I ask you to take your Bible and go with me over to Isaiah chapter 31 and 32. We're going to be looking at two chapters this morning. Judah, as we saw a couple of weeks ago in chapter 30, is in the midst of a difficult time with the impending invasion of Assyria, actually already actualized at this point in time. And facing that uncertainty of defeat and terror, look to Egypt for strength and look to Egypt for deliverance, trusting the might of their chariots and their horses rather than seeking refuge in God. It's a story that invites us to reflect upon our own reaches toward things that we might trust. Do we look to the temporary and to the tangible? When we're confronted with life's difficulties, or do we find ourselves leaning on God? We find ourselves very easily running to those things that we have, or to those things that we can see, to those resources that are around us. Sometimes we take stock in our financial securities, thinking that the bigger our savings counts are, the better we'll be able to weather the storm that possibly is coming. We trust our technology and we seek its advice until we find Google Maps takes us to this bridge that's out, or we find ourselves trapped. seeking to understand better, maybe some problem that we might be feeling and we find a diagnose given and we've given ourselves a tropical disease. So we realize that maybe we shouldn't be trusting our ability to search on Google. And then there's always the waking up like many of us did this morning and saying, I think a cup of coffee might be the best thing to help me this morning. All those things aren't inherently wrong, It's good to have financial security. It's good to be able to look to the resources of others for help. It's good to be strengthened and secure in those ways. But the question that Judah had to wrestle with is the same thing that confronts us in our choices. What do we ultimately trust in? What are we relying upon? And Isaiah in this prophetic message, giving wisdom and confrontation to Judah is helping them to understand just how futile their temporary and tangible resources are in light of the incomparable glory of God and the ability to trust Him. Because not only does it stop in showing them just how futile and failing their resources are, he also grants them a promise, a vision of a righteous king and of a gloriously peaceful, eternal kingdom. This king, however, is not just our future hope, he's our present security. And so as we explore these two chapters, I want to invite all of us in to consider ourselves and to consider those places of trust and think about those things that we either can see or can control. And to be reminded, as Isaiah reminds the people of Judah, that their true security comes from the one who knows everything and has the power over all things. And so this morning we're going to have basically two major points. So we'll spend just a little time on the first one and more time on the second and unpack that a little bit more. So it's going to feel like a lopsided outline because I want to give attention to where our security truly lies and why we should put ourselves in the hands of the Lord rather than the things that we can see and hang on to. And the first point is this statement about Judah trusting Egypt's chariots rather than the Lord of armies. Trusting Egypt's chariots rather than the Lord of armies. If you take a look at verse one of chapter 31, a familiar word to us now as we've gone through Isaiah, this word woe. And it is a cry of agonized lament and even prophetic warning about the actions of Judah as they go down a road of disobedience, as they head toward a place of failure once again. And here the prophet is speaking with a woe oracle about the futile and failed trust that Judah is about to put into the hands of Egypt rather than the Lord. Now think about it for just a minute. If you're a small bit country, sandwiched between the major world powers of the time, and you recognize that one of them is coming your way and going to invade your territory, how would you feel about that situation? What would you do if you were in leadership of that country? And so Hezekiah and his counselors are terrified of what's coming down from Assyria. And they're needing help, but they're looking in the wrong place. And they make an appeal to Egypt for military aid. Now, Egypt at that time had lost a lot of its greatest power. They weren't as strong as they used to be, but compared to Judah, they were very significant. And they thought, well, maybe if we joined up together, we could do something positive here. And so last time we looked at this, we looked at chapter 30, and we saw that they were so interested in securing Egypt's help that they sent down emissaries with the wealth of Judah to try to persuade Egypt to join them in a coalition. In Isaiah 30, verse six and seven, It says this, through a land of trouble and distress, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the back of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels to a people who will not help them. They didn't know that yet, but that's exactly what was about to happen. Egypt seemed like the place to get the help they needed. Egypt had a vast supply of arms. Egypt seemed to have strategical superiority. It