Isaiah 8:11-22
"For the LORD spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying: “ Do not say, ‘A conspiracy,’ Concerning all that this people call a conspiracy, Nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. The LORD of hosts, Him you shall hallow; Let Him be your fear, And let Him be your dread. 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. 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. And I will wait on the LORD, Who hides His face from the house of Jacob; And I will hope in Him. 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. 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? 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." (NKJV)
Verse 11 reminds us two important truths for today. First, and somewhat curiously, is the association between "spoke" and "hand" in the first part of the verse. We generally do not speak with our hands (although some people certainly do move their hands when they speak and it seems they would be hard-pressed to speak WITHOUT moving their hands :). Furthermore, it is with a STRONG hand that the Lord spoke to Isaiah. There are several thoughts associated with this. God is not weak! He is the Almighty - the ALL-MIGHTY ONE. He is omnipotent - the ALL-POWERFUL ONE. God is able! We should never doubt His strength, His capability, His ability to do anything, and everything, that He says He will do! Equally important here is that God is not just talk. He is action that matches the talk. We know that God's love is not just a sappy, sentimental feeling toward us. Rather, John 3:16 tells us that God loved us so much that He GAVE His only Son. Because He loved, He gave! God's actions match His words. God does what He says! Do we? Are we people of our word? Can people depend on us to do what we say, and do we only say what is within our capability to do so that we do not exaggerate, mislead, give false hope, etc. God keeps His word! Everything He has said, He will do! He Who has begun a good work in you WILL complete it.
The second important truth from verse 11 is the realization that even "Christian" people in a "Christian" nation can go the wrong way and should not be followed. Isaiah was an Israelite - an Israelite prophet to Israelite people of the nation of Israel. God's direct revelation to Isaiah was that he (Isaiah) was NOT to walk in the ways of the people. Romans 12:1-2 remind Christians that we are NOT to allow the world to press us into its mold. We do not do a very good job at that. Many professing Christians do not even attempt to do that, let alone succeed at it. "Christian" churches across our land (and throughout the world) are walking in ways that they ought not be walking in. It is our hope that this website will address many of those "ways". Societies pressure people to conform to its ideologies and practices. Churches often do the same thing. God's goal for us is to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ Who is the express image of God! (see Hebrews ).
To go against the flow, to resist the tide (of public opinion, of peer pressure, etc.) is not an easy thing and God even tells Isaiah here to not be afraid of their threats, nor to be troubled. When we stand with God and His word, we may have "trouble" and yet not be "troubled". Inner peace and assurance result from walking in His ways. But that does NOT exempt us from trouble from without - from enemies (of God), from friends (so-called) and sometimes even from family. The direction and positive encouragement that God gives to Isaiah can be better seen if we accentuate a few words in verses 13-14 - "The LORD of hosts, HIM you shall hallow; Let Him be your fear, And let Him be your dread. 14 He will be as a sanctuary,...".
The key to survival, and to victory, then is being in the right relationship with the living God and abiding in Him.
Hallow HIM - HE is the Holy and perfect and righteous and just one - WORSHIP HIM.
Fear Him - HE is the all-powerful, all-mighty One - FEAR HIM.
HE will be your sanctuary, your refuge - Peter said to Jesus "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life".
The key is HIM. Verse 17 adds 2 important responses of Isaiah to what God has just said.
I will wait on the LORD
I will hope in Him
But remember, that same Rock in which we are to take refuge will be for many (Jews and sadly even many professing Christians) a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense (verse 14-15). Paul spoke of this in Romans 9:33 "As it is written: 'Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame'.” Peter also spoke of this in 1 Peter 2:7-8 "Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,” and “ A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense.”
Verse 16 and 19-20 remind us that it is easy to get away from God's word. Nations, churches and many individuals have steadily moved away from God's word (just as Israel did) and there are grave consequences for doing so. We need to repent and turn back to God! People look to all kinds of things today. Professing Christians read the horoscopes, look for "signs and wonders", look to "professional people" and look in many other places for answers. King Saul, the first king of Israel was guilty of this very thing.
In the Isaiah passage above, verse 19 says "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?"
