Isaiah 8:1-9:7 - Our Hope

Good morning. Our passage today is in Isaiah chapter 8 and then up until 9 verse 7 which is on page 693 in the church bibles.

Isaiah 8 · chapter mention

! The Lord said to me, take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen, Meher Shalal Hashbaz.

So I called in Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jebrakiah as reliable witnesses for me.

Then I made love to the prophetess and she conceived and gave birth to a son.

And the Lord said to me, name him Meher Shalal Hashbaz.

For before the boy knows how to say, my father or my mother, the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.

The Lord spoke to me again, because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shaloha and rejoices over Rezin and the son of Romalia.

Therefore the Lord is about to bring against them the mighty floodwaters of Euphrates.

The king of Assyria with all his pomp, it will overflow all its channels, run over all its banks and sweep on into Judah, swirling over it.

Passing through it and reaching up to the neck.

Its outspread wings will cover the breadth of your land, Emmanuel.

Raise the war cry, you nations, and be shattered.

Listen, all you distant lands.

Prepare for battle and be shattered.

Prepare for battle and be shattered.

Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted.

Propose your plan, but it will not stand, for God is with us.

This is what the Lord says to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people.

Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls a conspiracy.

Do not fear what they fear and do not dread it.

The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy.

He is the one you are to fear.

He is the one you are to dread.

He will be a holy place for both Israel and Judah.

And he will be a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.

And for the people of Jerusalem, he will be a trap and a snare.

Many of them will stumble.

They will fall and be broken.

They will be snared and captured.

Bind up this testimony of warning and seal up God's instruction among my disciples.

I will wait for the Lord who is hiding his face from the descendants of Jacob.

I will put my trust in him.

Here am I and the children the Lord has given me.

We are signs and symbols in Israel from the Lord Almighty who dwells on Mount Zion.

When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists who whisper and mutter,

should not a people inquire of their God?

Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?

Consult God's instruction and the testimony of warning.

If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.

Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land.

When they are famished, they will become enraged and looking upwards will curse their king and their God.

Then they will look towards the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom.

They will be thrust into utter darkness.

Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress.

In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali.

But in the future he will honor Galilee and the nations by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan.

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.

On those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned.

You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy.

They rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest,

as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder.

For as in the day of Midian's feast you have shattered the yoke that burdens them,

the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor,

every warrior's boot used in battle,

and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning,

will be fuel for the fire.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders,

and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.

He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom,

establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness.

From that time on and forever,

the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

Amen.

Great. Well, keep that passage open.

We are in the book of Isaiah.

We have been working our way through it.

We have arrived at chapter 8.

Let's pray and ask for the Lord's help as we come to his word.

Let's pray.

Father, we do thank you so much for your word to us.

We want to thank you that we're not kind of scrabbling around in the dark,

wondering what you might be like or what you might say,

but that here together this morning, as your word is open,

we get a chance to listen to you,

to hear your word to us.

Oh Lord, how we pray that you might make us good listeners

to you and your word.

Pray that you might help me to speak clearly and faithfully.

And Lord, that by your spirit, you would be at work,

opening our ears to hear and our hearts to trust.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, if you're a Christian this morning,

what you need to understand is that you are in the minority.

The minority.

Probably not in this room, at least I don't think so.

But almost certainly at work, you'll be in the minority.

You're possibly in the minority in your family.

And if you are at school, you will definitely be in the minority.

I was trying to work out this week with a little help from the census,

how many people in our neighborhood find themselves in a gospel church this morning.

If you go to the census, I think it's about 35%, maybe a few more,

call themselves Christians in our neighborhood.

But to call yourself Christian doesn't necessarily really mean you are a Christian.

It just means that's how you identify yourself.

And very few actually mean much by it.

I think if you add up the congregations in our community,

kind of places where you would hear the good news about Jesus,

and you divide that by the population of our community,

times by 100, that's how you work out percentages, right?

I think you will get to about 3%.

3%.

Put it another way, 97% of people in Queen's Park and West Kilburn

are somewhere else doing something else this morning,

with little or no thought of being otherwise.

Which means I think by any count, we are a minority.

Now, it's possible that that's quite shocking.

I think as Christians, we've become quite adept to just sort of inoculating ourselves

from this idea that we're in the minority.

