What Following Isn't

What Following Isn’t

A Negative Example of Discipleship

Isaiah 29

Intro: The Duck Test

If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, then it’s a duck.

This is a duck (characteristics)

This is not a duck (characteristics)

The more known positive and negative examples we have, the more likely we are to be successful in identifying what a duck is.

Here are some more examples.

Is this a duck?

Actually, everything is either a duck or not a duck.

The same is true for anything we want to identify.

Two-week miniseries on what it means to follow the Lord.

Are you a follower?

Let’s get some positive and negative examples.

Week 1: What Following Isn’t. Next week, what following is.

Thesis: Isa 29 identifies several failings of Israel in their followship of Yahweh, which are tied to their religion being focused on externals without a corresponding vital inner faith. They are marked by empty effort, empty words, an empty vision of God, and empty expectations.

I. Not Empty Effort (vs 9-12)

Mike preached over this text a few months ago, focusing on the role of suffering in the lives of the people of God. I will be using the same text with a different interpretational emphasis.

In the broad context of this chapter, God is going to be bringing judgment upon his people because of their failure to follow him completely.

The first failure of their followship is pointed out in vs 9-12, their empty effort.

Isa 29:9-12 ESV - Astonish yourselves and be astonished; blind yourselves and be blind! Be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not with strong drink! For the LORD has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers). And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, "Read this," he says, "I cannot, for it is sealed." And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, "Read this," he says, "I cannot read."

In Isa 28, Israel’s leaders are compared to drunkards. Here, the metaphor is continued to include Judah’s leaders as well.

Their prophets and seers do not hear from the Lord.

Their leaders act foolishly like drunkards, although they aren’t intoxicated.

Although God has given them His Word, they make no effort to read or understand it.

The reason for this is a complex knot of causality that can be interpreted in a few ways.

They have blinded themselves and gotten themselves spiritually drunk (vs 9), and so God, in response to their choice, confirms their depravity judiciously (vs 10).

Or, because of the spirit God poured out on them (vs 10), they cannot help but be blinded and spiritually drunk (vs 9).

This is a classic disagreement that has been going on throughout church history.

The truth lies in the tension.

Rom 1:24-26 ESV

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;

God seems to respond to the depravity of man, which appears to be antecedent to His action.

However, their depravity can in itself be seen as existing because God gave them over to it in vs 24.

Rom 11:7-10 ESV

What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day." And David says, "Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever."

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul seems to clarify by quoting Isa 29:10 in Romans along with Psa 69:22-23 and putting the cause squarely in God’s volition.

2Th 2:9-12 ESV

The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Here the causation is again compound.

God and man act as free agents and both contribute to the hardness of fallen mankind.

Systematic theology sometimes gets in the way of Biblical theology. The truth is that God is sovereign over all things and that we are free moral agents who will be held accountable for our efforts or lack thereof.

We have to embrace the tension.

The only thing that the follower of God can control (if anything) is their side of the equation, and Judah is being condemned for failing to put forth efforts in the things they could have reasonably been expected to do.

Stay sober and attentive

Read the revealed word

Seek the Lord’s genuine prophetic voice.

Checkpoint #1: If we aren’t pursuing God with all our energy, we might not be a follower.

II. Not Empty Words (vs 13)

Isaiah 29:13 (ESV): And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men…

The people of God had not stopped the outward show of religion. They were still going to the temple and celebrating the feast days (vs 1). They were still apparently praying with words, but the heart was uninvolved.

Rote prayers.

God is great; God is good…

Blessed art Thou, King of the universe, who has given us the fruit of the vine…

Isaiah here points to an external motivation for their acts of worship.

Fear, as I’ve taught before, is an overwhelming psychological impulse to change my behavior or condition in response to an outside person or reality.

When directed toward God, the Fear of the Lord is my overwhelming desire to change who I am in response to who He is.

Naturally, left to my own desires, I would be a glutton, a lying manipulator, and a cheat. His word and His spirit constrain and transform me, and I choose to act contrary to my old nature in obedience to Him.

This is the central act of worship. I worship God most truly not by singing or raising my hands but by being submissive to His commands to not be who I am if left untransformed and unrestrained.

Unlike congregational singing, this cannot be faked. You have either submitted yourself in the fear of the Lord or you have not.

Surely you can be taught the commandments of God and respond in the fear of the Lord, but the fear of the Lord is not something that comes by being told, “you ought to fear the Lord.”

Isaiah lampoons his fellow Judeans for putting on an outward show that looks like worship when all along it is the words of men that they are fearing, not the commands of God.

