Isaiah-The Prince of Vision (Part C)

The earnestness in His words, the boldness, the spirituality in His words that was correct spirituality was according to the patriarchs, was according to Moses and the law, the prophets that came before him. He was a man of deep reverence.

Why? This is important because he was connected to God. He's connected to God.

That's what we want. Everything is working to keep us from remaining connected to God. We name our children after people in the Bible. This is Luke. This is David. This is Isaiah. This is Jeremiah.

Because we want that. We want to encapsulate our witness through our children. The name part is the easiest part. But the first child that we're told in Isaiah chapter 7 verse 3 is Shira-Jashub. Why don't you parents say, we don't know what the name of him is. What's his name?

His brother's name is even better. We'll get to that in a minute. But his name means the remnant shall return or the survivors. In other words, God's going to take care of His own. He's not going to take care of those who did not qualify to be in the remnant. He's going to take care of those who are His. That's what the name meant. And so whenever that little boy was playing, whenever he introduced him to someone, it was a rebuke or it was an encouragement. But it was not neutral. God's faithful to His own.

That was the message. The second name, Mahir-shalahashbaz. Come with me to the hashbaz. But anyway, the name Mahir-shalahashbaz, which incidentally is the longest name in the Bible in the English language when translated.

The name roughly means swift to the spoils, speedy to the prey. Yee-haw, yee-haw. Andre, Andre. Speedy Gonzalez going on there.

And if you don't know who Speedy Gonzalez is and you were born in this country, you have been ripped off, man. You've got some work to do. But his name was the judgment of God is coming and the instruments that he is going to use are going to be delighted at the fall of the wicked who should have been righteous. They're going to swoop down here so quick. The Lord is going to whistle for them and there will be no delay in their response. This, we talked about the poetry in Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 5 in verse 26.

Listen to this. He says, He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar. This is concerning the judgment. God calling the Assyrian, will be the Chaldeans when they finally come to Israel to judge. He says, He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar and will whistle to them from the end of the earth. Surely they shall come with speed swiftly. Then he goes on to say, whose arrows are sharp and their bows bent, their horses hooves will seem like flint and their wheels like the whirlwind. Could you imagine if they run on those horses running on rock, they'd be sparking as they're moving.

The idea is they will not wear out. They will not grow, they won't get flat tires on the way, during the invasion, on the way to your destruction because it will be a judgment of God. And so that was the second son's name. We know that Isaiah was a historiographer, a historian who wasn't solely into the history, but he documented things about certain people into history.

We call it the scripture. We believe he was raised in the king's court. He may have been. There's some evidence in other writings that he was a prince. He was from the line of David. But either way, he was certainly in the court of the kings.

He ministered to the kings. But we read this in 2 Chronicles chapter 22 verse 26. He says, now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, catch this emphasis, from first to last. The prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz wrote.

So he's plugged in. He saw these things as being spiritual. This was God's appointed king. And he was going to be careful to write the story of this king that has found his way into scripture. Concerning King Hezekiah, the record states in 2 Chronicles 32, 22, now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and his goodness indeed, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

That's influence. Because he saw God, because he saw his role as a servant of God, because he saw his responsibility to answer what God gave him to see, he captured things on behalf of the righteous. Information, truth, history. How many times do you read in the Bible and say, boy, I wish there was more information on that.

I'm grateful that we have any information that has survived. God is able to protect his word and he has protected it so precisely that we have all we need to do what we have to do. And he has made it interesting nonetheless. And though Isaiah was known more for what he said than for what he did, there are still what we call action parables. No lack in his ministry. Once he removed his outer garment, he was illustrating a truth from God. He took off his shoes and he walked about the streets of Jerusalem in a long tunic next to his skin. We're told this story in Isaiah chapter 20. And he played the role of a captive. And it was a message to the people that they were not to join with Egypt to fight off the Assyrians. The Assyrians were the world power at the time. And he was saying, you trust God because these Egyptians are going to go into captivity.