We might cover up the detail in all sorts of ways.

You might find that all of your friends are Christians,

so you just imagine that actually everybody's a Christian,

because all my friends are.

You might go to the odd big conference,

where it feels like you're part of something much bigger and much grander.

If you follow the right feeds on social media,

you might get the impression that there is something bigger and more impressive.

You might even console yourself that 2 billion people around the world

would call themselves Christians, and that's no small number, is it?

But actually, there are 6 billion people in the world

who would say they are not Christian.

Because the truth is, being a Christian,

a genuine I-believe-in-Jesus Christian,

puts you this morning, if that's you, in a minority.

And if you live in this neighbourhood, in this time,

then it puts you in a very, very, very small minority.

Now, I want to suggest that because that is true,

Isaiah's book is of supreme relevance to us this morning.

Isaiah is writing between 700 and 800 years before the birth of Christ

in a setting where God's people are in a massive minority.

Now, that's not just because Judah and Jerusalem,

to whom he is speaking,

are no longer the world superpower that they once were,

although that is true, right?

You will find in the weeks to come

that King Ahaz has put himself in the pocket of the king of Assyria.

And that's a bad place for him to be,

and he never really recovers.

And Israel, Judah, never really recovers.

But also, it's because most of the people of Judah

are only now really God's people in name,

but not really in personal faith or trust in the Lord.

They are Jews, they are the children of Abraham,

but most of them do not trust the Lord.

Most of them have the same hopes, the same aspirations,

the same goals, and the same idols, even,

as the world around them.

And so God's people find themselves in a minority,

not just in the world,

but even in the people that would call themselves God's people.

And that's why one of Isaiah's favorite words,

and I know it's one of his favorite words,

because he calls his oldest child this,

is the word remnant.

Remnant, that's what he calls the minority.

It's a small remainder, a little slice,

a small group of people amongst God's people

who still actually trust the Lord.

His oldest son is called Sher Jashub.

He says,

which means the remnant will return.

We met him last week, if you were with us.

Now, we'll return to those ideas in a few moments,

but what I want to show you is that the passage

that we're looking at this morning,

it divides really helpfully into three parts,

and we will work our way through them

and see these ideas there.

So in verses one to eight, in chapter eight,

you get a kind of narrative account

of what's happening at the time.

In verses nine to 22,

you get the details of this minority group,

this remnant and what marks them out,

how you recognize them,

what makes for them to be a remnant group.

And then in verses one to seven of chapter nine,

you see something of the hope for the remnant.

So let's start part one with the story,

the story in verses one to eight.

Now, if you were with us last week,

and someone did say to me last week

that this was confusing,

and I tried really hard to explain it simply,

but I obviously didn't do a great job.

But you'll know that the southern state of Judah,

so God's people have been divided into Judah and Israel,

Judah in the south, Israel in the north,

and the southern community of Judah

with Jerusalem as its capital city

are now being threatened by Syria,

which is called Aram in the story,

and by Israel, which is sometimes called Ephraim.

They formed an alliance together,

and they have threatened Judah and Jerusalem.

And that has put King Ahaz in a flap.

And we found him last week like that,

and Isaiah came to him and spoke God's word to him.

And he told Ahaz, listen,

I want to tell you, you must listen to God.

And in order to persuade you to listen to God,

there will be a sign.

Ask for a sign.

Ahaz refused.

God gave him a sign anyway,

and the sign was a child.

And now as you pick up chapter eight, verse one,

you find in verse one that Isaiah is taking out

a large scroll, a banner, a placard of some kind,

and he's writing the name Meher Shalal Hashbaz on it.

And he's calling Uriah and Zechariah

to witness to it in verse two.

In some ways, this is kind of like a gender reveal party,

although the gender's already been revealed.

It's a name reveal party.

And Isaiah is going early on the name.

He is placarding the name of his new child around.

Meher Shalal Hashbaz means something like speed,

spoil, haste, booty.

It's a reference to the coming Assyrian army.

They're going to come really fast,

and they're going to take all of the spoil.

And effectively, the placard, I guess,

means in some senses, like, the end is nigh.

Yeah, you know those placards that people call,

the end is nigh.

That's basically what the placard is saying

to the northern kingdoms of Israel and Syria.

In verse three, you hear that the son is born

to Isaiah's wife.

