"GOD’S UNBELIEVING PEOPLE ARE SUMMONED TO RETURN TO THE LAW AND THE TESTIMONY."

Singing: (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Psalm 3:3
Psalm 7:1,4
Psalm 128:1
Psalm 25:6,7
Hymn 65:1,2,3

Beloved Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ!

On this third Sunday of February we wish to pray for God’s blessing on our labours of this year - be it in the kitchen or the laundry, in the factory or the office, in the classroom or the laboratory. We do so because we acknowledge that God alone can bless, and without His blessing our labours come to nothing. Meanwhile, we’re reasonably confident that our labours this year will not be in vain; we see, by God’s grace, a bountiful crust awaiting us.

The people of God of long ago went about their daily labours too. They, though, (said the prophet) would remain hungry. Though they travel up and down through the land, they would be "hard-pressed and hungry", so much so that they would "be enraged and curse their king and their God" (Is 8:21). In a word, there would be no blessing.

The economic situation faced by the people of Jerusalem differed radically from ours today. Yet, my brothers and sisters, let none of us think that we cannot in short order find ourselves in a situation of equal hunger and misery. In fact, the Word of God in Isaiah 8 is instructive for us as we set about praying for God’s blessing on our work. For the chapter would teach us how God’s blessing is made available to men.

I proclaim to you today God’s call to His people to return "to the law and to the testimony," and to stick to it. I summarise the sermon with this theme:

GOD’S UNBELIEVING PEOPLE ARE SUMMONED TO RETURN TO THE LAW AND THE TESTIMONY

1. The command contained in our text, beloved, is not a little intriguing. The text contains an instruction, tells the people what to do: "to the law and to the testimony!" We understand its meaning: the people have to go "to the law and to the testimony", have to return "to the law and to the testimony". And yes, that’s intriguing. For think on it: who are told to go "to the law and to the testimony"? The whole passage we read is directed to God’s covenant people in Judah and Jerusalem; it’s these covenant people who are directed "to the law and to the testimony". Amazing. Imagine if somebody, in the name of the Lord, would come to us - to us who have our Bibles, our confessions, our catechism classes and study clubs, church services and reformed schools- would come to us with the instruction of our text: "to the law and to the testimony!" We would respond with a clear: ‘thanks, mate, but that directive is out of place, for we have the law and the testimony.’ Yet here it is, beloved, a directive to the people of Judah and Jerusalem - and Yes, they had the word of God, they had the prophets (including Isaiah), and they had the temple and its sacrifices, and priests who taught them too- and yet they are directed "to the law and to the testimony". How come?

It is true, dear congregation, that the people of Judah and Jerusalem had the law and the testimony. Long ago at Mt Sinai already the Lord had given His law to Israel, and with the law had given His testimony, the witness of His nearness to His people and their special place before Him. Over the years the ark of the testimony had travelled with Israel, and in the ark the two tables of the law had a place of honour. More significantly, the content of this law was spelled out for the people in the tabernacle that God instructed Moses to build. Its sacrifices and offerings, its washings and rituals all worked together to impress upon the people the riches of God’s promises to this sinful nation: God was their God, they were allowed to be His people, their sins were washed away so that they could have life with God and have it abundantly. Lest the people should somehow still be ignorant of God’s gospel of grace as it came to them through the law, God appointed the Levites to teach the people, and instructed the parents also to speak with their children about the revelation of God. So then: did the people of Israel have the law and the testimony? Most certainly, beloved, most certainly! God Himself had given it to them!

But see: the people of God in Jerusalem in the days of our chapter did not work with the law and the testimony they had. The temple stood big in Jerusalem, the dominant feature of the city’s skyline. And the people came by droves too to bring their sacrifices in the temple (cf Is 1:11), and they celebrated diligently the feasts mentioned in the Scriptures. O Yes, they had the law and the testimony, all right. Yet God calls them back "to the law and to the testimony" because the content of the Scriptures did not live for them. It was ritual, it was tradition, it was the expected thing, but the wealth of God’s promises in the law and in His testimony stayed remote from the people in the dirt and grim of daily life. The promises of the gospel didn’t touch them in the nitty-gritty of their daily existence, didn’t warm their hearts and stir their hopes as they confronted the concrete questions of daily living.

And concrete questions, beloved, the people of Jerusalem certainly had! Chap 7:1 draws out for us the actual crisis that occupied the minds of the people of Jerusalem. There I read this:

There, beloved, is the concrete situation faced by the people of the streets of Jerusalem, the persons addressed in our text. Their city was threatened by the combined forces of the northern ten tribes (that’s Israel) plus Syria. The reason for the attack was that a new world power had arisen (the Assyrians), and the kings of Israel and Syria made an alliance together to support each other against this world power. Those two kings wanted Judah to join them in their alliance, but Ahaz king of Judah declined. So they thought to compel Ahaz to join them, and hence attacked Jerusalem.

