Isaiah 3:16 - 4:6 - Unworthiness and God's Work

16 The Lord said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks, glancing wantonly with their eyes, mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet, 17 therefore the Lord will strike with a scab the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will lay bare their secret parts. 18 In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents; 19 the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarves; 20 the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes, and the amulets; 21 the signet rings and nose rings; 22 the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags; 23 the mirrors, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils. 24 Instead of perfume there will be rottenness; and instead of a belt, a rope; and instead of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a rich robe, a skirt of sackcloth; and branding instead of beauty. 25 Your men shall fall by the sword and your mighty men in battle. 26 And her gates shall lament and mourn; empty, she shall sit on the ground.

4:1 And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach.” 2 In that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel. 3 And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, 4 when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. 5 Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy. 6 There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.

Target Date: Sunday, 5 November 2023

Word Study/ Translation Notes:

16 - The first word וְ (wā) is untranslated by the ESV, but is found in the NASB and KJV (among others). In these translations, it is represented by the word “moreover” as the first word of the paragraph.

Though not changing the meaning of the text, it does provide positive evidence that this is a continuation of the thoughts that began this oracle in 2:1. This oracle continues through chapter 5.

Thoughts on the Passage:

The oracle (sermon) of Isaiah – chapters 2-5:

2:1-4 – The final state of God’s people.

2:5-11 – The current state of God’s people.

2:12-22 – The terror of God’s judgment on His people.

3:1-15 – The execution of God’s judgment on His people.

3:16-4:1 – The extent of God’s judgment on His people.

4:2-4:6 – The aftermath of God’s judgment with His people.

5:1-7 – The parable of the vineyard.

5:8-30 – Woes on the wicked.

Sermon Text:

When dealing with lengthy passages of Scripture, it is easy to forget the greater story as we look at the details.

Both are important.

We must know first what the passage is telling us,

But we cannot fully understand the message of the greater passage without allowing ourselves to be held in the light of each argument that is made.

If we have only the “big picture” or just the individual details, we are missing something.

When I was in high school, I was introduced to perhaps the greatest sin against literature I have ever met: Cliff’s Notes.

Nowadays, I suppose the Wikipedia could be worse.

Both these tools are summaries for students who do not have the time or inclination to read and understand the subject:

They just want the broad strokes to help them pass an exam.

But what those tools do is to provide the knowledge of the big ideas of, say, a novel without allowing the student to fall in love with the language of the writing.

It is only someone who loves that language and takes the time to savor it that will read the word hungrily.

This is one of the great arguments in favor of expository preaching, or preaching that cherishes and highlights the intricacies of the texts of Scripture.

That not a single word of the Scripture is a wasted word.

Each word, each thought, can be used by God’s Holy Spirit in His transforming work in His people.

But I would remind us all that the passages we have been looking at, beginning in chapter 2 and proceeding through chapter 5 are a single oracle, a single message, from the prophet Isaiah.

This book is a collection of many sermons and oracles, although scholars are not at all unanimous in exactly how many there are.

The passage we begin to examine today is near the middle of this sermon, this oracle from God.

And in it we see in it the extent of God’s judgment on His people.

That is my “Wikipedia” summary of the theme of the passage from the 16th verse of chapter 3 through the first verse of chapter 4.

You may remember that God has already declared His judgment on the men of Judah and Jerusalem in the previous verses,

From the king, priests, and leaders down to the lowliest foot soldier.

But war and calamity do not just affect the men of an area.

Women are also gravely affected, particularly in something like the invasion of Judah that God is preparing to unleash.

So this leads us to ask the question: why do the women, who are neither kings nor priests, suffer in this judgment?

And the answer God gives is this: because they, too, are guilty of great sin before God.

Just because someone has little political power does not mean their sin is not great.

The poor can be as greedy as the rich.

The plain can be as promiscuous as the beautiful.

Our capacity for sin is not determined by our social status.

The slave can be as officious as the judge.

The untrained can diagnose with just as much confidence as the doctor.

And so we see the “humble” women of Judah as God sees them:

Proud and haughty.

With “stretched necks”.

Now, I will tell you that many of the words in verses 18-23 are the translators’ best guesses or analogies for those items of fashion,

But I think we get a really vivid picture of “stretched necks”.

These are not humble, stooping down in feminine concern and care for others;

They hold their heads high, their noses aloft, more interested in holding a beautiful pose than holding a hurting hand.

They stretch their necks to heaven, holding themselves above others in their competition and pride.

Perhaps considering herself more beautiful or worthy than the next woman, so she thinks she should be given a higher esteem.

Or else considering herself less beautiful or worthy, so she must tear down the other so she can rise above her.

By all her self-judgment, worthy to be served and far too important to serve others.

As Amos declared in his day:

Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’ - Amos 4:1

Her neck is stretched also gazing from one side to the other – glancing wantonly.

She is noticing who is watching her, glorying in their attention which she purchases at any price.

She takes tiny steps and puts bells on her ankles to attract attention.

