12-16-15 Wed Bible Study

But if you look at chapter 11, chapter 11 verse 1 through 9 is basically about the Messiah coming. The child's going to be born, what it's going to be like. So the question that I ask is, "Describe the promise of hope given to Israel through the roots of Jesse in verses 1 through 5." So what I would like you to do is, because you have three weeks, you don't need to do Thursday just Thursday.

You can take Thursday and Friday just to meditate this chapter, chapter 11, 1 through 9. And if you look at the second question, it says, "Name specific things that you remember in the life and person of Jesus that fulfills these promises specifically." So if you took time and actually went through this, you could probably find about 10 to 15 things that are actually fulfilled in Christ.

And I'm not talking about like, "Okay, he's going to bring peace." Yes, he was peaceful. You know what I mean? Like Jesus came and he didn't go to war. You can do that off the top of your head. Or what I really encourage you to do is take the opportunity that you have as we are headed toward Christmas and preparing for the Christmas day and to get your heart ready.

I know some of you moms have been copying the Advent texts every day. But what I really want you guys to do is take that opportunity from now until Christmas and really meditate on, in particular, this text, chapter 11, and go through each detail. So give me an example.

"There shall come forth shoot from the stump of Jesse, the branch from his roots shall bear fruit." So, okay, so in what way did he come? Okay, take some time to look through the genealogy of Matthew chapter 1 and what are some highlights. "And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding." So in what part of Jesus' life do you recognize that in the Gospels, right?

Where was it clearly evident of his wisdom? Where was it clearly evident of the Spirit being upon him that he was a great counselor? Knowledge and fear of the Lord was upon him. Where is that fulfilled in Jesus' life? "His light shall be in the fear of the Lord.

He shall not judge by what his eyes sees." So in other words, that he didn't just consider what was right and wrong based upon what everybody else saw, he saw beyond that, right? So where are these examples? So some of you guys, or a lot of you guys may know just off the top of your head and say, you could probably think of an example, and you say, "Oh, he did this, and this is an example." But what I want you guys to do is take time to comb through the Gospels and see how much of this you can find in the New Testament.

Do you get my question? Okay? Now if I ask you to do this on a normal week, obviously that would be way too much for you to do, but because this is really three weeks, right? You can take a whole week just doing this, right? So you don't have to follow Thursday, Friday, Saturday, I just labeled it like that, but I really want you guys to take some time to really wrestle through Chapter 11.

So even if it takes you a week and a half to two weeks just to do Chapter 11. But by the time you get to Chapter 12, Chapter 12, 13, will go by pretty quick. More Chapter 13. So by the time you get to Tuesday, Wednesday, those questions are a lot like the other questions that you have.

It's pretty straightforward. If you read it and you put some thought into it, you can answer it pretty quick. But Chapter 11 and Chapter 12 require some meditation. Okay? You get it? Okay. So, again, I'm going to say it again. The memory verse, please jot it down if you don't have it, the memory verse for the next three weeks is Isaiah Chapter 11, verses 1 through 5.

Okay? So I made it short on purpose. Because it's three weeks worth. It should have been like six verses, but I gave you five. So you're welcome. Okay? Yeah. So just, I think, you know, obviously, it just kind of, I didn't plan that way. It's like, oh, we're going to land on Chapter 11 when we take Christmas break.

But God sovereignly planned it that way, right? We believe in predestination. So it's been predestined. So take some time to do that. Okay? All right. All the papers have been handed out. So if you didn't get one to fill out, just raise your hand and there's plenty left over on the tables.

And then if you ask for an electronic copy and you didn't get one, that means for whatever reason, I didn't, you're not on the list. So you need to ask, you need to tell me. Okay? Did you ask? Okay. Anyway, whoever asked and you didn't get it, let me know.

When I'm done with the teaching, I'll go back and I'll add you and I'll send it to you. Okay. All right. So we're in Chapter 9 and 11. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this evening. We thank you, Lord God, for your graciousness. We thank you, Lord God, for your love that sustains and guides us that despite our shortcomings, we thank you that you motivate us and inspire us by your humility, by your grace.

