Trust & Treaties (Isaiah 30:1-18)

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Well, good morning church. Go ahead, grab your Bibles, open up to Isaiah 30. Isaiah 30, we’ll be in verses 1-18 in what is probably not the favorite text for Mother’s Day or the favorite subject for Mother’s Day, either. So apologies for that in advance, but it’s good to have you all here as we continue in our series, what it means to practice politics, to engage in politics being shaped by Scripture and not by culture. As we’re turning to Isaiah 30, I like weddings. I really do like weddings. Obviously I get to officiate them occasionally, and all that they proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. So, big fan of weddings. I’m not a fan of wedding receptions, knowing I got a few to go to coming up here in a few weeks anyway, not not my favorite thing. You know me, I’m too introverted to be around that many people, and then I’m too curmudgeonly to have music that loud and dancing that long. One other reason I’m not always a fan of weddings is they pick the menu for me, and usually you just kind of put it down in front of me. Sometimes I get two options. You get two options, right? Do you want the beef or the chicken or something like that? And I don’t like that two option thing. They’re like, You want beef or chicken? And I’m thinking to myself, what I really want is salmon. No luck, right? They never bring it to me. And then definitely no substitutions either. We’re going, could I get spinach instead of asparagus? And the waiters just kind of look at you like you’re in the wrong place. So you can tell I like a tapas restaurant. You know? I can just pick and choose whatever I want bring it all together. But no, that’s not wedding receptions. Unfortunately, this is also how it feels in America today. You got two options. You want the Republican meal or the democratic meal? That’s it. No substitutions, either. Could I get this part? But I really would love to switch out climate policy. Is that a possibility? No, absolutely not. And then the more that we choose sides, the more that we’re like, Well, this is the plate that’s been served me. This is what I got to eat. I guess the more that we are squeezed into that party’s mold, the importance of party loyalty, that’s what we’re going to look at today, and the danger of this kind of binary choice thinking for us as Christians. And to get there, we’re going to draw from Israel’s history, really Judah’s history, the southern kingdom, after the nation of Israel divided. What’s happening here, just you’re clear on the context of this prophecy, is that Assyria is the current world superpower. This is the same Assyria that is going to actually wipe out the northern kingdom and take them in to exile, never to return that same Assyria is threatening the southern kingdom Judah, which is a tiny country, weak country, and so they’re understandably panicked, like, what can we do to stave off this threat? Or maybe the better question, to whom will they turn? It’s a question that we face today, because we are also facing real problems, not the threat of invasion, but there are very real issues. To whom will we turn? So we’re looking at three questions that we got to answer and that this text will help us answer as we figure that out. So our first question, what should we trust? What should we trust? Let me look at Isaiah, 30 verses, one to seven. I’ll read it for us. Woe to the obstinate children, declares the Lord. To those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by My Spirit, keeping sin upon sin, who go down to Egypt without consulting me, who look for help, to Pharaoh’s protection, to Egypt’s shade, for refuge, but Pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame. Egypt’s shade will bring you disgrace, though they have officials and so on, and their envoys have arrived in Hans, everyone will be put to shame because of a people useless to them, who bring neither help nor advantage but only shame and disgrace. A prophecy concerning the animals of the Negev through a land of hardship and distress, of lions and lionesses, of adders and darting snakes, the envoys carry their riches on donkeys backs, their treasures on the humps of camels, to their unprofitable nation, to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless. Therefore I call her Rahab the do nothing. Assyria is threatening Judah, as I said, and so the nation looks to Egypt for help. What’s going on here is they’re sending tribute to Egypt to purchase an alliance and military. Very support Egypt, one of the other superpowers, and so maybe the two of us together, at least, can fight off Assyria. Now at the human level, this makes a lot of sense. This is a shrewd move, and the weaker nation needs protection. And often weaker nations get pulled into the orbit of the superpowers. Think of the Cold War, when almost every nation on the planet was like, Well, I’m gonna go with the US, or I’m gonna go with the USSR. And that’s kind of what’s happening here as well. So humanly speaking, it makes a lot of sense, but from God’s perspective, it’s utter folly. It is, as he points out, not his alliance, and to enter into it is to heap sin upon sin. So what’s the big deal? Because it’s not that alliances are intrinsically wrong. Israel and Judah make alliances at various