Isaiah 8

Before I get started I want to remind you again about our Holiday Caroling tonight at Maplewood and Bethel Home. How many think they will be able to come to the Holiday Caroling? What’s wrong, you don’t like the fact I called it “Holiday Caroling”? I’m kidding of course. I’m just illustrating the politically correct debate over saying ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘Happy Holidays’. Last

year Walmart dropped Merry Christmas in favor of Happy Holidays. There was a huge uproar about the change so this year, Happy Holidays got the boot and Merry Christmas is king again. But the debate still rages on and some Christians are fighting back. The WorldNetDaily website has a section in their store called “Operation—Just say Merry Christmas” For $2 you can buy a rubber wristband with the same saying, “Just say Merry Christmas”. If you’re willing to spend $6 you will be rewarded with this bumper sticker: “This is America! And I’m going to say it: Merry Christmas!” Do you know what you will find if you type in www.helpsavechristmas.org? You will get the website of Liberty Counsel which has a legal section dedicated to saving Christmas. They have a “Naughty & Nice List” which gives information about which “nice” retail

stores are saying Merry Christmas and which “naughty” stores are not. Walmart is “nice” this year but Best Buy is naughty. Yeah, you’ll just have to buy your ten foot plasma screen at Sears because they made the “nice” column this year. And under no circumstances should you set foot inside a Toys-R-Us, because they have banned Christmas altogether saying, “We endeavor to make our stores festive, while respecting that our customers celebrate many different customs throughout the holidays.”

I am grateful for the ministry of Liberty Counsel. They do a great service defending the legal rights of Christians. While the ACLU marches across our land, crushing every last nativity scene under the weight of their secular boots, we need organizations like Liberty Counsel to at least slow down the madness. But as you can probably tell, I am not so keen on their naughty and nice list. It’s not really the ACLU that has kicked Christ out of Christmas. Baby Jesus was pushed out of the straw cradle by the false idol of materialism. If you look carefully, you will see the almighty dollar lying in swaddling clothes in the manger. So what difference does it make if we bow down and kiss the pagan altar of materialism at Walmart or at Best Buy? A pagan altar is still a pagan altar even if it does say ‘Merry Christmas’ when you hand them your credit card! Do we imagine that millions of shoppers will fall down in repentance because the cashier wished them a Merry Christmas?

Most people just don’t get Christmas. To use a Biblical term, most people “stumble” over Christmas. These three chapters in Isaiah are probably the best known Christmas prophecies in the Old Testament. The prominence of these chapters have been helped immensely by the continuing popularity of Handel’s Messiah. Seven centuries before it happened, Isaiah predicted that Jesus would be born of a miraculous virgin birth. Seven hundred and thirty years before the angels announced Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, Isaiah predicted that a child would be born “and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.” These are reliable and certain predictions about Jesus and Christmas. But with an equal amount of prophetic certainty, Isaiah also predicted that this newborn Savior would be “a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” Isaiah predicted that people would stumble over Jesus. Isaiah predicted that most people would just not get Christmas. And forcing Best Buy employees to wish you a ‘Merry Christmas’ isn’t going to make any less people stumble over Jesus Christ. In fact, it may have just the opposite effect. As we demand our right as Americans to pick up a Walmart sale flyer and see the words “Christmas Sale!” emblazoned on the top, have we not just stumbled over Christmas ourselves? Christmas is not about demanding rights. The first Christmas was about the Lord Jesus, Creator of Heaven and Earth, giving up his rights. Jesus had every right to sit on his divine throne for all eternity. But he left his throne and laid aside his rights in order to become a single-cell human zygote. He laid aside his rights so that he could be fully God and fully human. He laid aside his rights of infinite glory and worship in order to be spit upon and hung from a cursed tree. Isaiah predicted that this baby would save us, but also that people would stumble over him and not understand. Most people just don’t get Christmas.

If you were with us last Sunday you will remember that these amazing Christmas prophecies were birthed in the context of military alliances and conquest. King Ahaz of Judah refused help from the Lord to save him from the combined forces of Aram and Israel, who had already crushed his own army once and were about to descend upon Jerusalem. Unless they received help from someone else, Jerusalem and Ahaz were doomed. The lord offered to defeat Judah’s enemies and Ahaz was even given the immense privilege of choosing a sign of the Lord’s deliverance. Ahaz was a very religious and dedicated pagan so he rejected the Lord’s help and the Lord’s sign and he called upon the pagan nation of Assyria for help. Assyria was the world superpower and Ahaz knew their armies could easily defeat his enemies, so he begged them for help. He had no love for Assyria, but like the old saying goes, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”. Ahaz was willing to strike a deal with his enemy Assyria in order to defeat his other enemies. Chapter seven told us that Ahaz rejected the Lord and struck a deal with the pagan Assyrian Empire. Now chapter eight will tell us what happened as a result.

