No Fixity Without Faith

No Fixity Without Faith

(No. 2305)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 23, 1893.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL
11, 1889.

"If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established." Isaiah
7:9.

As I told you in the reading, Isaiah had a very heavy commission from
God. He was to go and speak to people who would not hear him and to be
to them a messenger rather of death, than of life. Though the message,
itself, would be full of life, yet they would refuse it, and so bring
upon themselves a tenfold death. As a sort of experiment in his work,
he was called upon, first, to go and speak to king Ahaz, that wicked
king. He knew in his own soul that what he had to say would be
rejected, but, nevertheless, at the command of God, he went to speak to
the king. He was told where he would meet him. God knows where to send
His faithful servants. He has arranged every circumstance about the
true preacher– what he shall say and where he shall say it–and every
congregation is a picked congregation for God's sent servants. He knows
who comes and who is away. He knows how to adapt the message with great
specialty to the individual case of each person who is within sound of
the preacher's voice and He knows how to adapt even the voice, itself,
to the ears of every hearer. We know all this, for we have had abundant
evidence of it again and again.

The tidings which Isaiah took to Ahaz were very pleasant ones. He was
not to be afraid of the king of Israel and the king of Syria. These men
were determined to destroy him and his people, but they were only like
smoking firebrands, almost extinct. Their power would soon come to an
end and, therefore, the Prophet told the king not to be distressed, but
to be quiet and to wait patiently till he saw what God would do. Then
he challenged the faith of Ahaz and warned him that if he did not
believe, neither would he be established! Isaiah anticipated what was
all too true, that Ahaz would not trust, that he would prefer to look
to outward means, send for the king of Assyria and lean upon an arm of
flesh rather than put his trust in God. He might have waited, surely,
and not have indulged his fears until there was reason for them, but
no, he must be all in a fright and a fume notwithstanding that God had
said to him, by His servant, Fear not, neither be faint-hearted."

Well now, these words of Isaiah to Ahaz furnish us with a warning and
an encouragement. God seems to speak out of this blessed Book to you
and to me, tonight! Certainly, He speaks to me–I hope to you,
also–"If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established."

I. Our first head shall be, GOD DESERVES TO BE BELIEVED. We cannot say
this of everybody. Many men deserve to be believed–their character is
such that we are bound to trust them. Some men, on the other hand,
ought not to be believed–their character is such that we would be
foolish to confide in them. But I say, tonight, of Him who created the
heavens and the earth, the God of this Word of God, the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He claims to be believed and He deserves
to be believed!

For, first, He is God and, being God, He cannot lie. The conception of
a lying God may be possible to a heathen, but I trust that to you it is
quite out of the question. The very idea of "God" to us means perfect
truthfulness, indisputable veracity–God who, from the very necessity
of His Nature, cannot lie. He can do anything that is right, but He
cannot do a wrong thing. He cannot say an untruthful thing. He cannot,
either in word, or deed, or thought, be guilty of falsehood. He is God
and He cannot lie. To impute a lie to God is blasphemy! I will use no
softer word. You have brought dishonor upon the sacred name when you
have, in any way, connected the name of Jehovah with a lie. "Has He
said, and shall He not do it?" Oh, Beloved, do not treat the Lord as if
He were a liar! Remember that when you doubt His promise–since you
know He can fulfill it if He wills, for He is Omnipotent–when you
doubt His promise, you are casting a

suspicion upon the veracity of the Eternal God! Do you mean to do that?
Have you never read that word of the beloved and loving disciple, "He
that believes not God has made Him a liar; because He believes not the
record that God gave of His Son"? Did you really mean to make God a
liar? Were you guilty of such infamy as that? Well, I will say no more
upon that point but He deserves to be believed because He is God. It is
essential to every true idea of God to believe that God must be true.