Then I made love to the prophetess,

and she conceived and gave birth to a son.

And the Lord said to me,

name him Meher Shalal Hashbaz.

And just like God promised,

before the child even knows or understands

what an army is,

the threat of Israel and Syria invading Judah has gone.

Assyria, the swift, spoil, haste, booty kingdom,

has swept through it and defeated the two nations.

Verse five then picks up the story

as the Lord himself tells it.

The Lord spoke to me again.

Because this people, that is the people of Israel,

has rejected the gentle flowing waters of Shiloah,

that is the stream that's flowing into Jerusalem,

and rejoices over Rezin, that is the king of Syria or Aram,

and the son of Ramalia, that is the king of Israel.

Therefore, the Lord is about to bring against them

the mighty waters of the Euphrates,

the king of Assyria with all his pomp.

It will overflow all its channels,

run over all its banks,

and sweep into Judah, swirling over it,

passing through it, and reaching up to the neck.

Its outspread wings will cover the breadth of your land, Emmanuel.

The key to those verses, I think,

is understanding those gentle flowing waters of Jerusalem.

So while Jerusalem itself, we found,

it was a fortress city.

It had been reinforced by King Uzziah.

Still, the water supply for Jerusalem was kind of flaky.

It was this waters of Shiloah.

And here the people are, effectively,

they're looking at God's water supply into Jerusalem

and going, that will never work.

That will never stand.

That will never be enough.

And so they turn to the strength of their alliance.

And then in what is some kind of, I guess, tragic irony,

they discover, actually,

that the God who is the God of the gentle flowing waters of Shiloah,

who is supplying Jerusalem,

is also, it turns out,

the God of the great river Euphrates.

And so God turns the river Euphrates

and floods them.

That river is

a metaphor for the Assyrian army.

And they wash away Syria,

they wash away Israel,

and they even come through Judah

and up to the neck of Jerusalem itself.

And that's exactly what happens.

The Assyrian army marches down the coast,

cuts off the supply lines of the Northern Alliance,

and then destroys them completely.

About 20 years later,

working their way through Judah,

they capture the cities

and they get right to the gates of Jerusalem,

which they fail to take.

I want you just to imagine,

I know this,

it all feels very distant, doesn't it?

But I want you to try and imagine with me,

if you can,

just what it might have been like to live there.

You know,

you're having a chat

with one of your office colleagues,

or whatever the equivalent is of an office

in, you know,

700 BC.

And you're by the water cooler,

again,

whatever the equivalent is of that.

And you know,

one of your colleagues says to you,

do you believe in all that God stuff?

Really?

Do you believe all that stuff

about, you know,

Jerusalem being safe?

Do you believe that?

Do you believe that

God will keep his people?

I know that's what they say,

isn't it?

They say that God

has this promise

to look after his people.

Do you believe that?

That Ahaz really just

has to do nothing

but trust the Lord

and everything will be okay?

Do you believe that?

Well,

the conversation carries on,

doesn't it?

And everyone's answer

is exactly the same.

Of course I don't believe it.

What a complete load of rubbish.

Have you seen the water supply

in Jerusalem?

It's terrible.

It's pathetic.

It won't stand up to anything.

And so you think,

well,

okay,

I'm listening to this conversation

and choices are hard to make,

aren't they?

It's difficult to make decisions

and so basically

I'm just going to do

what everyone else does.

I'm just going to believe

what everyone else believes.

And it turns out

to be horribly wrong

because it turns out

that most people were wrong

and the remnant were right.

Now,

I want to suggest to you

that's exactly what you see

happening around you

all the time today.

What do you think about Jesus?

Do you really think

Jesus is divine?

Yeah,

Christians say

that Jesus is coming again

to judge the living

and the dead.

Do you believe that?

Really?

I mean,

just look around you.

Everything seems to carry on

as normal.

People who don't believe

in Jesus,

they seem to have

perfectly good lives.

In fact,

in some ways,

they seem to have

better lives.

This cross and resurrection stuff,

is that really important?

Is that what life is for?

No,

of course it's not.

You know,

my friend's nephew's

brother,

sister,

has read a bit of the Bible

and they think

they've found

contradictions in it.

And so,

because choices

and decisions

are hard to make,

most people

just go with the flow

and they reject Jesus.

