"The Hard Way & 'The Wisdom of the Crowds'” / Diversions Ahead: Be Careful but Be Not Afraid

 

To get the most from this week's SS Notes shown below, I would suggest you read the Introduction which is Robert Frost's poem, The Road Not Taken. Then skip to the end of the Notes (For Further Reflection) and read the excerpt taken from the book, The Wisdom of the Crowds by James Surowiecki. With those thoughts and questions in mind, review the Notes on Isaiah 7 and 8.  Ask yourself what lessons can be learned from how the King of Judah led his people to a near-spiritual ruin. In that context, how significant is the name, Immanuel? There is much to consider.

The Hard Way & 

“The Wisdom of the Crowds”

 

Diversions Ahead: 

Be Careful but Be Not Afraid

 

Isaiah 7:14-8:22

 

The American Poet, Robert Frost, wrote one of my favorite poems entitled, The Road Not Taken. Note how Frost describes life’s journey.

 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

 

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

 

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

 

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

 

We are often faced with choices that come our way. The decisions are hard to make at times but as Frost says, the choices made have “made all the difference.” We were introduced to King Ahaz in. The king knew what was right, but he compromised and that made all the difference. His decision not affected him, but all of Judah. To slightly modify a phrase being used today, “Decisions do have consequences.”

 

Last week Dave led us in an excellent study through the first half of Isaiah chapter 7. Today we will study the last half of the chapter as well as chapter 8. Both chapters form one unit on the judgment against Judah. This is more than a history lesson! It is a description of how spiritual decline happens. Historically it is about what happened to Judah as it was being led by its appointed spiritual leader. A culture throughout the land gradually developed and many were deceived.  While there were some who were faithful, all were impacted in some way.  It didn’t have to happen that way. Appeals and warnings were made but few listened. Judgment came. A price was paid. 

 

There is some good news in this tragic story. There was a remnant that did emerge from the crisis. It’s not a pretty picture but they survived. The promise for the faithful was found in the name of one of Isaiah’s children: “Immanuel” – God is with us.” That was their hope. That was to be their only way of escape. 

 

As a reminder, this is how the story began. Ahaz, the king of Judah, was an idolater and not a good king. In Isaiah 7 we find him in a tough political spot. Israel and Syria had wanted Ahaz to join them in their fight against Assyria. His refusal to do so led them to invade Judah. Ahaz became desperate and was looking for help. Isaiah went to Ahaz with some very specific counsel: Put your trust in God rather than in the pagan nation of Assyria. Isaiah tells Ahaz to ask for a sign, but he refuses to do so. This refusal proved to be his point of no return! It was more than doubting. It was a refusal to even try to believe. In the midst of this decision-making turmoil, a key principle of life (for all of us) emerges in Isa. 7:9, “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.”  Frost’s poem applies here. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood. . . .I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference”. That was not the case with Ahaz. He took the easy road. Both he and his people paid a terrible price.

 

Isaiah 7:17-25

The Enemies Are Coming

The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah—he will bring the king of Assyria. ” Isa. 7:17

The prophecy is against Jerusalem was symbolic for the country of Judah. This comes because the king was reluctant to put his trust in the Lord. God had spoken through Isaiah and told him not to focus his fear on Israel and Aram. Unlike Daniel who described enemies as dreaded beasts, Isaiah uses insects: the fly and the bee (Isa. 7:18). 

In that day the LORD will whistle for flies from the Nile delta in Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria.

Warnings after warnings had been given. Judgment time had come. Isaiah’s own child’s name would bear the judgment message.  The LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.” (Swift is the booty, speedy is the prey). (Isa. 8:1) The warning was clear: the enemy is approaching!

 

Panic Not Repentance

 

King Ahaz believed in the trustworthiness of Assyria and felt, despite Isaiah’s counsel, that Israel and Syria were his real enemies. Nevertheless, he “put his ladder against the wrong wall!”  Don’t we do the same? We sometimes fight each other rather than direct our attention to the real enemy? Ahaz lives a life of compromise to achieve what he thinks is the solution. For him, Assyria is the answer to his felt needs. In order to convince Assyria to come to his aid, Ahaz sends some of his special treasures—or should we say the Lord’s treasures?

And Ahaz took the silver and gold found in the temple of the LORD and in the treasuries of the royal palace and sent it as a gift to the king of Assyria. The king of Assyria complied by attacking Damascus and capturing it. He deported its inhabitants to Kir and put Rezin to death. (2 Kings 16:8,9)

Of course, none of this helped! Warnings against this, he called a “conspiracy” (Isa. 8:12). There was no way to get through to him.

