Amen. Okay, so we're into Isaiah 10 now and as is my way I'll just remind you
what happened in the last chapter. Isaiah chapter 9 was where we were last
week and Isaiah continued to prophesy over the punishment to come to Israel,
yet within it were prophecies of the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ,
if you remember. We saw a few of those with the famous Christmas verse,
Isaiah 9-6, which was giving us distinctive characteristics of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He went back to warning Israel, the northern kingdoms, that was
of the destruction to come, and we looked at how this also pictured God's wrath in
the end times, that with all of this punishment there was still hope for
some. We looked at that in depth. Verse 19, I'm just going to do that quickly
there, Isaiah 9 and verse 19 said, through the wrath of the Lord of
hosts the land darkened, and the people shall be as a fuel of the fire, no
man shall spare his brother. I mean, what a verse, right? The people should be as
the fuel of the fire. And he then said, he shall snatch on the right
hand and be hungry and he shall eat on the left hand, they shall not be
satisfied, they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm. Manasseh, Ephraim,
and Ephraim, Manasseh, and they together shall be against Judah. For all this, his
anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. And then
Isaiah 10, we go into a verse 1, says woe unto them that decree
unrighteous decrees, and at right grievousness, which they have
prescribed, to turn aside the needy from judgment, to take away the right
from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may
rob the fatherless. I'd like to pray and then we're gonna get going with
this chapter. Father, thank you for this great chapter of the Bible, Lord. It's a
chapter with, you know, quite a long chapter here, Lord, and help me to
just explain clearly that the verses I've decided to expand a bit
more and the talking points here, Lord, and in a way that people would be edified,
that we're able to apply it to their lives, Lord, that people go out of
here with something to take away from the preaching, Lord, to be able to just
improve themselves, improve their lives, to think about, dwell upon. Fill me with
your spirit, please, Lord, fill me with boldness, and help everyone not to be
distracted as they listen to your word. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Okay, so he's warning the leadership in Israel. He said, woe unto them that
decree unrighteous decrees. Okay, those that decree, and basically decisions of
law, okay, is what he's talking about here, that make laws and decisions to
rip people off. Okay, he said that right grievousness, which
they have prescribed, to turn aside the needy from judgment, take away the right
from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, then that they may
rob the fatherless. And of course, we see examples, if you read through the
Bible, you see some of this going on with Israel. For example, it's not long
before this, Ahab and Jezebel stole Naboth's vineyard, that was
unrighteous decrees, there was grievousness which they had prescribed,
they basically conned, not only did they con him out of it, they got him put
to death so they could take it. I mean, there was stuff like that going on.
I'm sure there's plenty more, you know, if you kind of go through the word,
I'm sure many that aren't recorded in the Bible have just all sorts of, you know,
rip-offs and nasty things going on from what was unrighteous leadership,
pretty much from the get-go with the northern kingdoms after the split.
Land-grabbing miscarriages of justice, I'm sure there was a lot of that, but
who are often the targets in this? Often the targets are, verse 2 says, to turn
aside the needy from judgment, to take away the right from the poor of my
people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless.
Now you say, why target the poor and needy? You think, well, why not just rob
the rich, right? Why target the poor and needy? And I'll tell you why really
throughout history that we've seen this, because they're easy targets, because
they're the easier targets, that they have less ability to defend themselves
basically. They have less clout, they have less power, they have less
protection, they just have less ability to defend themselves. And really
ultimately what it is is just bullying. It's age-old bullying, okay, and people
throughout life sadly just bully people, okay. They oppress those that are
defenseless in one way or another, or at least have less defence. And this
happens the world over, okay. Poor people are targeted as cheap labour,
their children are targeted in various ways, false religions often target poor
people, don't they? As much as they love, you know, the rich in there to
rip them off as well, all the time they're targeting the poor, they're
claiming to the poor that they'll get health, wealth, prosperity, things like
that. Excuse me, if they just carry on, you know, coming and giving money to
these places, they take what little they have and con them with their want and
desire and need to be able to live and be able to maybe get money in life.
And there's many ways this works, and many ways that leadership does this, and
here's the thing though, we can look at this, it's just so scummy isn't it?
It's scummy to be just picking on people that can't defend themselves,
picking on the needy, picking on the widows, picking on the poor, picking on the
fathers, but sadly there's bullying tendencies in all areas of life, there
really are. And a lot of people are bullies in one way or another, and you
know it's something that obviously we have to be careful with with children
because children, look, they could just bully, okay, pretty easily, can't they? And
I know like people get really upset often and it's kind of like a kind of,
you know, sort of almost like a crusade for people, just can't stand the bullies in life, and then they just go
and do it themselves as well. And it's something we have to not only
train our kids, we have to be an example of as well. Because I've always, I've often
thought about this, there are people, you know, that for example, and I always,
I used to explain like this, is that there are people that seem to like
regularly pick a fight and stuff like this, you know, kind of
getting into like a physical altercation with people, but the reality of it is if
that person that they were getting into physical altercation with was twice
the size and twice, you know, and looked twice as tough, often they would find a
way not to be so angry, do you know what I mean? The sort of person that's so angry that
someone looked at them or whatever else it is, or the road rage. And you know
what I found really funny was a big difference when I was younger, if I
drove a big van, no one ever wanted road rage with me. And I wasn't any
different a person, it's just because they just expected, right, probably some
fairly able, fairly, you know, manual worker, and it was never a problem. I used
to drive sometimes a bit rudely as well on the roads, you know, because I was in a
van, I used to get around quicker. Then I'd drive my wife's little car, get in
my wife's car, suddenly people are cutting me up, beeping the horn, starting
to get me out of the way. It's just bullying really, isn't it? Because in their
mind, small car, probably small man or woman, let's just pick on them. And
that's kind of, it's just bullying, isn't it? And it goes on throughout the
world, and how we respond to one person is different to someone else, and often
it's just because of whether or not we perceive a threat to them. And as much as
governments do it, as much as people in power, as much as false prophets do it,
we all need to be careful that we don't do the same, that we don't just
treat people differently based on how much we think we can get away with.
