Take your Bibles with me and turn to Isaiah 8. Isaiah chapter 8. We're going to cover this whole chapter, but we're going to start by just reading the first ten verses.
1 Moreover the LORD said unto me, Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a man’s pen concerning Mahershalalhashbaz.
2 And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.
3 And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said the LORD to me, Call his name Mahershalalhashbaz.
4 For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.
5 The LORD spake also unto me again, saying,
6 Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son;
7 Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks:
8 And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.
9 Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.
10 Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.
Isaiah 8:1-10
How God will use Assyria
If you remember from last week, Isaiah lived at a time when Judah was going through a bit of a crisis. That crisis was two things.
First, the Assyrian Empire—who were the bad guys, the Nazis of their day—were taking over the world by force and cruelty and threatening that part of the world. Assyria was expanding, and Judah and Israel were in its path.
Second, Judah’s problem was that Syria and Israel got together and were also threatening to destroy Judah.
So last week, in chapter seven, God had Isaiah confront the king of Judah—a bad king named Ahaz—and tell him not to trust in Assyria, but to trust in the Lord.
He also said a child would be born named Emmanuel, and before the child was old enough to understand, God was going to take care of Israel and Syria.
They weren’t going to be problems anymore. But the main thrust was: you need to trust in the Lord.
Chapter 8 is much the same message. Same problem. Same message. God is telling Judah not to trust in Assyria.
God is going to use Assyria two different ways.
We see it in this chapter.
The first way that God is going to use Assyria is—God's going to use Assyria to destroy Israel and Syria.
The way God communicates this through Isaiah is that Isaiah is instructed to have a child and to name that child Maher‑shalal‑hash‑baz. That is a mouthful, and I'm pretty sure it was probably a mouthful back then, too.
But the name has a meaning, and the meaning is "Quick to the spoil. Hurry to the plunder." Imagine that being your name growing up.
It had to make bedtime even longer. "Good night, John Boy. Good night, Mary Ellen. Good night, quick to the spoil, hurry to the plunder."
But that name, much like the name of Emmanuel in chapter seven, is meant to remind Judah that God is gonna take care of the Israel/Syria problem for them, and they have nothing to worry about.
That name is like God whistling for the Assyrians, saying, “Come on, hurry up, come get the spoil, hurry up, come get the plunder, come get what you want from Israel and Syria. It’s yours for the taking.”
First, Isaiah is told to make a big scroll and write this name on it as a sign to the people—a sign that God is gonna use Assyria to destroy Israel and Syria and take care of this problem.
Then he goes to the prophetess—his wife. They have this baby, and God tells Isaiah to name him Mahershalalhashbaz: “Quick to the spoil. Hurry to the plunder.”
Before this baby is old enough to say “mama” and “dada,” God is gonna take care of the problem of Syria and Israel. This is extremely similar to the promise of Emmanuel from chapter 7—very similar language.
Warren Wiersbe believes that the immediate fulfillment of the virgin prophecy in chapter 7 involved Isaiah remarrying a woman who had never been married before. In his understanding, the baby got two names: Emmanuel and Mahershalalhashbaz. (I'd go by Emmanuel.)
Now remember, the wicked king of Judah, Ahaz, had made a pact with Assyria.
One of the commentaries I read—Andrew Davis—said this is like a mouse being threatened by two rats and making a pact with a tomcat for protection. The tomcat would be happy to eat all of them.
Assyria was happy to gobble up both Judah and Israel.
And that's exactly what they do. That's what number two is, the second phase.
In the first phase, God used Assyria to destroy Israel and Syria. In the second phase, God is going to use Assyria to judge Judah.
That's what verse six is starting to talk about. It says they despised the waters of Shiloah that go softly and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son.
Apparently the waters of Shiloah were some kind of brook, a little stream that ran beside Jerusalem, where the people got their water.
It wasn’t much to look at—not the mighty Mississippi—just a small trickle, a spring, but it was enough for them.
They despised that and instead looked to Assyria, the king of Assyria.
So Assyria becomes a flood—that’s the picture.
You despised the pool, and now a massive flood is coming. It will cover everything except the head.
The idea is that Assyria will come in, destroy everything, and the only thing they won’t be able to take is Jerusalem.
That’s a picture of what would happen later under King Hezekiah.
So that is the main force of this chapter. Now I want to read the rest of the chapter (11-22)
11 For the LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,
12 Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.
13 Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
14 And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15 And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.
16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.
17 And I will wait upon the LORD, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.
18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.