The Lord said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.^a ²And I will call in Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me.”

³Then I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. ⁴Before the boy knows how to say ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.”

Preachers like to have good illustrations and object lessons for their messages. I use power point or a video clip sometimes. I have used drama to teach a lesson and I have even sung a song or two, but I have never conceived a child so I could name him for a killer sermon illustration! What do you think Karen? I preach once a week, so that’s about fifty illustrations a year. We would have to reproduce like fruit flies to have that many illustrations! But this is exactly what God asked of Isaiah—for the second time. His first son was named “a remnant will return” and this son Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz means “quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil”. Naming a child is the ultimate object lesson and the Lord didn’t want anyone to miss this message. He also told Isaiah to write the message on a large scroll. This was to be a banner type scroll for all to see, not a small scroll you could hold in your hand. This was headline news straight from the Lord’s mouth. Isaiah predicted that before his child was old enough to say “my mother” or “my father”, meaning “mama” and “dada”, Assyria will have defeated Judah’s enemies.

Ahaz asked for Assyria to come and save them, but what happened next could be classified under the heading of “You’d better watch what you ask for.”

⁵The Lord spoke to me again: ⁶“Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoices over Rezin and the son of Remaliah,

Rezin and Remaliah were the two kings of Aran and Israel, so when Isaiah said that the people of Judah were rejoicing over them, he meant that they were rejoicing over the prospect of their defeat. Here is the irony in all this. Judah rejected the Lord and begged for help from pagan Assyria. Assyria did eventually defeat Aram and Israel, but the Lord is the one who controlled it all. They thought they had rejected God but ironically God was never not in control. Why was Assyria the world superpower at this time? Only because God raised them up to bring judgment upon the northern kingdom of Israel. The lesson is that we can reject God’s submission over us but we can not escape his sovereign rule over us. If you tell God to shove off or more politely ask him to leave you alone or more politely yet—ignore him in your daily life—you may have claimed your independence from submitting to him, but you can never escape his sovereign rule over you. It’s foolish to run from the Lord. It’s foolish to ignore him because you are playing a game of self-deception where you believe you are in control. The problem is no one is fooled but you. This was the game that King Ahaz was playing. After he called on Assyria for help, he thought he was calling all the shots. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

⁷therefore the Lord is about to bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the River—

Since Judah rejected the gentle waters of the Lord, the Lord was going to send “the mighty floodwaters of the River”. Isaiah was no doubt referring to the Euphrates River which ran through the heart of the Assyrian Empire. Isaiah used an image of floodwaters to depict the power of Assyria. The Lord was saying to them, “So you want Assyria, do you? Well then, I will give you Assyria.” When Assyria went down to defeat Aram and Isarel, they did not respect the borders of Judah and continued to flood into Ahaz’s territory. This is similar to when the Israelites in the desert were not satisfied with God’s daily provision of manna, so they complained to God saying, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!” Do you recall how God responded to their request for meat? He sent a wind which blew quail into their camp to a depth of three feet. They were literally buried in dead birds! Then as they began to eat the meat God sent a plague to judge them. “You want meat? I’ll give you meat! You want Assyria? OK, I’ll give you Assyria.” Listen again to the poetic description of judgment.

It will overflow all its channels, run over all its banks ⁸and sweep on into Judah,

The Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina showed us the destructive power of water that has moved beyond its boundaries. It literally lifts up and carries away everything in its path. So would Assyria flow into Judah and cause destruction. Judah discovered that the enemy of my enemy is still my enemy. A powerful army bent on conquest does not slow down easily. More importantly, Judah would discover the truthfulness of Isaiah’s prediction that was written on a banner size scroll for everyone to see: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz—quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil. But God would show mercy in his judgment. The floodwaters of Assyria would reach only up to their neck. They would be ruined but not destroyed. This is a good word picture for how many of us feel about our lives right now. Many of us feel like we are buried right up to our necks. The waters have not yet drowned us, but we are rising up on the tips of our toes grasping for our next breath. Does this describe your life right now? I know it does for many, and if it does, the solution is found in verse 8. As the floodwaters rose up to their proverbial neck, Isaiah cried out, “O Immanuel!” Isaiah cried out, “O God be with us!”

As we said last week, Immanuel is the solution to all our problems. It may be your fault that you are buried up to your neck with problems. It may not be your fault, you may just be experiencing the results of living in a fallen world, or it may be a Satanic attack. Either way, the solution is to call upon Immanuel. Call upon Immanuel for salvation if you do not know him. Call upon Immanuel in repentance if you have sinned. Call upon Immanuel for strength if you are weary. If you are about to be drowned by the worries and cares of life, like Isaiah, cry out “O Immanuel!”