seemed like an excellent place to go look for help. And Israel not only saw the formidability of Egypt, they also had a familiarity with Egypt. They, of course, in the book of Exodus, chapter 14, found themselves fleeing the very chariots and horses of Pharaoh's army. So they understood that this was a significantly powerful nation. And God told them when they were moving into the land of promise to be very careful about who they set up as a king. And in Deuteronomy 17, speaking about the future kings that would come into the people of Israel, he says, your future king, now listen, must not multiply horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to multiply horses. Since the Lord has said to you, you shall never return that way again. Now, did they listen to that? Well, obviously Hezekiah is not listening to that, but someone else didn't listen to that, and his name was Solomon. And in 1 Kings chapter 10, Solomon imported horses from Egypt, chapter 10 in verse 28. A chariot could be imported from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver, a horse for 150, and so through the king's traders, they were exported. All of this material. So there was this temptation because of the familiarity that they had with Egypt and the formidability of Egypt's resources with all of their armament, with all of their strategic ability, they thought, well, sure, this just makes sense. What ruler wouldn't be tempted to do the same? And the prophet Isaiah's advice to them His prophetic utterance to them is counterintuitive. Don't do anything. Trust me. When God rebukes Egypt, he calls Egypt Rahab who does nothing. Right? And so here's Hezekiah and his counselor saying, well, does that mean that we shouldn't be doing anything? Must we also sit on our hands? Assyria is a real force. Assyria is coming. Assyria is wiping us out. Assyria is about to take Jerusalem. Should we just sit here? You know, sometimes there are times in our lives when actually doing nothing's the best thing to do. Because often we, in moments of panic, will fly to the worst place possible. And so here they are, about to make a big mistake. And so he rebukes them for this, for the efforts that they're making, for the wrong places that they're looking, for the trust that they're trying to grab from what's touchable, what's tangible, what's nearby. But instead of putting their trust in Egypt's chariots rather than the Lord of armies, there's something better that they could be doing and ought to be doing, and that is trusting the Lord of armies rather than Egypt's chariots. And that's our second point. And so here, as we move through chapter 31 and 32, we're going to see a striking contrast that God makes between human reliance and divine intervention. that Judah should not be placing their trust in Egypt's chariots and horses, no matter how powerful or secure they might seem to be, but rather to put themselves in the hands of God. And he shows, as we'll see here, just how there's no earthly force whatsoever, no matter how impressive it might be, that can compare to the living God. Because God doesn't just replace the things that we rely on, He surpasses the things that we rely on. Where chariots will falter, He endures. Where human alliances break up, He is faithful and steadfast. And so we're called to turn our trust from that which is temporary to that which is eternal. From that which is mere mortal to that which is divine. And so this morning I want us to look through chapters 31 and 32 and find five demonstrations of God's superiority. Five demonstrations of God's superiority. And the first one is that he's superior in his person. Superior in his person. Let's begin reading again in chapter 31 and we'll look at the first three verses. Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and who depend on horses. They trust in the abundance of chariots and the large number of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy One of Israel and they do not seek the Lord. But he also is wise and brings disaster. He does not go back on what he says. He will rise up against the house of the wicked and against the allies of evildoers. Now notice verse three particularly. Egyptians are men, not God. Their horses are flesh, not spirit. So what is the Lord saying here? That he is to be trusted because he is superior in his person. This highlights a very fundamental truth, that human resources are limited, but God is eternal. He is powerful. And he makes what is a very obvious statement, but one we need to hear, as simple and as plain as it is, that their temptation to rely upon military might, chariots and horses and soldiers, the things that they could see, the human resources that were there, that they're temporary, that they're fallible, and that they're ultimately powerless to help them. But God is eternal. Their horses are flesh, but God is not bound by physical limitations. He's not locked into time and space and the weaknesses of matter like we are. And this distinction is crucial because this is a fundamental mistake that they're making and a fundamental mistake that we make. Instead of relying upon these tangible things of Egypt, they should be looking at the infinitely greater power of God Almighty. Lord of the armies, he's described