Sermon Tone Analysis

The Sadness of Stagnation

Good evening church!

We definitely don’t have the same size Wednesday night crowd as we have participating in our Growth Groups.

Great to see you folks, I’m excited to be back in an Old Testament study and to be able to share communion together this evening.

You can open your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 29.

My Bible has a chapter title here that says The Blindness of Israel.

Some of yours might say woe to Jerusalem.

The title I’ve chosen for tonight’s message is The Sadness of Stagnation.

Oxford Languages on line dictionary defines stagnation as the state of not flowing or moving.

A

lack of activity, growth, or development.

We will see that being a fitting description of Israel in our text tonight, and it is a grave danger for the church today.

What happens when things stay stagnant for too long?

They start to stink and breed mosquitoes, they send out pests not prophets.

I won’t recap the whole of the 28 preceeding chapters, but just a little bit about the book of Isaiah.

It is often said to be like a miniature Bible because there is much to compare in this Book to the entire Bible.

There are 66 chapters in this book, and how many books in our Bibles?

66.

There are 39 Old Testament Books and 27 New Testament books.

What divides the two is the coming of the Messiah Jesus.

Our Old Testament largely speaks about the nation of Israel before Messiah as do the first 39 chapters of the book of Isaiah.

There is much about the Law of God and justice.

Our New Testament largely speaks about Jesus... as do the last 27 chapters of the book of Isaiah speak of the coming Messiah, His kingdom, and grace.

The name Isaiah means, “Jehovah is salvation” so it is appropriate for us to return here during the season where we celebrate the birth of Jesus, as it was prophesied about in this book.

Isa 9:6

What makes the prophecies found in this book so profound is that the ministry of Isaiah occurred from around 740 to about 690 B.C. hundreds of years before the birth of Christ.

The section that we are picking up in actually began in chapter 28 and continues on through chapter 33.

We won’t cover all of that this evening, I just want to give you some context.

Isaiah is pronouncing 5 woes on the people of the Lord.

Their hearts had grown stagnant and they began just going through the motions.

Chapter 28 the woe was upon the drunkards and the scoffers, chapter 29 is on Jerusalem and the deceivers.

So, lets pray and begin.

Now Ariel is not the Little Mermaid, but it says the city, it is talking about the City of Jerusalem.

I should tell you that commentators are fairly evenly divided upon the meaning of the word here.

It is the only place that it is used in reference to the City of Jerusalem, but some say the literal translation is “Lion of God” and others say that there is a word that is very close to this that is translated as “alter of burning” in other places in the Bible.

Unlike other points of disagreement, they seem to be fairly cordial to each other and not overly dogmatic, which tells me that probably a pretty strong case can be made for either position.

Considering the context of the word in this passage, I tend to think it is being used as “Lion of God” but more in the tone of sarcasm or maybe in the way they wrongly appraise themselves, especially with the repetition in which it is used.

Look again at verse one, Ariel the city where David dwelt, their pride is in their past.

I know a lot of Christians like that.

Those that appraise themselves based upon who they once were or how they used to serve God, but it is a different place than they are today.

It goes on…add year to year; let the feast come around, I get the feeling of repetition here, vs. 2 Isa 29:2

God puts them on alert here that He will deal with their disobedience and their misplaced pride.

Isa 29:3-4

This judgement of reckoning will be severe and rather than being the Roaring Lion of God they perceive themselves to be, it will be like a whisper, it says here like a medium.

I think of that like a ventriloquist, because a medium is just pretending to be speaking in the voice of someone else.

He says your speech shall whisper out of the dust and then continues with this idea of dust.

Isaiah 29:5-8

Understand this was written before Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians came, actually before he was even born.

We’ve talked about God using the wicked Assyrians as a hand of His Judgement, but this passage speaks of a multitude of enemies against Israel.

If you look throughout history, Jerusalem has been involved in over a 100 conflicts and completely destroyed more than once.

But, they have not been put down, and Jerusalem will not die.

I think verse 6 refers to these enemies against Jerusalem.