But most people will never do this. They do not cry out for Immanuel, they stumble over him. Jesus is the stone that causes men to stumble and the rock that makes them fall. Paul quoted this verse from Isaiah in Romans 9 to describe the Jews who stumbled over Jesus while they were seeking a righteousness by works instead of a righteousness by faith. Peter quoted Isaiah to describe anyone who does not believe in Christ. Jesus alluded to Isaiah when he wrote, He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but the one on whom it falls will be crushed” (Matt 21:43-44). A later rabbi warned, “If a pot falls on a rock, woe to the pot; if a rock falls on the pot, woe to the pot—either way, woe to the pot!”^{^[i]} It doesn’t matter if you stumble over Jesus or you are crushed by Jesus, either way, it is a judgment on your unbelief.

Why do so many stumble over Jesus in unbelief? The prophecy of Immanuel is supposed to bring hope and belief, right? The same prophecy is available to all just as the fulfillment of this prophecy is available to all, so why do so many stumble over Immanuel? Part of the answer lies in v. 19. ¹⁹When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? Ahaz and company were pagans who rejected God in favor of mediums and spiritists. This may have been true for King Ahaz and Judah, but the average person today is not an occultist who consults with mediums and takes part in séances and calling upon the dead. Your neighbor may not be giving their hard-earned money to palm readers and crystal ball gazers, but they do get their truth in some place. Everyone lives by a set of beliefs and if these beliefs do not come from the pages of God’s word, these people will stumble over Jesus. It doesn’t matter of you are a Muslim or a churchgoer who knows the nativity story, if you don’t understand that Jesus is God in human flesh come to save you from your sin, you will stumble over Jesus.

This is the all too common sentiment expressed even by those who call themselves a Christian. “All paths lead to God”. “I believe in Jesus but I also believe there are other ways to get to Heaven”. Those who reject God’s word will stumble over Jesus every time. This is precisely what Isaiah prophesied in v. 20. If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. ²¹Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. ²²Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness. People walk in darkness because they walk without the light of God’s word. People cannot cry out for Immanuel if they don’t know who Immanuel is.

Most people will stumble over Christmas. Most people just don’t get it. But there is a solution to this stumbling in the darkness. Isaiah called for it in v. 20. “To the law and to the testimony!” This is a battle cry for the truth of God’s word. This is the call to arms for every believer to carry forth the word of God. Why do you think God told Isaiah to write on a banner sized scroll? Why did God tell Isaiah to name his son “quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil”? He did this because God’s word is true and reliable. He did it because whatever God decrees will happen, will indeed happen. Therefore we should not be ashamed to call out “to the law and to the testimony!” We are people of the book. We stand upon the foundation of “where stands it written.” So whenever someone tells you that God is too big for just one religion, here is what you can ask them: “How do you know this is true?” If they believe that all paths lead to God, then it stands to reason that they must be standing alongside God and can see everything that he sees—that all of these separate paths and different religions lead to God. Ask them if they stand in God’s presence and can see what he sees. They will almost certainly deny that they stand in God’s presence, so you can ask them again, “Then how do you know that all paths lead to God?” You see, the reason they believe that all paths lead to God is because they believe that all paths lead to God! They don’t have any outside authority for this belief, it has come from their own reason. They have set themselves up as the final authority of truth

As Christians, our truth comes from Scripture and the Bible has told us that there is only one way to God and that is through Immanuel. How do people respond when you say this? They think you are arrogant or foolish for believing the words in an old book like the Bible. But which is more arrogant—to set yourself up as the final arbiter of truth or to follow a historically reliable old book that claims to be the very word of God? This book foretold of a child being born of a virgin and it happened. This book foretold that many would stumble over the rock and it is happening. This book foretold that the Messiah would be born from the tribe of Judah in the town of Bethlehem, that he would cause the rising and falling of many, that at his birth Jewish children would be massacred, that he would be a suffering servant who would be pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. This book foretold all these things and they happened. This is not an old book filled with fairy tales, it is the word of the Lord enscribed on a large scroll, the word of the Lord born into the names of Isaiah’s sons, the word of the Lord made most plain and most beautiful in the coming of Immanuel. Do not be ashamed of this book. Without this book we will stumble over Jesus. To the law and to the testimony! O Immanuel! To the law and to the testimony! O Immanuel!

^a Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz means quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil; also in verse 3.

^{^[i]}Keener, Craig S. ; InterVarsity Press: The IVP Bible Background Commentary : New Testament. Downers Grove, Ill. : InterVarsity Press, 1993, S. Mt 21:44