And we ask Lord God that as we study your word, help us Lord that whatever thoughts that we have of who you are, how you view your people, your righteousness, holiness, your judgment, that all of these things, Lord God, would not be based upon our own prejudice or things that we may have heard or imagined, but that our thoughts may be renewed by your living word, that whether it is your grace or your severity, that all of it would be founded and washed according to your word.

And so for that end, we pray for your blessing. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. So we're looking at Chapter 10, 9 and 10. And not all the chapters break out in this kind of neat order, but Chapter 9 and 10 happens to work out that way.

All right. Can you check in and take that out and put that back in? All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Do you have batteries? That's good. That's good. That's good. That's good. That's good. That's good. That's good. Thank you.

Okay. Hey, you know what? I forgot. Did you guys check up on your memory? All right. You're going to have to do that at the end. All right. When you guys get together in your group, you guys can check up on your memory. All right. So Matthew 10, 28, Jesus says, "And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.

Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell." And this probably summarizes verse Chapter 9 and 10, where Chapter 9 is again, a judgment upon the nation of Israel, even though the beginning of it, we talk about his promise of the coming Messiah. But Chapter 9, after that, it pretty much to Chapter 10, verse 4, is judgment coming upon the nation of Israel.

Right? And basically what does he say? In the end, the judgment that came, the Assyrians came and they conquered you. But who is the ultimate judge? Who is he telling them to fear? God, right? It's not the Assyrians that you should fear. You should fear God. And then Chapter 10 talks about to the Assyrians, how even though they conquered, ultimately judgment is coming upon them because they didn't recognize who the real God was.

Right? So in the end, I think Chapter 10, 28, Matthew 10, 28, pretty much summarizes what the teaching that he's about to teach in Chapter 9 and 10. Okay. So again, just like last week, we're going to go down the questions and some of the questions are going to be obviously pretty easy.

Some of them I'm going to spend a little bit more time. The first one is, "What change from their present condition does Isaiah predict in 9, 1, and 2?" And so again, if you look at it, Chapter 9, "But there will be no gloom for who was in anguish in the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali.

But in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea and land beyond Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land, deep darkness on them has light shine." So if you look at it, the territories that are mentioned Zebulun and Naphtali was the starting point of a serious conquest of Israel.

So in other words, he's saying that these lands that were conquered, right, in former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun, but in latter time he made it glorious. So he's going to turn it around, right? So he's about to introduce the solution to their problem. So "Though Israel has experienced gloom and anguish, God will defeat their enemies and turn gloom into joy, darkness will turn into great light." So he's, again, he's setting it up for the coming of the Messiah.

"So in what ways is the coming of the kingdom of justice and righteousness mentioned in 9.7?" So again, you know, the whole point of all of this is he's bringing relief, right, for the judgment that came upon the nation of Israel. That the poor and the helpless, they were widowed, and again, because it was institutional oppression, when the Messiah comes, he says the government is going to be ruling, God's going to be ruling in fairness and justice and righteousness, right?

So again, you think about the Messiah, the Messiah's going to come and he's going to not only affect individually, but he's going to affect the society, right? So God's solution to a violent nation's conquest is not greater army. So he's saying, is it hard to see? There's nothing I can do about it now.

Can you, are you going to? Huh? If you change the background to like white? No, no, no, then the text will turn, because there's no color in the text, it'll just turn to black, I think. Really, you can't see? No, but you can't see? You can see it? Sang, can you see it?

No. Actually, that's a young, fresh group on this side. Can you guys see it? Oh, you can't see it either? Okay. Just switch the background to white or beige. All right, I'll never use that again. I used black before, you guys had no problem. Black was okay, but blue and red is no good?

Okay. Note to self. Is that better? Did you just turn it black or did you turn it white? Okay. All right. So that's better. Yeah? Okay, very good. So what I want you to notice is, God basically tells the nation of Israel that a superpower has come and they destroyed you, and here are the cities, and at one point they were destroyed, but God's going to turn it into joy, and then all of this is a setup for the Messiah is going to come.

