“The Tall & Smooth Worship”
[Isaiah 18:1-7]
December 30, 2018, Second Reformed
Church
This week, our President said that
he plans to withdraw our remaining 2,000 troops from Syria. That planned “slow and highly coordinated
pullout of U.S. troops from the area” has raised a number of questions: has ISIS really been defeated? Can the President of Turkey be trusted not to
follow through with the genocide of the Kurds?
Will the neighboring “partner” nations put down any resurgence of
ISIS? And so on.
How do – how should – the nations
work together? How are we to understand
what is really happening in lands across the globe – much less in our own
government? Can our allies be
trusted? Can we believe that all of the
information necessary to understand the situation is presented on the six
o’clock news?
How do we react to stories like this
in the news?
Let’s keep that question in our
minds as we rejoin the prophet, Isaiah, this morning.
We may remember that Israel had made
an alliance with Assyria against Syria which ended with Assyria ruling over
Israel – receiving taxes from the nation.
In 722 B.C., we read:
“In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of
Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel, and he
reigned nine years. And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, yet not
as the kings of Israel who were before him. Against him came up Shalmaneser
king of Assyria. And Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute. But the
king of Assyria found treachery in Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to So,
king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done
year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in
prison. Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to Samaria, and
for three years he besieged it” (2 Kings 17:1-5, ESV).
After King Ahaz, Hoshea becomes
king, and he decides to stop paying the tax to the Assyrians, and he makes an
alliance with Egypt to fight the Assyrians.
But the Assyrians put Egypt down and conquer Israel – taking them into
captivity – and putting King Hoseha in prison.
Some twenty years later, Cush – Ethiopia
– the nation of the tall and smooth – come to Israel’s aid against Assyria, and
Assyria falls.
Rather than laying out the history
of this encounter at this time, Isaiah looks at the principles behind the
history. Let us do the same.
First, God is the Sovereign of History
over the nations.
“Ah, land of whirring wings that is beyond
the rivers of Cush, which sends ambassadors by the sea, in vessels of papyrus
on the waters! Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a
people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the
rivers divide. All you inhabitants of the world, you who dwell on the earth, when
a signal is raised on the mountains, look! When a trumpet is blown, hear!”
Egypt is known for its vicious winged
insect – and Isaiah compares the people of Egypt to this insect – able to move
quickly and infest wherever they go – and he advises them to send ambassadors
down the Nile River to Cush. For the
nation of the tall and smooth are a nation that causes fear to rise up – they
are mighty and great conquerors.
All the inhabitants of the world are
called to watch Ethiopia – the signal – the banner – will be raised on the
mountains – the trumpet will be blown – then watch and see what the Ethiopians
will do – how they will conquer and save Israel.
Who knew that Israel would be subjugated
by the Assyrians and that Israel would make an alliance with Egypt – the
Egyptians would be put down by the Assyrians and seek help from the Ethiopians
who would fly to victory?
The Doctrine of Concurrence says that we
are free and responsible creatures, but God is more free than we are. So, one result can be caused by more than one
action – even a good and an evil action.
We remember the history of Joseph and how
his brothers grow tired of him and sell him into slavery, and how he rises up
after a false accusation to be second in command over all of Egypt. And when Joseph meets with his brothers, he
says, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to
bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Genesis
50:20, ESV).
This is the Doctrine of Concurrence in
action – this is God Sovereignly ruling over history: God desires Joseph to be second in command
over Egypt to save millions of people, and God allows Joseph’s brothers to
freely and responsibly choose to sell Joseph into slavery – which God knows will
end up with Joseph as second in command over Egypt.
And Daniel prays, “Daniel answered and
said: ‘Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and
might. He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he
gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; he
reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light
dwells with him’” (Daniel 2:20-22, ESV).
What is really happening in Syria in 2018?
God is the Sovereign of History over the
nations. All of the humans involved have
motives and plans and desired outcomes, and each one is morally responsible,
but what God has planned to happen – for our good or punishment – will
occur. From before the foundations of
the world were created, God planned everything that will ever happen.
Second, God is calmly bringing
history to pass.
“For thus the LORD said to me: ‘I will
quietly look from my dwelling like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew
in the heat of harvest.’ For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and
the flower becomes a ripening grape, he cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks,
and the spreading branches he lops off and clears away. They shall all of them be left to the birds of
prey of the mountains and to the beasts of the earth. And the birds of prey
will summer on them, and all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.”
God tells Isaiah that He is in Heaven
calmly bringing history to pass – watching how it all comes to pass – just as
He planned.
That is not to say that God is
uninvolved in history – that He is inactive – He is active. God is intimately involved in the movement of
every molecule of our bodies and the dinosaurs and the planets racing through
space. Nothing can happen unless God
does it or permits it.
That is not to say that God is unemotional
– God is love, God is wrath, God is justice, God is holy, holy, holy. God uses the genocide of a people and the
coming to faith of a multitude to accomplish His purposes for the good of those
who love Him – remember?
“And we know that for those who love
God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to
his purpose” (Romans 8:28, ESV).
Do we believe “all things” – really?
– all things? – work together for good?
The Holocaust works together for the
good of believers? A two-year-old with
inoperable cancer works together for the good of believers? The suicide of a teenager works together for
the good of believers?
Yes.
