Yesterday we were challenged to turn on the Light for people walking in darkness. Such people are blindly floundering along in life looking for five basic human needs.
Security.
Solutions.
Status.
Strength.
Support.
As followers of Jesus we have found all of these in Jesus Christ. Every need is met in one place…no, in one Person, and it is our privilege to share the Light with them.
In Isaiah 9:6 we are given a description of how Jesus will provide these basic human needs.
“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.”
He is the Wonderful Counselor, providing support and solutions.
He is the Mighty God, providing strength.
He is the Everlasting Father, providing status.
He is the Prince of Peace, providing security.
Whatever you think you need you will find in Jesus.
Surrender your life to Him, and He will set you free.
Last Friday was gloomy. I’m not talking about the weather. I’m referring to the devotional. The reality of millions of people – maybe even billions – living in distress and under duress is gloomy. The thought of millions of people walking in darkness as described in Isaiah 8 is gloomy. Can someone please turn on the lights for them?
Yes. God can, and He has. Isaiah 9:1-2 says, “Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress…The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”
I’ve seen it happen many times. I remember one morning that sticks out in my mind. I prayed with a man who had the light of God’s grace shine into his life and save him from His sin. The darkness did not overwhelm him. He saw the light, and there is now no more gloom in his soul.
I am overwhelmed that God used me to explain the Light to him. I am in awe of God’s Holy Spirit who revealed Jesus to him. I am inexpressibly thankful for his response to the Gospel message and that he is now fully and eternally my brother. He no longer walks in the darkness. He is right now walking in the light of God’s saving grace.
There is no greater thrill in life than to know we are accomplishing our purpose. Those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ know our purpose – to be light to those walking in darkness and to bring them to the One True Light. It is the greatest event in anyone’s life, when they discover life in the land of death. The next greatest event is when we get to be a part of leading someone else to that light. There should be no higher priority on our to-do list than to fulfill the mission of Jesus Christ to bring light to those living in darkness.
So let me ask you – when was the last time you had the thrill of turning on the light for someone?
What is it like to live without hope? What does it feel like to have no confidence in the glorious return of Jesus Christ to set all things right? What pain people must feel who live only for today and who find their only worth and pleasure in what today brings.
Hope was personified in Greek mythology as Elpis, a young woman, usually carrying flowers or a cornucopia in her hands. When Pandora opened Pandora’s Box, she let out all the evil except one: hope. Evidently, the Greeks considered hope to be as dangerous as all the world’s evils.
In his book Human, All Too Human, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche argued that “Zeus did not want man to throw his life away, no matter how much the other evils might torment him, but rather to go on letting himself be tormented anew. To that end, he gives man hope. In truth, it is the most evil of evils because it prolongs man’s torment.”
How sad that so many people live by this philosophy. The prophet of God named Isaiah described the condition of such people in the Bible. He said,
“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 men tell 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? To the law and to the testimony! If they do 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 upward, will curse their king and their God. Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.” (Isaiah 8:18-22)
What a prediction of people’s pathetic predicament. We are surrounded every day with people who are in the bondage of such a world view. They see the corruption and suffering around them. They have experienced it in their own lives. They have tried to find answers from people who, in spite of their advertised abilities, are in the same situation. They have cursed their earthly rulers and blamed them for not fixing their problems. In their anger they have looked up to God and cursed Him. Then, as they continue to look for solutions from the world’s system, their darkness deepens. They are people with no hope.
But here am I, and the children the LORD has given me. What an amazing statement by Isaiah. He sees himself and the other faithful followers of God in his family as the signs and symbols that the LORD Almighty is truly on the throne and in control of all things. His life was the example of hope that the people in darkness needed to see.
What a challenge to us who have the hope of glory in our hearts. We are the signs and symbols to the hopeless world that God’s promises can be trusted. We are the light that is to shine in the midst of the deepening darkness. We are the ones who proclaim, not just with our lips but with our lives, that the Word of God is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. The hope we profess in word and deed is the testimony of faith that will cause the hopeless to ask us for what we have.
How we live is truly a statement of what we really believe. How will people in the dark see the light of God’s truth and have hope if we are living in the same darkness? Let the light of God shine in your life today.
I am about to make myself feel old. I want to tell a short story from my daughter’s life but it is forcing me to calculate how much of life has already passed me by. It’s bad enough to think that this story took place over thirty years ago when she was in high school. It also causes me to rejoice in the faithfulness of God to guard and to guide our lives.
