King of Assyria – brave as a lion!

Isaiah 10:5-34

If you have been following my posts on Isaiah, you will have seen that Assyria was being used by God to discipline the Northern Tribes of Israel.

Verse 5 “Ah Assyria. the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury!” – God is sovereign – He is the ultimate King of the universe. In this case God used the nation of Assyria to discipline, Israel, knowing they were evil. Some called them the Nazis of the Ancient Near East.

V6 Israel is being called godless – but Assyria is even more godless. God does respect double standards. The sins he judges in the world he disciplines in His people too.

V7 Assyria had no knowledge they were being used by God. Verse 8-11 they were salivating over Israel as a trophy on the way to taking Jerusalem. King Adad-nirari II was arrogant “Iam royal, I am lordly, I am mighty, I am honoured… I am lion brave” But in v12 we see that when God has finished sorting Israel he will punish the arrogant speech of the king of Assyria.

God hates pride.

“Humble yourselves, therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you” 1 Peter 5:6

When we work on a culture of humility and honouring others rather than arrogance, God’s mighty hand blesses that with His presence and glory! Humility is very counter cultural. Churchill once said of an opponent “A humble man with much to be humble about” – but God loves humility and lifts up the humble. Woody Allen is credited with saying, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” We could add to it, “If you want to hear him laugh even louder, tell him how much you know.”

Jesus exemplified humility by coming in human flesh, born in a stable and being obedient to death.Saying you’re humble or thinking of yourself as a modest person is actually a perverted form of pride. The key to humility is to get your eyes off yourself and onto the one from whom and for whom and through whom all things are (cf. 1 Cor. 8:6; Col. 1:16-20).

Isaiah 9:8-10:4

This passage has a lot to say about the anger of God (9:12,17,21:10:4) and His fury (9:19,10:5). God who is the most loving person in the Bible is also the angriest. The bible tells us God is love, it never says God is anger.

Ch 1-5 the disaster that people are
Ch 6 Grace comes to Isaiah
Ch 7-9:7 Grace for Judah and now in 9:8 – 11:6 grace for Israel

First the wrath of God at sin, that can take us further into grace than we could go ourselves.
The wrath of God is his active, resolute opposition to evil, provoked byteh defiance of His creatures. God’s love can’t make peace with our evil, his wrath isn’t moody vindictiveness, it is the solemn determination that a doctor has cutting away a cancer that is killing a patient. But God is not detached and clinical. He hates sin, because he loves the sinners and he will rid the universe of sin’s afflictions.

In God’s loving anger and kindness he had destroyed the guilt of sinners at the cross, he will destroy all remaining sin in the hearts of those who take refuge in Jesus and he will destroy all injustice and suffering in this world when He recreates heaven and earth (Ortlund)

9:8-10: If God’s people choose evil, his wrath works with unrelenting force.
10:5-15 God rules over his unwitting agents

9:8-12 The northern Kingdom Israel (10 of the tribes) basic problem is pride v9-10. Israel has come under attack, but they are laughing it off and carrying on.
v11 Rezin = Assyrians raised up by God. The Lord opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4;6; 1 Peter 5:5) – Israel ignores that truth and so God is stretching out against them.

v13 They don’t enquire of God. When God disciplines the biggest mistake we can make is to turn away from him instead of turning to him.

v19-21 the wrath of God is in the damage that sin inflicts – like self seeking people devouring each other.
“If you bite and devour one another, watch out you are not consumed by one another” Gal 5:15

10:1-4 Injustice leads to helplessness – Isaiah can see prophetically prisoners of war and heaps of dead bodies – fulfilled when Assyria overan Israel in 722BC.

What can we learn and apply

• If you are not a Christian, God’s wrath applies to your sin – Romans 1 tells us that his wrath is shown by giving us over to what we desire. We get the consequences of our sin.
• Jesus died on the cross as a propitiation for our sin that’s a theological word for God’s anger is turned away. God will never have an angry thought over a believers sin. Isa 54:10 “The mountains and the hills will be removed, but my kindness shall never leave you, nor shall My covenant of peace with you ever be removed.” Moving mountains will require some effort! But God wants us to be sure of his kindness and peace!
• He will still discipline us to help us grow.
• Ask God about the stuff of life
• Use words to build up – If we bite and devour one another… That’s a challenge for my family at the moment!

