Alan Wright, in his book God Moments, talks about an old-time preacher who once experienced a bad, bumpy flight. So for the rest of his life, he hated airplanes. On one occasion, he sat down next to a calm passenger who noticed the preacher's nerves.
“Why are you afraid, Preacher?” the passenger asked him. “Doesn't that Bible of yours say God is with you always?”
“No, that's not exactly what the Bible says,” the minister responded. “The Bible says, ‘Lo, I am with you always.’” (Alan D. Wright, God Moments, Multnomah, 1999; www.PreachingToday.com)
Low or high, God is always with us, so we don’t have to be afraid. That’s the message of Christmas. Did you know that no less than four times, the Bible declares, “Do not be afraid,” when it tells the Christmas story? You find it in Matthew 1:20; Luke 1:13; Luke 1:30; and Luke 2:10.
We don’t have to be afraid, because Jesus has come! He is Immanuel, God with us, and God’s presence means our protection. It means our security. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Isaiah 8, Isaiah 8, where we see this played out in the little nation of Judah as she was being terrorized by foreign invaders 700 years before Christ.
Isaiah 8:1 Then the LORD said to me, “Take a large tablet [a billboard, if you will] and write on it in common characters, ‘Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.’ (ESV)
“Maher-shalal-hash-baz” – the name means “swift is the booty, speedy is the prey.” It was a battle cry that soldiers shouted to each other as they defeated and plundered their enemies.
Isaiah 8:2 And I will get reliable witnesses [God says], “Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, to attest for me.” (ESV)
In other words, these men will faithfully declare my Word.
Isaiah 8:3 And I went to the prophetess [Isaiah approached his wife] and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz.” (ESV)
Poor kid. He was probably in the 8th grade before he learned how to spell his own name. Maher-shalal-hash-baz – Swift is the booty, speedy is the prey. Now why give the boy such a name?
Isaiah 8:4 …for before the boy knows how to cry ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.” (ESV)
Before the boy is a year old, Judah’s enemies will be wiped out. The king of Assyria will carry them away.
In the context, Syria and Israel had formed an alliance against Judah. They were killing tens of thousands of men in Judah, capturing hundreds of thousands of women and children, and stripping Judah of its wealth.
However, God declares that a larger nation would come in and wipe Syria and Israel out, and that’s exactly what happened. Less than a year later, the king of Assyria sent his armies in to conquer Syria and Israel. They were “swift to the booty, speedy to the prey”, as they took away Syria and Israel’s wealth and people.
There was only one problem with this: Judah got rid of one enemy only to face a bigger one. It reminds me of the man swimming in a river, a little concerned about the possibility of alligators. He saw another man standing on the shore and asked him, “Are there any alligators in this river?”
The man on shore said, “No, not a single one,” but the man in the water was not entirely convinced.
So again he asked the man on shore, “Are you sure there are no alligators?”
And the man on shore replied, “Certainly. Do you see those gray forms in the water? Those are sharks that have chased the alligators away.” (Bible Illustrator, #999-1000, 2/1987.21)
Assyria was to become the shark that chased the alligators away. Then it would come after Judah.
Isaiah 8:5-8 The LORD spoke to me again: “Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoice over Rezin and the son of Remaliah, therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks, and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.” (ESV)
God warns Judah that Assyria will come in like a flood. God’s people would be in deep water up to their necks, but they would not drown. Why? Because this is Immanuel’s land. God is with them. That’s why Isaiah can say to all the nations…
Isaiah 8:9-10 Be broken, you peoples, and be shattered; give ear, all you far countries; strap on your armor and be shattered; strap on your armor and be shattered. Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; speak a word, but it will not stand, for God is with us. (ESV)
God’s presence guaranteed Judah’s security. As long as God was there, no plan devised against them could stand; no weapon formed against them would succeed. And the same thing is true for God’s people in any day. God’s presence guarantees our security today, even with the threat of ISIS and other terrors.
Now, that is not to say that we’ll never have any problems. That doesn’t mean that adversity will never come in like a flood. It can, and it will. However, when it does come, we will not drown in it. It may come up to our necks, but it will never go over our heads as long as God is with us.
