October 2, 2022 - God's Grace for Judah (Isaiah 20:1-6)

God's Grace for Judah (Isaiah 20:1-6)

Rev. Myung-Sin Choi

“1 In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it, 2 at the same time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, 'Go, and remove the sackcloth from your body, and take your sandals off your feet.' And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3 Then the Lord said, 'Just as My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia, 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. 5 Then they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation and Egypt their glory. 6 And the inhabitant of this territory will say in that day, 'Surely such is our expectation, wherever we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and how shall we escape?' ' ”

Introduction

Within the headquarters message, it was talking about the background of prayer. Someone who knows prayer, they can change the world. This is a very important and precious message. The power of the heavenly throne comes upon us when we pray. Rev Kwang-Su Ryu’s mother’s life was surrounded only by work, home, and church. When she returned home from work, she would cook meals for her children and family and then go to church to pray. She would pray until early morning prayer time and return home. When I heard this, I realized that this person truly knew what prayer was. She was someone who knew the power of the heavenly throne. The prayer of his mother was able to bear a great and beautiful fruit, which was her son, Rev. Ryu. Jochebed was someone who also knew what prayer was. Because of her prayer, the fruits that she bore was tremendous. Through her prayer, she was able to change the world. Not only that but Hannah was someone who knew prayer. Through Hannah’s prayer, she was able to bear a son, Samuel. Through her prayers, Samuel was able to receive the answer to change the world and his nation. What is absolute is that our prayers are all being answered and fruits are being bore. What is important is that we know the gospel and we are within the fruits of the gospel. If that is so, if we hold onto the gospel and pray, then our family and nation will be saved through us. Through the power of the heavenly throne, we are enjoying this power. When we pray, we are moving the heavenly throne. If we know this fact and pray in concentration, then God will absolutely allow us to bear great fruits. This is because God is alive and listening to all of our prayers, and He will answer our prayers. We need to enjoy this as we pray. Through today’s sermon, we will experience who God is, who is truly alive. God is not someone who is just in heaven but He is within us and showing us realistic answers every single day.

1. Signs Shown to Isaiah

1) Historical background

Verses 1-2 - King Sargon was an important figure in the Bible. King Sargon’s brother, who was also a king, they made an alliance together to attack Israel. In order to attack and kill the nation of Israel, King Sargon killed his brother. Through this, he was able to conquer Israel and become king. He was the one who caused the destruction of Israel. King Sargon didn’t end there but he went to Damascus and Babylon, and destroyed both of these nations. He became king of those nations and destroyed them. He became a very strong king. If you look in today’s main Biblical Scripture, he went to Assyria and destroyed Assyria as well. This incident occurred after he conquered and destroyed Northern Israel. After he destroyed and conquered Northern Israel, the nation of Judah started trembling in fear.

But at that time, what did God do? We can see in verse 2. Judah who was trembling in fear, God gave them a command. God commanded Isaiah to take off his clothes and go barefoot. This means that He was telling Isaiah to go naked but He didn’t tell Isaiah to do that for a few days but for three years. Many theologians argued that God didn’t make him go completely naked but at least probably gave him an undergarment to wear. But people who are usually naked were the beggars. It is already embarrassing to go naked but it gets really cold at night as well. It must be so cold at nighttime but God also commanded Isaiah to go barefoot. God’s servant, Isaiah, he was suffering for three years being naked and barefoot. Why did God give this strange command? The reason is seen in verse 3.

2) Isaiah, naked and barefoot

Verse 3 - The people of Judah, when hardships came, God was commanding them to rely on Him but instead, the people of Judah didn’t seek after God. They didn’t seek after God but they went seeking after other nations like Egypt for help. When God saw this, God didn’t intend them to seek after other things but God wanted them to rely on Him alone. But God was showing that if you don’t rely on God, then you will suffer like being naked and barefoot. That is why God made Isaiah go naked and barefoot to be an example to the people of Israel. God was telling Judah that Egypt is not their savior but God is their Savior and they must rely on God alone.