The RIGHT way is spelled out in verse 20 - "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." Believing, thinking, acting contrary to God's revealed word (the law and the prophets at that time) was indicative of the absence of truth! The people of Isaiah's day (just like people in "Churchianity" today) were:
(a) believing wrong things (though they may have been sincere in those beliefs), they were
(b) thinking wrongly (we are told in Romans 12:1-2 to be transformed by the renewing of our minds) thus they were not doing what we are told in:
Phil. 4:8-9 "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you".
2 Peter 1:2-11 "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Fruitful Growth in the Faith But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." ; and because they believed error and thought wrongly,
(c) they were not living as they ought to live.
What are the ramifications of this? They had a faith that was not rooted and grounded in God, in truth, and lived out in faith and by faith (the just shall live by faith). In Matthew 13 we read a parable of a sower and four kinds of soil. The parable is explained by Jesus to the disciples (Matthew 13:18-22) and the first part is as follows: “Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful."
Isaiah 8:21-22 says "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."
Notice that when hard times come, when "life isn't fair", when God seems to have abandoned us, when the ample quantity of luscious foods that we enjoyed are no longer available, when the lucrative position is terminated, when the family member leaves us or the friends disappoint us, when we try to do right and the world (or even "Christians") beat us down, do we turn to God? or somewhere else? Job's sons were all killed, all his earthly wealth was taken away and he himself suffered great physical pain. It was so bad that his own wife said to him, Why don't you just curse God and die? But Job's faith was greater than his trials and he was able to reply - "Though He (God) slay me, YET I will trust Him!"
How's your faith holding up?
Are you rooted and grounded such that when the storms of YOUR life come, you find that your "house" (your faith, in this case) was built on the sure foundation of the Rock of Ages, God Himself, and you cannot be moved? Or are you on shaky ground - built on sand - and when YOUR trials come, a washout follows?
Are you being pressed into the mold of the world, looking and acting no different than the world? - maybe it's because in fact you are not any different. The Bible teaches us that if a person is "in Christ" he is a new creation, old things are passed away and all things become new. God says "Come out from among them and be separate". Who will you choose to obey? God? or the god(s) of this world?
Are you being pressed into the mold of a "church" that believes wrong, thinks wrong or acts wrong? Stand by God and His word - you can do no better than that, but we are obligated to at least do that. "Let God be true and every man a liar" - "To the Law and to the Testimony" - Know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free.
"For the LORD spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying: “ Do not say, ‘A conspiracy,’ Concerning all that this people call a conspiracy, Nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. The LORD of hosts, Him you shall hallow; Let Him be your fear, And let Him be your dread. 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. 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. And I will wait on the LORD, Who hides His face from the house of Jacob; And I will hope in Him. 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. 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? 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." (NKJV)
Verse 11 reminds us two important truths for today. First, and somewhat curiously, is the association between "spoke" and "hand" in the first part of the verse. We generally do not speak with our hands (although some people certainly do move their hands when they speak and it seems they would be hard-pressed to speak WITHOUT moving their hands :). Furthermore, it is with a STRONG hand that the Lord spoke to Isaiah. There are several thoughts associated with this. God is not weak! He is the Almighty - the ALL-MIGHTY ONE. He is omnipotent - the ALL-POWERFUL ONE. God is able! We should never doubt His strength, His capability, His ability to do anything, and everything, that He says He will do! Equally important here is that God is not just talk. He is action that matches the talk. We know that God's love is not just a sappy, sentimental feeling toward us. Rather, John 3:16 tells us that God loved us so much that He GAVE His only Son. Because He loved, He gave! God's actions match His words. God does what He says! Do we? Are we people of our word? Can people depend on us to do what we say, and do we only say what is within our capability to do so that we do not exaggerate, mislead, give false hope, etc. God keeps His word! Everything He has said, He will do! He Who has begun a good work in you WILL complete it.
The second important truth from verse 11 is the realization that even "Christian" people in a "Christian" nation can go the wrong way and should not be followed. Isaiah was an Israelite - an Israelite prophet to Israelite people of the nation of Israel. God's direct revelation to Isaiah was that he (Isaiah) was NOT to walk in the ways of the people. Romans 12:1-2 remind Christians that we are NOT to allow the world to press us into its mold. We do not do a very good job at that. Many professing Christians do not even attempt to do that, let alone succeed at it. "Christian" churches across our land (and throughout the world) are walking in ways that they ought not be walking in. It is our hope that this website will address many of those "ways". Societies pressure people to conform to its ideologies and practices. Churches often do the same thing. God's goal for us is to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ Who is the express image of God! (see Hebrews ).
