Isaiah 14
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The Restoration of Jacob
The Restoration of Jacob
So when we talk about the restoration of Jacob, we are talking about the time after 521BC, when the children of Jacob, are allowed to leave the land of their captivity.
This comes about because of God’s compassion, not their works or by anything they deserve.
Just as God loved Israel, and called them out of the land of Egypt, so again he was going to in the future call them out of the land of Babylon.
Why, He loved them and He had chosen them. Remember His covenant promises will are never abandoned, even in sin, they are his people. He will always punish sin, but he always loves his people.
So lets open up the text today....
1 For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 2 And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the Lord’s land as male and female slaves. They will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them.
So what does God say right off the bat? I will have compassion on Jacob. He will choose them again.
He has punished them because of sin, But he will change His attitude toward them, and show them mercy again
IN showing them mercy, He will set them back in their own land. We know what that is.... It is the land he promised to Abraham and his descendants.
Sojourners will join them again, these are those who will come to worship and honor the Lord their God with them.
In verse 2 we see that Israel will become the predominate culture of the world. The oppression they once faced will be reserved and those who one enslaved them will not be enslaved.
Now what does enslaving former oppressors mean, is it literal? Well it is not thought so… but a point that those Gentiles will be welcome in the kingdom of God and will become servants in the kingdom of God.
But this might also have a future fulfillment, during the 1000 year reign of His Kingdom, The servants of God will reign over those who once oppressed them....
Remember, we will rule and reign with Jesus in His kingdom and the world, we will reign over.
All this will be a picture of the days to come....
Now, Isa 14:3-4
3 When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, 4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:
“How the oppressor has ceased,
the insolent fury ceased!
You know once they looked to Babylon for help, as the Assyrian king fought against them...
To take up the taunt.... God’s people will have the last laugh. Their pain and turmoil will not be forever, 70 years but those who once served will be served. We have already talked about it....
Their will be rest… I like hearing that, mainly because of what Jesus promised us...
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Now lets move on to verse 5 and 6
5 The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
the scepter of rulers,
6 that struck the peoples in wrath
with unceasing blows,
that ruled the nations in anger
with unrelenting persecution.
The staff/scepter of a person/rulers, is always a symbol of power and strength, might. And God says here, he will break the staff of the wicked.
The wicked, the ungodly will have no power or strength any longer.
Those in power welded their power corruptly and hurt those who were under them, in truth that oppressed them with a unrelenting persecution.
And now Isa 14:7-8
7 The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
they break forth into singing.
8 The cypresses rejoice at you,
the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
‘Since you were laid low,
no woodcutter comes up against us.’
With those rulers being pushed down, defeated the world is at rest again. In fact nature and man can shout in joyful jubilation, literally singing as we see in the text.
He will no longer hurt anyone. No one will be able to rob the land of its precious resources. The cypresses and cedars of he land, those royal trees that produced such beautiful resources for building...
What we think is that perhaps in hate, these evil rulers have have tried to destroy all or parts of these royal forests in an effort to just hurt the land and the people.
My gracious, how spiteful to see people just destroy things in an effort to hurt everyone.
Since the evil kings were defeated the trees and other resources have been safe.
Now lets move to verses 9-11 Isa 14:9-11
9 Sheol beneath is stirred up
to meet you when you come;
it rouses the shades to greet you,
all who were leaders of the earth;
it raises from their thrones
all who were kings of the nations.
10 All of them will answer
and say to you:
‘You too have become as weak as we!
You have become like us!’
11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
the sound of your harps;
maggots are laid as a bed beneath you,
and worms are your covers.
As we open this section, the evil tyrant of a king is seen in the place of the dead, sheol is the grave or the place of the dead.
This king has ended up in hell so to speak. The one who was once arrogant is brought low.
The picture is that the spirits of these dead in the grave, in hell are excited to see the Babylonian king who is brought low. I would suggest that this might be a picture of Nebuchadnezzar or His son, I am not sure.
The spirits say that even now you, ol King are brought low, the once mighty king is no more.\
His glory and spendor of this court have disappeared, majesty and pride have evaporated and now maggots and worms eat away at his corpse.
The king who the people once thought was all powerful is not any longer. He has been put out to pasture so to speak...
Now look at verses 12-14 Isa 14:12-14
12 “How you are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!
13 You said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
At the center of this poem is the description of the this King’s prideful attempt to take God’s place in heaven.
Now there have been several who have tried to tie this to Satan’s down fall, but it is not Satan, but merely this reflects how this King acts in a similar way.
Why did satan fall? An attitude of selfish pride that led to an attempt to usurp God’s authority.
IN the text it says “I will” speaks to his arrogant actions.
Now we know for certain that Nebuchadnezzar, set up and idol of himself, this tall statue and what did he do, He made others bow down and worship him.
But if you remember, Nebuchadnezzar was made to be like an animal, he lost His mind and finally came back and praised/confessed the one true God of heaven
Now we know this speaks to Nebuchadnezzar, but there have been many across time who desired, tried to set themselves up like a god, but they have all been brought low.
There is no one but God my friends, He alone is God.
And what is our aim as a child of God?
9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
Our goal and purpose is that we please God and him alone.
Look at Isa 14:15
15 But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the far reaches of the pit.
While the king has plans to go upward, to be like God; he fails and ultimately like any man death visits His life and takes him…The grave receives Him.
Death my friends will visit everyone, no matter our status or ambition. But this we know for certain, He is able to save the soul and rescue the body on the day of his return.
But we must know Jesus...
To miss what God was doing in and through the Son, leaves a person going to the grave without any hope.
Now I am going to stop there, this is about half way through the text of chapter 14..
We will come back to this next week and finish chapter 14.
