Mark Dever on Children (Mark 10:13-16)

Children are not burdens. They are blessings.

Mark Dever - For Children Only - Mark 10:13-16 from Southeastern Seminary on Vimeo.

Tocqueville on Christianity and Islam

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)

Excerpt from Pajamas Media:

"Following his first sojourn in Algeria, Alexis de Tocqueville, author of the famous 1835 work, On Democracy in America, compared Islam’s lasting impact with that of Christianity (and the latter’s possible disappearance), in an October 1843 letter to Arthur de Gobineau:

If  Christianity should in fact disappear, as so many hasten to predict, it would befall us, as already happened to the ancients before its advent, a long moral decrepitude, a poisoned old age, that will end up bringing I know not where nor how a new renovation. … I closely studied the Koran especially because of our position with regard to the Muslim populations in Algeria and throughout the Orient. I admit that I came out of  that study with the conviction that, all things considered, there had been few religions in the world so dreadful for men as that of Muhammad. It is, I believe, the major cause of  the decadence today so visible in the Muslim world and though it is less absurd than ancient polytheism, its social and political tendencies, in my opinion much more to be feared. I see it relative to paganism itself as a decadence rather than an advance.

Nearly 170 years later, it is a bitter, tragic irony that the harshest and most valid critiques of General Stanley McChrystal — leveled by military officers in Michael Hastings’ now infamous Rolling Stone essay (“The Runaway General“) — hinge upon the general’s ignorant and willfully misconceived formulation of the same timeless Islamic doctrines so plainly elucidated by Tocqueville."

Homegrown Tomatoes

Ain't nothin' in the world that I like better
Than bacon and lettuce and homegrown tomatoes
Up in the mornin' out in the garden
Get you a ripe one don't get a hard one

Plant `em in the spring eat `em in the summer
All winter with out `em's a culinary bummer
I forget all about the sweatin' and diggin'
Every time I go out and pick me a big'n

Homegrown tomatoes, homegrown tomatoes
What'd life be without homegrown tomatoes
Only two things that money can't buy
That's true love and homegrown tomatoes

You can go out to eat and that's for sure
But it's nothin' a homegrown tomato won't cure
Put `em in a salad, put `em in a stew
You can make your very own tomato juice

Eat `em with eggs, eat `em with gravy
Eat `em with beans, pinto or navy
Put `em on the side put `em in the middle
Put a homegrown tomato on a hotcake griddle

If I's to change this life I lead
I'd be Johnny Tomato Seed
`Cause I know what this country needs
Homegrown tomatoes in every yard you see

When I die don't bury me
In a box in a cemetery
Out in the garden would be much better
I could be pushin' up homegrown tomatoes

Isaiah 10:5-12:6 -- The Root of Jesse

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Opening thought:  If you have a garden, you know something about pulling up weeds. I was explaining to Luke and Rachel the other day about weeds. I told them that they have roots, roots that will grow a new weed in only another day or two if you don’t take them out of the soil and throw them away. On the other hand, you don’t want to accidentally uproot your vegetables. If you do, they will die. No root, no fruit.

Today we are going to talk about a Root, a Shoot from a stump, a Man that Isaiah says fulfills the promises and sets aright the things of this world. This root cannot be uprooted. This root is a righteous one.

Pray and Read:  Isaiah 10:5-12:6

Contextual Notes: Isaiah 10:1-4 belongs with Isaiah 9 and gives the basis for northern Israel’s judgment. That judgment was fulfilled during the early years of Hezekiah’s reign (2 Kings 18:9-12). Then Assyria turned its attention to Judah (10:11). Beginning in 10:5, God declares Assyria’s judgment because Assyria destroyed rather than disciplining Israel (10:5-19). A remnant remains which God will preserve (10:20-34). The flow of the passage now gives us the primary message of these chapters. 

The Holy One of Israel, the Messiah, will one day come and the kingdom of God will replace the kingdoms of men. That Root of Jesse, empowered by the Holy Spirit, will judge in righteousness and bring peace even to nature (11:1-9). All nations will submit to the Lord and Israel will return to their homeland (11:10-16). In that day Israel will praise the Lord for their salvation and make him known to all the world (12:1-6).

One of the blessings of preaching through a book of the Bible is that we have the benefit of locking in on the context of a passage of Scripture, so that it does not somehow stand alone, but we have the understanding of what goes before and after that passage. Today’s section is a great example. Isaiah shows us the great vision of the Man whom he calls the Root of Jesse. We can gain insight because Isaiah has used this image before at 4:2.

Key Truth: Isaiah wrote Isaiah 10:5-12:6 to show Israel that restoration of themselves, the nations, and the planet will come at the return of Christ.

Key Application: Today I want to show you what God’s Word says about living a holy life in light of coming judgment and salvation.

Sermon Points:

1. The Root of Jesse is our Sovereign Judge (Isaiah 10:5-34)
2. The Root of Jesse is our Righteous King (Isaiah 11:1-9)
3. The Root of Jesse is our Glorious Rest (Isaiah 11:10-16)
4. The Root of Jesse is our Salvation Song (Isaiah 12:1-6)

Exposition:   Note well,

1.   THE ROOT OF JESSE IS OUR SOVEREIGN JUDGE (Isaiah 10:5-34)

a.   10:5: God’s sovereignty enables him to use even Israel’s enemies to accomplish his purposes. Isaiah calls on Judah to see God’s hand in the painful experience with Assyria they are about to encounter.

b.   APPLICATION: Some of us find ourselves in a painful time right now. We have received a diagnosis or a report card or have a relationship not doing well. Look for God’s hand in this circumstance and praise him through it. He is there, and he is there for your good, not your harm.

c.   10:7: While God is using the Assyrian army as discipline, Assyria’s motive is rooted in godless arrogance, pride, and greed. God will punish the king of Assyria (10:12). It is intent that makes a difference. God is not as concerned about outward actions as he is about motives. He will judge both actions and motivations.

d.   10:17: In a single day – the destruction of Judah’s enemy, Isaiah said, would happen in a single day. And it did (2 Chronicles 32:20-21: ²⁰ King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz cried out in prayer to heaven about this. ²¹ And the LORD sent an angel, who annihilated all the fighting men and the leaders and officers in the camp of the Assyrian king. So he withdrew to his own land in disgrace. And when he went into the temple of his god, some of his sons cut him down with the sword. Isaiah 37:36 – ³⁶ Then the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!). The historian Herodotus wrote that a disease came into the Assyrian army through mice and fleas (10:16), killing 186,000 men.

e.   But there is more to this single day. Isaiah uses the term in 9:14; 10:17; 47:9 to refer to the destruction of wickedness in a single day. Revelation 18:8 picks up Isaiah’s idea in describing the judgment on the woman Babylon, “Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.”