One day, in my office, as I was reviewing some literature from Focus on the Family, I discovered a t-shirt they had for sale. It would be perfect for my little girl. It said exactly what she was living while in the public school she attended. On the front of the shirt was a picture of a bunch of fish all swimming in one direction. Right smack dab in the middle of this school of fish was one different colored fish swimming in the other direction. Underneath the picture was written the words Go Against the Flow. I ordered the shirt, and she wore it proudly.
I was so proud of my daughter for how she was living for Jesus in a very difficult environment. I am so thankful for the three friends God provided her who went against the flow with her. I rejoice that she is still living that way today.
Isaiah was another one who went against the flow. He was commanded to by God. God strong armed him. I’m glad God loves us enough to strong arm us when He needs to. Here’s what God said to him: “The LORD spoke to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people. Do not call conspiracy everything that these people call 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, and he will be a sanctuary;”
Let’s put that into modern day and culturally relevant language.
“Don’t let your imagination run wild thinking about how the government is falling apart and ruining your life. Don’t spend your time imagining that people are constantly plotting against you as an individual or against our country. Don’t get involved in all the critical coffee shop conversations about the economy or the war or anything that makes us doubt that God is in control. Don’t be afraid of terrorists, oil spills, environmental catastrophes, or crashing stock markets. Don’t let the fear of anything dominate your thoughts or dictate your actions. Instead, trust the Sovereign God. He is your sanctuary.”
I don’t think we are aware of how often we choose to go with the flow of culture. We swim along with the current so that we fit in with all the other fish. We have made a conscious choice to let the world – the people and the material benefits – be our sanctuary.
I looked up the Hebrew word for sanctuary and I was blown away by the definition. It cut right to the bottom of my heart. It powerfully impacted me. The word now has new meaning to me. It gave me the resolve of a salmon on its way upstream to its breeding pool. I think it is the key to going against the flow; at least it is for me. Let me walk you through it.
The word sanctuary has as its root the word sanctify, which means “to set apart.” Right away I thought, “To what or whom have I been set apart? How I am living is the evidence of the answer to that question.”
Then I saw the word holy in the definition. One definition of holy is to be without contradiction. So again I thought to myself, “How many contradictions to my faith exist in my life? How many times do I turn and go with the flow, thereby contradicting what I said I believed?”
Then I came to this – “to be honored and treated as sacred.” Bam! That was it. God is my sanctuary where I am treated as sacred and where I am honored. Every time we go with the flow of the world it is because we are looking to be honored and treated with respect by someone. We want to be affirmed and accepted. But when we go with the flow, those needs will never be satisfied. God is our sanctuary. It is in Him alone that you will be honored. It is in relationship with God that you will be treated as sacred. Not just special, but sacred! And the love you find in God’s sanctuary is unquenchable. It is unconquerable. It is eternal. It is what you long for.
So come on all you fellow saved salmon – let’s swim into the sanctuary of God, no matter how strong the current is against us.
Yesterday we had an assignment: read Romans chapter 8 and create a list of the promises we can trust because God is with us. Here are my personal bullet points. Every one of them is a guarantee of ultimate victory.
I am not condemned but have been set free from the penalty of sin.
I now live according to the Spirit of God and not according to the flesh.
Living in the Spirit of God brings peace.
Living in the Spirit brings victory over sin
Living in the Spirit brings fellowship with God and the assurance of my relationship with Jesus.
The glory of being with Jesus someday overshadows any suffering of today.
God knows my heart and my mind and knows exactly what I need to be fulfilled in Him.
Therefore, I can trust that everything God does in my life is ultimately for my good and for His glory because I love Him and have surrendered to His purpose.
He chose me, He called me, He justified me, and he glorified me…present tense…He glorified me!
How can I respond in any other way than to say, If God is for me, who can be against me!
He will give me all I need to live for Him.
No person has the power over my life to hurt me with their words because God has justified me.
No one can condemn me because Jesus constantly intercedes for me to the Father based on His sacrifice on the cross for me.
No person nor any event can ever separate me from God because He is with me and His love is unquenchable and unconquerable.
Over and over in the Bible parents are commanded by God to give their children specific names. I’m not sure how I would feel about that. What would you do if you had no choice in the naming of your children?
In the Bible, names carried great significance. They were used to define physical traits, to proclaim a child’s purpose, to teach character, and to announce God’s plans to man.
