JOY "The Son of David" October 20

October 20, 2010
“The Son of David”
Isaiah 9:1-10:34
    •    The Coming Messiah: 9:1-7
    •    The Judgment of Israel: 9:8-10:4
    •    The Destruction of Assyria: 10:5-34
Hal Haralson, Texas author, speaker and master storyteller has written about an episode in his own life, where God revealed just a little glimpse, of the lengths that He had to go to, in order to show us His love. He tells the story this way, “After military police school, in Ft. Gordon, Georgia, Judy and I went through Abilene, Texas, on my way to my permanent duty station in New Mexico. En route, we stopped in Abilene and visited my friend and mentor, Dr. George Graham, vice-president of Hardin-Simmons University.
When we told him that we were headed for White Sands Proving Grounds, (One of the largest military installations in the US), he said, “look up Ray and Laura, my son and daughter-in-law, they are the kind of folks that you will enjoy knowing.” Dr. Graham was obviously proud of them and his two grandsons.
After we found a place to live—not much on a private’s pay-----I gave Ray a call. He and Laura invited us over for dinner. They had a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house with a fireplace! We thought they were rich. They shared generously with us and a close friendship began.
Ray was a scientist at White Sands, where most, of the armed forces’ missile testing, used to be done. He was also a fun-loving practical joker. Their 2 sons, Kelly and Kyle, loved our baby daughter, Jill, who was born during that year that we were there.
Eventually Ray and Laura left New Mexico and moved back to Abilene, where Ray taught math at Hardin-Simmons. After my discharge in June of 1959, we moved to Abilene, too, where I was on the public-relations staff at the university. Our friendship grew.  Laura gave birth to a baby girl that was the center of that family’s attention. Her big brothers adored her.
Then Ray was offered a job, teaching math, at Appalachian State University, in Boone, NC. Our friends moved, to a forested site, on a mountainside, in the Smokey Mts., with a trout stream flowing by their house, into the pond, in front of the property. The pictures we saw, made us West Texas flatlanders envious.
About 6 months after their move, a call came to my office from Judy. Dr. Graham had called and said that Ray and Laura’s little daughter had drowned in the pond, in front of their house.
I was stunned. I started a letter, but the words couldn’t express my feelings. I picked up the phone and made reservations, on the first plane to Atlanta. After spending all night in the airport, I caught a Piedmont- Airlines puddle-jumper to Waynesborough, NC. I finally found a cab and paid $50, for the 40 mile ride to Boone. We found the cabin and I knocked on the door.
The door opened and Ray stood there, with a shocked look on his face. He said nothing, at first, and then tears began to roll down his cheeks. ‘No one could care that much’, he said.
Hal goes on to say, ‘that 2000 years ago, God must have realized that all of His attempts to get through to His people had fallen short. So God decided, ‘that the only way that we could ever really know His love, would be, for Him to come and be with us, and show it to us Himself------so He sent Jesus.’”
    •    “The Coming of the Messiah”: 9:1-7
What a blessing it is to read about this prophecy of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, who would come to earth to be the “Great Light”,  after reading about the dismal darkness of occultist paganism and the practice of empty religious tradition, that was in last week’s lesson.
In Isaiah’s day, most of his prophecies were still in the future, especially this one about Jesus. But,God knew that His people wouldn’t stop rebelling against Him, and that there was still going to have to be a time of suffering for them, (that Warren Wiersbe says, has lasted for over 2000 years), so that’s why, God, in His infinite mercy, tried to make it clear to them, that there would come a day, when the gloom, for those who were in heartache and distress, would come to an end.  Some of it would begin to come true in their lifetimes; and when the special child was born, there would be some of His children who would see a greater revelation of it; and the total fulfillment of the prophecy will be seen by the whole world, on some great day, in the future, when Jesus’ 2nd Coming to this earth, becomes a reality.
