Isaiah 8:11-22 The Rock
1/28/01e D. Marion Clark
Introduction
The Text
11 The LORD spoke to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people. He said:
Isaiah impresses upon us the urgency or intensity by which he received the following message. What he is about to say is not the result of quiet reflection. God has given him direct command that separates him from the rebellious society of both Israel and Judah.
He first gives a negative command.
12 “Do not call conspiracy
everything that these people call conspiracy;
do not fear what they fear,
and do not dread it.
Ahaz and his counselors might fear conspiracy, both inner and outside the kingdom. The king is always concerned about false friends in his court, as many of David’s psalms will testify. He fears the conspiracy of Israel and Damascus. He fears, in other words, the power of man against him.
The positive command.
13 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,
Ahaz and his countrymen ought to be fearing Yahweh, their God. They are to fear him in the context of his holiness. In other words, they are not to fear God because he is big and bad, but because he is the sovereign, holy God. It is not how tough he is that makes us tremble as much as his holiness.
That is what Isaiah feared. In his vision, after the seraphim cried out Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty, he cried out, Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.
That is an aspect of God that Ahaz and most of the nation failed to recognize, even though that is the aspect that the Levitical laws intended to make pre-eminent.
That is a good lesson for us today, both nonChristian and Christian. Both tend to boil God down to the one character trait of love. Fear God?
The nonChristian does not fear him because he knows that God is really a nice guy that accepts everyone. Why, he would like to become more spiritual and get more in tune with this loving God. The only difference with the Christian is that he thinks he has already gotten in with God, who is now his kind Father and Jesus his good brother. The problem for the nonChristian is that he is oblivious to the judgment that God has against him. The problem for the Christian is that he has tamed God to be a benign figure who simply does his best to make us feel nice.
God is love and he does desire to give us joy. But God is also holy. We may have peace in God and trust him, but God is never presented as the kindly old man who just wants to be nice. He is the Sovereign Ruler over creation and in his inner being is found holiness – the one who is pure, perfect, set apart from all of creation. And it is right and good for we, his people, to have a holy and loving fear of him.
Jesus, as always, says it best. I am going to read a long passage that conveys well to Christian and nonChristian alike about how we are to both fear and trust God.
4 “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows…
22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
27 “Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Luke 12:4-34).
We fear what we don’t need to fear, viz., our physical provision. And we don’t fear what we do need to fear – the one who has eternal power over us. Trust in God and we know peace. Trust in ourselves or anyone else and there is no peace.
The next verses bear this out.
14 and he will be a sanctuary;
but for both houses of Israel he will be
a stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.
And for the people of Jerusalem he will be
a trap and a snare.
15 Many of them will stumble;
they will fall and be broken,
they will be snared and captured.”
For those who fear God, he will be to them a sanctuary. He will be a refuge for them. They will find in him a place for true worship and true peace.
As for the rest of Israel and Judah, the one who should be their refuge and strength will instead be the stumbling block and snare.
These verses are referred to several times in the New Testament. Let’s look at them.
30 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the “stumbling stone.” 33 As it is written:
“See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall,
and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” (Romans 9:30-33)
Here the stone is faith. Faith is the stumbling block, the rock that makes men fall. Men fall because they pursue righteousness by works, by their efforts, to be specific. The very means of salvation that God has provided becomes their downfall.
But more to the point, the stumbling stone is Jesus Christ. Peter brings this out.
4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.”
7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
“The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone,”
8 and,
“A stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for (1 Peter 2:4-8).
They refuse to have faith in Jesus. His person and work is their stumbling block. But for God’s people, he is their sanctuary, their spiritual house in which they offer sacrifices acceptable to God.
The next verses are confusing.
16 Bind up the testimony
and seal up the law among my disciples.
17 I will wait for the LORD,
who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob.
I will put my trust in him.
What does binding and sealing mean? Whose disciples? Who are the disciples? Who will wait for the Lord?
Make the testimony of God Word’s secure for his people, so that those with ears to hear will hear. I will wait for the salvation of the Lord to come. Right now he is hiding his mercy, but I trust in him still to be merciful and to send his deliverer.
The next verse applies both to Isaiah and the Messiah whom he foretells.
18 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.
To Isaiah. He and his children were signs and symbols. Also his spiritual children were signs and symbols, those who believed his message and who repented. They served as signs of the remnant who remain true to the Lord.
To the Messiah. The Son of Man lifted on the cross is the sign of God’s redemption accomplished. We who believe are the signs of his redemption applied.
The closing section directs us to where we are to be our trust and not.
19 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? 20 To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. 21 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. 22 Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.
It is to the Word of God that we are to look for direction and truth. There could not be a stronger condemnation of the occult – fortune telling through astrology or cards or whatever means. It is blasphemy to try and combine Christianity with such practices.
Such a way leads to darkness, to distress, and eventually to hatred of God.
We are presented with the two ways. There is the way of the world. Characterized by fear of man and a cavalier attitude towards God. Our works, rather than a humble faith is where we put our trust. Faith in the provision of God in Christ is but a stumbling block to us. The world looks ironically to the supernatural for guidance, which leads them into deeper darkness.
There is the way of the remnant. Characterized by fear of God, looking to him for refuge, valuing his Word, putting trust in his Redeemer.
