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Lesson 4 Video
Isaiah Part 1
Lesson 4 Video Pete De Lacy(52:38)
10/30/2008
The Word of the Holy One
Who Do You Trust?
When I was young there was a popular game show on television called: “Who Do You Trust?” The format was that a man and a woman would be paired together as contestants. They might not even have met before the show. The host would announce a category of questions, such as, states beginning with the letter “M.” The man was asked to decide who did he trust to answer the questions in that category? Would he trust himself or would he trust his partner, the other contestant. It was based on a previous show called: “Do You Trust Your Wife?” I guess they decided that name didn’t work well. At any rate, in either format you had to depend upon another person to give the right answer. You had to place all of your trust in them. And of course, often that trust would belied and they would be let down and the answer the other person gave lost them the money or failed to win whatever the prize was.
When we look at King Ahaz in our study of Isaiah we ask the question: “Who do you trust?” Do you trust in man or do you trust God? This question has been around for a long, long time. Ahaz was not the first one to be faced with that choice. Throughout the history of mankind do you trust what God said or do you trust what man says? Do you trust the promises and the truths that God has given us in His Word or do you turn somewhere else looking for answers? When we look in our text of chapter 7, Isaiah, we find ourselves faced with this issue:of a man trusting in something other than God Himself and what God had chosen.
In fact, as I thought about that and I went back in my memory to a few kings that had been king of Judah before Ahaz . . . In fact, if you go all the way back to King Asa, or his dad Abijah, or his son Jehoshaphat, you find three kings of Judah who faced basically the same dilemma that Ahaz did and they handled it in different ways. There were different results based on how they handled it.
So, let’s turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 13, and see what we find. Now, I reviewed in the first week, if you remember, the entire breaking up of the unified kingdom of Israel, 2 Chronicles 13, the breaking up of the unified kingdom of Israel, going back to the time when God said because of Solomon’s unfaithfulness in worshipping the gods of his foreign wives, that He would tear ten parts of the kingdom away from Solomon, but for the sake of his father David, not in his days, but in his son’s days. His son was named Rehoboam. Rehoboam was the king at the time of the tearing apart of the kingdom of Israel into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
Now, we come to Rehoboam’s son in chapter 13. And it says: “In the eighteenth years of King Jeroboam.” Now, I guarantee you a lot of people are confused about Rehoboam and Jeroboam and can’t remember who‘s the king of what. And I was that way for many, many years until we really started studying Kings and Prophets together and these books of the Bible. I think I have it straight now. I always remember that Rehoboam was the king of the south and Jeroboam was the king of the north.
Well, this is in the days of that first king of the north, that this guy Abijah becomes king over Judah.
2 Chron 13:1-2[reads]
1 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king over Judah.
2 He reigned three years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Micaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. NASB
So, here in the days of the founding of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms we have war between the two kingdoms. Does that ring a bell at all with what we’re seeing in Isaiah in the days of Ahaz, that we have the Northern and Southern Kingdoms in conflict? So, this is not new. It talks about the size of the army and various things.
2 Chron 13:3
3 And Abijah began the battle with an army of valiant warriors, 400,000 chosen men, while Jeroboam drew up in battle formation against him with 800,000 chosen men who were valiant warriors. NASB
Look at what Abijah does in verse 4:
2 Chron 13:4-5[reads]
4 Then Abijah stood on MountZemaraim, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, and said, "Listen to me, Jeroboam and all Israel:
5 "Do you not know that the LORD God of Israel gave the rule over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt? NASB
We’re not going to deal with covenant of salt here, we’re going to focus on the idea that God gave the rule to David and his house. He made the promise to David he would always have a son on your throne. So he’s calling upon that promise of God.
2 Sam 7:16
16 And your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever."' " NASB
2 Chron 13:6-8[reads]
6 "Yet Jeroboam that’s the King Jeroboam that was referred to in verse 1 the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, rose up and rebelled against his master,
7 and worthless men gathered about him, scoundrels, who proved too strong for Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, when he Rehoboam was young and timid and could not hold his own against them.