That was the actual problem of the day. What was the reaction of the people to this circumstance? The peoples’ reaction was not one of trust in the Lord God of Israel; the reaction of the people was one of fear. So the people, under the leadership of king Ahaz, consulted the mediums and the wizards with their big question: what should we do?! And the mediums and the wizards, with the necessary pomp and ritual, set about consulting the spirits of the dead in order to find an answer to the difficulties besetting the living. The answer they found in their seances and through their occult was that the king of Jerusalem ought to form an alliance with that rising superpower, with Assyria. That, then, is what Ahaz did; in obedience to the wizards he took some of the wealth from the temple of God and sent it to the king of Assyria with a plea for friendship and a request to please attack Syria (II Kings 16:7f). And see: was the answer of the wizards not correct?? The alliance achieved its desired effect: Tiglath-Pilezer king of Assyria went up against Damascus and took it. And that took the pressure off Jerusalem: deliverance.

But consider, beloved: does seeking advice from mediums and wizards display that one is busy with God’s law and God’s testimony? Does turning to spiritists for guidance in trouble demonstrate that you have internalised God’s promises, made them your own so that your responses to the nitty-gritty situations of life are determined by God’s law and His testimony?

Think for a moment, congregation: what is the bottom message of God’s revelation in Scripture? What is the kernel of God’s gospel? Is it not this, that the people of God’s choosing are safe in His hands? The law of God - with all its instruction about sacrifices and ceremonies in the temple, about behaviour patterns and what you should do and not do- set before the people of Israel how sinners could live with God, could be His children and He their Father; through the coming of Jesus Christ they would freely receive forgiveness of sins and so abundant grace from the God of heaven and earth. That’s the very bottom line: ‘I am your God, you are My children, and so you are always safe in My hands, I love you in Jesus Christ, I care for you in all your circumstances.’ It’s what the Lord said to Abram when He first adopted Abram to be His child by covenant; said the Lord to him: "I am your shield." That is: it is I who defend you, who protect you; in My hand you are always safe, no matter what happens. True, Abram now had to trust in God; that was the obligation of the covenant. But still, this was the promise: in Jesus Christ I make you My child, and so nothing can happen to you without My will; with Me you are completely and totally safe. In the words of LD 1: "I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ," and the result is that "without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation." So the psalmist said over the years that "You, O Lord, are a shield for me" (Ps 3) and "O Lord my God, in You in put my trust" (Ps 7) and "The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, A refuge in times of trouble" (Ps 9). This is what faith in God is all about, it’s the very heart of the gospel in the Old Testament already: God has made me His in Jesus Christ, and so in His hands - no matter the troubles around me- in His hands I’m safe, completely and totally safe.

But see: the people of Jerusalem - though they had the law and the testimony of God’s wonderful promises!- did not work with those promises. In their concrete circumstances those promises didn’t mean anything to them! In their concrete circumstances they turned to the occult for advice, turned to unbelieving leaders instead of working with God’s revelation.. And that, at bottom, is unbelief. That, congregation, lies behind the instruction of our text: "to the law and to the testimony!" The instruction to return "to the law and to the testimony" is in their situation an instruction to work with the revelation God has given, to accept its contents with a believing heart, and so in their concrete circumstances to entrust themselves to God instead of following the false leaders and teachers of their day.

Here I need to insert a word to ourselves today. In the concrete questions of your life, where do you turn for advice and guidance? In questions relating to raising your children, do you seek guidance from the Dr Spocks of the world around us? In questions of how to relax and cope with the pressures of life, do you listen to the gurus of eastern religions? God, my beloved, has given you His Word. Is that Word in fact a light on your path, a lamp for your feet, or do you only say that it is? Remember: it’s so very possible to go through all the motions of Christianity, and still be far removed from "the law and the testimony". That Word of God: it alone is meant to be your guide, beloved! So: spend time with that word this year, seeking from it - prayerfully!- the guidance you need in the particular circumstances of your day. As our young people head for university and so seat themselves at the feet of the mediums and wizards of today’s society, let these young people spend time every day with the Word of God! As we busy ourselves with the daily work God gives to us to do, let us first spend time every day with the word of God! It’s the cry of the prophet: "to the law and to the testimony!" That’s where the answers are, that’s where we’re encouraged to know ourselves safe in the hands of our gracious Father in Jesus Christ, that’s where we’re encouraged to follow His directives in the concrete circumstances of our lives.

2. Where, now - second point- would God’s people find the law and the testimony? We would say: that shouldn’t be so difficult a question; the people should go to the temple, to the teachers of the law.

It will be true that one would expect to find the law of God and the comfort of His promises in the temple; after all, that’s where the sacrifices were offered, where the priests were to work. But notice, congregation, the word of God to Isaiah in the verses preceding our text. Vs 16: the prophet received from God the instruction to "Bind up the testimony, Seal the law among My disciples." Those words make very clear that God did not consider His Word safe neither amongst the people as a whole nor amongst the leaders of the people. For its protection, the Word of God must be sealed among God’s disciples!