Isaiah 8-9:7

The passage finishes with the zeal of the Lord will accomplish this. The image of Jesus weak and tea drinking is wrong. Yes he is meek (strength brought under control) but He is also zealous and brave – He will accomplish! God is not wishy washy – He is on fire for the triumph of His grace!

Yesterday we saw how Ahaz and the people of Judah have rejected God in their defining moment – but that hasn’t stopped God – he will bring salvation to those who will receive Him.

All around was going wrong v9-10 but they could be confident that God was with them! They know the presence of God in the midst of darkness.

Verses 11-15 Isaiah knew the strong hand of God upon him – a real sense of consciousness of God’s presence. A holy fear of the Almighty God.
v16-18 truth about God was also important to them. v9-18 we see the priority of the presence of God, a holy fear of His awesome power and a passion to know God’s truth.

Mediums, spiritualism and necromancing are very dangerous pastimes. People are desperate to know the future – they love prophecy, but go to the wrong source of power. God speaks – enquire of God, he loves to speak and in our church age, He wants all to prophecy! All to have visions or dreams (Acts2!)

The first area to be invaded is the North (9:1-2) but that will also be the first area to see the light of Jesus (Matthew 4:12-17). Grace came to those walking in darkness – the light of Christ broke in!

9:3 – grace will multiply across the nations – there will be a great multitude that no-one can number from every nation, from all the tribes and people and languages… crying out with a loud voice , “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb!”

Isaiah is writing about a freedom fighter breaking in – “as on the day of Midian” – like the day that Gideon the unlikely hero with the shrunken down army of 300 outrageously beating the Midianites.

v5 Jesus will not only defeat the forces of evil, he will put a final end to conflict itself. Who will do it v6 God’s answer to evil is a child! God’s power is so superior that he can defeat them coming as a child!

Weakness overwhelms power and foolishness outfoxes wisdom! (1 Cor 1:18-25)

Jesus is the Wonderful Counsellor – the best ideas and strategies for life
Mighty God – he defeats his enemies easily
Everlasting Father – who loves us endlessly, enjoy Him!
Prince of Peace – he reconciles us to God while we were still enemies!

The Kingdom will never end and it will ever increase!

Get in! Put your faith in Jesus – there will never be a moment went we will say we have reached the ceiling, there is nothing more, nothing new! His kingdom will increase – Jesus’ zeal will accomplish it!

Hallelujah!

Isaiah has had an encounter with God and no longer has a divided heart – but King Ahaz has still got a divided heart.

It was a crisis moment in Judah – still loyal to the Davidic dynasty of Jerusalem. 200 yrs before the kingdom had split in two – then ten Northern tribes of Israel splitting off. Now the Assyrian Empire is stretching its’ muscles and so Israel has joined with Syria in a mutual defence pact and is now trying to attack Judah near Jerusalem.

God is not going to let that happen 7:1 and says so through Isaiah. But Ahaz doesn’t want to listen, preferring panic and hand wringing, looking to get himself out of the mess without God’s help. That’s the setting – the crisis of the generation and all the more so because the nation had no sense of the glory of God.

God often brings us to crisis points – will we trust Him? The answer is either an agonised struggle wavering or a clear yes Lord!

At this moment 7:3 – Ahaz is thinking about stockpiling – he is inspecting the water supply with his son Shear-Jashub whose name means “A remnant will return” (if all else fails and the worst happens, God will protect His remnant).

Isaiah delivers a prophetic call to confidence in God v4 – the Syro-Ephraimic (Syria and Israel) alliance will fail – they are just firebrands – cigarette butts and God has appointed a drop-dead date for Israel anyway. That all comes to pass – God keeps His word.
Ahaz is being offered the opportunity of a lifetime to know what it means to be saved by God – v9b “Hold firm in the faith or you will not hold out”

God is attracted to weakness, need and honesty = real faith!
“Faith is knowledge of God, persuading us to agree with God that motivates is to embrace God.”

