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The Bible Breakdown
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The Bible Breakdown
Isaiah 08: Don't Be a Conspiracy Theorist
What if our propensity to chase after conspiracy theories is actually steering us away from a deeper truth? Join me as I explore a personal fascination with these creative, yet potentially misleading, narratives and how they intersect with the timeless wisdom found in Isaiah, chapter 8. Through the lens of scripture, we're reminded that God's unwavering presence offers a foundation far more dependable than the ever-shifting sands of rumors and conspiracies. I share a personal anecdote about a family friend who wholeheartedly embraces each new theory, illustrating the importance of discernment and the need to anchor our trust in something more substantial.
Together, we unpack the ways conspiracy theories can lead us from one fear to another, overshadowing the peace and assurance that comes from trusting in God's plan. Highlighting the chaos of political and social unrest mirrored in the scripture, I emphasize the call to seek strength and security in God, rather than labeling every uncertainty as a conspiracy. This episode serves as an invitation to shift focus away from fear and speculation, instead encouraging reflection, prayer, and a firm reliance on God's proven trustworthiness. In the midst of uncertainty and rumors, find peace and victory by leaning on God's promises.
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The More You Dig. The More You Find.
Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today, isaiah, chapter eight, and today's title is Don't Be a Conspiracy Theorist. Don't be a conspiracy theorist. I wanna go ahead and tell you the conviction that is on me from today for today's chapter, because I love a good conspiracy. Can I just confess this, since it's just me and you, I'm gonna confess it I love a good conspiracy all. I just confess this, since it's just me and you, I'm going to confess it I love a good conspiracy. Right, I don't believe them, but I love them. They're so interesting. If nothing else, I think that people are so creative in what they're able to say and the Lord hasn't slapped me silly when it comes to this chapter, because he didn't told me to stop it and I don't know he might be telling some of you to stop it too, and you're going to just join my club by the time it's over with and we'll get at all that in just a moment. But, as always before we do, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you're leaving us a five star review on the podcast. I see all of you guys on Amazon and also I see some of you who are starting to leave us the five-star review on Spotify. Thank you so very much and I want to know in the comments if you're listening to the podcast. I would love for you to either go to the Bible Breakdown discussion on Facebook we should all be there and let me know in the comments of today's devotion or go to 94000. You can text RLCBIBLE to 94000.
Speaker 1:I would love to know your favorite conspiracy theory. Your favorite conspiracy theory. I don't have a favorite. I like them all. I think that they are all very, very interesting and if I were to say, maybe my absolute, like the ones that always get me every time, the ones that get me almost every time have to do with end of the world stuff. I do not think that the world is ending in the next 24 hours, but if you look online you will find somebody who's got a pretty good reason why it's all about to end, that aliens are going to land at any moment and just all this stuff. So I would love to know what your favorite, most interesting conspiracy theory is and that way I can kind of geek out about it with you. Okay, all right If you have your Bibles.
Speaker 1:I want to open up with me to Isaiah, chapter 8. Remember that this was during a time of political, social unrest. All these things are going on. There's wars and rumors of wars and all these things, and even, as we read yesterday, that you know, the nation of Israel had divided into two and now you have the nation of Judah and you have another nation who still has the name Israel and they're not friends anymore. As a matter of fact, as we read yesterday, the nation of Israel is saying they're going to come and attack the nation of Judah in Jerusalem. This is a horrible thing. There's all this stuff that's going on. In the middle of all of this, god is going to tell Isaiah hey, there's a coming Assyrian invasion, the invasion is on its way and it's going to destroy so many things.
Speaker 1:But at the same time, make sure you're listening to me and you're trusting in me and not believing all of the conspiracy theories out there. And I want to tell you can we just pause for a moment If there's ever a message that we need to hear, and that is that we need to trust the Lord and not believe all of the conspiracy theories out there, because there's always somebody. As a matter of fact, we have a family friend who believes every conspiracy theory. And if I were to tell you how many times this particular friend of ours has sent us a text message or called us and told us that we need to go get our money out of the bank, we need to fill up our gas tanks, we need to get all the toilet paper we can because some reason all of it's about to be gone, we would just be in a bunker somewhere all the time. Right, they just believe all of it and it always sounds good in the moment and, honestly, you have to be careful because that whole, you know, cry wolf kind of thing is sort of a thing you know.
Speaker 1:But God is not telling Isaiah nothing's going to happen. He's telling them hey, look, at some point Assyria is going to invade. But you've got to trust me, not every conspiracy theory. So let's read this and be mutually convicted together. Here we go. Isaiah 8, verse 1 says this.
Speaker 1:Then the Lord said to me make a large signboard and clearly write this name on it. Let me try this. Meher Shalah Hashbaz, meher Shalahashbaz, meher shalahashbaz. I asked Uriah, the priest of Zechariah, son of Jebekiah, both known as honest men, to witness my doing this. While I slept with my wife, she became pregnant and she gave birth to a son. I'm already feeling so much conviction I can't read straight. Here we go and the Lord said call him Meher Shalal Hashbaz. And before this child is old enough to say papa or mama because you know he ain't going to be able to say his own name the king of Assyria will carry away both abundance of Damascus and the riches of Samaria. Then the Lord spoke to me again and said my care for the people of Judah is like a gently flowing water of Shiloh, but they have rejected it. They are rejoicing over what will happen to King Rezin and King Pekah. Therefore, the Lord will overwhelm them with a mighty flood from the Euphrates River. King Assyria, in all of his glory, this flood will overflow all its channels and sweep into Judah until it is chin deep. It will spread its wings, submerging your land from one end to the other. Oh, emmanuel, huddle together you 11, here. God is with us. Also, emmanuel, verse 11, here it is.