f.    In the book of Esther, the evil Haman sent dispatches throughout Persia to liquidate the Jews ‘in a single day’ (Esther 3:13), but this is the book of the Great Reversal, and instead, Haman was hanged on the gallows he erected for Mordechai. Zechariah writes of the Coming Great Reversal. God says, “I will remove the sin of this land in a single day” (Zechariah 3:9).

g.   Just as the Assyrian Army was gathered to destroy Jerusalem and all the enemies of Judah were destroyed in a single day, so one day at Calvary, the hordes of hell gathered to destroy the Holy One of Israel, but in a Great Reversal, Christ Jesus destroyed them through his own death in a single day. In a single day, he overthrew death and hell and made a way where there was no way, bringing life and hope and restoration to everyone who would receive him.

h.   10:20: The results of discipline: Those who survive the invasion will ‘truly rely on the Lord.’ Suffering purges those who will not believe and deepens the faith of those who do.

i.    APPLICATION: Are you surrounded and hounded by enemies? We serve a Sovereign Judge. Have you been betrayed or cheated on? We serve a Sovereign Judge. Do you face mistreatment and prejudice? The Root of Jesse is our Sovereign Judge. Have you been falsely accused and harassed? The Root of Jesse is our Sovereign Judge. Do you sit here today without the personal assurance of salvation in Christ? The Root of Jesse is our Sovereign Judge. He will judge fairly and perfectly, and if you are without Christ, you will be judged with a sentence that lasts forever in hell. The Root of Jesse is Sovereign because he has all power and authority to do whatever he chooses. He is our Judge because he sits enthroned over the universe. One day the Root of Jesse will take up your case. What will the Sovereign Judge rule? Will he rule against you because of your wickedness, or will he rule in your favor because of He Himself was your Savior who defeated your enemies in a single day?

2.   THE ROOT OF JESSE IS OUR RIGHTEOUS KING (Isaiah 11:1-9)

a.   11:1: The stump of Jesse – Jesse was the father of David (1 Samuel 16:1; Ruth 4:22). With the title, Branch (4:2; 6:13), identifies the person here as the Messiah, the descendant of David destined to rule the earth. The word here for ‘shoot’ is netzer, the same word from which we get the word, Nazarene (Matt. 2:23).

b.   11:2 The Spirit of the Lord – (1 Sam 10:6; Luke 3:21-22). This man filled with the Spirit will have wisdom and understanding (Gen. 41:39; Exod. 31:2-3; 1 Kings 3:12; Eccl. 2:26), abundant counsel and power (Judges 15:14: Dan 5:14), and knowledge and the fear of the Lord (Psalm 111:10). It will produce a righteousness and justice, the same word pair found in 1:27; 5:7, 16; 9:7, all referring to the Messiah.

c.   11:3-5 – Messiah will judge with a pure motive in contrast to 10:7-11 and 6:9-10. As God, Messiah knows perfectly, so he can judge with perfect righteousness. His decisions, so unlike human government that takes note of a person’s wealth and social standing, instead will be in favor of the poor of the earth. He will enforce that judgment absolutely with the rod of his mouth (Psalm 2:9: You will rule them with an iron rod; Rev. 12:5; 19:15).

d.   APPLICATION:  Jesus is coming back. He will rule on his father David’s throne at Jerusalem. Some view this as the millennial reign of Christ on earth. Some view this as eternity when Christ will reign forever, but the similarities are so close, the important thing is that the Root of Jesse will one day reign in righteousness. He will right every wrong. He will correct every injustice. He will rule with absolute purity. Our frail governments will cede their authority to the king of kings. That should give you great hope. He is your king, if you have a personal relationship with him. He ever lives to make intercession for you. He is your righteous king, and he loves you and favors you.

3.   THE ROOT OF JESSE IS OUR GLORIOUS REST (Isaiah 11:10-16)

a.   11:10 – A banner for the nations: Here it is a standard or a flag, raised with the intent of rallying people around it. The term ‘peoples’ indicates the Gentile nations. Isaiah sees a messianic age in which all the nations will have a knowledge of Christ. Our God is a missionary God!

b.   11:11 – “a second time:” Many find this phrase significant. Some of the Jews returning to the Holy Land after the Babylonian Captivity, partially fulfilling the OT predictions of a regathering. In 70AD the Jews were scattered among the nations a second time, as the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and expelled all the Jews from Judea. This second diaspora was more severe than the first, and Jews settled in every nation of the earth but their own. Some take this “second time” to mean a second regathering in the end times, perhaps beginning in 1948.

c.   ILLUSTRATION: The author of Hebrews teaches us in chapter 4 that hearing Christ and believing in Him will give us Rest, just the opposite of what Judah wanted to do (Isa. 6:9-10).

d.   APPLICATION:  Are you resting in him? Do you find your rest in Christ Jesus? Being a Christian does not mean you work harder to be good. It means you rest better in Him and allow His Life to be lived through you. That rest is for all the nations. Our God is a missionary God! Therefore our lives must be missionary lives. We must pray, go, and give until all have heard the good news of Jesus Christ. What are you doing to be part of Christ’s commission to go to the nations? Are you raising the banner of Christ at your work? Are you raising the banner with your friends? Are you raising the banner with your family? Are you making Christ known in your circle of influence?

4.   THE ROOT OF JESSE IS OUR SALVATION SONG (Isaiah 12:1-6)

a.   12:2 – Isaiah plays on the significance of his own name, which means, “God is my salvation.”

b.   The call to put away fear is followed by a call to praise (12:4ff) for the wells of salvation.

c.   Jesus told us to go to the nations (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; 9:15).  After this Isaiah will turn to the nations until chapter 27, pronouncing judgment on all them.

d.   This thanksgiving hymn brings to an end this section of Isaiah, just as in chapter 5. And just as the end of the Torah.

e.   APPLICATION:  When Jesus becomes Lord of your life, he places a song of praise there. Your heart overflows, thanking him for what he has done for you. Christ is our song. He is beautiful, our sweet, sweet song. Do you have that song in your heart? Perhaps you do not because you do not know him as your Savior. Let me invite you now to respond to Him, giving your life to him and making the Root of Jesse your Salvation. He will make your heart sing. Perhaps you are in Christ, but you have forgotten that glorious song. You have drifted. Sin has clouded the sheet music. You no longer sing the song of salvation as you once did. Today is the day to renew your walk with Christ. Let the Root of Jesse restore the Joy of your salvation (Psa. 51).

Invitation: Come to him today, won’t you?

The Controversy

The last of a series on Southern Baptist history . . . 

Center of the Southern Baptist Controversy

The Controversy. The Conservative Takeover. The Conservative Resurgence. Whatever you call it, a change took place in the late 20^th century in the Southern Baptist Convention. There has always been a diversity of opinion among Southern Baptists, but in the 20^th century for the first time, the integrity of the Scripture began to be questioned in the upper echelons of Southern Baptist educational and denominational life in stark contrast to the millions of Southern Baptists in the pews every Sunday.

Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord

Video: Burl Ives in 1951 sings a song going through my mind today from Genesis 6:8.

1 Samuel 2:12-17, 22-36 -- Eli: the father who wouldn't say no

Hannah presents Samuel to Eli the Priest as Hophni and Phinehas look on

Happy Father’s Day! The best man in the world I know is still my Daddy. Daddy has worked all his life in the wood industry. For twenty-seven years as a scaler and yard manager with Bowater Paper, manufacturer of both newsprint and magazine paper. Then when they closed his division and he was laid off around Christmas 1997, his great reputation and relationships with wood producers got him a job in a short time running a chipping machine with a crew. Now he manages a lumber yard in Hodges, S.C., and continues to work well past retirement age.

He is the most compassionate man I know. He is the most giving man I know. He has the most integrity of any man I know. I don’t remember ever seeing alcohol in the refrigerator, though we kept a bottle of whiskey in the back of the cabinet strictly to add to sugar to stop a cough. I don’t remember ever hearing a filthy word come out of his mouth, even when a chainsaw injured him or the chimney caught on fire. And Daddy protected us. Often that protection meant saying no. That is, he told us boys no. If it didn’t look like something that would help us or if it looked like it would hurt us, Daddy had no problem saying no.

Today we will look at a man in Scripture who would not say no to his children, and we will see the trouble it caused for his sons.

Pray and Read:  1 Samuel 2:12-17, 22-36; (4:1-22)

I'm watching you, Dad, every day.

Video: I'm watching you, Dad, every day.

The Most Amazing Man Alive

Click the title if you do not see a video box.

Pianist Andrea Bocelli on abortion

Isaiah 8-9: Trust and obey for there's no other way

Request free DVD or CD of this message from genebrooks@yahoo.com. Include your mailing address.

Opening thought:  Suppose you were in desperate need of a car, so you asked a friend who knows a lot about cars to go with you to an auction to buy one. You get to the car auction, spend a little time looking around and seeing how the whole thing works, and your expert friend advises you to make a low bid on a very nice late model Lexus. Well, you think you might be able to do this stuff yourself. You’ve looked around and seen how it’s done after all, and you ignore your expert friend’s advice . . . and you drive home with a 1972 Pinto.

That’s kind of what happened to King Ahaz of Judah. He didn’t take the advice his expert friend Isaiah gave him about how to lead Judah. He had been on the throne probably less than a year, but hey, he had looked around and seen how this governing thing is done, and he can do it himself. The trouble was, he did not have the experience necessary to know how to deal with the tricky, cut-throat geopolitics of the 8^th Century Middle East.

Pray and Read:  Isaiah 8-9

                   

Contextual Notes: Today is the story of two children, both are signs of God’s work among his people. Ahaz, on the throne probably less than a year, has rejected trust in God to trust in Assyria (ch. 7). Isaiah warns that God will now bring that very nation against His people (8:1-10) so that they can find out how trustworthy man is (8:11-22). Even so, the believer is to fear and honor God (8:11-18) rather than surrender to the panic that leads others to desperate acts of spiritual rebellion (8:19-22). Yet beyond the gloom lies a bright hope. A child will be born, a son will be given who will reign as David’s descendant and bring peace to the world (9:1-7). But first, northern Israel, which has turned its back on God, will be crushed (9:8-21).

Key Truth: Isaiah wrote Isaiah 8-9 to teach Israel  to put their trust in the Lord their Messiah.

Key Application: Today I want to show you what God’s Word says about  trusting Christ everyday.

Sermon Points:

1. Put your confidence in Immanuel (Isaiah 8:1-10)
2. Put your trust in the Rock (Isaiah 8:11-22)
3. Put your hope in the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:1-21)

Exposition:   Note well,

1.   PUT YOUR CONFIDENCE IN IMMANUEL (Isaiah 8:1-10)

a.   8:1-4 – Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz: Speed-spoil-hasten-plunder signifying the speed with which Assyria would attack and destroy Syria and Israel. Isaiah makes out a property deed to symbolize the transfer of property to Assyria. By the time this child grows to become a toddler, just as Isaiah predicted, Damascus and Syria would be plundered by Assyria (734-32 BC).

b.   Ahaz rejected the sign of the best child, Immanuel (7:14). Now he gets a child who is a sign of destruction and disaster to Syria and Israel, who are invading Judah. In the midst of Judah’s and Ahaz’ disobedience and unfaithfulness to the Lord, he still cares for them and is aggressive to take care of his own.

c.   APPLICATION: When God presents you with his direction, he wants you to obey him, not reject his gracious opportunities. What decision is before you right now? What direction has the Lord given you? Why are you not moving forward in obedience? Why do you halt between two opinions? When you reject God’s best, the next best is still from his gracious hand, but it is not as good as he had planned it for you. Be obedient to his call and direction.

d.   8:6-10: Ahaz and Judah have rejected God’s supply and protection (the waters of Shiloah) – despised and rejected by them. Assyria, invited there by Ahaz, would know no boundaries and overflow like a flood over the land, endangering Judah as well. In fact, the Assyrian records we have today mention that Tiglath-Pileser III came into the area like a flood and devastated it.

e.   Faithful witnesses: They were needed to attest to the date and content of Isaiah’s prediction that Syria and northern Israel, which had invaded Judah, would be destroyed soon (8:4) and that Assyria would “sweep into Judah” (8:8). Later, Uriah and Zechariah would establish Isaiah predicted what would happen before the events took place.

f.    Immanuel (8:8, 10): Isaiah ends both verses of destruction with “O Immanuel!” It is a reminder that in the midst of trouble, God is with us. For the faithful, it is comfort that God remains in control of history.

g.   APPLICATION: What kind of trouble are you in? What is threatening you? What in the news is troubling you? God remains in control of history. And he remains in control of your history. So no matter the diagnosis, no matter the child’s behavior, no matter the supervisor’s attitude, no matter the employment situation, no matter the way the orders are going at work, no matter who is in the White House, no matter the issues at the courthouse, no matter the politics in the church house, God is in control. When you know he is in control and you know his character is good and that he has your best interest at heart, you can settle down, command the fear to go, tell the little questioning voices in your head to be quiet, and trust Him. It is called abiding in the vine. Jesus talked about it in John 15. You might want to read it sometime.