And I am dressed like a captive to illustrate how true this is going to be. And that is exactly what happened. And so when God would give him a message before the thing happened, he illustrated it from time to time. When Hezekiah was sick unto death, Isaiah ordered a clump of figs to be put on the place of the boil that was killing him. And of course he was healed. This symbolized the beginning of healing, but it also symbolized that God is outside of man's methods for healing. And yet God uses man's methods to heal whenever He wants to.

In this case, it was symbolic. Put some figs on that. Don't try that. You get a headache, put some figs on your head, I'm telling you it's not going to go away.

I haven't tried it, but I have a deep suspicion that you'll just smell like figs. On another occasion, he wrote the name of his second son on a large scroll, and sort of used it as a billboard. We read about it in Isaiah chapter 8.

I'm not going to take the time to read it, but you can read about it yourself. Well, I'll take verse 1. Moreover, the Lord said to me, take a large scroll and write on it a man with a man's pen concerning Maharashalahashbaz. This is an illustration of him using his children for ministry, simply through how he named him because God was guiding him through his life. His illustrations painted vivid pictures of God's judgment as well as God's peace, but we'll take God's judgment in Isaiah chapter 66. Isaiah 66, the last two verses of the book, verses 23 and 24, and it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against me, for their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh. It's kind of a gory picture, but he's telling people about God's judgment, that there's nothing clean about this. It is nothing appealing about the judgment of God.

There is everything that is to appeal to us about avoiding the judgment of God. And so that was the man, but the times of the man. As I mentioned, he lived during the Assyrian Empire. They were a vicious group. They had become a vicious army. They took pleasure in torturing those who they took captive in war.

They were a fierce people who were known to skin their opponents alive. And so, of course, if you had the Assyrian army coming against you as they did against Jerusalem, you had something to be troubled about. And yet this man Isaiah remained firm in his faith in the face of a very serious threat. I find that difficult sometimes.

When there's a very serious threat, I have to try to remind myself to not respond to this emotionally, but how do you turn it off? And even though I don't feel like I succeed sometimes, I do succeed at this. I keep trying in the midst of whatever I'm going through. And whatever I'm going through, I know God is right.

He is faithful. I know what my role is supposed to be. And whether I achieve it or not, it is the pursuit of obedience that God highly honors also. And it is on my behalf.

It's to my benefit. He anticipated the downfall of the Assyrian empire, and he announced that it would be the Chaldean, Medo-Persian empire that would come in their place. That was prophetic.

That has been fulfilled. Among the major prophets, he was par excellence. He exhibits a vocabulary in his writings considerably larger than Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

A masterful writer. I believe many of his messages were first spoken or subsequently spoken, and therefore I believe he was a skilled orator. He knew how to speak to people, to make his point, to win converts.

The proof that he won converts is that Israel survived the Assyrians. That's no slight on Jeremiah. Jeremiah came to pronounce the doom and the blamelessness of God in the midst of the doom. His expressions have found its way into the speech of people who have never used his book, who have never read his book. There are people that quote things from Isaiah, don't even know it's from Isaiah.

Sarcasm and irony were tools that he used, used very skillfully. We'll take one of them, Isaiah 6, verse 10. Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed.

Sarcasm. Oh no, whatever you do, don't repent. Go to hell. Whatever you do, don't respond to the revelation of God. Walt on into hell.

That's the idea behind that message. God is saying, I want you to be saved. You don't want my salvation. The consequence of that is an eternal judgment. God talks about this through Isaiah in chapter 5. He uses this metaphor of Israel being God's vineyard, and God being the owner of the vineyard. And God says this, what more could have been done to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?

Why did it fail when I did everything I was supposed to do? God speaking through the prophet Isaiah. No comeback existed for that. The earnestness in his words, the boldness, the spirituality in his words that was correct spirituality was according to the patriarchs. It was according to Moses and the law, the prophets that came before him. He was a man of deep reverence.

