Bible Talks - Sunday Night Church
Who can you trust?
Sunday, 22 August 2004
Isaiah 36 ESV or NIV
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1. It is as simple and as hard as trusting in God.
There’s a true story about a great tight-rope artist from the early 1900’s called ‘The great Blondini’ and his best trick was to walk across the Niagara Falls on a tight rope.
He was very good at it, and drew large crowds when he performed. His best trick though, was after walking with the balance pole, he would ask the audience whether they believed he could walk across without a pole, but pushing a wheel barrow.
The crowd cheered him on! Then he would ask if they thought he could do it with a hundredweight sack of potatoes in the barrow?
They cheered him on, convinced he could do almost anything with this tightrope.
So he pushed a wheel barrow across the falls with a large sack of potatoes in it, and returned safely. The crowd went wild!
So he stood up and asked whether the people believed that he could wheel a man across the falls in the wheelbarrow?
The crowd yelled their approval: ‘Of course the Great Blondini could do it!’... So Blondini turned to the people and asked for volunteers... the crowd went suddenly very quiet...
It’s very easy for us to speak of trusting someone, but often much harder to actually do it...
Trust is a very fragile commodity for us, isn’t it?
Much has to happen in our relationships with other people before we begin to trust them – and it’s not much different when it comes to us and God.
It’s the thing that often beats us with it’s sheer simplicity, because the Christian faith is as simple and as hard as trusting in God. It’s not about achievements, ceremonies, or keeping all the rules.
It’s refreshingly simple. All you have to do is trust, rely, depend on God. This is how you become a Christian – and stay a Christian. Yet it is so much harder when it comes down to actually doing it. In reality, the Christian life is like an ultra marathon with all kinds of obstacles, distractions, detours… like the things we can read of in books like Pilgrim’s Progress. And it’s all too easy to find ourselves like the people in crowd watching Blondini – believing in his ability to safely transfer a person across the Falls in a wheelbarrow, but stopping short of placing ourselves in his hands...
2. Trust under pressure (36:1-5, 11-12)
But again, it’s easy to speak of trusting in God when things are going OK, but sometimes our capacity to trust God is stretched to the limit… For example, when we have to go through the loss of loved one; chronic illness; difficulties at work; doors closing as we seek to serve God (eg the Edney’s), or some other major crisis. When those thing happen, when life gets genuinely tough, trusting in God can become a real struggle.
In chapter 36 of Isaiah, in the last section of the first half of this remarkable book, the people of God and their king were facing a major crisis.
All of the prophecies about Judah from earlier in the book were beginning to be played out. The might of the Assyrians was bearing down on them from the north, the imminent destruction of Judah seemed apparent and the holy city itself, Jerusalem was under serious threat. It was a grave disaster. They were trapped inside their own walls, like submariners trapped at the bottom of the ocean. And just like us, when we find ourselves under serious pressure, there was enormous pressure on Hezekiah and the citizens of Judah NOT to trust God, and to look for the more pragmatic solutions to their problems.
3. Satan’s strategies
But you know, we need to keep a clear mind on some basic truths here. We know that Satan works hard to distract us and discourage us in our relationship with God. In fact, it’s a key weapon of Satan to pressure God’s people not to trust God (eg: Job). But, if we look closely at these chapters in Isaiah today and seek to understand the strategies of the evil one, we will be part way to dealing with them.
There are three strategies of Satan that Isaiah 36 identifies:
a) Doubts – Focus on the circumstances (36:5-10)
In 36:4-5 a Rabshakeh – the field commander sent to Hezekiah by the King of Assyria poses this question to Hezekiah: ‘Who or what are you trusting?’. He continues, pointing out their circumstances: (v6) Egypt is weak; (v7) how can God help when Hezekiah has destroyed the places of worship?; (v8-9) they are taunted and his closing argument (v10) is pretty convincing – at least on the surface.
But we need to dig a little deeper... the Rabshakeh’s claims are basically true, yet he is bending the truth. He is focusing on the circumstances and in doing that, is directing attention away from God.
He’s saying ‘Things look really bad, therefore God cannot be trusted.’ This is exactly how Satan works! And it’s the same with us... We may not be facing a huge army of foreign invaders, but Satan still uses the same tricks, by focussing on our circumstances. So if we are sick, that’s the focus. If we feel we are not as well off as we would like, Satan constantly taunts us with that, focussing our attention and energies into how we can scrape together more money. If we are struggling in our relationships at home, Satan fills our minds with ‘the problem’. And so it goes on, in so many areas of life.
