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Preached in Markham Baptist Church, December 2,  2007

They all think I’m crazy you know.  Not many understand me or believe me.  “Isaiah,” they say, “We’re old enough to know what we’re doing.  We don’t need you teaching us like little children, precept upon precept, line upon line.  We weren’t born yesterday you know!” (Isaiah 28:9)

They all think I’m crazy.  But I’m just trying to give them real hope – trying to help them see that which is plain and real.  “No,” they say, “What’s plain to us is the power of our enemy Assyria – what’s plain to us is that we need to make alliances with other nations (Isaiah 30).  That’s the only way we’ll be safe.”

I used to think that way.  When King Uzziah died – a good king, the only king I had known – I thought, “O no, what will become of us, what will become of our nation of Judah?  Who will lead us, the throne is empty. Sure, he has a son Jotham, and he has a son Ahaz, but they aren’t real kings. Sure, they’re in the line of David, but they sure aren’t in his likeness!  Essentially, I thought, we have no king.”  

But then I had a vision – I saw the “Lord seated on a throne high and exalted and the train of his robe filled the temple.” (Isaiah 6:1). 

I saw the Lord seated on a throne and I knew then and there that there is a throne that is never empty.  There is a king who never ceases to rule.  There is a kingdom which goes on and on to eternity. 

I saw the Lord seated on a throne – and I knew that our land was not without a king.  The people of God were not without a ruler.  The Lord was still on His throne. 

And I can tell you something happens to a person who witnesses the majesty of God.  Everything else fades into the background and everything that seems to be real and lasting is seen as transient and false, unreal. 

I mean right now, the people are correct, our enemies the Assyrians are on our doorstep.  They’re just in the north.  But that’s all people can see.  “Let’s make an alliance with Egypt,” they say.  “That’s our only hope. Secretly making alliances with this nation and that nation.”

If only they could see what I have seen – the Lord seated on His throne high and exalted.  They would see that our basis of hope is not in these alliances but in the Lord - in His promises and His provision. 

Do you have your scrolls with you?  “Never come to worship without your scrolls,” Mama used to say.  Have you got your scrolls with you and open?  Open them to Isaiah 8:13.  Look what the Lord said to me.  “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, and he will be a sanctuary.”  (Isaiah 8:13-14a)  God is the one we are trust.  We are to revere Him, we are to hold Him in awe. 

So I have brought the word of the Lord to my people trying to get them to see.  It’s not always pleasant.  I have told my people that Assyria will come. They will destroy the nation.

But … but there is also this.  Just unwind your scrolls a bit more to chapter 9:1 - “Nevertheless there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress.  In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honour Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan.”

The very land that Assyria will destroy will be the first to experience God’s healing.  It will be the first to experience the presence of God.  It will be like they were asleep for a long time with their eyes shut and they wake up to the dazzling brilliance of the sun. 

And then I said (look at your scrolls), “You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy.” 

And people said to me, “Who has?”

“God has.”

And the people looked around and said, “He has? When did God do this Isaiah? Don’t you mean God will enlarge the nation and increase our joy?”

No.  You see, this is what I mean about hope and whole new sense of what is real.  I have seen the Lord seated on a throne high and exalted.  And when our sovereign Lord says He will do something it’s as good as done.

I can see it.  It will be a time of rejoicing as people rejoice when the harvest is brought in there is singing and dancing – all fear is banished. It’s a time of thanksgiving, a day of celebration. 

And people say to me, “What will be the cause of this rejoicing?”

And I asked them, “Do you remember the Midianites?” 

“Yes,” they said, “We remember our parents telling us stories of the Midianites – stories handed down through the centuries.  The Midianites were cruel enemies.  They came upon our land like swarms of locusts.  It was impossible to count the men and their camels (Judges 6:5) and they invaded the land and ravaged it.”

Now, does anyone here remember how God defeated the Midianites?  What man, what judge did God use? That’s right Gideon and 300 men.  And Midian was defeated.  The yoke of fear, of oppression was broken and so it will be again.

And it will be a time of peace, just as it was then – every warrior’s boot used in battle, every garment rolled in blood will be used as fuel for the fire - they won’t be needed anymore.

And people say, “How will this happen? What great nation will rescue us?  What great warriors will come to our aid?”

And I said, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given.”

Well now they really think I’m crazy – “You mean all this will come because a baby is born?”

Well, not just any baby – “The government will be on His shoulders and He will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

And they laugh. But I tell you – something happens to a person who sees the Lord seated on His throne high and exalted.  You get a sense of what is real and what is possible – you gain a whole new grounding for hope.

Think of it.  There are those in our nation who put their hope in armies.  There are others who put their hope in economies.  There are others who put their hope in idols made of wood and overlaid with gold.  But what are armies and economies and idols compared to the everlasting, all knowing all powerful God – nothing. 

You see, hope is not wishful thinking.  True hope is based on realities. So my hope, the hope of God’s people, needs to rest on the reality of God’s power, His grace, His trustworthiness to do what He says He’ll do.  That’s true hope.

What do your scrolls say? “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Those who hope in the Lord will not be disappointed. 

And so there will come a child – a divine child – for His name will be, “Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  And He will bring light to those living in the shadow of death.

I know it sounds crazy.  God should come differently, we think – not in a child.  But that’s the way I’ve discovered God to be.  We hope for a mighty warrior and He comes as a child.   We hope for a lion and He comes as a lamb who is led to the slaughter.  We look for a royal king and He comes as one with no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him.  We expect to serve Him and He comes to serve us by taking our transgressions and by His wounds we are healed. (See Isaiah 53)  

Doesn’t that sound crazy?  But that’s the way God works.  That’s the way hope is – it’s a crazy dependence upon God that what He says He will do He will do. Some would say it’s irrational – that’s debatable I suppose.

It’s the way God works.  He’s always doing the unexpected.  But it’s not because God doesn’t make things plain.  I mean, He tells Abraham He will have a child – He doesn’t expect it to happen and what happens next?  Abraham is looking out his bifocals at his wife Sarah who is knitting a pair of booties for their new son Isaac. 

God tells Joseph in a dream that his brothers will bow down to him.  They don’t believe it, they don’t expect it and the next thing they know they are knee-deep in the Egyptian sand bowing to their brother Joseph. 

The people of God are told that they are going to inherit a land but they are enslaved in Egypt.  They don’t expect it to happen, but then Moses is sent by God and the next thing they know they are walking out of Egypt, picking up shells along the bottom of the Dead Sea and eventually staring at the border of the promised land.   

God is always doing the unexpected. But it’s not because He doesn’t make it plain to us. It’s just that we refuse to believe that what He says He’ll do – He’ll do. 

True, we may not see the promises fulfilled in our life time. And I wonder if some of His promises we will not see fulfilled till we pass over to the other side and are with God forever.  But it remains – what God says He’ll do He does. 

And to us He says, “I will come to you as a little baby – a divine child.  And of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.  He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.”  He will be in the line of David.  He will fulfill his promises to David’s line and there will be a king – but he will be a king like no other.” 

And people say – how will all this happen?  And I reply, “The zeal of the Lord almighty will accomplish this.”

All of this will happen - the child will only be born because of God’s passionate love for His people.  God will not rest until all this is accomplished.  God will not settle down to sleep and forget His promises.  God will persist until this is fulfilled.  

How do I know?  Because God is on His throne high and exalted.  I have seen His majesty and I know that what He says He will do. 

People say I’m crazy.  People say I’m absurd to have such a hope. But let me tell you something that is really crazy, let me tell you something that is completely absurd. It is the stubborn unwillingness to believe that what God promises God does.

This is our hope. 

Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - December 2007