2.   PUT YOUR TRUST IN THE ROCK (Isaiah 8:11-22)

a.   8:14: Jesus interpreted this passage in Matthew 21:33-46, Paul did as well in Romans 9:32ff, as well as Peter in 1 Peter 2:8. The Rock that will cause many to stumble is the sure Rock in which to trust. Do not fear what others fear. Fear the Lord. Put your trust in the Rock.

b.   APPLICATION: If we truly fear God, our respect for his power will free us from fear of current dangers. Truly trust God, and you will know peace.

c.   8:18 – “Here am I” the same phrase as 6:8, and “and the children the Lord has given me” – Immanuel (7:14) and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz (8:1, 3). The child Immanuel is seen in the type of Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, but this type can only point to the Virgin Born Child. These children are signs and symbols, miraculous signs authenticating his messengers. Verse 18 is cited in Hebrews 2:13 and applied to Christ.

d.   APPLICATION: Just as Isaiah’s family pointed beyond themselves to the Lord’s Word, we are called in our families also, by our lives, to be living witnesses of our Lord.

e.   8:19-22: ILLUSTRATION: Here is a strong allusion to King Saul. In a desperate state of fear, he went to a spiritist, the witch of Endor, to get answers because the Lord had left him. Ahaz is like Saul, in shaking fear and reaching the wrong direction for answers. Like Saul, Ahaz needed to repent, but it was the last thing Ahaz was interested in. He had rejected the Lord, and the only powers he had to access were illegitimate powers.

f.    A Godly fear of the Lord brings a sense of security. Failure to fear God condemns men to panic when disasters come. As they desperately search for help, they have a fearful gloom. How ironic that those who reject God typically end up blaming and cursing Him for their fate (8:21).

g.   ILLUSTRATION: Instead of the God of Life who would one day rise from the dead, these people consult the dead.

h.   APPLICATION: Our children are doing the same thing. Many young people who see no power in the Church, no genuine spiritual life in the people where they went to church, have turned in desperation to Wicca, European witchcraft.

i.    Others of us turn to another form of witchcraft – manipulation. We want to control the situation. We do not want to submit ourselves to anything. We want to make sure the board meeting or the contract or the committee meeting goes our way. We want to get on the phone and put things in people’s heads to turn them the way we want them to think so that they will do what we want them to do. Perhaps a little intimidation. Perhaps a little innuendo that leaves a question in the air. It’s all done to have control and have things happen the way we want them to. The opposite of submission is rebellion. Rebellion often plays out as manipulation. Samuel told Saul in 1 Samuel 15 that rebellion was as the sin of witchcraft.

j.    Are you a controller? Do you manipulate others? Do you manipulate your spouse? Do you maneuver your grown children to control them? Do you insert yourself where you have no business? Do you have the arrogance to think that you know better than anyone else, including the Lord what is best? Arrogance, Samuel told Saul, is like the evil of idolatry. Wonder who your idol is? Do you worship your own opinions as unquestionably the best ones all the time? Are you your own idol? Perhaps repentance is in order for you.

3.   PUT YOUR HOPE IN THE PRINCE OF PEACE (Isaiah 9:1-21)

a.   9:1-2: A Great Light – Isaiah speaks to the most northern parts of Israel which saw the scourge of the Assyrian army first in their invasion. Isaiah promises that those territories, now walking in darkness, will be the first to see a great light. Matthew 4:15-16 interprets for us what is meant, saying Christ fulfilled this prophecy. Galilee would be the home and ministry center of the Lord Jesus. Every time an OT prophecy is fulfilled, it is fulfilled literally, not spiritually.

b.   9:6: A Child Born, A Son Given: This prophetic reference to Jesus illustrates his two natures in one being. The Messiah is a child born, yet also a Son who is given. Jesus came into the world as an infant through the womb of a virgin, but he had existed from eternity as God the Son whom the Father gave to us as a sacrifice.

c.   9:6-7: Justice and righteousness – The prophecy opens with a promise that Zion will be redeemed in justice and righteousness (1:27). The Song of the Vineyard in ch. 5 ends with a vain search for justice and righteousness (5:7) though the Lord of hosts will be exalted in justice and righteousness (5:16). From Isaiah 1-12, this word pair is only found one other time, at 9:6-7 as the foundation of the eternal kingdom ruled by the divine Son. Only through this king will God be pleased with what he finds in his vineyard.

d.   APPLICATION: 9:6-7: This individual must be more than just human. He must be human, but more that that, he must be divine to fulfill these qualifications. This is an explanation of the child of 7:14.

e.   9:8-21: From the reign of the Messiah the text shifts now to the destruction of northern Israel. What’s the connection? Jesus reign is marked by universal allegiance to him as God. Northern Israel’s history was marked from the tragic beginning by rebellion against him. Note the refrain (9:12, 17, 21).

f.    APPLICATION: Those who will not submit to the Lord will surely experience not the blessing of messianic times, but the havoc and ruination that crushed Israel.

Invitation:

The Cooperative Program: genius of SBC missions

Part of an ongoing series on Southern Baptist history . . . 

Also at the 1925 Convention, the Cooperative Program was initiated, the greatest method of missions funding ever invented by the mind of man. Ironically, its success stems from the failure of the Seventy-Five Million Campaign of 1919-1924. The constant fundraising appeals to local churches for individual building projects, mission schools and hospitals, had become a burden to local churches.

After the First World War, Southern Baptists, like their Northern counterparts, launched a campaign to raise $75 million in five years to fund all areas of SBC work and end the individual appeals and competition for funding. Amazingly, churches pledged $92 million, and SBC missions and denominational entities wrote their budgets based on $75 million. Unfortunately, the price of cotton fell after the war from 24 cents/lb. to 11 cents/lb., and the administrative end of the collection proved confusing and scattered.

In the end, only $58 million was actually collected, but the mission boards and other entities had spent the pledged $75 million, putting the entire SBC in a major financial crisis. They were in debt by the end of 1926 to the tune of $6.5 million. The SBC borrowed in bonds, bank loans, and individual loans, all at high interest rates. Finally the SBC was not able to make its payments, some having to be renewed without any payment on principal. Southern Baptists were distressed and despondent while creditors threatened legal proceedings, and there was talk of bankruptcy.

In 1933 the Executive Committee, determined to pay off their debts, enlisted 100,000 people to give one dollar a month over and above their church contributions. Soon the debt began to roll off the Convention, but it would take until 1944 to pay is all completely off. The experience steeled a commitment in SBC leaders to find a simple and consistent method of generating missions funds with very low overhead.

With the commitment to fundraising came also an evangelistic fervor, the greatest growth time in SBC history since Shubal Stearns and the Separate Baptist revivals of the 18^th century. From 350,000 Southern Baptists in 1840, there were over 5 million white Baptists in 1940, and 7 million in 1950.

Then the idea was conceived to receive one offering in all the churches where part stays with the state convention and part goes to SBC missions. In the beginning state conventions and the SBC split Cooperative Program funds 50/50. In 2010, in North Carolina, the state convention has increased its CP split with the SBC from around 35% in 2008 to almost 42%.

