Exposition by Max A Forsythe
Quite often in the upbringing of young men, they reach a point of confidence where it seems like they know everything. Some of you men here today may perhaps remember such a time in your youth. If you can't I'm sure someone close to you can and may perhaps remind you of this very common human failure. I remember one particular young man at school who when confronted with this fact of his personality said arrogantly: "If I don't know something it isn't worth knowing!" About the only encouragement I could give him in his arrogant condition was to advise him not to buy the stamps for his graduation announcements just yet. As it turned out, he didn't need them that year! He had also signed an enlistment contract with the military, which required him to produce a diploma. By now, I hope that he has learned something about life and especially something about humility!
How many of the world's problems could be better solved if our social experts were more humble as well. Yet, the arrogant amongst our society have a providential service to provide, much as the Assyrian hoards of Isaiah's time. Israel and even Judah will be humbled and then so will Assyria and Babylon in their turn so that the remnant may know God is indeed Lord and King above all peoples and above all pagan gods and goddesses.
For a short time the willful kings and princes of Assyria will be allowed to run rampant, but just as assuredly, like a junk yard dog, the limit of their chain or fence will run out and the Lord will say: thus far and no further! Yes, the pride and sin of God's own people is desperate indeed fully deserving the punishment they are to receive. However, the godless folly of the Assyrians is much worse indeed.
In verses five to six we see the purpose that the Almighty will allow Assyria. This is to be the limit of their accomplishments. To loot and plunder and to trample God's people for a time. From these verses we should learn full well that God would allow His own Church to be punished for its sins by the human course of events. However, the worldly crowd will not have a final triumph. Even as the associated Sodomites and gross feminists triumph in their capture of the national bureaucracy, things do not look good.
One of their cherished goals to make it a Federal Crime to picket their killing centers has run into a slight problem. In the process of going through Congress an amendment has been added in the Senate that will protect churches from the same type of picketing which was practiced recently in San Francisco. Of course you never saw it in the news, but an angry crowd of Sodomites surrounded one particular church by the hundreds to protest the presence of a particular speaker in that congregation. Very few people were willing to push their way through the wild bunch to get into their own church? Is this a possibility for faithful congregations in the near future? We will have to wait and see if the liberal crowd is as willing to grant us the same protection that they feel they deserve!
Their real goal, like that of the Assyrians in Isaiah's time is total destruction of Christ's Church. One of the feminists who was interviewed as a possible vice-presidential candidate with Mondale a few years back, had said publicly that evangelical Christians should be rounded up and shot. Neither Geraldine Ferraro nor Hillary Rodham-Clinton is that extreme. Every once in a while we ought to thank the Lord for the apparent mellowness of our president's First Mate.
A limited conquest like our constitution provides is not what the leaders of Assyria had in mind at all. Look at verse seven as the Lord shows us the heart of the Assyrians. Like all totalitarian dictators, the Assyrian leader wants it all. See how the arrogant braggart works himself up to blasphemy in verse eleven? Just as Napoleon once said that,
"God is on the side of the big battalions" and Stalin questioned when the Pope publicly opposed his program
"How many divisions does the Pope have?" So does the Assyrian leader belittle the God of Gods by comparing Him to the pagan images of the conquered kingdoms.
Shouldn't Judah be appalled at such public blasphemy? But were the Judahites' relationship anything more than to an idol. Should they take offense at the blasphemous reference of the Assyrian, when they themselves by their practices ignored their own God? Well might we ask if omission of faithfulness is equal blasphemy to overt public condemnation of the God of all Gods?
A recent religious survey admits that ninety-five per cent of Americans believe in a "god". Fully forty per cent claim to worship and follow His teachings. However, a full investigative report shows that only about nineteen per cent of Americans actually try to live in the light of God's word. And even most of them are publicly silent about their commitment! Which, my friends is really worse? To stand publicly as a worldly atheist and condemn the God of heaven. Or to stand aside quietly as a nominal atheist and ignore the clear revelations of Scripture?
How does God measure such minimal devotion? Look what He is about to do to Israel and Judah in Isaiah's time. He would use the worldly Assyrians to fall upon His Old Testament saints for a time and give them, their land and their riches into Assyrian care. But, now there is a promise in verse twelve:
"When the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, 'I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes."
In verse sixteen Isaiah prophesies the doom of the Assyrian Army several years later when they have gathered outside of Jerusalem. In a single day the hosts of Assyria will be burned away by God's righteous wrath. God intends to show His people that He is indeed in control. In verse twenty the remnant of Israel will again rely upon the Lord, this remnant will return to the Mighty God.
Not all of Israel is Israel as we might hear in the later New Testament. Of this Isaiah is made aware in verse twenty-two. Yet, Isaiah is to faithfully proclaim the words of the Lord so that the true church might be not afraid of the Assyrians. The Old Testament Church would not be harried out of existence, but disciplined back to obedience. God's righteous wrath will pass to the worldly Assyrians in time.
The wide forested image of the Assyrian strength will be cut down to such few numbers that even a small child can number them. The Assyrian Army may even approach through Aiath, Migron, Micmash, Geba and the rest. They may come as close as Nob and
"shake their fist at the mount of the Daughter of Zion."
But, no further promises the Lord of hosts! We know from other biblical accounts that these events were fulfilled in time. The prophet's words are true and Isaiah's report is verified from history.
In the same manner as the elect of His day took courage from Isaiah may we too learn that in the long run, God has His plan and that plan is for our benefit. Like Israel we too may have to pass under many penalties and restrictions. But even now, our very worst enemies are dying like flies because of the cesspools they have been breeding in.
One of those "Assyrian" Sodomites actually condemned the President publicly because no cure has been found that can keep the sufferers of AIDs alive. Even the National Organization of Women is finding it difficult to keep its nefarious movement going. They have actually redefined what it means to be feminine in order to recruit confused transvestites into its ranks.
Just as the Assyrians of Isaiah's time, our worst enemies will have their day, but a few years hence when their numbers are reduced, God's true will may certainly be accomplished. In the meanwhile, we like the remnant of Isaiah's day ought to take the threat of punishment for our own indiscretions to heart. We ought to be convicted of wrongful attitudes, faithless lack of obedience, and utter shame for being unwilling to take a public stand in the defense of our God and our King: Jesus Christ. May the Lord give us emotional and spiritual strength for the battles that may well come our way? Amen.
Resources Used:
Thomas, Derek..
Welwyn Commentery Series: God Delivers.
Young, Edward J.
The Book of Isaiah.
The Holy Bible.
New International Version (1984 Edition)
NOTE: I am not able to automatically
recommend any future editions.
Christ Covenant Reformed (Presbyterian Church in America) -
Box 13926 - Columbus, OH 43213
(c) 2001
05 December 93
Permission granted to redistribute unedited versions with this notice.