:20:09.460 |
He says, "Well, you're not going to ask for a sign, but I'm going to give you a sign." 00:20:13.300 |
And this is where that promise of Emmanuel comes. 00:20:17.340 |
I don't know if you've ever had a conversation with somebody who challenged you about the 00:20:22.900 |
I mean, it's not a conversation that comes up casually. 00:20:29.060 |
I actually was out witnessing and one of the professors at UC Irvine actually brought that 00:20:37.700 |
And so I actually had to go back and study it while I was in the seminary. 00:20:44.900 |
Despite Ahaz's unbelief, God is going to give him a sign. 00:20:48.340 |
And that sign in verse 14 is the, again, prophecy about the virgin birth. 00:20:53.260 |
But what's really interesting about this here is that the word used for virgin in this text 00:20:58.180 |
is very significant because it has very specific prophecies that's going to be fulfilled immediately 00:21:07.260 |
Obviously, we know that this is a prophecy that was fulfilled in Christ. 00:21:11.660 |
But this prophecy is also about what's going to happen immediately. 00:21:17.420 |
So the word that is used for virgin here is a very ambiguous word. 00:21:21.060 |
The Hebrew word is "ama," which can either be translated virgin or young woman. 00:21:28.500 |
I was out on campus witnessing and a professor came in and said, "You know the word ama doesn't 00:21:36.060 |
You know, I didn't take Hebrew yet, so I was just like, "No, you're wrong." 00:21:49.380 |
So there was this whole premise and I went back to school and I asked my professor and 00:21:54.860 |
So basically what's going on here is Isaiah, or God, uses the word deliberately, the word 00:22:07.820 |
But clearly the prophecy that goes to Jesus is translated as virgin, right? 00:22:13.620 |
Because Matthew uses it that way and it is not wrong to use it that way because it could 00:22:18.620 |
The plain word for the word virgin is dula, butula, in Hebrew. 00:22:35.620 |
There's a vowel there and I don't know how that sounds. 00:22:43.620 |
If the prophecy was specifically just to talk about virgin birth, the supernatural birth, 00:22:52.620 |
The typical word that's used for a girl or a woman is isha. 00:22:58.620 |
But the word that is used in the text is ama, that's kind of an ambiguous word that could 00:23:05.620 |
The reason why this is significant is the sign that he's talking about is an immediate 00:23:11.620 |
sign with an ultimate fulfillment that's going to come in Christ. 00:23:15.620 |
And so the immediate context obviously is not talking about a supernatural virgin birth. 00:23:20.620 |
The immediate context is talking about, remember we talked about three children, right? 00:23:24.620 |
The first one is the remnants will return or only the remnant will return. 00:23:31.620 |
And then the second meaning is God with us and so the future application of that is the 00:23:39.620 |
coming of Christ, that Christ is going to come and he's going to fulfill all the promises. 00:23:43.620 |
But immediately God with us and what does God with us mean to them? 00:23:51.620 |
He goes back and forth from judgment to restoration, judgment to restoration, right? 00:24:02.620 |
Or God is going to be among us because God still loves his people. 00:24:11.620 |
So it's clear the significance is that the immediate historical application of the birth 00:24:19.620 |
This could be Isaiah's second son and we have third son mentioned in the next chapter. 00:24:25.620 |
Some people think that maybe this was Hezekiah, right? 00:24:31.620 |
But the prophecy basically is he's telling Ahaz, a nation of Israel, that before this 00:24:36.620 |
child comes and before he turns 13, that these two nations that you're afraid of, so somewhere 00:24:43.620 |
between 13 to 15 years from now, that these two nations that you're afraid of aren't even 00:24:50.620 |
And so you're going to Assyria asking for Assyria to help you but the real fear that 00:25:01.620 |
What you're relying on to save you isn't really going to save you. 00:25:05.620 |
They're going to actually come and destroy you, right? 00:25:11.620 |
And then he basically he's saying, one, you have the fear in the wrong place, right? 00:25:17.620 |
And then your confidence is also in the wrong place in Assyria, right? 00:25:22.620 |
And then he says, I'm going to show you a sign. 00:25:24.620 |
The sign is going to come when Jesus is going to come and all of these things are going 00:25:27.620 |
to be nothing but then immediately his presence is going to stay with you. 00:25:30.620 |
So in other words, that your confidence should really rely on the presence of God, right? 00:25:36.620 |
Anything else, any other confidence that you have is going to be misplaced and eventually 00:25:46.620 |
