Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

Isaiah is a singing prophet – as many were – and in the first chapter here (chapter five) we have the Song of the Vineyard, which can be broken up into three sections: the Love Song, the Six Woes, and the Judgment. Within it all, Jesus is the Vine and the Tower. The thing given in Covenant that the people only needed to cleave to in order to produce bountifully. The Tower that would guard them and be a fortress of protection if they would only not forsake it. Much like Moses’ song in Deuteronomy 32, this song speaks of a coming future where the people would reap what they sowed.

The vineyard described is the nation of Israel. The Lord cleared the land of stones, built a tower, defended it with a wall, and planted good vines in good ground. The Lord did everything possible for Judah to bring forth good fruit – the results were NOT His fault. It produced bad fruit. It was not bountiful. It was useless. So He was going to turn it back into a wild field. To bring it down through conquest and wipe it clean. He would not be DESTROYING the vineyard, just removing His protection from people who had rejected it. The people operated in oppression and unrighteousness. The Lord wanted them to love Him, but they refused. He would let them reap what they sowed – and it would break His heart.

The Lord rebuked materialism that sought to control and hold onto possessions in a monopoly preventing others to have blessing. He rebuked drunken pleasures, those who used drink and other drugs to seek the pleasure sensations of the world. Those that forsake knowledge and numb themselves against the actual world. The Lord rebuked defiant sinfulness. Those that knew wrong from right, and chose the wrong. He rebuked a perversion of moral values from His objective standards to human ideals of what ‘felt’ good. Who didn’t just forsake goodness, but called it evil. He rebuked arrogance and conceit. He rebuked injustice – always having a special heart for the orphan, the widow, and the downtrodden. The rulers and judges who took bribes to bring about the will of those who oppressed others.

The Lord told in simple and concise language what harvest was coming. The type and severity of the judgment on these sinful ideals and actions. He had warned them again and again, but they choose the opposite of what He called for and refused to repent. Therefore His right and just anger was kindled, and judgement on sin was coming. It was so big and so thorough that the land would seem a smoking wasteland when it was done.

Next Isaiah, the year his uncle died in judgment (see 2 Chronicles 26), saw a vision of the Lord [a companion vision to Ezekiel’s in Ezekiel 1 & 10]. He saw the sinfulness of himself and the nation compared to God. The Seraphims saw the holiness of God and called it out as it manifested all around Isaiah. Through the actions of the Holy One of God (Jesus), Isaiah was cleansed and able to see God as the angels did – instead of staying in the wallow of human nature alone. Instead of being thrown out of the holy place, Isaiah was purified with a burning coal from the altar. The call from the Lord went out: Who can I send? Isaiah’s response was to immediately cooperate and offered to go. While before Isaiah had spoken of his visions, now he was anointed to speak forth God’s direct words.

This was Jesus whom Isaiah saw and interacted with (John 12:41). The same words spoken to Isaiah about the people he was to minister to were spoken again by Jesus when He came to Earth as a man (Matthew 13:14-15; John 12:40). Jesus told him about the blindness of the people. Of how they would be too stupid to realise they were about to be destroyed because of it. Isaiah wanted to know how long they would be blind. The answer: until they were conquered and desolate (2 Kings 25). Not because God willed it. Because of their choices (Romans 1:28). He was only enforcing the harvest THEY planted and that THEY watered. He was giving them what they INSISTED on. But even in the judgment, Jesus proved His mercy and declared there would be remnant saved and a remnant returned. Also that even though rebellious now, the seed of their salvation would come from this tribe of Judah (Himself – Galatians 3:16; Matthew 1:1-17).

Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, king of Israel, were coming against Ahaz, the king of Judah. Ahaz was not a godly king. But God sent Isaiah to find Ahaz and give him a message. If Ahaz would hold to trust in God, God would save him and the nation. That the Redeemer would save them and even use the buzzing insects to drive them away – very reminiscent of the hornets God told Joshua He would use to cleanse the promised land (we have no idea if God was being literal, figurative, or a bit of both). Isaiah had his son with him, whose name meant ‘a remnant will be saved’, as a visible proof that God was going to watch over them. That rescue was at hand if Ahaz would repent. [Ahaz did not hold trust and turned to Assyria for help – 2 Kings 16:5-8]

The Lord asked Ahaz to choose a sign of their deliverance, but Ahaz refused. God gave him a sign anyway: a virgin (or young girl of marriageable age) would give birth and his name would be Immanuel. Before that child was old enough to eat honey (about a year) these enemy kings would be no more. Before the child knew good from evil, the very lands these kings came from would be forsaken (2 Kings 17 and 2 Chronicles 36). As with many prophecies about God’s children, this was multilayered. It spoke to their direct circumstances and Isaiah’s second son. They also spoke of Jesus and His coming.

God also prophesied the rise of the Egyptians and Assyrians against Israel. That they would be a plague that the nation would not escape. The land would return to an uncultivated state and full of thorns. These places Ahaz feared so much he ignored God and tried to do it himself, would be wiped out by God and not by the efforts of mankind. Again, God is being so merciful and pointing out step by step what He would do in order to set fire to Ahaz’ belief and trust. To help him to turn back to God.

“Then Yahweh said to me, “Take yourself a large tablet and write on it with a common stylus pen: Maher-Halal-Hash-Baz.” (Isaiah 8:1)

Isaiah lived out the sign of his prophecy. He wrote down the name (that would be his son’s), and took it to Uriah the priest and to Zechariah, son of Jeberechiah. It would be proof that once again God promised a remnant would remain. A remnant of faithful people that God would protect. He went home to his wife and nine months later a son was born who God told him to name Maherhalalhashbaz. And the Lord told him again that before the child was old enough to talk, Israel and Syria would be conquered by the Assyrians (2 Kings 17). The Jews had been so jealous of what the Syrians had had that they joined with them, and not stayed faithful to God. The Lord would bring the Assyrians like a flood and fill the land. They would try to stand against it, but would fail. God’s will could not be stood against. It WOULD come to pass.

God warned Isaiah firmly not to accept or to go along with the thinking of the people of the day. When they saw trouble, they sought outside alliances with other nations. God told him to stick to the Lord of Hosts (Jesus). That He would be a Rock and a Sanctuary (1 Peter 2:7-8). That many would stumble and break upon that Rock (Matthew 21:44), but the testimony and the Law would be true. He would be the salvation that could be depended on. Do not turn to mediums or spirits. The dead cannot inform the living. The Word would be their lamp (Psalm 119:105) and the only thing that could lead them (John 14:6). If they looked at the nation of Israel through the eyes of these soothsayers, they would see only smoke and anguish – not the hope of God.

Summary

Key Players: God, Jesus, Isaiah, Ahaz

Key Verse(s): Isaiah 5:1-7; 6:1-5, 8; 7:7-9, 13-17; 8:12-17