“Then the royal spokesman stood and called out loudly in Hebrew: Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! This is what the king says: “Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, for he cannot rescue you. Don’t let Hezekiah persuade you to rely on the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord will certainly rescue us! This city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.’” Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: “Make peace with me and surrender to me. Then every one of you may eat from his own vine and his own fig tree and drink water from his own cistern until I come and take you away to a land like your own land — a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you by saying, ‘The Lord will rescue us.’ Has any one of the gods of the nations rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my power? Who among all the gods of these lands ever rescued his land from my power? So will the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?’” (Isaiah 36:13-20 CSB)
Some birthdays make you stop, think and look back on your life with some introspection. I turned sixty-five a few weeks ago and it was one of those kind of birthdays. It made me spend some time thinking about where my life has been and where it’s going. I’ve received many reminders of how life tends to change around one’s sixty-fifth birthday.
I’ve had lots of reminders about making decisions about social security insurance. I’ve watched my life insurance premiums begin the inevitable climb towards the range that makes it unaffordable and senseless. And I’ve begun planning for the day when I will stop working and begin drawing upon my retirement savings.
Perhaps the biggest shock was when I received some targeted media news brief that told me after you reach sixty-five, on average, you only celebrate one more healthy birthday. Good grief, I didn’t need somebody telling me that. I’m beginning to feel it in my own body each morning.
But I’m also noticing some mental and spiritual changes in my life. I’ve been recognizing that faith is more about how I live out my beliefs each day and more than just what I know in my head or hold as sacred in my heart. In other words, faith is more about how we live life each day than what we profess with our mouths or claim to believe in our hearts. Biblical faith is also practical, not just theoretical. I think that’s what the Apostle James meant when he said: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him?” (James 2:14 CSB) It’s not enough to learn it, know it, hold it in your heart as sacred truth but then refuse to live by it, daily.
We tend to live safe, predictable lives on the edge of faith and worldliness with occasional visits into real, God-trusting faith. We tend to act like faith in God means undisturbed continuation of our daily routines. But real faith is a disruption of those routines that demonstrates just how real our invisible God is to a world full of skepticism. If no one ever asks us to explain the hope that is within us, is our hope any different than their hope? Is our faith real enough and so radical that it requires us to step out of the ordinary and into the extraordinary? Is our belief in God so audacious that it requires a “new birth” that results in a different mindset and relationship with Him? Does our faith in God require and demand a change in how we live and perceive reality? If not, is it real faith?
This week, we delve into the realm of real, life altering faith in God in Isaiah 36-37. Don’t misunderstand me, we’ve been talking about this kind of faith all along but we tend to talk about it more than we really act upon it. Why is this kind of faith so suddenly “in your face”? Because the people of Judah are facing a reality that has only been a potential threat, until now. This is even apparent in the sudden change in Isaiah’s style of writing. What has been poetic prophecy for most of the previous 35 chapters is now historical prose. Just compare the language of Isaiah 35 with that of Isaiah 36. Even an untrained eye can see the difference.
Assyria is no longer a possible, looming threat, they are the reality knocking on the gates of the city. Ding-dong, anybody home? Time to get real, people! This should not come as a surprise to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, and it should not surprise us, either. What Isaiah had warned king Ahaz about back in chapter seven is now the reality his son, king Hezekiah, is facing. In similar language to chapter seven, the king of Assyria has sent his spokesman to meet Hezekiah’s representatives near the conduit of the upper pool, by the road to the Launderer’s Field. There’s a real sense of, “I told you so.”
But we need to hear the taunts of the Assyrian king, “What are you relying on? You think mere words are strategy and strength for war.” In other words, the Assyrian king views the faith of Hezekiah and the people of Judah as “mere words” and as insufficient to protect them from him and his army. If our faith is nothing more than “mere” words, then they truly are insufficient to protect us from the challenges and dangers that life throws at us. Is your faith hollow, empty and devoid of any real trust in God? Is your faith just words without any real dependence upon and obedience to the living God?
Faith that exhibits itself as “mere words” is faith that quotes scripture but refuses to live in obedience to it. It is the kind of faith that expects and even demands God judge men for sin while ignoring its own unrepentant sin. It sees the mote in another’s eye while ignoring the beam in its own. It is faith that prays with emboldened pride rather than humility. It is faith that tries to live life serving two masters, God and self. It is faith that is more interested in seeking things than in seeking God and His kingdom. It is the kind of faith that tries to build one’s life on the shifting sands of culture instead of the solid rock of God’s truth. Is your faith “mere words” or is it real?
Next, he reminds them of the foolishness of depending on Egypt to deliver them from Assyria. He tells them that Egypt is a “splintered reed” that will simply pierce their hand when they rely or “lean” upon them for deliverance. This is like a person of faith who relies on human relations, personal achievement and financial success to provide a sense of stability and hope. When you lean on those things, they collapse under the weight and leave you regretting that decision.
Finally, he calls their faith in God foolish and “mere words” as he shows a complete lack of understanding regarding the LORD God. But, I want to leave these thoughts until a little later… we’ll come back to them. But I do want you to notice, he challenges their faith by calling it backward and out of step with modern thought and understanding. He offers them two thousand horses if they can supply trained riders for them. He mocks them by suggesting that even with such a formidable number of cavalry, they could not drive back a single one of his officers, even the worst officer among his entire force.
But why? Because they know nothing about how to fight with modern tactics and weapons. In other words, their faith and their God is nothing in comparison to the modern ways his warriors can wage war. The Assyrians introduced the mounted cavalry into the ways of warfare and this taunt is his way of saying, “your old fashioned ways and beliefs are no match for us.” Sound familiar? All of the Assyrian royal spokesman’s taunts are aimed at the very heart of their faith claims while exposing the weaknesses of false faith.