Because people can be bullies, can't they? Bullies that try and make people feel
lousy, say comments to people you think you can get away with that one, but I
can't get away with that one. So I'll make them feel a bit rubbish, I'll make
them feel like dirt, because it makes me feel better. It's bullying. And we
need to be careful not to be bullies, right? And he said it here in verse 1,
Woe unto them that do these things. So basically God will punish them
eventually. God will punish them. God punishes these things. And here the
nation was about to get destroyed, carried away by the Assyrians. He said
in verse 3, And what will ye do in the day of visitation, in the desolation
which shall come from far? To whom will ye flee for help? And where will
ye leave your glory? Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners,
and they shall fall under the slain. For all this is anger is not turned
away, but his hand is stretched out still. Now we saw this phrase used in
Isaiah 5 and also three times last week. Isaiah 9 12, so in the chapter
before this, said Isaiah 9 12, The Syrians before and the Philistines
behind them shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this is anger is not
turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. Verse 17, sorry, of
Isaiah 9 says, Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither
shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows. For everyone is an
hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speak of folly. For all this is
anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. And verse 21
said Manasseh, Ephraim and Ephraim, Manasseh, the last verse there, and they together
should be against Judah. For all this is anger is not turned away, but
his hand is stretched out still. And last week I mentioned that you could
look at this statement about his hand being stretched out still in two ways.
Okay, if you'd like to turn to Exodus 3, turn to Exodus chapter 3, there are two
ways you could look at this. Number one is just that his hand is stretched out in
punishment still. He just continues to punish them. So for all this is anger is
not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still in that punishment
of the people. And we see both God and Moses described, for example, as
stretching forth their hands when punishing Egypt. You turn to Exodus 3
and look at verse 20 in Exodus 3. Verse 20 says, And I will stretch out my
hand and smite Egypt with all my wonders, which I will do in the mid
Serod of, and after that he will let you go. So there is God stretching out
his hand, smiting Egypt with his wonders, which obviously many here will
be aware of what he did. But you could also look at it in another way,
like I said, that he offers salvation during the punishment. So although his
anger is still there, his anger is not turned away, his hand is stretched out
still. Proverbs 31, 20, you don't have to turn there, stay in Exodus 3, but it
says of the virtuous woman, She stretched out her hand to the poor,
yea, she reached forth her hand to the needy. And in Matthew 14, 31, we see
a physical salvation. It's clearly a picture of spiritual
salvation when Peter is sinking after walking water.
He calls out, Save me, and immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand
and called him and said unto him, I thou of little faith, wherefore did
sow doubt. So I believe that that both really
probably apply here. That both apply, because it's during
God's punishment, during his wrath, that salvation is often likely.
I'm going to show you this with a couple of passages. I know I
mentioned this last week, but I didn't really have time to go into it,
to study it out properly. It's just a thought that I had as I was
kind of at the end of that chapter. But
the picture, for example, with the exodus from Egypt, look at Exodus
chapter 6 and verse 6. Exodus 6 and verse 6 says, Wherefore say
unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord and I will bring you
out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will rid you out of
their bondage and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm
and with great judgments. Now, the arm is out doing the judgments, but it's
also redeeming them at the same time.
And it's during that wrath, during that those judgments, that that stretched out
arm is also like that stretched forth hand of Jesus Christ.
They seem to go hand in hand. In fact, so much in the Bible, as I started
studying this out. Turn to 1 Kings chapter 8.
Well, I read Proverbs 1.24. You turn to 1 Kings 8.
Proverbs chapter 1 and verse 24 is where God has wisdom. He's
talking as wisdom says of rejecters, because I have called
and you refused. I have stretched out my hand
and no man regarded. So we see that, basically, that offer, that stretching out
the hand is an offer of salvation. It's talking about those
that reject. And in 1 Kings 8, okay, Solomon,
you're in 1 Kings chapter 8, he's had the ark brought into the temple
and he says this great prayer to God, where we see the principle of people
turn to God when his hand is stretched forth in
both judgment and salvation. Look at verse 37
in 1 Kings 8. 1 Kings 8 verse 37 says,
If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence,
blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpillar,
if their enemy besieged them in the land of their cities, whatsoever plague,
whatsoever sickness there be, what prayer and supplications so ever be
made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which
shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his
hands toward this house, then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling
place of forgive and do and give to every man according to his ways,
whose heart thou knowest, for thou even now only knowest the hearts of all
the children of men, that they may fear thee all the days as they live in
the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.