Messiah is going to come and do this, right? He says His name is going to be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Now, what's unique about this is that obviously, you know, oftentimes names in the Bible are used to kind of characterize what God's going to do, or it would say, you know, God will save, God will provide, and so God's name is in a lot of people's names.

But the title that is given to the Messiah that's coming is not just about God is going to come and do this, or God's going to judge, or God's going to deliver. It actually is just a name of God. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. So obviously, you know, us in the covenant on this side, we look at this, and this is not just a title of Jesus.

This is Jesus. This is who He is, right? And part of the reason why we believe that He's the second person of the Trinity. This title cannot be given to just anybody, right? And so the hope that He's going to bring to the Messiah is not freedom. He doesn't simply say that here's the oppressor, He came and He's ruling over you.

He said, but the Messiah is going to come, and He's going to rule over you, right? So the answer to oppression is not another king that's going to conquer, I mean, is going to come and conquer, get rid of them, and so you can be free to do whatever you want, right?

He says the answer to the oppressor is to bring a good king. Not no king, but a good king, right? And that's, again, oftentimes as Christians, what we miss, you know, concerning our sanctification, the second aspect about our salvation is not, we're not just freed from sin. What does the Bible say?

We're freed from sin. We were once slaves of sin, and we've been freed from that, and now we're slaves of what? Slaves of righteousness. So we were once under the dominion of darkness, now we're under the dominion of the light. We were once under Satanic kingdom, but now we're under the kingdom of Jesus, right?

So the answer to the oppression isn't freedom to do whatever you want. It is to be, to have a ruler that is good and just, right? And that's how the Messiah is described for us. Why is the judgment coming upon the nation of Israel? So from this point on, basically God is describing to Israel, here's what has happened.

There's four reasons are given, between chapter 9, 8 to chapter 10, verse 4. How would you describe the first section, verses 8 through 12? Now how do we know there's four separate ones? At the end of each one of these four, how does it end? Okay, so if you've read it through, you should have noticed that that phrase is repeated at the end of every one of these judgments, right?

So the first section is in verse 8 through 12. So what is the sin, first sin that's mentioned? Pride, right? Or arrogance. And how was their pride and arrogance described? How was their pride manifested in verses 8 through 12? Right. So, the first one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world.

So, the first one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the first one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the first one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the second one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world.

So, the second one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the third one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the third one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the fourth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world.

So, the fifth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the sixth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the seventh one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the eighth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world.

So, the ninth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the ninth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the tenth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the eleventh one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world.

So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world.

So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Pride is the wisdom of this world. So, the twelfth one is pride. Well, the first round came, the Assyrians came and they basically come to destroy them. They're not completely destroyed, but Assyria comes and they conquer them in some sense.

Not completely, not Judah, right? But the northern kingdom is gone, and they're coming, and now they're going to turn on the southern kingdom. They're attacking them. So, that's the first round, right? And instead of humbling them, they become proud and say, "No, we're going to do it right this time." Right?

But instead of Assyria, who else is coming? Well, that's later, in the text. Look in the text. Okay? What are the nations that are mentioned? Right? Look at the verses. Philistines, all the other adversaries, the ones who are enemies of Assyria will become your enemies as well. So, not only Assyria, but the other smaller nations, right?

At some point, they were superpowers. They're going to come and get you now. Right? In other words, God is saying, remember how it ends? Right? For this is, for all this, His anger has not turned away, and His hand is stretched out still. In other words, judgment is, the period of judgment is not over.

The Assyrian period is over, but now the Philistines and the other nations are going to come. Right? And then ultimately, when you have a nation that is divided and sinful, they're devouring each other. Right? And that typically is right before any organization, any family, any group, any friendship that ends, it usually starts with something, you know, and it causes turmoil, and then they infight, and then infighting is what unravels.

And that's how God describes the nation of Israel. Right? And in the end, who's doing all of this? What's God's point? Who's doing all of this? God. Right? God is saying, He's using these adversaries to come and do that, but in the end, part of the reason why judgment is coming is because you don't recognize, I'm behind all of this.