19 And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?
20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
21 And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.
22 And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.
Isaiah 8:11-22
Walking in the Light vs Walking in Darkness
It seems to me that Isaiah is using this predicament as a teaching moment. He's trying to get Judah to look to the Lord and to walk by faith.
And to do that, throughout this chapter, Isaiah makes a contrast, a contrast between two ways of living.
He's not the only person in Scripture to make this same contrast. Jesus ended the sermon on the mount by saying things like:
13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Matthew 7:13-14
John talked about "walking in the light" vs "walking in darkness."
However you want to say it - there are two ways to live, the godly way and the ungodly way. The right way and the wrong way. The path of light and the path of darkness.
And most people choose the path of darkness. That is the way Judah was going at that point in their history.
And so, for the rest of our time tonight, I want to look at what Isaiah teaches us in this chapter about what it means to walk in the light.
Then we'll look at what Isaiah teaches us in this chapter about what it means to walk in darkness.
Walking in the light
Isaiah points out eight things that are true when you're walking in the light.
The first is...
1. When you are walking in the light, you are walking in God's strong grip (11)
Look at verse 11:
11 For the LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,
Isaiah 8:11
The idea here is that God is gripping us with His strong hand. I don't know if you can remember being a small child in an overwhelming place and remembering the comfort of reaching up and holding your daddy’s hand. When we are walking with God, He has us. He is holding us.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Psalm 23:4
The second thing that is true when you are walking in the light is...
2. When you are walking in the light, you are walking in God's instruction
Again, in verse 11 Isaiah said "The Lord spake with me" and then "instructed me."
When we are walking in the light, we don't have to make things up as we go along. We don't have to figure everything out, because God instructs us, He guides us with his Word.
A third thing that is true about walking in the light is...
3. When you are walking in the light, you are living apart from the crowd.
At the end of verse 11 God said "You should not walk in the way of this people".
When you are walking in the light, you're not gonna be doing what everybody else is doing. You're gonna be different. You're gonna be swimming upstream. You're going to have to be comfortable not living like everybody else.
Most of the world is going one way, and they're probably gonna look at you and think that you're foolish to live this way. But that's walking in the light. It's the narrow path for a reason—few there be that find it.
And you have to be willing to be different.
4. When you are walking in the light, you have a fear that drives out other fears.
Look at verses 12-13
12 Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.
13 Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
Isaiah 8:12-13
Here's what that means: when you're walking in the light, when you're walking with the Lord, you don't have to be afraid of everything. You just have to fear the Lord. You have one thing to be afraid of.
God's going to take care of you.
Judah had a lot to be afraid of. They were afraid of Syria and Israel. And God's message was: “Don’t worry about Syria and Israel. Worry about me. Be afraid of me and do what I want you to do. And if you get that one thing right, I’ll take care of everything else.”
The fear of the Lord is the one fear that drives out all the other fears.
5. When you are walking in the light, God is your sanctuary
Look at verse 14
14 And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Isaiah 8:14
When you're walking with the Lord, God is your safe space. That's what a sanctuary is—He is your place of refuge, a place you can go where you don't have to hide.
You don't have to fear.
Three more things about walking with the Lord.
6. When you are walking in the light, you are living bounded by His word
Look at verse 16
16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.
Isaiah 8:16
The idea here is that Isaiah is preserving what God has said among the people who will listen. The nation may reject it, but God's people are going to hold on to it.
When you're walking in the light, God's Word has authority in your life. It sets the boundaries. You don't get to say, “Well, I know what the Bible says, but here's what I want to do.”
We do that, don't we? We know what God says about forgiveness, but we want to hold on to the grudge. We know what God says about honesty, but telling the truth might cost us something. And at that point we have to decide whose word we're going to live by.
Walking in the light means God's Word gets the final say. Even when it's inconvenient. Even when nobody else agrees.
7. When you are walking in the light, you are attentive to the Lord
17 And I will wait upon the LORD, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.
Isaiah 8:17
Notice that Isaiah says he's going to wait on the Lord even while the Lord is hiding His face from the house of Jacob. Things are bad. God's judgment is coming. And Isaiah says, “I'm still going to look to Him.”
That's faith. You keep looking to God when you can't see what He's doing.
It's easy to say you trust the Lord when everything is going your way. But what about when you've prayed and the problem is still there? What about when you don't have an answer?
Isaiah isn't saying he understands everything. He's saying he knows where to look. I'm gonna wait on the Lord. I'm gonna keep trusting Him. I'm not gonna go find an Assyria because God hasn't worked on my schedule.
8. When you are walking in the light, you are witness for others
18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.
Isaiah 8:18
Isaiah and his children were signs to the people around them. Even the names of those boys reminded people of what God had said.
