Isaiah 2:5-11 - What's the Difference?

5 O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. 6 For you have rejected your people, the house of Jacob, because they are full of things from the east and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners. 7 Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots. 8 Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made. 9 So man is humbled, and each one is brought low— do not forgive them! 10 Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the Lord, and from the splendor of his majesty. 11 The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

Target Date: Sunday, 24 September 2023

Word Study/ Translation Notes:

6 – rejected - נָטַשׁ nâṭash, naw-tash – cast off, left fallow, abandoned, forsaken.

8 – idols - אֱלִיל elil (elilim) – worthless ones (Isaiah’s common word for idols).

This is a wordplay that they have left Elohim (God) for elilim (worthless ones).

Thoughts on the Passage:

5 – This is a transitional sentence, fitting both with the prior paragraph and this one.

It is a call to walk in the light of the Lord in view of the peace He brings with the prior verses.

It is a call to walk in the light of the Lord because Judah has not been. What follows are the things they have loved and done that display their unfaithfulness.

6 – You have rejected Your people -

6 – full of things from the east – they have adopted the comforts and friendships of the Assyrians and Babylonians. We will see this come to a terrible conclusion when Judah is conquered and exiled by Babylon.

7 – The days of Uzziah, a lengthy and blessed reign, were perhaps the most prosperous since Solomon, certainly the most prosperous in the memory of the people.

For us, the events of the Bible, indeed all of history, seem to be close together. But Uzziah, which is the earliest period Isaiah would have written this, was king more than 160 years after Solomon died.

Put into perspective, in the same time period in our past, we were in the period prior to the Civil War.

Solomon, for these people Isaiah was speaking to, was a glorious historical figure, but not someone they desired to emulate.

The affairs and prosperity of their own day was much more important than the glories of the distant past – just like today.

Our own prosperity, likewise, is similarly recent in history. We forget that in the years prior to the Second World War, there were a significant number of people in this very country who lived in desperate poverty, with many starving.

Likewise, diseases like polio, measles, influenza, scarlet fever, tetanus, typhoid, and the simplest infections killed or disabled millions of people.

And just like the fact that these things do not worry us in our daily lives now, the Judahans focused on their prosperity, considering they deserved it.

7 – Perhaps Judah even sang of the blessings they had received from God, even while they idolized their wealth.

The blessings God gives you are intended to be used for His purposes, not yours.

This requires a radical redefinition of our priorities – We are now in the debt of the One who saved us, and are expected to do His will with the things He has given us.

7-8 – The key word for this passage is the word “filled”. The people were full. The land is full.

Filled with the things of this world – the world that would soon enslave them.

Filled with treasures; filled with horses; filled with idols.

Their bellies were full; their land was secure; and their hearts began to contemplate their own greatness, celebrating it by creating idols.

They were so full, there was no room in their hearts for God.

9 – Do not forgive them – this is not a prayer that God would not forgive them, but the statement that this will not be forgiven. It is a certainty, a guaranteed result of the idolatry and debasement of the people of God, that they will endure the judgment and payment for their faithlessness.

Do not forgive. The Hebrew imperative not only commands but also can be used to express an inevitable outcome, here ‘the conviction that something cannot or should not happen’, i.e. ‘and there is no way you can forgive them’.

10 – Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” - Revelation 6:15-17

Sermon Text:

This morning we will look at the second of the major divisions of this second chapter of Isaiah.

If you look at the context before this passage, you will remember that Isaiah was describing the reign of God’s peace to be found in the Messiah.

Verse 5 occupies a very special place in the flow of the message through Isaiah.

This cry to the people of God to be faithful to Him:

O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.

This plea is transitional – it finishes the revelation of God’s peace, and it begins clearly the section we are looking at today that described HOW far God’s people had fallen away.

It is a plea, a cry, begging the people of God not just to repent from their sin, but to wake up and understand the type and extent of their sin.

We are all very well and good to repent of sin – even the pagans will do that from time to time.

For example, an unbelieving alcoholic will, at times, find her will to set her life aright, freeing herself from dependence on drink.

Or a man addicted to pornography might, at times, recognize the worthlessness of that sin and the toll it takes on his family and relationships and give it up.

And even when people do not actually repent of their sins, they might readily agree with the preacher or someone else that they SHOULD repent.

Saying “I know I SHOULD stop doing that, but I am too weak”, or “I know I should leave that behavior behind, but it is such a little thing; I worry that this small sin keeps me away from larger ones.”

Most every person you meet will freely confess they are not perfect, that there are things they do that are not entirely right,

We all have this understanding that “nobody’s perfect”, and it brings us to the conclusion “so why try?”

We will confess to many sins, but in most cases, we will only confess to them if you allow US to define what we are confessing to.

But when we come to the word of God, the Scriptures He has written for us and given to us, we find we do not get to define sin for ourselves.

We do not walk up God Most High and tell Him we will admit we have been deficient in this area or that area, but we have really done our best.

When we come to the Holy God, only His holy standard will be used in measuring our sin.

Judah, in this passage we are looking at today, would NEVER have confessed to these sins;

In fact, for them, they would have had REAL difficulty in even recognizing them AS sins.

They were walking in their own light, trusting in their own understanding, judging sin by their own measure – and God condemned them for it.

For you have rejected your people, the house of Jacob…

God has REJECTED them;

He has dropped them, abandoned their care and defense.