He deserves to be believed because His Word has always been true. Any
person who is a student of prophecy knows how literally, even in small
things, the prophecies of God have been fulfilled. There was a little
book which was published, some time ago, by Mr. Urquhart, of
Weston-super-Mare, upon fulfilled prophecy. I gave a copy to a Brother,
the other day, and on writing to me, he said that he had found it much
more interesting than any story or novel he had ever read in his life,
and vastly more astounding than any romance, for every jot and tittle,
to the dots of the i's, and the crosses of the t's, in the prophecies
of God's servants, had been recorded in history! In the ruins of Tyre,
Sidon and Babylon, and the like, we have, in every stone, a witness of
the faithfulness of God to His Word!

Nor is it merely in history that the Lord has been proved to be true.
You and I–I hope I may say that, but I do speak for many here–have
proved the faithfulness of God. He has thrown us into different trials.
We have had opportunities for testing the promises which we could not
have tested if we had not been tried. Just as you are unable to see the
stars by day, but if you go down a well, you can see them, directly, at
any time of day or night, so, dear Friends, God puts us down these deep
wells of trial, and then we see His starry promises shining brightly! I
would rather take the promise of God than the promise of the Bank of
England! The Bank of England might fail–a terrible disaster,
certainly, and highly improbable–but the Word of God cannot fail, for
the Lord has greater resources than the whole nation has, or all the
nations of the earth put together!

The inhabitants of the earth are as grasshoppers in God's sight! He
takes up such isles as we dwell in as very little things. Oh, Friends,
the Lord may well have all our confidence, for when we confide in Him
to our utmost, we have leaned with very little pressure upon the
veracity of God! The bull that bore the gnat upon his forehead smiled
when the gnat hoped that his weight was not too much for him–and for
God to bear us up is as nothing to Him! We may come to Him with what we
call our great needs and He will smilingly say, "A crumb from My table
will suffice for a million such as you." The things that are but
trifles with the Most High would be enough for all the inhabitants of
the world, if they would come to Him–therefore let us trust Him, as I
sometimes say, "Up to the hilt." Let us go in for glorious trusting of
our God! When a man swims, it is a good thing to have deep water. You
do not need, then, to calculate whether it is a mile deep or twenty
miles–if you are swimming, why, you are swimming! When you come to
trust in the Infinite God, let Him be infinite in your thoughts as far
as the finite can accept infinity. Trust Him without limit or bound,
without suspicion or mistrust!

For, further, as He must be true, being God, and as He has been true,
being God, so He has no motive for being untrue. Why does God ever
speak to us at all? Why does the Infinite ever stoop out of His
boundless Glory to make Himself known to creatures that, before Him,
are much more insignificant than an ant on the anthill can be to a man?
You have never strained yourselves, I am sure, to reveal yourselves to
a worm–and yet God has put forth all His sacred ingenuity to manifest
Himself to man who, compared with his Maker, is but the insect of a
minute! Why, do you think, He should speak to us–to deceive us? It
seems to me to be the height of absurdity to suppose that if Jehovah
breaks the eternal silences, it is to mislead a poor, miserable
creature like man. Oh, no! The love that makes Him speak cannot be
questioned and the Truth which He speaks must not be doubted!

If God reveals Himself to men at all, men may, like little children
with a father, feel themselves quite sure that they may most safely
trust every word of the Revelation. Men talk of all the "mistakes of
Scripture." I thank God that I have never met with any! Mistakes of
translation there may be, for translators are men, but mistakes of the
original Word there never can be, for the God who spoke it is
Infallible and so is every Word He speaks! And in that confidence we
find delightful rest. There can be no motive for God to give us a Book
that is partly true and partly false, about which we are to be the
judges, accepting this portion and discarding the other. That would
make us worse off and fill us with yet more self-conceit than we would
have had if we had been left without the Book at all! This can never be
the case–therefore let us believe that, in God's motive for speaking
to us, which must be condescending love, there is a guarantee that He
speaks the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth.

