The Cure for Fear - The Salvation

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! A thousand 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 mountaintop, 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! Isaiah 30:15‭-‬18 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/isa.30.15-18.NIVUK Their salvation came from an interesting source. Isaiah 30 tells us that it comes from 'repentance and rest'. So not a heavily equipped army on their side? That's what they thought they needed. That's why they were hotfooting it down to Egypt as quickly as they could. Got a problem with a massive superpower? Get their enemy onside! That's what still happens even nowadays. But it doesn't always work. God's solution is completely different. Firstly, He tells them to repent. Why? Because their sin has got them into this situation in the first place! You see, what God is telling them to do is not to panic, but to deal with the root of the problem. There are thousands of people running around like headless chickens stocking up on toilet roll and anti-bacterial hand-wash. Really? What good will that do when Covid-19 is viral, not bacterial, and has no effect at all on your digestive system! How about boosting your intake of fruit to strengthen your immunity? How about stopping destructive habits that wear your body down, like smoking, drinking excessive alcohol or not getting enough sleep? How about actually taking care of yourself and keeping clean? Do you not think that might work? You see, this is a problem. We don't like to get to the heart of the problem. We don't like to feel uncomfortable. But if we really want to resolve the issue then we need to deal with it at source. In these verses it is abundantly clear that the Israelites were facing exile by the Assyrians because they had sinned. But you know what? There is also ample evidence that repenting would have resolved their problems. Look at what happened when King Hezekiah was under siege in Jerusalem by the same Assyrians: When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord. Isaiah 37:1 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/isa.37.1.NIVUK Do you see it? He immediately humbled himself and went straight to the Lord. And what happened? Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning – there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. One day, while he was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king. Isaiah 37:36‭-‬38 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/isa.37.36-38.NIVUK Now please don't misunderstand me. I am not saying that Coronavirus is a punishment for sin or a curse from God. No! What I am saying is that a situation like this should drive us towards God and give us a strong incentive to fix our relationship with Him wherever we might have broken it. It should give us a strong desire to get right with Him. After all, frightening events like this are stern reminder of our own mortality. The second source of salvation seems strange, maybe even downright bizarre. Rest. How can rest save us? Rest is not so much a means of salvation, but a by-product of it. For example, when the Israelites were about to enter the Promised Land, Moses said these words to them: You are not to do as we do here today, everyone doing as they see fit, since you have not yet reached the resting-place and the inheritance the Lord your God is giving you. But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and he will give you rest from all your enemies around you so that you will live in safety. Deuteronomy 12:8‭-‬10 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/deu.12.8-10.NIVUK In fact, rest is even mentioned in the Ten Commandments: ‘ “There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a sabbath to the Lord . Leviticus 23:3 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/lev.23.3.NIVUK The writer to the Hebrews gives us an idea of what all this could mean: Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief. Hebrews 3:16‭-‬19 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/heb.3.16-19.NIVUK You see faith in God and obedience to Him leads to the ability to rest. Whereas living in fear and doubt and panic robs us of rest. Rest comes as a result of faith. The Sabbath is an act of faith. Ceasing commercial activity for a day to allow our bodies and minds to recover requires faith that God will provide for us while we do not. The Sabbath years the Israelites had in their law on the seventh and fiftieth years were an even bigger act of faith, when they stopped working the land and, on the fiftieth year, freed their Hebrew slaves. You see, we rest because we have faith in God to care for us: I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me. I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side. Psalms 3:5‭-‬6 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/psa.3.5-6.NIVUK Rest is essential for the human body to be healthy - and has always been essential. The provision of a day of rest is an act of Divine Grace. Deny the need to rest and you deprive yourself of the time your body and mind need to be restored. Yet your mind can only fully rest if you have faith in God to take care of you and your family. Otherwise, when you close your eyes, you will focus on your worries, your heart will race, you will enter into a panic and rest will be the last thing on your mind. As the famous words in Matthew state: ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’ Matthew 11:28‭-‬30 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/mat.11.28-30.NIVUK If you were walking to your house carrying heavy bags of shopping, would you call that restful? If you were in the gym lifting heavy weights, would you call that restful? If you were pulling a heavy suitcase, would you call that restful? No, no and no! Do you see it now? If we are heavy loaded with worries and cares - real or imagined - then we cannot rest. Yes, our situation right now is bad. There is no doubt about that. Every one of us has our own stresses and worries. None of us are immune. But we cannot rest until we leave these at the foot of the Cross. We cannot rest until we give them to Jesus. His covenant promise of rest cannot be ours until we do our part and give Him our worries. Rest is the means through which our immune system remains strong. Have you ever noticed that when you are tired and run-down you are more vulnerable to illness? For all of us to have the immunity to fight the Coronavirus, we must have rest. Without faith in God, we are caught in a vicious downward spiral: we need rest to fight Coronavirus, but the existence of Coronavirus makes us unable to rest. With faith in God, we trust in Him to help us through these dark days no matter what, and this enables us to rest. That is why repentance and rest are our salvation. Repentance puts our relationships right with God and men. Rest gives us the means to fight back against the virus. So having looked at the situation and salvation, now let's look at STRENGTH. What gives us the strength to keep going. What enables us to get up and face the day in these terrifying times?