in this chapter. He's not just the powerful army. He is the power over all armies. God alone is worthy of that kind of trust. And we'll see more about that as we go forward. Because like I said, there are five demonstrations of why he's superior and five demonstrations of why we should be trusting him before we start looking other places. So let's move forward a little bit further. Not only is superior in his person, but he's also superior in his power. And in verse three, he talks about that. When the Lord raises his hand to strike, The helper will stumble and the one who has helped will fall. Both will perish together. And what Isaiah is reminding Judah of, Hezekiah and all of his counselors, is that whatever they're trusting, the human force and might of Egypt and all of that is going to ultimately crumble under the power of God. When God stands up to act in judgment, or if God stands up to act in mercy, nothing is going to stop Him. He will do His will. There is no force that's going to tell Him no, and when? And so Judah here has placed its trust in Egypt, believing that its military strength and its alliances could secure its future. And the prophet warns them, if you go down that road, you're going to find Egyptian and Judahite soldiers strewn in death on the battlefield. You're gonna die together. But his power, when he acts, will be ultimately victorious. And it might be a power demonstrated in the parting of the Red Seas and the people walking on dry land on what should be a very wet, muddy... Surface, yes. Thank you. Those big words, they trip me up. Or it might be something very, very small and insignificant and yet accomplishes his powerful purposes just as well. He might write with a little finger on a wall, you've been weighed in the balances and found wanting, and just leave a little gate open for the people to come into the city and change the empires of the world. And we find that ultimate victory in the weakest moment of God, if I can put it that way, just literally. When God himself in human form is taken by human hands and nailed on a cross, stripped of dignity, stripped of clothes, stripped even of the fellowship of the Father, left alone, mocked and abused and derided by humanity, alone on his own with no help whatsoever, where even Christ himself cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And yet, in that moment, he crushed the power of death. In that moment, he brought the one who holds that power, the devil, to nothing. The very weaknesses of God are stronger than all the collective strengths of humanity. Here's this passage. that tells us if you want to join hands with other things that you can see and touch, and if it's against the will of God, you will not be successful. True security comes from Him alone. And when He rises to defend, nothing will stop Him. And that leads us into our next point. He's not only superior in His person, superior in His power, He is superior in His protection. I love this section. Verses four and five, beautiful images. For this is what the Lord said to me, as a lion or young lion growls over its prey, when a band of shepherds is called out against it, and it is not terrified by their shouting or subdued by their noise, so the Lord of armies will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill. Like hovering birds, so the Lord of armies will protect Jerusalem. By protecting it, he will rescue it. By passing over it, he will deliver it. What does this tell us? This tells us that God is superior in his protection because he is committed and constant in his protection. And he presents two striking images, a lion on one hand and a bird on the other. And what do we see there? Well, the first is this lion that's standing over its prey, unshaken by the noise of the shepherds, unwilling to unleash its grip on that which it's caught, clinging to it. I have two Labrador retrievers and they give me a taste of this quite often, especially the one who likes to steal my socks. And it's like, Bruin, come back here. He's not letting go of that sock. I've got to chase him around the house. And you know, he's like, I've got the sock and off he goes. He's not going to let go of that sock until I grab him and I got to peel his mouth open and like, thank you. Give me my sock back, would you? A lion. is there looking at the shepherds who are sort of trying to beat it away. And he's like, yeah, I'm not bothered by you. This is my meat. And that hovering bird, caring, standing over Jerusalem. During the pandemic, one of the sweetest things that Royal and I got to experience was a couple of cardinals. nested in one of the bushes just right outside the window where I was sitting most of the time. And I got to see them together and the male cardinal feeding the female cardinal and the building of the nest together and how the male would pick up the seeds and give it to the female and then Then the female, they laid eggs and she's brooding there, and the male going back and forth to feed her and help her. And we got to see the chicks. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. But got to see a living demonstration of that kind of natural care that was there, that hovering over the nest, the protective nature, nurture, that was found even among the birds in our backyard. And here the Lord uses that imagery of this bird that's hovering over the nest, instinctively protecting its little ones. And the Lord uses that to show us that his care, his protection is like a lion. It's fierce, but like a bird, it's also tender. that when he stands up for his people, he stands up with all the ferocity of a lion and all the tenderness of a mother bird. Isn't that wonderful? So yes, when Pharaoh's breathing down the back of the necks of the people of Israel, He parts the Red Sea and he causes it to wash over them and drown them in the sea. He brings those enemies to nothing. And when these ungrateful, complaining people walk through the desert, bemoaning the food and the lack of water that they thought they could have enjoyed had they stayed in Egypt, he has Moses. to bring water out of a rock. And he causes manna to fall every morning. Not because these people were worthy, but because he's God and he cares. And so here we have the Lord telling the people of Jerusalem, trust me, I will protect you. I will stand over you. I will hold on to you as strongly as a lion will hold on to his prey. I will watch over you more faithfully than a bird will its nest. You're mine. You're mine. You see, God knows exactly what we need. And God will be a valiant defender of us and a tender caregiver for us. What a wonderful God he is. So here he is in these chapters, not just crying out the woes, you silly people, why are you trusting those things? In God's glorious condescension to us, as if he had to do this, right? He offers to us all of these powerful incentives to move our trust to him. He should just simply say to us, look humans, I made you, you should be trusting me. But how wonderfully he argues with us and grants us these pictures and these understandings and arguments that are meant to invite us in to do what we ought to have been doing the whole time anyway. To trust his person, to trust his power, to trust his protection. And then next, he's superior in his pardon, in his pardon. Take a look at verses six and seven. Return to the one the Israelites have greatly rebelled against. For on that day, every one of you will reject the worthless idols of silver and gold that your own hands have sinfully made. They had replaced God with their work of their own hands. They had worshiped wood and silver and gold. They had taken the resources of this earth, taken it over to an artisan and said, make me God. And they went there and they paid money for that thing and they brought it into their house and they went, this is now my God. And they bound down in front of wood and silver and gold and the living God who made all of these things, they've ignored. And yet here is the Lord saying, come back, come back to me, come back to me. You who have strayed, you who have so sinfully acted, you have tossed me aside as if I was worthless, come back to me. Why can you trust him? Because he's a God who is not only spirit and powerful and protective, he also pardons the disobedient. He will act on the behalf of a rebel who returns. You think, well, I can't return, I've been a rebel. No, that's not what this says. This says, yes, you're a rebel and return. And it shows this transformation, not merely feeling sorry for our past mistakes, but that the repentance means deliberately moving away from those things that we've sinfully made. It says you're gonna throw away those idols as worthless. The essence of God's grace here is that he will not abandon those who come to him. Repentance means a recognition of the wrong that you've done. a rejection of those wrongs that you've lived in, and a return to the Lord and a reception of his mercy. So those are four elements here. And they are very clear to us even today. The apostle Paul thought by his heritage and by his behavior and the religious sect that he was in, that he was moving himself to a place of gained righteousness before a holy God, and that he could stand before him and say, I think I'm just. And he realized by the strength of one command, you shall not covet, that there was something going on inside of him that he couldn't cover over with religious baggage. And he recognized, I do covet. I can't fake not coveting because it won't let me go. And he realized that his building up of his own righteousness was worthless. And he said, I count all those things now as nothing but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus. Being clothed with a righteousness that's not my own. Come back to him. He won't meet you at the door saying, what are you doing here? He'll fling the door open like the prodigal father, or the father did to the prodigal son, running to his son, throwing the robe upon him, calling for the calf to be killed, for a feast to be started. Just come back. Just come back. It's glorious. Not only is he superior in his person, being God and not human, superior in his power, nothing can stand against him when he rises to judge or protect. Superior in that protection that's fierce and loyal and tender. Superior in his pardon, but he's also superior in his presence. In verse eight and nine, Assyria will fall, but not by human sword. A sword will devour him, but not one made by man. He will flee from the sword. His young men will be put