Then he uses, he even uses then the phrase when concerning the stranger, so
we see the principle in those verses, but look at the phrase then used. Verse 41
he says, Moreover concerning a stranger, that is
not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name's
sake, for they shall hear of thy great name,
and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched out arm,
when he shall come and pray toward this house. Hear thou in heaven thy
dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for,
that all the people of the earth may know thy name,
to fear thee, as do thy people Israel, and that they may know that this house
which I have builded is called by thy name. Now the point being that
this stretched out arm can result in the stranger coming to seek the Lord.
That the judgment of God, the punishment of God in various ways
should result in people coming to him. It's kind of like a
two sides of a coin. Turn to Ezekiel 20,
because isn't that the case for so many here? Maybe, maybe for some here.
I know myself, I got saved during a hard time in life during
tribulation, during a low time in life, and other people you hear of similar
testimonies. When they've been through something
hard, they're feeling like they're going through a hard time,
there's trouble in life there, or maybe even for them they feel like God's
dealing with them roughly. And it's at that sort of time, a lot of
the time that people then are more open to salvation. You're more
likely to be humbled, to be recognized your need for the Lord. Look at Ezekiel
20 and verse 33. Ezekiel 20, 33 says, As I live, saith
the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a
stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule
over you, and I will bring you out from the people,
and will gather you out of the countries wherein you are scattered, with
a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm,
and with fury poured out. So he said that he would gather them with that
mighty hand, with that stretched out arm, with fury poured out.
And last week we looked at how that will be the case during the wrath of
God, with 144,000 witnesses, the two high
profile witnesses, those two olive trees they described as,
though they're ultimately there during the wrath of God,
still his arms stretched out with the offer of salvation, still during that
time. But I believe that it's something to
remember for our loved ones. So how do we apply this? What's the point?
For people that we preach to that don't get saved there and then.
Verse three, back in Isaiah 10 said, And what will you do in the day of
visitation and in the desolation which shall come from far? To whom will you flee
for help? And where will you leave your glory?
Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners and they shall fall under
the slain. For all this is anger is not turned
away but his hand is stretched out still.
He said, what will you do in the day of visitation? Talk you that time of
tribulation or distress, right? Because if you jump forward to 1st Peter 2
quickly, 1st Peter chapter 2, that talks of that day of
visitation. And this is a great proof text, a proof
verse, to show us what that day of visitation is.
He said, what will you do in the day of visitation
and in the desolation which shall come from far? Talking about this time of
trouble, talking about this time of tribulation, this time
of hardship. And 1st Peter 2 says, from verse 11, 1st Peter 2 11, Dearly
beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts
which war against the soul. Having your conversation, or we might say your
behavior, honest among the gentiles that
whereas they speak against you as evildoers,
they may by your good works which they shall behold glorify God. When?
In the day of visitation. So Peter's saying to live right, to behave well
amongst the unbelievers, to show good works. And one of those surely being
sharing the Gospel, you know, it's not just, oh well
they're just going to see how great I am and then just choose
choose to put their faith in Christ. They need to hear the Gospel. We should be
showing our good works. They may buy our good works and
hopefully you'd get the chance, get the opportunity,
try and find the opportunity to preach the Gospel to those around us
so that they glorify God. And by the way, there's no better way to glorify God
than to accept the record he gave of his son
and to give him that glory that he died, was made a rose again to pay for
your sins, in the day of visitation. In that time
when they're more humble, when they're more likely to accept
their need of a Savior. And there's a time in many
people's lives where they're probably going to be most
accepted, doesn't mean they'll get saved, doesn't mean that's a hundred percent, but
you know what, for many people there was a time in
life where, praise God, you heard the Gospel.
It was in that day of visitation, in that hard time, in that time when
things weren't maybe so great, where maybe you accepted
your need for a Savior because you were more humble.
And he said in verse three, and what will you do in the day of visitation and
desolation, back in Isaiah 10, which shall come from far to whom will you
flee for help? And where will you leave your glory?
Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners,
and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned
away, but his hand is stretched out still. So I believe it
works in two ways, okay, and so his anger is stretched out
in that anger, in that judgment, yet with that there's that opportunity
of that hand being stretched out of receiving salvation as well, and
he's always offering it. But I think aside from salvation it works with
both chastisement and tribulation of his children as well.
He wants us to turn to him, doesn't he? So when you're
in a hard time, because it's not just about salvation,
this works through his children, for God's people,
when you're going through a rough time, when you're going through maybe the
chastisement of God, or maybe just going through some tribulation in life
for whatever other reason, okay, he wants us then to turn to him, doesn't
he? That's when you're most likely to, that's when you should be more
likely to draw closer to God, to call out to him, to reach forth to
that stretched out hand. He wants you to call to him.
A lot of the time tribulation, chastisement should bring us
closer to God. It should make us reach out, pull
closer, and get closer to God, not pull away. And sadly, that's when
people mess up, is when they're going through a hard time, when life's hard,
when things are rough, and they're like, right, now I need a break from
church, now I need a break from reading my Bible, now I need a break from
soul winning, now I need a break from praying.
That's the wrong attitude. That's when you need to draw close, that's when you
need to pull close, that's when you need God most,
and that's sometimes, a lot of the time, that's the idea of it. He's chastising
you to pull closer to him. It's funny, you know, people, maybe not
so funny, but it's a weird thing, isn't it,
how so often people are just like, my life's been so rough, so bad,
I, you know, I'm not interested in God and everything else. It's like, that's
when you should be pulling closer to God,
that's when you should be saying, please, I need to get closer, I need your help.