 

Panic set in for Ahaz.  Note how things got even worse.

In his time of trouble King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the LORD. He offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus, who had defeated him . . . He shut the doors of the LORD’s temple and set up altars at every street corner in Jerusalem. In every town in Judah he built high places to burn sacrifices to other gods and aroused the anger of the LORD, the God of his ancestors. 2 Chron. 28:23,24

Assurance for the Faithful

 

The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy,

he is the one you are to fear,

he is the one you are to dread.

He will be a holy place;

for both Israel and Judah he will be

a stone that causes people to stumble

and a rock that makes them fall. Isa. 8:13-14

 

During the time of Ahaz, even the sanctuary was profaned. Despite the apostasy the Lord still ruled. The central message of Isaiah for the faithful during this time of uncertainty and crisis was summed-up in one word: Immanuel—God is with us. For the others there was also a single word: Maher-shalal-hash-baz—"Quick to the plunder, speedy is the prey.” Such was the fate of Judah’s immediate threat. The real threat, however, was the Ahaz’s desired friendship with Assyria.

 

“If the message isn’t what you want to hear, change the channel” and that is what Ahaz did. He sought to speak with the dead.

When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. (Isa. 8:19,20)

Seeking is important.  A nation should not seek answers from spirits. To do so is a denial of God very existence! In times of calamity and personal sorry, God’s people must not forget Him! If other nations consult their gods, gods which are not real, we who know the Lord should at all times consult Him. Not only is spiritualism wicked; it is also foolish, for it is foolish to consult dead people on behalf of the living.

 

Concluding Reflections

 

Imagine being in Judah and seeing your own king compromise your cherished spiritual values. Imagine seeing the spiritual symbols taken from the sanctuary and given as a bribe a pagan king. No doubt, you would feel as though your world was falling apart.

 

Generations later similar challenges arise. Not the counsel given:

That time will soon come, and we shall have to keep hold of the strong arm of Jehovah; for all these great signs and mighty wonders of the devil are designed to deceive God's people and overthrow them. Our minds must be stayed upon God, and we must not fear the fear of the wicked, that is, fear what they fear, and reverence what they reverence, but be bold and valiant for the truth. Could our eyes be opened, we should see forms of evil angels around us, trying to invent some new way to annoy and destroy us. And we should also see angels of God guarding us from their power; for God's watchful eye is ever over Israel for good, and He will protect and save His people, if they put their trust in Him. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him. EW 60.1

In the midst of any crisis, remember these words from Joel 2:21:

Do not be afraid, land of Judah;

be glad and rejoice.

Surely the LORD has done great things

  

For Further Reflection 

 

Monkey See, Monkey Do

In the following illustration cited below regarding a “circular mill” of ants, what lessons can we learn regarding

 

·      Future Ahaz’s? 

·      Future Remnants? 

·      Future Times of Crisis?

·      Future Retention of Moral and Spiritual Values?]

 

“In the early part of the twentieth century, the American naturalist William Beebe came upon a strange sight in the Guyana jungle. A group of army ants was moving in a huge circle. The circle was 1,200 feet in circumference, and it took each ant two and a half hours to complete the loop. The ants went around and around the circle for two days until most of them dropped dead.

 

What Beebe saw was what biologists call a “circular mill.” The mill is created when army ants find themselves separated from their colony. Once they’re lost, they obey a simple rule: follow the ant in front of you. The result is the mill, which usually only breaks up when a few ants straggle off by chance and the others follow them away. . .. 

 

No one ant runs the colony. No one issues orders. Each individual ant knows, on its own, almost nothing. Yet the colony successfully finds food, gets all its work done, and reproduces itself. But the simple tools that make ants so successful are also responsible for the demise of the ants who get trapped in the circular mill. Every move an ant makes depends on what its fellow ants do, and an ant cannot act independently, which would help break the march to death. 

 

One of the quickest was to make people’s judgments systematically biased is to make them dependent on each other for information. Second, independent individuals are more likely to have new information rather than the same old data everyone is already familiar with. The smartest groups, then are made up of people with diverse perspectives who are able to stay independent of each other. 

(James Surowiecki, in The Wisdom of Crowds, p.p40-41)

 

Questions to Consider:

What is the strength of the colony?

What is the danger of becoming separated from the colon?

How are weaknesses actually strengths overextended?

How is a diversity of thought both a curse and a blessing?