And like Syria

and Israel,

they will find themselves

to be horribly wrong.

Jesus himself said,

for wide is the gate

and broad is the road

that leads to destruction

and many enter through it.

But small is the gate

and narrow the road

that leads to life

and only a few find it.

That's part one,

the history

or the story

of what's been happening.

Israel and Syria

are defeated by Assyria

before Isaiah's son

is able to say

mummy or daddy.

The majority

are in the wrong.

Then comes part two,

the marks

of the remnant.

verses 9 to 22

of chapter 8.

Now, I think

you would be okay

to be a little confused

by these verses at first.

They do dot around the place.

Sometimes Isaiah

seems to be speaking

to himself.

It's almost like

you're reading from

Isaiah's personal

spiritual journal.

And sometimes

he's talking to

a group of disciples.

It seems to be

a group of people

he's gathered around him.

Other times

he's quoting the Lord directly.

But the big idea here

that I want you to capture

is that Isaiah,

as opposed to

the rest of the people,

is trusting in the Lord.

And along with Isaiah

trusting the Lord

are a small group

of others

who are doing the same.

So what you have

is a nation

that is in the large part

in rebellion

against God

and then

a small remnant

who are remaining

faithful with Isaiah

at the heart of it.

The majority

going one way

and a small group

of faithful men

and women

going the other.

Now, instead of walking

through verse by verse,

let's just pull out

two marks

of this remnant.

The first mark

is this,

they listen to the Lord

and not people.

Let me pull out

some verses for you.

Look at your Bibles.

Look down at verse 10.

Devise your strategy,

but it will be thwarted.

Propose your plan,

but it will not stand,

for God is with us.

Comes again

in verse 13

where Isaiah says,

the Lord Almighty

is the one

you are to regard as holy.

He is the one

you are to fear.

He is the one

you are to dread.

In other words,

don't dread people,

dread the Lord,

fear the Lord,

not people.

You see it too

in a negative way

that they talk about

the hopes of the masses

around them.

Turn over the page

to verse 19.

When someone tells you

to consult mediums

and spiritists

who whisper and mutter,

should not a people

inquire of their God?

Why consult the dead

on behalf of the living?

Here they're mocking

the whispers

and the mutterings

or the squeaks

and moans

is more literal,

I think,

of the mediums

and the spiritists.

Comparing it

to the word of God

that they heard.

This is the mark

of the remnant

marked out

from the rest

of the nation.

This is a group

of people

who despite

the attitudes

and the convictions

of the world

around them,

they have chosen

to listen

to what God says.

They have come

to the conclusion

that God

with them

is better

than the world

with everyone else.

That's what

they concluded.

that the world

is wrong

and God

is right.

Now,

you're to hear that

and you're to ask,

I think,

why on earth

would they do that?

What would persuade

this small group

of people

against the opinion

of everybody else

that they should

listen to God?

what is it

that they have seen

that everyone else

has missed?

Well,

it's not so much

what they have seen,

is it?

It is what they have heard.

So,

in verse 11,

you find that

the strong hand

of the Lord

is on Isaiah

and the Lord

speaks to him,

warning the people

of the way

to follow.

And Isaiah

listens

and he trusts God

and he trusts

what he says.

He fears the Lord

and not people.

See,

this is Isaiah's

radical claim.

It's the claim

of the whole Bible,

which is that

the world

is ruled

by a God

you cannot see.

A God

who made you,

who loves you,

who will hold you

to account.

You cannot discover

that God

under a microscope.

You cannot discover

him with a telescope.

But you can discover

him through

what he says,

through his word.

And faith in him

comes from

hearing him.

The evangelist,

the late Billy Graham,

tells a story

of being challenged

by a friend

about the reliability

of the Bible.

A friend told him

in 1949

that he was out of date.

He said to Billy Graham,

listen,

no one believes

the Bible anymore.

What?

It's ridiculous.

Don't you know

that science

has disproved the Bible?

And Billy Graham

tells the story

that that night

he couldn't sleep

and so he got up

and he went for a walk.

He took his Bible

with him.

He got into the middle

of the woods

and he put his Bible

down on a tree stump

and there he prayed.

He records his prayer

like this.

He says,

oh God,

there are many things

in this book

that I do not understand.

