It meant a lot that God was mindful of a remnant, and it means a lot to us when we hear that during that great tribulation period, God is still going to be saving souls.
That means something to us. It's going to mean a lot more to them. When they're going through it, they're going to have Bibles, and they're going to have recorded sermons. They're going to understand the Gospel, and they're going to be martyred because of it.
The onslaught against Christianity will be more severe than it's ever been in human history. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Isaiah.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Isaiah Chapter 8 with today's edition of Cross-Reference Radio. Isaiah Chapter 8, disowning apostates, is part of what's in here.
I don't know. Do lost souls take God seriously? I think many of them think they do. But when you start getting to the evidences of who God is and the facts, then you'd really find out if they take him seriously or not. This is the story of all Israel in her days of waywardness. Just didn't take their God seriously, many of them. The remnant, there's always a remnant. Always, always is, always will be until Christ's return is going to be a remnant.
He is never without a witness somewhere. Well, in verse 1, Moreover, Yahweh said to me, Take a large scroll and write on it with a man's pen concerning Mahashalahashbaz. So, it's interesting, the prophets did not create a prophetic dynasty. It was my, I'm a prophet, my son's a prophet.
Every now and then it would happen, but it wasn't regular. So, it's a calling from God, not an appointment of people. You're not born into a prophetic office.
A man's son is not obligated to be a pastor. And it's just an interesting thing, but any, back to this, what we're considering, this large scroll, well, it's not a note, it's a message. And it really isn't a scroll.
The translators are just challenged so many times to try to get it, to move it from one language in one period in history to the present day. It's more of a tablet, a placard. And that's what he's going to write on, perhaps a flat piece of wood or something like that. He's going to get it where it's going to be posted, this message in chapter eight that we're discussing. And he's going to restate the prophecies in this chapter, much of it, that we covered in chapter seven, giving us a little bit more information.
And just remember the background. Here is King Ahaz on the throne in Judah at this point in time. The northern kingdom is still there.
Samaria is where the capital is. Here in the southern kingdom Jerusalem is the center of the Judean kingdom. Ahaz is a wicked king. Isaiah the prophet is now a seasoned prophet, having been a prophet in the days of Uriah and Jotham, his son. And he is trying to get the king to listen to God. Well, the king is an apostate king. And the Assyrians, the world power, is looking to gobble everybody up. So the northern kingdom, Samaria being the capital, they join an alliance with Syria to fight the Assyrians.
Judah says, I don't want to join with you guys. And they sneak around and go to Assyria and say, I'd like to be on your side. And the Assyrians said, good.
You will be a snack later, but we'll take you for now. And so that's what's happening, this threat of this. So the Assyrians and the northern kingdom are going to force Judah to join them. And that's where this problem is.
And the prophet Isaiah comes along and says, they're not going to win. And here are the signs. And here are the wonders. This is a big deal.
People looking to conquer your country and enslave you and kill and pillage all the things they do in war. So that's the background. He says, concerning Mahashala hashbaz.
I only repeated that 400 times today to be able to get through it up here. I did not. Anyway, that word concerning, he is talking about the impending Syrian Ephraimite invasion, the northern kingdom invasion. That's what this is centered in. Now, this is Isaiah's son. And so was the other one that was mentioned in chapter seven, She'er Jashub. Both of these are his sons. And I'd stop here because maybe you have Bible, study Bibles, and they'll point out, we don't know if it was Isaiah's son or, you know, they just get a little confused, it seems, which is easy to do. But verse 18 tells us clearly that these are his sons. I don't get it, guys, I really respect and still respect. But when it comes to this, they just got to me, some of them, a little off. And I tell you that, so if you read it in your study Bible, you know they are wrong and I am right. And that's just what make the world go round. So anyway, you can look at verse 18 and you'll find out, hmm, he is right.
Don't tell him, give him satisfaction. Well, I want to also point out, some say the child born to the virgin, and we read about last session, named Emmanuel, is also Isaiah's son. But that's not possible because she is referred to as a virgin and Isaiah already had She'er Jashub as a child.