More and more in this study of Isaiah, I have begun to understand, just what a blessing it is, that we live on this side of the cross.  We should be so grateful that we have the Bible in its entirety, for us to study and live by, and that we have the Holy Spirit to direct and guide us—because those 2 things give us all the proof that we need, that God’s word, spoken by the prophet Isaiah, is truer than anything that we can see with our eyes or anything that we can touch with our hands. (When I was young bride----I burned the macula of my eyes----it apparently was very severe, so I couldn’t see the center of anything, for several months, until the swelling went down-------being a nurse, I needed to be able to see the center of things-----especially sticking a needle into a patient’s vein to draw their blood----we were a small office, I was the only nurse, I had to be able to draw blood----so I had to learn how to do everything by feel. I got so good at it, that when I could see again, I didn’t trust what I saw---- I still had to close my eyes and feel for the veins, before I could draw the patient’s blood, and I rarely missed-----what I could feel, became more real to me, than what I could see.)
In this passage, once again, Isaiah intertwined the two Comings of Jesus Christ, in the same prophecy. Isaiah didn’t get to see it, but He believed, with all of his heart, that it would come true. He believed that God’s promise of salvation, would be fulfilled first in the birth of a child, and then it would be fulfilled in the reign of a king. The scripture, “for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given…” reveals the two natures of Jesus; His humanity and His deity. He came into the world, totally human----spirit, soul and body, a son, born to His virgin mother, Mary, in the normal way, that all babies are born and He grew up, to be a man, in the same way, that all little boys ,grow to manhood. He was 100% humanity. But, He was without a human father—He is the son of Almighty God; He was present with God, when the world and everything in it was spoken into existence; He was given by God the Father, in His grace, for our redemption-----He was 100% divine. Jesus joined His humanity and His deity together, without any sin-------He was 100% perfect. He is fully God and fully man. He came as a child so that He could show us the way to the Father----and when He comes again, it will be as a man, ready to reign on the throne of David, as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, for all eternity. Praise God! 
The geographical areas that Isaiah names in this passage of scripture were going to be especially devastated when the Assyrian army moved in-----but these same areas were the ones that were especially honored by Jesus’ ministry on this earth and they will be especially honored again, when He comes back to earth to dwell and establish His millennial kingdom in Jerusalem. God sent Jesus to Galilee, the place where His people had suffered the most----- the Galileans, Jew and Gentile, have always known slavery and despair—---so how precious is it, that it was from that place, that He launched salvation, to the whole world? 
This area has always been and still is, the 1st one to be attacked by invading armies. We know that after Israel was destroyed and Judah had been taken into captivity---------a large part of the area, logically, became inhabited by Gentiles, which is an eternal blessing for us, because God’s great love and mercy and His absolute provision and inclusion of us, as His children, from the very beginning, is clearly evident in the fact, that He allowed Gentiles to be the first people to see and understand who He was. The people in Isaiah’s day had no idea or comprehension of the church, but since Jesus came---the church has been revealed and we can walk out of the darkness and into His great light. That is God’s wonderful mercy!
Isaiah used the metaphors of darkness and light to symbolize oppression and liberation. The people were walking in the darkness of sin and God sent “the Light of the World” to rescue them. That is how God ushered in the new era of His triumphant grace and His presence with us. The ones stumbling in the darkness suddenly found themselves blinking in the brightness of a light that they had never seen before. Because of their disobedience, those people deserved the judgment, that Isaiah said was going to happen to them and so do we-----but thank goodness, God doesn’t desire to leave people in their punishment, it doesn’t make Him happy; He isn’t out to get us-------He loves us; He wants us to be unified with Him, so in His great compassion, He sent the Savior. When was the last time, that somebody didn’t deserve mercy from us, and we gave it to them anyway? And When was the last time that someone did deserve mercy, and we didn’t give it to them?
