The Zeal of God - Isaiah 9, II Kings 18 & 19

I invite you to turn with me once again to Isaiah chapter 9.  We’ve been making our way through this book and we’ve seen what we might consider to be the opposite extremes of God’s character: His great love and His great hatred.  God both loves and hates greatly.  We should take comfort in that only because of what it is that He fervently loves and hates.  No one seems to have a problem with the fact that God greatly loves truth, righteousness, and honesty.  Of course, we have no problem with God loving the world and His creation greatly.

But what does He greatly hate?  What causes God to be angry?  In a single word, it would be sin.  But to be more specific, religious hypocrisy is particularly loathsome to God.  In chapter 1 of Isaiah, verse 14, God said to the people of Judah, Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates.  God also hates injustice from the strong and powerful towards the poor and helpless and He declared that He would smelt away such sinful dross from among His people.  God greatly hates idolatry.  In chapter 2 He says He will cut down those who prostrate themselves before idols they make with their hands.  

Today, in chapter 9, we see an encouraging word from Isaiah regarding the coming of the Messiah to rule over the world.  This is the Child that will be born not only for the sake of the Jews, but the Gentiles also.  

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 

7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end,

on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it

with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.

Then in verse 7, we read this little phrase:

The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

God is zealous for the salvation of the nations.  He is zealous for this Child to be born to us.  He is zealous for His Son to become the King of all the nations of the earth.  And in His zeal, He will see to it that all these things take place.  “The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.“

That word zeal is interesting.  It is because of His zeal that we say God loves and hates greatly.  In fact, God doing anything half-heartedly seems to be an impossibility.  

We’re all pretty familiar with what zeal does not look like.  When we tell our children to do something like “make your bed”, or “clean your room”, or “wash the dishes” (if you don’t have a dish washer), their response is usually less than zealous.  If your kid IS the dishwasher, then even more so.  Household chores are usually entered into by our children with an attitude that is not described as ”joyful” or “enthusiastic.”  It is because they are being told by a higher, taller, weightier, stronger person who has authority over them, that they must do something they don’t particularly want to do.

That is never the case with God.  When was the last time someone told God to do something He didn’t want to do, and God responded with, “Well, okay.  If I have to.”  The only thing I can think of that might possibly be suggested as an occasion when God did something He may not have wanted to do, was the occasion of the crucifixion of His own Son.  But even then, Isaiah tells us God willingly punished the Lord Jesus in our stead.  

10  Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;

   he has put him to grief;

 when his soul makes an offering for guilt,

   he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

 the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.  (Isaiah 53:10, ESV)

Even in what is undoubtedly the most distasteful act that could be imagined, God was not compelled to crush the Lord Jesus because it was demanded of Him by some outside force or some higher authority or some overwhelming need.  There was no one telling God that in spite of how He might feel about it, He must sacrifice the Lord Jesus upon the cross for sinners.  No.  Rather, God chose to make His own Son a sacrifice for sin because He wanted to do it.  

The dictionary definition of the word zeal is, “Enthusiastic devotion to a cause, ideal, or goal and tireless diligence in its furtherance.” 1  Zeal should not be confused with excitement or joyful glee.  In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word is sometimes translated jealousy or even envy.  When Scripture speaks of the zeal of God, it is to inform us of His enthusiastic devotion to His own causes.  God exercises tireless diligence in furthering His own purposes.  It is this perpetual pursuit of God that removes any doubt we may have that God will most assuredly accomplish anything and everything He determines to do.

In other words, God is an omnipotent and all-wise zealot of sorts.  He is never half-hearted. There is no such thing as hesitation or indecision on God’s part.  God never scratches His head and stares at a situation in bewilderment.  On the contrary, God is zealously accomplishing all of His own purposes. 

We see that from the very first days of Creation.  God looks at everything He has made over the course of the first six days of history of the world and He says it is all good.  He creates man and woman and says it is VERY good.  He is pleased with all He does because everything He does is perfect.  Everything He does, He does so because He chooses to do so, and it is all good.   

I want to show you an example of God’s zeal in working to perform His own will.  Look with me at 2Kings 18.  

Verses 1-8   If you remember from the first verse in the book of Isaiah, he lived during the reigns of kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.  Here in 2Kings 18, we read about King Hezekiah.  He was the son of King Ahaz, but in verse 3 we see that “. . . he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD . . . .”  He was a godly king, unlike his wicked father.

Verses 9-12   In Hezekiah’s sixth year as king in Judah, the Assyrians invaded Israel and carried them away.  The reason is found in verse 12: “. . . because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God but transgressed His covenant . . . .  They neither listened nor obeyed.”  So God destroyed them, as He had promised to do way back in the days of Moses.

Verses 13-37   Notice verse 13.  “In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.”  Sennacherib sends one of his representatives to Jerusalem, the capital and the only city left, to demand King Hezekiah’s surrender.  This guy called the Rabshakeh challenges Hezekiah’s men and tells them in verses 23 through 25, “If I gave you 2,000 horses to ride out here and fight my army, how could you repulse a single captain among my master’s men?  In verse 25, he says, “Not only that, but your God told me to come here and destroy you!  So don’t let Hezekiah deceive you into thinking Jehovah will deliver you from me.”

In verses 33-35, the Rabshakeh goes on to say that King Sennacherib has overthrown every city and country he has gone up against, and destroyed all their gods.  And he’s right.  Assyria has been unstoppable.  He tells Hezekiah that Egypt can’t help him and Jehovah is not going to help him.  Give up because it is hopeless.  