Jesus quotes this passage specifically in Matt 15:3-9 with the same emphasis

Matthew 15:1–9 (ESV): Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” 3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 5 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” 6 he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. 7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

8 “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;

9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

Jesus’ complaint in this context is that the Pharisees have replaced the teaching of God with the teaching of man.

The Pharisees had created loopholes in the law by which people were released from the actual commands of God having to do with realities of the heart, but they were clinging to external shows of piety that actually did nothing to demonstrate a fear of the Lord.

As Jesus stated earlier in his ministry to the woman at the well,

“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24)

Checkpoint #2: If we care more about what our pastors or fellow congregants expect of us than what God, through His Word, demands of us, we may not be a follower.

III. Not an Empty Vision of God (vs 15-21)

The next several verses reinforce Isaiah’s perceptions that the Judeans of his day lacked an authentic fear of the Lord.

They didn’t have a right understanding of who God was, and this allowed them to live without fear of Him.

He illustrates this in two ways

Expecting that they can keep secrets from the Lord (vs 15).

Isaiah 29:15 (ESV): Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”

In the historical context here, as Mike explained when he preached this passage, King Hezekiah is guilty of seeking help from the kingdom of Egypt rather than from the Lord.

It is likely that Hezekiah had hidden his plea for help from Isaiah, knowing that he would disapprove.

Isaiah rebukes the king’s attempt to hide this action from God and His prophet.

Believing that their plans will succeed against the will of God.

Isaiah 29:16 (ESV): You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

Isaiah here employs a frequent metaphor of God’s sovereignty in answer to this: God as potter, and His people as clay.

Ultimately, mankind is clay, and God is the one who formed him out of it, so it isn’t a pure abstraction.

Genesis 2:5–7 (ESV): When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

As a potter, the creator God has complete freedom of expression over His creation. The pot has no right to criticize how He makes his creation.

Isaiah 45:9 (ESV): Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’?

Nor can the thing made criticize what the Creator chooses to do with his creation. It is at His disposal.

Isaiah 64:8–9 (ESV): But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. 9 Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people.

In the longest potter and clay passage in the OT, Jeremiah 18:1-17, the potter offers to relent in His judgment against the clay if the clay (Judah) repents.

Jeremiah 18:1–11 (ESV): The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. 9 And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10 and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. 11 Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, everyone from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.’

However, it is clear by the rest of the context here, that God’s judgment is firm and will stand. Judah has no intention of repenting.

Jeremiah 18:13–17 (ESV): Therefore thus says the Lord: Ask among the nations, Who has heard the like of this? The virgin Israel has done a very horrible thing. 14 Does the snow of Lebanon leave the crags of Sirion? Do the mountain waters run dry, the cold flowing streams? 15 But my people have forgotten me; they make offerings to false gods; they made them stumble in their ways, in the ancient roads, and to walk into side roads, not the highway, 16 making their land a horror, a thing to be hissed at forever. Everyone who passes by it is horrified and shakes his head. 17 Like the east wind I will scatter them before the enemy. I will show them my back, not my face, in the day of their calamity.”

In my reading, this passage does not so much weaken the emphasis of the right of the potter to do whatever He chooses with the clay as it justifies that, in bringing judgment, the potter is righteous in His action.

The last passage in the Bible’s usage of this metaphor continues to reinforce that God is completely sovereign over his creation and will do with it as He pleases.

Romans 9:20–25 (ESV): But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

Paul extends the complete liberty of God to bring temporal judgment at his pleasure into the question of ultimate sovereignty over salvation as well.

This is the passage that makes many people uncomfortable, and there is diversity, even amongst our elders, on how this passage is to be understood.

Promoting the doctrine of predestination to you here and now is neither my interest nor my intention; however, we must say that, if God so chose to predestine some to heaven and others to hell, there is no force that could prevent Him from doing so.

This portion of scripture (vs 17-21) continues with several examples of God overturning or reversing the natural order of things, with which mankind is unable to compete. These statements just continue to point to the folly of expecting the will and desires of the leaders of Judah to be realized against the will or action of God.

Checkpoint #3: If we do not embrace the awesome power and absolute sovereignty of God, we might not be followers, or we might be following a god that doesn’t exist.

IV. Not Empty Expectations (vs 22-24)

The last portion of this chapter looks toward the eventual spiritual restoration of Israel, and while the tone in these passages is positive, we can infer from them one more prior condition of those who do not follow the Lord.

Isaiah 29:22–24 (ESV): Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall no more be ashamed, no more shall his face grow pale. 23 For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel. 24 And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction.”

We can glean from these passages that, before being redeemed, unfollowing Judah was ashamed, their faces pale, and they were given to grumbling.

These conditions change when they start to see God working to save the world, starting with the Jewish people and extending to the ends of the earth.

Until this work begins, though, the people have lost faith and hope that it ever will. This is a common problem, even for devoted followers of the Lord.