Right? Remember how they first responded when judgment started coming, when the other nations started coming? Remember in the very beginning of Isaiah? How did they initially respond? Yes? But think about the text. Think about the text that we're looking at in Chapter 1, the beginning. Remember? Look at Chapter 1.

You only have to flip three pages, and what happens? What was their response to the initial judgment that came? What is he angry about? I hate superficial religion, like activity at the temple. And he said, what is all of that to me? So the initial response was, hey, maybe go to the temple and offer sacrifices and give prayer, and he says, what is all of that to me when your heart is still filthy and dirty?

Right? Your prayers are meaningless, because what he wants is repentance. Right? You don't repent, and you do more religious activity. All it does is anger God even further. Right? So that was their initial response, and so one of the things that they did is, let's be more religious. And that's part of that pride.

We're going to do it right this time. Let's establish the right leaders this time. Let's do it right this time. Right? Instead, God's saying, you don't realize that I'm the one behind this. Right? And part of the reason why he's not done with his judgment is because it didn't lead you to where God wanted you to go, which is to be broken and recognize that God is God.

Right? Again, we talked about that, right? And that's the theme of basically Chapter 10. That's the theme of his judgment. It's not like he's not just poking. Remember we talked about that? Just as his grace and mercy is thorough, so is his judgment. The purpose of judgment wasn't just slap on the hand.

Right? The rebellion of Israel was so deep, and their hearts were so hardened, that God had to come and hit them over and over and over again. Right? So that's how hardened they were. So when the judgment first came, they didn't even see it as judgment. They said, maybe if we strategize.

Maybe if we, you know, connect it with Assyria or Egypt or whatever. And they were trying to strategize, using every resource that they had to think that if they were just smart enough, we can get out of this. And they went to religiousness. They aligned themselves with other people.

They got, you know, they tried to establish the right leaders. And none of that works. Right? Because in the end, the point that God's trying to make is, you don't recognize that I'm the one. Until you come before me, humble yourself, and repent. Right? God's judgment will be, will remain.

Chapter 11, he transitions now, not only is Israel wrong, now the Assyrians are now getting arrogant. Right? Not recognizing that God is allowing them to become a power. And how does God describe the Assyrians? As is what? As a tool. It's just an axe that God is wielding to do his work.

But the tool begins to think, right? That they're sovereign. Say, hey, we conquered Israel, so we're more powerful than your God. So, basically what God is saying to the nation of Israel is, God's going to humble you. And you see that the only reason why you were powerful is because God was using you as an axe.

Right? Now God's going to turn his anger toward you. Right? So again, the wrath of God is now directed to Assyrians, who became proud that they were above God of Israel since they conquered them. Right? Not realizing, right, that God is not done with Israel. God still favors Israel over Assyria.

But even though there's judgment upon them, God uses Assyria to bring judgment. Right? But that's still his child. It's kind of like, you know, if I took my kid to daycare or something and he's acting up and I tell the teacher, I say, "Hey, spank him if he gets out of line." And the teacher starts to spank him.

He's like, "Dude, this is fun." You know what I mean? And he goes out of line and he starts spanking him and spanking him. You know what I mean? He said, "Well, I told you not to do this." And then the dad shows up. He's like, "What are you doing?" Right?

He said, "You told me to spank him." He said, "No, to discipline him. What you're doing is beating him up. Now you're abusing him." Right? And so basically that's the picture here. Assyria comes in, spanking a nation of Israel, not recognizing it's because God is allowing him to do that.

And then these guys start becoming arrogant, thinking like, "Now these guys are all under me." And then he starts abusing them. And the father shows up. He's like, "No." Right? "Now you're going to be judged." And that's chapter 11, or chapter 10. Two conclusions are given through this passage.

The judgment God allowed to the Assyrians was temporary. It wasn't permanent. Right? God wasn't done with the nation of Israel. And that's what he's trying to, he's going to remind Assyria, "Those are still my people." Even though, because of their sin, they're being disciplined. Right? Assyria was not operating independently of God's sovereign plan.