Please understand – Judah was not the Wild West, where shootouts occurred at the OK Corral.

It wasn’t the godless halls of the Roman emperor or the Medieval Vatican.

Judah was looking good from the world’s point of view.

Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots.

They have wealth, they have influence.

They have security and comfort.

At the time this chapter was written, which was probably near the end of the reign of Uzziah, they had experienced decades of prosperity and safety.

For the people Isaiah was preaching to, most had been born into this prosperity and taken it for granted.

They had houses and jobs; they had food and comforts.

Enemies were not assaulting the walls of Jerusalem or the other cities of Judah.

And if an enemy did arise, the army of Judah was quite strong enough to win the day.

In fact, I want you to notice one word that keeps appearing in God’s indictment of Judah: full.

They are full of things from the east:

Meaning they had everything a person could want living in this world.

They lived with the comforts and pleasures and conveniences the other nations like Assyria and Babylon had.

In fact, later in this book, we will see Isaiah chide King Hezekiah because he was bragging of his wealth to the representatives of Babylon, showing them his great wealth and power (chapter 38-39).

And the irony is that they were full of things from the very people who, in a short while, would be enslaving them and carrying them into exile.

Not only are they full of things from the east, they are full of soothsayers and diviners.

God had spoken to this nation, yet they kept seeking to foretell and manipulate the future.

They didn’t seek God’s prophets – they sought fortune-tellers.

They are full of silver and gold.

They have money, not just land or possessions.

They have the means to acquire more or to store their surplus for the future.

They could bedeck themselves with jewelry and display their wealth for all to see.

They are full of horses and chariots.

Their army was strong, and it kept the nation secure.

They had the latest weapons and deployed the deadliest armaments on the battlefield.

But they are also full of idols.

Because a man with no needs seeks a god he can control.

A man in desperate need seeks a God who is IN control.

The people of God were FULL.

And yet they were under the condemnation of God;

They were a nation God had taken His protecting hand off of – and they didn’t know it.

Not that they cared – they were FULL.

They had everything they needed.

They were comfortable.

They hadn’t needed God in their lifetimes, or even in the lifetime of their parents.

They could make their own way without being completely devoted to Him.

Wouldn’t that be asking a little too much of them?

Wouldn’t God be content with them acknowledging His blessings on them?

Isn’t that all God wants – our gratitude?

They were God’s people – it is a good advertisement for God that they were doing so well.

Do you see their sin there?

Can you see where they had gone wrong?

Does it sound familiar?

Remember the indictment of the first chapter:

Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow. – Isaiah 1:17

Not everyone was in this blessed state.

There were the poor, the widows, the orphans – and they were not being cared for.

All this silver and gold in the nation, but there were still people in need?

Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. – Malachi 3:8-10

This passage isn’t simply about offerings – it is about caring for the one who are in need.

See the promise: I will pour down a blessing until there is no more need.

It is a travesty that the Malachi passage has been tortured by our prosperous American preachers to simply make church offering plates full.

This is about the fact that God has given His people the things they have SO THEY CAN TAKE CARE OF OTHERS.

This is why the disciples sold things and laid the money at the apostles’ feet – so they could take care of the poor.

This is why Paul told the Ephesians:

He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need. – Ephesians 4:28

The point of the wealth God gives any one of us is not to horde it, but to share with one who has need.

What interest does God have in making you more comfortable in THIS world?

This isn’t your home.

This isn’t the capitol of His kingdom.

Who does the writer of Hebrews describe as “men of whom the world was not worthy”?

they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated 38 (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. – Hebrews 11:37-38

They were not above the worth of the world BECAUSE they were poor;

The world was not worthy of them because they were faithful in utter disregard of their lack of wealth, status, or even respect.

Is there ANYTHING the wealth, status, or respect of this world give you that is of eternal value?

Will you stand before the Lord on His day and be congratulated that you had a billion dollars when you died and left it all behind?

Will it be to your benefit if every nation on earth knew of you and blessed your name?

Is God going to look at you and declare “Because you were so beloved in the world, come into My rest”?

Judah didn’t see the cancer, the canker, that this “fullness” represented to them.

They were too busy living their lives.

They were too busy acquiring more.

Their treasures were laid up here on earth, and they were fleeting.

Even worse, those very things they may have called “God’s blessings” were the things that filled their hearts so full there was no room for God in them.

What fills your heart?

What do you have that, if you lost it, you would be devastated?

I know many of us might go immediately for “my salvation”, but be careful if you do.

This is not something to speak out loud;

There are no points for simply saying the right answer.

This is a call to find what may be filling your heart and excluding God from that part.

For some, it might be the instruments of sin.

For some, it might be otherwise good things – children, family – that you have given too much of your desire to.

For others, it might be treasured possessions, keepsakes, or memories.

Whatever we find that fills our hearts, we must hold that up to the goodness and kindness of God and find in Him the greater treasure.

Only in doing so can we walk in the light of the Lord.

Those treasures of this world give us no light in seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

They do nothing to dispel the darkness of this world, no matter what we think we might see.

It is only in loving the Lord with all our heart, all our mind, and all our strength that we will find our heart filled with His light.

Everything else is temporary;

Everything else is empty.

Everything else is an idol to our hearts.

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them; 8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light 9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. – Ephesians 5:6-10