points in their history. They’re not always called out for it. The issue, you see it there in verse two, is that they didn’t consult God. They didn’t look to God first, and instead, they looked to Egypt. We see it in verse one, also where it says they carry out plans that aren’t the Lord’s. So Isaiah is asking the question. The Lord’s asking the question like, why would you look to Egypt when you could look to God instead? And if you’re at all familiar with Israel’s history. You know, this is a really good question, like we just did, Exodus, Who you rooting for? Who you think’s got this god or Egypt? The choice is obvious. I mean, Judah is going back to their slave masters to ensure their freedom. The irony would be hilarious if it weren’t so depressing. And why not just ask God to do what he’s done before, deliver his people in power? But no, they don’t, and then we don’t always either, do we? There’s this temptation that we face to magnify our present crisis and minimize God’s past deliverance so that we start to believe our circumstances and doubt His word. Like I know you’ve done it before, Lord, but this time, it’s too much for you, like this time, I’m going to have to take care of myself. We’re going to need to we’re going to need to call in some outside help here. The Lord isn’t enough. Have you ever felt that? Have you ever felt that, politically, with the present crisis in our world, pick which crisis you’re thinking of thinking, well, we’re going to need to do something about this. I don’t think the Lord is enough. You actually see the folly of this belief in the word that’s used for Alliance, the word literally means covering, and that’s how they’re treating Egypt. They see Egypt like a warm blanket that’s going to make them feel safe against the Assyrian storm. You remember when you were a kid and you were scared that there was a monster in your room? What’s the key to surviving a monster attack? You got to pull the blanket over your head. Right? They can’t see you. They can’t eat you. Now there was not a monster in your room. If there had been a monster in your room. How much security Do you think that blanket was offering you very, very little, exactly. And that’s the problem with Egypt here as well. The folly of it, in fact, later on in this chapter, even later than we’ll get to in this passage, the same word is used for an idol, because that’s what it is. An idol is a warm blanket. I think it’s going to protect me, even though it is, in fact, useless. This is why the Lord points out what we already know, what happens when we don’t trust him. It never works, so that they’re going to reap shame and disgrace, not victory and protection. The Lord loves us too much to let us wander away from him and put our hope in worldly powers for help. He won’t, if he if he loves us, if he’s gracious and merciful towards us, he won’t let us keep going down that path forever. It’s like when you’re teaching your kid to drive and they’re starting to veer and you kind of go, how long do I let this go? And then you jerk the wheel back, like, that’s what the Lord will do with his people. Jerk the wheel back, kind of go, nope, we can’t go that way. And usually that involves chastisement, punishment, as the Lord is, you know, the prophecy itself is part of how he’s jerking the wheel back to kind of say, let’s, let’s get back in line here. And Isaiah does so humorously, like he pokes fun at the absurdity of trusting Egypt, starting there in verse six, where you get this a prophecy concerning the animals of the Negev. It’s this very solemn opening, isn’t it, and you read throughout the rest of Isaiah. Get a lot of a prophecy concerning the fall of Babylon. It’s serious stuff. Well, what are we getting here? We’re getting an Oracle about the beasts. What beasts of the Negev, the pack animals who are bringing the tribute to Egypt from Israel. That’s what this prophecy is about. Now you can imagine the officials who are still there in Jerusalem, the one who sent these envoys out to deliver the tribute. And they’re pacing nervously back in the palace in Jerusalem. You know, they got life 360 going on their phone, going, are they almost there? Are they almost there? Is Egypt going to accept our tribute or not? They’re chain smoking because they’re stressed and all of that. And then Isaiah is over here going, Won’t somebody think of the poor pack animals though they’re carrying all this gold and stuff through the desert, these poor beasts. It’s a funny way of making a serious point. I mean, again, Israel is like literally reversing their salvation because they are going from the promised land back to Egypt, refusing their Savior in the process. And for what? What are they going to get? What are all these pack animals bringing back with them they get? Verse seven, Rahab. Rahab often used of Egypt. The word itself means arrogant, like the proud one. So Egypt’s one making big boasts. I can solve all your problems, but actually it’s useless, hence the do nothing. So that’s the big question for us. Then the question that was there for Judah as well. What should we trust. What should we trust? We should trust the Lord’s power. The Lord’s power not the arrogant, empty boasts of armchair big mouths in Alec Mathiers delightful phrase for Egypt there, but we trust the Lord’s power. The world has very real