I mean, think about the modern application of that, right? 00:25:50.620 |
If you have confidence in your government, confidence in money, confidence in your ability, 00:25:55.620 |
confidence in friendship, you know, one thing that I've learned, you know, and I, you know, 00:26:03.620 |
just in the 40 some years that I've lived is that anything that you think is a good 00:26:08.620 |
foundation for you, right, eventually God will test all of that. 00:26:16.620 |
And that's why, I mean, you see old people who aren't walking with the Lord and why they're 00:26:20.620 |
so, I'm not saying they're all like that, but there's so many bitter and angry people. 00:26:26.620 |
Because at the end of their life, everything that they've had confidence in has been yanked 00:26:32.620 |
So if everything that you had confidence in is yanked out and you can't trust it anymore 00:26:36.620 |
and you don't believe in God, what are you left with? 00:26:39.620 |
You just become bitter, you don't trust anybody and you become isolated, right? 00:26:45.620 |
And so basically what God is saying is that the only place and only being that you can 00:26:49.620 |
have confidence in that won't let you down is God, right? 00:26:53.620 |
So again, this prophecy of the Emmanuel is very significant because he's not simply talking 00:26:58.620 |
about Christ coming, but his presence is with us at all times, right? 00:27:07.620 |
So the question is what will happen within the time frame? 00:27:10.620 |
He said before this child turns 13 or the age of accountability that they understood 00:27:17.620 |
So in the prophecy in chapter, we're in chapter 8, right? 00:27:32.620 |
Oh, we're not in chapter, chapter 7, 18 through 25, right? 00:27:41.620 |
What is the reference of the fly and the bees? 00:27:43.620 |
The fly streams and the bees may be in reference to their number and their pesky nature. 00:27:54.620 |
They're going to come in and they're going to come in huge number, right? 00:27:59.620 |
In large numbers and torment them like flies and bees. 00:28:11.620 |
If you look at verse 18, 20, 21 and 23, it gives you, it says, "In that day the Lord 00:28:20.620 |
Because you didn't trust in God and you put your trust in man, here comes a judgment. 00:28:25.620 |
He said, "They will come and occupy the land in large numbers." 00:28:34.620 |
"They will come and disgrace men by shaving off all of the hair on their bodies." 00:28:39.620 |
So you may have read verse 20, kind of like, "Hmm, what does that mean?" 00:28:43.620 |
They put razor, the higher, beyond the head, beyond the river with the king of Assyria, 00:28:49.620 |
the head and the hair of the feet and it will sweep away the beard. 00:28:52.620 |
The reason why they use that is because at that time shaving your head was a sign of disgrace. 00:28:58.620 |
So if you got into a battle and you lost, one of the things that they may do is to shave 00:29:02.620 |
your head and you'll come home disgraced, right? 00:29:05.620 |
So that's what it means, that these guys are going to come and they're going to disgrace you. 00:29:09.620 |
And the funny thing is, and I don't know if this is connected, years ago I shaved my head 00:29:19.620 |
when I was a youth pastor at a Korean church. 00:29:23.620 |
And I shaved my head thinking like, "Oh, I'm going to take a vow and I'm going to pray 00:29:29.620 |
And then one of the Korean elders came up to me and he said, "Did you cheat on your wife?" 00:29:35.620 |
I was like, "What? Where did that come from?" 00:29:38.620 |
And so I asked him, "Why do you even ask that? I'm a youth pastor." 00:29:43.620 |
And he said, "That's what Koreans do when they do something disgraceful. 00:29:49.620 |
So I was reading that and I said, "Oh, that's interesting. 00:29:54.620 |
But that's basically what this means, is that the enemies are going to come 00:30:03.620 |
Verse 21 and 22, "In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep 00:30:09.620 |
and because of the abundance of the milk that they give, he will eat curds. 00:30:13.620 |
For everyone who is left in the land will eat curds and honey." 00:30:17.620 |
So at first it looks like, "Oh, why would that be a curse? 00:30:24.620 |
Basically what it means is that the land is going to become so desolate 00:30:28.620 |
that you have these animals who are producing milk, 00:30:31.620 |
and there's not enough people to even eat it. 00:30:33.620 |
Typically, honey and curd was food of royalty. 00:30:37.620 |
A common person would not be able to touch that. 00:30:39.620 |
But what it's saying is that the land is so desolate, 00:30:42.620 |
there's not going to be enough people to eat it. 00:30:47.620 |
So this wasn't God saying that, "Oh, here's a blessing for you." 00:30:50.620 |
