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As we return to our consideration of the book of the prophet Isaiah, we find
ourselves this Lord’s Day morning in Isaiah chapter 7, my sermon text today,
Isaiah chapter 7 verses 1 through 9, and that begins on page 678 in your Pew
Bible. So dear friends, this is the Word of God. Let us hear it with reverence and
awe. In the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah,
Rezin the king of Syria, and Pecca the son of Ramaliah, the king of Israel, came
up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack
against it. When the house of David was told, Syria is in league with Ephraim, the
heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the
forest shake before the wind. And the Lord said to Isaiah, go out to meet Ahaz,
you and Sheher Jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on
the highway to the washers field, and say to him, be careful, be quiet, do not fear
and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps
of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Ramaliah.
Because Syria with Ephraim and the son of Ramaliah has devised evil against you
saying, let us go up against Judah and terrify it and let us conquer it for
ourselves and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it. Thus says the
Lord God, it shall not stand and it shall not come to pass. For the head of
Syria is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin and within 65 years
Ephraim will be shattered from being a people and the head of Ephraim is
Samaria and the head of Samaria is the son of Ramaliah. If you are not firm in
faith, you will not be firm at all. Dear friends, the grass withers and the flower
fades but the word of our God does indeed endure forever. Shall we seek the
Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of his word? Let’s pray. Almighty and most
merciful God, our gracious Heavenly Father, we praise you, O God, that you
have revealed yourself to us. Not only have you revealed yourself to us in
your mighty works of creation and providence but you have also and
especially revealed yourself to us in your word and through Jesus Christ our
Savior. We thank you for your God-breathed, inspired, infallible word. It is a lamp
into our feet, a light into our path, a guide to our way and so we would beseech
you God to grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit that we might pay careful
attention to your word as we consider this passage from Scripture today and
we ask that you would make our minds and our hearts open and receptive to that
which the Spirit speaks to us in this portion of your holy word. We ask these
things Heavenly Father in Jesus name and all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be
seated.
Well, as you can see, friends, the title of my sermon this morning is If You Are
Not Firm in Faith, and there’s four key words that the young people can be
listening for in my sermon today, the words covenant, messiah, promise and
faith. Well, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our passage for this
Lord’s Day morning is set within a very significant period of redemptive history
for the covenant people of God. The date was around 735 BC, which was during a
period of Old Testament covenant history when the Israelite Kingdom was
divided between the northern tribes of Israel whose kingdom was often called
either Israel or Ephraim, and the southern tribe of Judah whose kingdom was
typically called by the tribal name of Judah. Jerusalem, the city that housed
the great temple of the Lord that had been built by wise King Solomon, was, of
course, the capital city of the southern kingdom of Judah. And the kingship of
Judah belonged to the Davidic dynasty, meaning that the kings of Judah were
descendants of the great king of the United Monarchy, King David. David being,
of course, the sweet psalmist of Israel, the one whom the scriptures describe as
a man after God’s own heart. My friends, the Lord, Yahweh, Israel’s faithful
covenant God and gracious Redeemer, had made a solemn covenant promise to King
David that his dynasty would last forever. On your own time, you can look up
that promise and find it in 2 Samuel chapter 7. But I want to have us turn
very briefly to a few verses that are found in Psalm 89, a psalm that recounts
God’s covenant promises to King David. Let’s look at, very briefly, Psalm 89
verses 20 and 21. Psalm 89 verses 20 and 21, the psalmist writes this,
I have found David my servant, with my holy oil I have anointed him, so that my
hand shall be established with him, my arm also shall strengthen him. And then
skip down to verse 28. It says, my steadfast love I will keep for him
forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him. I will establish his offspring
forever, and his throne as the days of the heavens. If his children forsake my
law, and do not walk according to my rules, if they violate my statutes, and
do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod,
and their iniquity with stripes. But I will not remove from him my steadfast
love, or be false to my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant, or alter the
word that went forth from my lips. Once for all I have sworn by my holiness, I
will not lie to David. His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long
as the sun before me. Like the moon it shall be established forever, a faithful