This is not to suggest that these things don’t have their place to be concerned about. But we need to stop and think about all that God has done for us, both in the biggest sense – the great blessings of living in a country like ours, enjoying all the benefits that come from relatively comfortable lifestyles, down to the real nitty-gritty of what he has done for us in buying us back through the death of his son.
Do we really think that God can only be trusted if he does what we want? That’s Satan’s trick, and he’s remarkably successful in many of our lives...
b) Challenges – Question his promises and power (36:13-15,18-20)
And then there’s the out and out challenge to God!
Look at 36:13-15 and note the sheer arrogance. “Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying, “The Lord will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”
A straight out challenging of God’s promises, and one of the oldest tricks in Satan’s books. Think back to Genesis 3 and his challenge to God’s promise to Adam and Eve…
And it’s the same today, often not quite so explicit, but I’m certain you can think back to times when people or circumstances have challenged you to question God’s promises to care for you and look after all your really important needs.
Read a bit further, to v18-20 and we see the challenge to God taken a step further. Here the Rabshakeh is coming right out in the open and saying to the people of Judah – ‘don’t believe Hezekiah when he promises that the Lord will protect you. The gods of all the other lands we’ve conquered have been powerless against us, why should your puny god be any different?’
A direct challenges to God’s power or ability to help.
Again, what he says is true to a point – the gods of the other nations have been powerless against the might of Assyria – but that’s because they are false gods! Made up, fictitious idols of wood and metal! And so the conclusion that the God of Judah is likewise powerless is wrong.
Satan’s strategy is to question God’s power, to whisper half truths in our ears to get us to question God’s abilities.
And so we are sucked into seeking to do things ourselves, to give up on God and rely on our own strength and abilities, which leads us into seriously bad behaviour, such us not praying, - saying ‘what’s the point?’ – In other words, we show by our actions and inactions, our lack of trust in God, and Satan wins yet another battle for us.
c) Alternatives – Seduce with counterfeits (36:16-17)
And then we have the ‘grass is greener’ strategy (v16-17).
The Rabshakeh continues, and notice what he says now.
He’s offering a ‘secure future’. He saying, ‘take your pick people! You can stay where you are, holed up in your city under siege, with food and water running out, with your young men being killed in battle… or you can surrender, and I’ll give you your own block of land, food, produce, security, enjoyment.’
It sounds fantastic doesn’t it? It sounds too good to be true – and it is!
They ought to be suspicious for the promise that the Rabshakeh is offering them involves the Judeans leaving their land – the land that God gave to them, the promised land.
They also should be suspicious, because the promises of Assyria are mimicking the promises of God.
Now this is an area we need to be VERY careful in. Because what is offered as alternatives to God’s way is often so attractive that it is a real temptation.
We can surely identify with the Judeans hearing this taunt from Assyria... this is the ‘lifestyle lure’. And we live in the lifestyle capital of Australia, if not the world: home and garden, holiday and retirement, health and fitness, food and wine, etc.
These are constantly dangled before us as substitutes for trusting in God, and the question we have to be wary of is: Why trust God for salvation when the ‘here and now’ alternatives sound so attractive?
So, that’s the three strategies that God’s enemies use to try and bait Hezekiah and God’s people into giving up on the one, true God, into dumping their trust of him, in favour of the more expedient alternatives.
4. The godly response – trust
So what should Hezekiah and people do? What should be the godly response to this set of circumstances?
Well, Isaiah presents a clear contrast between Ahaz who we met in chapter 7, and who totally failed to trust God and Hezekiah here in chapter 36ff, who is a model to Judah, and us, of trusting God (36:1ff). The whole way this narrative is told in these passages is designed to highlight this contrast.
As we look at this, it’s important to remember that these are real people and real events and circumstances. This is not a theoretical exercise that is removed from real life...
a) Coming before God in humility (37:1)
One of the tough ways that God shows his graciousness is when He brings his people to the end of their resources so they WILL trust in him. Have a look at 37:1 “As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord.”
When faced with this apparently hopeless situation, Hezekiah is humble and contrite and he turns to God.
