Handling Fear

Turn to Isaiah chapter seven, and let me just say this,

as our sister comes here to read our sermon text

for us. You know, sometimes when we read the Bible,

it seems like obscure Hebrew narrative and poetry that is

hard to understand. Sometimes that happens, and we'll buckle up

because as we read this together, you'll see this seems

like inaccessible on the surface. Inaccessible on the surface. We're

going to see that the nature of this passage is

actually very accessible to us. We have a lot in common,

we'll see, but at first you might need to, you know,

just shake it out. So I'm gonna ask everybody to

stand up. This will help us focus. As our sister

comes and reads the word for us Isaiah chapter seven

and eight, We're going to be fine.

Isaiah chapter seven and eight. In the Days of a

has the son of Jotham, son of Isaiah, the King

of Judah res in the king of Syria and peak

of the son of Remalayah, the King of Israel, came

up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could

not yet amount and attack against it. When the House

of David was told Syria is in league with Ephraim,

the heart of a Has and the heart of his

people shook as the trees of the forest shake before

the wind. And the Lord said to Isaiah, go out

to meet a Has you and sheer Jasseb your son

at the end of the conduit of the upper pool,

on the highway of the Washer's field, and say to him,

be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not

let your heart be faint, because of these two smoldering

stumps of firebrands at the fierce anger of Resin and

Syria and the son of Remaliah. Because Syria, with Ephraim

and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying,

let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and

let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the

son of Tabel as king in the midst of it.

Thus says the Lord God, it shall not stand, and

it shall not come to pass. For the head of

Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Resin.

And within sixty five years Ephraim will be shattered from

being a people. And the head of Ephraim is Sameria,

and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.

If you are not firm in faith, you will not

be firm at all. Again, the Lord spoke to Ahaz,

ask a sign of the Lord your God. Let it

be deep as she Ol or high as heaven. But

AHAs said, I will not ask, and I will not

put the Lord to the test. And he said, here then,

o house of David, is it too little for you

to weary men that you weary my God. Also therefore

the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the

Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call

his name Immanuel. He shall eat kourds and honey when

he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.

For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil

and choose the good, the land whose two kings you

dread will be deserted. The Lord will bring upon you

and upon your people, and upon your father's house, such

days as have not come since the day that Ephraim

departed from Judah, the king of Assyria. In that day,

the Lord will whistle for the fly that is at

the end of the streams of Egypt, and for the

bee that is in the land of Assyria. And they

will all come and settle in the steep ravines and

in the clefts of the world, and on all the

thorn bushes, and on all the pastures. In that day

the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired

beyond the river with the King of Assyria the head

and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep

away the beard. Also in that day a man will

keep alive a young cow and two sheep, And because

of the abundance of milk that they give, he will

eat kurds. For everyone who is left in the land

will eat curds and honey. In that day, every place

where there used to be a thousand vines worth a

thousand shekels of silver will become briars and thorns. With

bow and arrows, a man will come there, for all

the land will be briars and thorns. And as for

all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe,

you will not come there for fear of briars and thorns.

But they will become a place where cattle are let loose,

and where sheep tread. Then the Lord said to me,

take a large tablet and write on it in common

characters belonging to marshalal Hashbas, And I will get reliable

witnesses Uriah the priest and Zechariah, the son of Jabeikiah,

to a test for me. And I went to the prophetess,

and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord

said to me, call his name marshalal Hashbas. For before

the boy knows how to cry my father or my mother,

the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will

be carried away before the king of Assyria. The Lord

spoke to me again, because this people has refused the

waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoice over Resin

and the son of Remaliah. Therefore behold, the Lord is

bringing up against them the waters of the river mighty

and many, the King of Assyria and all his glory.

And it will rise over all its channels and go

over all its banks, and it will sweep on into

it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck,

and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land,

O Emmanuel, be broken, you peoples, and shut and be shattered.