Why? This is important because he was connected to God. He's connected to God. That's what we want. Everything is working to keep us from remaining connected to God. It is our responsibility, pause here, it's our responsibility to not let that happen.

We have a responsibility there. How? And the message is rather redundant because it's the same answer because it is what works. It's sort of like, you know, you drive nails with a hammer. I'm not talking about the pneumatic hammers.

Yeah, that too. You drive it with a hammer. What about the next nail?

The hammer still works. What about the one after that? Okay, you get the point. That sometimes it's not redundancy, it's what works. And if that is redundant, then fine, let it be.

But it is what works. It's a man of deep reverence we call holiness because he was connected to the holy God. Those are his times and that's how he performed during those times. But the message in the early years, Isaiah chapter 1 through 35, because there's this historical interlude that he gives about Hezekiah and the Assyrians. But chapters 1 through 35 are dominated by judgment and the remnant, the survivors and those who will not survive. It is not limited to those in Jerusalem or Judea, but it expands to the other countries, the surrounding countries, Moab and Lebanon and Tyre and all the land around them. He's demonstrating that the God of the Jew is the God of Earth. The Christian now says the God of Christianity is the God of the Earth and there is no other.

Isaiah talks about that extensively in the latter chapters, well in the 40s, but I don't want to get sidetracked here. But here's his message. If God is not allowed to rule, He will overrule. It is our message too. God will, in the midst of His overrule, allow the sinner enough rope.

We know the expression. Give a fool enough rope, he'll hang himself. I remember years ago in the steel business, there was one particular company that gave the welders in particular a very long safety line. It was like 14 feet long. So they could tie off and be safe and they could move around more freely. And, you know, if you're on a high rise, if you're on a 30, 50 feet, stories up in the air and you fall, a 14 foot rope is nice, though you hope it holds when it snaps. But there was one story that I know very well about, of a guy who fell with one of those from a 12 foot beam, 12 foot high. So his safety line worked fine on impact. God gives enough rope to the sinner.

If he's not smart enough to do the math, he's going to have an impact that he thought he was safe from. Is that not the world? Do you think you're going to survive hell? Well, you know, heaven doesn't want me in hell.

I'm afraid I'm going to take over. And you are, a little sarcasm here, it's moronic. It is moronic. It is the epitome of folly to even think such a thing, and yet they post these bumper stickers on their cars and strut around the universe as though it were the gospel. Satan wants people to think that they can win a fight with him. He hates us so much he'll do anything to destroy our eternal state. And so this was the message of Isaiah. If God is not allowed to rule, he will overrule.

Ask the Pharaoh, ask Haman, ask those people in the scripture who challenged God. Now there's something that I didn't mention about John the Baptist last Wednesday, that I found a way to cleanly put it or insert it into tonight's message. John the Baptist had the manners and the authority of Elijah, but his message and his burden was that of Isaiah's.

He was the voice in the wilderness. That is just a huge thing for John the Baptist, to be so interlocked with two of the greatest men in scripture. Now that's a long list of greatest men in the scripture, but these are certainly two of them, Isaiah and Elijah.

And to be associated with one of them is an honor, but to have two of them is a special honor. He preached judgment, but he preached salvation. John preached, he called them vipers when they were. He spoke about the judgment to come, and he also said, Repent, for it is the way back to God.

It is the way to be right with God. And so in spite of all adverse circumstances, here is this prophet Isaiah, who faced the future with hope. Everything he did, the whole time that he was prophet. He didn't know how the kings were going to handle things, if they were going to forsake God. So many of the people around him were doing it.

Some of the kings that they had was one of them. When the Assyrians came, he knew this was God saying, I am about ready to judge all of you. And in the face of all of this, he faced it with hope in God. That's what I want to do. Vision creates a passion. Then the passion becomes the mission. The mission becomes the servant. It becomes you. You become whatever you are, if you are devoted to it. People think of whatever it is that you're doing for the Lord, they think of you.