Ortlund “in your crisis when it counts for you, trust me, I will keep my every promise. But if you treat me as unreal, you will not connect with reality at all”

v10-12 Ahaz has been offered a blank cheque – ask me for a sign, but he refuses to cash it.
He rejects with diplomatic hypocrisy – because he knows if lets God in, God will take control.

v13 Isaiah says “my God” in contrast to Ahaz’”Your God”

v14 the classic verse – “The virgin will give birth to a son…”
Matt 1:18-25 has that fulfilled in Jesus Christ, but the immediate context links it to Isaiah’s day – so it is fulfilled in two ways.

Once as Isaiah’s son and then as Jesus God with Us,

We face a far more hostile alliance than ancient Syria and Ephraim – sin and death; that will not go away, which is why the ultimate fulfilment is Jesus Christ – God with us

God kept his promise to Ahaz – he will be safe from Syria-Ephraim, but Assyria will come. It’s like a mouse being attacked by two rats and cries out to a cat to save it. The cat does and then has the mouse for pudding!

Much easier to trust God in every crisis! He will never fail.

Isaiah 6 – The cleansing and call of Isaiah

The first five chapters of Isaiah have described the spiritual mess Israel was in. Isaiah appealed “let us walk in the light of the Lord” in 2:5, but they didn’t and the result is “darkness and distress; and the light darkened by the clouds” 5:30. The only remedy is God’s grace – so in chapters 6-11 we will see the awakening power of grace, starting with Isaiah himself!

Isaiah is being taken on a journey – encounter with God 1-4, confession of sin v5, cleansing v6-7 to commission for mission. Where are you on that journey?

Uzziah dies
He was a good king with a long reign. God had bless Israel, but they hadn’t handle it too well. Uzziah himself had sought God for a while, till pride too over. (2 Chron 26:5,16). His death was the end of an era – a defining moment to be called into ministry.

The real King reigns
Isaiah is worshipping in the temple, when he has an encounter with God that transforms him.
The throne room of heaven is a busy place filled with activity – the Sreaphim are described by Ray Ortlund as “living flames of nuclear powered praise”. They are in constant motion ready to do God’s will. Isaiah doesn’t say how many, but Revelation 5:11 talks of myriads (millions)

Holy, Holy, Holy is not just repetition, it’s emphasis – the holiness of God distinguishes Him above all else. It is splendid (Psalm 29:2), majestic (Exodus 15) and incomparable (Isa 40:25)

The foundations of the temple shook. When a jet fighter comes in low and fast, the windows shake. The temple shakes at the voice of one seraph – so don’t think of angels as chubby babies with harps and wings, but jet fighter breaking the sound barrier.

There’s shaking and smoke at the felt presence of God, which overwhelms Isaiah.

Isaiah is undone – he knows he is man of unclean lips in the midst of a people of unclean lips. He knows he is sinful and no better than any one else. He has stopped seeing himself as better than the others.

A seraph brings a coal with tongs, not because it is hot, but because it is holy. It has come from the altar, the place of sacrifice and atonement. When it touches Isaiah’s dirty mouth – it doesn’t burn him it heals him. The burning coal symbolises Christ’s death on the cross. That is the only power than can forgive us and cleanse us.

He can know hear God’s call.
God speaks – I need a spokesman. What silences us as Christian so often is that sense that God is against us and our sin. No he has forgiven us, cleanses us and wants to empower us to tell others.

Isaiah’s generation has had it v9,10. They are not going to listen to the prophet. His message will just harden their hearts further. Verses 9,10 are the most quoted of Isaiah in the New Testament. The early church was opposed because of grace and these verses told them why.

Every time we hear grace preached, we get a bit closer or a bit further away. Truth that softens some, hardens others. The message of grace is the aroma of Christ – 2 Cor 2:15-16 – the smell of life to some and the stench of death to others.