They were serving God's ultimate purpose. Right? So again, if you read 5 and 6, it says, "Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger, the staff in their hands is my fury. Against godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the street." In other words, everything that you were able to do is because I allowed you.

Right? But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think, but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations, not a few. In other words, God allowed you to do this, but now you're getting carried away. You're being abusive with your power.

Right? That's basically what he's saying. So what would God do? What is the judgment that he's going to bring to the nation of Israel, or Assyria? Again, the first four cities, you know how we talked about the beginning of the judgment upon Israel mentions the cities. The beginning of the judgment upon Assyria mentions the cities.

These are the cities, 9 were mentioned in verse 9, were all fortresses, cities in the northwestern Syria, the outpost of Damascus. These cities were trophies of boast for the king of Assyria. Okay, that's why all the cities are mentioned. And God says, "God will humble the arrogance of Syria, Syria's king, and wipe out the pride look in their eyes." Okay, and God's going to humble you now.

In what way was he deluded in his conquest of Judah? So all of these things, verse 13 to 15, let's look at that. He said, "For he says, 'By the strength of my hand I have done it.'" In other words, this is Assyria talking about himself. The nation is saying, or the king, "By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom I have understanding.

I remove the boundaries of peoples and plunder their treasures. Like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones. My hand has found like a nest the wealth of the peoples, and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken. So I have gathered all the earth, and there was none that moved a wing, or opened a mouth, or chirped." Right?

So, again, that's a description of Assyria. Because he experiences all the success, basically he's saying, "I did this. I can move boundaries. I can get these people. I can basically do whatever I want." Right? And so, therefore, God comes and he says he's going to humble them. So, again, we see parallels even in the New Testament.

The temptation is when, you know, the temptation for the nation of Israel was even when they were being judged, not recognizing that God's hand is upon the judgment. Right? And then the way that he tries to get out of the judgment is by working harder, being smarter. Right? And so, in that way, they're being judged even more because God's not done.

So, because my discipline isn't working, you're not submitting, so more judgment is coming. Assyria, judgment is coming for the exact opposite reason. They enjoy all this success, not recognizing your success is because God was behind you. Right? So, you see the opposite? And the same thing with us. Right?

When we don't succeed in something, I mean, we have a tendency to be humble, but a lot of times, what does that happen? You know, what happens? We're going to work harder. You know? We're going to make some adjustments. We're going to be wiser. We're going to, you know, seek better counsel.

And we do everything except humble ourselves before God. And as a result of that, more judgment comes. Or, you're very successful at something. Right? And I think that can happen, like, I think it's the arrogance of man, which is every time, and this could be true as a church.

It can be true as an individual. This can be true as a family. If you've succeeded in anything, right, there's always a danger to think that it was you. There's always a danger to think that it was you. God says, all you are is an instrument in His hands.

Think about whatever you've succeeded in, how much of that is based upon you are at the right place at the right time, with the right people. No matter how smart you are, no matter how successful you were as a businessman, if the economy happened to tank, your business is going to tank, too.

Right? Anyway, you know what I'm saying, right? I think sometimes success has more damage, has more damaging effect than even when we fail. Right? Because it makes us proud. And once we're proud, God's out. You can say God, you can pray, you can do all these religious things, but in your heart, you don't need God.

Right? And that's why when you go to poor countries, like, people are so hung up on prayer. And we can just kind of write that off, oh, it's because they're mystical. You know, they're mystical. We're not mystical. We're Western. We're all about logic and study and all of that.

That's not it. It's because they recognize, right, they recognize that they can't without God. Because they don't have other stuff to be proud of. So sometimes they see more clearly. But I think, you know, what makes us proud is, the number one thing that makes us proud is money.

Right? Because money can solve a lot of problems. Money can, you know, get you what you want. Safety, security, friendship, whatever it is. Like, you can get it. So people, that's why Jesus says it's hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom than camel eye of a needle.

Something like that. Right? And again, that's a temptation, is when we're successful. And again, like, when the church is small, you know, we pray to God and say, God, help us. And as soon as it gets big, you're going around telling people, like, this is how you should do church.