to forced labor. His rock will pass away because of fear, and his officers will be afraid because of the signal flag. This is the Lord's declaration, whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem. And here's the striking prophecy about Assyria, that Assyria is going to fail and fall. Remember, this is the most formidable force on earth at that time. And Isaiah is calling out to Jerusalem and saying, your enemy is going to fall and not because you have swords. And when Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, had surrounded Jerusalem in 701 BC, it seemed inevitable that Jerusalem was going to come to demise and end. In fact, in 2 Kings chapter 18 and verse 13, it says there that when they invaded, every fortified city of Judah had been captured and defeated. There was only one city left, Jerusalem. And 100 plus thousand soldiers are surrounding that place and just waiting for them to wave the white flag and say, we give. What happened? Well, come back in three weeks, you'll find out. In 2 Kings chapter 19 and verse 35, the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night. And Sennacherib woke up, realized he didn't have an army anymore, and went back to Nineveh. And a few years later was murdered by one of his own sons in a coup. In the meantime, just trying to sort of like patch over his pride, he made a stela, a writing about all of his glorious victories. And you can see this today in a museum. And he inscribes on there all the wondrous victories that his powerful army made. And he brags and brags and brags about this city falling and this city falling and this city falling and this city falling. And he even says on that inscription, I made Hezekiah like a bird in a cage. That he didn't defeat. You kind of left something out of there, Sennacherib. What happened, buddy? How come Hezekiah didn't die? Well, I'm not going to talk about that part. It was a victory won by God, but not because Judah was a strong army, and not because Judah made a great choice in building a coalition with Egypt. It was a victory because God demonstrated his presence. And this is what that last part of that verse talks about. His fire is in Zion. His furnace is in Jerusalem. You wanna be burnt by the heat? Come after God's people. When we're overwhelmed with challenges, when we're tempted to look for earthly solutions, for strategies, for alliances, for personal wealth, for collective effort. Isaiah 31 and 32 are teaching us there's something far, far better to look to. The living God, the living God who executes his victory with ease. He doesn't struggle to do it. He's not walking away from the battlefield saying, boy, I just won that one. He can do it in a moment. He doesn't need human intervention. You see, there's no enemy too great and there's no obstacle impossible and there's no situation too dire for God. Not a one. Not yours, not mine. And I just realized I don't know how to count because I have a sixth superiority. This is what you do when you have one cup of coffee after a whole day of serving the women's tea. You don't know how to count to six. So there's six demonstrations of God's superiority. And he's superior in his promise. And this is the last one. He's superior in his promise. Take a look at chapter 32. A king will reign righteously and rulers will rule justly. Each will be like a shelter from the wind, a refuge from the rain, like flowing streams in a dry land in shade of a massive rock in an arid land. And the eyes of those who see will not be closed and the ear of those who hear will listen. The reckless mind will gain knowledge and the stammering tongue will speak clearly and fluently. A fool will no longer be called a noble nor a scoundrel said to be important. For a fool speaks foolishness and his mind plots iniquity. He lives in a godless way and speaks falsely about the Lord. He leaves the hungry empty and deprives the thirsty of drink. The scoundrel's weapons are destructive. He hatches plots to destroy the needy with lies, even when the poor person says what is right. But a noble person plans noble things, and he stands up for noble causes. There's a prophecy here about a day that would come When all the ways that humans typically act is gonna be transformed into the realization of a righteous ruler and a realm full of justice. Where the things that should be honored will be honored. When the things that are right will be the rejoicing of everyone. where there would be no more of the inequities that we understand today, where people who are fools have places of power and utter nonsense as if it's authority. There's gonna be a time when what's right is going to be what's right, and it's gonna be what everybody recognizes as what's right. And so there's this prophecy of this righteous king and this peaceful domain. Take a look at verses 15 and 18, it kind of goes on. until the Spirit from on high is poured out on us, and the desert will become an orchard, and the orchard will seem like a forest, and justice will inhabit the wilderness, and righteousness will dwell in the orchard, and the result of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness will be quiet confidence forever, and my people will dwell in a peaceful place, in a safe and a secure dwelling. And verse 