They put your face on it. That is an accomplishment. What do you think about some of the saints of the past? Or in the scripture, what do you think about Ruth? What do you think about Jonathan? It becomes them, how they serve the Lord.

You want people to have that feeling about you also. This is a man that knew when God spoke to him. 2 Kings chapter 20 verse 4. And it happened before Isaiah had gone into the middle of the court that the word of the Lord came to him saying.

This is a beautiful picture. This is during the time of Hezekiah's sickness. Hezekiah has summoned Isaiah. Isaiah has come and Hezekiah is hoping that the prophet has received good news from God on his behalf. And Isaiah says, you're going to die. And he leaves. And when he gets to the court, God speaks to Isaiah and says go back to Hezekiah. I will prolong his life.

How do you do that? It's miraculous. It's God doing what God does. The message of the Messiah. Peace and justice. Isaiah chapter 40 through 66. That was the dominant theme.

Peace and justice. And he drove home these principles of our salvation that we better understand because of Christ. Substitutionary atonement in the kingdom and the resurrection. The birth and the pedigree of Christ are given to us in Isaiah 9. The earthly ministry of Christ is given to us in Isaiah 11 verses 1 through 3.

Other places too, but I'm just highlighting some of them. The cross and the resurrection. Isaiah 53 verses 5 through 9 and verse 11. The cross and the resurrection throughout all of Isaiah 53. One of the most beautiful chapters in all the Bible. The rule and the return of Christ. For example, one plays Isaiah 11 verse 4.

The importance of all of his writings to the Christian today is extreme. This is why he is such a dominant Old Testament figure in the New Testament. The future temple which will attract Gentiles. Isaiah 2 verses 2 and 4. The glorious branch which speaks of the Messiah. Jeremiah also spoke of the branch, the glorious branch. Isaiah 4 verses 2 through 6. The virgin birth and Immanuel.

God is with us. Isaiah 7. The dawning of a new day and the birth of this child. Isaiah 9.

The shoot of the stem of Jesse. Isaiah 11. The conversion of Gentiles.

That alone puts him in another category. Isaiah 19. New Jerusalem. Isaiah 54, 9 through 13 and 60 verses 19 and 20.

19 to 22. The marriage supper of the Lamb. Isaiah 25, 6 through 8 and 26, 19. The ministry of Messiah. Isaiah 42, 4. The servant as a light to the Gentiles.

Again, he brings up the Gentiles. Isaiah 49 verses 1 through 13. The willing obedience of the servant. Isaiah 50 verses 4 through 11. The redemption achieved by the servant. Isaiah 52 verses 13 and Isaiah 53 verse 12. The promises made to David to be fulfilled which always is linked directly to Jesus. Isaiah 55 verses 1 through 5. Converted heathens to become leaders in worship. Isaiah 66 verses 19 through 23. All of these things are radical. All of these things are ongoing in the church to this day. All of this can be examined and we can see it.

Well, I want to just close with this. According to tradition, Isaiah was mottered early in the reign of Manasseh, one of the worst kings of the southern kingdom. Legend says that Manasseh sought him in two.

That legend is linked to Hebrews 11 verses 37-38. They were stoned. They were sawn in two.

They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy.

The executors of Elijah, if that is accurate, were not worthy. And so, a couple of other statistics here that are critical to the man Isaiah. The Lord of hosts is used by him 62 times. That's the battle name of the Lord in most cases. In comparison, Jeremiah uses it 77 times, Zechariah 53 times.

And again, it means the supreme commander. Two last things about this man Isaiah is he presents the Messiah as one who never holds out the slightest hope, anything but utter loss, to the man who is persistent in their rejection of him. He doesn't say, oh, don't worry about it. You can reject God and get away with it. He keeps it in front of the individual. The individual, not the group, the individual. If you reject God, you will be rejected by God. So, I close with this.

Not only did Isaiah realize that God was a God of infinite holiness, he also saw him as enthroned. You've been listening to Cross Reference Radio, the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Pastor Rick is teaching from God's word each time you tune in.

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