Give ear all you far countries. Strap on your armor

and be shattered. Strap on your armor and be shattered.

Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing. Speak

a word, but it will not stand. For God is

with us. For the Lord spoke thus to me, with

his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to

walk in the way of this people, saying, do not

call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy. And do

not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But

the Lord of Hosts him you shall honor as holy.

Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of

a fence, and a rock of stumbling to both houses

of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants

of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble on it. They shall

fall and not be broken. They shall be snared and taken.

Bind up the testimony, seal the teaching among my disciples.

I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his

face from the House of Jacob, and I will hope

in him. Behold. I and the children whom the Lord

has given me are signs and portents in Israel from

the Lord of Hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion. And

when they say to you inquire of the mediums and

the necromancers who chirp and mutter. Should not a people

inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead?

On behalf of the living to the teaching and to

the testimony. If they will not speak according to this word,

it is because they have no dawn. If they will

pass through the land greatly distressed and hungry, And when

they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak

contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their

faces upward, and they will look to the earth, but

behold distress and darkness, the glim of anguish, and they

will be thrust into thick darkness. This is the word

of the Lord.

Amen, you may be seated. Thank you, sister. That was

the only perfect part of this whole worship service. God's word,

declared I am. I heard a definition of fear that

I thought was pretty helpful. It was this something along

the lines of fear is the emotion the internal state

of desiring a settled peace between you and the object

of your fear, desiring a settled piece. For instance, if

there was a lion in this room, I would want

there to be a settled piece somehow between us and

the lion, whether that would be through a cage, all right,

that's settled, or a dear rifle, or maybe one of

you is a lion, Tamer, I would want to see

a settled piece between us and the object of our fear.

And you can see right away that this idea of

fear is actually a pretty complex thing, right, Fear, worry,

anxiety is also mixed together with hope, trust faith, Right

like I hope you're a good lion, Tamer, I am

trusting that the bars of that cage will hold the lion.

So fear and faith are intertwined. And in Isaiah the

theme of handling fear is thick. In fact, when the

original recipients of the Scroll of Isaiah received it, one

of the main readings that they would do of the

Book of Isaiah to figure out how they got where

they are where they got was how did we so

badly handle our fear? We're not much different when it

comes to the temptation to mishandle fear, whether it's the

temptation to fear things at a global scale or a

national scale, or just within our relationships or in our family,

in our job places, in our health. There are how

we have all kinds of temptations to fear and to

mishandle our fear. And Isaiah, much of why Isaiah is

written is to teach us how to rightly handle fear

as the people of God. So what does Isaiah teach

us about rightly handling fear. That's what we'll look at today,

and we'll do that in three parts. Here's the first part.

Why is rightly handling fear a big deal at all?

Why is it even a big deal? Well, we'll start

with this. Handling fear is a big deal because fear

easily gets out of proportion and controls us. You see

how this passage starts. A has hears about a has

in Judah. Hear about the alliance that's being formed between

Ephraim and Syria to neighboring countries. This is who AHAs

is afraid of the king and the country is afraid

of these two other countries that are going to basically

take over Judah and set up a puppet government. Right. Yeah,

it's not just in Cia. Thrillers like this stuff happens

even in the ancient Near East. And see what the

text says about the heart of the people in verse,

what is it for the heart of his people shook

as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

There are so many ways in which our fear easily

gets out of hand, totally controls our character and our choices,

totally controls our whole outlook, rattles us completely. As John Flavell,

who wrote an excellent book on fear, The Puritan John

Flavel says about fear, Fear, like water, is hard to

keep in its bounds. It takes over and rightly handling

fear is a big deal because we easily miss assess

the power of the things we fear. We easily miss

assess the power of the things that we fear. Look

at what Isaiah says to King a has Isaiah goes

to King a has A Has is out checking the

water supply of the city and the region. He's doing

his whatever tactical due diligence he can, and Isaiah shows

up with his son. By the way, his son is named,

only a few of y'all are coming back. That's his name.