That’s not a fun call for Isaiah! How long oh Lord? v11. the people he will preach to will be devastated. They will be like a forest cut down to stumps. The ground will be cleared, but in God’s grace it will be cleared for new growth.

v13 The holy seed is its stump – there will be a remnant who are responsive to God and who will be used and eventually Jesus, the stump of Jesse (11:1,9) will come forth

What we all need is more of God’s grace. Fear having a hard heart more than anything else. Respond to God’s words of grace.

Pursue encounters with God, allow Him to change you and commission you to mission, filled with the joy and power of the Spirit.

Never judge a book by it’s cover!

“Isaiah God Saves Sinners” by Ray Ortlund has probably the worst cover ever in both editions but is an absolute gem of a commentary on Isaiah. easy to read and the best I’ve got in my library. It suits preachers and those wanting to devotionally read Isaiah!
Get it now on Amazon!*

I’m going to focus on the Isaiah readings on the Murray M’Cheyne Bible Readings in these next posts…

Isaiah 5

God has grape expectations. Isaiah 5 starts with a parable of a vineyard lavishly attended to, yet bearing bad fruit. God lavishes grace on us and expects fruits.

“Don’t receive the grace of God in vain”, warns Paul in 2 Cor 6:1. How could we do that? Grace is God’s all forgiving kindness to us, how can we receive it in vain? Grace accepts us and transforms us, but if we only want the acceptance without transformation, then we are receiving grace in vain.
Isaiah 5 shows us 6 ways we resist God’s grace, so we can avoid that and four ways God disciplines grace resisters if we don’t go for transformation!

v1-7 – a parable of the vineyard to show us a picture of grace
v8-30 6 laments
i) Reckless ambition v8-10
ii) Self indulgence v11-12
iii) Deliberate sinning v18-19
iv) Wilful perversion
v) Self admiration
vi) Recklessness produces injustice v22-23
These 6 “woes” are the opposite of “blessing”

Parable of the vineyard

Verse 1-7 are a love song, but just like Nathan and David in 2 Sam 12 this is going to end with a punch! God is lavish with his grace and there is a disappointing outcome. The farmer cultivates his vineyard with every good thing, but the yield is wild grapes – in Hebrew “stinking grapes”.
The failure lies in v3 either the farmer or the vineyard. V1-2 he has been generous and good, v4 what more could he do?

We make excuses “If only I…” – but all of them imply a criticism of God as if he hasn’t already given everything we need 2 Peter 1:3. A look at Romans 8 will show us the amazing riches of God’s grace for us.
God is amazing! What do we do with what He has done?

Looking at our lives – God has lavished every spiritual blessing on us, but are we growing in Christ? Are we becoming more like him?

Looking at the church in the UK which suffered a loss of 1000 people per week in the 80′s and 90′s, she didn’t bear fruit. And what she did bear was wild grapes – verse 7 uses a wordplay to talk of a lack of justice and bloodshed as the fruit. We want God’s Church to bear an abundant harvest sweet fruit – salvations, changed lives.

What is wrong? Why sour grapes?
Isaiah holds up 6 bunches of rotten fruit to help us see. 6 Whys answered with 6 woes.

V8-10 Reckless Ambition
The rich getting richer the poorer getting squeezed out. All the earth is the Lords and yet the wealthy of Judah were amassing property for themselves and so living as if God was worthless.
Greed dis-empowers grace and dissolves into emptiness.

How are we drinking in God’s grace and looking after the poor?
i) Foodbank – we can bless the local poor with food parcels. Please bring non-perishable food items to our Sunday gatherings
ii) Pathways from Poverty – why not help finance a micro-business in Kenya
through our apostolic sphere’s partnership with Edward Buria

V11-12 Self Indulgence
In Romans 8 Paul talks of those living according to the flesh and those living according to the Spirit.
The flesh is drawn to entertainment, the Spiritual to worship. Isaiah berates self indulgence in drink and etertainment.
Ray Ortlund “The power of grace does not lie in spiritual moderation, but in deep, repeated gulps of the Spirit”. So go on being filled with the Spirit and worship, a lot!

