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May, 2023 (Vol.57-No.5) |
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Preached by Dr. Gene Scott on April 9, 1989 Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay Upon his God. Isaiah 50:10 TURN IN YOUR BIBLE TO ISAIAH 50, and read the beginning of verse 10: “Who is among you that feareth the LORD . . .?” That is good company to be in. There are not many people who qualify. Those who fear the Lord, in the Old Testament sense of that expression, respect Him and know He is the Controller of all things. They know what it means to have His approval or His disapproval, and they are constantly aware of His overriding presence. Most people do not think much about God’s presence. When the subject is brought up, they might say, “Oops! Sorry, God. I forgot You were there!” This verse in Isaiah speaks of those who live in a constant state of awareness of God’s presence. The second part of Isaiah’s question also eliminates most people: “Who is among you . . . that obeyeth the voice of his servant . . .?” Most people do not like the idea of obeying anyone. They would object to this verse, saying, “That is just an Old Testament doctrine!” But in the New Testament, Hebrews 13:17 says, “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls . . .” This verse is not about submission to an earthly government; no government official is watching for your souls. It is the pastors, the God-given ministers, who watch for your souls. Paul said in Ephesians 4 that God “gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry…” Isaiah is addressing a very select group of people: “Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light?” There may be many people who qualify for the last part of the sentence, who walk in darkness and have no light; but I am not addressing them. My message today is to those who fear the Lord and obey the voice of His servant, yet, incongruously, still find themselves walking in darkness and having no light. You will not hear much preaching on this verse from popular Christian preachers. The prevailing thought is that if you fear the Lord and obey the voice of His servant, you will never walk in darkness and you will always have light. But this verse says that the same person who fears the Lord and obeys the voice of His servant will find himself walking in darkness and having no light. Have you ever been there? Have you ever been there so long that you have gotten angry about it? What should you do? Some Christians feel guilty about it: they are sure they must have done something wrong to deserve the darkness. Or they think, “This just cannot be! There must be a little light somewhere; there must be something I can hang on to.” You might ask me if I have ever been in this state described by Isaiah. The truth is that I have been there for more years of my life than I care to confess. For many years, I hated the apostle Paul. It is ironic that I now hang my life on Paul’s teaching, which has become the core of my ministry; but I hated him during my years of doubting. I used to think, “It must have been easy for Paul to believe, considering the experiences he had. If God would have knocked me down, blinded me, and sent me to someone I had never met before, who would lay hands on me and heal me, then I would be a believer too!” But I had to work out my faith. I have never had any supernatural visions. Perhaps it is some quirk in my brain that makes it easier for me to doubt than to believe; people like that have always been problem children for God. I have spent far more years dwelling in darkness than I have under the floodlight of God’s obvious presence. This is not the kind of message that makes you feel good but ultimately does you no good. This message might actually make you feel bad when you understand that such conditions prevail in the journey of faith. God, in is sovereignty, deals with each of us very differently. As I have looked back and see God’s hand over the years, I have come to recognize what Isaiah said elsewhere: “Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself . . .” But God was there all the time. I find it easier to preach this message than some other messages, because it is true to my personal experience. I cannot understand people who say they have never been in this place of darkness. But I understand the question: “Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant . . .?” That is the easiest question I have ever been asked. I can confidently answer, “Me!” I have tried to yield to God’s word every day of my Christian life. But what should we do when darkness comes? Should we quit? No. Should we pray? No, that isn’t what this verse is telling us to do, either. In the New Testament, James says concerning prayer, “Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.” Prayer can be the greatest waste of time if it is not coupled with faith. God does not take delight in people simply because they are on their knees. In some churches, preachers love to kneel in prayer before their congregations only to promote their own spiritual image. Daniel fell to the ground in prayer and an angel picked him up. Joshua got on his face and God told him to get up. There is just as much Scripture to support the practice of praying on your feet as there is for praying on your knees. Yet the question remains: What are we supposed to do when we are in darkness? Many Christians think they should merely wait for God to deliver them. And there are many popular "enlightened” preachers who will tell you how to never get into places of darkness like what Isaiah described. But God’s word tells us what to do: “Let him trust . . .” There are two words in the Old Testament most often translated “trust.” One means “to flee for protection,” as one who flees to the shadow of a rock or to the shelter of a mother bird’s