Isaiah prophesied that God would spread the light of Jesus to more and more people, and He has------ in the last days and at His 2nd Coming, the Lord will enlarge His nation beyond human comprehension. It says in Rev. 7:9-10,  “He multiplied the remnant “into a great multitude” that no one could number from every nation; from all tribes and peoples and languages…crying out with a loud voice ,’salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” And the joy of the people will be immeasurable--------Isaiah compared it to the joy of workers at the end of a great harvest; soldiers after a great victory; prisoners of war, after being released from their bondage-----and in our modern world----- it would be the joy we feel after a huge unexpected bonus on payday or the excitement in the delivery room of the birth of a baby after long and arduous labor or the relief that is in the heart of a parent when they find out that their child doesn’t have cancer. The triumph of God’s grace over our depressing failures should fill our hearts with unspeakable joy-------not just in the future, but in the life that we’ve been given to live, right now.
Our great God is our liberator and He is fighting for us. He is a freedom fighter, fighting for us like Gideon was for the ancient Israelites. True liberation from satan and sin, and the oppression that we find in this world, comes from beyond ourselves. God has and can and will break the power that sin has over us. Gideon is the example that Isaiah used, to get the people’s attention, because he was a much-loved, but unlikely hero.  The story is, that God deliberately reduced the size of Gideon’s army from 32,000 to 300 men and then God had him use a strategy that was an audacious bluff------Gideon’s men blew trumpets and broke jars and held up torches in the night; which threw the combined forces of Midian and Amalek into a panic, and they wound up slaughtering their own men. It was an incredible victory! God wanted Isaiah to help the people understand that one day, a liberator, even greater than Gideon, would provide a way, not only to defeat the forces of evil, but He would put a final end to all conflict and God’s people would live in eternal security and complete and perfect peace, forever.
Isaiah was, to his people, what we would call, a “home missionary”---he ministered to the people that were right in his own neighborhood; right in his own backyard; in his own country------they were his people and he loved them; they were his friends and his neighbors and his family----he was burdened for their souls----he didn’t want anyone to perish. It is important for us to go around the world and tell people about Jesus, as short term or long term foreign missionaries-------- but it is equally important, for the people that we come in contact with on a daily basis, right where we live, to hear the truth about Jesus from us, first!
The most incredible truth about all of this, is that the power of God is far more superior, than the power of any nation that has ever been, or is, or will ever be; and its more powerful than any discouragement or heartache or worry that we can ever face.  His answer to the bullies, who savage their way across the pages of history, is not to become an even bigger bully. God’s answer, is Jesus. ( I want to say, “Take that Osama bin Laden; take that Afghanistan and the Taliban, take that Ahmadinejad and Iran------but that is the wrong attitude-----the right thing for us to do is to pray that these cruel leaders will find Jesus and accept Him as their Savior.)
In the days of His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus didn’t preside over any government and He didn’t sit on the throne of David. Even though He is the Mighty God and the everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace, He didn’t reveal Himself publically, with those titles. The first time that He came, it was to carry out the Father’s will, by atoning for sin and opening the door to salvation. This didn’t require a king; it required an humble servant who was willing to lay down His life for mankind. When He comes again at the end of the Great Tribulation and sets up the Millennial Kingdom------then------He will reveal Himself in all His power and glory. The names that Isaiah gave Jesus reveal His unique character, completely human and completely divine, in the same way that each facet of a diamond reflects its beauty.
He is:
Wonderful-----this isn’t an adjective-this is His name. When He comes to earth to reign, He will end all rebellion. Even as believers, who have been blessed with His presence in our hearts and our salvation; we can’t even begin to understand how wonderful He is.
Counselor-----He has a divine plan that defies human imagination. He has all wisdom to be able to rule fairly. He is omniscient, so He knows everything that ever was and everything that ever will be. He is the only person that we can go to, who will always have the right answer.
Mighty God------He is omnipotent. How mind-boggling is it, that a tiny baby cradled in His mother’s arms, had the power to create and then hold the universe together, just with His words-------He can defeat any enemy. He will defeat all enemies in that last day. In Matt. 28:18, Jesus said, “All authority (power) in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
Everlasting Father----This doesn’t suggest that the son is also the Father, because each person in the Godhead is a distinct and separate person. “Father of eternity” is a better translation. To the Jews, the word, father, means originator or source.  He is the source of all things created. All things were created by Him and for Him. Anything that has an eternal value comes from Him. 