So it takes a lot of time and work to nail these things down and see if you're not missing anything. Going back to this, the first child named the remnant shall return. It's prophetic. It's telling the Jews there's going to be a remnant and they're going to come back, which means everybody was taken away. We know, looking at the history, we know that he's talking about the Babylonian invasion and captivity of Judah.
They're going to learn that. But the second son, speed to the spoil. That's what his name means, this Maher Shalah HaShabazz. And this is talking about those two armies, the northern kingdom and Syria, they're going to be conquered and their goodies are going to be taken by the Assyrians. You say, you know, I just want to have my devotion time in Isaiah 8. Can I just get to the point where Christ is king? Well, he is sovereign over this.
We're going to get back to it. And so the prophet's saying, these two armies they have that are coming against you and you're lining up with Assyria, which is wrong, and I get to that in a minute, they're going to lose their wealth. They're going to be defeated. Those armies are going to take everything. And armies in those days were motivated by not their retirement plan or VA benefits, but the spoils they got to take from cities and villages they conquered. The kings would get the tribute and the taxes as the rule.
Sometimes it would switch around a little bit. But overall, the men, they got to loot and whatever they could carry out, that would be theirs. Well, Achan is an example of that. God told the Jews, don't take anything. And Achan took the gold and the garments, and it didn't go well with him.
So from killing machines to looters, that's just the way it was, not so much patriotism and glory that motivated them. But this dual meaning, the invasion from the northern kingdom in Syria will stop. There will be survivors in Judah, but ultimately even Judah is going to go into captivity and there will be survivors. All of that is built into the names of his two sons, verse two, you wish, verse eight. And I will take for myself faithful witnesses to record Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jerabakiah.
These guys are just single syllable names, just like an anathema to these people. At this time, these two men were considered faithful eyewitnesses to the people. So God is saying, Isaiah, I want everybody to know that you called what is happening, like me giving it to you, long before it happens. So when it happens, we'll have these witnesses that everybody respects. And when these guys say, yeah, we heard him say it, God will get the glory. Isaiah will bring this up later when we get into the 40s, God will bring it up. No one else makes prophecy like him. Anyway, they will witness Isaiah's predictive prophecy and its fulfillment and no one could honestly refute it. No one could say, oh, I didn't know.
And no one could say, oh, just a coincidence because he's got these witnesses. However, the first one mentioned Uriah the priest. Within two years, Uriah will officially become an apostate priest.
Sad. He will build a pagan altar in Jerusalem that evil King Ahaz saw in Damascus. And he loves, I must have it, it was a dissideratum to him. Oh, I just got to have this at the temple. So he sends the plans to Jerusalem and this high priest rushes to get it done. Come on, we got to get it done before he gets back. I'm just making this up.
No, I'm not. No, it's right here in the scripture. Go to a second, don't turn there because I'll be gone by the time you get there. Second Kings chapter 16 verse 11. Then Uriah the priest built an altar according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. So Uriah the priest made it before King Ahaz came back from Damascus. So the prophet Isaiah said in two years this threat will be gone.
So we just leap ahead a little bit. The Assyrians come in, they take out Damascus. King Ahaz goes up to visit them. He sees this altar. He goes to meet with Tiglath-Pileser the Assyrian king. Sees this altar, he's got to have it, sends the plans back and this is what is happening.
Now it says Uriah the priest and kings, a little different in the name but it's the same guy. So it's like asking unbelievers how to do church. It's like asking an unbeliever how should I be a Christian? How should I be a Christian father? How should I be a Christian man?
How should I be a Christian pastor? Little leaven leavens the whole lump. What does a lot of leaven do to the lump?
This is a lot of leaven. Now Zechariah the other guy here, at the time he's not an apostate priest yet. Some speculate maybe it wasn't the same guy but I think it was. Zechariah here is not to be confused with the prophet Zechariah who gives us the book of Zechariah.
He's not even born yet. So there you go. He's got these witnesses. These are the two men. At the time they are faithful men but later one of them at least seems to cave. Verse three, then I went to the prophetess and she conceived and bore a son. Then Yahweh said to me, call his name Ahashalahashbaz. Verse four, for before the child shall have knowledge to cry, my father and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be taken away before the king of Assyria. Well, he repeats the name just to make it difficult to Western pastors have to repeat that again.