Hezekiah’s spokesmen try to squelch the Assyrian spokesman by requesting their negotiations take place in Aramaic, not Hebrew. This would prevent his threats from being understood by the men positioned on the city’s walls. Well, that sort of backfired on them. He decided to direct his next threat directly at them. In essence he tells them, don’t believe Hezekiah because the LORD, your God, cannot rescue you from us. He then lays out a well crafted but, ultimately, self-defeating response: “Trust me, not your god. If you surrender to me then you can continue living just like you are until I come and take you away to live in a land just like this one. Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you. Your god can’t save you any better than the gods of these other nations I’ve conquered were able to save them. I’ve conquered them and I’ll conquer you and your god, too.”
Why did I call it a self-defeating argument? Because it is blasphemous, mocks the LORD God and simply seals Assyria’s fate. I want you to notice the response by Hezekiah’s counselors: they came “to Hezekiah with their clothes torn” and reported what the Assyrian spokesman said. While it doesn’t tell us how or when these men tore their clothes, it does imply that they tore them in response to the Assyrian’s blasphemous words. But we aren’t finished, not by a long shot. King Hezekiah hears their report, immediately tears his own clothes, covers himself in sackcloth and goes to the LORD’s temple. His actions bear all the marks of genuine contrition, confession and repentance.
Folks, we need to recognize when our faith is hollow, mere words and lacking action. When we do, we must be contrite, confess our lack of true faith and repent before our God. The king called it “a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace.” That’s not an editorial comment on his people’s faith, that’s a direct reference to his own faith. He sends his advisors and the leading priests – who are also covered in sackcloth – to Isaiah with these words: “It is as if children have come to the point of birth, but there’s not strength to deliver them.”
Does the king refer to himself or to the LORD God as being too weak to deliver the people? I believe, based on his acts of contrite repentance, he’s speaking about himself – not God. “I can’t do anything else to save them. I have no strength to deliver them. I need God’s help!” The king then says, “Perhaps the LORD your God will hear” what was said by the Assyrian spokesman and rebuke the Assyrian king. So Isaiah, offer up a prayer for the surviving remnant.
Does Isaiah pray for the surviving remnant? Nope, prayer for the surviving remnant is not necessary. In fact, Isaiah doesn’t even stop to pray before offering a response to king Hezekiah. He already has God’s response, he’s been delivering it to the king for quite some time. “Don’t be afraid because of the words you have heard, with which the king of Assyria’s attendants have blasphemed me. I am about to act… and he will fall by the sword.”
We are not to live in fear of what the world threatens or says about the LORD our God. He is quite capable of defending Himself against any threat. He is also quite capable of delivering us and fulfilling His promises to us. But you need to reread those words. He can defend Himself, deliver us and fulfill His promises to us. But don’t try and put more into those promises than He did. Don’t try and make His promises to us go beyond His word. But don’t sell Him short, either. He can defend Himself and He can and will deliver those who have placed their faith in Him.
I mentioned above that our faith is, all too often, “mere words”. It is empty, devoid of God’s Spirit and His power. We are known to sling scripture like stones upon the heads of sinners instead of falling humbly before Him confessing our own sin. Like the people of Jerusalem in 701 BC, we stand before an enemy who sees our hollow, empty faith and seeks to use it to destroy us. Like Hezekiah, we must recognize our inability to deliver the children who have come to the point of birth. We stand hopeless, helpless, and powerless before the enemy at the gates. But our God is not like other gods who have fallen before this enemy, He is able to defend Himself and deliver us if we will truly trust Him.
In case you didn’t catch it, my examples of hollow, empty faith above were the same examples Jesus used in His Sermon on the Mount. Faith is empty and hollow, mere words, when it leaves us unchanged and powerless before the sin that ravages our lives. But real faith enables us to be light in a dark world, salt in a tasteless society, hope in the presence of hopelessness. If nobody asks us the reason for our hope, perhaps our faith is mere words. If we see someone who is cold, hungry or in need and we only offer them a prayer then perhaps our faith is dead. If we shrink back from the gates of hell, then perhaps our efforts are based on our own strength and not His.
Do we make “safe” decisions in our church’s ministry plans and goals or do we expect our God to display His glory and power? Do we live our lives and raise our children to expect God to respond in visible ways when we live in obedience to His commands? When we are weak in our faith, we cannot “work up” more of it. Faith is not something you buy at a Christian bookstore or soak up in a Bible study. Faith develops and grows through use and by seeing God be faithful in our bold obedience to His Word. We see God’s faithfulness and then act accordingly in bolder and bolder responses of obedience.
Are you shocking anybody, including yourself, by your faith responses to God?
Living our lives in radical dependence on and trust in God is what demonstrates His existence to a doubting world. “It is from him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom from God for us — our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption — in order that, as it is written: Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31 CSB) This doesn’t mean we are going to get “what we want” out of life but that we yield what we want to what God wants for our lives. We must never pray, “LORD, may our will be done.” We must ALWAYS pray, “LORD, may your will be done on earth – in our lives – just as it is done in Heaven.”
Faith is not something that is only real when we get to heaven, when eternity replaces time. Faith is what makes it possible to walk with God right here, right now! Real faith is what empowers us to love God above anything and everything else in life. Real faith is what makes it possible to love your neighbor in the same way you love yourself. Real faith is how you’re able to pray for your enemies, forgive those who’ve hurt you, go the extra mile, turn the other cheek, and pursue God instead of things.
Is your faith hollow, empty and just words? If so, it’s time to get real with God. Don’t listen to the lies of the enemy, listen to the promises of the God who loves, gave Himself for you, and can defend Himself and deliver you. Trust Him, now…
Hilltop Baptist Church - Shawnee, OK 
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