witness in the skies. Now friends, of course, this covenant promise to David
is a promise that is ultimately fulfilled in the person of great David’s
greater Son, namely the promised Messiah, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Though
Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, which highlights our Lord’s divine
nature as the Son of God, with respect to our Lord’s human nature, He was a
descendant of King David, just as the Scriptures promised that the Messiah
would be. Now at this point you may be saying, okay fine pastor, but how does
this relate to our passage? Well friends, the reason why it’s important for us to
understand this basic historical information as we consider this passage
from Isaiah this morning, is because our passage for today records an
international threat that was raised against the Davidic King who was then
ruling on the throne of Judah at that time, namely King Ahaz, who as we’re told
in verse 1, was the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah. This
international threat against the Davidic King, King Ahaz, was also a threat
against the Davidic dynasty as such. And as a threat against David’s dynasty, it
also by implication threatened to overthrow the very covenant promises of
God, especially God’s covenant promise to raise up the Messiah from the house and
lineage of King David. And as a threat to God’s messianic promises, it was a
threat to the very salvation of God’s people. We need to understand this as we
approach this text of God’s holy word. No wonder the Lord says in verse 7 in
response to this international threat, no wonder the Lord says, it shall
not stand and it shall not come to pass. As one commentator puts it, the attempt
to replace his dynasty, David’s dynasty, with another cannot succeed because God’s
promises are at stake. And friends, one of the important truths that we
glean from this passage of God’s word is that God is always faithful to keep his
covenant promises. And that is the foundation and rock of our faith, knowing
that in Christ, God’s promises are yea and amen. Because God’s promises are
absolutely sure. The Lord calls upon King Ahaz to stand firm in his faith and
not to fear, even in the face of this international threat. And he also warns
King Ahaz against not being firm in his trust in the Lord. As it says in verse
4, the Lord says to Ahaz, excuse me, he says, be careful, be quiet, do not
fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps
of firebrands at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Romalia.
And then at the end of verse 9, the Lord says to him, if you are not firm in
faith, you will not be firm at all. As we approach our text from God’s word for
today, we note first of all in the first opening verses, the first two verses, we
note here a conspiracy against the Lord’s people. And that’s the first
point on your sermon outline. We consider today a conspiracy against the
Lord’s people. It says this. Again, Isaiah introducing this new section of his
prophecy, his written prophecy with these words, in the days of Ahaz, the son of
Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria, this is the
ancient nation of Syria, which was one of Israel’s neighbors, Rezin the king of
Syria, and Pekah the son of Romalia, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to
wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. And
what was the reaction to this news on the part of Ahaz and the house of David,
the Davidic dynasty, in other words, and the people of Judah? Well, verse 2 says,
when the house of David was told Syria is in league with Ephraim, the heart of
Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before
the wind. What a picturesque way of describing the fear, the sense of terror
that overwhelmed Ahaz. Ahaz, who was supposed to be the covenant leader of
God’s people as the theocratic king. Now these verses highlight what biblical
historians have come to call the Syro-Ephraimite War, which took place
around 734 to 733 BC. The ancient kingdom of Syria, which is also called in some of
your translations Aram, Syria and Aram refer to the same national entity, this
ancient nation of Syria or Aram joined forces with the northern kingdom of
Israel or Ephraim in order to attack Judah, the southern kingdom. Now why did
they want to do that? Well the reason they wanted to do that is because there
was a threat looming in the region. The mighty Assyrian Empire in the east was
looking, as many empires look to do, to expand its territory westward. And that
of course threatened to engulf all three of these kingdoms in the region, namely
Israel, Syria and Judah itself. Apparently Syria and Israel had hoped
that Judah would join with them in a military alliance to defend the region
against the threat from Assyria. But King Ahaz of Judah had refused to bring Judah
into their military alliance. So in response to this refusal on the part of
King Ahaz, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Ramali, a king of
Israel, decided to attack Jerusalem for the purpose of removing Ahaz from the
throne of Judah and doing away with the Davidic king on the throne of Jerusalem
in order to put a puppet king described in verse 6 as the son of Tabeel in his
place on the throne of Judah. A king who would do their bidding and bring Judah
into their military alliance against the Assyrian Empire. So Syria and Israel