I feel almost ashamed to be talking like this about Him who is so
surely true, and whom you and I have tried and proved these many years.
It seems so idle to have to prove what nobody ought to doubt. For, once
more, remember that the honor of God is involved in His veracity. If
you say that God is not Almighty, we may pray God to forgive your
mistake. But if you say that He is not truthful, there is a
spitefulness, a malice about your assertion which is a grievous wrong
to His holy Character. God untrue? Oh, Sir, I beseech you, do not think
so for a moment, for this is a high crime and misdemeanor against the
Majesty of the Eternal Throne! God will sooner cease to be than break
His promise or forget His pledged Word. He is very jealous for His own
Glory. He calls Himself, in the Ten Commandments, a jealous God, and so
He is. He will never permit the Glory of His infinite Majesty to be
tainted by the suspicion of a falsehood. Therefore, let not any child
of His ever doubt Him and, as I fear we have done so, let us tremble
before Him and repent that we should ever have had the audacity, even,
to tolerate within a mile of our thoughts, anything like a suspicion of
our God. His honor is compromised if He breaks His Covenant, but this
He cannot do, as Paul writes to the Hebrews, "Wherein God, willing more
abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His
counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in
which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong
consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set
before us." The blood of the only-begotten Son of God has sealed the
Covenant–and sooner shall Heaven and earth pass away than any part of
that Covenant shall fall to the ground!

Only this one thing I add. Suppose, even for a moment–a supposition we
will not even make–that we could not trust in the truthfulness of God?
What would be left for us to trust to? When rocks move, what stands
firm? If God, Himself, can change, or be not true–come, Night, and
swallow me up in your blackness! Come Chaos, and devour me! Oh, for
annihilation, that we might cease to be if God has ceased to be true!
Then would the harbors be turned to whirlpools! Then would the rocks be
turned into clouds! Would there be anything left? Would not everything
disappear, like the foam of the sea, if God could be proven to not be
true? Thank God, we do not live in such a chaos as that! We know that
He is true and, with Paul, we cry, "Let God be true, but every man a
liar." Let everything else be swept away like chaff before the wind,
but the eternal God and His Word will stand unmoved forever and ever!

That is my first point–God deserves to be believed.

II. But, secondly, SOME ARE NOT WILLING TO BELIEVE GOD. That is clear
by the fear expressed in the text–

"If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established."

"If you will not believe." Believing is a matter of the will. A man
does not believe without being willing to believe. God's Grace works
faith, not upon us, but in us. God works in us to will and to do and,
in the willing, He leads us up to believing. We voluntarily believe
and, certainly, men voluntarily disbelieve–and some of them, with
strong perversity of will, would not believe even though one rose from
the dead! Why is this, this strange unwillingness of some men, no, in a
sense, of all men, to believe in God?

They are willing to believe other things. We have numbers of persons
about who are like fish with their mouths open, ready for any bait. It
does not matter how absurd may be the dream of a man, if he will
persistently enough stand up in the street and publish his dream, or
will print it, he will be certain to find a number of fools who will
believe what he says! In this country, although we think ourselves so
very wise, Carlyle was not far off when he spoke of our population as
consisting of so many millions, "mostly fools." At any rate, there is a
considerable sprinkling of them about. See how readily men believe what
they read in the newspaper, though, probably, there is not a fragment
of truth in it! That is all the better for the paper because the lie
can be contradicted tomorrow, and that will make another column or two,
and so fill up at a time when there is a dearth of news! But there is
great credulity among men in general. Do you think that anybody could
sell patent medicines if everybody were wise? No, but everybody is not
wise. We are willing to believe what a man tells us if he will only
tell it to us bravely enough, with a sufficient quantity of brass. But
when it comes to believing God's Word, many manifest a strange
incapacity to believe! The box is shut and you cannot find the key! But
bring a lie of man, and the box opens of its own accord! There is a
sort of, "Open sesame," then. Alas, often the falsehood of men is
received and the Truth of God is rejected!