That's the idea, and as we see here, he sometimes even uses people, nations,
to punish others. It could be someone's giving you grief, giving you a hard time,
maybe God's allowing that, maybe he's almost encouraging that to
happen, to get you to actually get right and
pull back close to him, because if things go too smoothly in
your life, what happens? You start taking the credit and you pull away from
God, don't you? And that's something we see time and
time again in the Bible. He said here in verse 5, oh Assyrian,
the rod of mine anger and the staff in their hand is mine
indignation. I will send him against a hypocritical nation,
and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge to take the spoilings,
to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither does his heart think so, but it is in
his heart to destroy and cut off nations, not a few. So he's
saying that the Assyrians, okay, those that he's using to mete out punishment,
I think he's saying they don't realize they're being sent. So he's not
thinking, oh, I'm just here to, like, do God's will,
he just thinks, oh, look, great, let's go and smash everyone, you know. So
God's using them, but they don't know they're being used by God
to mete out the punishment of God. It says, for he saith, are not my princes
altogether kings? Is not Calno as Carchemish? Is not Hamath
as Arpad? Is not Samaria as Damascus? Now these are all towns and cities
that the Assyrians were conquering, okay, that they'd conquered at this point.
They're just going, look at all this, look at everything we're conquering, look
how great we are. He's saying that the Assyrians
will be getting carried away conquering.
However, God is using them actually for his will. So,
you know, we can't always get ahead around how that works, how God, you know,
people think they're doing things for one reason and God's actually just,
you know, making things, molding things to work to fulfill his will,
regardless of their will in that situation. It said in verse 10, as my
hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols and whose graven images did
excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria. Shall I not, as I have done unto
Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols. So
it wasn't just the northern kingdoms practicing idolatry. So in case you just
look at it as northern good, southern bad, that's not
really how it worked. Just the northern were even worse, okay.
That was like just, they went bad real quick and it just got worse and
worse. But the southern kingdom were the
same. They were still practicing idolatry as we've seen.
Lots of preaching against the southern kingdom, Jerusalem obviously being the
capital there. He's saying that it will be
punishing Jerusalem too. And of course the Assyrians end up coming to
Jerusalem twice under Hezekiah's reign, so we see that fulfilled.
He says here in verse 12, wherefore it shall come to pass that when the Lord
hath performed his whole work upon Mount Zion
and on Jerusalem I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king
of Assyria and the glory of his high looks.
For he said, by the strength of my hand I have done it,
and by my wisdom, for I am prudent and I have removed the bounds of the
people and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a
valiant man. Then my hand hath found as a nest the
riches of the people, and there's one gathereth eggs that are left. Have I
gathered all the earth? And there was none that moved the wing
or opened a mouth or peeped. So basically the success of the king
of Assyria bred pride and arrogance. And obviously
this is something, again, it's just a common theme in the Bible.
God's clearly not a fan of, okay. Doesn't like pride and arrogance.
Whether you're a man of God or not, whether you're one of his children or
not, he hates it. And this is something that
we though have to be very wary of, okay, getting prideful about our perceived
successes in life. And it just happens, isn't it? You could
be in the things of God, doing the things of God,
you could be reading your Bible, really trying to live right, and you start
getting some success and you start to get puffed up.
You start to think it's thanks to me, look how great I am, what a good person
I am. You know, it's because I'm so this or that, that's why
I do this or do that or I've succeeded in this, succeeded in that.
Well, he says here, shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith?
Or shall the saw, so he's saying like, you know,
imagine the axe boasting against the person that's holding the axe
and doing the chopping with it. Or shall the saw magnify itself against
him that shaketh it? And, you know, being a way of, you know,
sawing something. As if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it
up. Or as if the staff should lift up
itself as if it were no wood. You know, he's saying, you know, it's not done it itself.
He, you know, that Assyria has only been able to get all this
to conquer all these places because God's allowed that to happen.
Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts send among his fat one's leanness
and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire
and the light of Israel shall be for a fire
and his holy one for a flame and it shall burn and devour his thorns
and his briars in one day. So he's saying that the Lord, who is the
light of Israel, okay, he said and the light of Israel
shall be for fire, shall deal with the Assyrians in one day.
Now go over to 2 Kings 19 to see where I believe God fulfilled
this prophesied punishment of Assyria for their pride and arrogance.
Now I believe that many seem to have interpreted these prophecies as
applying to the eventual fall of the Assyrian empire.
So some will say, oh this is the prophesying of the fall of the
Assyrian empire and maybe by the end and the last couple of verses
you could say that might be the case. However the one day stuff talking about
it being one day and the angel of the Lord's involvement
talking about the Lord, talking about, you know, his, you know, how it all
happens and obviously applying it to Judah a lot as we see in these
in these verses makes me think that it's more likely referring to to what
we're about to see. Proverbs 16 18 by the way says
pride goeth before destruction and haughty spirit before fall
and we see this happen with the Assyrians and it just happens in life.
You get prideful, you're going to get destroyed. You get a haughty spirit,
you're going to have a fall, okay, especially if you're one of God's
children. He hates this sort of stuff and with God you can't even try to
foresee how it might happen because I'm not saying, oh I wonder how God will
deal with this person, deal with this situation.
You can't even foresee it because he could just do anything and here in
2 Kings 19, okay, they've besieged Jerusalem a second time
and Isaiah, who must have been confident, if you think about it, several years
after he's made these prophecies already,
okay, said this to the king of Judah, Hezekiah.