We weep – we pray – we cry out – we beat our breasts and ask why – but
yes – for the good of believers. And we
may never know why or how. When Job told
God that God owed him an answer for his suffering, God asked him where he was
when God created the universe. God
didn’t have to tell him why, and He didn’t.
And so we have the image of a grape
vine that grows and flowers and begins to bear fruit, and then God lops off the
fruit and lops off the sprouts and spreading branches. And the birds of the air and the beasts of
the field eat the grapes of the vine are sustained for the summer and the
winter.
This is the history of the wicked
Assyrians. Under God’s Hand, they grew
up to be a mighty grape vine, and they flowered and began to bear fruit. At that point – according to the unchangeable
plan of God, the Assyrians were – pruned – broken and slaughtered, and
dismembered, and cast across the mountains and valleys as food for the animals
of the land.
We read:
“And this shall be the sign for you: this
year eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the same.
Then in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.
And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward
and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of
Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD will do this.
“Therefore thus says the LORD
concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an
arrow there, or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it.
By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come
into this city, declares the LORD. For I will defend this city to save it, for
my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.
“And that night the angel of the
LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when
people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. Then
Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at Nineveh. And as
he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer,
his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat.
And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place” (2 Kings 19:29-37, ESV).
And we confess with David:
“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall
not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still
waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his
name's sake.
“Even though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your
rod and your staff, they comfort me.
“You prepare a table before me in
the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell
in the house of the LORD forever” (Psalm 23, ESV).
We are the sheep, and as we look
around at the machinations of the nations, our response is “baa!” because we
don’t understand everything that God has planned, nor why the nations move this
way and that. But God – the Lord – is
our shepherd. He knows what is happening
and will not allow the thieves or the animals to take us from Him – He leads us
and will bring us to the good end He intends for us. He is calm and strong and wants us to trust
Him.
God is calmly bringing history to
pass.
Third, God will be worshipped by every
nation.
“At that time tribute will be brought to
the LORD of hosts from a people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and
far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount
Zion, the place of the name of the LORD of hosts.”
One of our hopes – one of the things we
should focus on as we go through history and the movements of nations – is that
God will be worshipped and glorified by all the nations on the last day – even
those as far away as the land of a people tall and smooth – they will come to
Jerusalem – the New Jerusalem – and worship our God and Savior.
“for it is written, ‘As I live, says
the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God’” (Romans
14:11, ESV).
“Therefore God has highly exalted him and
bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every
tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians
2:9-11, ESV).
Do we remember a relevant story of this
beginning to come to pass?
“Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Rise
and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’
This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a
eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge
of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning,
seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit
said to Philip, ‘Go over and join this chariot.’ So Philip ran to him and heard
him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, ‘Do you understand what you are
reading?’ And he said, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ And he invited
Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the Scripture that he
was reading was this: ‘Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb
before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation
justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken
away from the earth.’
“And the eunuch said to Philip, ‘About
whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone
else?’ Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told
him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road they came
to some water, and the eunuch said, ‘See, here is water! What prevents me from
being baptized?’ And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down
into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came
up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch
saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing” (Acts 8:26-39, ESV).
One of the first converts after the
Resurrection is an Ethiopian.
God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – will
be worshipped by every nation. The day
is coming when the skies will part and Jesus will return bodily to bring us
into the fullness of the Kingdom in the New Jerusalem.
While we wait with this hope, there is
much for us to do.
Earlier we asked how we should react to
the news stories we hear. If God is
truly the Sovereign of history and He is calmly bringing all things to pass,
and it is a surety that He will be worshipped by all nations:
We shouldn’t be afraid of being
persecuted for Christ and His Gospel.
Jesus was hunted, denied, betrayed, scourged, flogged, and crucified –
and we want to be like Him, don’t we? If
we suffer for the Gospel, that is a good thing – a thing worthy of our calling
– and it means more than the story I read this week of the Christian
complaining that she was being persecuted because someone said, “Happy
Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.”
Think about being denied your rights.
Being hunted, imprisoned, and even killed for telling people that Jesus
Alone is the One Way to be right with God – to be saved.
We ought to be in prayer for our leaders
and our country. We know this, but it
can be hard if we don’t like the President or the representatives in the House
and Senate or the governor or the mayor or our teachers or our parents – but we
must. God has commanded it – we are to
pray for their salvation and for their good governance. We are to rightly confront their sin and
thank them for their faithful duty.
We ought to be in prayer for the world. We ought to pray for the leaders around the
world and all those they serve – especially our brothers and sisters in Christ
who are being physically and financially tortured for naming Jesus as Savior.
We ought to trust that God is in absolute
control. As believers, we are to respond
to the gift of our salvation through faith and in obedience – striving towards
holiness. And while we strive, let us
rest in the sure confidence that God is in absolute control.
And we ought to pray for revival. Our
country is going the way of Europe.
There are fewer believers, churches are closing, those that stay open
are country clubs and social action societies.
Let’s pray that God will send the Holy Spirit to revive us – to revive
this church – to revive Irvington – to draw His people from the four corners of
the world into His Church to worship Him.
May even the tall and smooth come and join us in worship now.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, the world frightens us. We don’t understand what is happening and why
certain moves are made in politics here and around the world. Comfort us in the knowledge that You are Sovereign over history and the
nations, that You are calmly bringing all these things to pass, and every
people and tribe and tongue and nation will proclaim that Jesus Christ is
Lord. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