Speaker 1:The Lord has given me strong warning not to think like everyone else does. He has said don't call everything a conspiracy, like they do and don't live in dread of what frightens them. Make the Lord of heaven's armies holy in your life. He is the one you should fear. He is the one that should make you tremble. He will keep you safe. But Israel and Judah will be a stone that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall, and for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare. Many will stumble and fall, never to rise again. They will be snared and captured.
Speaker 1:Preserve the teaching of God and trust his instructions to those who follow me. I will wait for the Lord, for he who's turned away from the descendants of Jacob. I will put my trust or, excuse me, my hope in him. I and the children of the Lord has given me. I and the children the Lord has given me serve as signs and wonders to Israel from the Lord of heaven's armies who dwells in his temple on Mount Zion.
Speaker 1:Someone may say to you let's ask the mediums and those who consult the spirits of the dead with their whisperings and mutterings. They will tell us what to do, but you shouldn't. But shouldn't people ask God for guidance? Shouldn't should the Lord or should the living see guidance from the dead? Look to God's instructions and teachings. People who contradict his word are completely in the dark. They will go from one place to another weary and hungry, and because they are hungry, they will rage and curse their king and their God. They will look up to heaven and down at the earth, but wherever they look, they will be trouble and anguish and dark despair. They will be thrown out into the darkness.
Speaker 1:Wow, so, in other words, what God is telling Isaiah is bad times are coming, which, by the way, the name of his son, that Meher Shalah Hashbaz that actually the reason why God wanted him to name his baby that other than he'd be 15 before he could actually say his own name is. It had a meaning, and that meaning was swift to plunder or quick to carry away. So that's what that means. So it'd be like naming your child swift swift to plunder. Hey, swift to plunder, can you come do the dishes? I mean you know, praise the Lord. I mean that's still. I mean it's his name.
Speaker 1:But God's saying, hey, I'm going to tell you something. Bad times are coming, but when you look at what the future holds, don't call everything a conspiracy. Don't go looking for where the trouble's coming from. I'll tell you, but then let what I tell you be what you live your life according to. Don't let all these wars and rumors of wars and all this kind of stuff remove your focus. Instead, keep your focus on me.
Speaker 1:I just want to read verse 12 again, what God told Isaiah, and I wonder maybe if he's telling some of us this today. He says this. He says Don't call everything a conspiracy, like they do, and don't live in dread with what frightens them. Make the Lord of heaven's armies holy in your life. He is the one you should fear. He is the one who should make you tremble. He will keep you safe. So, in other words, god is saying bad things are on the way. He's telling them. He said Assyria is coming. Assyria is going to do all this bad stuff. But listen, I'm telling you this in advance so that when you hear of all these different types of conspiracies, you don't care, because you know that I've got a plan.
Speaker 1:Therefore, don't let the wars and rumors of wars, don't let the conspiracy theories don't, let any of those kinds of things, don't let those things make you afraid. Instead, honor me, he says. Make me holy in your life. In other words, put me first above everything. I don't want to be in friend zone. I don't want you to be in like with me. I want you to be in love with me. Make me holy in your life, god says. And then, when I'm the one you fear, when I'm the one who makes you tremble, I'm the one that's going to keep you safe. Fear I'm the one who makes you tremble. I'm the one that's going to keep you safe. Can I tell you that is ultra convicting. Maybe for any time we live, but for right now, when we live.
Speaker 1:All over the world, right now, there's wars and rumors of wars, there's things and stuff and there's conspiracy theories everywhere, and they're fun to listen to, but they're not fun to believe. Can I tell you, for every one conspiracy that has come true, I've heard a thousand of them, but all 1,000 of them are terrifying. I've never heard a conspiracy theory that something wonderful is about to happen. Have you? I've never heard someone say hey, you know, I'm just going to whisper this to you. I don't want everybody to know this, but we're all about to get like everything we've ever wanted. It's the opposite. We're about to lose everything. And here's the thing If we listen to every conspiracy theory, everything that seems so certain we're going to. We're just going to go from fear to fear, to fear.
Speaker 1:But God challenges us and by this is this not also his way of saying there's going to be conspiracy theories. I'm letting you know in advance, I'm going to have my way and maybe this is God's word for you today. God's got a plan. In that plan there's going to be good things that are going to happen. There's going to be bad things. That's going to happen. But all through it, god has a plan.
Speaker 1:But as part of human nature, we're going to try to figure God out and there's going to be all these different what-ifs and maybes and all this kind of stuff. And if you're not careful, it's going to cause you, it's going to cause me to lose our joy. It's going to cause other things to become holy in our life. It's going to cause other things to make us fear and to make us tremble and try to find our safety in other things. But God tells us I want to read it to us one more time Don't call everything a conspiracy, like they do, and don't live in dread of what frightens them. Make the Lord of heaven's armies holy in your life. He is the one that you should fear, and he is the one that should make you tremble, and he is the one who will keep you safe.
Speaker 1:Now is the time, this is the season, to trust the Lord. Let's pray, god. Thank you so much for today. Thank you that you are with us and that you are for us. And Lord, there are so many different conspiracy theories that we could be believing and so many just things, but, god, we put our hope and our trust in you. We ask you, god, you open our eyes to remember how trustworthy you are. You've already proven yourself to us a thousand times over. Help us to lean on that today. In Jesus' name, we pray amen, amen, what God's word says in Isaiah, chapter 12, verse two. God has come to save me. I will trust in him and not be afraid. The Lord, god is my strength and my song. He has given me victory. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Isaiah, chapter 9.