"Bind", says God, "Seal" the law. To ‘bind’ is to tie up, and we know that what is bound up is no longer open to public access. What’s ‘sealed’ is no longer available to every Tom, Dick or Harry; you can’t get at it any more. That’s what Isaiah has to do: he has to work upon the law and the testimony (and remember: those terms describe God’s revelation) so that this law and testimony is no longer openly available for the people. It is as is written in vs 17: God "hides His face from the house of Jacob." Long enough has the Word of God come to the people; no longer will God cast His pearls before the swine (cf Mt 7:6). That Word must now be entrusted to the elect of God, those who appreciate the gospel of God’s mercy in Jesus Christ; God’s "disciples" are to have that gospel imprinted upon their hearts.

We’re used to thinking in terms of: get the Word out, tell it to others. In the passage before us, though, the Lord God Himself recognises that His Word is not safe with the general public in Jerusalem. That’s the reason that Isaiah receives the task of ‘binding the testimony’ and ‘sealing the law’ "among My disciples".

At the same time we’re not to think that God wants to take the Word away from the unbelieving people as-a-whole. God would have His Word bound up among His disciples - why?- for the sake of the people as a whole. God tells the people in our text to return "to the law and to the testimony", but then that law and testimony needs to be available! See there the reason why Isaiah must "bind up the testimony, Seal the law among My disciples"; he must do so in order that the people as a whole may still have access to the law and to the testimony!

Notice here, beloved, the judgment of God, and at the same time His mercy!! Here is judgment: the prophet is told not to cast the pearls of God before the swine of Israel any more, is told to concentrate his labours on the faithful, the believing; teach them! At the same time here is mercy, mercy so profound, for these disciples have a place among the people - why?- so that the people may still have the Word of God available to them! The people are told in their concrete circumstances to return "to the law and to the testimony", and that law and testimony remains available to them, even though the people frequent the mediums and the wizards; the Word remains available at the address of the faithful, God’s "disciples".

Certainly, this is a powerful accusation against the temple in Jerusalem, its priests, its leaders. The gospel of God was entrusted to the priests, the Levites. But because they have shown themselves unfaithful and unwilling, because the officebearers tolerate and even promote a heathen practice as occultism, the Word is taken away from them. The temple of Jerusalem shall be torn to pieces, brick by brick, and its priests killed or carted off into exile. But the law of God that leads to liberty and the testimony of God that points up His mercy in Jesus Christ shall not perish; preserved it shall be in the hearts of God’s disciples, the elect, so that always one can find "the law and the testimony"; it remains available to all men, even those who now reject it.

Where, today, are the disciples of God, God’s elect? This, my beloved, is the church. That church of God, we have learned from Scripture, is "a holy congregation and assembly of the true Christian believers, who expect their entire salvation in Jesus Christ, are washed by His blood, and are sanctified and sealed by the Holy Spirit." The church is to the world today the keeper of the Word of God, and it’s to the church that all must turn to find "the law and the testimony", the gospel of Jesus Christ that makes sense of the troubles of our day and supplies the answers. The cry of our text remains the call of God to all men today - "to the law and to the testimony!"- and that law and testimony is available amongst the people of God, in the church of Jesus Christ. Let your finger, then, beloved, be pointed always to the church; that is where God and His grace is available to the searching of our society today.

3. Now yet the third point: why ought God’s people to return to the law and the testimony? Observe, beloved, vs 21: "they will pass through it hard pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God." Why the hunger and the sense of being hard done by? It’s because they don’t speak and act according to God’s Word (vs 20b). It’s as God had said years ago in the law He gave to Moses:

Why, then, should the people of Jerusalem in the days of Isaiah be told to return "to the law and the prophets"? For this reason alone, beloved: their God loves them, and wishes to bless them. That is: He wants to give them a blessing on the labours of their hands in their concrete circumstances of hostility with Israel and Syria, He wants to bless so that there can be a harvest, can be a future, can be peace and contentment among His people-by-covenant. But God won’t bless - it’s His promise in the covenant- won’t bless unless there is faith in God, trust in God. That is why the people need to return "to the law and to the testimony". No, not in the sense that they follow its outward rituals, but in the sense that they embrace the gospel of the law in faith, and so entrust themselves to God’s loving care in their every circumstance. Then, then, He will bless. And if they don’t? They’ll remain "hard pressed and hungry" so that they will "be enraged and curse their king and their God."

The choice for the people, then, is clear: back "to the law", back "to the testimony!" That’s the only way to have a future! And the law is not hard to find; it’s among the disciples of God, the faithful, the church.

Now the people of Jerusalem need to choose. And we today need to choose also. Would you, my beloved, wish the blessing of the Lord on the very concrete labours of your hands - be it at uni, or in the factory, or in the kitchen? God has told you how you can receive His blessing, and that is by ever clinging, returning day by day, to the law and to the testimony, clinging to the promises of God and living by them in the grind of your life. The blessing does not come as a result of going through particular rituals (be it reading the Bible every day or praying or going to church); the blessing comes when you entrust yourself to God, seek His will for you, know yourself safe in His hands. And yes, you will learn the more to entrust yourself to God, to know His will, by being busy with His word as you do your work, as you involve yourself with the people to whom God has given that word.

Would you be blessed? Seek not the advice of the wizards of our society, the professors, the gurus, public opinion. But fix your eye on the God who loves you in Jesus Christ, the God who revealed Himself to you in His Word. Then, indeed, you will receive blessing on your labour. Amen.