How does it say it in this translation? Here sheer joshub.

Sheer joshub means only a few of y'all are coming back.

I love the way Isaiah names his kids. It gets better,

It gets better. So Isaiah and only a few of

y'all are coming back, go out to meet with King

a Has And Isaiah says this, it's part of the

key of the whole passage. Be careful not to be afraid.

This is the Lord speaking. This isn't just me giving

you advice. God says, when it comes to this threat,

be careful not to be afraid. And I would just

remind us the Lord has given us several instructions about

several things, of which he says, do not be afraid.

Do not worry. You so easily misassess the power of

the things that you're afraid of and worried about. He says,

about these two kings, it's like these countries, these kings,

they are spent forces. They are two stumps of smoldering firebrands.

You know what a firebrand is. It's like a like

an arrow that you set on fire and then then

you launch into a fortress to set it, like set

it ablaze or whatever. And isaiahs saying, those guys, they're

like fire brands that are almost out by the time

they get in the air, they'll be out. You don't

have to worry about these guys. They're just men. The

head of Syria is Damascus. The head of Damascus is Resin.

He's just a dude. God's got this. Be careful not

to fear. Do not let your heart be faint. You

misassess the power and the value of these things that

you think you should protect yourself from, or in our case,

so often we misassess the value of these things we

think we need, we think we need, and our perspective

is so skewed. Jesus says, do not worry about what

you will eat, or what you will drink, or what

you will wear. Your father knows you need these things.

And yet we think we need so much. We think

we actually think we know what we need. We think

we can actually properly assess, maybe even better than God,

what we need or what we actually desire. It reminds

me of the time when I rented a storage unit

for all of my worldly possessions. I was going on

a little adventure. I rented a storage unit for a year.

I was traveling everything I owned. When into the storage unit,

I laid those things and stacked those things high in

the storage unit with loving care. Oh, I can't wait

till I get back to these things, these mixtapes. My

eight year old is laughing at me, like he knows

what a mixtape is, but he knows it's funny. Everything

in that storage unit was priceless to me. It was

all our worldly possessions. I was gonna pay hundreds of

dollars a month to keep this stuff there. And I

came back twelve months later. What is all this junk?

I should have lit a match a year ago. I

don't want any of this, But twelve months prior it

was everything. We don't know, We don't assess. We don't

have perspective on what we think we need or what

we think we must protect ourselves from. God knows, to

the teaching, to the testimony. God knows right Handling fear

is a big deal also because mishandling fear risks mishandling everything.

Mishandling fear risks bringing shipwreck to it all. He says

to King AHAs, if you are not firm in faith,

you will not be firm at all. These fears of

yours they are going to bring ruin. You are controlled

by these fears instead of placing faith in the Lord,

your God, you've played faith in that all of the

protective measures you think you can take against these two countries,

which I'm already telling you are going to get blown out.

And how often is it that we let our fears

control everything, and in mishandling our fears, we end up

mishandling our lives. My wife and I used to do

a exercise. We're going back is one of the most

valuable marital exercises we ever did. We used to do

it regularly, and I don't know, I don't know we're

going back. I've been reminded. We got to pick this

thing back up, and here it is. We would take

an overnight or something like that, and we would spend

a little time independently with a sheet of paper, and

we would make each of us a fears list, sit

down in prayer, honestly evaluate what am I afraid of?

What am I really afraid of? What am I afraid

of in this marriage? What am I afraid of in

this family? What am I afraid of in life? The

real stuff, you know, not just like I'm afraid of

sharks and ymca pool. When I close my eyes, but

the real stuff. And then we would get back together

and we would share those things with each other. And

this is very tender, as you can imagine, And we

would have to reassure each other a lot. I'd have

to say things like, I don't think these things are true.

I'm not accusing you of these things. I don't believe this.