8 So now you intend to resist the kingdom of the LORD through the sons of David, being a great multitude and having with you the golden calves which Jeroboam made for gods for you. NASB
Remember we talked about how the Israelites had brought the Ark of the Covenant into the camp when warring against the Philistines? “I’ve got my ark, I must have my God.” Jeroboam, because they no longer had access to Jerusalem and the temple, set up a golden calf in the city of Dan at the far north and the city of Bethel which was down farther south in the Northern Kingdom, and said, “These are your gods,” just like the golden calf at Mount Sinai. So, they had this false worship system where they’re worshipping these golden calves.
2 Chron 13:8-9[reads]
8 So now you intend to resist the kingdom of the LORD through the sons of David, being a great multitude and having with you the golden calves which Jeroboam made for gods for you.
9 Have you not driven out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron and the Levites, and made for yourselves priests like the peoples of other lands? Whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams, even he may become a priest of what are no gods. NASB
So, he’s selling the priesthood to anybody who’s got the price and they’re worshipping golden calves which aren’t gods and he says, “And you’re going to come against me?!”
Do you know who this reminded me of? David and Goliath. Do you remember David and Goliath? Goliath stands this giant Philistine warrior who’s so huge and young David the boy with his sling and said, “Who are you, you uncircumcised Philistine that you would taunt the armies of the living God?”
1 Sam 17:26
26 Then David spoke to the men who were standing by him, saying, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine, and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God?" NASB
In other words, he was trusting in his God. We could go back and actually look at David if you want to. Perhaps you don’t remember the story; it would help us refresh our memories. Let’s go back to 1 Samuel 17, verse 41.
1 Sam 17:41-47[reads]
41 Then the Philistine came on and approached David, with the shield-bearer in front of him.
42 When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a youth, and ruddy, with a handsome appearance.
43 And the Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
44 The Philistine also said to David, "Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field." You’ve got to remember how big this Philistine is and how small David must appear next to him.
45 Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted.
46 This day the LORD will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel,
47 and that all this assembly may know that the LORD does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the LORD'S and He will give you into our hands." NASB
There’s this young David,this young boy who’s been sent to the army to bring some supplies to his brothers who were in the army of King Saul. And he goes out and challenges this giant, this champion of the army and says, “The battle is not mine, the battle is the Lord’s. And all the earth may know there’s a God in Israel.”
So, the precedent has been set before there even was a divided kingdom. It goes all the way back to David.
But here we are back in 2 Chronicle 13 while we deal with this grandson of Solomon, who’s the king. And he’s telling this king of the north that he’s got a false priesthood, he’s got a false worship system, and he shouldn’t really even have the throne because he’s not a descendant of David.
And he says in verse 10 of chapter 13 of 2 Chronicles, he says:
2 Chron 13:10-11[reads]
10 But as for us, the LORD is our God, and we have not forsaken Him; and the sons of Aaron are ministering to the LORD as priests, and the Levites attend to their work.
11 And every morning and evening they burn to the LORD burnt offerings and fragrant incense, and the showbread is set on the clean table, and the golden lampstand with its lamps is ready to light every evening; for we keep the charge of the LORD our God, but you have forsaken Him. NASB
See how he calls back the imagery of the temple itself: talking about the table of showbread on one side and the light on the other side and the altar of incense before the veil, the altar of sacrifice outside. “That’s the true worship system. Yours is false. This is what we’re doing.”