This is so simple, yet so hard. It’s hard because it strikes at the very core of our rebellious hearts – the part of us that says “I can do it! I don’t need God!”
It involves dropping our pride, and saying ‘I need help, I can’t do it on my own’. But this must be the first step. Indeed, isn’t it the step we had to take when we first came into relationship with God? I can remember as clear as day the point when the penny dropped, and I understood how I could never deal with my rebellion against God myself, and how I needed to humble myself, and throw myself on His mercy shown to me in the Lord Jesus, asking his forgiveness.
If you have never done that, it’s about time you did! And if you can recall coming to that point in your life, then ditch the pride that had built up since, and rediscover that absolute dependence on God again.
b) Turning to his Word (37:2)
The second thing that Hezekiah did is in 37:2. He sends a messenger to the prophet, Isaiah. Why? Look at 37:5-6 “When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me.”
He wants to hear the word of God!
When we are tempted not to trust God, our first response should be to turn to his word, the Bible. It is the primary way that He speaks to us, it holds encouragement, strength, hope, compassion and understanding.
Passages such this we are looking at today show us that God knows exactly what we are going through, and his word can speak powerfully to us in our times of doubt and rebellion.
Don’t let the evil one distract you away from the Bible! The times you feel like not spending time in the word are exactly the times you should be! Don’t let God’s enemies win! Do what Hezekiah did and seek God in his word...
c) Prayer (37:14-20)
Thirdly, Hezekiah prays (15-20). Perhaps above all else, prayer is a powerful expression of trusting God. Of course, it can depend on what you pray for and about, so let’s take a quick look at Hezekiah’s prayer 37:15-20.
Note that it rightfully begins and ends with God. And that despite the desperate situation that Hezekiah and the nation are in, look at the over-riding concern of his prayer. It isn’t a prayer for personal rescue, it isn’t even a prayer for the rescue of the nation!. V17-18 make it clear that is a prayer that God will be glorified!
This is a prayer for God’s kingdom and honour to rule! It’s not unlike the Lord’s Prayer in it’s content.
He brings his needs and the needs of his people to God, and asks God to answer them, but for God’s own glory and not their comfort or personal safety.
This is true humility and trust.
Prayer is aimed to turn us ‘inside-out’ – to focus on God, which is the meaning of trust in God.
Many of you know that this is something of a hobby-horse of mine, but I’ll just say one thing about it. As a church, we sadly lack whatever qualities we need that compels to pray in this way. It isn’t enough for us to say privately ‘Oh yes, I trust in God, I’m happy to submit to him in humility and trust.” And yet find a hundred other things to spend our time on other than coming together to pray as Hezekiah teaches us to pray.
We are hugely blessed that we do not find ourselves in as desperate situation as Hezekiah did, yet we can’t find a hour every week or two to draw together as God’s people and humble ourselves before him in thankfulness and trust.
5. God can be trusted.
So lets draw the threads of these chapters together, and what they tell about trusting God then – 700 years before Jesus was born, and now 2000 years after Christ...
a) Then (37:33-37)
This part of God’s word clearly and powerfully affirms that God can be trusted. God hears the prayer, makes a promise and keeps it. Read ahead to v33-37 to see his miraculous intervention.
But, there are two things to say.
(i) It is not that God did just what Hezekiah wanted, but that he did what he had promised – he kept his word. Trust without a promise is not trust.
The trust that we can have in God is based upon his promises – just as Hezekiah�s was.
(ii) It is not just good things that show God can be trusted. (39:5-7) The exile to Babylon that was to come also shows that God keeps his promises. We may not always like it, but God is a faithful, trustworthy God. Hezekiah knew that, and acted accordingly.
b) Now
Of course God�s trustworthiness is shown well beyond the exile and the return from the exile.
All along God has been promising a faithful remnant to come from the house of Judah (37:31-32).
The New Testament reveals Jesus as that remnant.
When we see Jesus, we see emphatically that God can be trusted – so learn from Hezekiah. Learn to shed your pride and independence and humble yourself before God.
Learn to turn to God�s word and allow Him to remind you of how trustworthy He is and let him minister to you through it.
And learn to show how much you do trust God by turning to him in prayer. Not just your private, personal time in prayer, but encouraging others by joining together for times of prayer, expressing willingly your desire to trust God and seek his righteousness and his will to be done in your life, in the life of our church and in our community, city and nation...
Lets pray now...