There are some areas

in it that don't seem

to correlate

with modern science,

but Father,

I'm going to accept

this as your word

by faith.

I'm going to allow

faith to go beyond

my intellectual questions

and my doubts.

I will believe this

to be your inspired word.

He stood up

from his knees

on that August night

with tears in his eyes

and he says,

I sensed the presence

and power of God

as I had not sensed it

in months.

Not all my questions

were answered,

but I knew

that a spiritual battle

in my soul

had been fought and won.

That's Isaiah, right?

God, I will listen to you.

I cannot see you,

but I can hear you

and I will listen.

And that's Billy Graham

and that's Isaiah.

Is that you?

Is that you?

Are you basically

deciding what to trust

based on what you see

or based on what

other people see?

Or are you listening

to what God says

in his word?

That's the first mark

of the remnant.

The second mark

is that they are waiting

for the Lord.

Look down at verse 17

of chapter 8.

I will wait for the Lord

who is hiding his face

from the descendants

of Jacob.

I will put my trust

in him.

Here am I

and the children

the Lord has given me.

We are signs

and symbols in Israel

from the Lord Almighty

who dwells

on Mount Zion.

Notice what this means.

Isaiah's here

with the signs

and symbols

of his children.

That's Sher Jashub

whose name means

the remnant will return

and Meher Shalal Hashbaz

who's referring

to the Syrian army

being really fast

and quick

and taking all the spoil.

But he does not yet have

does he

what God has promised.

He actually says

God is hiding his face.

In other words

he is waiting.

He doesn't have everything.

According to verse 20

as he's waiting

the people around him

are living in ignorance

of God's word.

They have no light.

In verse 21

people are even angry

with God

and cursing God.

People are full

of fearful gloom

in verse 22.

This is the world

in which Isaiah

is waiting.

It's a tough world.

It's a dark world.

And they're in the minority

and the minority

even feel like

God might be hiding.

This is Isaiah's world.

This is our world too, right?

We've seen more

of the fulfillment

of God's promises

than Isaiah had.

We know

that the Assyrian army

did destroy

the Northern Alliance.

We know too

that after them

the Babylonian empire came

and they destroyed

the Assyrians

and that after them

and after a few others

the Roman empire came

and occupied Jerusalem

and they crucified

the Son of God.

But we're still waiting

for Christ's return.

We're still waiting

for his returning glory.

We're still living

in a place

and a time

where most people

reject God

and it's not led

to happiness

but to a new kind

of misery and darkness.

You and I live,

don't we,

in a world

where the rich

seem to get richer,

the poor seem to get poorer,

everyone seems to be

out for themselves.

We live in a world

where it's sometimes

dangerous just even

to walk down the street

at night.

We live in a world

dominated by false religion,

false hope,

false gods

and shallow morality

and this world,

the world in which

we live,

it can still sometimes

feel like God

is hiding,

can't it?

And to be part

of the remnant

is not to be sheltered

from those things,

it is to trust God

whilst waiting

in the darkness.

I don't know about you

but I'm not brilliant

at waiting

and I have to practice it

because I spend a lot

of time waiting it seems.

I have a wife

who's not always brilliant

at timekeeping.

But you know,

don't you,

when you're waiting

for stuff

that you go through

a whole range

of emotions,

don't you?

At first,

you're not that bothered.

You know,

well,

they're a bit late,

it's okay.

Then you get into

sort of like anger.

I can't,

does my time

mean nothing to them?

What are they waiting,

why are they making

me wait?

And then you get

kind of emotional

and just sad

and frustrated

and slightly depressed.

But if you,

if you came to me

and you saw me

going through

those range of emotions,

what would you say?

I think you'd say,

listen,

that's just a feature

of waiting, Steve.

That's just a feature

of waiting.

Listen,

you this morning,

you might find

your Christian life hard.

It might be difficult.

Reading your Bible

might feel like a slog.

Going to school

where you're the only Christian

might feel really isolating.

In your family,

it might be really difficult

because you're the only one

who's a Christian

and everyone else around you

thinks it's a bit stupid,

really.

Why are you going

to church again?

Well, listen,

that's what waiting's like.

That's what waiting's like.

Waiting in the darkness.

And, you know,

there are times of relief,

aren't there?

Sunday mornings

and Sunday evenings

are supposed to be like that,

right?