had come to wage war against Jerusalem, the capital city of Judah, because they
wanted to force Judah to join them in their military alliance against this
Assyrian threat. Now as I’ve already mentioned, the spiritual implications of
this would be disastrous for the people of God if Syria and Israel were
allowed to get away with their scheme and to succeed in their conspiracy
against King Ahaz and against the kingdom of Judah. Now as we learned a few
Lord’s days ago when we considered the history of King Ahaz, as we considered a
passage from Second Kings chapter 16, we learned a few Lord’s days ago that sadly
King Ahaz turned out to be an evil, godless, idol-worshipping king, a king
who failed miserably in his covenantal duties as the theocratic king of God’s
people. However, even though Ahaz was an evil, godless king, Yahweh his God would
not allow the covenant promises that he had made to Ahaz’s ancestor, King David,
he would not allow those promises to go unfulfilled. You see, the Lord had made a
promise and he was going to keep his promise and the faithlessness of King
Ahaz would not nullify or thwart the covenant faithfulness of Yahweh, the true
and living God, the God of Israel. The Lord had promised David that his dynasty
would be an everlasting dynasty and even the faithlessness of King Ahaz would not
nullify the messianic promises that God had made to King David. Now a couple
points of application I think we can take away from these opening verses. Just
as it is the case that Syria and Israel tried to to get Judah to go along with
their alliance against Assyria, so likewise throughout the history of God’s
church, the unbelieving world has often sought to infiltrate and subvert the
church in order to conscript the church to do its bidding or to push godless
worldly agendas. But friends, God’s word calls upon us as the church of the Lord
Jesus Christ to stand firm against the inroads of a godless worldviews and
worldly minded agendas. Instead of being conformed to this world, we must be
transformed by the renewing of our minds. Instead of caving into pressure or
threats from the world, let us be strong in the Lord and in the power of his
might. I think another lesson we can glean from this passage, my friends, is
that this passage and others like it, what does this passage assume about the
Lord? Well, passages like this one underscore the reality of God’s sovereign
overruling providence and his sovereign overruling of all of the affairs of the
world. See, not only does the Lord govern us in the private chambers of our hearts,
though he certainly does do that, not only does his providence extend to our
family life and to the life of the church, it certainly does extend to that
as well. But remember, friends, our Lord in his divine providence, he exercises
his providential sway even on the national and indeed the international
scene. And indeed, throughout all of creation, God is sovereign over all. God was
not threatened by the Assyrian threat as Israel and Syria and Judah had felt
threatened. No, God was ruling and overruling even in the midst of that
threat. So let the people of God trust in him and rest in his providence. Let us,
beloved, let us rest in knowing that his providential hand guides all. And thus
we need not fear. Now that is not to say that we should not fulfill our
responsibilities. We have responsibilities as individual believers. We have
responsibilities as husbands and wives. We have responsibilities as employers and
employees. We have responsibilities as citizens. Let us be faithful to those
responsibilities, but let us not fret when things seem to be going in a way
that is not good. Let us realize that God is sovereign over all and his
providential hand guides all. And he is causing all things to work together for
the good to those who love him and who are the called according to his purpose.
So we see in this passage a conspiracy against the Lord’s people, but here we
also see a message to the Lord’s King. The Lord through Isaiah communicates to
King Ahaz a message, and that brings me to my next point as we consider verses
three through seven. It says this, and this is in response to Ahaz’s terrified
response to to Syria and Ephraim coming to attack Jerusalem. And sadly as the
leader of God’s people, he was supposed to show them and model for them
courage in the Lord, but instead he modeled cowardice. And so it says this in
verse three, the Lord said to Isaiah, go out to meet Ahaz, but he didn’t send just
Isaiah to meet Ahaz. He says, you and Shair Jashab your son. And then he tells
them where to go meet him. He was to meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the
upper pool on the highway to the washers field. We don’t know exactly where that
is, but what was likely happening here is that King Ahaz went to check the water
supply in the city, which would be a very important thing to know that they
were going to have a plentiful supply of water if they happen to be attacked and
if there’s a siege on the city of Jerusalem. So that’s where Isaiah is to
go, but he’s not to go alone. He’s to take his son Shair Jashab. Now that name,
the name of his son Shair Jashab means a remnant shall return. As one commentator
puts it, Isaiah’s son was a living portent of judgment and salvation. For
what does Isaiah’s son’s name imply? Well, the name means a remnant shall return.