Before the child shall have knowledge to cry, my father. Well, before we start, again the confirmation that this is the wife of Isaiah is in verse 18. She is called a prophetess because their sons, the two of them, have a prophetic role, not in direct prophecy but in their names. This includes her in the prophetic process. We have no evidence of her being a prophetess. There are four other women in the Old Testament referred to as prophets but that doesn't always mean they predicted the future. It also means that it could mean in addition that they represented the Lord in a leadership form. Miriam over the women, and Miriam went south when she turned on Moses, you know, God struck her with leprosy. No one is, God is no respecter of persons. That's in Exodus 15 where Moses' sister Miriam is referred to as a prophetess.
Zeborah or Deborah, I prefer Deborah because it's what it is after it's been westernized. Judges 4, she becomes a leader because none of the men wanted to be the leader. And this is a rebuke. There was a role reversal because the men were just, you know, she told Barak, go conquer. And he said, okay, but can you come with me? And she said, well, if I go with you, I'm going to get some, I'm going to get the glory. And he said, I don't care. It's like an x-ray into what was going on with the men while in judges everything was so messed up. And it's true today.
When men are no longer bucks, you got a problem in your society. Anyway, Huldah the prophetess and second kings of Josiah, the king sent to her concerning the word of God. And then Noah-Diah in Nehemiah, she appears to have been an apostate because she sided against Nehemiah. Anyway, coming back to verse 4, for before the child shall have knowledge to cry, my father and my mother. So he's setting a timeline. He's saying before the child, his son now, not the other child born to the virgin Emmanuel, but his son, Baz we can call him for short, before he learns to say my mom and my dad, form complete sentences.
My mom, complete sentence. So he's probably going to be two, three years old, within two years. That's what he is saying. And he's using his children and his family in ministry in this way.
And I'll come back to that. And he's saying by the time he forms sentences, these two invading forces will be vanquished. And we know by the Assyrians.
And that is confirmed as we move forward. Verse 5, Yahweh also spoke to me again saying, in as much, verse 6 now, as these people refuse the waters of Shilohah, that flow softly and rejoice in reason and in Ramaliah's son. Well, these people, not my people.
God is disowning the apostates. He doesn't want anything to do with them. He doesn't want any confusion that these are my people. As Paul would say in the New Testament, not everybody who is a Jew has got the faith of Abraham.
Anyway, he's a little bit more forceful than that. But the northern kingdom and their apostates aren't trusting Yahweh. Yahweh certainly isn't trusting them against Assyria.
That they join together and remain idolaters is evidence of that. And he says they refuse the waters of Shilohah that flow softly. Shilohah means scent. Shiloh means peace. It's not to be confused in the Hebrew. Well, the waters of Shilohah were waters that ran through a channel or an aqueduct from the springs of Gihon into the pool of Siloam. Hezekiah's tunnel has not yet been built. He's not yet king.
Ahaz is his father though. And what the Lord is saying is instead of trusting, he's using metaphor, instead of trusting Shilohah's waters, God, you refuse these waters that flow softly. He's going to go on and say, so you're going to get a flood.
You're going to get a tsunami. It's going to be the Assyrians. He's saying this to Judah. He says you rejoice in reason and Ramallah's son. Again, Isaiah does not want to name the despicable king Pekah. And he mentions Assyrian king by name, but he will not say that Pekah again. And it's noticeable when you see, wait a minute, he's doing it with the Assyrian king, but he's not naming.
He has a name. He said it once, won't say it again. So God is pointing out not only to Judah, but to the northern kingdom too, is you're not trusting in me. You're trusting in other things. Verse seven, now therefore behold, the Lord brings up over them, the waters of the river, strong and mighty, the king of Assyria and all his glory.
He will go up over all his channels and go over all his banks. Okay, so he's saying you didn't trust the soft springs of Gihon flowing into Jerusalem, which was the blessings of God. Instead, you trusted in yourself and because of that, and part of this is woven into Judah, he's saying also to Judah, because you trusted in the Assyrians, they're going to flood Judah.
