Today's scripture reading comes from Isaiah chapter 31 verses 3 through 6. The Egyptians are man and not God, and their horses are flesh and not spirit. When the Lord stretches out his hand, the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they will all perish together. For thus the Lord said to me, as a lion or a young lion growls over his prey, and when a band of shepherds is called out against him, he is not terrified by their shouting or dunted at their noise. So the Lord of hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill. Like birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it. He will spare and rescue it. Turn to him from whom people have deeply revolted, owed children of Israel. May the Lord add a blessing to the reading and the hearing of his word. Life is full of danger, seen and unseen, isn't it? Because this is the case, because the danger is all around us, we seek to protect ourselves from that danger. We protect ourselves with insurance, home and life and car and even pet insurance. We take out these policies to ensure that our property is protected in the event of some type of calamity striking us. But not only are we concerned with protecting our property, we like to protect, make sure we protect ourselves physically. We wear helmets if we are on a bike. Seat belts, if we're in a car, are on a plane. We install alarm systems in our homes and some of us protect ourselves with what we consider the ultimate form of protection, the firearm. Protection is a constant, a constant through line in our lives, it's the rationale behind our military, isn't it? The government designates millions of our tax dollars to the military for the purposes of protecting both domestic and foreign interests of the United States. It's the basis, protection is the basis of the Second Amendment, isn't it? We as Americans have the right to bear arms ultimately in order to protect ourselves. We emphasize this protection because we live in a sinful world that is full of evil and in that sinful world are those who aim and even train to carry out that evil against others just this week, just this week. We were once again, we once again saw evil on display. And in our backyard, at Appalachia High School, sadly we were once again confronted with senseless violence perpetrated against our children and our educators. This act will once again bring to the forefront the conversation around how we best protect our precious children in our schools, sad that we have to have that conversation and that discussion. We have these conversations and we come up with solutions because we have learned that unfortunately those who are not protected get taken advantage of and perhaps even worse suffer harm at the hands of evil doers, which brings us to our text. We are familiar, aren't we, with the situation in Judah? They were vulnerable and in need of protection from the Assyrians who were on the verge of invading their cities and carrying out all types of evil upon them. The people and the leaders of Judah because of this impending invasion were rightfully scared. They were rightfully terrified and they needed help. What kind of help? Well they needed protection. They needed protection from these Assyrians who were threatening to invade them, but as we have learned throughout Isaiah, they sought other means of protection other than God. And this week is no different. They needed help and so they went to Egypt looking for protection and God was going to judge them for doing that. Look at verse 1 of our text. Go to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong but do not look to the holy one of Israel or consult the Lord. Now before we get to that, before we get to the judgment on Israel, on Judah, I want you to notice something about what God says here. God is not going to judge Judah because they needed help. This is an aside but it is an important aside. The Lord is not displeased with your weakness. He is not displeased by the fact that you need help. His anger is never kindled against those who understand that they need help. It is not the strong that the Lord helps. It is the weak, the broken, the humble and the contrite. Brothers and sisters, needy is the posture God desires us to have. Matthew 5 and 3, Jesus says, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Psalm 51 and 17, David cries out, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart. Oh God, you will not despise. God desires his people, you do understand. To be weak, so if you come weak this morning, you are in the right posture. God desires us to be weak because guess what? When we come to him without weakness, guess what he does? He makes a strong and when we are made strong, what we will do then is attribute that strength to the Lord and not to ourselves. This is Paul, this is Paul in 2 Corinthians 12 and 9, what he wanted to have that thorn removed from his flesh. He says, the Lord says to Paul, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. And then what does Paul say, therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Paul takes his weakness to the Lord. He is strengthened in the midst of his weakness and he tributes glory to God and not to himself. Judah was weak and they had the right posture. They were looking for help but they went looking for help in the wrong place. In the wrong place and God was going to judge them for it, brothers and sisters, this wasn't just Judah's problem. This is the problem that plagues us all. It plagues us all. Sure we can admit most of us can admit that we need help but we go to the wrong place or the wrong person for help because we do what Judah did and we make a gross miscalculation. A gross miscalculation Isaiah 31 and 3. For these Egyptians are mere humans and not God. Their horses are puny flesh, not mighty spirits. When the Lord raises his fist against them, those who help will stumble and those being helped will fall. They will all fall down and die together. That's ESV, I was just reading NLT if you're confused. Judah had two choices before them. They could seek protection from the Egyptians with all of their chariots and all of their horses or they could have trusted in the protection of God. Isaiah wants to drive home the point that the folly of choosing man over God or flesh over spirit. He wants to drive home the point that that is foolish to do to choose man over God, flesh over spirit. Now brothers and sisters, with the natural eye, with the natural eye, one could see how looking to Egypt for protection would be a good idea. They had horses and chariots and not just a couple of them, not just a few of them, they had many horses, they had many chariots that were mighty. If you're coming up with a military strategy for the situation, in the natural sense, then going to Egypt for protection made all the sense in the world. Judah looked at their resources and they knew they were no match for the Assyrians and they looked at Egypt's resources and they said yes, they're able to fight fire with fire. We can't be too quick ourselves to condemn Judah because you know what, truth be told, looking at the situation with the natural eyes, we would have done the same exact thing. We would have done the same exact thing. We rely on what we see in the natural to make calculations about the protection we should rely on. And one of the reasons why we do this is because we are a people impressed by numbers. The assumption we make is that the bigger and more I have, then the more protected and better protected I am. If I have an alarm, then great. But if I add bars to the windows, a camera and a gate, then I am protected. We think more is better. This is what got David in trouble in 2 Samuel 24, isn't it? Remember he took a census of the people because he wanted to make sure he had enough, should they need to muster up an army to fight. Like David, the error that plagues us is that we do natural math instead of kingdom math. We do natural math instead of kingdom math. And when we do natural math instead of kingdom math, we miscalculate. That is Isaiah's point to Judah. The Egyptians are mere men. They are not God. They have an army of horses that yes are many and mighty. But like the children's catechism say, God is a spirit and doesn't have a body like men.