The state conventions funded their church planting, orphanages, hospitals, and colleges, and the rest went to the Executive Committee in Nashville, TN. An unwritten rule was that no less than 50% of the money received at Nashville would go to foreign missions. In 2010, 50% still goes to the International Mission Board, 22.79% to North American missions, 22.16% to six SBC seminaries, 3.4% to the Executive Committee administration, and 1.65% to the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

Today the Cooperative Program provides consistent funding of all its agencies including the entire Baptist State convention of North Carolina’s evangelism, church planting (100+ church planters planting 99 new churches in 2007), children’s homes, Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute, conference centers, counseling, partnership mission trips, ministries to the aged, families, women, multicultural groups, 37 campuses, $1M in scholarships, Sunday Schools, worship, special needs, and prayer, and on the national level, six seminaries with over 16,000 students, 5200 North American missionaries and just over 5000 international missionaries in 180 countries around the world which started over 25,000 new churches and led 600,000 people to Christ in 2009.  

The Cooperative Program is the envy of the evangelical world.

Early 20th century SBC denominationalism

Part of an ongoing series on Southern Baptist history . . . 

Sunday School Board

J.M. Frost (1848-1916)

The Southern Baptist Publication Society formed May 13, 1847, and headquartered in Charleston, SC, but remained unconnected to the new Convention and ceased with the War. Subsequent efforts for Sunday School literature were hampered by Landmarkist influence, but in 1873 responsibility for Sunday School literature came to the Home Mission Board, which continued to publish the children’s take-home paper, Kind Words. Isaac T. Tichenor said in 1885, “We need literature for our churches or they will disappear.” The American Baptist Publication Society saw in Tichenor’s action a competitor, and it was not going to relinquish $30-50,000 receipts per year in Southern customers. Tichenor called this challenge from the ABPS “the heaviest denominational conflict of the last century.” An 1888 meeting with the ABPS ended “unable to arrive at any agreement.”

In 1891, James Marion Frost (1848-1916) became the first head of the Sunday School Board, now called Lifeway. At the time, few Southern Baptist churches had an organized Sunday School, and were not interested in starting one. Four previous initiatives for Sunday Schools had failed, but with support from Annie “Strongarm” Armstrong who seemed always to want something printed, they published Sunday School and missions literature. For many years Armstrong kept the Sunday School Board afloat financially, and she felt betrayed by Frost when he did not defend her in regard to the female institute at Louisville.

Through his printing press and his theological conservatism, Frost had a formative and strong influence on Southern Baptist churches, remaking them into a denomination. His intense denominationalism influenced the way Southern Baptists began to see themselves, not as isolated congregations, but as a world force for evangelization of the non-South and the entire world. His focus on curriculum for training leadership, organizing the Sunday Schools, and expanding and centralizing efforts created what we know today as the SBC.

Ironically, while the Sunday School Board consolidated and mobilized the Convention for missions, it also created an inherent isolationism that would breed an attitude of denominational self-sufficiency and later form the environment for theological liberalism to grow and flourish at the denominational level while the loyal SBC local churches which had remained conservative were completely oblivious to it. It would in the late 20th century lead to a conservative revolt by the local churches to restore the theological conservatism of J.M. Frost and others to the upper eschelons of Southern Baptist leadership and education.

At his death in 1916, Frost was hailed as one of the greatest of all Southern Baptist statesmen because of his vision that printed curriculum would unite and consolidate thousands of autonomous local congregations into a massive force for world evangelization.

In 1913, Southern Baptists formed the Social Service Commission as an arm of the SBC to monitor the ills of society and keep Southern Baptists informed about social issues. In the early days, they were interested in keeping state and local blue laws in force, as most Southern Baptists were Sabbatarians. The SSC also went after the new motion picture industry which was polluting Baptist youth. It was opposed to the use of tobacco in all forms and advocated anti-lynching legislation in the South.

In 1950, the SSC became the Christian Life Commission, and it changed, beginning to resonate over time with more liberal politics in contrast to Southern Baptists in the pew. The Christian Life Commission advocated a quietly pro-choice position on abortion and was sympathetic to the Vietnam era’s anti-war movement. These positions tagged the CLC as the left wing of the SBC.

In 1997, in the denominational reorganization at the end of the Conservative Resurgence in the SBC, the CLC became the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the SBC under conservative Richard Land.

In 1898, a committee to celebrate a new century suggested the need for a committee to form to oversee orderly denominational activity between annual meetings. The idea was shot down at the SBC that year, but by 1917, the first World War was on, and planning and efficiency were values stressed in that generation. The SBC that year created the Executive Committee of the SBC to handle administrative responsibilities of the SBC during the year.

E. Y. Mullins (1860-1928)

The year 1925 was pivotal in the history of the Southern Baptist Convention. At the 1925 Convention, messengers adopted the SBC’s first official statement of faith called the Baptist Faith and Message. It was based on the 1833 New Hampshire Confession of Faith.

Southern Seminary president Edgar Young Mullins had observed the failure of the Northern Baptist Convention to adopt a statement of faith and the doctrinal decline which followed among them. Mullins stressed that the SBC needed a statement of what is “commonly agreed among us.” He knew that a general articulation of Southern Baptist beliefs was needed as a hedge against the creeping liberalism gaining ground in SBC circles. Evolution, for example, was being taught as fact at Baylor, Furman, Wake Forest College -- all of them state Baptist convention schools receiving funds from Southern Baptists who would have disagreed with that position.

This wise move by Mullins and the 1925 Convention supplied the doctrinal bulwark needed to overcome the rising tide of liberal doctrine in the SBC in the decades to come.

The Southern Baptist Seminaries

J.P. Boyce (1827-1888)

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary was organized in Greenville, SC, in 1859. Because of financial problems in South Carolina after the War, the seminary relocated to a better economic climate in Louisville, KY, near the Ohio River and railroads. The founding president was James Petigru Boyce from First Baptist Church, Charleston, SC.

Southern Seminary has been the site of several SBC controversies. In 1879, professor of Hebrew and Old Testament, Crawford H. Toy, earlier a two-time fiancé of Lottie Moon, was thrown out for heresy, but the exact issue was not publicized at the time.

Crawford H. Toy (1836-1919)

Influenced by European higher criticism of the Bible and Darwin's new theories, Toy began to question biblical inspiration and defied his President Dr. James P. Boyce, who asked him not to teach doctrines contrary to the school's Abstract of Principles.

The breaking point came with Toy’s April 1879, article in The Sunday School Times outlining his liberal views of Isaiah 53:1-12. The next month, the seminary president took Toy to the Louisville train station and put him on a train headed out of town. Soon after, Toy went to Harvard as professor of Hebrew and Semitic languages, and joined the Unitarian Church. The effect of Toy’s teaching later caused two young missionaries to be dismissed from the Foreign Mission Board for holding his views.