God will use them, but will also punish them for what they do against His people.

They will come and attack, but in the end, it won’t satisfy because it will be just like a dream, like it didn’t ever really happen.

The Lord poured out upon them sleep, lethargy, exactly what they wanted.

And because they are sleeping, they become all the more vulnerable, and has closed even the eyes of the prophets, so they no longer are speaking truth for the people to hear.

That happened then, and it is happening today to many pastors in America.

He continues on with a colorful description of them.

Isa 29:11-12

When I read this it made me think back to buying a new cd at the store and wanting to play it in your vehicle, having forgotten to bring your chain saw to open it.

But you can imagine if we passed out Bibles at the beginning of the service that looked like this, Or I tried to teach from this Bible instead of this Bible.

Or giving the book to someone who can’t read.

If I hold a book up in front of my granddaughter she can’t read any of the words.

She can look around at the pictures, maybe get some entertainment out of the little bit that she can see in it, but right now her eyes are closed to the richness, the message, and treasure that understanding brings.

God’s Word that is inspired by the Holy Spirit and illuminated by the Holy Spirit to give us understanding,…it became like a book that they had no understanding of.

Because they had lost their spiritual discernment...

Notice, it is not a lack of intelligence, but more-so of wisdom.

The Bible tells us that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.

I’ve told you guys that in my studies I’ve come across academic scholars that have knowledge of the Bible, but seem to be blind to the One who wrote it.

Wisdom that comes from God is essential.

Look at our current economy, not just the United States, but the world economy and the markets, crypto currency, etc.

Our nation has access to the smartest economists, the most decorated financial advisors in the world.

How are we doing, flying blind?

Why would God allow this to happen to Israel?

Why would He give them Spiritual blindness?

He tells us… Isa 29:13

Jesus actually quoted this passage from Isaiah when he was addressing the religious leaders of His day.

Mark 7:6-7

Teaching the thoughts and opinions of men as if it were the truth of God.

Truth only comes from God.

St. Augustine did a good job of summarizing several points of teaching in the Bible when he said, “All truth is God’s truth.”

I was having a conversation with someone on Sunday after Dr. Benjamin’s presentation on creation vs. evolution and their response to me was that they personally tend to go with the majority of concensus.

And I will tell you that in most cases, in this world, that is a lack of wisdom.

Andrew Greeley, in the book Religious Change in America, reports on a survey of religious attitudes among young adults who were coming into their forties.

To paraphrase his findings, Greeley reports that this is the first generation in American history to come into adulthood and the child-rearing years without a word of Scripture in their minds, a verse of a hymn in their hearts, and a memory of prayer in their homes.

If Greeley is right, it means that the spiritual destiny of our society depends almost exclusively upon our prophets and seers for seeing God’s vision, hearing God’s Word, and speaking God’s truth.”

Read that last part as, “it means that the spiritual destiny of our society depends almost exclusively upon our pastors and all Christians sounding forth the Word of the Lord like the Thessalonian church did.

If the people in our world are making their decisions based upon the majority concensus, and all truth comes from God, but the majority concensus has not a Scripture in their mind, a hymn in their heart, or memory of prayer in their homes, those decisions are not being made from a foundation of truth.

By the way, that book was published a generation or two, depending upon how you calculate that, in 1996.

I don’t think the stats have gotten any better, they’re not in Old Town, Maine.

Briscoe, Stuart.

The The Preacher's Commentary - Vols.

1-35: Genesis – Revelation .

Thomas Nelson.

Kindle Edition.

Continuing on…Isaiah 29:14-16

Vs. 15 Remember there is nothing hidden from the Lord.

Vs. 16 Matt the blacksmith, Paul pulls from this in Romans when he writes about the potter and the clay.

Humanity, image bearers of God, saying he did not make me!

We just read the Truth of God’s Word on this in the book of Colossians when speaking of Jesus it says, Col 1:15-17

I have to say that this Scripture regarding man thinking he is smarter than His creator is terrifying.