wings. The other word was used as a synonym for leaning on a staff. In both instances, the word translated “trust” describes an action. It describes moving from where you are. This is what I call “hanging your body” on God’s word. It is the action of running to the shelter. It is the action of transferring your reliance from whatever you had been relying on to the Lord. To trust, in the biblical sense, does not mean to merely sit there and cry about your circumstances. You might say, “But I don’t know which way to run!” The Scripture is very specific: “Let him trust in the name of the LORD . . .” Why “the name of the LORD?” God has many names in the Bible. Names in the Bible reveal something about a person’s nature; likewise, God’s names reveal different dimensions of what He wants to be for His people. John Donne once wrote that God is revealed as a great tree with many diverse branches that provide shade and comfort. There is a branch for each of us to stand under. The names of God that begin with El speak of His might and superiority. The name El Olam means “God everlasting.” The name El Shaddai is translated “the Almighty God” in the King James Version, but in the original Hebrew, this name suggest the picture of a mother nursing a child at her breast. We could translate it “the breasted One.” God used this name to convey to Abraham that He could provide everything a mother provides to a child in terms of nourishment, protection, and comforting care. God chose Abraham and his descendants to be His oracle people, the carriers of His word. This purpose began to take shape when Moses led God’s people out of Egypt’s bondage. They were the recipients of His word and the custodians and conveyors of His revelation. God used them to preserve His word in the stream of time in order that man might come to know Him, until the day Christ would come. Christ breached the barrier created by man’s sin, in order that God’s Spirit can now dwell in us. We read in Exodus 6:2-2, “And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the LORD: and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty (El Shaddai), but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.” God had been known as El Shaddai, but He would now reveal Himself by the name Jehovah. The word Jehovah is traditionally used to pronounce the Hebrew word spelled YHWH, which is also spelled Yahweh in some translations. This word is difficult to translate, but I can give you the sense of its meaning by using an illustration. Take a garden hose and turn on the water while pinching the end of the hose. As you feel the water pressure building up behind your fingers, you will realize the meaning of the name Jehovah in the sense that it depicts a force, under pressure, desiring to reveal itself. The name Jehovah is combined with other words to form names that are very specific in their meaning. These Jehovah names of God are the releasing of the pressure, figuratively speaking. These names reveal what God wants to be to His people. God’s word in Isaiah 50:10 is telling us that when we are in darkness and have no light, we are to run to the name of the Lord that fits our need. Perhaps your darkness is sickness, and you have been sick for a long time. You are one of those who can respond affirmatively to the question, “Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant…?” You have heard and believed the promises of God, yet you are walking in darkness and have no light. What should you do? Run to the shelter and lean on the name of the Lord Jehovah-rapha: “I am the LORD that healeth thee.” I could preach this entire message in one sentence. In the words of V. Raymond Edman, “Never doubt in the dark what God told you in the light.” You might say this is a tough message. It sure is. I can tell you that it is much tougher for me now than it used to be. Darkness affects me more now than it used to. The more the light of God’s word has captured me, the more painful darkness is. That is a normal result of spiritual growth. Every so often, I have to stop in my tracks, and like Paul, worry lest in preaching to others I might become a castaway. I do not worry about the truth of my doctrine. I have cast out the garbage of traditions and know that the gospel I preach is the right message. I do not worry about calling out the fundamentalists for the hypocrites they are. But I do worry about this one thing: that the next time I find myself on a dark path, I might fail to get up and charge forward in faith, because we all get tired. From the natural, human point of view, God’s methods for developing His saints might seem cruel. Because of our pernicious unbelieving hearts, we love to camp out on our visible circumstances and complain about them. In many ways, we are like the children of Israel. Put yourself in their place for a moment. They were in slavery in Egypt, not because of their wrongdoing but as part of God’s plan. God was demonstrating to Abraham that His promises were true. God had promised to give a certain land to Abraham and his descendants. Abraham asked God, “How will I know that this land is mine?” So God told him, in essence, “I will send your descendants to a strange land where they will become slaves; but in the fourth generation, they will come out richer than when they went in.” We know that the fourth generation of Israelites came out of Egypt’s bondage; but think about the third generation. We tend to think about those who went down to Egypt and those who came out, but what about the ones in the middle? They did not demonstrate the fulfillment of God’s promises; they just lived and died in slavery. There is historical evidence that they might have brought it upon themselves by becoming cruel leaders in Egypt. If that is true, a just God would have picked exactly the right time to put them into slavery. But for the sake of argument, I am saying they did nothing to deserve it. Allow me to play the fool and take the children of Israel’s side. It is wrong for me to do it, but I want us to see how they could have rationalized their dissatisfaction with their circumstances as easily as we do. Imagine being born in a slave hut all because foolish Abraham had asked God a question. Slavery in Egypt was bad enough, but when it came time to be delivered, why did God have to harden Pharaoh’s heart so He could keep pouring on the plagues? God had the power to make Pharaoh become so afraid that he would have let God’s people go at once. Why the plague of frogs, the plague of lice, and all the plagues that followed? Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt. A pillar of cloud blocked the way between them and Pharaoh’s army. God was obviously with them, but why didn’t He simply part the Red Sea as soon as they round the first sand dune and saw it? Again, imagine we were in that situation. Why would God allow us to become terrified until we cried out, “Oh, my God, here they come! Where are we going to go?” Why couldn’t God be a little more understanding? “We have been uprooted. Yes, we know that we are being delivered from slavery. And we are aware that the firstborn in our houses did not die when the death angel passed over Egypt. We were spared some things, but here we go into the desert, and we do not even know where we are going. It looks like we are going into hell!” “The whole Egyptian army is right behind us, the Red Sea is in front of us, and we are caught in the middle!” God was kind to the children of Israel: He had Moses tell them, “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD . . .” Moses lifted his rod, and the sea parted for them to go across. Moses led the children of Israel through the wilderness. God told them to go to Rephidim, which means “a place of rest.” We read in Exodus 17, “And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.” The children of Israel might have thought, “If God has so much power over water that He could part the Red Sea, why would He lead us to a place where there isn’t any water to drink? We get out of one mess, and now we are in another!” Imagine hearing Moses say, “I have a revelation for you today: God is sending us to a place of rest!” If this happened in a modern charismatic church, someone might stand up and prophesy, “Thus saith the Lord: thy rest shall be sitting in rocking chairs and eating lots of fudge sundaes until Jehovah’s forces arrive!” Another might stand up to say, “And the Lord says: thy desert waters shall always be full of ice!” So we would all return to our tents and cheer, “Hurray, our trials are over! We are going to a place of rest!” But when we arrive at Rephidim, it looks like a worse hell than the place we just left. There isn’t anything restful about it. Oh sure, as always, God will show up after we have been crushed in our spirit. But how can we enjoy the place when He tricks us like that? Is He some kind of sadist? Then God shows off. He tells Moses to take his rod and strike the flintiest, driest rock. Moses strikes that rock, and out pours water. The way God does things make you angry enough to refuse to drink. Imagine someone thinking, “Sure, I know God has His great purposes. Sure, He wants to convey a message that will reach down through the centuries to show the way in which Jesus, the Rock, would deliver all mankind. But what does that have to do with me and mine? I am tired of being God’s pawn! I want to tell Him, ‘Find Yourself another little chess piece. Just let me go to a Rephidim that really is a place of rest without Your using me to teach people about Jesus and the life of faith.’ I hate Rephidim! It makes God happier than it makes me. I’ll show Him: I’ll refuse to drink!” You might think I am merely trying to be humorous, but I am telling you the way we are. I can imagine being angry enough to refuse to drink; but after a couple of days, I think I would be thirsty enough to humble myself and drink what God provided. Allow me to continue with this ludicrous view of the situation. If I were one of those children of Israel, even though God provided water, I would still feel like I had endured all the suffering I could handle. I would camp at Rephidim and not want to take another step. I might even think about building a resort there, with a swimming pool. But as soon as I have laid my plans, here come the Amalekites, dedicated to my destruction! Exodus 17:8 says, “Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim.” I do not get a break; I cannot even enjoy the water. Now I must fight the Amalekites! Then God will not allow me to have a normal kind of fight. He knows I can beat them, but He will not allow me to fight without teaching me another lesson. The enemies are coming at me from every side, and I am fighting for my very life. Moses is up on a hill. I can see him with his arms in the air, but when his arms begin to fall, I find I am losing the battle. But then Aaron and Hur hold up Moses’ arms, and suddenly, I find new strength. What does Moses on a hill with his arms in the air have to do with a fight going on down below? Why can’t I have an ordinary fight like other people? Maybe it is a compliment to be connected to Moses, but why should my life be tied to the actions of those fools Aaron and Hur? They do not have an outstanding history. Why should my victory or defeat depend on their going up the hill and holding up Moses’ arms? I would rather die in a glorious fight than depend on those two! Why does God always connect us to others the way He does? I complain, “God, if You would let me simply fight the battle with Your help, I promise I won’t let You down. Why do my battles often depend upon other people being at their posts?” I can be thankful I was not on that wilderness journey with those children of Israel; I do not think I would