His son’s name is itself a prophecy of that which was to come. There would come
a time when the people of Judah, too, would be sent into exile because of God’s
judgment against them. And yet, beyond the judgment, there is deliverance. There
is hope. There is restoration. There is salvation. For a remnant shall return.
And by taking his son with him to confront King Ahaz with the Lord’s
message, again, this was a further testimony and witness to King Ahaz. The
name Shair Jashab symbolized a promise of salvation to the faithful remnant,
which would take place, of course, after the near-term judgment of the wicked.
Judah would suffer judgment in the short term, but a faithful remnant would
remain and return from the exile. And then it goes on to say in verse 4, this
is the message that Isaiah was, under the Spirit’s inspiration, to convey to
Ahaz. And again, this was communicated to Ahaz early in his reign,
apparently before he had fallen into the gross wickedness that the other
scriptures testify that he fell into. And what was the message to Ahaz? The Lord
says to Isaiah to communicate this message to Ahaz, be careful, be quiet, do
not fear. His heart had been full of fear, fear that is described as shaking
as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. What a picturesque way of
describing this fear that he had, that had overcome him. But the Lord says to
him, be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint
because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands. He’s talking there about
the king of of Syria and the king of Israel, resin and Syria and the son of
Romalia, as it says at the end of this verse. He goes on to say in verse 4,
because Syria with Ephraim, I’m sorry, verse 5, because Syria with Ephraim and
the son of Romalia has devised evil against you, saying let us go up against
Judah and terrify it and let us conquer it for ourselves and set up the son of
Tabeel as king in the midst of it. They want to set up, get rid of Ahaz and set
up a puppet king in his place. What does it mean when he describes these two
kings as these two smoldering stumps of firebrands? Again as one commentator
points out, two kingdoms were about to be destroyed, Damascus which was
the capital city of Syria, was destroyed in 732 BC by Tiglath-Paleser III and
Samaria, the capital city of Israel. That in the northern kingdom was destroyed
in 722 BC by Sargon II. And so the Lord’s saying to Ahaz, look, these
kings who are threatening you, resin and and Pekah, these two kings, they
themselves are on their way out. They themselves are about to be destroyed, so
do not fear them, Ahaz. Instead be careful, be quiet, do not fear. In other
words, trust me, I’ve got this under control, Ahaz. And then he goes on to say
in verse 7, thus says the Lord God, it shall not stand and it shall not come to
pass. This is the divine promise to King Ahaz. It is a promise that he is to rest
in. Again, since God has given his word of promise, let King Ahaz trust in the
Lord’s sure word instead of turning to Assyria for help. You know, one of the
things that Isaiah is trying to do here under the Spirit’s inspiration, he’s
trying to keep Ahaz from forming a counter alliance with Assyria. Instead of
trusting in an alliance with Assyria to defend itself, to defend Judah rather
against Syria and Israel’s attack, Ahaz was called upon to trust in his divine
king, to trust in Yahweh, the God of Israel. The Lord’s saying through Isaiah,
Ahaz, don’t trust in Assyria, don’t make an alliance with Assyria to defend
yourself against Syria and Israel who are trying to force you into an
alliance with them. Instead, let your alliance, if you will, be with me. Let
your trust be in me. However, as other passages of scripture indicate, Ahaz
obviously did not heed this call to faith in the Lord. Instead of trusting in
the Lord and obeying his word, he turned to human resources by making an alliance
with Assyria and he trusted in idols and in the works of his own hands. We
learned that a few Lord’s days ago and we considered 2 Kings chapter 16. Dear
ones, we learned from this passage that the Word of God communicates to us both
warnings and promises. Warnings of judgment to those who reject the Lord
and who reject his word, but promises of grace and salvation to those who repent
and trust in the Lord and in his word. Oh, by God’s grace, may we heed the
warnings and may we embrace the promises. And so we find finally in this passage
in verses 8 and 9, a summons to firm faith in the Lord. That’s the final point
on your sermon outline. We find here a summons to firm faith in the Lord. So the
Lord goes on, he assures at the end of verse 7, he assures Ahaz that this
conspiracy against Judah will not stand. The Lord will not allow it to stand. And
he goes on to say, for the head of Syria is Damascus and the head of Damascus is
resin, and within 65 years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people. What
does this mean? What is this 65 years that is being referred to? Well, biblical
scholars debate how this was precisely fulfilled, but I agree with the
following commentator who says this. He says, the Northern Kingdom fell to
Assyria in 722 BC. By around 670 BC, the ethnic identity of the former kingdom
would have been decisively transformed due to the importation of foreign
settlers. And that’s what happened in the Northern Kingdom, for example. And so
again, we find here a call to faith, in verse 9, and head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is the son of Romalia. If you are not firm in faith, you
will not be firm at all. This is an interesting, it’s interesting how this is
worded in the Hebrew. Isaiah uses a Hebrew wordplay to drive home the point.