Prince of Peace----Jesus reconciles us to Himself by giving us peace in our hearts right now and when He comes back to reign, He will create everlasting peace in the world. He will occupy the literal throne of David. Justice will be the dominate feature under His rule. God’s love and zeal will accomplish this, not man’s finite abilities.
Jesus is the king to end all kings--------He will save us from our failure; He will lift us up, into His own justice and righteousness. He is Jesus Christ, our Lord----our crucified, risen, reigning and coming Savior. When He comes back, it won’t be to tweak a little problem here and correct a little problem there-------it will be to rid the universe of sin and evil forever. There will never be any more problems. That’s the best part of it all! And, of the increase of His government and of peace, there will be no end. His empire of grace will expand forever. If we will live by faith in Him now and accept His strength and wisdom; then we can trust and rest assured, that the everlasting reign of the Lord Jesus Christ, will certainly take place.
    •    The Judgment of Israel : 9:8-10:4
The rest of this chapter focuses on the local situation of Isaiah’s day and was partially fulfilled at that time.
Even though Isaiah’s prophecies were directed mainly at Judah, God had also sent prophets to Israel, warning them, of what was going to happen, if they didn’t repent. God didn’t want Israel to perish. He wanted them to see their sin and turn back to Him. But He knew that they weren’t going to. He knew that they were a stubborn and stiff-necked people, who were more self-dependent than they were God-dependant. Throughout this whole passage there is a refrain of “yet, for all this, His anger is not turned away, His hand is still upraised.”   God gave them chance after chance after chance, because He loved them, no matter what, but He was only going to bless them with privilege, if they obeyed Him. (we have always told our children-----we love you because you’re ours------and because of that love, we will always provide everything you need----clothing, food, shelter, education, physical, emotional and spiritual nurturing—but the special privileges that you receive from us, we will give you because you are obedient to our instruction, (whether you agree with it or not)-----love deserves necessities; and obedience deserves blessing.)
Raymond Ortland says in his commentary on Isaiah “that this text is about sinners in the hands of an angry God. He says that God is the most loving person in the Bible, but that He is also the angriest one.” The wrath of God doesn’t show us cruelty; it shows us humility. God is willing to get involved with His creation---a creation that has thumbed their noses or shaken their fists at Him, since the very beginning. God’s wrath, more than His love, can bring us closer into His grace, than we could ever get on our own. What actually is the wrath of God? His wrath is His active, resolute opposition to all evil. His wrath is provoked by our defiance. God’s wrath is every bit as perfect as His love but God’s love, will never make peace with our evil, so His wrath has to. His wrath is not moody vindictiveness; it is the solemn determination of a doctor, cutting away the cancer that’s killing his patient. And for God, the anger is personal, not detached and clinical. God, as the doctor, hates the cancer, because He loves the one who is afflicted by the disease and He will do whatever it takes to get rid of every single cell of it. God’s wrath works in 2 ways, with opposite results. On one hand, His anger will condemn anyone who rejects Him---and on the other hand, His anger will purify anyone who turns to Him in repentance. God disciplines us, so that our self-will can be brought into line with His God-will, and then, we can dwell in a sweet relationship of peace with Him.   Just like the ancient Israelites, the people of our generation don’t like to hear about God’s anger----we only want to hear about His love. But you can’t have one without the other. Without God’s wrath, there would have been no need for Jesus to go to the cross----We think of the cross as the ultimate picture of God’s love, but it was also the ultimate outpouring of His anger and with it, He eradicated sin, once and for all.   
