Isaiah 8:11 (ESV)
For the LORD
spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the
way of this people, saying:
What does it mean to “walk in the
way of this people?” It means four things in this chapter. First the people are
ignoring the truth that God will judge his people. There is an accountability
involved in being the people of God. We answer to God for what we do and how we
live. Romans reminds us that we do not judge each other because we will each
eventually give account to God himself.
Why do you
pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we
will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11for it is written, “As I
live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess
to God.”So then each of us will give an account of himself to God (Rom
14:10-12).
Second, walking in the way of this
people means forgetting that God will protect his people. We will certainly
give account to God, but we are also under the protection of God. Sometimes it
feels like God is hiding from us. Sometimes we experience his discipline in our
lives. Yet he never abandons his people. We have an enemy who seeks to destroy
us and our faith, but even in the depths and the darkness God is there. To our enemy
we can say, “Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; speak a word,
but it will not stand, for God is with us” (Is 8:10).
The people of the world forget both
these truths. We will all give account to God, but God is with us and will
never abandon us. Third, the world lives in fear. To “walk in the way of this
people” means fearing what the rest of the world fears. Too often the church
has adapted a mentality of fear. We lost our hope and our faith. We have, instead,
circled the wagons and hope to hold out until the cavalry comes to rescue us.
In our case the means the rapture or the return of the King. But that is not
what God has called us to do. He told Peter, “I will build my church, and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mt 16:18). I’m not sure we believe
that. As the people of God, we have been called to infiltrate the territory of
the enemy and spoil him. That is what the Great Commission is all about. As we
are going into all the world, we are to be making disciples, and the Gates of
Hell will not be able to stand against us.
We act as though we are the fortress
and Hell is banging at the gates. We only hope that Jesus comes back before the
gates give way. But that is exactly the opposite of Jesus words. Hell is not
banging at the gates of the church. The church is banging at the gates of Hell
and “Hell shall not prevail.” God has not called us to fear, but to “power and
love and self-control” (2 Tim 1:7). The world lives in fear. They are afraid of
change. They are afraid of people that are different from them. They are afraid
of foreigners. They are afraid of financial collapse. They are afraid of
growing old. They are afraid of losing control of their lives. When the
barbarians sacked Rome it would have appeared to be a time for appropriate
fear. Yet the church used that opportunity to convert Europe. We can live in
fear, or we can trust the hand of God.
Isaiah warns us not to walk in the
way of the people. We must never forget that we will one day give account to
God. We must never forget that even in the darkest times of life, he has never
abandoned us. We must not buy in to the fear of the world. We must never ignore
the Word and the testimony. That is how the world lives. God has called us to
something higher. We are his. He is Immanuel, God with us. Let us keep our eyes on Him. To the Enemy we can ever
say, “Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; speak a word, but it
will not stand, for God is with us” (Is 8:10).
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