Another thing is significant, that men cling tenaciously to faith in
themselves. They do believe, they will believe, that they can work
their way to Heaven. You talk to them about their sin. Well, they
cannot deny it, but they so extenuate it as to make it appear to be
rather their misfortune than their fault. It is, with them, a calamity
to be sinners, rather than a grave offense. So they make it out to be
and, in the future, those poor creatures are going to manage
themselves! The

wine cup, it is true, has tempted them, and they have fallen many
times–but now they know better–they will never be affected by drink,
again! The lust of the flesh which has led them captive to many a
Delilah–oh, yes, they have "sown their wild oats"–but they will never
go into that form of evil, again–and so on, and so on! The creature
that has done nothing right, but everything that is wrong, still
believes in himself. He goes to church and calls himself a "miserable
sinner," and yet continues to be a happy believer in his capacity to
rule himself. "We have done the things we ought not to have done, and
have left undone the things we ought to have done; and there is no
health in us." Yes, we said that on our knees, but when we get on our
legs, again, we are going to do the things we ought to do, and to leave
undone the things which should be left undone–and we feel as
healthy–from the crown of our head to the sole of our feet, as if we
never had a disease about us in our lives! Now, that is a strange
thing, that man can believe in himself and yet cannot believe in God!
This is the madness of our nature–that man thinks that he can do
everything when he can do nothing!

Then, observe how, instead of believing in the Lord Jesus Christ unto
eternal life, some prefer an emotional religion. I am astounded at some
people, how readily they are excited, how easily they are "saved"–at
least they say they are saved. Do they believe the promises and hang
upon the Word of God? No, but they "feel" so much. These same feelings
that seem to lift you up to Heaven will thrust you down to the depths
of Hades! Yet these people prefer mere natural emotions, an inward
feeling, to this which is the infinitely sounder way–to believe in God
and in Jesus Christ whom He has sent.

Next, some stubbornly suffer under unbelief. They have been pining for
rest for years and they have not attained it, yet. Still, they will not
believe in Christ. Oh, what would they not give if they could but have
a night's calm rest and could by day go to business without distress of
mind! Yet they will not give themselves up to Christ to be saved,
simply trusting Him to save them. They have brought themselves near to
the door of suicide and wished they had never been born–yet they will
not take the healing medicine that lies close by their hands! They will
do anything, sooner than trust

in God!

I notice, too, that such people demand this and that of God, beyond
what He has revealed. God has spoken, but that is not enough for them.
God must do something else for them–they must dream some peculiar
dream, they must see some strange vision–they must fancy that they
hear a voice in the air. Pshaw! Put the whole of that nonsense away!
Believe what God has said and you are on sure ground. Come to this
"more sure word of prophecy; whereunto you do well that you take heed,
as unto a light that shines in a dark place." Believe this and your
peace shall be like a river and your righteousness as the waves of the
sea! But no–they will not. God must do this or that to oblige them, or
else they will not believe Him. You make Him a liar if He will not
pamper your whims–but He will do nothing of the sort!

I might, with profit, dwell on that point, but time flies too rapidly
for me to say more upon it.

III. Notice, in the third place, that FAITH IS NOT A THING TO BE
DESPISED.

Have you never heard people say, "Oh, they preach up faith, you know"?
"Well, what is faith?" "Well, it is just believing so-and-so." Listen,
Sirs, and then speak like that no more! Faith is a most wonderful
thing, for it is a fair index of the heart. If you will not believe in
God, I see that in your heart you hate God. But if you will believe
Him, you love Him. We trust a man whom we love. I think that there is
little trust in men towards whom we have no esteem and affection. If
you believe God, your heart is right with Him. If you will not believe
Him, do what you may, you are out of order with your God, I am sure of
that. We know that a child who does not believe his father's word is
not a loving and obedient

child.