There is some expectation on Abraham’s part that the promises of a land and a people to come from him would do so quickly.

Genesis 12:1–4 (ESV): Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

He was already 75 years old when he received the promise. Surely, he had little reason to think that God’s promise would be slow in coming. He and Sarai were already past the natural years of childbearing.

Still, God waited 10 years before confirming the covenant with Abram in ch. 15

Genesis 15:1–6 (ESV): After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Following this restatement, this time with blood sacrifice, Abram takes matters into his own hands, and the story of Ishmael unfolds, a debacle from which the world has never recovered!

God again visits Abram in ch. 17 to restate the promise again, this time adding the sign of circumcision. Abram’s and Sarai’s names are changed. Even after these monumental events, he laments to God about his lack of faith in the promises.

Genesis 17:17–18 (ESV): Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!”

He is 99 years old at this point! He’s been waiting for 24 years, and he has given up hope of a child with his wife.

A year later, when he is 100 years old and has been waiting for 25 years, Isaac is born, and he receives the first deposit against God’s promises.

If the father of our faith faltered in his hope after 24 years, is it any wonder that Judah had lost hope after 1500 years without a messiah?

When the people of God have received promises which are unmet, there are only two options: wait with hopeful expectation in faith, trusting in the character of God, or despair, doubt, and grumble.

When the children of Israel got hungry or thirsty in the wilderness, they grumbled.

When Moses couldn’t hear all the disputes between the people, they grumbled.

When Moses was exhausted by dealing with grumbling people, he grumbled himself!

When the people of God wanted a king, they grumbled.

However, when David was kept away from the temple by the baseless hatred of Saul, his soul waited on the Lord like a night watchman for the morning.

When God’s prophetic word had not been heard in the land for 400 years, Simeon and Anna waited expectantly for the consolation of Israel.

It can be hard to maintain hope and to keep from grumbling when things don’t seem to be going the right way, but we have to cling both to the goodness of God and His absolute sovereignty. He doesn’t have to bring good things to you in your lifetime and on your calendar.

He works all things according to the mystery of His will, not ours.

The way we handle delayed promises and deferred joy speaks volumes about the health of our followship.

Checkpoint #4: If we find ourselves grumbling and complaining about the Lord, His promises, or His people, we may not be followers.

V. Conclusion

So are you a duck? It may be too soon to tell, as I’ve only given you negative examples, but perhaps something is already sticking out to you that is misaligned with good followship.

Mike will spend his time next week outlining the positive characteristics of a follower, but if you already know you have work to do, here are some steps you can take now.

First, give your heart, your life, and your sin to Christ.

It is pointless trying to follow well if you have not asked Christ to forgive you of your sins and make you spiritually alive.

Nothing dead can follow anything or anyone.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please come see me after the service. There is no greater joy for me than answering those questions.

Second, recommit your life, your energies, and your genuine effort to Christ.

Salvation is all the work of God, and so is the process of sanctification, or growing as a Christian.

However, it doesn’t happen without your active involvement.

You will not follow the Lord well by accident.

Salvation is not fire insurance, tucked away for “just in case.”

If you have been passive about your walk, renounce that now and commit yourself again to the active, energetic pursuit of your spiritual life.

Third, turn down the words, and turn up the honesty.

Be honest with yourself and with others about the state of your heart.

Don’t broadcast spiritual health or empty dialogue when you’re dying inside.

It’s okay to be quiet when you don’t know what to say.

It’s okay to admit when you’re cold or dry inside.

Fourth, greatly expand your view of God.

St. Anselem, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, famously stated that “God is that being greater than which nothing can be conceived,” and he was right.

God is bigger and more powerful than you can imagine. He is more free, more holy, more loving, more righteous, and more terrible than you could ever imagine him to be.

Even now, at this moment, with this encouragement to expand your awe of him, your imagination is nowhere near his fearsome grandeur.

Discipline yourself away from safe, tame, controlled thoughts of him and explore what it means to fear the Lord who loves you.

Lastly, guard your heart against despair and your mouth against grumbling.

Everyone has areas of their lives that feel unfulfilled, where you are either waiting for God to make a direct change or waiting for the change you know has been promised you.

Whatever that area of loss or lack is, don’t lose hope in God’s goodness or His faithfulness.

His healing and wholeness are coming, even if it is His will that we wait until the next life to experience them.

Don’t let your face be downcast. Don’t let your current situations bring you shame.

And for the sake of everyone else in your life, don’t grumble. Being honest doesn’t have to become grumbling.

Nobody in scripture is ever commended for grumbling.

If you need to do business with the Lord in any of these areas, or in any other, I’d love to pray for you.

Close in prayer.