Verse 4 - When you rely on Egypt, then God said that you live like a slave and beggar, and go naked and barefooted. God didn’t make Isaiah experience this for a few days but for three years where all the Israelites could see. This means that God was saying if you don’t rely on Me, then this is what will happen to Israel as well. They will experience shame as Isaiah did. What was the message of God behind this? God was commanding them to rely on Him alone and not on the world. God was commanding them to trust and rely on Him, and to seek after Him alone.

2. Jews in Lament

1) Egypt relied on Judah

Verse 5 - Israelites were really proud that they were a powerful nation but after they saw Egypt be destroyed, they were shocked. God was warning Israel. This realistically did occur. Israel did face destruction. Kush conquered Egypt in 727 BC. Ethiopia who conquered Egypt, Ethiopia went to Judah to create an alliance to destroy Assyria but at that time, God commanded Cush to return back to their nation. At that time, God gave Cush a covenant. God commanded them to just wait patiently and see the banner of victory that God will raise for them. God was commanding them to just listen for the victorious trumpet that will be blown after their victorious war. At that time, Cush obeyed God’s word and returned back to their nation. And, Judah was attacked by Assyria and as a result, King Hezekiah went to the temple of God and pleaded for help from God. Through King Hezekiah’s prayer and plea, God sent one angel to completely destroy the 185,000 Assyrian army. Only one Assyrian soldier survived this ordeal but later on he dies from assassination.

As we spoke about this last week, Egypt gets divided into 12 sections and gets attacked by Kush. After the division of Egypt, God gave a warning to Egypt. God wanted to save Egypt so that was why God gave a warning to them. Egypt experienced many hardships, and suffering, and incidents and their political leaders caused a lot of chaos and confusion within their nation. In the midst of that chaos and confusion, King Manasseh becomes king. King Manasseh didn’t wait and watch what God would do for them but rather, he sought after Egypt for help instead. There was another king of Assyria who rose up and attacked Egypt. Egypt who was in the midst of suffering and chaos at that time, and Assyria easily conquered Egypt at that time. It was written that they will be afraid and ashamed as seen in verse 5 due to their defeat. We need to see how God works in history. In order to save and restore Egypt, God gave them many hardships and sufferings. In order to do that, He made sure to uproot all of their fundamental problems like idolatry and even destroyed them so that they could return back to Him. Through the incident of Judah, God was using Judah as an example to help Egypt return back to Him. God was guiding them in the midst of His grace to help them to return back to Him. When you look at this time, when hardships and problems come to us, they are all being given to us to guide us towards greater answers and blessings. That is why for people of God, when problems arise, they are not problems for us. God gives us problems to bless us. But something astounding happens.

2) The Jews' lamentations

Verse 6 - This means that when Egypt was conquered and destroyed, what will Israel do? Will they return back to God or where would they seek for help? Instead of seeking after God, they were wondering around and asking, “Who can save us now?” Those who don’t rely on God, this is what will happen to you. Those who are destroyed, this is what will happen to you. If you look in the Bible, it speaks many times about prophecies. We can see the content of all of these prophecies were all the same.

Jeremiah 3:12 “Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say: ‘Return, backsliding Israel,’ says the Lord; ‘I will not cause My anger to fall on you. For I am merciful,’ says the Lord; ‘I will not remain angry forever.' ” - God’s love is so vast that He constantly pleas for Israel to return back to Him. This is the main content of the Bible. We need to reexamine our walk of faith. When hardships and problems come to us, it is not God punishing us. That is not it at all. It is way beyond that.

Zechariah 1:3 “Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: 'Return to Me,' says the Lord of hosts, 'and I will return to you,' says the Lord of hosts.” - God was pleading them to return back to Him. Same thing. From here, we need to hold onto the fact that for people of God, whatever problems come to us, we can always return back to God. If we just return back to God, God will always welcome us with open arms at any time. There are 16 prophets who wrote these prophecies in the Bible but it is the same message over and over again. But the Israelites kept failing to realize this message and prophecy.