When the prophet Isaiah was about to be a father, God gave him a name for his son. Are you ready for this? The name was Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. It means quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil. God was using the birth of Isaiah’s son to proclaim to the people of Israel what He was about to do to the enemies of Jerusalem.
King Ahaz of Judah was scared because the kings of Syria and Israel were about to invade. Isaiah announced the word of the Lord to Ahaz and told him to stand in his faith. God gave him a sign of a baby born to a virgin. The baby’s name was to be Immanuel, or God with us.
Later, when little Quick to Plunder was born, God revealed his plan to Isaiah. Syria and Jerusalem would be overrun by the Assyrians and destroyed. Then Assyria would attempt to invade Judah. They would conquer most of it but would not be able to overthrow Jerusalem. Twice in the details of the plan God reminded Isaiah of the fact the He was with them. Twice He used the name Immanuel.
Things looked bleak for King Ahaz. But God had one thing He wanted Ahaz to remember and trust – God is with us! Then in Isaiah 8:9-10 He says, “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.”
Ahaz needed to remember that God had chosen His people and set them apart for His purpose and His glory. He needed to know that if God is for us, who can be against us!
We need that reminder as well. We need to read and reread Romans 8 until we really believe it and trust it. We need to put every detail of our lives into the context of those promises. We must stop thinking in the flesh and reacting to our circumstances. We must live in the truth that God is with us.
My challenge to you today is this – read Romans 8 as many times as you can, and let the truths sink in. Tomorrow I will give you my list of bullet point truths. You can compare the list the Holy Spirit gives you. There are many promises of God that you can trust to be fulfilled.
When the grandkids were little I enjoyed playing hide and seek with them. But the game was different depending upon how old they were. The older ones understood how to really play. They learned to stay quiet while they hid. But the younger ones don’t get it yet, so when they hid and I finished counting, they almost immediately started making sounds to lead me to them. It was so easy to find them because they gave me signs as to where they were.
God plays hide and seek like the youngest child. He wants to be found. He wants to reveal Himself to those who love Him. He wants to show us who He is and what He can do. He provides us with countless signs marking the path leading to faith. He knows that faith requires a knowable object of faith, and He is knowable and makes Himself known.
What a relief! God wants us to know Him. Granted, some of His ways are beyond knowing. His thoughts are not our thoughts. He is infinite in His knowledge and wisdom, and we are not. But His nature and character can be known, and that is the primary object of our faith. We are not to demand signs that reveal what God can do, for that would be misplaced faith. We may ask for signs that reveal God’s presence for that is faith in who He is.
In Isaiah 7:11 God initiated the opportunity for King Ahaz to ask for a sign. “Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.” It was to be a sign that demonstrated the presence of God. When Ahaz refused to ask, thinking He would be testing God, God initiated the delivery of a sign anyway – because He wants us to know Him and experience His presence. The sign was a baby named Immanuel, meaning “God with us.” God wants us to know His presence.
When we stand firm in our faith that is founded on the presence of God, we will see the demonstration of the power of God. Faith in the power without the presence is no faith at all. That’s why Jesus refused to give the Pharisees a sign when they asked for one. Their faith would have been misplaced. God wants us to know Him for who He is not for what He can do. His activity always emanates from His nature and character. To know Him is to experience His activity. He is the object of our faith.
The ministry of Jesus to His disciples was to get them to know Him so they could trust Him. When He left, He sent the Holy Spirit to indwell them so they could know Him in a deeper and more meaningful way. Their faith grew not because of the powerful gifts of the Holy Spirit but because of the revelation of the nature and character of Jesus in them through the Holy Spirit.
Faith that is placed in what an object can do is shallow faith. Faith placed in the object itself reveals an understanding of the nature of the object and therefore trusts the activity of the object. For example, the first time a father asks his son to jump off the counter into his arms, the child trusts the father to catch him. His trust is not based on the past experience of a catch – they’ve never done it before. The trust of the child is based solely on the character of the father that the son has learned through the knowledge of who he is. He knows the father’s love. He understands the father’s heart. He will experience the father’s power.
God will gladly provide us with all the signs we need to have that kind of faith. He will reveal his presence to us. We just need to ask Him. We’ve been asking for the wrong signs – signs of miraculous power to increase our faith. We’ve been disappointed because we just don’t seem to get an answer. We think God is playing hide and seek. He’s not. We just need to ask Him to reveal Himself for who He is. He wants us to know Him first.