There is no comparison between the two. It isn't even close in that one sentence. Here is the calculation Isaiah is doing. He's saying, well, God is infinite. Man is finite. God is all powerful. Man is limited. God is creator. Man is creature. God knows all. Man knows very little. God is strong. Man is weak. What is Isaiah doing? He's doing kingdom math while Judah was doing natural math. You see, there is no comparison between the two. No comparison. The choice is clear. But too often we find ourselves enamored with the natural math. The brothers and sisters, to the natural minds, seems as though the better choice is the Egyptians. For us, that which we can see and calculate with our natural minds, or see with our natural eyes. But we, as God's people, are called to see beyond the natural and use kingdom math. Remember, Elijah Servant, as they came out and they saw the army before them and they were scared and he was scared. Elijah has to remind him that there are more with us than with them. Lord, open up his eyes that he might see and the Lord opened up his eyes and they are surrounding them. Where an army beyond what he could ever think or imagine, kingdom math works differently. When you see with the eyes of faith, you realize that trusting God is always the better choice. It's always the better choice. Some brothers and sisters, every day we are confronted with the choice of trusting man or trusting God. Trusting the Lord is always the better option. It always is, I know it's hard, but it is always the better option. So here's what you do. When you are met with a daunting situation that you are convinced will destroy you. Can I encourage you to do the kingdom math? Do the kingdom math because it works. It works. Ask Joshua and the leaders of Israel if kingdom math works. In Joshua 23 and 10, as Joshua communicates to the leaders of Israel, he says, One man of you puts the flight a thousand, one man puts the flight a thousand. Since it is the Lord your God who fights for you just as he promised you. That kingdom massing to work, didn't it? I'm sure Gideon could testify to it work into it. The Lord, Gideon said, this Lord, you keep on taking them away. How is this going to work? It worked for Gideon. Judah, grossly, grossly miscalculated. You know what they miscalculated? The power of God. They grossly miscalculated the power of God and it caused them to make the wrong choice for their protection. Their era was that they assumed all power rested with Egypt and that they were their best option for protection. But Judah didn't fully grasp the power of God nor did they understand the gravity of their predicament. Isaiah 31, 3B. When the Lord raises his fist against them, those who help will stumble and those being helped will fail. They will all fall down and die together. Notice that the power of God is so great that just the slight outstretching of his arm, the raising of his fist would cause both the help and the helper to fall. The point is no matter how strong and powerful Judah thought Egypt was, there was one more powerful and stronger still. Judah made a gross miscalculation. They believed Egypt was the best help they could receive. May we not ever make the same mistake. There is only one all-powerful, self-sufficient being that doesn't need help from anyone. He is the Alpha and the Omega who independently exists. And so listen here. He is the Logic. And so any person outside of the Lord that you go to for help is going to be limited, dependent, and will always fall short of giving you the sufficient help that you need. Because get this. If your helper needs help, then you don't have the help you need. Particularly true, the true help everyone needs. And this was Egypt. Judah's helper needed help. They needed help. Egypt was not all-powerful and they were limited. They may have been able to help protect Judah from the evil of serians, but they were not going to be able to help protect them from the hand and the judgment of God. That was the issue. That was Judah's real problem. The Lord judging them. God was Egypt's problem too though. Egypt got an oracle spoken over them too, didn't they? Don't forget the serians were just instruments in the hand of God. He was using them to bring judgment against his people. He was using them to bring judgment against any of his enemies. Judah had made a gross miscalculation regarding their protection. They chose the power of men over the power of God. They were going to be judged. Now, brothers and sisters, I want you to hear what I'm saying. Like planning. Like planning. Protecting ourselves is a good thing. It's a good thing. Listen, having an alarm on your... We've got an alarm. Having an alarm on your house. That's okay. That's fine. Wearing a seatbelt is extremely wise. It's according to the law. So where is seatbelt? Where is the seatbelt? If you want to exercise your second amendment right, you are free to do so. You need a permit, but you are free to do so. But you must always understand that all of those things are limited. They are limited. They will only protect you to a point. They will be no match for the hand of God. Man may protect you. Might protect you from man. But I want to impress upon you this morning that there is a protection from God that protects you from man and from his wrath.