That’s what 26-year-old Kayla Mueller discovered when she was captured by ISIS last year (2014). At the beginning of this year, on February 10, 2015, U.S. officials confirmed that Muslim extremists had murdered her while in captivity.
However, in the spring of 2014, as a captive, she wrote to her family. The letter begins with Kayla's assurance that she has been treated well, and is “in a safe location, completely unharmed and healthy.” The 26-year-old aid worker goes on to apologize to her family for the suffering that she has put them through because of her captivity. Then she writes, “I remember mom always telling me that, all in all, in the end, the only one you really have is God. I have come to a place in experience where, in every sense of the word, I have surrendered myself to our creator because literally there was no else.”
Kayla, who was involved in a campus ministry at Northern Arizona University, goes on to relate how (quote) “by God and by your prayers I have felt tenderly cradled in freefall.” She adds: “I have been shown in darkness, light, and have learned that even in prison, one can be free. I am grateful”, she writes. “I have come to see that there is good in every situation; sometimes we just have to look for it.”
Then she concludes her letter with these words: “Please be patient, give your pain to God. I know you would want me to remain strong. That is exactly what I am doing. Do not fear for me, continue to pray as will I. By God's will we will be together soon. All my everything, Kayla” (Stephen L. Carter, "On Kayla Mueller and Faith," BloombergView, 2-13-15; www.PreachingToday.com)
Now, things did not turn out as she or her parents had hoped; but through it all, she experienced God tenderly cradling her. Now, she is in heaven, awaiting that reunion with her family. The flood waters of adversity had come, “even to the neck,” but she did not drown.
And that’s the promise to all who surrender themselves to their Creator. Though trouble may come, if God is with us, we will not drown in that trouble; we will not be overwhelmed. So…
DON’T FEAR THE FLOOD.
Don’t be afraid when adversity threatens to overtake you. Don’t dread the enemy. Instead…
FEAR THE LORD.
Honor HIM as holy, and dread only HIM. Be afraid of the Lord of HEAVEN’s armies, not any earthly army.
Isaiah 8:11-12 For the LORD spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. (ESV)
We are not to adopt this world’s conduct, conversation, or concerns. When everybody else is living in fear, we who know the Lord can live differently.
Isaiah 8:13-14a But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary…
He will be a place of safety, a place of security and peace. It’s interesting, isn’t it? It’s only when we learn to fear God that we learn to feel safe in His presence.
God is a sanctuary to those who fear Him.
It was said of Sir Alfred Lawrence, at one time the Chief Justice of England (1921-1922), “He feared man so little because he feared God so much.” Courage is not the absence of fear. On the contrary, it is learning to fear the right thing. The problem is we often fear the wrong things: we fear what other people will think. We fear times of trouble. We fear an uncertain future. However, when we learn to fear God, we will stand fearless in the face of anything else.
Growing up, I remember watching ABC’s Wide World of Sports, which ran on Saturday’s for 37 years (1961-1998)? It was an anthology of the week’s sports highlights, illustrating “the thrill of victory” and “the agony of defeat.” This is the way the show began in the 70’s (show Agony of Defeat video).
[They illustrated "the agony of defeat" through the painful ending of an attempted ski jump. The skier appeared in good form as he headed down the slope, but then, for no apparent reason, he tumbled head-over-heels off the side of the jump and bounced off the supporting structure.]
How many of you remember that?
I used to cringe when I saw that, but I only learned recently that the skier chose to fall. It was not an accident. The jump surface had become too fast, and midway down the ramp he realized that if he completed the jump, he would land on the level ground beyond the safe landing zone, which could have been fatal. As it was, the skier suffered no more than a headache from the tumble.
You see, the fear of the slope, the fear of flying too high, and the fear of a crash landing led him to change course. Fear led to life. (Jeff Arthurs, “Clearing the Debris,” www.PreachingToday.com). So it is when we fear the Lord. It helps us to overcome all other fears, and it leads to life.
God is a sanctuary to those who fear Him, but He is a stumbling block to those who don’t. He trips up those who refuse to honor and revere Him. He is offensive to them.
Isaiah 8:14-15 And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.” (ESV)
The same God who comforts the believer, condemns the unbeliever. The same God who securest those who trust Him, strikes those who turn from Him.
