Act on Revealed Truth - Isaiah 7:1-16

It is hard to imagine and impossible to know all of the problems that our neighbors and friends are having in America today. There has been no period of time quite like the one in which we live today; the nearest thing to it would be the decade or more that the oldest Americans remember as the Great Depression. It seems to me, as a teacher of God’s Word, that His word becomes more relevant each lesson I teach. The depression started with bank failures in 1929 and definitely continued through the thirties, and would have probably lasted longer had we not become involved in WWII. I simply use that circumstance, which I experienced as a teen-ager, to predict that the one we are in today may last ten years or longer. End results will be more devastating because of lack of work ethic among our people today, and greater tendencies toward crime—and the fact that the family farm is almost nonexistent today. Some may ask why this would make a difference.

Before the depression, the family farm was the source of much of the family’s income. When cotton dropped to five cents a pound and hogs and cattle were worth about the same—chickens and eggs were not worth selling. Therefore, these farm families simply fed their families with what they grew on the farm and in gardens. Many of the people that had no farm land went hungry.

I predict that the depth of depression that we face today will yield more misery and greater problems than the one in the 30s. At that time in our history, America’s economy depended primarily on agriculture. A much larger percentage of Americans owned some land and lived on small farms, and were in a position to actually grow the basic foods needed for survival. A vast number of our people actually lived off the land. Today, that is not possible, and I really hate to think about what our people will do when the borrowed money is gone and the day of sacrifice approaches. Hungry men grow desperate and ungodly sinful hungry men grow despotic.

We live today in a sin cursed world and depression at this time will bring more uncertainty than people have ever experienced. When the government hand outs are depleted and there are still no jobs available people will grow desperate. We should remember that life will continue as it has been going, there will still be failing health, death of loved ones, accidents, marital infidelity, and natural disasters. Such situations result in panic when good times are flowing…think what it will be like when money is gone and there are no jobs available. It would ease my mind if our country was growing in our dependence on God—but instead; the trend is just the opposite. One thing is for sure, those of us that believe will have to place our trust in God’s revealed truth and we will have to ACT ON THAT REVEALED TRUTH, trusting and believing that he cares for us.

As a background thought I would have you remember that God’s people were rescued from Egyptian bondage about 4000 years before the setting for our lesson today. The Israelites have been up and down, in and out, won and lost all these years depending upon their willingness to obey God, and it appears that they would have learned their lesson by this time. The lesson today took place around the year 734 BC, and today is 2009, or 2713 years later, and we still have not learned to listen to the prophets, and the writers of the word of God.

It was in the year 734 BC and Ahaz was king of Judah [south] was just before an attack by an alliance of Israel [north] and expected to be annihilated, but Isaiah predicted that Judah would not come to an end at that time. The sign of Immanuel was a sign of deliverance. Remember, ‘the house of David’ refers to Judah…’Ephraim’ was the dominant tribe in the north and refers to Israel which is the northern kingdom.

Shear-Jashub was the son of Isaiah and his name means “a remnant will return.” God named his son to remind his people that regardless of the wars, destruction, and captives taken, God promised that the Jewish people would never be completely destroyed…there will always remain the remnant. God has been faithful regarding his promises and he will remain faithful to us regarding his promises today.

Look at verse one closely. The alliance of the northern kingdom is larger and stronger by far than the city of Jerusalem. There should have been no problem with their success in this invasion. The people in the south realized how weak they were in comparison and they were scared. They trembled as if they were trees being blown by the wind. They were sure that they would be captured. But they were not! [See verse 7] because God had made a promise to protect them as long as they would obey him and stand firm in their faith. Verse 9 is the key to this lesson today. “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.”

There has never been a time in Jewish history that is more relevant to our history than it is today. To the best of my knowledge, we do not have an alliance of kingdoms already organized and set to destroy America. However, there is little doubt that an alliance against us could be organized easily because of the hostility of the mid and far east against us. Many years ago, Russia told America that they would never have to invade us to bring about our destruction. They said that we would crumble and fail from within our own borders, that we were our worst enemy. For some this was hard to take, and not easy to believe, but the time has now come when the interior operation of our system is faltering from every side. Jobs are gone, manufacturing is closing down, and banks are broke and failing. These are all circumstances that are upon us and no one can deny or argue about it. The solutions are where we disagree. Personally I do not believe that man has a solution to all of our problems. We can be confident that God has revealed truths that we must abide by—but far too many of our leaders do not believe and trust God.

I would like to think that I am the Isaiah of our day that is telling you now that America will never fail so long as God’s people will stand strong in their faith and strive to obey God. I truly believe this to be true. However, the problem that you and I have today is that we know that God is patient and long suffering, but we do not know when his patients will run out with America’s present inclination to discard his name from our money, to remove his name from our courts and offices of justice, and from the class rooms of our young people in schools and colleges. His patients could well be running low, since this trend has been the order of the day since back in the degrading 1950s and 60s. This has been a period of about fifty to sixty years. The wandering in the wilderness only lasted forty years.

Let me remind you that the children of Israel suffered under Egyptian bondage for about four hundred years. When God sent Moses to lead them out of Egypt, one would think they would have trusted God all the way to the Promised Land. But they were disobedient, and a one year move from bondage to the land of milk and honey became a forty year journey through a desolate wilderness. This is a revealed truth. Our lesson today tells us that we should act on or go by the revealed truth of God. Therefore, I am called on as a teacher of the bible to remind you that we have many examples of revealed truths in God’s word that tells us that God will not tolerate indefinitely man’s denial of God—disobedience will result in disaster. I can not tell you how much disobedience God will tolerate—but I can tell you with authority that his patients are not unlimited.

When God decided to destroy Sodom and Georama because of their disobedience Abraham ask Him if he would spare the people if he could find just a few who were still worshipping Him. God agreed. The bargaining went on until even as few as ten Godly people could not be found worthy. Listen people! There probably is not a single town with a population of approximately 500 to 600 people any where in this country that has as many criminals, law breakers, homosexuals, cheating husbands, giving and taking of bribes, tax dodgers…and the list goes on…as the Senate and House of Representatives. AND THERE ARE NO LIMITED TERMS.

Now, do not blame the criminals in the house and senate for all of our troubles. God will not! He will be the first to tell the American voters that they are the ones responsible for electing these people and failing to demand their accountability. Only God can save America from certain destruction and whether He will or not all depends on his believers. The remedy, God’s plan is spelled out very plainly and easy for anyone to understand. He made us a promise…and He will keep it. If My people, who are called by my name, [Christians] will humble themselves, repent of their sins, seek my face and pray—then I will hear their prayers and save their land.