You just need to know I have this fear. We

would take those things to each other, but more importantly,

we would take them to the Lord and ask him

to set those things right, recognizing in many ways what

had already started to take place in our relationship, that

in the mishandling of our fear, we were beginning to

mishandle one another. Handling fear, risks, mishandling everything. If you

will not be firm in faith, you will not be

firm at all. Well, how does a haas do? He

blows it, Isaiah tells him, Look, I want you to know.

I want you to know that you don't have to

be afraid of these things. Rather, you can place your

full confidence and trust in God and these things. And

so the Lord says, ask for signage, Ask for a sign,

and whether it's as high as heaven or as deep

as shield. The Lord will grant it to you. He's

going to give you signage that you can look at

to see and remember, you don't have to be afraid.

And a has in his unbelief says no. He uses

some pious sounding language to say, like, well, I'm not

gonna put the Lord to the test, right, Isn't there

some like bio horse about that sort of thing? But

he's really just he's using pious language to cover up

his unbelief. He doesn't want to change, he doesn't want

to have to alter his course of behavior because the

Lord has made clear to him where his faith should be.

He just says no. And Isaiah I love Isaiah's response.

He's like, dude, you wear out people, you gotta wear

out God to and accordingly the Lord will give you

a sign which brings us to our second part. The

first part is why is right handling a fear even

a big deal? The second part is that a key

aspect of right handling fear is to see that God

is with us. Let me say that again. A key

aspect of the right handling of fear is to see

that God is with us. However, that cuts both ways.

God is with us. But that cuts both ways. Let

me get into the text. It's a little complex because

we're dealing with two things at the same time. But

I'll tell you here's the sign, verse fourteen of chapter seven.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Hold,

the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and call

his name Emmanuel. And everybody's like, I recognize that verse.

That's from Christmas, and it is Matthew picks up this

verse from Isaiah and puts it into the first chapter

of his Gospel. It's interesting how Matthew uses this verse.

We'll look at that in a minute. But the virgin

shall conceive, and you should understand that this Hebrew word

virgin can and usually just means a young woman. In

Matthew's case, he's using it in terms of a young

woman who's never known a man. In this case, probably

that's not the way Isaiah is using this, just talking

about a young woman shall conceive, bear a son, and

call his name Emmanuel. Now, when it says call his

name Emmanuel, it doesn't mean his name will be Emmanuel.

It means his name will signify something. It will signify

God is with us. God is with us. That's what

his name will signify. This is where it gets really interesting.

Hang with me. You know when Mary and Joseph name

our Lord, his name also signifies God with us Emmanuel.

His name is Jesus, and it literally means God saves.

Come back to that. But what Isaiah says about this

child whose name signifies that God is with us, is

that before this kid knows the difference between right and wrong,

those two countries we're now in verse sixteen, those two

countries are going to be deserted. Those things that you

were so afraid of that you were sure you had

to revolve your whole thinking and your life and your

country around, they're going to be deserted before this kid

knows the difference between right and wrong. And those countries

that you were so afraid of, not only are they

going to be deserted, but the country that actually conquers

them is going to be on your doorstep. I'm going

to bring to you. Because you feared what I told

you not to fear, and because you did not place

your faith your faith where I told you to place

your faith, I'm going to bring you something like you've

never seen. The King of Assyria will be at your doorstep.

Oh yeah, God is with you. And here's the thing.

God with us cuts both ways, both for correction and

for protection. He says, I'm with you. Do you understand

the irony how that works? God with you? Actually, it

means both correction and protection. It's like when you get

a phone call and somebody says, the cops are here.

Is that good or bad? Right? The cops are here. Oh,

thank goodness, we're safe. The cops are here. Uh. Oh.