problems, but God is big enough and strong enough to handle them, and so we seek Him first, we look to him first. That’s what Peter says first. Peter 217, he’s given a list of instructions, and he says, Fear God, honor the Emperor, and that order is all important. Fear God first. Then let’s talk about the Emperor. The order is absolutely crucial, because we know, if you’ve read the book of Proverbs, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You want to get wise, you start by fearing the Lord. We need wisdom for political engagement. It’s the most important thing we can do is fear God so that it reorients our hearts, and in the process, will diminish the other fears that so often drive the political process. In so many ways, politics is driven by fear. Our political views are driven by fear. Maybe it’s a fear of a foreign power, maybe it’s a fear of poverty, maybe it’s a fear of the other. We got to put those fears in right context, subordinate to the fear of the Lord, plus another reason we need to fear the Lord first is because the fear of man will keep us from calling out sin otherwise, which is scary. I mean, who wants to criticize Trump on Twitter today? It doesn’t be a pile on that’s gonna be a pile on. Probably not the best place to engage in politics anyway. You’ve heard me say that 1000 times, but you get the point. It would take courage to criticize leaders. We need courage to speak God’s truth to whatever powers are in the world, or else we’ll pander to it. It takes courage to be John the Baptist, who famously called out King Herod for his sin and paid for it with his life after years in prison. It takes courage, but as Jonathan Lehman reminds us, me, we may well need to offend the mighty on behalf of the Almighty, because we have been given a prophetic role so the church’s task. We’ve been given the role of proclamation. We speak truth. We’re ambassadors speaking the King’s message, which means we should be the loudest voices, the kindest voices, the most loving voices, absolutely, but the loudest voices critiquing corruption, immorality and folly within our own parties. If you belong to a party or if you voted for somebody, you should be the one most loudly critiquing them to say, I voted for you. I didn’t vote for this. And you need to know that. So the question we got to ask ourselves, have you formed an unholy alliance with a political party? Have you consulted the Lord in the matter? And one of the ways to test this, because that’s a hard question to ask, no, I don’t think I have. I think the Lord is first in my heart. That’s tough to see. One of the tests is, have you made peace with your party’s sins? So you’re looking at them like Egypt, which was throughout Israel’s history, not only Israel’s enemy, but God’s enemy as well. But you kind of got this lesser of two evils mentality going on, as the famous saying goes, lesser of two evils is still evil, right? Got to have that in our heads, of course. So if you made peace with your party’s sins so that you’re now defending the indefensible and excusing the inexcusable, that’s how you would know you’ve made an unholy alliance. Can I just give you an example? Let’s step on toes here. What I do? It’s easy to point to the party in power, because they’re the ones giving us the examples. Right now, if we’re years ago, I could have done the other party also. Okay, just hear that. But like we who voted for the Republican Party who elected Trump? If that’s you, should be the ones not excusing things like calling for genocide on Easter Sunday of all days, and then later posting a blasphemous image of himself as Jesus, like I just want to give you permission to say you should call that out, even if you vote Republican, especially if you vote Republican again. I could do that with the other party too. I could probably do that with the little parties, libertarians, green, you name it. We could. We could pick because we’re all sinners, okay, but that’s what I mean here. But if you’ve made peace of that, if you’re making excuses, well, he’s a Red Cross worker. No, he wasn’t. We’re not stupid. We don’t need to pretend to be stupid here. Okay, don’t make excuses. Fulfill your prophetic role. Fear God. Give the Emperor the honor he deserves. You don’t have to choose beef or chicken. You can absolutely make substitutions, and you can criticize the chef when he makes it wrong. This is supposed to be filet. This is shoe leather, you know, like, that’s okay. We can say that. Why? Because we trust in the Lord’s power ultimately, and not in any alliance that we make in the short term for limited goals. The word that came to mind here was allegiance. A lot of us would pledge allegiance to the flag like you, the only allegiance you pledge unconditionally is to God. Second question we gotta answer, what should we listen to? What should we listen to? May keep reading verses eight to 14 go now. Write it on a tablet for them. Inscribe it on a scroll that for the days to come it may be an everlasting witness. For these are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the Lord’s instruction. They say to the seers, see no more visions, and to the prophets, give us no more visions of what is right. Tell us pleasant things, Prophesy illusions. Leave this way, get off this path and stop confronting us with a holy one of Israel. Therefore, this