Isaiah says this in verse 32 of 2 Kings 19,
Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, he shall
not come into the city, nor shoot an arrow there,
nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.
By the way that he came, by the same sword shall he return,
and shall not come into the city, saith the Lord. For I will defend the
city to save it for mine own sake and for my servant David's sake.
And it came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord went out and smote
in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fall score and five thousand.
That's a hundred and eighty five thousand. And when they arose early in
the morning behold they're all dead corpses.
A hundred and eighty five thousand in one night just killed by the angel of God.
So Sennachery, I mean you can imagine they were probably sitting there
thinking, how's God going to do this? I don't know how he's going to help us
here. Is he going to help us? What's going to happen?
He just goes out and kills basically the whole army pretty much in one night.
So Sennachery, king of Assyria, departed and went and returned
and dwelt at Nineveh. And it came to pass that he was worshipping in the
house of Nisroch his God, that Adrammelek
and Shereza his son smote him with the sword, and escaped
into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned
in his stead. So the army got destroyed in one night. Then the king was
killed by his own sons whilst worshipping an idol. I mean he just,
suddenly they just got smashed, right? And it said
back in verse 17 of, with that in mind now, back in verse 17 of Isaiah 10 it
said, and the light of Israel shall be for a
fire, and his holy one for a flame, and it shall burn and devour his thorns
and his brides in one day. And I think that's what it's referring to.
He's just smashed them in that, in that, obviously overnight there, but it's, you
know, within a day they just got smashed. And then soon
after, you know, the kings ended up being
killed by his own sons. He said, and shall consume the glory of
his forest and of his fruitful field, both soul and body and there shall be as
when a standard bearer fainter. And the rest of the trees of his forest
shall be few that a child may write them.
It shall come to pass that day that the remnant of Israel, when such is
her escape of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him
that smote them, but shall stay upon the Lord, the
Holy One of Israel, in truth. Which was what eventually happened in second
Kings 19. But turn to second Kings 18, okay, so I
should have said to keep a finger in there.
Turn to second Kings chapter 18. So Ahaz had previously given treasures
to the Assyrians to help him against
Syria and Israel, okay. So he, at the time Ahaz,
you know, the king, this is Hezekiah's father, he had basically, he'd needed
that help against Syria and Israel. And instead of
calling out to the Lord, he gave gifts to the Assyrians and asked
them to protect them and to help them by attacking Syria and Israel.
Now, and back in second Kings 16, 7, it says, So Ahaz sent messages to
Tiglath-Peliz, the king of Assyria, saying,
I am thy servant and thy son, come up and save me out of the hand of the
king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of
Israel, which rise up against me. So this, he gave him a load of
silver and gold from the house of God straight after this, okay. So then
Hezekiah does the same here in second Kings 18.
Says in verse 13 of second Kings 18, Now in the fourteenth year of king
Hezekiah, this is verse 13 of second Kings 18,
did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of
Judah and took them? And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to
the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended, return from me
that which thou putest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria
appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah
300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold.
And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord
and in the treasures of the king's house.
At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of
the Lord and from the pillars which Hezekiah
king of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria.
Now Hezekiah was a great king but he ended up following in the footsteps of
his father and relying on the Assyrians.
And there's a lesson there, obviously you could probably preach a sermon out of
that, couldn't you? And the effect and sadly, you know, as much as we
might teach our kids, do this, do that, you know,
bark orders at them and everything else, a lot of the time they're just going to
follow our example, okay? And if you have a child, you have a
massive responsibility because you are an example to your children.
But he stayed upon him, it says, we saw that, sorry, we saw in verse 20
of Isaiah 10 that, he said, shall no more against
stay upon him that smote them. So he stayed upon him that smote him.
And isn't that something sadly that God's people do today?
They stay, they rely upon those that smite them or even him that
smote him. Because instead of relying on God and
his ways, how many people now, how many of God's people
put their confidence in the world and who's the God of this world?
It's the devil, 2 Corinthians 4, you don't have to turn, it says, in whom
the God of this world, with a small g, hath blinded the minds of them which
believe not lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the
image of God shine unto them. The God of this world is the devil.
And you just go, well how's he the God of this world? Because people make him
the God of their lives. He is the God to the vast majority of
people through the multitude of false religions,
including the false religion of atheism, including the false religions
that claim to be Christian religions, all the different versions
of good you go to heaven, bad you go to hell, some sort of work, salvation.
He is behind all idols. He is the God, small g, of this world
in various ways and people worship him through various means, right?
Some more openly than others, some more more blatantly than others.
And that's who the king of Assyria represents. And we saw obviously
when he surrounds Jerusalem, it's a picture of
at the end of the millennial reign, of the, at the end of the
millennial reign, it's that picture of the devil
gathering up those people. Gog and Magog to go to battle.
That's the picture we see in Hezekiah's reign. That's who the king of Assyria
represents. The God, the leader of this huge empire.
At the time it's kind of like the world empire at least for this region,
probably beyond anyway. And God's people were trusting him. Like now,
people trust the world, don't they? He was, he's basically the world. He's
representing the devil and people do that now. They trust the world for
happiness, don't they? How many people? How many
saved people? They know that, they know the
word of God is the word of God. They know the truth. They have the
Holy Spirit in them but they trust the world for happiness.
Just get a bit richer, just get a bit more popular,
a bit drunker, you know, a bit better looking in whatever weird ways, you know,
the world says you got to do it nowadays, you know.