20, you'll be happy as you sow seed beside abundant water, as you let oxen and donkey range freely. Could Egypt promise that? Could Egypt give them anything close to that kind of picture? Even if Egypt was formidable to face Assyria and bring them down, what was about to happen after that? You know what was about to happen after that. Egypt would be like, well, we took care of your enemy. Now you're our vassal instead of Assyria being your ruler. That's exactly what would have happened. But here the Lord says that there's gonna be a righteous king that operates for the benefit of the poorest and the weakest in society. That they are going to be in places of exaltation, not lowered to the ground anymore. And that the realm is going to enjoy abundance and peace and flourishing and joy. What a glorious, glorious thought this is. We sang songs this morning that talked about our Savior as King, and He is. And you know, His Lordship started in Acts chapter one and two. When a small little band of people went out into the streets of Jerusalem, singing out the praises of God, their hearts full of gratitude and joy. And the people around them baffled by what they heard because many of them came from different places in order to be there for the Feast of Pentecost. And they heard them in their own language speaking the wondrous works of God. And they said, what is this? And Peter stood up and he preached to them and he said that the seated Lord Jesus has brought this to bear on earth as he's poured out the demonstration of his spirit. What does chapter 32 and verse 15 say? Until the spirit from on high is poured out on us. And here we find the kingdom of God is declared in Acts chapter two as an interjection into this world and kingdom of woe. and that God is building a people from every kindred, tribe, and tongue who are gonna be brought under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and are beginning to taste already the coming day of the full fulfillment of what's gonna happen in the new creation as it unfolds in all of its flourishing. And remember, it speaks as the desert becoming an orchard instead of the orchard becoming the desert. And this is Eden rebuilt. This is life as it was meant to be. This is the fullness and flourishing of creation once again. In the middle of a moment, when a king is trembling with his knees weak and frail, with the enemy just outside the wall. And he's wondering if he might just be able to sneak a message off to the Pharaoh and get some help. And God is telling him, don't do that. Trust me, because I'll take you places you can't even imagine at this moment. I'm going to take you into a realm of my glorious grace that will bring you into eternal joy and delight, not just temporary calm and safety and survival. Why not trust the Lord? He's powerful in His person. His protection is fierce and tender. His promises are secure. What are you dealing with today? Did your doctor give you some bad news yesterday or earlier this week? Did your boss tell you you're no longer needed? Did your stocks turn upside down the past month or so? You finding some difficulty speaking to your neighbor Are your wife or husband? What are you dealing with today? What resources are you running to to find help in those moments? There's one place to go. To the God who will stand with you, who will watch over you, who will care for you, who will lead you through and bring you home. And if you're here this morning and you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior, why would you trust yourself and the things that you think you need to do to get to heaven? You think the Holy God is impressed by that? He's not. Nor is He asking you to impress Him. Are you trusting a religious system? religious devotion, when the Lord says, just come to me. Turn away from those worthless idols, those constructs of your devotion, and just come back. Just literally, just come back. That's all you have to do. This is what Isaiah is proclaiming to Hezekiah and to us, these timeless principles of who God is and why He's a trustworthy Lord. And I pray that these words might meet our hearts wherever they are and secure us in hope and set us in the place where we ought to be and perhaps help us to understand and to see our Savior, maybe for the first time today. or in a new and fresh way. Let's pray together. Our Father, we're so grateful for your glorious mercies to us. Father, like little children, we must confess that we far too often, dare we say almost constantly, run to the places we shouldn't be. We thank you that you are so, so faithful to speak to us even in the midst of our disobediences and call us to you, to even sit down with us as if we needed to be convinced and to explain yourself and why you're a better choice for us to trust. Father, what a God you are. who would bring yourself down to each one of us and say, trust me. Father, I pray that we will enable us to, and do it, Father, for your own glory's sake, so that we might rejoice in who you are and what you do on behalf of your people, and that others might see that there's a different way to live in this world. that there is a living God who loves His own and invites them into His family through Jesus Christ our Lord. And we pray this in His name, amen.