It's a sign that the judgment is going to be complete. 00:30:56.620 |
The land that you are now is filled with vines worth thousands of dollars, 00:31:02.620 |
and it will be filled with people coming with bow and arrows 00:31:07.620 |
Because it's desolate, you're going to have all these people 00:31:12.620 |
As a result of that, you can't even go there. 00:31:23.620 |
"They're going to come and they're going to occupy your land, 00:31:29.620 |
They're going to come and conquer your nation. 00:31:35.620 |
And once they carry you off, the land is going to be desolate, 00:31:37.620 |
and they've got all this food that you're going to be able to eat, 00:31:43.620 |
because all these people are coming to take it by force." 00:31:46.620 |
And this is exactly what happens in Israel's history. 00:32:01.620 |
In other words, it's kind of at the end part of his prophecy 00:32:31.620 |
is that God's going to just kind of withdraw himself. 00:32:38.620 |
The kingdoms are already there about to pounce on them. 00:32:41.620 |
The only reason why they're surviving is because God was protecting them. 00:32:44.620 |
And so God basically is saying he's going to withdraw. 00:32:47.620 |
And if he withdraws, then whatever happens to them 00:32:50.620 |
is everything that happened to all the other nations 00:32:58.620 |
So what does it mean to reject the waters of Shiloh 00:33:09.620 |
How do you say that in--how do you pronounce that? 00:33:35.620 |
is because the Korean sounds much more like the Greek 00:33:43.620 |
I know, but I sing about this word in the New Testament. 00:33:54.620 |
That probably sounds--it's probably closer to the real word. 00:34:00.620 |
In other words, you have this calm river where you can drink from, 00:34:10.620 |
And it may sound like it's going to--at that moment, 00:34:15.620 |
but that you're basically playing with danger. 00:34:17.620 |
And eventually, that thing's going to swell up, 00:34:23.620 |
When you go after--so put your trust in things that are dangerous, 00:34:34.620 |
So he says, "Instead, Israel has chosen the wild waters of Assyria 00:35:01.620 |
and you will find destruction and domination from them. 00:35:04.620 |
Fear God, and you will find Him to be your sanctuary. 00:35:19.620 |
and it is a source of danger for those who deny Him. 00:35:27.620 |
So obviously, for Christians, when we think about the Second Coming of Christ, 00:35:31.620 |
we're thinking of salvation, glorification, right? 00:35:35.620 |
But to the rest of the world, what does Second Coming mean? 00:35:44.620 |
It says in Peter's writings, and it says, "Why isn't He coming?" 00:35:49.620 |
"How come He's not coming? How come He's not coming?" 00:35:51.620 |
Remember what Jesus says? Remember what Peter says? 00:36:13.620 |
So if He came when people were begging Him to come, 00:36:20.620 |
So we're part of the reason why He didn't come in 2,000 years. 00:36:23.620 |
Maybe there's more people that God has in store for them to come, 00:36:30.620 |
The only reason why He has not come yet is because He's giving opportunity 00:36:33.620 |
for all the elect that He has appointed to come into His kingdom, right? 00:36:38.620 |
But once that time is done and He comes, it means time's up, right? 00:36:44.620 |
It means salvation for us, but it means judgment for everybody else. 00:36:47.620 |
And there's more who will fall on the other side than those who are elect. 00:36:51.620 |
So again, the dual nature of this whole thing where God is pleading with the nation of Israel to come, right? 00:36:57.620 |
And so come because that's where salvation is. 00:36:59.620 |
And if you put confidence in anything else, right? 00:37:03.620 |
And that--remember the imagery that we see with Assyria? 00:37:08.620 |
At that moment, what Isaiah was saying didn't make any sense 00:37:19.620 |
It was because of Assyria that those two kingdoms--at least from his standpoint-- 00:37:31.620 |
If it wasn't for them, we would have been wiped out a long time ago. 00:37:33.620 |
You're asking us to put our confidence in God that we don't see, 00:37:37.620 |
and here's a superpower that's willing to protect us and befriend us, 00:37:41.620 |
and you're saying that they're going to hurt us?" 00:37:45.620 |
So what God is saying here is going against what He sees and what He's experiencing. 00:37:53.620 |
He says that in about 65 years, you're going to see all of this. 00:37:57.620 |
Everything that I'm prophesying is going to happen, and it's exactly what happens. 00:38:03.620 |
Everything that we see is like, "Well, trust in God. 00:38:09.620 |
So we seek for things that are tangible, but faith--faith, just like here, 00:38:20.620 |
"If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all." 00:38:24.620 |