Now, God hasn't told you to name your child Mahershalalhashbaz. Your child will probably be thankful for that. But when you walk with the Lord, your life ought to point people to Him.
People ought to see something in the way you handle trouble. Something in the way you treat people. Something in what you trust when everybody else is afraid.
You don't have to have every answer to be a witness. You can say, “This is hard. I don't know how it's gonna work out. But I know the Lord, and I'm going to trust Him.”
That's walking in the light. Now let's look at the other way.
Walking in the darkness
1. When you are walking in the darkness, you are rejecting God's provision
6 Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son;
Isaiah 8:6
Remember that little stream? It wasn't impressive, but it supplied what they needed. And they rejected it. They wanted the power of Assyria instead.
That's what we do when we decide that what God has given us isn't enough. His Word isn't enough. Prayer isn't enough. Obeying Him isn't enough. We've got to find something that looks stronger.
Now, that doesn't mean you can't go to a doctor or ask somebody for help. God often provides through other people. The problem is when getting what you want becomes more important than trusting and obeying Him.
Ahaz was willing to turn away from the Lord to get the protection he wanted. And the thing he thought would save him became the thing that threatened to swallow him.
Be careful what you're willing to disobey God to get. It may not give you the security you think it will.
2. When you are walking in the darkness, God is a stumblingblock and snare to you
14 And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15 And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.
Isaiah 8:14-15
The same Lord who is a sanctuary to the person trusting Him becomes a stone of stumbling to the person rejecting Him.
God hasn't changed. The difference is how you're responding to Him.
When God tells you something you don't want to hear, you can bow to it, or you can fight it. And if you keep fighting Him, you're gonna find that you can't move Him out of the way.
The New Testament applies this stone of stumbling to Jesus. People still stumble over Him. They want God's help, but they don't want to come to God through His Son. They want forgiveness, but they don't want to admit that they need a Savior.
You can take refuge in Christ. But you cannot reject Him and expect to be safe from God's judgment.
3. When you are walking in the darkness, you will be led by false spiritual guidance
19 And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?
20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
Isaiah 8:19-20
These people were turning to mediums, to people who claimed they could speak to the dead. And Isaiah asks the obvious question: shouldn't God's people seek their God?
They had a word from the living God, and they were looking somewhere else for an answer.
People still do that. They'll look for spiritual direction in a horoscope, or somebody claiming to have a message from beyond, while their Bible sits closed.
But the test in verse 20 is whether the message agrees with God's Word. It doesn't matter how spiritual it sounds. It doesn't matter how confident the person is. If it contradicts what God has said, you shouldn't follow it.
And that applies to me, too. You ought to have your Bible open. What I say has to be measured by what God says.
4. When you are walking in the darkness, you will live a life of spiritual famine and restless roaming
21 And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.
Isaiah 8:21
There's real hunger and real suffering in this verse. Judgment is going to leave people desperate. And notice what they do with that desperation: they curse their king and their God.
They look upward, but they aren't looking upward in faith. They're angry. They're blaming God.
Trouble doesn't automatically make a person turn to the Lord. Sometimes a person just gets harder. They go from one thing to the next, looking for something that will satisfy them, and every disappointment becomes another reason to be bitter.
Don't let trouble drive you farther from the One you need. Isaiah said, “I will wait upon the LORD.” These people curse Him. Same crisis. Two different responses.
5. When you are walking in the darkness, it ends in the darkness of hell
22 And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.
Isaiah 8:22
The immediate picture here is the darkness and anguish of God's judgment on the land. Isaiah is showing us where their rejection of God is taking them.
And when we look at the rest of Scripture, we see where the road of rejecting God finally ends. Jesus warned us that the broad way leads to destruction. Hell is real, and we need to take that warning seriously.
But you don't have to keep walking that road.
Think about the contrast we've seen tonight. Isaiah is waiting on the Lord. These people are cursing Him. Isaiah is holding on to God's Word. These people are looking for another voice. One finds a sanctuary. The other stumbles.
What are you trusting tonight? What gets the final say in your life? Where do you turn when you're afraid?
You may have been looking everywhere but to the Lord. You may have been trying to make your own way work for a long time. You can turn to Him tonight.
Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again. He is able to forgive you. You don't have to make yourself worthy before you come. You need to repent and put your faith in Him.
And Christian, whatever is frightening you right now, bring it to the Lord. Obey what He's already told you. Hold on to His Word. Wait on Him when you don't understand.
The God who ruled over Assyria is able to care for you. You can trust Him. Walk in His light.