Now brothers, we are not immune to attention either, so don’t get too comfortable here.

I have known many who revel in the number of followers or the number of likes they have in social media.

I can think of no more empty and sad life than living always for the attention of others.

To find your jubilance when you are followed or noticed by people.

But then to despair when they are not looking at you.

How hopeless, how hollow, is that kind of life, always craving the stares and attention of others?

But that is life without God, isn’t it?

Where even those who don’t really like other people still crave their attention or acknowledgement.

We are created to be fulfilled, to be loved, but their heart seeks its fulfillment only in what another person may provide them.

And it never finds true fulfillment.

You cannot ever be filled, completed by another person or by the acclamation of the crowd.

“What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.” - Blaise Pascal, Pensées VII(425) (1670)

I think this is his way of examining the great statement of Augustine:

You [God] have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You.

Oh, the weariness of a stretched neck and an empty life.

And it is this hollowness, this emptiness, that God demonstrates in His judgment.

Because He tells us He will strip all those things from them.

Twenty-one things He lists that He will remove in judgment.

Head to toe, veil to anklets,

Inside and out, undergarments to robes,

Everything they used to mask their hollow lives will be removed.

Like I said before, there is no reason to go through this list in detail.

Mostly because there are many items on there that we have no idea how to translate or what they were.

It is very much like Isaiah could look out at the women who were listening to him preach and list the items they were using to accomplish their haughty goals.

And once they were stripped of these vanities, they would be brought even lower.

Instead of perfume, the odor of pus.

The reeking sickly smell of gangrene, the smell of rot.

The odor of death all around them.

Where they had worn a belt, now it would be a rope.

Now, this is not some “rope belt” to hold your blue jeans up.

This is a long rope tied around the waists of a line of women who had been captured and were being marched into slavery.

Their beautiful hair, pulled out or shaved off – left on the ground of their land as they were led away.

Their beautiful clothing exchanged for the roughest sackcloth.

No protection from the elements.

No comfort for them.

And rather than the cosmetics and other beauty baubles they had formerly worn, a cruel brand would be burned into their skin.

Marking them harshly as slaves from a conquered people.

In their pride, they thought they had everything.

And so everything they thought they had would be taken away.

And so we see in chapter 4, verse 1, the state to which they are brought.

And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach.”

Where they were haughty, now they are needy.

Where they looked down on others, now they beg for help.

Where they thought they deserved everything, they now seek for anything.

They are not seeking after jewelry or clothes or beautiful things any more;

They just need a name, a protector.

They don’t need the acclamation of the crowd; they have found humility in their conquest.

But that is not the happy ending.

The way we see it here, it would be pitiful and pathetic ending.

Not just a sad ending for the women of today’s passage, but for all the ones who came in the paragraphs before.

We certainly cannot leave on that despairing state.

Because the story of Scripture is not the story of God’s righteous judgment alone.

It is much more the story of God’s salvation, and that is what comes next.

In that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious…

In that day – in the day God has appointed for His appearing.

The Branch of the Lord:

There are some who say that this “branch” is nothing more than the future blessings of God, the renewal of the fruits of the earth.

Even John Calvin, knowing he was in the minority, held to this primary view.

But most scholars, both Christian and Jewish non-Christians, understand this “Branch” to be a reference to the Messiah, who we know as Jesus Christ.

And in his defense, Calvin does admit this fits quite well as an ultimate meaning of the term.

I think this is unmistakably a reference to our Lord Jesus Christ:

Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Behold, a man whose name is Branch, - Zechariah 6:12

This is the prophet Zechariah’s identification of the Messiah as well.

Plus, the Branch is “of the Lord”:

Not “of David” or “of Israel”.

Of God, of Yahweh Himself.

So let’s see what He will do:

He will be beautiful, and will beautify all those who come to Him.

Not in the beauty of this world, but in the beauty as beheld by God.

And the beauty God acknowledges is righteousness.

In the grand 61st chapter of Isaiah, this same prophet describes the work of the Messiah:

to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. - Isaiah 61:3

He will gather those God has predestined for life:

he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life

He will wash away the filth of the daughters of Zion.

They were seeking one man to give them his name;

The Branch will give them His name, which is above every name.

He will purge the violence of Jerusalem through His judgment.

This, admittedly, is still in our future.

Violence, alas, is not foreign to this world in general or Jerusalem in particular.

But one day, it will be unknown, even forgotten.

And then the great promise of verses 5 and 6:

Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy. 6 There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.

You see the promise here:

A cloud by day, a flame of fire by night.

Where have we seen that before?

Those are the marks of God’s presence with Israel in the wilderness, for the 40 years they wandered between escaping Egyptian slavery and conquering Canaan.

And then the booth, the tent, to be a refuge and a hiding place.

These promises – the cloud, the flame, the tent – all point to one thing:

God With Us.

The glorious promise fulfilled in the only Messiah:

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. – John 1:14

What comparison is there between the baubles of this world and the glory of the presence of God?

Will we cling to our pride or will we long for His glory?