Faith in God is, next, a sure proof of a change of mind, for, by
nature, we do not think of God, much less do we trust Him–we trust
what we can see, hear, taste and feel. When we trust God, it shows that
we have undergone a great change of mind, an amazing change, of which
there can be no surer evidence than that we see Him who is invisible
and we live under the influence of His Presence, and we really seek to
please Him whom mortal eyes have never seen.

Does anyone think that faith is a little thing? Why, it inaugurates
purity of life. The moment that a man believes in Christ Jesus, and
trusts Him, he ceases from the sin he formerly loved. Sin becomes to
him a burden and a plague. If you believe, your belief will kill your
sinning, or else your sinning will kill your believing! The greatest
argument against the Bible is an unholy life–and when a man will give
that up–he will convict himself. The Book will convict him when he has
put out of the way that darling sin that now stands between him and
God. A belief in God, as He reveals Himself in Christ, is the
inauguration of a life of self-sacrifice and holiness.

Do any still talk of faith as being a little thing? Why, it is faith
that leads to prayer, and prayer is the very breath of God in man,
returning from where it came! If you believe, you will pray. How can
you pray if you do not believe? Do you knock at a door of which you are
persuaded that there is nobody there to hear you? You are not such a
fool, I trust, but when you believe that there is a God, and that God
is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, you will begin to
seek Him–and you will never leave off seeking Him as long as you are
in the land of the living!

Faith little? Why, it is faith that glorifies God. All the works that
we can ever do, be they what they may, can never bring such Glory to
God as a single act of trust! I venture to say that the highest
adoration is not that of cherubim and seraphim before the blazing
Throne of God, but that of a poor sinner, conscious of guilt, who,
nevertheless, believes in God as He reveals Himself in Christ, putting
away sin by the great Sacrifice. If you can, tonight, believe, even if
you are the biggest sinner out of Hell–it you can believe, I say–that
God can pardon you, you have done Him honor! And if you, poor, troubled
Christian, in the very vortex of your grief, can still believe that God
is faithful and that He will bear you through, you have glorified His
blessed name more than angels can! This is practical music that
consists not in sound, but in the inner sense of the heart. It is true
melody to God. Faith is not the trifle that some think it to be. This
holy trust in God is the heart and soul of all true experimental
godliness!

IV. So I have come to my last point, grieving that I have had to slur
so much where I should have liked to speak at length–THOSE WHO REFUSE
TO EXERCISE FAITH WILL MISS MANY GREAT PRIVILEGES. I might mention
many, but the text gives us the one which I will dwell upon–"If you
will not believe, surely you shall not be established."

It means, first, that those who believe not will miss establishment in
comfort. If you believe not in God, your heart shall be moved like the
trees of the woods by the wind. You shall be tossed to and fro like the
waves that dash on the rocks. You shall be driven along like a rolling
thing that is twisted about by the whirlwind. But if you will believe
in God and in His dear Son who reveals Him, then you shall come to an
anchorage and there you shall outride every storm! Fear shall depart
and your soul shall be at rest. Oh, you do not know the profound calm
that spreads over the spirit when it has done with itself and just
commits itself to God! You never can know this if you will not believe.

In the next place, if you will not believe, you shall never enjoy
establishment in judgement. There are many persons who do not know what
to believe–they heard one man, the other day, and they thought that he
spoke very cleverly, and they agreed with him. They heard another, the
next day, who was rather more clever, and he went the other way, so
they went with him! Poor Souls, driven to and fro, never knowing what
is what! "If you will not believe, surely you shall not be
established." You shall be like the moon that is never, two days,
alike. You shall seem to believe this and to believe that, and yet,
really believe nothing! But if you will come and trust your God–wholly
believe every Word that He has spoken and, especially, believe the
Incarnate Word, the ever-blessed Son of God who gave Himself for the
guilty–then you shall begin to know something! You shall put things in
their right places and, knowing the Truth of God, you shall know more
of it and you shall get the assurance of faith from which you shall
never be shaken, as the Holy Spirit shall bear witness to the Truth
within your soul.