is what the Holy One of Israel says, Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit, this sin will become for you like a high wall cracked and bulging that collapses suddenly. In an instant, it will break in pieces like pottery shattered so mercilessly that among its pieces, not a fragment will be found for taking coals from a hearth or scooping water out of a cistern. Isaiah writes God’s word to Judah down. He does so twice. He writes it publicly on the tablet. The idea there would be almost like a billboard, like so everybody can see what God’s Word says. He writes it down privately on the scroll. That’s the one that he’s going to seal up and stick in a safe. Both of them are a witness against Judah, like you heard it, you saw it. It was up on a billboard, and I got the proof here in my safe What’s ironic is that he writes down that they don’t care what he writes down. They reject God’s word and are unwilling to listen to his instruction. In fact, they’re not just ignoring his instruction, which would be bad. They’re actively opposing it. Which is worse, stop sending us visions. Tell your prophets to stop talking, please like just shut up already. I mean, did you see that phrase? Stop confronting us. Us with the Holy One of Israel? Could there be sadder words spoken? I don’t care what God thinks. It’s not pagans who are saying that it’s God’s people who are saying that this is the word to the church, not to the world, and that’s the reminder then that that could be true of us. We might actually be saying that in our hearts. You come to church thinking, I just want you to reaffirm my preconceived notions. And if you’re not going to do that, would you just shut up already? You’ll see it today. It’s common to see somebody post on social media, some political pundit or other, if your pastor doesn’t talk about fill in the blank this Sunday, find a different church, like, just shut up. If you’re not with us, you need to find a church that’s with us politically. I’ll even take it a step further. I quoted somebody last week. I won’t tell you which one I quoted somebody last week. They’re on a do not quote list, so a prominent political organization, if I were to say the name of it, every single one of you would know which organization it is. You’ll have heard of it has a list of pastors you’re not supposed to quote. Now I quoted one of them, and so that’s your cue to find a different church. Doesn’t that feel so dangerous, because at that point, you’re not in submission to the church, to the Word of God, to the people God has appointed to instruct you in the Word of God. You’re in submission to a political party that is a slippery slope leading straight to hell. Can I just say here I’m so glad that’s not you guys like I just want to affirm you here. I believe wholeheartedly that this is a congregation that cares what God thinks, that wants to hear the word of the Lord. I don’t think you’d be here otherwise. Honestly, my spiritual gift is bluntness. I am happy to confront you with the Holy One of Israel, and you’re all here for it, and that’s good. I’ve never had somebody say, How come you didn’t bring this up politically spoken in anger, at least maybe once or twice, out of grief. But why are they so opposed? Why are they so opposed to God’s word? It’s because they found God’s word simultaneously unhelpful and demanding, and that’s a rough combination. It’s one thing for it to be unhelpful if it doesn’t cost me anything, but if it’s unhelpful and it costs me a lot, well, then why would I listen to it like I can’t see how a far off, invisible God could help me here and now with this immediate need. So I’m unwilling to count the cost again. I don’t know why you would find this unhelpful, because the Exodus, like you know, he’s got the boat, you know, he can help here. How about the conquest, the fact that they’re in the promised land at all. Do you remember David and Goliath? You remember Gideon? Any of these stories, but still they had forgotten, as we so often forget as well. And so there’s that temptation for us today also. We’ve got immediate problems. We need to take action. We can’t debate Romans guys. We need we need to fix the problems. Enough talk well, trusting Egypt in the last section we saw brought not victory, but shame and disgrace, the opposite effect of what they’d been hoping for. It’s the same thing here, instead of this secure wall, which they would need against the threat of invasion, they get what we see, starting in verse 12. Verse 13, the sin will become for you like a high wall cracked and bulging. So it’s like a wall that’s been struck once with a wrecking ball and part of it’s already knocked out. You can just kind of see every day you go and you look at it, and it looks like it’s tipping a little bit more and a little bit more, and it’s teetering, and ultimately toppling, which means that Assyria can just walk right in. They don’t even need to build siege works or anything like that. You remember how God beat Jericho? All he did was knock the walls down, and that was it. Battle’s over. Well, here they’re knocking their own walls down so Syria can walk right in. It seems better to listen then better to listen to listen to what? What should we listen to? You could have filled this blank in on your own. I’m sure it’s right there in the text, we should