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“His Name Will Be Called, pt. 2” •
12.22.13 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service
Intro.
- We began this set of studies with a look at
"The Context Of Christmas."
The message that Isaiah conveyed was delivered in one of Judah's darkest hours.
- Her King had turned from obedience to the
Lord of Israel and had begun to worship in the same manner as the people of
Israel, who had been worshipping as the Canaanites had!
- His profoundly foolish actions were matched
by those of the people of Judah, who followed Ahaz into similar sinful actions,
consulting with mediums and wizards instead of looking to the Word!
- Assyria had already overrun the Northern
tribes and re-settled the region of the Galilee with other nations or Gentile
groups. Where was the light in this darkness? The coming of Messiah!
- Jesus would be a floodlight in the darkness,
His very presence illuminating that which was hopelessly dark and oppressive.
- How will His coming effect the earth? What
are the sweeping blessings that will come to be because He has come? I believe
that we can see great implications near and far in these next verses.
- Today we consider "The Celebration Of Christmas."
Text
•
Isaiah 9:3 : "You have multiplied the nation and increased its joy; They rejoice
before You according to the joy of harvest,
as men rejoice when they divide the spoil." : Isaiah looks down the corridor of time and sees the fullness of
God's plan. In Isaiah's time, the nation's population was being decimated.
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Israel's sin had opened the door wide to hostile nations, who occupied, then
scattered the people, thus severely diminishing the remaining population of the
northern tribes.
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As Isaiah speaks out what he sees in his mind, he declares that God will again
multiply the nation. When this same word is used elsewhere, the effect is often
described in an incalculable way.
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For example, the Angel of the Lord promised Hagar in the desert that her
child's descendants would be greatly multiplied, so that they could not be
counted. (Gen. 16:10)
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He makes the same promise to Abraham after he has been willing to offer Isaac
on the mount of sacrifice, saying that his descendants would be as the sand on
the seashore. (Gen. 22:17)
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In Joseph's life, his plan to gather grain had gone so well that they stopped
counting what had become immeasurable! (Gen.
41:49)
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Isaiah says, "Look what you have done for the nation! You've taken it from
this dwindling remnant and made it a great number!"
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How reassuring that must have been for Isaiah, who had to have been looking
around, wondering how things could ever be turned around! With God, nothing is
impossible!
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He's able to take the smallest remnant and make something huge out of it! In
this case, I believe that Isaiah is seeing both the faithful in Israel along
with the grafted ones from the nations!
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He is seeing a faithful horde, made into one nation, built on faith in Christ
Jesus!
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He has multiplied them and increased it's joy! Again, the contrast. The nation
of Israel had no cause for joy in this moment.
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Judah was on the exact same path that Israel had been, though about a hundred
years removed and with Babylon as their eventual captors.
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Their reality in the present was sorrow and shame. But Isaiah sees a time when
their joy would be multiplied, as much as the nation's population had been!
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He goes on to describe their joy by alluding to two very joyful events in the
lives of the Hebrews. The first is the rejoicing which had been associated with
the joy of harvest.
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It's very difficult for us to relate in an industrialized society where
machinery delivers most everything to our local grocer and we simply pick it up,
to the agrarian ways of the Hebrews.
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For the Israeli's, they had put their backs into preparing their fields for
planting, carefully and strategically planning how much would be dedicated for
this and that crop.
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Then, the seed would be sown into the ground and nothing for a while. Lacking
any kind of meteorology, as well as the technology for irrigation, they waited
for rain.
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Then came up the firstfruits, all of which was to be given to the Lord. Sometime
afterward, the cash crop came up and was collected by the owner's harvesters.
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After the bundles had been assembled and the financial assessment of the
produce was calculated, there was nothing short of an all night party that
could last for a week!
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Over 10 months of process, plus the promise of payment releases into a great
celebration feast that was over the top!
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The second allusion concerns the men who rejoiced when they divided the spoil.
Having just finished looking at Israel's victory over Ai, our minds should be
freshly aware.
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They had been given the freedom to keep the spoils from the deserted city for
themselves.