God is with you for correction and protection. And God says, oh,

I'm there all right. And because you feared what I

told you not to fear, and you did not place

your faith where I talked told you to place your faith,

I'm gonna whistle for the fly from Egypt and the

bee from Assyria. They're gonna swarm this place. Those are

They're gonna be on every bush in the land. In

other words, the soldiers of Assyria are gonna cover up

this country. And he says it like this, I'm gonna

hire a barber called Assyria, and he's gonna show up

and he's gonna shave your face, and he's gonna shave

your feet. It's gonna be so embarrassing. Oh, I'm here.

God is with you, and I'm bringing correction. And this

agriculture of yours, where you see all of these vines,

a thousand vine, luxurious vines, all of this lush agriculture

is gonna dry up and it's gonna be thorn bushes.

I'm with you. I'm right here. And you did not

place your faith where I told you to place your faith,

and you feared what I told you not to fear.

And Isaiah goes, and this is now chapter eight. Isaiah

goes to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son.

And the Lord said to him, called his name maharshalal Hashbaz,

which means literally means the prey runs faster and faster.

The prey runs faster and faster, And the name signifies

God is with us, because God with us cuts both

ways for correction and for protection. And he says, the

river of Assyria is going to overflow its banks, and

it's going to flood those countries that you were so

afraid of, and it's going to flood them completely, and

it's also going to flood your country. But just to

the neck. Oh, I'm with you. I'm with you, And

you feared what I told you not to fear, and

you did not place for your faith where I told

you to place your faith. And so here comes the flood.

Oh God with you, That's what he says in verse eight.

It's outspread, outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land,

Oh Emmanuel, I mean, can I lean on the sarcasm

any harder? Here comes the flood, Oh Emmanuel. Yet God

with us also means protection. It also means protection in

the very name of his son. The prey runs faster

and faster. God in one one move has shown both

how he's going to correct Judah you were afraid of

what you shouldn't have been afraid of, and protect Judah.

The prey that's not gonna run fast enough is the

ones that you were afraid of. Yes, all of this

agriculture will become dried up. I'm bringing that correction. But

the livestock will find what they need, and they'll nibble around,

and you'll be able to live off of the milk

from the livestock. And the bees will fly around and

they'll gather honey, and you will be able to live

off of the milk from the livestock and the honey

from the bees, kurds and honey, cottage, cheese and honey.

It's not a great meal, but I, in my correction,

will still give you what you need. The river will

overflow its banks and it will flood your country, but

only up to the neck. I will shatter those who

threatened you. I will protect you, take counsel together, owe

you people's but it will come to nothing. Speak a word,

but it will not stand. For God is with us,

and he means not only to correct but also to protect.

So a key element in right handling of fear is

recognizing God is with us. That should put a spine

in us, a spine in us that responds not only

to the fact that God is with us to say, hey,

don't be afraid. I told you not to be afraid.

Don't be afraid. I told you to trust me, trust me,

but also a spine that says God has said I

don't have to be afraid, and He's in control of

all of these things that I so easily fear. God

has said I can trust him and he is with me. Well,

that key element of knowing that God is with us

is not the only thing that's called for. It's also

this right. So it takes more than just seeing that

God is with us that's called for. It's also a

certain kind of relationship with this God who is with us.

And this is the relationship. Ironically, it's a relationship of

a kind of fear. It's a relationship of fear. Look

at verse eleven. For the Lord spoke thus to me

with his strong hand upon me. He's like, listen, listen

to this, Isaiah, listen and warn me not to walk

in the way of this people saying, do not call

conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy. And do not

fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the

Lord of hosts him, you shall honors Holy. Let him

be your fear, and let him be your dread. Fear

of the Lord comes up a lot in the Bible.

It's often misunderstood and regularly disliked. I mean, understandably. Who

wants to be afraid of God. I know people who've

grown up in religious upbringings who have rejected faith because

they're like, you know what, it seemed like everything in

my childhood was about being afraid of God. And I

know people who've grown up in religious upbringings that continue

to live in such a way that it seems like

everything is fearful, apprehensive, scared. Well, who wants that. Maybe

there's a misunderstanding here of what the fear of the

Lord is about. In fact, there's a passage in Exodus,

in Exodus twenty where Moses is interacting with the people.

