Take your Bibles with me and turn to Isaiah 7. Isaiah 7.
Thank you Brother Adam for preaching this morning. About 12 of us went to Trail Ridge Camp in Hillsboro, Wisconsin for a Father-Son retreat. This camp is run by the VCY America Radio station and it was a beautiful camp. It was great to get away, to hear God's word, to laugh and joke around together. I'm glad I went. If you're a man and you haven't gone, maybe next year.
Tonight we are going to look at Isaiah 7. Let's go ahead and read that chapter:
1 And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. 2 And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind. 3 Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shearjashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field; 4 And say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. 5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying, 6 Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal: 7 Thus saith the Lord GOD, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. 8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. 9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. 10 Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying, 11 Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. 12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD. 13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. 16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings. 17 The LORD shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria. 18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19 And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes. 20 In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard. 21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep; 22 And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land. 23 And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns. 24 With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns. 25 And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle. Isaiah 7
As we look at this passage, we're going to look at four different things tonight:
- The situation
- The challenge
- The sign
- The judgment
The first thing we're going to talk about is the first two verses.
1. The Situation
In order for us to understand this passage, I have to take a few minutes to explain the historical situation Isaiah found himself in.
Remember, he lived in Judah right before God judged the northern kingdom and around 150 years before God judged Judah.
During the time this chapter was written the big player on the world stage was the Assyrian empire. They were run by a mean dude named Tiglath-Pileser III and they were trying to take over the world. The crown jewel they had their eye on was the nation of Egypt, and right between them and Egypt there were a few smaller countries in the way like Syria, Israel, and Judah.
If you were to bring it into the modern age, the Assyrians were like Nazi Germany. They wanted France, and Switzerland, Belgium, and Luxembourg were in the way.
Isaiah was in Judah. Judah was the more faithful of the two kingdoms of Israel, and they had just had a good king named Uzziah. Now they have a wicked king named Ahaz.
So everyone is scared of the Assyrians, and to make matters worse, Judah is also at war with Israel - the Northern Kingdom, and the Northern Kingdom has joined forces with Syria and they are coming after Judah.
And Ahaz and Judah are "big scared." Their hearts are blowing around like leaves in the wind.
And that is where this passage hits us. What do we, as God's people, do when we are scared? What do we do when life is uncertain?
I probably shouldn't say this, but last night, I was talking to one of the men who went with our group, and he started talking about current events and he was just flipping out about the economy and the war in Iran and plagues coming out of Eastern Europe. I mean, he was intense about it. Like he needed a Prozac or something.
It can be easy to look at all that is going on in the world and to have our hearts be moved "as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind."
The second thing I want to talk about is...
2. The Challenge
Verses 3 to 11 show Isaiah confronting King Ahaz. Apparently, King Ahaz is going to inspect the city’s water pipes, and Isaiah meets him with his son, delivering a word from the Lord.
The basic word that God gives Isaiah to give to King Ahaz is: we know what Syria and Israel are up to. We know that they want to defeat Jerusalem and get rid of you, and it's not going to happen. Look at verse 7. It couldn't be clearer.
7 Thus saith the Lord GOD, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. Isaiah 7:7
That is as clear a word from God as they come. But it get's clearer. Not only are Syria and Israel not going to defeat you - but God says within 65 years Israel isn't even going to be a country anymore.
Than God challenges Ahaz with this statement "If you believe not, surely ye shall not be established."(9). That's just a challenge for Ahaz to stop trusting in himself and to start trusting in the Lord. To be a believer.
Ahaz was not a believer. He was going through the motions, but he wasn't really trusting God. In fact, he had already reached out to Assyria (remember, they are like the Nazis threatening everyone) and asked them to come in and save them from Israel and Syria.
But God was giving Ahaz a chance to believe. A chance to be a believer.
The most important thing about you as a person is what your faith is in. Several times in the scripture it says "The just shall live by His faith." Who you are trusting in is the most important question.
Most people are like Ahaz and they are trusting in themselves, or maybe they are trusting in the world, maybe they are trusting in their bank account or in their beauty.
God wants us to trust in Him.
3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26:3
God wanted Judah and God wants us to trust in Him.
God promises that He will care for His children. That He will provide for us as we obey Him. That is where our trust should be - not in our own cleverness and schemes.
So we've talked about the situation and the challenge
Let's look at
3. The Sign
God wanted Ahaz to believe in HIm so much that God offered Ahaz something amazing in verse 10-11
10 Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying, 11 Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. Isaiah 7:10-11
God is saying "Ahaz, ask for any sign that you want and I'll give it to you - anything you need to help stregthen your faith in me."
I think Ahaz could have said "write my name in the stars" and God would have done it. Maybe He could have said like Gideon "make this fleece wet and this fleece dry" and God would have done it. Or like Moses holding his arm up and the sun staying in the sky. God would have done that.
Any sign - that's not a promise God gives to us. It's not wise for us to look for a sign like this - but God offered it to Ahaz.
And Ahaz decided to play pious and say "I won't tempt the LORD."
I think Ahaz had already rejected God in his heart and didn't want to have His faith strengthened.
But God was going to give a sign anyways - even if Ahaz didn't care. And that sign is in verse 14-15:
14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. Isaiah 7:14-15
This is the sign of a virgin conceiving and having a son.
Now, I need to stop here and talk about this sign, because the New Testament interprets this clearly as a prophecy about Jesus' virgin birth.