2 Chron 13:12[reads]
12 Now behold, God is with us at our head and His priests with the signal trumpets to sound the alarm against you. O sons of Israel, do not fight against the LORD God of your fathers, for you will not succeed." NASB
Without looking at the details of the battle, Judah trusts in God and God gives Israel over into the hand of Judah. And it says in verse 18:
2 Chron 13:18[reads]
18 Thus the sons of Israel were subdued at that time, and the sons of Judah conquered because they trusted in the LORD, the God of their fathers. NASB
Now, if father is telling son and then father tells son the stories of what has happened it would seem that the story of this conquering of the Northern Kingdom came because of trusting in God not trusting in some other person. Maybe that story might be around by the time of Ahaz. Maybe somebody knew that once upon a time people had actually conquered. Certainly in the folklore of people we tell the stories of our ancestors. I mean, here in this country we would recount the things that happened a hundred years ago, or two hundred years ago. And people whose civilizations go back further than that can recount the great, the battles and the great events of life that happened in the history of nations and of people. Certainly Israel would talk about the great victory that God brought about over Pharaoh, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the defeat of his whole army and so on and so on and so on. The stories have to be there.
What causes someone to not believe that those kinds of things can happen today? What happens to us that we don’t believe that what worked before will work today? Are we so modern? Are we so smart? Are we so scientific or something that it can’t be true anymore? Are we that way that we think today that maybe prayer, maybe fasting, would actually be a solution instead of trying to figure out with technology? I wonder. Have we forgotten that when we call upon the great God of the universe, the Creator of everything, the One who has called us into fellowship through our faith in His Son Jesus that calling on Him is not enough? That we have to have a plan that we can devise? I wonder if we have lost sight of what this is really all about.
1 Cor 1:9
9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. NASB
Why did He tell us these stories? Why did He give them to us to read and to understand, or have we forsaken God, or have we trusted in God? So the question: Who do you trust? still stands with us today. Who do you trust? Who do you trust?
This king’s son, chapter 14, tells us that this king died and his son Asa became king. It says that:
2 Chron 14:2-6[reads]
2 And Asa did good and right in the sight of the LORD his God,
3 for he removed the foreign altars and high places, tore down the sacred pillars, cut down the Asherim, This sounds like a really good king.
4 and commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their fathers and to observe the law and the commandment.
5 He also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah. And the kingdom was undisturbed under him.
6 And he built fortified cities in Judah, since the land was undisturbed, and there was no one at war with him during those years, because the LORD had given him rest. NASB
I think the Lord gave him that favor because of how he had shown true worship and trusting in God by getting rid of the other gods that people would rely on.
And so, it tells of the story of building up of the resources and armies in Israel. But in verse 9, we have an Ethiopian who comes against him with an army of a million men and 300 chariots.
2 Chron 14:8-9
8 Now Asa had an army of 300,000 from Judah, bearing large shields and spears, and 280,000 from Benjamin, bearing shields and wielding bows; all of them were valiant warriors.
9 Now Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and 300 chariots, and he came to Mareshah. NASB
Now, that sounds big to me. Especially if you read the previous verse and it talks about his army only had 280,000 men and here comes a million man army. You might have a little concern of being out-numbered. But what happens? Asa goes out to meet him, verse 10:
2 Chron 14:10-11[reads]
10 So Asa went out to meet him, and they drew up in battle formation in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.
11 Then Asa called to the LORD his God, and said, "LORD, there is no one besides Thee to help in the battle between the powerful and those who have no strength; so help us, O LORD our God, for we trust in Thee, and in Thy name have come against this multitude. O LORD, Thou art our God; let not man prevail against Thee." NASB
Isn’t that a beautiful call upon the Lord? I mean, it’s hard for us to remember that we can go into Chronicles to find King Asa for a model of a prayer of calling upon God in a time of difficulty. But there it stands and rather eloquent, I might say, compared to some of the things I pray. If you think about it, this is a classic. “We trust in You. In Your name have we come against this multitude.”
That reminds me a bit of Ephesians chapter 6, of putting on the armor of God and talking about our warfare is not against flesh but against principalities and powers, against the powerful and those who have no strength. And we go in that battle in the name of our Lord.