listen to the Lord’s instruction, to the Lord’s instruction. And can I say there is just immediate application for us here? Leader, politically speaking, where do you get your political views? Be honest. Where do you get your political views? Is it the party platform? Is it cable TV, a particular podcaster or blogger that you like political parties and partisan pundits should not set your political agenda. Jonathan Lehman said it like this, I like it. He said political parties, they make good servants and bad masters, or even better. He said they’re useful instruments, but awful identities. That’s right. So let me ask you this. Then where should you get your political views, not cable news. I can promise that. Where should you get political perspective? The counterintuitive answer, I think, is that you should get your political perspective from the church, not which policies to support. You know that, you know I’m not giving you that, but we should get our political perspective by listening to his instruction, getting the principles that will then shape our policy positions. And the church. I do mean the church, not just the preacher in the church, but the church in conversations with each other, even especially your brothers and sisters in Christ who don’t agree with you on different issues. That would be so helpful. Do you remember the proverb that says in a lawsuit, the first to speak seems right, until someone comes forward and cross examines you. Ever done that like a true crime show or something? You like, get the first bit of the evidence and you’re like, Oh, he’s guilty, and then they do the second set of evidence, and you’re like, oh, okay, more complicated than I thought. That’s what conversation should do for us when brothers and sister in Christ, we should go, Look, I obviously this is the only way intelligent Bible believing people think on this issue. Oh, oh, okay. There’s nuance. There’s nuance to this view. In Colossians two eight, Paul tells us see to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world, rather than on Christ. And you’ve read that before, if you’ve read through your Bible, and when you read that, you thought about New Age spirituality, but tell me how that doesn’t apply to political platforms. We absolutely could be taken captive by them, and they depend on human tradition and elemental spiritual forces, rather than on Christ. And again, we get squeezed. You want beef or chicken? We’re taught that it is. We are taught every day, in 100 different ways, that it is a zero sum winner take all contest, so you have to back your party every time. Can’t critique corruption because she could lose her seat in the next election, then the stakes are too high. Got to trust Egypt. Gotta trust Egypt far better. The perspective of Frederick Douglass, abolitionist and devout Christian, who said, I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong, that’s a man who’s standing on the Word of God, immovable, unshakable. Let’s take it a step further, though, even if we are listening to his instruction, it means that we will be able to instruct others, which is important because we’ve been given a proclaiming role. Again, we are ambassadors. I think this is important for us, because there are some in this room who are going to take a lot of this series as rebuke in the sense of, like, Okay, I probably need to talk less about politics, that kind of stuff. You know who you are. It’s fine. A lot of the rest of us, I would count myself in this group, we’ve washed our hands of politics, hate politics. Don’t want to think about politics. Don’t want to talk about politics. And so a sermon series like this could maybe teach us to disengage even more. I’m just trusting Jesus even so, Lord Jesus, quickly come like tomorrow, be fine, and then I don’t have to worry about this anymore. And so, no, I think we actually do need to engage that will look different for different people. Of course, that’s a jagged line issue how we engage, but certainly it means we speak truth. We know we’re called to engage in that way we instruct others. So Justin gaboni in his wonderful book, Don’t let nobody turn you around. Says this, If we’re always choosing a side, it means we’re never leading. The church should be leading like No wonder we’re stuck in this morass, because we’re not leading. We’re letting political parties and partisan pundits set the agenda and then just passively co signing whatever they put before us, and so doing, we’re putting the cult in culture war. We quote Gaboni At length here. He says, If cultural influencers can get us to base our opinions on ideological identity rather than critical analysis, analysis and conviction, then they control our public witness, which they are absolutely by the way, once we start proudly wearing the label critical thinking is no longer necessary, they’ll do all the thinking for us, and we’ll simply rubber stamp their conclusions. But the church must be convicted and thoughtful enough to have prophetic independence. That’s the point I’m trying to make prophetic independence. Like, if you agree with a party on three issues out of four, then by all means, vote for that party, but never stop calling out the fourth issue, especially if it’s a straight line issue, like if you vote democratic. Three issues out of four are fine. Never stop calling out the progressive view on sexuality, which is unbiblical if you vote Republican. Three issues out of four, All right, great. Never stop calling out the cruelty, especially shown toward the foreigner in this country at this point. That’s what it looks like to listen to the Lord’s instruction and then instruct others in light of it. Third question, what should we hope in rest of the passage? Verses 15 to 18? This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says, in repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. You said, No, we will flee on horses. Therefore you will flee. You said, we will ride off on swift horses. Therefore your pursuers will be swift. 