Fear came upon them and shook them like the trees of the forest being shaken by strong winds. Their country was ruled by a powerful warrior with a great heritage passed on from his father. Yet they were scared. Their rivals, from whom they had broken away years before, were now in an alliance with another country and they were on the warpath headed right for them. The enemies were trying to force them to join them to battle against a larger enemy that ruled the region. They wanted nothing to do with it but felt like there was no other option. Either way would probably result in their destruction.
This was the situation Isaiah was asked by the Lord to address with King Ahaz of Judah, a descendant of King David. Ephraim, which was the Northern Kingdom also called Israel, had allied itself with Aram, which is Syria. They wanted Judah to join them in a massive war with Assyria. God sent Isaiah to Ahaz to convince him not to enter such an alliance. This scared Ahaz and the people of Judah because they thought for sure that Ephraim and Aram would wipe them out for their non-compliance.
I’ve been in many situations where I felt like I had no options and was being forced to see only one outcome. I’m sure you have also. It’s scary. But I’ve learned something very significant. The fear we feel is generated from the same source as the fear the people of Judah felt – misplaced faith. We fall into fear when our faith is placed in man’s reason and abilities. Faith in God conquers ALL fear.
To come to that conclusion we must first conquer the greatest fear of all – becoming completely humble before the Lord. We are in denial about how much confidence we place in our own wisdom and abilities. It’s scary to think about letting go completely of every ounce of control of our lives and surrendering it to someone else, even if that someone is God Almighty. We believe very strongly in ourselves – more than we dare to admit. The fear we feel when something goes wrong proves it.
Once we reach the point of confession of our pride, we will be able to see and trust the incredible power of our Lord. That’s the message Isaiah delivered to King Ahaz in chapter 7. “Yet this is what the Sovereign LORD says:…If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.” While the people of Judah were looking at the invasion through human eyes of fear, God wanted them to see it through His eyes of Sovereignty. God is in control of ALL things. He is more powerful than anything He controls. He has more wisdom than any opponent. He is absolutely trustworthy!
King Ahaz and the people of Judah weren’t looking at life that way. They were looking at it from the human perspective. They believed in themselves more than they believed in their God. Belief in self will lead to doubt and end in fear, because we know who we are. We know our limitations and weaknesses. Fear is the result when life throws something at us we know we cannot handle. But belief in God knows no fear, because God has no limitations or weaknesses. There is nothing He cannot handle. Fear cannot exist where faith in God abounds.
So Isaiah tells King Ahaz how God sees the situation. The two humanly irresistible armies are nothing more than two smoldering stubs of firewood in the eyes of the Lord (verse 4). It is not possible for them to overthrow Judah (verse 7), and the reason is simple – both of these nations are being completely ruled by man, while Judah has the Lord Almighty as its King (verses 8-9). If the people of Judah will stand firm in their faith in God, they will not fall or fail.
So, please connect with this – if we are in control of our lives; if we are seeing life through our eyes of human wisdom and evaluating circumstances based on our strength and resources, we are shaking in fear because our faith is misplaced. But if we are seeing life through the eyes of our Sovereign King, and have surrendered ALL control to Him, we will stand in true faith and not be shaken by fear. It really is that black and white.
Imagine how you would feel if suddenly every connection you had with people using the internet was gone. Now imagine if it was your choice to do that. Most of us would never choose that plan for our lives. Yet we do it with the Lord. We intentionally choose to prioritize other interests over personal time with Jesus and His people. It’s especially noticeable in the summer.
When the pursuit of God is moved from the top spot on our priority list, we choose to start down a very slippery slope from which recovery is difficult. Many times things have to get pretty tough for us before we wake up to the reality of our situation. All along the slope God’s hand is being extended to slow our slide and pull us back up to the top. But the blindness to God created by the intense light of our pride to pursue our own goals keeps us from seeing His hand. When that happens, we are in danger of sliding all the way to the bottom.
A great lesson can be learned from the historical context of Isaiah’s call to prophetic ministry. The nation of Israel is in trouble. They have succumbed to materialism, hedonism, and humanism. The first five chapters explain their position on the slippery slope of self-indulgence that they chose for themselves by failing to pursue a consistent relationship with God.
Then God called Isaiah to be His messenger, and He gives him the message to speak.