It has been suggested that this section of verse 9 could be paraphrased
as, hold God in doubt, you’ll not hold out, or unsure equals insecure. This is a
call to firmly trust in the Lord and his promises. Friends, what Ahaz needed to
understand is that God will not allow his covenant promises to the house of
David to fail or be thwarted. God had promised to David an eternal offspring
and an eternal kingdom, and therefore Ahaz had no reason to fear the threats
from Syria and the Northern Kingdom of Israel, nor should he turn to the king of
Assyria, the pagan king of Assyria, for protection. Instead, as the theocratic
king over God’s people, as the Davidic anointed king over God’s people, Ahaz
should put his trust in the divine king, Yahweh the Lord. But again, as the
biblical history makes clear, tragically King Ahaz did not heed this call to
affirm faith. He turned to the pagan king of Assyria for help. He made an alliance
with the king of Assyria against Syria and Israel, and instead of trusting and
obeying the Lord, he fell into gross, perverse idolatry and extremely wicked
behavior, even sacrificing his son, burning his son alive to a pagan deity.
Friends, his gross idolatry and wicked behavior and utter failure as the
theocratic king over God’s people were all ultimately rooted in an evil heart
of unbelief, because he did not believe this word from the Lord that was
communicated to him by Isaiah the prophet. Sadly and tragically, King Ahaz
ultimately showed himself to be an unregenerate man, a man who instead of
trusting Yahweh and his covenant promises, trusted in man. In his case, he
trusted in the pagan king of Assyria, and he trusted in the works of human hands,
which explains his idolatry and his modeling of an altar for the temple of the Lord that
mimicked the altars that he saw among the Assyrians. He worshiped the
works of his own hands. He departed from the Lord. In some, my friends, Ahaz
disobeyed because he disbelieved. He had no firmness of faith, so he fell into the
folly of idolatry. And those, my friends, are ultimately the two options. You either
trust in the Lord and his promises of grace offered freely to you in the
gospel, or you reject the Lord and his word. So how about you? Are you like King
Ahaz, or do you firmly trust in the Lord’s promises? The good news of the
gospel is that God has made sure and certain and firm promises. Just as God
fulfilled his covenant promise to David by raising up Jesus of Nazareth, great
David’s greater son, to be the Messiah, the promised Messiah, so the Lord has
made firm and certain promises in the gospel to all who believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. For Jesus Christ, the God-man, the Word made flesh, was
crucified for the forgiveness of sins and raised from the dead so that whoever
believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life. And the Word of
God promises to all who turn to Christ in faith and repentance that they will
be fully and freely forgiven. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be
saved. That is God’s faithful promise to you and to me. Do you believe that
promise? Do you trust that Savior? His arms are open wide to all who would receive
him, and so be firm in your faith in Christ. Rest in him. As the prophet Isaiah
says to Ahaz, be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be
faint. Do not let your heart be faint as you consider your sinfulness in the
presence of an all-holy God. Realize that in Jesus Christ, you have a perfect,
all-sufficient Savior, and all of God’s promises are yea and amen in him. So rest
in Jesus. May your faith be firm in him. Amen. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in
heaven, we thank you that you are sovereign. We thank you that you are a
God of providence. We thank you, Lord, that no matter how the world seems to be
spinning out of control, God our Heavenly Father, you our Father in heaven, are
still sovereign and Jesus is still Lord. And so help us to rest in your
sovereignty and give us grace as sinners to rest in Jesus, our perfect,
all-sufficient Savior, and in his precious gospel promises. In his name we
pray, and all of God’s people said amen. As we close our service today, let’s rise
and sing as our hymn of commitment, number 479, Jesus, I am resting, resting, 479.