Next, we need an establishment in conduct. Look at certain men who once
professed to be converted. They were down at a revival meeting the
other day and they went to the penitent form. But then, a day or two
after, they went to quite another form. They made a confession of faith
and joined the Church. Ah, me, the Church will be well rid of them if
their conduct is such as it has been, lately! But why is it that their
conduct is not always as it should be? How is it that many men are this
and that and 20 things? How is it that there is inconsistent behavior?
My text supplies the answer, "If you will not believe, surely you shall
not be established." But a genuine faith in God, a solid faith in the
blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, a true realization of the
sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit will keep you from stumbling and
you shall be preserved faultless until the coming of your Lord!

So it is, also, with establishment in hope. We know some who are, at
times, all bright of eyes and cheerful with hope, and they look into
the Eternal World with great delight. They half wish that they could
die at once and be where Jesus is! But after a very short time their
castle in the air melts away–they have no joy, no hope, no peace. No,
"If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established." If you
hope without believing, your hope is an anchor that has not gripped
anything. If you expect without a proper ground of expectation, or if
the ground is not what God has said, then you may expect what you like,
but as your expectation is not from Him, it will certainly be
disappointed. Oh, that you would

make the Word of God the top and bottom of everything in your life! Oh,
that you would take it as the Alpha and Omega of your knowledge of
things Divine! Then would you be established, for there would be
something to ground your hope upon, which even Satan could not destroy!

And, lastly, we need to be established in spiritual vigor and strength.
You do not need to be always babes in Christ– you need to be fathers.
You desire to be useful–you need to be bringing others to Christ.
Perhaps you look at some with envy. You say, "Such-and-such a person is
quite a mother in Israel. Such-and-such a man is a standard-bearer for
Christ. But I am a poor, puny thing, of no use to the Lord." If you
would grow, you must believe your God! He that gets close to God and
leans wholly upon God, shall have Divine strength imparted to him. We
have never believed God, any one of us, as we ought to have believed
Him. Some of us have believed Him, as we thought, without reserve at
times. Have we not gone to Him? We will not tell the story now–but
have we not gone to Him in abject need and cast ourselves upon Him–and
found all supplies even exceeding abundantly above what we asked for or
even thought? Then have we found that our God has been to us like the
illimitable waters of the great sea, and we have cried to others,
"Bring your great vessels and fill them from this ocean."

I am told that in the olden times, on Christmas Day, it was the custom
in country villages for the squire always to fill with good things
whatever vessels the poor people brought up to the hall, that they
might have a Christmas dinner. It was strange how big the basins grew
year after year! Whenever the man came round with the crockery cart,
every good housewife would look all over his stock to see if there was
not a still larger basin. It was a rule that the squire's servants
should always fill the bowl, whatever size it was, and thus the bowls
grew bigger and bigger! Oh, my dear Friends, God will fill your bowl
however large it is! Get as big a bowl as you can–and when you bring
it, if ever there comes a whisper in your ear, "Now you have presumed
upon God's benevolence, you have brought too big a bowl"–smile at
yourself and say, "This is as nothing to His overflowing fullness."

If I said, "O poor Sea, poor Sea, now you will be drained dry, for they
bring such big bowls to be filled with your waters!" The sea, tossing
its mighty billows far and wide, would laugh at my folly! Come, then,
and bring your largest conceptions of God and multiply them ten
thousand-fold and believe in Him as this Book would make you believe in
Him! Open your mouth wide and He will fill it. He bids you, even, to
command Him. He says, "Ask Me of things to come concerning My sons, and
concerning the work of My hands command you Me." That is a wonderful
expression! Rise to the sublimity of faith and be daring with your God!