It's the Lord's day.

It's not his half day,

right?

It's his full day,

right?

You can come morning

and evening.

But still,

you won't find it easy.

You will still find at times

that you might think,

maybe I've got this wrong.

What is God doing?

And that's what waiting's like.

So let's look at part three,

the hope for the waiting

or the hope we are waiting for.

If you look down

at verse one of chapter nine,

you'll see that there is great hope

for the remnant

walking in the darkness

of this world.

Nevertheless,

there'll be no more gloom

for those who are in distress.

In the past,

he humbled the land of Zebulun

and the land of Naphtali,

but in the future,

he will honor Galilee of the nations

by the way of the sea

beyond the Jordan.

The people walking in darkness

have seen a great light.

On those living in the land

of deep darkness,

a light has dawned.

Notice what Isaiah does here.

He's speaking to the people.

He's speaking especially,

I think,

to the remnant.

And he tells them,

listen,

there is a time,

I know you're waiting,

but there is a time coming

when the light will break

through the darkness.

But so confident is Isaiah

that this light will break

through the darkness

that he speaks as if

it's already happened.

The verbs are in the past tense.

And suddenly,

Isaiah is so certain,

I can talk as if it's already here,

that in the humble territories

of God's people,

Zebulun and Naphtali and Galilee,

a light will come from there.

The small remnant

will become a great nation

in verse three,

and there will be great rejoicing,

like people at a bumper harvest,

like the kids in the sweet shop.

That day will be like

Gideon's victory over Midian

in verse four,

when the oppression

and the burden on God's people

was lifted.

In verse five,

the victory will be final

because no one will need

warrior boots and clothes anymore.

They will be burned.

There will be fuel for the fire.

But the point here

is not so much about

the great victory.

The light is not

the great victory, is it?

The light is a person,

as it turns out.

Not Isaiah's children,

who in verse 18

are just signs and symbols,

but the fulfillment

of those signs and symbols.

Not just a sign

that God is with us,

but actually God with us.

Verse six,

for to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government

will be on his shoulders.

He will be called

Wonderful Counselor,

Mighty God,

Everlasting Father,

Prince of Peace.

Just think about those names

for a moment.

This is the light.

I know you're waiting,

but this is the light.

A Wonderful Counselor

is coming.

It doesn't mean

Counselor like the person

that you sit down

and talk to

and tell all your problems.

That's not the kind

of Counselor.

It's the Counselor

as in the person

who knows what they're doing.

The wise one,

the wonderfully wise one

will come.

He'll be Mighty God,

God's power here,

Everlasting Father,

like a father

caring for his children,

Prince of Peace,

the Restorer

of the Remnants Peace.

Here's Isaiah's big point,

the light you are waiting for.

This is the light

you are waiting for,

says Isaiah.

God will come,

and he will be your king.

The one that you are waiting for,

the one of whom's government

will know no end.

He will reign on David's throne

forever in verse 7,

establishing and upholding justice

and righteousness forever.

This is God.

This God,

the God whose glory

fills the earth

in Isaiah 6

is humble to a baby,

Emmanuel,

who's kind of mentioned

in Isaiah 7,

is now the warrior king

of Isaiah 9,

come in the zeal of the Lord

to accomplish the plans of God.

Now Isaiah, remember,

he's speaking as a prophet,

isn't he?

He's looking forward

to the coming of Christ.

And Matthew 4

quotes Isaiah 9

at the start of Jesus' ministry,

telling us that

Jesus' preaching

is the beginning

of the dawn

of the coming

of this light.

Jesus is the one

that Isaiah promised.

You know that, don't you?

Because we read this at Christmas,

you knew that already.

But Jesus is the one promised.

And it's transfiguration,

you see, don't you,

that Jesus' humanity

and his divinity

are in one person of the sun,

two natures,

one not obliterating the other.

The God of glory

carried in humanity.

The mighty God

is the child of the virgin.

The everlasting Father

is on the throne of David.

Emmanuel is with his people.

And then you go, don't you,

from the shining brilliance

of the transfiguration,

to the darkness of the cross.

What's happened?

What has happened

to Isaiah's light?

The darkness and gloom

of a world of sin

is laid on the shoulders

of the light of the world.