And that's the theme of what He's been trying to teach the nation of Israel. 00:38:28.620 |
So if you walk by sight, who wouldn't choose this here? 00:38:37.620 |
If you had money problems and Mark Zuckerberg wants to be your friend, 00:38:43.620 |
And then you have some weird prophet saying, "Don't befriend Mark." 00:38:48.620 |
Facebook is going to destroy your privacy, and it's going to ruin your friends. 00:38:55.620 |
He said, "Instead of choosing the security and having faith in God, 00:39:04.620 |
It may seem like there's more water in the raging water than a calm stream, right? 00:39:09.620 |
But that raging water is going to come and consume you. 00:39:12.620 |
And it's the same thing, the same thing that God says to the nation of Israel, 00:39:18.620 |
If you choose to walk by faith, in time you will see the fruit of that. 00:39:23.620 |
If you choose to walk by sight and you go after whatever at that moment is going to answer your questions 00:39:28.620 |
and pay your bills or whatever that may be, eventually the water is going to rise and it's going to consume you. 00:39:40.620 |
Isaiah tells the people in 8, 16, 19 not to turn to mediums or necromancers because God has hidden His face. 00:39:52.620 |
Don't test God and say, "Well, God's not answering my prayers, so I'm not going to go somewhere else." 00:40:03.620 |
Though Israel may be facing judgment, Isaiah vows to continue to teach the faithful and continue to hope in Him. 00:40:11.620 |
So not only is He encouraging the nation of Israel and warning them, remember, 00:40:16.620 |
He calls Isaiah, "Who will go for me?" and then He says, "Go to these people. 00:40:21.620 |
They're going to hear, but they're not going to repent. 00:40:26.620 |
How long, Lord, until all of this takes place?" 00:40:30.620 |
So God turns to Isaiah and says, verse 16, 8, 16, 00:40:35.620 |
"Bind up the testimony seal of teaching among My disciples. 00:40:39.620 |
I will wait for the Lord who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in Him." 00:40:45.620 |
That even in the midst of all of this and all He sees is judgment and destruction and people are not turning to God, 00:40:50.620 |
He says to focus your teaching on the faithful, on the disciples. 00:40:56.620 |
And so that's a vow that Isaiah takes, that even though God has chosen to hide His face from the nations, 00:41:04.620 |
So Isaiah becomes an example of what He's telling the nation of Israel. 00:41:08.620 |
Judgment's coming because of your poor choices. 00:41:11.620 |
Because of your idolatry, judgment is coming. 00:41:16.620 |
But He's saying the faithful, the remnant, who chooses to stick with God, is going to see better days. 00:41:22.620 |
And so that's the warning and that's the encouragement. 00:41:25.620 |
So if you look at God's challenge to the nation of Israel, His presence, it's not, "Here's point one, two, three, four, five. 00:41:34.620 |
Here are things that God's going to do, here are things that God's not going to do." 00:41:36.620 |
But in the end, when He shows up, it happens. 00:41:40.620 |
Revival isn't when God comes and He orchestrates certain things. 00:41:48.620 |
Just like Joe, when God shows up at the end of his life, God doesn't fix everything. 00:41:54.620 |
He doesn't say, "Oh, He went through all this." 00:41:58.620 |
He doesn't say, "God did this because you did this and this is going to happen. 00:42:02.620 |
And the reason why this happened is because I wanted you to show that." 00:42:07.620 |
And then once Joe gets a glimpse of His glory, he says, "Now I can die." 00:42:18.620 |
And so the judgment is, if God's showing up as the answer, the opposite of that is judgment is when God withdraws. 00:42:27.620 |
Because our life, God created us for the purpose of declaring and to shine His glory. 00:42:33.620 |
So when God's presence is there, His glory is shining off of us. 00:42:37.620 |
So we automatically live because that's why God created us, to glorify God. 00:42:41.620 |
So if God withdraws His presence, what happens to us? 00:42:58.620 |
His presence comes and His presence is the answer. 00:43:09.620 |
All right, so I tried a little bit different so that I can kind of help you along with your questions. 00:43:14.620 |
And hopefully that helps you answer some of the questions that you had. 00:43:17.620 |
And again, I want to encourage you, as you guys spend some time with your small group, if you have any questions, raise your hand and I'll come and try to answer some. 00:43:25.620 |
And then remember the sign-up thing up over here, because it's due on the 4th. 00:43:31.620 |
Last week I was supposed to do it and I completely forgot. 00:43:36.620 |
So please, if you're intending to sign up, do it today.