October 13, 2009

• Isaiah 8 by Pastor Don Moore

  Pastor Don began the Bible study by giving a recap about Isaiah because we had a lot of new visitors to the study.  He reminded us that Isaiah was a prophet who was prophesying that there was going to be a punishment coming on Israel because of their disobedience. The nation of Israel was divided into the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (Judah).  Israel (the Northern Kingdom) never had a king that did not resort to idol worship, and as a nation it was the first to go into captivity, but Judah soon followed.

  After Solomon died, Rehoboam who was king of both Northern & Southern Israel chose to follow the counsel of young men, not the elders, and he caused a great tax to be given to the people of Israel, this caused the nation to divide into two.  But this created a problem for Jereboam who rebeled against Rehoboam and became the king of the Northern Kingdom (the 10 tribes) and he feared losing his power when the tribes would want to go to Jerusalem for the Feasts.  So he created two golden calves for the people to worship and placed them in the land – this was repeating the sin of the Israelites in the wilderness, for God did not want idol worship.  This lead to greater and greater sins, and more and more idol worship.  And ultimately led to the nation being led into captivity.

  God gave the Israelites the Law as a tutor to show them their need for a Messiah, and ultimately God wanted to write the law on their hearts, but the Israelites turned the law into legalism, and persisted in their sins. 

  There were a few kings in Judah who did “right” in the sight of God, but idolatry kept returning to the land.  But because of those kings that sought to obey God, Judah remained in tact a bit longer than the 10 tribes of the Northern Kingdom.  The prophets kept warning the people, but the people chose to ignore the prophets. 

  The truth is that violating the law would kill them, but people felt that that would not happen.  Jesus took the law and boiled it down to two commandments – Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, spirit, and love your neighbor as yourself.  But the people kept rebeling.

  Isaiah is prophesying to warn the people about the impending judgment of God for their disobedience and idolatry.  We picked up on Chapter 8.

  Isaiah 8:1-3 Moreover the LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll, and write on it with a man’s pen concerning Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. And I will take for Myself faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.” Then I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the LORD said to me, “Call his name Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz;

  The footnote at the bottom of my Bible tells us that Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz means “Speed the spoil, hasten the booty.” Principles in the Old Testament are clouded, but we see more what they are in the New Testament.

  The real question is:  Is God sovereign or not? What happens is that we want God to be sovereign as long as God is good to us, as long as He is blessing us, and it is going well for us.  It is kind of like a teenager who is getting what they want.  But all that changes the moment things do not go our way.  Then we do not want God’s sovereign will.

  The truth is God will use good and evil to accomplish His purposes.  He will permit the destroyers to come if people are not in obedience and if they remove themselves from His covering of protection by disobedience.   The devil is happy to comply, to kill, steal and destroy.  It is not God doing the destruction, but God can remove His hand of protection and destruction will come.  God will use the Assyrians to punish Israel for disobedience and idolatry.

  Elohim, Adonai, Jehovah God, does want to protect His people, but if the people are in rebelion, in disobedience He is no longer responsible to protect them.  When evil comes because we have moved outside of God’s protection we often ask, “Where is God?”  It isn’t that God has moved, but we have moved outside God’s protection.  We don’t want God to be sovereign when things are not going well for us.

  God will permit evil if it will help to bring about a good result (change that is beneficial for us for it brings us to obedience), and then after we get that good result, then God will turn and destroy the evil.  The devil will be destroyed ultimately because the devil permits himself to be used to hurt others.

  Babylon will be used to destroy Israel, but a remnant of Israel will be saved, and we see in the end times that Babylon will be destroyed. If you read current events you see that the devil is again trying to raise up the city of Babylon, but ultimately that will not succeed.

  God will never permit evil to attack us with a plan to destroy. Instead, God wants the evil to help to destroy the idolatry and evil, and bring us back to God.  We need to get the revealed truth of obedience.  We need to obey God whether we understand why or not.  We need to believe God.  As time goes by, we will look back on those periods of obedience that we do not understand, and God will reveal His purpose behind His desire for us to obey Him in that way.  All that happens to us is to fulfill a higher purpose and greater plan over our lives. 

  Obedience is better than sacrifice. Obedience is better than knowledge.  Obedience is better than wisdom.  The only way to survive life on earth is to get the revealed truth of obedience.  King Nebuchadnezzar got taken up with pride and felt that he obtained power on his own, and as a consequence he spent many years living in the wild like an animal until he finally became wise and acknowledged that God was God and that he needed to be obeyed. That it is God who raises up kings and removes kings, that God is sovereign.

  Belshazzar had no respect for God and for the things of the Temple.  In fact, he used the plates and cups from the Temple for a pagan party, God wrote on the wall that Belshazzar was weighed in the balance and found wanting and that his rulership was finished.  King Darius (the Medes and Persians) came in and took over. 

  Those who came in and destroyed the Israelites were ultimately destroyed – the Babylonians and the Medes and Persians. 