1000 will flee at the threat of one, at the threat of five. You will all flee away till you are left like a Flagstaff on a mountain top, like a banner on a hill. Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you. Therefore he will rise up to show you compassion for the Lord. Is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him. God knows what Judah faces, and he offers the perfect solution, repentance, rest, quietness and trust, counter intuitive, but the Lord works in counterintuitive ways. You remember what he said to Israel when they were stuck between the Red Sea and the approaching Egyptian army, just stand there. That’s what he said, literally, just stand there. The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still. That’s what he’s saying here again, if you want salvation and strength, you will find it in resting, repentant faith. You will find it entrusting to God who saves, not treaties, put your trust anywhere else, and you will always be anxious and undelivered, like if you trust in money, you will always be worrying about the market, and you will never be truly secure if you trust in politicians. You will be what we see in our culture. You will be consumed by anger and terrified of the coming midterms, whatever is coming up next, and still stuck in a broken world at the end of it. Well, Jude is having none of it. They don’t want this repentance, rest, nonsense. They want solutions now. There will be no waiting quietly, so they’re going to trust in swift horses instead of the sovereign, Holy One of Israel. So in God’s mercy. And make no mistake, it is mercy. It’s the jerk in the wheel back in God’s mercy, Assyria will have swifter horses. God will expose the weakness of Judah’s idols, so that they turn back to him. 1000 will flee. The sight of one, Assyrian the sight of five, the whole nation will run away, so that in the end, only a flag pole remains to show passers by that a nation used to be there. Well, does that attitude sound familiar? Because it does, to me, is we are tempted to trust in politics to produce culture, cultural transformation. And so you back a horse, a swift horse. You think, then you discover there are other horses in the race. Some of them are swifter, and your horse pulled up lame anyway, when the opposition dump comes out, all the “oppo” research the skeletons in the closet, or they make a misstep politically, ruining their chance. Or they’re duplicitous or incompetent or whatever it is, the people we support politically cannot guarantee political victory. It may well lead us into political defeat overall, or even on certain issues. I mean, how many of us have backed somebody because we’re like, well, at least on this issue, I know we’re in the same spot, and then that’s the issue they compromise on to get their signature achievement across the finish line. And you go far better than to trust wholeheartedly and single mindedly in the God who is there, the God who saves and to wait on Him. Spurgeon tells us what that waiting faith looks like. He says, the faith that rests on God alone is alone true. The confidence that relies only partly on the Lord is vain. Confidence, if to wait on God is worship. To wait on the creature is idolatry. To wait is true faith, but to look elsewhere, then would be audacious unbelief. Your faith will be rewarded. That’s the good news. The Lord will accomplish his purposes. Again, we’ve read Revelation together as a congregation. We know how the story ends. Can I tell you what the New Jerusalem is like? There’s no abortion there, there’s no racism there, there’s no poverty there, there’s no injustice there, there’s no pollution there. What do you want? Politically, it’s there. God will make it happen. In fact, it’s even true in this story. If we were to keep reading the rest of the chapter, you get down to verse 31 it says, this the voice of the Lord. That’s it. Nothing else, by the way, just the voice of the Lord will shatter Assyria. God wins in the end. So trust him with your platform, and I’ll give you yet one more reason to trust him. It’s there in verse 18. It is the key to the passage. It’s the hinge verse that moves us from the rebuke in the section we looked at this morning, and then the promise that comes in the rest of the chapter, yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you. The word yet isn’t quite right there. I understand why the NIV translated it that way. It’s not a wrong translation. If you’re looking at the ESV, for example, it begins with a different word. It’s the exact same word that you see in the second part of that verse, it’s the word, therefore, think how that changes this text, you’re