“The Returning King”
[Isaiah 33:1-12]
August 4, 2019, Second Reformed Church
What do you do when your friend betrays you? What do you do when your government steals from you? What do you do when your family is sick or dying or warring with each other? What do you do when every outcome you can think of looking forward is bleak? What do you do when you have no idea what to do?
You remember that you are a member of a monarchy. We serve King Jesus Who is King over all of Creation. And because we know Who He is, we trust Him that He will return and keep the promises He has given to us.
Isaiah continues to prophesy to King Hezekiah about the coming attack by the Assyrian Empire, and he comforts Hezekiah and the people with the words that we read this morning. And he comforts us even as we have times of walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
God tells us through Isaiah:
First, the King will be gracious to the remnant.
God addresses the Assyrians:
“Ah, you destroyer, who yourself have not been destroyed, you traitor, whom none has betrayed! When you have ceased to destroy, you will be destroyed; and when you have finished betraying, they will betray you.”
“You are a great destroyer, Assyria – and you have not been destroyed – not yet. You are a betrayer – you made an alliance with My people and betrayed them – turning on them rather than going on your way. But your reign of destruction will only last so long – I will only permit it so long – you will only accomplish My plans so long. You will be destroyed. You may think you are the greatest con artist there is, but you will be betrayed, and then it will be all over for you.”
Sin, evil, death – are temporary. The fact of this life is eventually – whatever it is that is causing you pain and distress – eventually, it will either get better, or you will die – and that’s not me – or God – being flip. God tells the Assyrians that the day will come when He will take them out – the unbeatable Assyrians will no longer exist.
No matter how down you are this morning, it will either get better, or you will be with Jesus. God is completely in control – the Sovereign King of the universe. The great, giant, awful thing coming over the horizon will not last forever – God will not allow it to last forever. Because Jesus has defeated sin and death and the devil, and there will be no sorrow or evil or pain in His Kingdom.
And this isn’t a kind of stoicism that says, “oh, well, it is what it is, que sera, sera, whatever will be will be.” No, this is a belief is a Sovereign, Saving God Who has promised to restore the Kingdom and throw all of the vestiges of sin out forever.
And the reaction to this news – for Hezekiah – is to pray:
“O LORD, be gracious to us; we wait for you. Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble.”
“O Lord, be gracious to us – the remnant of Your people – the elect of God. Be gracious – give us what we don’t deserve – give us the opposite of what we deserve. We are waiting for You – waiting on You to come back to make everything right – to glorify Your Name in all the earth. Be our arm – our strength – every morning. Be our salvation in every time of trouble. Save us every morning and for all of eternity.”
If you think about yourself and where you are in life, you know you need God’s Grace every morning! I need God’s Grace every morning. I am not able to make everything turn out good and right and glorifying to God every moment of every day – and that’s not a cop out. I can barely control myself – it is a struggle for me to strive towards holiness and righteousness and obedience to God in every aspect of my life – much less every other person in the world and all the things that happen in all of Creation – I am not able!
Peter was in the courtyard waiting to see what would happen to Jesus – Jesus Who he knew in the flesh and Who had taught him for three years – the Man he confessed as God the Savior – and it only took three servants of the high priest asking him if he knew Jesus for Peter to curse and deny Jesus.
God is our strength. God is our salvation. God gives us His Grace – especially in the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit so we are now – through His work – able to do what is right and pleasing to God. We need the Grace of God to live right for even a moment.
Isaiah continues by telling Hezekiah:
Second, the King will be abundant grace to the remnant.
“At the tumultuous noise peoples flee; when you lift yourself up, nations are scattered, and your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers; as locusts leap, it is leapt upon.”
The Assyrians are used to getting their way – of conquering – of taking what they want and putting the gods of the nations to shame. Other nations run at the sight of the Assyrians, but they are like bugs – gathering what they have conquered – jumping on it – rolling on the cash strewn across their beds. They are nothing before the Holy God!
The greatest military force – the most wicked men and women – the devil, himself – are no more than bugs before God. The things that seem so huge and out of control to us – God has no problem with – taking care of them as He sees fit.
This is how our King is described:
“His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude” (Daniel 10:6, ESV).
And we are told by the Psalmist, “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3, ESV).
And we are told what He will do:
“The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness, and he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is Zion's treasure.”
Isaiah tells Judah that the Lord their King is greater than the Assyrians are and will give them justice and righteousness, stability, and an abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge – in the Lord, because the fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure.
Our King is exalted – He is God – there is no one greater than He – and His promise to His people is that Zion – the New Jerusalem – the Holy Kingdom – will be filled with justice and righteousness. Everything will be right and everyone will perfectly obey the Will of God. Everyone in the Kingdom will rejoice that our God did not let any sin go unpunished, but is Holy, Holy, Holy. Our times are stable – in the Lord our King – no matter what it may look like in the world. Everyone in the Kingdom will be in awe of the work of the Son in His life and death that saves us. If you think you are amazed by the Grace God gave us in Jesus – no, it’s much more than that. As much as you understand, it is more. As much as you weep and rejoice and thank God, it is more.