have survived. We are fortunate to be able to read their history in the Bible and see, in retrospect, what not to do. Thank God for the record of those who came before us who fell by their mistakes! How do we get to the Promised Land? That is what this wilderness journey is all about. I understand that God wants us in the Promised Land much more than we want to be there. His whole program will be messed up if we do not get there. God would be a liar if we do not make it in. His honor is at stake. But if God really wanted us to go in, why didn’t He kill the giants before we found out they were there? I told you that there is a side to these rebellious children of Israel that I agree with. If I had been there, I might have said to God, “Sure, there is milk and honey there, just like You said there would be. But why didn’t You tell us about the giants before we left?” God can be kind of sneaky. Let me transpose this into the modern day. If God had been honest with me about the trials that were ahead, I might never have come to this church. Did you start coming to church to get blessed? God is good at hiding what is up ahead! I would say, “What do You have to hide, God? Why don’t You open up about Your plans at the outset?” I think that God would answer, “I have plenty to hide from you until you are prepared to do things that would otherwise kill you if you did not first receive some training.” The more mature the saint, the bigger the giants. The longer the journey, the tougher the test and the more burdensome the darkness. But the message is to never doubt in the dark what God told you in the light. I gave an example earlier of what to do when you are sick: run to the shelter of the name Jehovah-rapha, the Lord who heals you. God does not need to be talked into healing you; it is His nature to heal. Someone else might say, “But what about me? I have a different need. My problem is that I never seem to have enough to get by.” Then run to the name Jehovah-jireh, “the Lord who sees” or “the Lord who provides.” What if your problem is anxiety? There are many sources of tension in today’s world, but God has promised to be your peace. Peace has a simple meaning: it is “cessation of againstness.” God is no longer against you. I do not believe that everyone who comes to God is automatically delivered from anxiety. There are things that pressure us every day and seem like they are going to kill us. What are you supposed to do when you feel that daily nagging pressure and have to fight for survival? Run to the shelter of Jehovah-shalom, the Lord is our peace. What should you do if you are carrying guilt because of sin? God is the God of grace. He gives unmerited favor. But if you are a conscientious person, Satan will try to keep you constantly aware of your own shortcomings. It is his greatest weapon. Satan will remind you of all the ways in which you fall short of what you know you should be. Whenever Satan comes to attack and bring to mind your shortcomings, run to the name Jehovah-tsidkenu, “the Lord our righteousness.” God is given this name twice in the book of Jeremiah. In the book of Zechariah, the prophet saw Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord. Joshua was clothed in filthy garments, and Satan was at his side to accuse him. But the Lord rebuked Satan and clothed Joshua in festive garments, symbolic of God’s grace. We do not stand before God clothed in our own performance. We stand before God clothed with His righteousness! “Let him trust in the name of the LORD.” What should I do when I do not know what my next step should be? I have been in that situation many times. When you are uncertain where to go next, stay where you are and do nothing other than run in faith to the shelter of the name Jehovah-rohi, “the LORD is my shepherd.” If you really want to stay in God’s will, you will find that it is harder to get out of His will than it is to stay in it. God is not playing hide-and-seek. The devil might sit on your shoulder and whisper, “You got off the track somewhere.” Nonsense. Shepherds know how to tell you to move when they want you to move. If there is one thing God knows about me, it is that all He has to do is give me the slightest clear nudge and I will go the way He wants me to go. I am not that hard of hearing, and if God is not speaking, then the message is to stand fast and withstand the devil and his suggestions. The Bible says to hold fast your confidence. Do not do any running other than running to the shelter of His name: the Lord is saying, “I am your Shepherd.” Like the Psalmist, we can sing, “He leadeth me.” Whatever your need, God has a name to fit it. If you need compassion, remember it was Jesus who lifted the name of God to “our Father.” We are His children. Jesus Himself was named by His Father. The name “Jesus” is the Greek form of the Hebrew name “Joshua.” This word is a contraction of two words: Jehovah, the One who wants to reveal Himself, and yasha, “to help.” He is the God who comes to help. He is our Father, and Jesus taught that when we ask for bread, our heavenly Father will not give us a stone; and when we ask for fish, He will not give us a serpent. I am showing you different branches of the tree of God’s promises under which we can all find a place to stand. When you are in darkness and have no light, you can either give up or make up your mind and say, “I will not doubt in the dark what God told me in the light! God told me these things in the light, so I can run to the shelter of His names.” God’s names are very specific in their application. I return to the illustration of the children of Israel in the wilderness. God had revealed what He was looking for, but He said they had an “evil heart of unbelief.” An evil heart of unbelief will ultimately wall us away from God. It is hard for us to deliver ourselves from it. We might pray like the man who said