  We do not always want to confess up for all the things that we have brought upon ourselves.  There is no deliverance without repentance.  Pastor Don spoke about how he once attended a deliverance meeting and the spirits would leave one host person and before the people left the church parking lot, the spirit had found another host to reside.  Unless a person fills up the space where the spirit resided with the Word of God, and repentance, they are still open for the demons to return, and often the demons return with others and the person is worse off than before.

  We are taught some bad theology in some churches.  Yes God loves us, and He is always there for us, but that does not mean that we can do whatever we want to do without repercussions.  God can remove His hand of protection and we can end up facing the consequences for our actions.  Consider Samson who God blessed.  Samson had taken a Nazarite vow, and as time went by he started violating the various parts of the vow until he ultimately began sleeping with pagan women such as Delilah.  He ended up blinded and in chains because he got out from under the protection of God. 

  God can only be with you in a Godly way.  Jesus will never help you buy cocaine or do something that is outside the covenant relationship with God.  When we are outside the covenant relationship God cannot be with us the way we want Him to be – He is sovereign.  God is in the background and He will tell us things like, son if you keep it up I will remove the hedge of protection from around you and you will experience the consequences for your actions.

  Jesus went to the Cross for us, and because of that we can understand the Covenant of God, the Promise of God and the trustworthiness of God.  If we go through a hard time, He is there to help us.  If we keep covenant, He will help us.  We need to trust Him, no matter what it looks like in our circumstances. 

  God is the God of our circumstances. Even if you have a hard time believing that, He is there for you.  You need to believe that God will never leave you or forsake you.  No matter what people have done to you, you need to forgive and be quick about forgiving.  Obey God’s Word.  God will destroy the destroyer who comes against us.

  Isaiah 8:14  He will be as a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

  Pastor Don spoke about the duality in the heavens, the divine constellations in the heavens, that portray facts about Christ, even to those who do not have the Scriptures. 

  The sanctuary is a place of divine miracles and peace.  Yet for those who do not accept Jesus, He is a rock of offense. Those in the new age water down God – they make God what they want Him to be – a rock, tree, or whatever they choose.  But that is not the real God, and when they are told about Jesus, they don’t want to hear about Him for then they would have to give up their idols and worship Jesus.  Jesus becomes a rock of offense to them.

  If you speak Jesus’ name to them it strikes a chord, and often they do not know how to respond.  The Name of Jesus can offend those who do not understand.

  Isaiah 8:15-16 And many among them shall stumble; they shall fall and be broken, be snared and taken.”  Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.

  The law is sealed among the disciples.

  Isaiah 8:17 And I will wait on the LORD, who hides His face from the house of Jacob; and I will hope in Him.

  He will not show His face to covenant breakers.

  Isaiah 8:18 Here am I and the children whom the LORD has given me! We are for signs and wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells in Mount Zion.

  This is referring to the prophetic generations.  God will always preserve for Himself a remnant, even in the breaking of the covenant, he will reserve a remnant church.  God will not save all the people, just a remnant. 

  Statistics show that 84% of people in America say they are Christian, but only 4% participate in Church on a regular basis and consider themselves born again.  Only 34% of Christians say they are Born Again, the rest claim they are Christian by cultural heritage, coming to church at Easter and Christmas and for some special occasions, but they do not participate in spiritual life on a regular basis.

  Our job is to preach and spread the Gospel, so that people can hear the Gospel.  Whether they are saved or not is not our job – our job is to share the Gospel (good news), to cast our hooks into the pond of life and disciple those who choose to bite, those who God has called. 

  Isaiah 8:19 And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?

  There are those today who claim that they are talking to the dead when all they are speaking with are familiar spirits.  This is forbidden by God, and in the time of the Israelites, those who were mediums were taken outside the camp and stoned to death.  New agers think they are talking to God, but NO THEY ARE NOT!  God would have to violate His own law to talk through a medium at a seance.  It is satan and his minions who are speaking through mediums – and yes they will tell you the truth, but only so they can get you to buy a lie later on down the road.  Ultimately those who choose the new age will end up destroyed.  For example Dion Warwick spent time with the psychic network and she lost everything.  The author of the satanic bible – Anton Levy died from one of the worst types of stomach cancers, and died in great pain.  He never made his 60th birthday.  Anyone the devil uses he will ultimately destroy.

  Isaiah 8:20-22 To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. They will pass through it hard-pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward. Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness.

  Pastor Don brought us to Numbers 13 for an example of what these verses were talking about.  This was when Moses sent the 12 spies into the land to search out the Promised Land the spies were the cream of the crop from Israel, and they came back and told the truth – in part.  The grapes were huge, the land had much food and was developed.  10 people gave a bad report, reporting on the giants in the land and how the Israelites seemed to be like grasshoppers in their eyes, that there was no way for the Israelites to succeed in taking over the land.  But two people came back with a good report, saying that they could conquer the land because God was for them.  Those 10 with the bad report were guilty of idolatry and unbelief, for they spoke what was contrary to what God said.  Because of them, Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness, and only two people Joshua and Caleb from the original Israelites were able to cross over into the Promised Land – they believed God. 

  We are not to look at our feelings or circumstances, but instead believe the Word of God and obey the Word of God.

  Praying your day is blessed.

  Heather

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