“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, ESV).
God shows the greatness of His Love for His people – the elect – the remnant – by giving us abundant grace.
He has given us the fullness of salvation in His abundant grace. He chose us before the world began, and He saves us through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of His Son, and He saves us and brings us into His Kingdom eternally.
Paul writes to the Colossians that he writes about his work:
“that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:2-3, ESV).
Apart from the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, Christ is a mystery, but once He indwells us by the abundant Grace of God all who believe have an abundance of wisdom and knowledge. God leads us in knowing Christ and all the truth of God revealed in His Word – that He would be glorified and we would be filled with His joy.
Paul tells the Corinthians, this is knowledge and wisdom, and it is here that we find the treasure of Zion – the truth of salvation alone through Jesus Christ:
“Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’” (I Corinthians 1:20-31, ESV).
Abundant grace is yours if you have received salvation in Jesus.
Third, the King will give the wicked justice.
“Behold, their heroes cry in the streets; the envoys of peace weep bitterly. The highways lie waste; the traveler ceases. Covenants are broken; cities are despised; there is no regard for man. The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is confounded and withers away; Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.”
All is not well immediately – justice is often waiting for the return of the King. And God shows Isaiah what would happen – although the Assyrians would not conquer Jerusalem – there would be blood.
Judah thought she had an agreement – a treaty – with the Assyrians, but, once the Syrians were defeated, Sennacherib trained his armies upon Judah, and the heroes of the people were slaughtered, the envoys of peace were dismayed, there was economic disaster – no one wanted to travel the roads for fear of the Assyrians killing them or taken them into slavery. The agreement between Assyria and Judah was broken.
“History has been made – they will destroy all their nuclear weapons.” “They’ll never betray America again.” “They will never violate human rights again.” “Everyone has been trained so racism will come to an end.” “You can trust me.” “Would I lie?”
Everything’s fine until Brutus, and Judas, and Benedict Arnold, and lesser known liars and betrayers betray.
Isaiah draws a rough outline of the nation to show that the whole created order is affected by the systemic lies of humans:
Lebanon with its great trees and lush valleys is reduced to brown fields, Sharon’s acres of blossoms are dead flowers fit for the furnace, the trees of Bashan and Carmel are dead.
It’s nothing new – it is? From the Garden of Eden to the words of Paul, “For the wages of sin is death,” (Romans 6:23a, ESV).
Sin leads to death. That’s the problem that every merely human being has. And those who never believe are the true living dead and they will live their death forever. Still, they will receive justice.
“’Now I will arise,’ says the LORD, ‘now I will lift myself up; now I will be exalted. You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble; your breath is a fire that will consume you. And the peoples will be as if burned to lime, like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.’”
God, the King, says that the day will come, when He will come in power and justice, and if the wicked will not exalt Him – if they will not lift Him up – if they will not worship Him – He will do it Himself. He will lift Himself up over them. He will exalt Himself over them. They will writhe in agony as they see that He is the One Who is worthy of worship.
“Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen” (Revelation 1:7, ESV).
God says that the Assyrians have conceived chaff. We remember chaff – Jesus speaks about the wheat and the chaff – chaff is that light, papery skin that is beaten off of the seed that is worth nothing except to be burned in the fire.
God says that the Assyrians have become pregnant with chaff – with valueless, weightless, nutritionless junk. And they give birth to stubble. Stubble is more junk – the pieces of the wheat plant that are left after the stalks have been cut down – the roots and a bit of stalk above the ground.
As much pain and suffering that evil people bring upon the earth – and our own sins – its value is nothing. All the works that anyone does in wickedness are worthless – good for nothing but the fire. Again, the works of the wicked – the works of the unbeliever – the works done in sin – no matter how noble they may seem – amount to garbage.
Their breath – with which they aim to destroy others – like a fire-breathing dragon – backfires and sets them on fire – and they will be burned with such an intense heat for all of eternity, it will be as though they are reduced to lime.
They will be like the thorns that spring up – do we remember why thorns spring up? There were no thorns in the Garden of Eden.
God curses Adam:
“And to Adam he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, “You shall not eat of it,” cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:17-19, ESV).
When the King returns, the wicked will receive the justice they deserve.
Until that day, we are to serve our God and King in thanks for His grace towards us – His abundant grace towards us.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, there are so many things competing for our anxiety and fear, help us by the wisdom and knowledge that the Holy Spirit gives us to rebuke the devil and the feelings and doubts he would stir up in us. Help us to be a people who run to You in prayer that You would intercede and give us Your Grace. Help us to be thankful in the midst of all of our trials and look forward in hope to the return of the King, justice for the wicked, and the fruit of eternal grace fully ripened in us in the Kingdom. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
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