They're trusting the world for relationship advice, aren't they?
Isn't that relation, isn't that, sadly, Christian
marriages, the world over, trusting the world,
trusting the world's way of doing it, trusting the world's ideas for
for their so-called, you know, equal roles in the marriage, for example,
and all these other things, and not trusting the word of God.
Because what happens with the world's way? Disaster.
Disaster. Divorce is everywhere. If people even manage to make it to
the altar in the first place. How many Christians out there are like, I
don't want to get married, I might as well just sleep around like everyone
else does. What could go wrong? I'll tell you
what goes wrong, you ruin your life. You ruin your children's lives, you ruin
everyone's lives. But they're just constantly going to
the world. They know the word of God says something else but they just go to
the world. They're constantly going to the world,
they're constantly staying upon him that smiteth him. Because you're just
getting smited. They're trusting in the world for
parenting advice. What's the result? Disaster.
Look at the disasters out there. Absolute disasters.
I mean, what on earth? What happened yesterday in South End? You got a load of
teenagers running around with machetes. I mean, that's what the world is
producing, isn't it? That's what this this filthy music is
producing, this filthy culture, this just all this
filth, all this just nonsense. And people are still like, well yeah,
you know, that's what everyone else does.
Well, everyone else just kind of shoves them in front of the TV all evening.
What could go wrong? Everyone else just does that. Everyone
else says it's okay to just go out and,
you know, who knows what my kids are doing but that's what the rest of
them do. Why wouldn't I do that? Why wouldn't I
just send them off to to get drunk at 12 years old and do
drugs and probably even younger nowadays and maybe I'm a bit out of touch, I
don't know. But that's what everyone else does,
isn't it? And then the rest of it.
Well, you know, the naughty step is always like, that always makes me laugh,
you know. That's the world's way, isn't it? That's how you deal with a naughty
kid, sit them on a step. What a load of nonsense, right? Oh,
that's how you deal with a naughty kid,
you sit them on a step and you get down to their level and, you know,
try and talk it through with a three-year-old.
No, they just need a smack bottom. They need a spanking.
It's pretty simple because the word of God, that's how the word of God says.
But no, people just, they want to put their trust in him that's just
smiting him. Because you look around and what's the result? Just
a mess, absolute mess. Kids just going wild.
Like broken families, broken children, people who are a mess,
mental health issues up here, you know,
fornication up here, kids out of wedlock up here, diseases.
And it's like, oh, might as well just do what the world does, right?
And they're putting their trust in him, they're staying upon
the devil, basically. They're trusting the world to raise their
kids, to teach their families, to keep them safe in one way or another.
They're staying on him that smoked them because what's the result?
Well, verse 17, said, and the king of Assyria
sent Tartan and Rab-Sarris and Rab-Sheikhi from Lachish
to king Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem.
And they went up and came to Jerusalem and when they were come up
they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool which is in the
highway of the fullest field. They came back to besiege them anyhow.
They came back anyhow. They'd stayed upon them, they put their trust,
he put his trust in in the world, basically, that's who, or the devil, the
world, that's who Assyria represents, and they besieged them anyway. They came
back and ended up just surrounding them and
it was all looking like they're about to get destroyed.
And when you put your trust in the world and the devil, you end up
besieged by the world, besieged by the problems caused due to
rejecting God, besieged by the broken marriages, and all
the problems that come from that. So many people are just
almost feel just surrounded by it, surrounded by the issues and problems,
surrounded by the fallout from booze, from drugs,
the fallout from all the drunken nights, from all the stuff that comes from
that, from all the issues, from drug abuse,
and all drugs is just abuse anyway, but the same thing.
The brainwashed kids, so many would just feel immersed by it.
You know, they've lived in the world, they've done it, the world's well,
they've trusted in the world, they've stayed upon the devil in
his world, and then they, next thing you know, five minutes later,
they're besieged by it, besieged by all the problems that
come from it, the obsession with how you look,
just besieged by it. That whole life is just a complete mess.
We always, you know, talk about it a lot, because we drive a van,
me and my wife, she was saying the other day, she was driving the van and
just because it's a diesel van, so you can hear it,
she went past a couple of whores, you know, and there's something like,
you know, because it's a van, I mean, what a sad life, really.
And she's saying, like, this girl was just dressed in next to nothing, just so
needed the validation. That's her whole life. Her whole life
is spent dressing like a whore, acting like a whore,
to try and get people in vans to look at her.
And that's what she spends her life doing, I mean, I mean, that's just
besieged by that, because do you know what will happen?
Is that that will just destroy her, because what happens if she gets older,
and as her body changes, and as things change, and life changes, and
she, and that's her life, and it's just, and it destroys her.
Destroyed with the debt from trying to
to look rich your whole life. How many people are still in debt
into their sort of 40s, 50s, 60s, because they spent their childhoods,
or 20s, 30s, trying to look flash with the cash that they never had,
and just getting in debt, credit cards, expensive cars they couldn't afford,
because they're trying to look for those types of
women. They should have just got a van. They could have got a cheap diesel van,
because they would have got more attention in it.