You know what I mean? Because isn't that part of, partly, like, what makes a church, how is that any different than a small church? I don't know any small church pastor who says, you know, we should pray. You know, it's because we didn't pray like that big church. You know, it's because we didn't think evangelism was important like that big church.

That big church really thinks evangelism is important. I don't know any small church that didn't know that. Right? So, again, that's a temptation. Church gets big, write a book, what they did, how they preached, how it was organized, and what it is, and say, and you start copying that in Jesus' name.

But in the end, it kind of takes us off of what God, what God really wants, is for us to kind of take a step back and say, I'm just an instrument. Right? And you could be an instrument. I mean, look at our church. We do the exact same thing for 18 years.

First eight years, no fruit. Right? As far as humanly you can speak, right, there was no fruit whatsoever. You do the exact same thing for the next 10 years, and all of a sudden, people are gathering. So what are we doing right? And what did we do wrong the first eight years?

Right? If there's anything, I think what God was doing for the first eight years is to teach one thing. It ain't you. Right? It ain't you. And if God's going to bless anything, He's going to bless something, bless people, bless ministries, and bless families. That's not going to touch His glory.

Right? If there's anything. Because ultimately, the best place for a church and individual to be is to be humbled and recognize that we're just instruments. Right? I'm just a mouthpiece. Right? And so if God gets the glory, that's where God wants to work. That's where the fruit He wants.

You know, it doesn't mean it's going to work that way. He may say, oh, I'm going to bear fruit by humbling Him and making Him a Jeremiah. Right? But if we want God to pay attention, we have to get out of the way. Right? So that's the lesson that we see with Him.

How is He going to bring judgment? Very specific. He's going to bring sickness upon them. Right? That all these stout warriors that they have, that they're relying on. Right? And I like the way ESV translated that stout warriors. Like, in my mind, I picture very stocky people. Right? Stocky warriors that you have, that you're so proud of, that you think they're strong.

God's going to humble all of them. Right? There's actually in chapter 37, 36 to 38, Isaiah actually describes an event, historically took place in 701 BC, where the king of Assyria comes to attack Hezekiah. And overnight, God brings sickness upon them. And over 185,000 of them die. And then they basically, just like Isaiah says here in chapter 10, they have their tail behind their legs.

And here's this gigantic superpower that comes and can't conquer this tiny little nation. And Hezekiah, you know, Hezekiah the king, and God humbles them and they come back. So Assyria never is able to completely conquer Judah. And it's not because of Hezekiah. It's not because of their army, just like God said.

Because God answered their prayers. Right? God was with them. Right? What will be the end result of God's use of Assyria? Right? No matter how strong the enemies of Israel may be, may get, it will never completely overthrow God's covenant people. Then that's the final lesson. Right? Again, the flip side of that, to the nation of Israel, is however, God will not simply overlook the sins of His people.

Even though God is faithful to the nation of Israel, remember we talked about that, that word for, that was translated remnant. Right? One sense it's like God is going to be faithful to the remnant. He's going to return them. But it's also, there's emphasis is only, right? Only a small remnant is going to come.

That's one thing again, as I was studying through this last week and this week, what it really reminded me of was when God chooses to work, He always seems to choose a remnant. Right? He doesn't just, you know, we use that term all the time and I think it's misapplied.

We're saying, "Hey, God can use donkeys." Right? God can use donkeys. Yes, God can use donkeys. God can use walls. God can use rocks. But God's not looking for donkeys. Right? God's not looking for donkeys. God can use it, but God calls us to be faithful. Because when revival comes, look at the book of Judges.

When revival comes, does it come to the nation? No, He raises up a judge, a judge. Right? And He answers his or her prayer. And revival comes. Right? And so, same thing with the nation of Israel. When He chooses to restore them, He said He's going to restore them through the remnant.

A few. Right? And I think again, what that reminds me of is, we're always looking for movements. You know, revival, movements in our generation, movements in our generation. But the way God typically works is remnants. That despite how everybody else responds, that a few who just stubbornly refuse to give in.