The great light

is extinguished

until three days later,

the light of the world

walks alive in flesh

from the tomb,

victorious over sin and death,

leaving not so much

warrior's boots

and garments

as fuel for the fire,

but leaving grave clothes.

I don't need those anymore.

We don't need those

where we're going.

And then he leaves,

ascending into glory,

sending his spirit

and promising to return

so that you and I

are waiting for Christ's

second coming

in the same way

as Isaiah and his remnant

were waiting

for his first coming.

So the Apostle John

does an Isaiah for us, right?

He says, listen,

I know it's difficult.

I know you're in the tribulation.

I know life is hard.

I know you're waiting,

but picture this,

says the Apostle John.

Revelation 19, verse 11,

Revelation 19:11

he says this,

I saw heaven standing open

and there before me

was a white horse

whose rider was called

Faithful and True.

With justice he judges

and wages war.

His eyes are like blazing fire.

On his head are many crowns.

He has a name written on him

that no one knows but himself.

He is dressed in a robe,

dipped in blood,

and his name is

the Word of God.

The armies of heaven

were following him,

riding on white horses

and dressed in fine linen,

white and clean.

Coming out of his mouth

is a sharp sword

with which to strike down

the nations.

He'll rule them

with an iron scepter.

He treads the winepress

of the fury

of the wrath of God Almighty.

On his robe

and on his thigh

he has the name written

King of Kings,

Lord of Lords.

Let me end with this.

I wonder whether in Isaiah's day,

the problem for most people

in Isaiah's day

is that their hopes

were just too shallow.

Most people were hoping

for just a better King Ahaz.

That's what they wanted.

I just want a king

who basically doesn't sell out

to foreign nations.

I want a king

who has some kind of chance

of ruling this nation

with some kind of wisdom

and intelligence,

who doesn't kind of

just trade our livelihoods

for his personal gain.

And Isaiah kind of says

to the remnant,

doesn't he,

don't hope for that.

Let me tell you

what to hope for.

Hope's made for something

bigger than that.

You don't want

just a better King

than Ahaz.

You want God

to be King.

That's what you want.

You want a divine King.

You want God with us.

You know,

most people,

I think to date,

they're not interested

in Jesus

because they think

that they would be

fully satisfied

if only they just

could have the home

that they really wanted

or the friends

that they really wanted

or the marriage

that they really wanted

or if only we could have

well-behaved children

or a bank account

full of money

or a decent reputation.

And then the tragedy

is that some people

sell Christianity

as if it's mostly designed

to deliver those things.

But actually,

if those are the things

you're hoping for,

you're better off

going somewhere else

because you're not promised

those things in Christianity.

The Bible says

you need to hope

for something better

than that.

There is something bigger

and better to hope for.

Your hope,

if you will trust

in God's promise,

is that you

will personally

look into

the glorious face

of the God-man,

Jesus,

the one alone

who can truly satisfy you,

the one whose counsel

is wonderful,

the one whose power

is mighty,

the one whose very presence

chases away evil

and death

and brings eternal

peace and glory,

the one whose glory

and joy will last

not just for a lifetime,

however long or short

that might be for us,

but for eternity.

This is why it's okay,

isn't it,

to be in the minority

this morning.

It's okay to be

in the minority.

In fact,

it's the best place

to be

because popularity

now

is no substitute

for glory later.

Small hopes now

are no substitute

for God with us.

You know,

my plans now,

my popularity now

are no substitute

for eternal hope

and glory in Jesus.

And so we live,

don't we?

We wait,

listening to his word,

waiting in the darkness

for the light to return.

Let me pray

as I close.

Amen.

Heavenly Father,

we want to pray

that you would

forgive us

for the times

where we have made

decisions about

the very most

important things

in life

just based on

what those around us

are doing.

we want to be

better at listening

to what you say

in your word,

trusting in you

and doubting

what our eyes see

and what others say.

And so, Lord,

we thank you

for this wonderful

hope in Jesus,

the one who conquered

sin and death.

And we want to pray

that you would help us

to live our lives

listening to him

in your word

and waiting

for his return.

Please, Lord,

keep us faithful.

Keep us going.

I pray especially

for those this morning

who do find themselves

in a really significant

minority

in their places of work

or school or home.

Please give them grace

and courage

and strength

to keep going

and keep trusting

as we wait

for Christ's return.

In his name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.