v13-17 matches the first two woes with two therefores. Living in a grace diminishing way impacts life.
Drinking and excess leads to hunger and thirst. Land grabbers will be swallowed up in Sheol (hell)
Isaiah is calling us to courageous life change!

v18-19 deliberate sin
Sin is a burden, like being attached to a heavy cart by ropes instead of horses.
Sin promises to make life better, but instead it is a drag.

v20 Wilful perversion
Humans love to rationalise sin and change the definitions.

v21 Misplaced confidence
Woes to those who are proud – wise in their own sight.

v22 Recklessness produces injustice
You may not put together drinking and social injustice, but they go together. Isaiah was writing at Israel’s economic heyday with a dark underbelly.
Social justice thrives when we have more of a sense of God’s goodness than expertise at mixing cocktails!

verses 24-30 are two final therefores
Firstly they have rejected God’s word v24 – God had delighted in them bit they had despised Him.
Secondly judgement will come from the Assyrian army invading

John the Baptist challenged us to produce fruit in keeping with repentance – Luke 3. It was frustrating for him to see how little fruit repentance with out the power of the Spirit who is Holy, who produces fruit in our hearts.

How is your fruit bearing?

I’m finding Ray Ortlund’s Isaiah God Saves Sinners so helpful going through the book. Please click on the image to the left, to buy from Amazon.co.uk*

Live for a real crown of glory!

Numbers 14

Why is it that gloom spreads faster than good news – here is it Old Testament Israel, so it’s not just the Brits who love gloom. They are taking on board grasshopper theology and rebelling in fear. First they rebel against the leaders then God.

Thankfully Joshua and Caleb are not confirmist consensus people – they are men of faith. As an aside – this is an interesting article about how the not allowed to debate gay marriage, intolerant tolerance has grown because of confirming consensus. we must go with what God says and not conform!
The leaders fall facedown to plead with the people. Joshua and Caleb tear their clothes. We need that kind of passion to stir people to God and to not fear man v9. fearing man is rebelling against God.
The glory of God is at stake – the Egyptians will hear about it v13
Moses asks God to fulfil what He has said v17 and reminds God of His great love and mercy

• Persistent love – slow to anger v18
• Geneous – abounding v18
• Reliable – hesed = steadfast covenant love
• Pardoning – forgiving sin and rebellion v19
• Righteous – punishing the children – not this is not generational curses, four generations of a family would often live under one roof and sin reproduces so they are all sinning and hating God (note the full version of the quoted portion Ex 20:5-6)

God forgave them, but the consequence is that the rebels wouldn’t see the land – they would be in the wilderness for a generation

The ten leaders who were sent as spies and feared man, were struck down and died – only Joshua and Caleb survived. Much is demanded of leaders.

Soldiers who were afraid to go now decide to go to the land, against God’s will – they were beaten by the Amelekites and Canaanites – they were indeed grasshoppers against them!

Psalm 50

v2 From Zion, now the Church, perfect in beauty, God shines forth. We are the new covenant people of God, shining forth God’s glory, grace and mercy!

Isaiah 3,4

These chapters are sandwiched between the prophecy of the nations attracted to God’s people 2:2-5 and the prophecy of God’s people visited by him 4:2-6. In between God is speaking bluntly of the mess people are in now! The confrontation is real but it stands within the larger context of grace. God will save His people, He will bless the nations.
3:1 – God is taking something away form Judah, but in 4:2-6 he will create something new and better!
what God is taking away was everything that stabilised corporate life of Isaiah’s generation.
Food supply v1
Leadership v2-4
On way God judges is depriving people of worthy leaders. During 9/11 in New York Mayor Guliani was an exceptional leader in a time of crisis – trustworthy leaders are a gift from God. Under the new covenant God gives the church the most important leaders – apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.

The reason for the judgement is revealed in 3v8-11 – their speech is against God and they are defying His glorious presence. Oh God, have mercy on our generation too.

The next section 3:16-4:1 God takes something else away – the women loose their outward finery they have flaunted.
A terrible vision of judgement, followed by a beautiful vision of restoration.