Hebrews 10:31 says “that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God…” But the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah could not see beyond themselves, to recognize and heed Isaiah’s warning---- that God would not overlook their sin forever;  and that His longsuffering patience would come to an end.  (The Assyrians were nothing but tools in the hands of a mighty God, who chose to use them so that He could teach His children a vital lesson. God promised that He would use Assyria, to judge the northern kingdom of Israel and we know that He used that destruction, as an object lesson, to warn the Southern kingdom of Judah, that if they didn’t turn from their wicked ways, they would face the same fate.)
God’s hand was outstretched against Israel for their pride in assuming, that the danger they were in, was only temporary, and that when it was over they would just be able to rebuild and be bigger and better than ever. God’s hand was outstretched against them because of the hardness of their hearts in their refusal to repent and turn to Him. God’s hand was outstretched against them, because the judges and the leaders and the ruling class were exploiting the poor and needy and the orphans and the widows.  (James 4:6 says that, “God opposes the proud but He gives grace to the humble.”) Isaiah prophesied that their stubbornness would result in civil war and starvation and exile and death----- and that the awfulness of it, would spread like a wildfire in the forest.
God, through Isaiah, asked 3 questions: “What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? Who will you run to for help? Where will you leave your riches? These questions should speak volumes to all of us. (Chuck Swindoll tells the story about a lesson he learned when he was working at his first job. He had a paper route and one day he was so tired from folding and throwing 200 papers that he decided to take a shortcut across the beautifully manicured yard, of his neighbor, across the street. He says, that he did feel a little twinge of guilt ,as he rode across the plush grass, but he figured that just that once, it wouldn’t hurt anything. When he came home from school, later that afternoon, he took the shortcut again, with less guilt-----he rationalized that he wasn’t really hurting anything or anybody.
It didn’t take even 2 weeks, for his bicycle tires to wear a narrow path across the yard---every time he saw it gave him pause for thought, but he just kept shoving the guilt further and further down. One day, at the end of 3 weeks, of this short-cut taking-----a small but very obvious sign appeared on the sidewalk, blocking the path that he had made, that said, “keep off the grass---no bikes!” Everything but Chuck’s name was on that sign. And what do you think he did?------what would we do? he ignored it---------He went a around it and rode right down that path. He says, that he did look at the sign and it made him feel guilty, because it pointed out his sin, but it didn’t make him stop----he said that in some strange way, it just made him feel more defiant.)  That is what happened with Israel, the northern kingdom-------they saw the warning sign-----but instead of it pulling them up short, and prompting repentance and obedience, it just made them more defiant.
The bottom line is------if God’s word doesn’t bring us to repentance, God will judge and punish us. Yes, God is long-suffering, but to tempt Him with an indifferent, careless attitude or one, that is elitist and holier-than-thou, is playing with fire. When God raises His hand of discipline against us; or when we find ourselves in a place that we got ourselves into and we don’t know how to get out of; or when we feel pressed in on every side, through no fault of our own---the only thing for us to do, is to look up and wait, for God to open a path for us to run to Him, not away from Him. 
    •    The Destruction of Assyria: 10:5-34
God promised Israel and Judah that they would be judged if they continued to disobey Him-----but He never failed to make it clear to His people, that there was always hope for them----- because, He would always preserve a remnant. ( The remnant of God will come from the 12 tribes of Israel----Isaiah 10:20-21 clearly says that the house of Jacob will be included in the remnant—this is referring to the northern kingdom of Israel—and over and over again God has promised Judah, the southern kingdom, that they will be included in the remnant-Jesus will come from Judah ----the 12 tribes had split into 2 nations 200 years before Isaiah’s day----they had constantly warred with each other—the Northern kingdom had to be destroyed and the people scattered, 100 years before the southern one was----all because of their disobedience to the Lord God. They are still scattered----even though over the centuries there have been remnants of Jews who have migrated back to their homeland---it won’t be until after the tribulation and the Millennial kingdom is set up, that the remnant of all 12 tribes will be brought back together again.  (Acts 26:7, “this is the promise that our 12 tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night.”; James 1:1 “James a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes scattered among the nations”; Revelation 21:12 …”on the gates were written the names of the 12 tribes of Israel…”); “the civil war-the north and the south---the confederate states were defeated and destroyed-----the remnant  joined with the northern states and once again became the United States” )
 God also wanted His children to understand, that as bad as it was going to be for them, that would be nothing, like it was going to be for the wicked, wicked Assyria.  God used Assyria as a tool of judgment, but things got out of hand, as they always do, when pride takes over a person’s heart. Assyria’s great war machine would become a rod and a club and an axe and a saw in the hands of God, but its cruelty would be beyond God’s desire----it would treat the Jews like they were mud in the streets and it would plunder the land like they were farmer’s gathering eggs. God’s purpose, was to discipline, but the godless Assyrians were out to destroy. The Assyrians would become boastful and the king would begin to believe that their impressive victories were a result of his wisdom and his skill and He would never acknowledge God in any way----but God wouldn’t permit His tool to exact more punishment than was necessary-----so He would have to cut them down. (God will never allow more to come into our lives than we can bear-----He will always stop it before it can break us in two. Corrie Ten Boom said, “There is no pit so deep, that He is not deeper still”) We just have to trust Him.
