This week, we are discovering the promise that God made
to provide an opportunity for all humanity to experience God’s presence. We
discover God’s promise in another section of the letter that we looked at least
week, that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book
of Isaiah. As the Southern Kingdom of the Jewish people faced invasion, the
prophet Isaiah approached King Ahaz in order to deliver a message from the
Lord. And the Lord’s message to king Ahaz was this: “Do not fear this army,
because their plan will not happen. Do not place your trust in the Assyrians,
place your trust in me. But if you do not trust me, if you trust the Assyrians,
understand this; you surely will not last”.
The
prophet Isaiah then put King Ahaz to the test by inviting him to test God. King
Ahaz, responded to Isaiah by proclaiming that he would not test God. However, the
reason King Ahaz refused to test God was not because he feared God; the reason King
Ahaz refused to test God was because King Ahaz had already made up his mind.
The king had already decided that he would place his confident trust in Assyria
instead of the Lord.
King Ahaz responded to the situation that he faced from
the military threat of the northern kingdom of Israel and the nation of Aram by
appealing to and paying the Assyrians a great sum of money to come to his aid.
The Jewish people broke their covenant with the Lord in order to enter into a
covenant with the false gods of the Assyrians.
And it
was this decision by King Ahaz that signaled the beginning of the end for the
Jewish people of the southern kingdom. This decision by King Ahaz proved to be
the turning point that led to God’s presence departing from the Jewish people. And
as a result, the Jewish people
were wandering through life separated from the presence of God. The Jewish
people were left to grope along the wall like blind men without the light of
God’s presence to guide them.
Wherever the Jewish people looked, wherever the
Jewish people searched, they only found the emptiness and the darkness that
comes from the lack of God’s presence. And as the Jewish people began to
experience the consequences that came from their selfishness and rebellion, the
result was the inevitable emptiness that comes from the absence of God’s
presence.
We examined the reality that, while darkness can swallow
up a light that is failing, darkness cannot produce or replace that light on
its own. Darkness cannot fill the very void that it creates. And just like the
setting sun results in darkness on the earth, the Jewish people’s selfishness
and rebellion resulted in moral and spiritual darkness setting over their
lives. A darkness and emptiness that could not be replaced, remedied, or filled
on its own: a darkness that can only overcome by something outside of us.
And it
was at this point that God would have been perfectly justified in walking away
forever from the Jewish people and all of humanity. As we talked about last
week, God is just and God
is right. And God, in His justice, will not allow selfishness, rebellion, wrongdoing,
or injustice to go unpunished. For God to allow selfishness, rebellion, wrongdoing,
or injustice to go unpunished would demonstrate that He is unjust.
All of
humanity rejected and rebelled against God and God had every right to exercise
His right and just response to that selfishness and rebellion and just walk
away. But that is not what God did. Instead of responding by walking away, God
responded with an amazing promise. Instead of promising to walk away from
humanity forever, God made a promise to take a step toward humanity. We see
this amazing promise revealed through the prophet Isaiah is Isaiah 9:1:
But there
will be no more gloom for her
who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the
land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea,
on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walk in
darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will
shine on them. You shall multiply the nation, You shall increase their
gladness; They will be glad in Your presence As with the gladness of harvest,
As men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For You shall break the yoke of
their burden and the staff on their shoulders, The rod of their oppressor, as
at the battle of Midian. For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult, And cloak rolled in
blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.
Here we see the prophet Isaiah proclaim that God has made
a promise to the Jewish people and to all of humanity. A promise of His
presence in the form of a rescuer. And as a result of God’s promise of His
presence in the form of a rescuer, the Jewish people would experience the joy
and the numerical, material, and spiritual blessings that come from being
rescued and reunited in the relationship with God that they were created for.
The Jewish people would be freed from the burden of oppression from other
nations that came as a consequence of their selfishness and rebellion.
Isaiah then reminded the Jewish people of an event from
history that is recorded for us in a letter in the Old Testament of our Bibles
called the book of Judges. In Judges 6-8, we read of an event from history
involving a man named Gideon, who God raised up to lead the Jewish people
during a period in their history when they were oppressed by another foreign
nation, called the Midianites. And the Jewish people were very familiar with
this event from history.
The Jewish people were very familiar with the idolatry
and rebellion that marked the Jewish people during that time in history. The
Jewish people were very familiar with the fact that God told Gideon to march
against the Midian army with only 300 soldiers. The Jewish people were very
familiar with how the Jewish nation stood by and watched as God delivered the
Jewish people against overwhelming odds by His might and power.
And now, God is promising to bring another deliverance
from oppression through another rescuer. Once again, God is promising to enter
into their story in a powerful way. Once again, God is promising His presence
to be present with the Jewish people. And the Jewish people were expecting that
God’s presence would be present through another leader like Gideon.
What the Jewish people did not expect, however, was
exactly what Isaiah said next. Friday, we will look at what Isaiah said next...
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