But it's true though, isn't it? How many people, and then they're just
besieged by that later, because they're just always in debt for the rest of
their lives. You think you're trying to do it the
world's way, and the world just ends up coming back to besiege you,
and the heartache, the heartbreak, and all the stuff that goes with it,
it ends up besieging you. But even with all of that,
if you're sitting here going, this is talking to me a little bit here, I do
sometimes feel besieged by this stuff. It's not too late to turn to God. It's
not too late to stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, as we saw in
Isaiah 10. Hezekiah turned to God to the Word
through his prophet. He turned to truth. Look at verse 20 back
in Isaiah 10. It says, and it shall come to pass
in that day that the remnant of Israel and such as are escaped of the
house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him
that smote them, but shall stay upon the Lord,
the Holy One of Israel, in truth. And that's how we stay upon the Lord,
in truth. And John 17 says, sanctify them through thy truth.
Thy word is truth. That's how we stay upon the Lord. We stay upon
him through his word. It's all here, isn't it? It's all here.
Psalm 118 says, it is better to trust in the Lord
than to put confidence in man. It's better to trust in the Lord than to
put confidence in all the different versions of the world's religions,
the world's way of doing things, the world's advice, the world's
snares and traps, and just get all that out of it and put your trust in the
Lord. Put your confidence, your trust in the
Lord. Stop trust in the world and start
trusting the Word. Don't stay upon him that smites us, but
stay upon the Lord. A lot of people, they just want to
trust someone that's just going to destroy them. Trust the world that's
just going to destroy them. We see it time and time again. It just plays out
time and time again. When you go away from the things of God, you go away
from the word of God, you try and do it the other way,
you just get smited. It just ruins your life,
and we know it, and so many still do it.
So many still go, yeah, I know the word of God says that, but I'm going to be
more popular if I do this. I'm going to, you know, well at least
I'm not going to offend someone else. I'm not going to offend my
unsaved family or friend if I do this, or I
behave like this. What does the word of God say? It's better to put
to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in men. Verse 21,
in Isaiah 10, says a remnant shall return, even a remnant of Jacob unto the
mighty God. For though thy people Israel shall be,
sorry, be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return.
The consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness. And we see that in
Hezekiah's reign, as opposed to, like I said, when the
Assyrian Empire reign ends. I don't see that
kind of being the case. That's why I believe this is really
prophesying of what was to come in Hezekiah's reign
with that surrounding by the Assyrian army, and then them being destroyed in
that one day. Now, the Assyrian Empire continued, though, after this. I'm not
saying that was the end of Assyria, but I think that's what he's talking
about here. For the Lord God of hosts shall make a
consumption, even determined in the midst of all the
land. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God of hosts,
O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian. He shall
smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee after the
man of Egypt. For yet a very little while in the
indignation shall cease, and mine anger and their destruction.
And the Lord of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the
slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb,
and as his rod was upon the sea, socially lifted up after the man of
Egypt. So as when they destroyed the Midianites,
basically back in Judges 7, which was just an
amazing thing that happened, wasn't it, with those 300 and the Midianites
were just sprawled all over the place. And also as with the deliverance of
his people through the midst of the Red Sea, talking about,
you know, that exodus from Egypt. And it shall come to pass in that day
that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke
from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed
because of the anointing. And although talking of that separation
from the burden of the Assyrians, like we said, because they were,
he was basically paying a tribute, a taxing
to them until this point, it's also a great picture of salvation, isn't it,
with the burden of sin being removed because of the anointing. He said it
shall come to pass in that day that his burden shall be taken away from
off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck.
Talking about Assyria, talking about that king of Assyria representing the devil,
and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.
We'll turn to 2 Corinthians 1, the anointing of us, 2 Corinthians 1,
the anointing of us with the Holy Spirit,
coming as a result of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that's that burden of sin
being removed because of the anointing. Verse 21 says it like this,
2 Corinthians 1 and verse 21 says, Now he which
stablisheth us with you in Christ, 2 Corinthians 1 21, Now he which
stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us,
is God, who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in
our hearts. So he's anointed us, that's, you know, if you're saved, you're
anointed, basically by that Holy Spirit, by
that Spirit of promise. That anointing, that sealing, you know,
is part and parcel of the eternal burdens of sin being
taken away. It takes that yoke off our neck. No, obviously,
Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, but it's all part and parcel. With that
comes the anointing, comes that sealing by the Holy Spirit of promise.
The yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing. And there's a picture
there, right there, in verse 27, that in that day that his burden
shall be taken away from off our shoulder, his yoke from off our neck, and the
yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing. He said, and he has
come to Ayath. Sorry, we're back in Isaiah 10. He has
passed to Migron at Mikmash, he has laid up his carriages. So this is,
these are towns getting closer, okay. As we go through this, they're just
getting closer and closer, north of Jerusalem. So as we go through
them, they're just getting closer and closer and closer,
and he's just showing that, you know, that, giving that kind of
warning, or showing how the Assyrian army just kept getting closer and
closer and closer. He then says they've gone over the
passages, they've taken up their lodging at Geba.
Rhema is afraid, Gibeah of Saul is fled, Geba being directly north, with
Rhema and Gibeah further but already defeated.
Lift up thy voice, so daughter of Galim calls it to be heard unto Laish, O
poor Anathoth. Galim and Anathoth are right there,
north of Jerusalem. Laish is right up in the north of Galilee, by the way,
so he's saying, calls it to be heard as far as that, okay.
And he's saying, look, it's going to be rough for all these cities and towns
as they get closer and closer. Madamena is removed, the inhabitants
of Geba gather themselves to flee. Madamena and Geba are even closer to
Jerusalem. As yet shall he remain at Nob that day,
he should shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion,
the hill of Jerusalem. And Nob is, it seems, a little over,
you know, a mile northeast of Jerusalem.