To go against the flow, to resist the tide (of public opinion, of peer pressure, etc.) is not an easy thing and God even tells Isaiah here to not be afraid of their threats, nor to be troubled. When we stand with God and His word, we may have "trouble" and yet not be "troubled". Inner peace and assurance result from walking in His ways. But that does NOT exempt us from trouble from without - from enemies (of God), from friends (so-called) and sometimes even from family. The direction and positive encouragement that God gives to Isaiah can be better seen if we accentuate a few words in verses 13-14 - "The LORD of hosts, HIM you shall hallow; Let Him be your fear, And let Him be your dread. 14 He will be as a sanctuary,...".
The key to survival, and to victory, then is being in the right relationship with the living God and abiding in Him.
Hallow HIM - HE is the Holy and perfect and righteous and just one - WORSHIP HIM.
Fear Him - HE is the all-powerful, all-mighty One - FEAR HIM.
HE will be your sanctuary, your refuge - Peter said to Jesus "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life".
The key is HIM. Verse 17 adds 2 important responses of Isaiah to what God has just said.
I will wait on the LORD
I will hope in Him
But remember, that same Rock in which we are to take refuge will be for many (Jews and sadly even many professing Christians) a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense (verse 14-15). Paul spoke of this in Romans 9:33 "As it is written: 'Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame'.” Peter also spoke of this in 1 Peter 2:7-8 "Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,” and “ A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense.”
Verse 16 and 19-20 remind us that it is easy to get away from God's word. Nations, churches and many individuals have steadily moved away from God's word (just as Israel did) and there are grave consequences for doing so. We need to repent and turn back to God! People look to all kinds of things today. Professing Christians read the horoscopes, look for "signs and wonders", look to "professional people" and look in many other places for answers. King Saul, the first king of Israel was guilty of this very thing.
In the Isaiah passage above, verse 19 says "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?"
The RIGHT way is spelled out in verse 20 - "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." Believing, thinking, acting contrary to God's revealed word (the law and the prophets at that time) was indicative of the absence of truth! The people of Isaiah's day (just like people in "Churchianity" today) were:
(a) believing wrong things (though they may have been sincere in those beliefs), they were
(b) thinking wrongly (we are told in Romans 12:1-2 to be transformed by the renewing of our minds) thus they were not doing what we are told in:
Phil. 4:8-9 "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you".
2 Peter 1:2-11 "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Fruitful Growth in the Faith But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." ; and because they believed error and thought wrongly,
(c) they were not living as they ought to live.
What are the ramifications of this? They had a faith that was not rooted and grounded in God, in truth, and lived out in faith and by faith (the just shall live by faith). In Matthew 13 we read a parable of a sower and four kinds of soil. The parable is explained by Jesus to the disciples (Matthew 13:18-22) and the first part is as follows: “Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful."
Isaiah 8:21-22 says "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."
Notice that when hard times come, when "life isn't fair", when God seems to have abandoned us, when the ample quantity of luscious foods that we enjoyed are no longer available, when the lucrative position is terminated, when the family member leaves us or the friends disappoint us, when we try to do right and the world (or even "Christians") beat us down, do we turn to God? or somewhere else? Job's sons were all killed, all his earthly wealth was taken away and he himself suffered great physical pain. It was so bad that his own wife said to him, Why don't you just curse God and die? But Job's faith was greater than his trials and he was able to reply - "Though He (God) slay me, YET I will trust Him!"
How's your faith holding up?
Are you rooted and grounded such that when the storms of YOUR life come, you find that your "house" (your faith, in this case) was built on the sure foundation of the Rock of Ages, God Himself, and you cannot be moved? Or are you on shaky ground - built on sand - and when YOUR trials come, a washout follows?
Are you being pressed into the mold of the world, looking and acting no different than the world? - maybe it's because in fact you are not any different. The Bible teaches us that if a person is "in Christ" he is a new creation, old things are passed away and all things become new. God says "Come out from among them and be separate". Who will you choose to obey? God? or the god(s) of this world?
Are you being pressed into the mold of a "church" that believes wrong, thinks wrong or acts wrong? Stand by God and His word - you can do no better than that, but we are obligated to at least do that. "Let God be true and every man a liar" - "To the Law and to the Testimony" - Know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free.