The mighty Assyria, which struck such fear into the hearts of both Israel and Judah  and which tried it’s best, to trample them underfoot, was under God’s control, in spite of its military strength and power. Isaiah used the metaphors of sickness and fire to describe just how effectively God would cut the armies of Assyria down to nothing, there would be so few of them left, that a child would be able to count how many there were, on two hands. When we recognize that sickness can suddenly destroy people on the inside and that fire can suddenly destroy people on the outside------we can rest assured, that that is proof- positive, that God is sovereign over everything and that He can do whatever He wants to, to anyone or anything, that opposes His grace.
(From history, we learn that in 1812, Napoleon, the emperor of France, proudly boasted of his military strength as he was confidently planning to invade Russia.  He said, “I have observed that God is usually on the side of the strongest battalions.” He prepared to launch his first battle with 600,000 men. From his past record and from man’s viewpoint, it is easy to imagine that he would have been victorious, winning one battle after another on his way to Moscow. However, before they could even get started, Napoleon and His men were in for a big surprise. God sent a snowstorm, in which 1000s of French soldiers died. Whether they had a strong battalion or not, France lost the battle, Russia was the victor. Alexander, the Tsar of Russia, was well aware, before and after the battle, that he and all of his people, needed to give glory to God, for their amazing victory. It is reported that Alexander had the words of Psalm115:1 inscribed on a commemorative plaque, that was displayed for everyone to see-----it read, “Not to us, Oh Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.”)
Every great nation has eventually fallen because they have forsaken God. The United States is a great nation!----but in how many areas of our nation’s life are we not just forgetting Him but are actually turning our backs on Him. How many things does God have to use to get our attention------Aids, cancer, 9-11, mass shootings and natural disasters-----all these things happen because of sin in the world—but God will use good things and bad things, in our world, to get our attention. Are we listening? Are we paying attention? How can we as individual believers, do our part?
Well, we start right where we are------we stand up and we take hold of the standards that God has outlined in the scripture and we live by them, no matter whom we’re talking to or where we are. And, most importantly, we make sure that everybody that we know has heard the truth of the Gospel. II Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” That was spoken for the Children of Israel all those 100s of years ago but it still applies to us today. America has a chance, just like Israel did, just like Assyria did and just like Judah did-to turn from their wicked ways and turn back to God. They didn’t do it but we need to. We need to learn from their mistakes and we need to do what we can to change the course that our nation is headed down.
In the last part of this passage, Isaiah traced the route that the Assyrian army would take as it invaded Judah and advanced toward Jerusalem. He told the Judeans that they didn’t have anything to fear from the Assyrians, though, because God was going to cut them down to size. God may use unbelievers to accomplish His will in the lives of His children, but we need to never forget that He is always in complete control. As His children, we don’t ever have to fear the disciplining hand of God; we can trust it, because His discipline is always done with love and it is always designed to bring us back into a right relationship with Him.