In chapter 19, verses 1-4, the men report back to King Hezekiah, and Hezekiah sends them to the prophet Isaiah.

4 It may be that the Lord your God heard all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.”

The northern kingdom of Israel is gone, the Egyptians aren’t coming to the rescue, all the cities of Judah have been captured and destroyed, and Sennacherib’s forces are camped on the doorstep of Jerusalem.  King Hezekiah and all the people of Jerusalem are next in line for annihilation by a ruthless and eager army.  What recourse does one have except to pray?  

Then when Hezekiah’s men approach Isaiah with the king’s request, Isaiah says to them in verse 6, “Tell the king not to be afraid.  God has this under control.”  

Soon, Hezekiah receives another letter from Sennacherib asking him where all the kings of the other nations are?  They are all dead and their cities demolished.  Their gods did not deliver them, and Jehovah won’t deliver you.

When Hezekiah receives the letter, verse 14 tells us he took it to the Temple and spread it before the Lord and prayed, 

 “O Lord the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. 16 Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. 17 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands 18 and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. 19 So now, O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone.”

I am convinced that God only saves desperate men.  What we see here in this historical event is a picture of the spiritual condition of every man, woman, and child without Christ.  There is no help, there is no power, there is no one who can assist.  The enemy is everywhere and he is deadly.  There is no escape.  There is no hope.  Death and Hell are at the gates.  “Lord, I know I have sinned grievously against you on innumerable occasions.  If you will not save me because of your love for me, then save me for the sake of your own name and your own glory!”  

That is desperation.  This is Hezekiah’s last plea.  The city is on the verge of total destruction.  “Lord, vindicate your own name and deliver us from your enemy and ours.  Then the world will know You are the true and living God.”

One of the advantages of having a prophet is his ability to tell you God has responded to your prayer.  Hezekiah goes to the Temple with Sennacherib’s letter, spreads it out before the Lord, and prays for the Lord to read it and respond.  Then, Isaiah, who must be across town somewhere, sends a messenger to Hezekiah and he says, “God says He heard your prayer about Sennacherib.  Here’s what He has to say about that:”  Wow.  Instant answer to prayer.  Listen to the response of the Lord to Hezekiah’s prayer.  God speaks to Sennacherib:

22 “Whom have you mocked and reviled?

Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes to the heights?

Against the Holy One of Israel! 

23 By your messengers you have mocked the Lord, and you have said, ‘With my many chariots

I have gone up the heights of the mountains, to the far recesses of Lebanon;

I felled its tallest cedars, its choicest cypresses;

I entered its farthest lodging place, its most fruitful forest. 

24 I dug wells and drank foreign waters,

and I dried up with the sole of my foot all the streams of Egypt.’

25 “Have you not heard that I determined it long ago?

I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass,

that you should turn fortified cities into heaps of ruins, 

26 while their inhabitants, shorn of strength, are dismayed and confounded,

and have become like plants of the field and like tender grass,

like grass on the housetops, blighted before it is grown.

27 “But I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in,

and your raging against me. 

28 Because you have raged against me and your complacency has come into my ears,

I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth,

and I will turn you back on the way by which you came.

29 “And this shall be the sign for you: this year eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the same. Then in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 30 And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 31 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the Lord will do this.

When Martin Luther stood before the Diet of Worms to respond to their order for him to repudiate all of his writings, he said, “To go against conscience is neither right nor safe.”  The same thing is true for those who mock God.  It certainly is not right.  To mock those things which are not God is certainly acceptable.  But mocking the God of Israel is not right, nor is it safe.  

It is this God who is about to tell Sennacherib who is Boss: “I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came.”  Then God speaks to Hezekiah in verse 29 and tells him everything is going to be OK.  A remnant will remain and survive.  And it is because of the zeal of the Lord that He will do all of this.  God is not only zealous for His own purposes, but His primary purpose is His own glory.  He is going to do this for the people of Jerusalem, not only for their sakes, but in the zealous pursuit of His own glory among the nations!

32 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. 33 By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord. 34 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”

God grants salvation to desperate men, NOT primarily for their sakes.  The salvation of sinners is primarily for the purpose of putting God’s glory on display and to show His absolute power over sin.  He will defend His people and save them from death because they are HIS people!  He has made a covenant which He intends to keep: the salvation of people from every nation from their sins.  He has promised to do so, and for the sake of His own reputation, zealously performs everything He has promised.  

Part of keeping that promise is the sending of His own Son into the world through the kingly line of David.  That genealogy is being threatened by this arrogant King Sennacherib.  But Sennacherib is a tool in God’s hand to punish evil men and nations, and now God is finished with him because of his pride.  

35 And that night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 36 Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at Nineveh. 37 And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

Why do we like to read this story?  I like this account because it shows the greatness of our God and the smallness of even the greatest of human kings.  Any time God chooses, He can put His hook in the nose of anyone and lead them around wherever HE chooses.  This is the absolutely sovereign power of our God.  And He is zealous for justice against sin, and for the redemption of His own people from sin.

God is zealous for us.  Our salvation is not something He takes lightly.  He never says, "OK.  I guess if I have to, I'll save them."  His zeal in our redemption is seen most clearly at the cross.  In that single event, all the powers of sin and death and Hell are annihilated by His zealous wrath against them.  And in that same event, zealous love secures the redemption of all the people Christ came to save.  People from all the nations, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know first hand that Jehovah is God alone!  God is zealous for this!  He is zealous for His own name.  He is zealous for His people.

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1. zeal. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/zeal