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This was a built in reward for military service, the reward due to those who
had trained and faced the fear of battle.
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Not only were they alive, but they were alive, victorious and enriched by the
spoils of war.
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Both pictures point to a time when all else has been accomplished. There is no
work left to be performed. There is simply a celebration!
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Someday, the most unlikely thing will have happened for the nation Israel,
despite it's fall to Assyria, Babylon and even Rome: The nation would be
re-gathered and be strong again!
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Isaiah predicts that the people of Israel will once again have a cause for
celebration.
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But even moreso, Abraham's descendants, those who believe in God's Messiah by
faith, rejoice before Him because of His finished work!
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"Wait!" You say. How can it be finished? Christ's birth is sort of the
beginning isn't it? It is and it isn't. Yes, there were things to do, like grow
up and live a sinlessly perfect life.
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But Christ coming alone was the signal of the end. Because He came and
fulfilled God's promise, then the full ramifications of His promise are all
guaranteed to be fulfilled.
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In the prophetic eye, they are seen as complete and finished before they even
begin!
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This is why we rejoice in Him and celebrate His coming, as all promises toward
us, are based on His finished work that we simply revel in!
•
Isaiah 9:4 : "For You have broken the yoke of his
burden and the
staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor,
as in the day of Midian." : How will God affect this change of condition among the people
of Israel?
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There will be a time when God will act swiftly and finally against all who are
opposed to His Kingdom. Why will the nation of Israel as well as the "grafted
in" Gentiles rejoice?
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Because God has broken that which had once bound Israel, God's people. Again,
it interests me that Isaiah says this in the past tense. "For you have
broken..."
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In God's mind, which is not bound by linear realities, what is future to us is
indeed present to Him. It's a chapter written that has not yet been exposed to
us.
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The word "broken" here speaks of something that has been shattered,
rendered utterly unrecognizable and useless toward it's previous occupation.
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God has broken the yoke, the staff and the rod of his oppressor. He has
shattered the yoke of his burden. The yoke is the wooden implement strapped
onto a beast of burden, an ox or a donkey.
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The yoke signified ownership and purpose as the beast was now employed with the
hard labor, the burden or load, of the field.
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The second allusion is that of the staff of his shoulder. This is the shepherd's
staff, the walking stick of the Shepherd, who would use this tool to direct the
flock as they walked together.
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The rod was employed by the shepherd as a disciplinary tool, used for striking
those that got out of line. None of these tools in themselves carry any evil
intent.
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But these are the tools of an oppressor. This is a task master, an overlord.
This person has no regard for the humane treatment of the animal.
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This would include all who have been a tool of the enemy against the people of
God, whether nations or tyrant unbelievers, who have sought to use their office
and influence to destroy faith.
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I truly fear for those who have sought to destroy God's people over the years.
The terror that awaits those that trouble God's kids is beyond comprehension!
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Isaiah concludes with an inference to a time when Israel was under the tyranny
of the people of Midian, an account of which can be found in the book of
Judges. Turn over to Judges 6.
•
Judges 6:1-6 : "Then the children of Israel did
evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years, and the hand of Midian prevailed
against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for
themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains. So it was, whenever Israel had
sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the people of the East
would come up against them. Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of
the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor
ox nor donkey. For
they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous
as locusts; both they and their camels were without number; and they would
enter the land to destroy it. So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites,
and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord." : First, note that this time of struggle was a judgment, a
consequence for their disobedience to the Lord.
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"The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So, the Lord
delivered them."
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Israel existed in a conditional covenant with the Lord. Their obedience would
bring blessing and confidence, victory over their enemies. Disobedience would
bring about the opposite problems.
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Note secondly, it was 7 years maked by fear. The people had lived in homes and
near fields. They now hid in dens and caves, trembling at their enemies.
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Third, they were at the mercy of their oppressors relentlessly. The Midianites
would come up and threaten them, and when they did not come up, the Amalekites were
there to pick up the slack.
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There was no break. If it wasn't one daunting enemy, it was another. No rest.
No recovery.