So it's very close. He said, behold, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts shall
lock the bow with terror. So as close as they got, they got to the point of
surrounding, we saw they even got up into,
you know, the, you know, as close as surrounding Jerusalem.
Behold, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts shall lock the bow with terror and
the high ones of stature shall be hewn down and the haughty
shall be humbled. So the warning is, and I think it's just a reminder for
these people, as close as he will get, he will be destroyed. And you can
imagine, you know, when this happened a few years later,
that, you know, you can imagine how many who didn't trust in this would have
been running, legging it, or maybe not
leaving, not thinking that he would come as close as he did.
But if they trusted in the word of the Lord, they would have probably gone
and holed up and shored up in Jerusalem,
knowing that eventually he was going to be cut down. But at the time the
pressure is coming, it's getting closer, it's getting closer,
and so often when we, you know, have you noticed if you go through
tribulation, you go through trials in life,
you go through some hard times, you're trying to do things God's way, and it
gets pretty close sometimes, doesn't it?
It gets, like, close to the crotch. Sometimes it can be, maybe it's
financial things, you know, you're thinking, look, I'm trying to do things
right, I don't think I'm kind of, you know, well out of line here, and you're
kind of trying to rely on God to provide,
and it can get pretty close to the wire sometimes. It's suddenly out of
nowhere, you're like, oh thank you, okay,
now it's worked out. Or it can be in many different ways, can't it? You could
just be going through some things, and you're trying to trust in God, and
it gets pretty close, and it feels like they've,
you know, the enemy, or the struggles, the pressures, the
troubles, whatever it is, has got to that point
where they're, like, surrounding you by now. It's got to that point, it can even
be the enemies of God, where you just feel like, I'm
surrounded right now, I've got people coming
at me from every angle, and then it's like God just intervenes,
and things just work out. And it really tests your faith, doesn't it?
But here, they had it here, they had it written here,
and it was a case of, do you trust the Lord or not?
And when God says to you, trust in me, trust the Lord with all thine heart,
lean not unto thine own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he
shall direct thy paths. And, you know, sometimes it's just a case
of, do I trust him or not? Do you trust him? And sometimes it will get close,
it will get to the wire. Here it got to the wire.
When you stay upon the Lord, he will come through for you, it says, and he
shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron,
and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one. So, Lebanon being the high mountainous
region that was conquered by Assyria, okay, the
point being, I think, that how high it was, it was still
to fall. That's why he mentions Lebanon, I think, probably the highest,
you know, city, town, region they had. And maybe this final part is more of a
general prophecy of the whole Assyrian empire eventually falling, or maybe it's
just saying, you know, just referring to Lebanon where
it was part of the Assyrian empire and then falling
when trying to attack Jerusalem. Either way,
it does eventually fail, it does eventually get conquered, eventually we see
that Babylonian empire, you know, kind of rising up. But at
this point in time, it's long before that, I believe the majority of this is
talking about when they come to Israel, they come to
Jerusalem, that's what it's talking about.
But it must have been scary, right? Can you imagine living in this time and
having that Assyrian empire coming and surrounding, but if you
believed in the word and you knew that Isaiah prophesied this and,
you know, I'm sure that this was already written down at this point, I
would believe, at least Isaiah was there even to say,
well, I've already told you about this, then, you know, it was up to you
whether you trusted God or not. And that's kind of
what happens in life, isn't it? Do we trust God or do we not?
And even during all the hard times, during all that
stuff that can happen in life, during all the tribulation, even
the chastisement, his hand is stretched out still and it's stretched
out, one, for salvation if you're unsaved,
but number two, it's stretched out where he wants to help you,
he wants to help you through your troubles, he wants to help you through
your problems, but it's whether or not you're going
to choose to reach out for him or you're just going to choose to try
and do it the world's way. But if you stay upon the world, you're just
going to get smited. Okay, that's what happens. And on that, we're going to
finish in a word of prayer. Father, thank you for your word, thank
you for the lessons we're getting out of Isaiah, Lord, and this lesson to,
you know, to not trust in, you know, those that really are out for
us that aren't, you know, out to help us or out against us, Lord, they're
out to get us, Lord, and in many ways, and
ultimately the world is not there to help us and the world
is an enmity with you, Lord, and the world's way is the opposite
to your way, and help us to just put our trust in you and your way, Lord,
help us to reach out to you in the hard times, Lord, to reach out
to that stretched forth hand, and Lord, and also to, you know,
understand, accept, and have at least trust that
there are those, many of those, in our personal lives and our private lives that
maybe we've preached the Gospel to, maybe don't want to hear the Gospel,
maybe have refused to hear the Gospel, but knowing that there might be that day,
that day of visitation when they're going to be more receptive, Lord, help us to
keep our, you know, just to be always ready
to be prepared to always give an answer to them that ask us of the hope
that, you know, lie thin us with meekness and
fear, Lord, help us to just, you know, be ready to preach the
Gospel to those in those times, Lord, and
to just, in the meantime, to just keep getting out there, keep
offering to show people the way of salvation,
help us to do that, you know, on this final soul winning time for those
that can make Thursday evening in Tilbury, and for all of us
to return on Sunday for the service and the soul winning
in between. In Jesus' name, pray all this. Amen.