And they did. They devastated Judah. It wasn't for the angel of the Lord wiping out 185,000 of them in one night. They would have taken Jerusalem too, but they took everything else. And so the prophet points this out and hears the king listening to him and saying, nah, we don't believe you. Well, there is, the Assyrians defeated the invading forces and the people in Jerusalem who were listening to Isaiah said, ha, you were wrong. You were telling us the Assyrians, you know, we're going to flood us and they did not. They beat our enemies for us. Isaiah's going to say, you wait and see what happens.
It ain't over. And that's exactly what happened. The Assyrians did come against them and destroy Israel.
Judah barely survived the Assyrian onslaught. There is a way that seems right to man, but its way leads to death. Well, how would I know? Well, stick with the scripture. That's how you'll know. It's not like, well, it's anybody's guess. No, it's not anybody's guess.
It's not a free for all. And he's going to say that at the end of the chapter. If I ever get there tonight, one of the best parts about this eighth chapter is how he closes it up. And so the right way he'll cover in verses 19 through 22. Coming back now to verse 8, I'm leaving out a lot of details because I'm trying not to put you to sleep. He will pass through Judah.
He will overflow and pass over. He will reach up to the neck and the stretching out of his wings will fill the breath of your land, O Immanuel. A very high price to pay calling evil to fight evil. Instead of King Ahaz calling on Yahweh to fight the invading forces of Syria and the northern kingdom, he called on Assyria and the prophet condemned it from the beginning. The land of Immanuel, which is God's land, suffered because of their anti-Yahweh politics. Now, if you're in high school or school, others around you may have an anti-Christ lifestyle. Well, that's the same thing that Isaiah's dealing with, with those who didn't believe him. But it was anti-Yahweh, who's Old Testament Christ.
This is how these people wanted it, so this is how they would get it. They would be flooded by an enemy who the prophet warned them of. This O Immanuel goes back to the last chapter, the prophet Isaiah tying it in.
The righteous remnant would appreciate that. And they had a name that they were alive, but they were dead. Well, where else do we hear that? The church at Sardis. Christ says, you have a name that you're alive, but I say you're dead. Man, that is, can you imagine having the Lord say that to a church? It's incidentally when the Lord addressed the churches, he addressed the angel singular of the church. That's the pastor, singular. He holds him primarily responsible, but the others don't get off the hook because he can't be the pastor unless they support him.
So they're guilty too. And we're going to find God's going to say to Assyria, I used you as an instrument of judgment, but I'm going to judge you too because you got some big issues and I'm not going to give you a pass on those. So the land of God, the land of God with us became the land of God without us, the judgments will fall.
And this points, this Immanuel points to a future victory. And when the Jews were coming back from captivity in Babylon, these things meant a lot to them. It meant a lot that God was mindful of a remnant. And it means a lot to us when we hear that during that great tribulation period, God is still going to be saving souls.
That means something to us. It's going to mean a lot more to them when they're going through it. They're going to have Bibles and they're going to have recorded sermons. They're going to understand the gospel and they're going to be monitored because of it. The onslaught against Christianity will be more severe than it's ever been in human history. Verse 9, be shattered, O you peoples, and be broken in pieces.
Give ear all you from far countries. Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces. Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces. Verse 10, take counsel together, but it will come to nothing. Speak the word, but it will not stand for God is with us. So the prophet is saying to the forces that want to conquer his people, and here it's Assyria, but it could be anywhere in ages. He's not addressing righteous people. When he says, be shattered, O you peoples, be broken in pieces, give ear all you from far countries.
And it's a taunt. He says, gird yourselves. You're going to be broken in pieces. Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces. That's what he says.
Take counsel together. He says, speak the word. I'm talking about the Bible. He's talking about their plans. So he's taunting the foreign invaders and he's saying, I'm using you, but you're going to be judged too because you're guilty. Just because I used you doesn't mean you're innocent.
There's something to think about. Lord, Lord, didn't we cast out demons in your name? Didn't we prophesy in your name? And Jesus said, get away from me.
I never knew you. God knows the difference between a fraud and the genuine believer. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio today. Cross Reference Radio is a ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you'd like to learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.
You'll find a number of teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of new additions of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Isaiah with Pastor Rick right here on Cross Reference Radio.