William H. Whitsitt (1841-1911)

In 1898-99, a second controversy developed at Southern Seminary in Louisville. This one was over Baptist history. President William H. Whitsitt got in trouble for publishing in an encyclopedia his view that Baptists did not immerse before 1641 when they contacted Dutch Anabaptists. He got in hot water because at the time most believed Baptists had always been around since John the Baptist. When called before the trustees, Whitsitt denied he wrote the article, but later the trustees found out he had lied. Whitsitt was called again before the trustees and fired. For liberals, Whitsitt was a martyr of academic freedom, but in reality he was fired because he lied to his trustees.

One of those trustees was a man named Benajah Harvey Carroll, pastor of First Baptist Church, Waco, TX. He was not a fan of the higher critical method of interpretation which denied biblical inspiration, remarking, "These modern devotees of higher criticism must wait each week for the mail from Germany to know what to believe or preach, to find out how much, if any of their Bibles remains." Ten years later, Carroll would decide to start a new seminary in Texas.

B.H. Carroll (1843-1914)

In 1908, B.H. Carroll formed Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and moved it to Fort Worth two years later. Carroll was a man’s man, a Confederate veteran, and pastor of First Baptist Church, Waco, TX. He had a photographic memory, a charismatic personality, and strong opinions. His deathbed commission to his Southwestern presidential successor, Lee Scarborough, was prophetic of the late 20^th century’s conservative resurgence: “Keep the Seminary lashed to the Cross. If heresy ever comes in the teaching, take it to the faculty. If they will not hear you and take prompt action, take it to the trustees of the Seminary. If they will not hear you, take it to the Convention that appoints the Board of Trustees, and if they will not hear you, take it to the great common people of our churches. You will not fail to get a hearing then."

While he was teaching in the religion department at Baylor University in Waco, the religion department grew very large, but the Baylor administration did not like him. So Carroll took the religion department he had grown and left to form Southwestern Seminary, saying, “It’s a shame that Southern boys must go up north (meaning Louisville) to study to teach Southern churches.” The idea caught on, and in 1917, the Baptist Bible Institute of New Orleans was formed, changing its name to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 1946-47.

In 1950, two seminaries formed – Golden Gate Seminary in the San Francisco Valley and Southeastern Seminary on the old campus of Wake Forest College in Wake Forest, NC. Many Southern Baptists in the armed forces had relocated and expanded the SBC reach to the West Coast during World War II, creating a need for an SBC seminary in California. Southern Baptists in the deep South who disliked going north to Louisville for their education began to search for sites for an SBC seminary in the South. They looked in Atlanta and Charlotte, but a campus came available in Wake Forest, NC. In 1940, the R.J. Reynolds family endowed Wake Forest College with a campus in Winston-Salem. The SBC purchased the old campus in Wake Forest, NC, for $6.8 million. The College did not leave until 1956, and Southeastern’s President Staley had to spend $600,000 to clean and repair the campus.

In 1959, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary opened in Kansas City, MO. Southern Baptist students had been attending the American Baptist Convention’s Central Baptist Seminary there in growing numbers until they outnumbered the Northern students, causing friction with the ABC, so the SBC started its own school. Another school formed as an alternative to the growing liberalism in Southern Baptist seminaries in the mid-twentieth century, Mid-America Theological Seminary almost became an SBC school in the mid-1990s, but in the end they refused to join the SBC.

Covered dish dilemma solved

Isaiah 7 - Immanuel: God with us

The last verse of Isaiah 6 gives us an introduction to a Holy Seed who will be the hope left in the Land. Then begins the ‘book of Immanuel’ as some scholars have dubbed it, from Isaiah 7:1-12:6, focusing on the Messiah and his Messianic Age. In Isaiah 6, Isaiah is called and told that his hearers would not listen to him, and beginning in chapter 7 it starts with King Ahaz.

But Isaiah’s reality was living in the Middle East of the 8^th century B.C. and there were dangers all around. The year is 734 BC. Syria (Aram) and Israel (Ephraim, the ten northern tribes) had allied to attack and divide up Judah. Their motivation? For some time they Syria and the breakaway 10 northern tribes of Israel have seen the danger of the growing menace to their northeast, Assyria, and they have been pushing Judah, the house of David, to join them in an anti-Assyrian coalition (2 Kings 15-16), but Judah’s King Ahaz will not agree.

Ahaz  king of Judah. (Wikipedia)

Fear overcame the new king of Judah, Ahaz, but Isaiah met King Ahaz to tell him that Judah need not fear (Isa. 7:1-9). Ahaz is so shook up over everything that he shows his disbelief by refusing to ask Isaiah for a sign to authenticate Isaiah’s encouragement not to fear (Isa. 7:10-12). Isaiah then launches into a prophecy that combines God’s near-view promise to deal with the immediate international geopolitical situation and the far-view promise that God will fulfill his covenant commitment to David through a virgin-born child (Isa. 7:13-16). Since Ahaz has chosen to trust Assyria rather than the Lord, God will devastate the land of Judah (Isa. 7:17-25).

Pray and Read:  Isaiah 7

Key Truth: Isaiah wrote Isaiah 7 to teach Israel to trust the Lord who is with us, and is trustworthy, for fear is costly.

Key Application: Today I want to show you what God’s Word says about trusting God and not your fears.

Sermon Points:

1. Do not fear for God is trustworthy (Isa. 7:1-9)
2. Do not fear for God is with us (Isa. 7:10-16)
3. Do not fear for fear is costly (Isa. 7:17-25)

Exposition:   Note well,

1.   DO NOT FEAR FOR GOD IS TRUSTWORSHY (Isa. 7:1-9)

Seal of Ahaz, king of Judah

a.   Isaiah 7:1 – Ahaz (reigned 735-715 BC) was one of Judah’s wicked kings, and his reign was marked by instability because he faced invasion. . When King Rezin of Syria (Damascus) and King Pekah of Israel (Samaria) went after him for refusing to join them against Assyria, Ahaz got scared and appealed to the growing superpower Assyria like a tattle-tale. He got Assyria’s attention, but Assyria was the bully on the block, and that nation didn't really care about any of these nations except what it could get out of them. So Assyria would devastate Syria and Israel, but would also attack Judah! (2 Kings 16:2-5; 2 Chron. 28:1-5). Their chosen replacement for Ahaz was a Syrian named Tabeel, meaning “good for nothing.”

b.   Isaiah 7:2-4 – Ahaz sets out to check the city’s water supply, but the Lord sends Isaiah to him with a message to keep calm and don’t be afraid. Isaiah’s son goes at the Lord’s command. His name means, “A remnant shall return.” The name now takes on a special significance (Isa. 6:11ff). Assyria had barely paid attention to Judah, but now Ahaz proposed to ask for Assyria’s help against the Syrians and northern Israelis (2 Kings 16:7f), making Judah a vassal state, and any future revolt against Assyria would mean invasion and deportation, so Shear-Yashub took on a new meaning.

c.   Why did God allow that? What about his promises to his Chosen People? When Ahaz submitted to the Assyrian Tiglath-Pileser III in Damascus, Ahaz did a wicked thing and adopted foreign deities. Ahaz sold out not only his people, but his people’s God, and that brought the curses of Deuteronomy 28 on him and his nation.

Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria

d.   Isaiah 7:9 – Stand firm – Isaiah encourages Ahaz to stand firm in his faith or he will not stand at all. Isaiah knows it would be devastating to turn to Assyria for help (2 Kings 16:7). Over and over the history of Israel has shown that faith in God is more important than the size of the nation’s army or arsenal (2 Chron. 13:2-18).

e.   Ephesians 6:10-18

f.    Feelings of inferiority, fear (Judg. 7:3; 2 Kings 6:15-16; Jer. 1:7-8; Luke 12:32) and doubt (Judg. 6:36-40; 2 Kings 7:1-2, 18-20; Luke 1:18-20) are the three main enemies of the servants of the Lord  because they all reflect a lack of trust that prevents us from acting boldly for God. That is why these emotions are sometimes treated as synonymous with sin.[1]

g.   APPLICATION: Are you struggling with fear this morning? Fear over your job? Fear about your children? Fear about your health? Fear over this country? Fear about your marriage? Do you have fears that run wild and seem uncontrollable? Our God is trustworthy. You can trust the Lord.

2.   DO NOT FEAR FOR GOD IS WITH US (Isa. 7:10-16)

a.   Isaiah 7:10-12 – Putting the Lord to the test – Sounds pretty magnanimous and holy on the surface, doesn’t it? “I will not put the Lord to the test,” quoting Moses (Isa. 7:12; Exod. 17:2, 7; Deut. 6:16). Ahaz may have sounded pious, but Ahaz was commanded by the Lord to ask for a sign – a clearly supernatural event that would confirm Isaiah’s promise of safety to Judah. Asking for a sign from God is often evidence of a lack of faith (Matt. 12:38-42; Heb. 11:1-2), but here Ahaz’s refusal to ask after being commanded to do it, is instead evidence of his lack of faith. Ahaz was being disobedient to a direct command from the Lord. He demonstrated unbelief, not piety.

b.   The Lord Himself provides a sign to validate Isaiah’s prophecy of safety – the birth of a child. The message? The end of Judah’s enemies. This child will have enough to eat, and before he is old enough to know right from wrong, these two kings will be laid waste (Isa. 7:15-16).

c.   In the historical context of Isaiah 7, who was this child? There is a lot of speculation. One that makes sense to me is that he was a son of Ahaz, possibly Hezekiah his successor, who was one of the most faithful kings of Judah, and a descendant of David (2 Kings 23:25; 1 Kings 2:4). In the long view, though, this prophecy refers to Jesus Christ directly. Both Matthew and Luke make much of the fact that Jesus was born of a virgin (Matt. 1:18; Luke 1:26-35), and Matthew calls him Immanuel, connecting to this verse (Matt. 1:23).

Seal of Pekah, king of northern Israel

d.   Isaiah 7:14 – Immanuel – King Ahaz refused to seek a sign, but a sign is given nevertheless to the House of David (Isa. 7:13). The sign was to be a virgin pregnant with child who would be named Immanuel (Isa. 7:14). Before nine months expired, Judah’s invaders (Syria under King Rezin and N. Israel under Pekah) would have departed Judah.

e.   Scarcely any verse in the Bible has been more debated over 2000 years than Isaiah 7:14. Many controversial issues arise. What precisely is the sign itself? Does the Hebrew noun ‘almah signify ‘young woman’ (RSV) or virgin (KJV, NIV)? Does the passage demand an immediate fulfillment or not?

f.    No Christian who takes Matthew 1:20-23 seriously can deny an ultimate fulfillment in Christ; but two options still remain open. Was it a single fulfillment in Christ or a double fulfillment, one in Ahaz’ lifetime and also a Messianic fulfillment? The latter option seems a better one because a ‘sign’ requires a reasonably early fulfillment. The prediction may be long-term, but the sign is a contemporary pointer to the more distant event.

g.   Most scholars generally say that there is no Messianic prophecy here at all. This was only a child born to in Ahaz’ time, perhaps even Hezekiah, but the prophet is looking farther into the future. Most evangelical scholars look at the historical context of the passage only. They do not look at the literary context, or they read it out of context with the passage. They often as a result do not see this verse as prophetic of the Priest-King to come.

h.   The context is key to understanding this verse. We have the destruction of the Land and the holy seed from the stump (Isa. 6:13).At the end of chapter five there are six woes, then the seventh woe is found in Isa. 6:5: “Woe is me” before the Priest-King high and lifted up, ending with the holy seed in the stump.

i.     Then we enter Isaiah 7 in which a Child is born, but he is a strange child. First, his name is strange, Immanuel. The name means ‘God with us.’ But the unusual order of the words indicates an emphatic, “WITH US is God!” Thus this word captures the awe and wonder of the Incarnation, and the unimaginable fact that the God of the universe entered the world through a virgin’s womb to become like us and become one with us. Then this child refuses evil and chooses good (Isa. 7:15-16) twice. This has never been seen in human history. It is in contrast to Israel (Isa. 5:20) which calls evil good and good evil and rejects the Torah of the Lord twice (Isa. 5:24; 8:6). This Child is unique in all of Israel.

j.    We also see desolation and abandonment before the Coming of the Child (Isa. 6:11-12). Isaiah is seeing into the future, as we see from his taking his son, Shear-Yashub, meaning, “a remnant will return.”

k.   Ahaz will not ask for a sign, but he gets one anyway. God commands Ahaz (Isa. 7:11 uses 2^nd person masculine singular imperative), but he is disobedient. God then turns to the whole house of David and will give “you all House of David” a sign (Isa. 7:13 uses 2^nd person common plural).

l.     Isaiah 7:14 – “Behold the virgin” (ha almah). This is the key word. The almah is pregnant and will give birth to a son, and she will call his name ImmanuEl. An almah is a young, never-married woman in Scripture (used of Rebekah in Proverbs 30:19), so this pregnancy of an unmarried woman caused by a divine intervention must be a virginal conception. There is no word in Hebrew for virgin, virgo intacta. The Rabbis, in an effort to deflect the obvious problem that this verse creates for them in Yeshua (Jesus) being the Messiah, say that b^etûlah should have been used if the text meant virgin. The problem for the Rabbis is that b^etûlah does not mean virgin either. It means “a woman of marriageable age.” The Rabbis use Deuteronomy 22:13-21 as proof of the definition virgin, but Gordon Wenham has shown convincingly that his word means a woman with a regular period when she was betrothed. It is also used of Esther after her overnight stay with the King (Esther 2:17, 19). Further proof comes from Joel 1:8 where the word is used in reference to a married woman, “Wail like a b^etûlah.”