And you guilty ones, look up, believing that He is greater in mercy
than you are in sin–and more able to forgive than you are to
transgress–and you shall find it so! But "if you will not believe,
surely you shall not be established." Let us all go home, believing in
Christ Jesus, for His dear name's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITIONS BY C. H. SPURGEON. ISAIAH 7:1-16; 2 CHRONICLES 28:1-16.

Isaiah 7:1, 2. And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of
Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Tadah, that Rezin the king of Syria,
and Pekah the son of Remaliah, King of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem
to war against it, but could not prevail against it. And it was told
the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his
heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood
are moved with the wind. They were tossed to and fro, bent, thrown
down, as the trees of a forest in a tornado. They had already felt the
power of these two confederate kings and they were terribly afraid.
David, himself, would have had confidence in God, but, "the house of
David" had gone far astray. Ahaz had cast off the fear of God and he
had, therefore, great fear of men.

3. Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, you, and
Shear-Jashub your son. Shear-Jashub was but a child and why Isaiah was
to take his son with him does not appear, except that his name
signifies, "The remnant shall return," and it was part of the Prophet's
message that the remnant, the people who had been carried away captive,
should return.

3. At the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the
fuller's field. God knows the exact spot where His servants shall meet
with the men to whom He sends them. There is a corner where the
fuller's field just juts upon the up-

per pool–there Isaiah will meet king Ahaz–and there he is to speak to
him. Is there any spot by the "Elephant and Castle" where God means to
meet with some soul, tonight? I pray that it may be so.

4. And say unto him. The Prophet is told the word he is to speak as
well as the place where he is to deliver the message. Isaiah knew that
he was soon to go and deal with men of hard heart and deaf ears. The
other day we read the sixth chapter of this prophecy and we noted the
hard task that Isaiah had to perform. Now he is beginning his work with
the man whom the Bible calls, "That King Ahaz," as if it could not say
anything bad enough of him, but had merely to mention his name and
everybody would know who was meant.

4. Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be faint-hearted for the
two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin
with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. Their kingdoms were dying out.
They were like burnt-out firebrands–they made a little smoke–and
within a very short time there would be nothing left of them. And Ahaz
need not be afraid of them.

5-9. Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil
counsel against you, saying, Let us go up against Judah, and vex it,
and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of
it, even the son of Tabeal: thus says the Lord GOD, It shall not stand,
neither shall it come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and
the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years
shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. And the head of
Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Renzaliah's son. God did
not intend it to grow any bigger. These two little kingdoms of Syria
and Ephraim were to keep as they were until they were destroyed.

9-12. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.
Moreover the LORD spoke again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask you a sign of the
LORD your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. But
Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD. He put his
refusal very prettily, as men often do when they want to say an evil
thing. He refused to accept a sign from the Lord under the idle
pretense that it would be tempting God. We never tempt God when we do
what He bids us! There is no presumption in obedience. It was an idle
compliment, to conceal the impudence of his heart. The Lord invited him
to acknowledge Jehovah as his God–"Ask you a sign of Jehovah your
God." But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, neither will I tempt Jehovah." He
did not say, "Jehovah, my God." And his silence meant dissent.

13. And he said, Hear you now, O house of David. Observe, the Prophet
does not say, "Hear now, O Ahaz," as if God would not deal with Ahaz on
his own account, but only because he was of the "house of David." The
Lord remembered His Covenant with David. God sometimes blesses men for
the sake of their fathers. He might not hear a word that they have to
say, but He remembers their fathers and the amity and harmony which
there was between Himself and their fathers.

13, 14. Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my
God, also? Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a
virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son. A most wonderful sign is this!

14, 15. And shall call His name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall He
eat, that He may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
Whereupon a wise commentator says that before children are able to
learn, their parents should look upon the very feeding of them as a
means of making them to know the difference between good and evil.

16. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the
good, the land that you abhor shall be forsaken of both her kings. This
was the sign-manual. Judah could not be destroyed, for our Lord was to
spring out of Judah–and this was the sign that Judah must stand
because Immanuel must be born of that nation–and the time for this
great event was fixed by the Lord. Until a child is some few years of
age, he does not distinguish between good and evil; but in a shorter
time than it would take a child to come to years of responsibility, God
meant to cut off both those kings–and He did. This was a very
wonderful prophecy and ought to have filled Ahaz with great delight,
and with confidence in God, but it did nothing of the kind. Now we are
going to read more of the story of this King Ahaz.

2 Chronicles 28:1-3. Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign,
and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: but he did not that which
was right in the sight of the LORD, like David, his father, for he
walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images
for Baalim. Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of
Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of
the heathen whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.
God had driven out the Canaanites because of these abominations and,
therefore, for His own people to practice them was peculiarly provoking
to Him.

4. He sacrificed also and burnt incense in the high places, and on the
hills, and under every green tree. He could not do enough of it–so
many trees, so many altars. There are some men who use every
opportunity for sin with a diligence which would bring the blush into
the face of Christians who are not as diligent in obeying as these men
are in sinning.

5. Therefore the LORD, his God, delivered him into the hands of the
king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude
of them captives, and brought them to Damascus. And he was also
delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a
great slaughter. It did not look as if the captives would ever return,
yet the Prophet's son was named Shear-Jashub, "The remnant shall
return." Ahaz might have said to Isaiah, "Your child's name is a lie."
We shall see.

6-11. For Pekah, the son of Remaliah, slew in Judah an hundred and
twenty thousand in one day, which were all valiant men; because they
had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers. And Zichri, a mighty man of
Ephraim, slew Maaseiah, the king's son, and Azrikam the governor of the
house, and Elkanah that was next to the king. And the children of
Israel carried away captive of their brethren two hundred thousand,
women, sons, and daughters, and took also away much spoil from them,
and brought the spoil to Samaria. But a Prophet of the LORD was there,
whose name was Oded, and he went out before the host that came to
Samaria and said unto them, Behold, because the LORD God of your
fathers was angry with Judah, He has delivered them into your hand, and
you have slain them in a rage that reached up unto Heaven. And now you
purpose to keep under the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondmen
and bondwomen unto you: but are there not with you, even with you, sins
against the LORD your God? Now, hear me, therefore, and deliver the
captives again, which you have taken, captive of your brethren: for the
fierce wrath of the LORD is upon you. It was very wonderful that these
wild fellows should listen to this Prophet with all those captives
round about them. It was a brave act on the part of the Prophet Oded to
go out and utter his protest.

12-15. Then certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah
the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshil-lemoth, and Jehizkiah
the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, stood up against them
that came from the war, and said unto them, You shall not bring in the
captives here: for whereas we have offended against the LORD already,
you intend to add more to our sins and to our trespass: for our
trespass is great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel. So the
armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all
the congregation. And the men which were expressed by name rose up, and
took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all that were naked among
them, and arrayed them, and shod them, and gave them to eat and to
drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble of them upon
asses, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their
brethren: then they returned to Samaria. What a wonderful thing that
was! Ahaz ought to have said to Isaiah, "Your child's name is right,
after all, for the remnant has returned." Did it not seem as if Ahaz
must now trust God? But notice what the next verse says.

16. At that time did King Ahaz send unto the kings of Assyria to help
him. When men are determined to be unbelievers and disobedient, they
will send anywhere for help but to the Lord. Israel and Syria were very
little kingdoms, but Assyria was a great empire, the mighty nation of
the period. Yet no help came to Ahaz from that quarter, for we read in
the 20th verse, "And Tilgath-Pilneser, king of Assyria, came unto him
and distressed him, but strengthened him not." The 21st verse tells us
that Ahaz bribed the king of Assyria, "but he helped him not." That is
always the dirge at the end of all efforts to secure human instead of
Divine aid.