Against there is a protector, brother and sister. That's what Isaiah is going to tell us. That's what God Himself is going to tell us. Isaiah was urging Judah to trust in the protection of God because God is a fierce protector. He is a fierce protector. Listen, when you belong to God, you belong to Him. You belong to God. You are His and He is Yours. You remember what Jesus said in John 10 and 29 when speaking of His sheep, excuse me John 27 through 30, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand. And I and the father are one. Jesus, of course, is reaffirming here. He is reaffirming the testimony of Isaiah. What belongs to God is to have the fierce protection like that of a lion who growls over its prey. The Lord is determined to keep and protect you. You don't mess with a lion when he is over watching over something that he believes is his. There is an intensity to this protection that makes the lion steadfast and unmoved by the threats of those who would try to take his possession. This is how God describes his fierce protection for his people. This is how he describes his fierce protection for you brothers and sisters. If you belong to God, this is the energy he is bringing to protect you. Like that of a lion watching over his prey. You know how this is best demonstrated? It is best demonstrated in how he protects us from the wilds and the schemes of the evil one. The Bible says a lot about our great adversary, the devil. And in 1 Peter 5, 8, he says, be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a lion, like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. The devil here is likened to a lion as well. But this is not a good analogy. He is after us to harm us. He is waiting to pounce on us to destroy us. And so knowing this to be true, what do you and I need? We need protection. We need protection from this lion. And God has provided his people protection from this analogous lion with a real powerful lion of Judah. Hell, hell, lion of Judah, how powerful you are. Faith in him is the protection that we need to be safe from the evil one. That is what Paul says in Ephesians 6 and 16. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith which you can distinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. Shield of faith, but in the sisters, your faith in Christ is the fierce protection God gives you to protect you from the wilds and the schemes of the evil one. Your faith in Christ does that. It protects you from his fierce arrows. God's fierce protection. It also, you know what it does. It protects us from the accusations of the devil. He is unmoved by them. Notice what Isaiah says about the Lord in Isaiah 31 and 4. And when a band of shepherds is called out against him, he is not terrified by their shouting or dunted at their noise. This is not a new tactic of the enemy. He uses the same old tricks. He seeks to accuse the brethren with their sin and failures. He gets loud about them. He shouts them. He shouts them to us. He shouts them to others. He accuses us with our greed. And our lust. And our worry. And our pride. And our lies. And our coveting. And our anger. Constantly, constantly nagging us about it. You're not good enough. I can't love you like that. Your sin disqualifies you from serving. So why don't you stay home? You're always going to be that way. You failed this time. And I know you're trying, but just give it up. You're always going to be that way. You won't love you. They find out what you've done. These are the accusations that greet us. And you know what they do? They move us emotionally. We get down and we retreat. We hide and we soak and we get angry. But you know what those accusations don't do? They don't move God. They do not move God. He is not terrified by the shouting or the daunting noises. He hears the evil ones saying those things. But he pays them no mind. They don't move him. All those who belong to him. The reason why he is moved by them. It's because all those who belong to him are forgiven. Our sin has been washed away. The righteousness of Jesus has been credited to our account. And we have been declared righteous. So therefore Paul can ask the rhetorical question in Romans 8 and 33. Who shall bring any charge against God to light? It is God who justifies. His God is not moved by the noise of the accusations. And therefore neither should we be. That is how he protects us. He actually protects us from ourselves. He protects us from ourselves. Because left to ourselves we hear the taunts and the accusations. And you know what we do? We start believing them. And it moves us. We believe them instead of believing God. God protects us by not being moved and saying to us, neither should you be. I don't condemn you. Now go and sit no more. That's what the Lord says. That's how he protects us. We have a fierce protector. But our... But God our protector... He also fights for us. He fights for us. Isaiah 31 and 4. So the Lord of hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion and it's him. Brothers and sisters, we have a protector who fights for us. And so you know what that means? You know what that means? It means that we don't have to fight ourselves. We don't have to protect ourselves. We do often. We assume that we have to fight. That we have to be strong and battle the enemy on our own. But all throughout scripture, God has declared and he has demonstrated that he fights for his people. Do you believe that? It's in his word. Moses on the banks of the red. And the people of Israel on the banks of the red sea. God fought for his people. Joshua in the battle of Jericho lies in the prophet of Bel. David and the Philistines. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful promise of God. We can trust that he fights for us. That he fights for us. That he will fight for us. He always has and he always will. We have to keep that in mind. We have to keep in mind what Paul says in Romans 12 and 19. Our team beloved. Do not avenge yourselves. But rather give place to wrath, where his written vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. Vengeance belongs to the Lord. So brothers, just put down the weapons. Put down the swords. Stop trying to fight your battle, your own battles. The vengeance belongs to the Lord. because he's the one who fights for us. God is a fierce protector, but he is also a fatherly protector, a fatherly protector. Notice the simile of verse 5. Like birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it. He will spare and rescue it. There is a type of parenting these days that is often frowned upon. It's called helicopter parenting. Have you heard of it? Helicopter parenting. It is described as a type of parenting that hovers over parents that hover over their children's every move. They are there to catch them when they fall. Constantly planning out their every move, doing everything for them. Now most pediatricians and parenting experts, whoever those are, are parenting experts. Say helicopter parenting can be detrimental to children,
but brothers and sisters, that is not the case with God. Our heavenly Father is a helicopter parent and it is not to our detriment but towards our betterment. God hovers over us like a bird there to watch over and keep us. The reason why helicopter parenting doesn't work for earthly parents is because we earthly parents are sinful. Our helping oftentimes goes too far or sometimes it is not enough. Our care and concern easily moves to overbearing unrealistic expectations of our children. But our God's protecting, protective hovering is perfectly carried out. There is, this is the comfort of Psalm 121, 7 and 8. The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever more. This is how the Lord hovers over us, protecting us. He watches over us in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven. He watches over us and keeps us providentially working out his good purposes in our lives, never, never to harm us. But only so that he might conform us, conform us more to the image of our elder brother, fitting us for heaven. You know what his expectations are of us? They are according to his grace. His expectations of us are according to his grace. Listen to what Paul discovered in 1 Corinthians 15 and 10. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is within me. His expectations are according to his grace. He calls us to something. He's going to give us the grace to complete it. Lord, keeps our lives with the sisters. Every moment of every day you and I are being kept by the hovering care of our Father. Whose love and mercy are working to bring about our deliverance and our rescue. The protection that the Lord provides isn't just simply for a moment. It's not just, it's not just for a moment. It is not just to deliver you from the acute temptations and terrifying situations that you and I face every day. And they're real. We do. And the Lord does deliver us from those things. We, that's what we pray. Lord, deliver us from evil. Deliver us from temptation. It's just true. He does. But his protection, it has an end goal in mind. It has an end goal. He seeks to deliver us through the fire and through the storms, through the judgment to a glorious kingdom, to a heavenly city, to everlasting life. And the Lord promises to do it. He will do it, brothers and sisters. He will deliver us because he is promised to do it. Galatians 1, 3 and 4. Grace to you in peace from our, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father. Deliver us. Deliver us. Rescue us. That's his end goal in protecting us and his Fatherly protection. This is why brothers and sisters, we are to trust in God and not in man. This is why we are to trust in God and not in man. Perhaps you're here and you're feeling convicted because like Judah, you are guilty of not trusting in God. You find yourself often daunting with life situations and circumstances and rather than then running and throwing yourself upon the mercy and trusting in God. You start trying to manipulate things. You're trying to put up fences to protect yourself.
You too often find yourself relying on natural math and not kingdom math. Truth be told, we all struggle with this. Let's just get a straight. There isn't a person in here that doesn't struggle with trusting the Lord. We see with our natural eyes and we trust that with our natural eyes rather than trusting the Lord, we trust in man. We struggle with this. We all do and we all need to rejoice over what Isaiah says in verse 6. Isaiah 31 and 6, though you are such wicked rebels. That's you. That's me. That's all of us. Though you are such wicked rebels, my people come and return to the Lord. Come and return to the Lord. Do you hear the merciful, patient kindness of God that you can repent right now of trusting in man and start trusting in the fierce, fatherly protection of God? You can do that. You are able to do that. That is another form of His protection. He always offers a way home. Always. There is always the light is always on and the bridge is never close. The way of Jesus is always available. So we can always turn. Always turn and repent of our unbelief, a repent of our trust in man and believe in God and trust in Him. Always can. We always can. If you struggle this morning to trust God right now, trust and believe in Him. He's there. He's there. Let's pray.