Isaiah 6:9-10“Go and tell this people: “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
We would like to think that at this point God is going to intervene and rescue them from their slide. His messenger must have words of hope, right? Wrong! God says that the consequences of their choice to jump on this slide will have to be fully realized. They will have to slide all the way to the bottom.
Is God being cruel? No. God is acknowledging man’s free will. God did not force them to make their choice to reject Him. God did not lead them to set Him aside for a time so they could experience what the world has to offer. God did not give them permission to change their priorities. But God did allow them to make their own choices.
When we make choices that hurt us, we tend to believe that God is our first aid kit. We quickly run back into the prayer closet where the kit is stored and take out a few bandages and some anti-bacterial ointment. After a quick application, we put the kit back in the closet and get right back to our lives again, hoping nothing else will hurt us. That’s what the nation of Israel was doing, and that’s what many of us are doing. We run to church on the Sundays when we happen to be available and hope that what we hear will carry us through all of the worldly pursuits of summer until we can get back to a normal routine in the fall. All the things we want to do while the weather is nice have suddenly taken on a higher priority than our relationship with Jesus. And then we wonder why we are so busy, so stressed, and so unfulfilled by what we thought was going to be all the stuff of summer that would make life meaningful.
We are on the slippery slope of materialism, hedonism, and humanism. And just like God told the people of Israel through Isaiah, He tells us today that our slide will carry us farther than we wanted to go. Our ears will hear these words, but we won’t really understand them because we really don’t want to change. Our eyes will see the trouble coming but we will ignore it because we think the benefits of the pleasure will be worth the price we pay. Our hearts will become more hardened to the truth because our pride says we can make this work and have both worlds. Only when we have reached rock bottom will we finally surrender.
That was the message to Israel. That is God’s message to us today. I don’t know where you are on the slope, but if you are on it at all you are in danger. Reach out today and grab the hand of God and let Him stop your slide. Get back to pursuing God no matter how many plans you still have for summer fun. The fun of summer is not worth the recovery period from spiritual negligence.
Isaiah 6:8 “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
Details. We want details. We make decisions based on details. The more details we have, the better our chances of avoiding error, or so we think. We rarely accept any direction without details. Direction, decisions, and details – how are they supposed to line up?
Have you ever heard the phrase, “the devil is in the details?” Well, for all you detail-oriented people, here’s a little history lesson. The Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayingsby Gregory Y. Titelman (Random House, New York, 1996) says The Devil is in the details is a variant of another proverb that is much older. It refers to a catch or problem hidden in the details that was not previously seen or anticipated, and that may have changed the original decision if it had been known in advance. In other words, the devil is responsible for withholding information to make us fail. In response, we want more details so we can be sure to make the right decision.
But to be historically accurate, the original proverb from which the devil reference evolved is this – “God is in the details.” In fact, the original proverb is more than 140 years older than the more common one. It was first attributed to a German architect named Gustave Flaubert (1821-80). History tells us that those who lived by this motto believed that whatever one does should be done thoroughly with close attention to the details because that’s how God is honored.
But let me share one more idea I have on the subject of details – my variation on the theme. God is in control of the details. Our tendency is to demand details before we make decisions when God is the one giving the directions. I believe the devil is in that. Isaiah heard the directions, made the decision, and then got the details. We would be wise to follow such an example of faith.
Recently I visited with a friend who has been struggling in his job for several years. He has been very discouraged. His age was one factor that kept him going because there was a certain measure of fear of what he would be able to do to be a provider for his wife if he quit. But things were not going well at work. He and his wife had a discussion about it and agreed that God was giving them the direction to quit and that he would provide for them. So, in the middle of the week, they made a decision with no details. The following Monday he would resign.
God is in control of the details. Two days later, on Friday, he was called into the supervisor’s office and told that his position with the company was being eliminated. He was escorted back to his desk to gather his lunchbox and then escorted out of the building. There would be no need to resign on Monday. He had been let go. But in doing so, this 23-year veteran of this company was granted a severance package. He would be paid in full for the next two weeks, even though he would not be permitted back into the building to work. He would then receive a nice severance package of pay for an extended period of time. At the conclusion of that severance package, he would be eligible for unemployment compensation. None of these things would have been his if he would have resigned. All of these things allowed him the time to receive the details from God of what’s next.
God is in control of the details. When God gives directions, we must make decisions, trusting that He is in control of the details. First come directions…followed by decisions…and then we will be blessed with details. That’s faith. And if that order ever gets messed up, so do we.
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