That I'm not going to go with the flow. I'm going to remain faithful to the end. He said those are the people that God uses. What does the Lord tell His people who live in Zion or Jerusalem? Right? The judgment at the hands of Assyrians will soon pass, so do not fear.

Remember we talked about that in the very beginning? Right? Do not fear. Where should your fear be? Right? Yes, humanly speaking, it's the Assyrians. Humanly speaking, it's the Babylonians. But never forget that there is a God behind that. Right? That no matter how terrible things get. And again, I think that in our generation, the practical application of that is, you know, my friend who's working in, with the Muslims, he said, "Yeah, the Christians are not coming.

The Muslims are dropping out of their faith left and right because of ISIS. As much as they're scaring Christians and people out, the modern Muslims are tired of it and they're stepping out. But there aren't enough churches out there receiving them." So he was basically saying, "We need Christians to step up." And so even in the midst of that, I think a practical application is that there is a, no matter how fearsome and no matter how much terror they try to put in, that in the end, the same thing God's telling these people.

Right? It's not the Assyrians that you need to fear. It's interesting that it's coming out of the same area. Right? It's not the Assyrians. It's not Syrians. It's not ISIS that you need to fear. It's God behind them. Right? When the king of Assyria made his way near Jerusalem, he said, "They're going to come in arrogance." So all the cities that he mentions, right?

You know how he just kind of lists off one city after city? Basically, that's the path to come to Jerusalem. So in other words, these Assyrians and their arrogance are coming and conquering city after city after city. But what does this say? But when they come, right, God's going to stop them at their tracks in verse 32.

Right? No matter how many cities they conquer, it's in verse 32, this very day he will halt at Nob. Right? When God says stop, they're going to stop. Because you're not going to touch my people. Right? The only way he's going to allow them to be touched is if God says yes.

Right? If God says yes, I have a purpose behind this. But as long as God says these are my people, the Assyrians have no power. So they may have come and marched all their way up to their point, but right before they get to Jerusalem, basically God says you're going to stop right here at Nob.

Right? And that's what he's saying. Verse 32, "This very day he will halt at Nob. He will shake his fist at the Mount of Daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem." In other words, in anger, because he couldn't conquer it. Right? That's exactly what happens later on. They come marching all the way to Jerusalem, and they can't get past the wall.

Right? "Behold, the Lord God hosts will lop the bows with terrifying power. The great in height will be hewn down, and the lofty will be brought low. He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe, and Lebanon will fall by the majestic one." Okay? And so he mentions the majestic ones can come.

So the answer isn't another great nation. Right? He says the answer to all of this is the one. Right? The one is coming. That's interesting that he would say here's the Assyrians. I mean, they're probably just as terrifying or more terrifying than when you see these ISIS people are afraid to go to the Middle East and all that.

So these guys are actually coming to you by army. We have the US Army to kind of like protect. We have our government and all that. But these Assyrians are coming, and that's exactly what they're beheading people. They're putting their enemies that they've conquered on sticks, and they're making their children watch their parents crucified.

That's what the Assyrians did. That's why the people at that time hated the Assyrians, because they were so brutal. Right? And all of that was done to bring terror upon their enemies. So when they come, they would be so frightened they wouldn't even fight. That's what the Assyrians were known for at that time.

Right? So he's saying that, no, if they're going to come right up to there, and when God says no, it's going to stop. And the answer to that, he doesn't say, "These mighty angels are going to come from heaven." He says, "No. The sign that I'm going to give you, that God's going to deliver you from this, is Emmanuel.

A child. A child is going to come, and he's going to conquer them." Right? So it's amazing. Like, you know, obviously when you read that, you wouldn't understand, not knowing that he's referring to a literal child. Right? A literal child is going to come, and then he goes through chapter 11, like when he comes.

When he comes. He's not talking about an army. He's talking about one person. When he comes, all this is going to happen. Chapter 11. Right? So that's Christmas. Right? That leads us right to Christmas. Perfect. Predestined. Alright, so, as I let you guys go to your small group, we can now send it back to our memory verse for those of you who came a little bit late.

Okay. So those of you guys that came late, the memory verse for the next three weeks.

12-16-15 Wed Bible Study

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