unwilling to trust me, the Lord says, Therefore I’m willing to be gracious to you. Because you’re unwilling to trust therefore I’m willing to be gracious to you, because you won’t wait on me, therefore I’ll wait for you, right? Like we won’t wait on Him, we want swift horses instead. So he waits. That’s the word that’s used when it says He longs for it. The word is wait. He continually longs for it and is unfailingly patient with us. What grace? What grace after the rebuke we just read? By the way, that waiting piece, it means, how many times do we cry out, how long O Lord, not always, but sometimes the Lord’s response to how long O Lord might just be whenever you’re ready, like I’m here, shoes, coat, keys in hand, you just tell me when you’re ready to go. I’m waiting on you. But what grace? And we know how true this is. You’ve got any doubt that the Lord longs to be gracious to us. Know this, in the fullness of time, God sent His Son to accomplish our salvation, to deliver us, not from Assyria or Babylon or Persia or Rome or whatever, but to deliver us from the worst power sin that is inside all of us. The God who defeated sin and death at the cross of Jesus, Christ is a god you can trust Blessed are all who wait for Him in repentance and rest and quietness and trust, the quietness and trust of a person who can say, He saved me, he saved me, he saved us, He will save us to the uttermost. He will remake the world. What should we hope in that we should hope in the Lord’s grace, the Lord’s grace. Our big idea, by the way, is nothing new here. It’s just pull those three things together. And we said already, the big idea is this to take away from today, trust in His power, listen to his instruction, rest in His grace. That’s how we approach politics, as the pure in heart. But just by way of application, as we wrap up here, picture with me. The person who is doing that, the person who is really resting waiting on God in quietness and trust. Do you see him there? Do you see her there, sitting in a favorite armchair? You know, Bibles open next to them, because they were just reading and meditating on it. What is that person doing, who is resting in the Lord? Praying, praying. Prayer is the surest mark of trusting in his power, resting in his grace, informed by his word, of course, we would hope And isn’t that what Paul tells us, passage that we had part of read for us this morning. Paul says this to Timothy, I urge then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving, be made for all people, for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good and pleases God, our Savior, who wants all people to be saved, to come to a knowledge of the truth? I wonder is that the first passage you think of when you think of what it looks like to practice politics as the pure in heart, because it probably ought to be, must start with prayer. In fact, I would challenge you this week, especially if you are overly politically engaged, fast, fast from cable news, fast from social media, maybe just fast from the news as a whole, just completely disengaged from politics for a week, and do nothing but pray for the people in power, for human flourishing and for the space for all people to come to a knowledge of the truth. We can do something after we pray, but we shouldn’t do anything before we pray, and with our priorities quite clear, because, again, why? Why do we pray for kings and those in authority? We live quiet and peaceful lives so that the gospel of Christ Jesus can go forth, so that people can be saved, so that they can come to a knowledge of the truth. We’ve got that priority clear in our mind. We pray in quietness and trust and repentance and rest, and let me reassure you, because you’re like, I don’t know if I don’t know if I can check out of politics for a week. They need me. They need me now more than ever. First of all, they don’t but second of all, we, quote Francis Schaeffer, you need not fear that if you wait for God’s Spirit, you will not get as much done as if you charged a head in the flesh. After all, who can do the most? You or the God of heaven and earth. Let me say it again. Who can do the most your political party or the God of heaven and earth? Trust in His power, listen to his instruction, rest in His grace and prove it in prayer. Let’s pray to him now. Lord, we worship you as Lord and King, the sovereign over all nations in whose good and powerful hands all of history rests, that knowledge alone is enough for us to quiet our anxious hearts and to rest, to come to you in repentance and trust, knowing that therein lies our salvation, the God who is not only powerful enough to rule all nations, but loving enough to make a way from people from every nation to be saved in Christ. So Lord, we confess our sins. We confess the times we have not trusted in you, but have looked to our Egypt’s instead, we repent. We turn to you again. We put our hope in you, and we prove it by praying Lord. We pray for our nation, for the world. We pray for those who are in power above us, locally, the state level, the national level, wherever they are, Lord, we pray that You would give them wisdom, so that they would lead well, so that humanity can flourish, so that there is space for the gospel of Christ to go forth. Would you accomplish that by Your power and for your name’s sake? Amen.