The people see the lightning and the smoke and the

mountain is shaking. God is doing business with Moses and

with the people, and Moses says to the people, fear not,

for the Lord has come. That you would have hit

a fear of him before your face. Well, it's like,

I know, you see all this stuff going on, and

God is here. Don't be afraid. He's here to make

sure that you fear him. So there's there's a fear

that's wrong, and there's a fear that's right. I think

it was John Flavel who put it this way. To

wrongly fear God, the wrong way you fear God is

to see him only as hazardous, and he is that.

He's holy, he's holy, I'm sinful, he's powerful, I'm powerless.

But to see him only as hazardous means that to

create a relationship of settled peace with him. What I

want to do is just remove him, cage him, shoot him,

tame him, get rid of him. And many people try

to rem move the hazard of a holy God. But

rightly fearing God recognizes that he's not just hazardous, He's

also glorious. I have to have him. He's everything. How

can I have the one who is the most hazardous

and the most glorious. I have to fear of God. Actually,

this right kind of fear of God puts all other

fears in its place. It puts them in proportion, It

right sizes them, It orders them like a cornerstone orders

all the other bricks of the house. Fear of God

orders everything in our lives. If we rightly fear him,

I'd put it this way. Rightly fearing God leads to

rightly handling fear. Rightly fearing God leads to rightly handling fear.

And the fears that swirl around in us like squabbling siblings,

get real quiet when the fear of God shows up

in the room. Like Dad, you know, everything depends on

right relationship with God, a settled peace with him. And

Isaiah says that exactly. He says he will become a

sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling,

and many people will fall and be broken. In other words,

fear of God is a fork in the road. He

will either be your rock of sanctuary or he will

be your stone of stumbling. There's really no middle ground

when it comes to God. And in fact, Isaiah then

picks this up with an example that finishes the chapter.

Isaiah's example is it's like people who would rather go

see a fortune teller than receive the instructions from God's word.

That's what he's saying here at the very end of

the chapter, necromancers and all of that. Isaiah's like, go

to the word of God. Why are you going to

a fortune teller? Because you don't want God. That's why

you don't want God. You want luck, you don't want God.

You want good fortune. You don't want God. You want

what you want. And that just spirals. God brings discipline

and they resent the discipline. Right, it goes from hunger

to anger to anguish. To briefly explain the rest of

that chapter, but you know this, this verse about a

rock of sanctuary and a stone of stumbling, This actually

gets picked up in the New Testament, over and over

and over again. The New Testament says that Jesus Christ

himself and the message of the Gospel will be a

rock of sanctuary or a stone of stumbling. There's no

middle ground either. You will trust Christ and his work

on the Cross as your relationship of settled peace with

the most hazardous and most glorious Holy God, or you

will try to avoid him. You will stumble over the

stumbling stone when he could be your rock of sanctuary.

He could be your settled peace. Lean into him like

the eye of a hurricane. Lean into him like the coal.

From chapter six, the safest place in the temple is

the heat of the fire. It's Jesus Christ. A stand

and pray. Lord, God, help us with our fears. We

are so so human, and our fears show it so clearly.

We are so easily controlled by them. They are so

easily out of their banks like water. They are so

easily misordered and mistsized. Lord, would you set to right

all of the things that what might be legitimate concerns

but should not become fears. Lord, You've told us so

many things to not fear. Lord, would you set these

things right by the way that you've prescribed, that we

would rightly fear you and so rightly handle fear. Would

we not dread what the world dreads? Would we not

fear what the world fears? But would we.

See you for the hazardous, glorious Holy Father, in whom

we have a rock of sanctuary, because of your son,

Jesus Christ.

This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's sing