The last book of the Old Testament is the book of Malachi. There was not a single prophet that was sent to God’s people for 400 years but a final prophet came to man, and that man was John the Baptist. What did the last and final prophet say? John the Baptist said to the people that they must repent to God. He was telling them to return to God. Can you understand the love of God from here? This is who God is.

This was what John the Baptist said in Matthew 3:8-9 “Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, 9 and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.” - No matter how great and nice people of God is, if you don’t return back to God and repent, then it doesn’t matter if you are considered people of God. If you just return back to God and repent, then God will accept and welcome you as well as forgive you. But this John the Baptist who was proclaiming the gospel, what did the Jews do to him? They killed him. This is astounding.

3. Grace from Jesus

1) Transcendental grace

The same thing happened to Jesus as it was shown in John 5:4-6 “For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. 5 Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, 'Do you want to be made well?' ” - God has given us transcendental grace. There were so many diseased and ill people surrounding and brought before Jesus at that time. The Israelites had their own concept of faith; they believed that whoever steps into the water first, they will be healed. At that time, the Israelites had faith that had no correlation with the gospel whatsoever. They were only waiting for the water to move so that they could be “healed.” They weren’t looking for God’s word or Jesus at all. This was the level of their faith but at that Jesus comes before them.

John 5:5-6 - This man who was lying with a disease with no hope and desire for life, Jesus directly comes before him. This man didn’t come before Jesus but Jesus came to him directly. In order to save this man, Jesus directly went to this diseased man. This is what you call a person of God.

2) Transcendental answer

John 5:7-8 “The sick man answered Him, 'Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.' 8 Jesus said to him, 'Rise, take up your bed and walk.' ” - The Israelites were only focused on going towards the water to be healed. They had incorrect faith and this was showing the level and state of the faith of the religious leaders as well. The religious leaders had no idea how to provide true healing.

Jesus who knew this, Jesus said in John 5:8 - Jesus was commanding with His word and with His word, Jesus commands the man to walk. Jesus was proclaiming that the moment this diseased man walks, his darkness as well as his fate and destiny will all healed and be destroyed. This man received an answer that was beyond his imagination. The Israelites’ goal was just to go to the water but Jesus commanded them to walk. The diseased man was able to walk again and he was able to receive God’s great grace. This showed who Jesus truly was, the promised Messiah. If this was you, you will be thanking Jesus for this great miracle.

3) Transcendental faith

But Jesus tells the diseased man who has been healed in John 5:14-16 “Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, 'See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.' 15 The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Honor the Father and the Son. 16 For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath.” - What does this mean? Jesus was telling the man that he is completely freed. Jesus was giving him a message on how to stay liberated, which was not to commit and live in sin anymore. The man who was healed, this man should give thanksgiving and obey Jesus, and resolve not to commit sin again.

But in John 5:15-16 - The healed man goes to the Jews and tells them that the man who healed him was Jesus. The Jews saw that Jesus performed a miracle and healed a man on the Sabbath Day and as a result, Jesus was persecuted. This started the persecution of Jesus. Ever since Jesus healed a diseased man, this started the persecution for Jesus. Not only that, but the Jews started their plot to kill Jesus. What does this mean? This shows the dead spiritual state of the religious leaders, ill people, and the Israelites. All of this happened because Jesus healed a man.

Conclusion

Jesus said in Matthew 23:37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” - You can see the sadness and agony of Jesus from here. I think Jesus was crying when He said this. Jesus loved His people so much but they were doing something else and doing unnecessary things. God doesn’t expect much from us but what He expects from us is to believe and trust in Him. God wants us to rely and trust in Him. Then, God promised that He will take full responsibility over us. This is so simple. The message that God has given to us, God isn’t asking much from us, He just wants us to trust in Him. With the power of God, He will protect and guide us. If we entrust everything to God, then tremendous answers and blessings will come to us. Truly enjoy this. May you receive tremendous answers.