22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Matthew 1:22-23
So whatever Isaiah's prophecy was about - it was primarily about the coming of Jesus through a virgin birth. To say otherwise would be to deny the Bible.
But in Old Testament prophecies, its kind of common for a prophecy to have two fulfillments. Listen to how the commentator Andrew Davis puts it:
Christian prophecy often has a type and a fulfillment, a shadow and the reality. Something is acted out imperfectly in space and time illustrating some aspect of Christ's furture coming. Christ then perfectly fulfills that shadow with the bright light of his life and ministry.
So the ultimate fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy was Christ and His virgin birth, but the immediate fulfilment of the prophecy is a little more boring than that.
A woman who was not yet married and was still a virgin would have a son by normal means, name that son Immanuel (kind of an unusual name) and by the time that baby was old enough to pick out his own food, Israel and Syria wouldn't be a problem anymore.
The main thing God was telling Judah through this sign was "I am going to be with you and I am going to protect you." "Immanuel" is like the promise of Romans 8:31
31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31
God was begging Judah to just trust in HIm. To put their faith in Him. He was going to take care of them.
But unfortunately, Ahaz wasn't going to do that. Ahaz was going to trust in Assyria, not in God, and so the last half of this chapter is just God telling the judgment that is going to come on Judah from Assyria.
4. The judgment
Basically, God said it's going to be bad. It's going to be worse than it's ever been. God was going to whistle and swarms were going to come from Assyria and just destroy Judah.
It was going to be so bad. Their economy was going to be ruined. Their crops would completely fail so everyone would have to hunt for their food.
It was going to be so bad that the land would be shaved. That is the picture in verse 20. The Lord would shave Judah with a hired razor, the king of Assyria, the head and the beard. In that world, to shave a man's beard was to shame him. And the razor was hired. Ahaz had already sent for it. He took silver and gold out of the house of the Lord and bought Tiglath-pileser. The help he trusted is the humiliation God sent.
The vines would go to briers. A man would have a cow and two sheep and live on butter and honey, because that was all that was left. Butter and honey here is not a feast. It is what you eat when the farms are gone.
Church, hear the warning. When you are scared, you will trust something. Ahaz trusted a king who was worse than the kings he was afraid of. The two kings in front of him were smoke. The king he sent for shaved the land. If you will not trust the Lord, you will trust your account, or the news, or your own plan, and the thing you trust will turn on you.
But God gave the sign anyway. Ahaz did not want it. He played humble and said, "I will not tempt the Lord." God gave it to the house of David anyway. A virgin would conceive and bear a son, and his name would be Immanuel. God with us. Matthew tells us who that is. Jesus Christ, born of the virgin, God with us, come to save his people from their sins.
That is where your trust belongs. Not in the Assyria you can hire. In him. He is God with us in the trouble, and he is God with us for salvation. Isaiah's word to Ahaz is the word for us. "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established." Believe him. Immanuel. God is with us.
Business Meeting
Church, the main reason for the business meeting is to update the church on our quarterly finances, and Ernie has done that. There is something else I want to cover this evening.
Years ago, in my business, I was doing work for some of the biggest church software companies in the world. I watched those companies get bought by private equity, and I watched their attention move from smaller, traditional churches like ours toward bigger churches, where the money was. The Lord laid it on my heart to make something for churches like ours. So I built Congregation Hub, for Bible Baptist first. We have been the first user of it, and what gets built in it gets built with this church in mind. That is still how I work on it.
Today we use Congregation Hub to run our church website, track attendance, plan services, plan upcoming events, send text messages, postcards, and emails, and create giving statements. The software is free for every church that uses it. A church pays three cents when it sends a text, and $1.50 when it sends a postcard. Two cents of that text and fifty cents of that postcard stay with Congregation Hub. That is the only money coming in, and it goes toward keeping the lights on. The rest pays the phone company and the print shop.
Right now 185 churches are using it. It is translated into 9 languages, and churches are using it in Ireland, Australia, Mexico, in mission works in Africa, and all over the United States.
Our family has paid the whole cost of keeping it online. I have talked with the deacons and our other leaders about bringing it under the church, and I am asking you to take Congregation Hub on as a mission of Bible Baptist.
Here is what I am asking.
First, Congregation Hub would come under Bible Baptist. The accounts would move into the church's name. Big decisions would be made by our leadership, with a small advisory board of independent Baptist pastors.
Second, we would set up a separate Congregation Hub fund, under the church's control, so the project's money and our family's money stay apart.
Third, the church would cover the cost of keeping it online. That cost is $337 a month, which is $4,044 a year. $126 of that is the servers. $111 is the email and texting service. $100 is the AI I use to build and run the software. If that cost ever needs to go past $500 a month, I will bring it back to the church before it does.
My pay stays the same. There is nothing for the church to buy from me, and the project cannot be sold. The $337 keeps it online. Over the next couple of years, the goal is that those few cents on each send cover that cost, and it carries itself.
I believe this is a unique thing our church can be part of, with a reach well beyond us.
I am glad to take any questions.
If you are ready to decide, here is the motion: that Bible Baptist take on Congregation Hub as a mission of the church, that its finances be kept in a separate fund under the church's control, and that the church cover the operating cost of $337 a month, not to exceed $500 a month unless the church votes to raise that amount.
If someone wants the invoices:
- $18 — Block storage
- $40 — Website server
- $48 — Congregation Hub server
- $20 — Forge (server orchestration)
- $61 — Postmark (email)
- $50 — Telnyx (texting)
- $100 — AI
Servers $126. Email and texting $111. AI $100. Total $337 a month.