m. The Greek Septuagint (LXX) reads parthenos, a word meaning virgin. It was translated in 150 BC, a century and a half before Jesus was born, so the Jews recognized almah as meaning virgin at that time. Because their own Greek translation of the OT betrayed their claims, Isaiah 7:14 is the reason the Jewish synagogues gave up use of the Septuagint and went back to the Hebrew.

n.   The sign is that “the never-married young woman is ‘with child.’ Putting all this together, she must be a virgin, and the Jewish translators of the LXX interpreted almah in that way.

o.   This one verse of Scripture is fought by the Rabbis so ferociously because this one verse, if interpreted the way the Jews did in 150 B.C., would, by its implications in Isaiah, bring the entire nation of Israel to see Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, the Son of David to come.

p.   Before this boy would be at an age of accountability, the land of Damascus and Samaria would be desolated, but the boy would continue to eat butter and honey, the food of a desolated country (Isa. 7:22). The house of David would survive the threat. The son of Isaiah, Shear-Yashub, “a remnant will return,” is not Immanuel, but Shear-Yashub a sign to the House of David that it will survive.

q.   Tree imagery: Israel will be ashamed of their sacred oaks and gardens, and they will dry up (Isa. 1:29). He will bring down every lofty cedar and oak (Isa. 2:13). But the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious and fruitful (Isa. 4:2). He will destroy his vineyard (Isa. 5:5-7). The roots will decay and their flowers blow away (Isa. 5:24). The great terebinth and oak will be cut down and left as stumps, but the Holy Seed will be the stump in the land (Isa. 6:13). Ahaz and the house of David shook in fear as the trees in the forest are shaken (Isa. 7:2) at two smoldering stubs of firewood. Their vineyards would soon become briers and thorns (Isa. 7:23-25) and the forests will burn (Isa. 9:18)

r.    Fire imagery: The mighty man and his work will become tinder to burn with no quenching (Isa. 1:31), but the Lord will cleanse Jerusalem’s bloodstains with a spirit of judgment and fire (Isa. 4:4), for the Lord will be a flaming fire and smoke over Mount Zion (Isa. 4:6). His fiery anger will burn against those who deny justice to the innocent (Isa. 5:23-25).  But the seraphs (the burning ones) praise the King continually, shaking the doorposts and filling with smoke (Isa. 6:1-4). Rezin and Pekah are nothing but smoldering stubs of firewood (Isa. 7:4), already smoking with their own destruction. For war equipment will be burned (Isa. 9:5), and wickedness burns like a fire (Isa. 9:18-19).

s.    The same thing can be done with water and light/darkness imagery.

t.    The Sons: The King-Priest of Isa. 6:1 is the Holy Seed (Gen 3:15; Gal. 3:16) in the Stump (Isa. 6:13) and the Immanuel Child (Isa. 7:14) and the Mighty God of Isa. 9:6-7. There is no mention of a son after King Uzziah dies (Isa. 6:1-2). There is the Priest-King. He is the Son of Isa. 7:14 and Isa. 9:5-7. Despite the attempt by Pekah and Rezin to install their own ‘son’ Tabeel (meaning good for nothing) on Judah’s throne, there is a Son of David that will rule.

u.   Further details on this child are found in Isaiah 9. His birth there is assurance that warfare and oppression for Israel will end. Note the parallels between Isa. 7:14 and Isa. 9:5. The Immanuel child does not represent only the presence of God, but he is in fact the Mighty God (El Gibor) (Isa. 9:6). Thus, the King-Priest of Isaiah 6 is a future Davidic Ruler who is Deity in his essence.

v.   Justice and Righteousness: The prophecy opens with a promise that Zion will be redeemed in justice and righteousness (Isa. 1:27). The Song of the Vineyard in ch. 5 ends with a vain search for justice and righteousness (Isa. 5:7) though the Lord of hosts will be exalted in justice and righteousness (Isa. 5:16). From Isaiah 1-12, this word pair is only found one other time, at Isa. 9:6-7 as the foundation of the eternal kingdom ruled by the divine Son. Only through this king will God be pleased with what he finds in his vineyard.

w. Isa. 7:16 – Before the boy knows enough – The boy mentioned here is a type of the promised son of the virgin. A Jewish boy was bar-mitzvahed at 12 or 13 years at which time he was considered a moral adult, responsible for his own actions to reject wrong and choose the right. Thus, the sign proving Isaiah’s words about salvation coming through Immanuel born of a virgin would be the destruction of Israel and Syria by the Assyrian within a dozen years. That is exactly what happened, Syria and Israel were gone, laid waste, conquered by Assyria Syria in 732 BC, and northern Israel in 722 BC, just thirteen years after Ahaz became king.

x.   Isa. 7:16 – An unusual child – rejects the wrong and chooses the right. What child has ever done that? None! Except one! A Holy Seed from a stump (Isa. 6:13), the Hope, the Holy One of Israel who is high and lifted up.

y.   APPLICATION:  John 15 tells us to rest in Him, to abide in the Vine. Matthew 28:20 tells us he will be with us always

3.   DO NOT FEAR FOR FEAR IS COSTLY (Isa. 7:17-25)

a.   God will use Assyria and Egypt against Judah’s enemies (Isa. 7:17-20) and Judah herself. Pekah would be assassinated in an Assyrian-backed plot. Syria (Aram) was annexed by Assyria in 732. Damascus was overthrown, and Rezin was executed. The Assyrians would lay waste northern Israel. The inhabitants of Israel will be deported beginning in 733 B.C. and the final destruction of Samaria in 722 BC during the reign of Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:9-12). But there is a price for Judah to pay. The desolation they cause will make agriculture give way to animal husbandry, and previously large flocks will be reduced to no more than one cow and two goats (Isa. 7:23-25).

b.   But the coming of Assyria would spell worse trouble for Judah too than she had ever known in her history as a separate kingdom. The temporary relief from Judah’s enemies would be more than offset by the domination and oppression of Judah’s new ally, Assyria.

c.   Isa. 7:21-25 – curds and honey – curds are more like butter since it was produced by churning (Prov. 30:33) (ghee, butterfat produced when cow butter is melted, boiled, or strained. Honey could be from bees or syrup from dates and figs.) . This is a direct reference back to verse 15, and a reversal. Here, Judah will be so depopulated that all there will be to eat will be curds and honey. Civilization as they know it will be gone. But a remnant will return.

d.   APPLICATION:  Fear will cost you time. It will cost you money. Fear will cost you your friends, your relationships, your children. Fear will make you a person who will not trust or love. But perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18).

Invitation:

Sources:

Tokunboh Adeyemo, gen ed. Africa Bible Commentary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006.

Robert Cole, “Isaiah,” OT Survey notes, SEBTS, 2005.

David F. Payne, “Isaiah.” International Bible Commentary, F.F. Bruce, ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986.

Lawrence O. Richards, Bible Reader’s Companion. Wheaton: Victor, 1991.

Walton, Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Old Testament, 593-4.

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[1] ABC, Isaiah 7:9.