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Fourth, note that this was a time of extreme injustice. Their enemies came in
and ransacked all of Israel's produce. They just lived there as if nobody else owned
the place!
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The ate up all of the land and didn't leave anything for Israel or her herds.
They came in simply to destroy the land.
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Finally, note that it was a time of excessive poverty. The people were greatly
impoverished. Literally, they were brought low to the ground.
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What was left to do? Cry out to the Lord! This is the cycle of the book of
Judges in just one story: Sin, suffer, repent and receive God's deliverance!
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What was God's answer? A man named Gideon, who despite being a bit of a coward
at the beginning of the story, turned out to be a great deliverer in Israel.
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His story culminates in a few pages of great bravery, where 300 men storm the
Midianite camp and rout them thoroughly. Judges
8:28 provides us with a summary statement.
•
Judges 8:28 : "Thus Midian was subdued before the
children of Israel, so that they lifted their heads no more. And the country
was quiet for forty years in the days of Gideon.'" : Midian, so thoroughly defeated, never recovered. They were
never again a threat to the people of Israel!
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Essentially, God had given this example to Isaiah to convey it to the people of
Israel. Someday, it would be rightly said that their God had delivered them
just as thoroughly.
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He had broken all of the implements that the oppressor had against them. He
would smash the yoke so that the people would no longer work for him.
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He would obliterate the staff, so that they would no longer take their
direction from him. He would crush the rod that beat across their back, so that
he would no longer abuse them.
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In it's place would be a yoke, but a yoke that was easy and a burden that was
light. He would carry a staff that would lead them by still waters and a rod
that would be a comfort to them!
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The problem wasn't work, direction or discipline. These are necessary things
for a life. The problem had been that they had been under the wrong leadership!
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God took them out from under that oppressive hand and freed them to be His!
That's why they rejoice in Him!
•
Isaiah 9:5 : "For every warrior’s sandal from the
noisy battle, and
garments rolled in blood, will be used for
burning and fuel of fire." : How
final is this change of condition? Will this be a temporary or permanent change?
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Isaiah prophecies that there will be a time when the use of battle implements
will be obsolete.
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Every warrior's sandal, or boot from the tumultuous battle will no longer be
necessary for another battle. The soldier's cloak, soaked in blood, will no
longer be put on.
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Those implements will only have one use: For burning and fuel of fire! The
warrior will never have to use them again. They will only be good for kindling.
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I'm not sure that we can really comprehend what this means psychologically,
given that we live in a country that has largely been sheltered from oppressive
government regimes.
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Israel has only ever known isolation among their enemies, who question their
right to exist!
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What would it be like for the world to drop every item related to war? What
would it be like for a country that is always on the verge of being squashed
into non-existence to lay down all defenses?
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Could you imagine looking at things that had once been indispensable items, as
simply unnecessary tools which have taken up space?
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That is what the Messiah brings! He brings security that supercedes the power
of the weapon of war. None will ever threaten again and the people of God will
ever dwell in peace.
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This is an oft repeated theme in Isaiah, who sees Christ's coming as the end of
war. This is simillar to that which is found inverse in Isaiah 2:1-4.
• Isaiah
2:1-4 : "The word that Isaiah the
son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now
it shall come to pass in the latter days that the
mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established
on the top of the mountains, and shall be
exalted above the hills; And all nations shall
flow to it. Many people shall come and say,
'Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and
we shall walk in His paths.' For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall
judge between the nations, and rebuke many
people; They shall beat their swords into
plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." : Is Isaiah confused? Certainly in Christ's first coming, there
was still war and killing and struggle.
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God's sees it all as done. Because He came, born of a virgin, born under the
law, these things are realities that will yet be fulfilled in time. All of this
is possible because of the very next line.
•
Isaiah 9:6a : "For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder." : Suffice it to say that the celebration of Christmas, the joy of
the finished work, the power over oppression and the security of a sustained
peace is Him!
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He is the One who has finished the work necessary for our salvation. He has
broken to pieces the power of oppression. He has given His people rest and
peace for eternity!
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It's all because a Child is born and a Son is given, the government being upon
His very able shoulders.
Conclusion
- Let's pray.
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