to Jesus, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief!” God has made it clear in His word that beyond a certain point, He will not tolerate unbelief dominating our being. I am talking about the frame of mind in which every time a test comes, we see the glass as half empty instead of half full. And every time the darkness comes, we want to give up on God. We want God to penetrate the darkness with His light. We do not want to have to reach up through the darkness and hold fast to the light we have already received. I am talking about a state of mind that determines our position in eternity. That is why I worry that in preaching to others while God tests me on my journey, I might become a castaway. When darkness comes, it is hard for us not to yield to the tendency to allow it to cover us and to say there is no God. That is what the Israelites did. They cried, “Where are You, God?” They put God to the test the same way a metallurgist assays metal to determine its genuineness, and God got tired of it. He said, in essence, “No matter how many times I delivered you, with each new test, you would put Me on trial and say, ‘Are You there or not?’” The children of Israel failed to understand what God said through Moses in Deuteronomy 8: “Thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart . . .” They were the ones on trial, not God. The New Testament says that these things in the Old Testament were written for our example. Christians have been chosen by God to be joint heirs with Christ, who will rule and reign with Him throughout eternity. God is choosey. I believe there are some people in the church who do not undergo these periods of darkness because they are not really a part of the chosen. The children of Israel came to a point one day where the giants dimmed God’s promises. They said, “We are not able,” and God turned against them. He poured out His wrath and strewed their bones in the wilderness because of their disbelief. It is very clear that God does not measure you when you are on a mountaintop and the light is shining. He does not measure you when the water is flowing. God measures the saint by what he does when he is walking in darkness and has no light. Those are the times when God makes His choices for eternity. In recounting this episode in the history of God’s people, the author of the book of Hebrews says, “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.” Let us fear; let us constantly carry a trauma around with us, lest we wait one day too long to pick up one of God’s promises. Let us look at the final instruction in Isaiah 50:10, focusing on the last two words: “Let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.” We belong to the Lord; the church is a people who belong to the Lord. God is not our possession; we are His. I do not mean to sound disrespectful, but here is one verse in Scripture that lets us take a “part” of God in His revelation and make it ours. “Let him . . . stay upon his God.” When darkness comes, never doubt in the dark what God told you in the light, but be specific when you articulate your need. Your darkness is usually specific, and His revelation is specific to you. Whatever your need, you can claim for yourself the particular revelation of God that fits it. Grab that name of God and hold on to it. Do not worry about what other people think. If you are sick, run to the promise “I am the LORD that healeth thee.” Claim that one name of God for yourself, and set aside any other complicated definitions of God. You do not have to fully understand that He is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Stay upon that promise. If your need is for provision, claim that God is “the Lord who provides.” God lets you become a specialist at the point of your need. You can grab hold of the specific name of God that fits your need and make it your personal possession. Every time the darkness crowds in and you are overcome with doubts, displace them. Paul says to overcome evil with good; displace the darkness and the doubts. It does not matter if someone walks in on you as you are sitting in your wheelchair repeating, “God is going to heal me!” If they say you are crazy, you can reply, “When you are ready to trade places with me, you can judge; otherwise, get out of here! God is going to heal me!” Be a fanatic about God’s promises. “Let him stay upon his God.” Make God’s name your possession. Don’t give up. Whom the Lord loves, He trains. In other words, pass the test; because that is what it is. You might think it is easier for me to say that than for you to do it. No, it is not. I also want to pass my tests. I might want to reach the point where I no long have to go through darkness. I might want to graduate, but school is not over! Some people want to get out of school before they are finished. God is not letting us out early, and the prize is going to be worth it. Pass the test: never doubt in the dark what God told you in the light! Reprinted with permission from Pastor Melissa Scott | May, 2023 Wingspread | April, 2023 Wingspread | March, 2023 Wingspread | February, 2023 Wingspread | January, 2023 Wingspread | | Year 2019 Wingspreads | August, 2016 Wingspread | 2016 Wingspreads | 2014 Wingspreads | 2013 Wingspreads | 2012 Wingspreads | 2011 Wingspreads | 2010 Wingspreads | 2009 Wingspreads | 2008 Wingspreads | 2007 Wingspreads | 2006 Wingspreads | 2005 Wingspreads | 2004 Wingspreads | 2003 Wingspreads | 2002 Wingspreads | 2001 Wingspreads | August, 2001 Wingspread | November, 2001 Wingspread | December, 2001 Wingspread | 2000 Wingspreads | 1999 Wingspreads | 2015 Wingspreads | Year 2017 Wingspreads | 2018 Wingspreads | Year 2020 Wingspreads | Year 2021 Wingspreads | Year 2022 Wingspreads | Year 2023 Wingspreads | | Return Home | Current Wingspread | Wingspread Archives | Contact Us | |
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