1 Peter 2:7-8 is the New Testament commentary on these verses. There, the stone is identified as Jesus Christ, and it says: “For those who do not believe… [He is] ‘a stone of stumbling, and rock of offense.’ They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.”
For unbelieving Israel, and for all unbelievers, Jesus is a stone to stumble over. He trips them up. They just can’t figure Him out. However, for the believer, Jesus is a stone to stand on, a rock to support us in the flood.
A shipwrecked sailor was thrown upon a rock where he clung for his life until the storm passed over and the tide went down. Later, a friend asked him, “Didn’t you shake with fear out there on that rock?”
The sailor said, “Sure, but the rock didn’t.” (Paul Lee Tan, 7700 Illustrations, #1967).
Jesus, our Rock, never shakes. He will support you in the flood if you cling to Him. But if you don’t, He will only trip you up.
If you haven’t done it already, I urge you to trust Christ with your life today. Cling to Him! Call upon Him and ask Him to save you from your sins. Then you too can know the security of His presence. Don’t fear the flood. Instead, fear the Lord, and…
KEEP HIS WORD.
Hide it in your heart and live by it every day.
Isaiah 8:16 Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching among my disciples. (ESV)
God wants us to seal up His Word in our hearts, to memorize it, to retain it in our heads. For when we do, we find confidence and hope for the future.
Isaiah 8:17 I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. (ESV)
Isaiah says, even though God is hiding His face right now, even though He seems to be withholding His blessing, there is coming a day when He will come, and all will be well.
Isaiah 8:18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion. (ESV)
Isaiah had two sons, and he along with his two sons point to the future of Israel. Isaiah’s name itself means “The Lord is Salvation,” and that’s the theme of the book of Isaiah: God will save His people. Isaiah’s first son, Maher-shalal-hash-baz (swift is the booty, speedy is the prey) has a name which signifies judgment, and that judgment is outlined in the first 39 chapters of this book. Isaiah’s second son, Shear-jashub, signifies deliverance. His name means “a remnant shall return.” That is to say, not everyone will be destroyed. Rather, God will preserve a remnant, and Israel as a nation will be saved. That’s what chapters 40-66 in the book of Isaiah are all about.
And that’s the message of the Bible: there’s gain after pain; there’s blessing after judgment; there’s a crown after the cross. So no matter what happens, you know there are better days ahead. Why? Because God’s Word tells you so; and those who know God’s Word, those who have sealed it up in their hearts, have a confidence and a hope that nothing can shake, not even Muslim terrorists.
In the film, The Monuments Men, a woman named Claire Simone, lives a very ordinary life in Paris under the oppressive Nazi regime. She's an art enthusiast who was forced to facilitate the pillaging of Paris’ great works of art. Even so, Claire carefully cataloged each piece of art, and marked it with a small colored sticker. She kept this catalog without knowing whether it would ever be useful, or worse if it would be confiscated and destroyed.
She kept meticulous records without any hope until James Granger showed up asking about those pieces of art. He was part of a group of people called the Monuments Men that worked to restore stolen pieces of art after the Nazi regime collapsed.
However, when Claire kept her meticulous records, she had no idea that the Monuments Men would one day come along. She had no idea that anyone else cared. She was one woman in a city occupied by one of the most powerful armies on the planet. She was one woman battling against the whole Nazi-engineered system. Yet for all that time before James Granger arrived, she kept working subversively and systematically, without any assurance that her work would ever be put to use. (Adam Graber, Wheaton, Illinois, www.PreachingToday.com)
In much the same way, we as followers of Christ live in territory occupied by the Enemy; and it's tempting to give up hope that our work for Christ will ever amount to anything. It’s tempting to doubt whether our small deeds of compassion and kindness will ever matter. It’s tempting to question the value of our faithfulness to our families, our jobs, and our churches. It’s tempting to discount the usefulness of our feeble witness to those who ask.
But unlike Claire, we who know Christ and His Word have the assurance that it all DOES matter. We’ve read the end of the story. It is sealed in our hearts. Our service to Christ may FEEL insignificant at times, but we KNOW it will reap eternal results.
So Don’t fear the flood. Instead, fear the Lord and keep His Word. Keep on serving; keep on loving; and keep on sharing until Jesus comes again and restores blessing to this sin-cursed world.