In that day – not more loss, but something new!
The branch of the Lord – Jesus! (Isa 53:2) – Jesus replaces false beauty with true beauty.
The survivors – not everyone will get to be part of it – there will be no rival agendas, pet causes and swollen egos crowding the church of Jesus Christ. The cleansed will be there, the fire of judgement will have been done – 1 Cor 3 talks of us being saved by grace and our deeds thereafter being judged by fire – so that gold and silver will remain, straw and stubble will be burned up.

Receive God’s grace and live in the strength of God’s Spirit, walking in God’s Spirit to receive a well done good and faithful servant.

Hebrews 11

Faith is sure and certain! That list is beautiful, time has passed to write anymore! – but live a life full of faith in God, not in the fear of man, for Jesus’ well done!

Never judge a book by it’s cover!

“Isaiah God Saves Sinners” by Ray Ortlund has probably the worst cover ever in both editions but is an absolute gem of a commentary on Isaiah. easy to read and the best I’ve got in my library. It suits preachers and those wanting to devotionally read Isaiah!
Get it now on Amazon!*

Don’t be a grasshopper

Hebrews 10

The law cannot sanctify is – it has no power and is a shadow that requires constant sacrifices to work at all. We are made holy through Christ’s death (Grace also teaches us to say no to unrighteousness (Titus 2:12)

verse 17 Grace means that God doesn’t remember our sins or lawless acts – hallelujah!
Therefore…

1. We have confidence to enter God’s presence
2. Can draw near to God easily
3. We can hold unswervingly to hope
4. We can spur one another on to good deeds
5. Not give up meeting together
6. We can not throw away our confidence and be richly rewarded!

Isaiah 2

“The mountain of the Lord” points to the kingdom of God
“Many people will come in” – the church is truly international in flavour and culture
v5 is an appeal for Israel to walk in their destiny
v6-11 Isaiah shows what is wrong

• Superstition
• Divination
• Paganism
• Loving money and possessions
• Pride

v12 God will judge the proud in all the world
All other religions will be proved worthless
v22 Therefore stop trusting in man, he is nothing!

Psalm 49

Riches here count for nothing when you die – use them wisely

Numb 12

God reveals himself to prophets in visions and dreams.

ch13 12 spies are sent out – the promised land is indeed milk and honey, but the people there are big and strong. Only Joshua and Caleb return full of faith – the rest have a “grasshopper theology”. Don’t see your self as a grasshopper -don’t let fear hold you back from serving our mighty God in the strength of our mighty God.

Numbers 11

The pressure of leading gets too much for Moses so God anoints the 72 leaders with the Spirit to prophecy – hear from God. 70 turn up to the gathering and two stay behind – but God still anoints them because He is full of grace. Moses comment “I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and the Lord would put His Spirit on them” – Acts 2 Pentecost means that all the Lord’s people can prophecy (but not all are prophets!) and the Lord puts His Spirit on all – Be baptised in the Spirit and go on being filled!

Psalm 48

The church is the city of God – beautiful in its loftiness and the joy of the whole earth!

Hebrews 9

Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant – promising us an inheritance and like a legal will that requires a death. Christ’s death and bloodshed makes it a reality.
His first coming was so he could die to take away our sin, his future second coming will be to bring fully our salvation!

Numbers 10

v29 “Come with and we will do you good” – sometimes people need telling twice before they follow! Keep telling friends about the good news of Jesus!

Psalm 46

God is our refuge and an ever present help in trouble.

v4 There is a river (of the Holy Spirit) whose streams make glad the city of God (the Church) – more of yoru presence Lord, more of your Spirit making us glad!

Psalm 47

A psalm of declaration of the goodness of God

Song of Songs 8

We had Song of Songs 8:6-7 read at our wedding – great verses, I’m glad our uncle didn’t read on to v8 in the ceremony!

Hebrews 8

Jesus is the new and permanent high Priest, who is sat at the right hand of the Father ever interceding for us. Everything in the Old Covenant to do with sacrificial system was just a shadow of the reality in heaven.

God has now put his law in our hearts, making the old covenant obsolete!