Isaiah 3:1-15 - These Ruins Will Be Under Your Rule
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
[READING - Isaiah 3:1-15]
1 For behold, the Lord God of hosts is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah Both supply and support, the whole supply of bread And the whole supply of water;
2 The mighty man and the warrior, The judge and the prophet, The diviner and the elder,
3 The captain of fifty and the honorable man, The counselor and the expert artisan, And the skillful enchanter.
4 And I will make mere lads their princes, And capricious children will rule over them,
5 And the people will be oppressed, Each one by another, and each one by his neighbor; The youth will storm against the elder And the inferior against the honorable.
6 When a man lays hold of his brother in his father’s house, saying, “You have a cloak, you shall be our ruler, And these ruins will be under your charge,”
7 He will protest on that day, saying, “I will not be your healer, For in my house there is neither bread nor cloak; You should not appoint me ruler of the people.”
8 For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen, Because their speech and their actions are against the Lord, To rebel against His glorious presence.
9 The expression of their faces bears witness against them, And they display their sin like Sodom; They do not even conceal it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves.
10 Say to the righteous that it will go well with them, For they will eat the fruit of their actions.
11 Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him, For what he deserves will be done to him.
12 O My people! Their oppressors are children, And women rule over them. O My people! Those who guide you lead you astray And confuse the direction of your paths.
13 The Lord arises to contend, And stands to judge the people.
14 The Lord enters into judgment with the elders and princes of His people, “It is you who have devoured the vineyard; The plunder of the poor is in your houses.
15 “What do you mean by crushing My people And grinding the face of the poor?” Declares the Lord God of hosts.
[PRAYER]
[CONTEXT] The national, religious, and societal condition on Judah in Isaiah’s day was sinful. God promised to make His people a light to the nations, but Judah was in danger of being destroyed by its own sinfulness. God called His people to walk in His light rather than walking in the way of the world.
[CIT] In Isaiah 3, God promised to bring down Judah’s leaders and essentially leave His ruined people leaderless.
[PROP] In this chapter we see how a wicked people descend into chaos and how even in the descent a righteous remnant is still rewarded for faithfulness.
[TS] Notice three PARTS to this chapter…
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
PART #1: Chaos (vv. 1-7)
PART #1: Chaos (vv. 1-7)
1 For behold, the Lord God of hosts is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah Both supply and support, the whole supply of bread And the whole supply of water; 2 The mighty man and the warrior, The judge and the prophet, The diviner and the elder, 3 The captain of fifty and the honorable man, The counselor and the expert artisan, And the skillful enchanter. 4 And I will make mere lads their princes, And capricious children will rule over them, 5 And the people will be oppressed, Each one by another, and each one by his neighbor; The youth will storm against the elder And the inferior against the honorable. 6 When a man lays hold of his brother in his father’s house, saying, “You have a cloak, you shall be our ruler, And these ruins will be under your charge,” 7 He will protest on that day, saying, “I will not be your healer, For in my house there is neither bread nor cloak; You should not appoint me ruler of the people.”
[EXP] Because of Judah’s sinfulness, ruin is coming. There will be a famine of bread and a famine of leadership.
When Jacob and His Sons went down to Egypt looking for grain during the famine, they found Joseph leading in Egypt, and they were saved.
Here in Isaiah 3, “both supply and support, the whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water” (v. 1) is about to dry up under the judgment of God, but no Joseph will be found; God is also going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah its leaders.
Verses 2-7 reveal that every potential leader will be removed and replaced with capricious children; Judah will be led by immature, unstable, oppressive leaders who insult their elders and sneer at the honorable.
Things will be so bad that anyone with a cloak will be considered qualified; as you see in v. 6, “You have a cloak, you shall be our ruler! And these ruins will be under your charge!”
But things will be so bad that the one with the cloak won’t take the job; as you see in v. 7, “I will not be your healer, for in my house there is neither bread nor cloak; You should not appoint me ruler of the people!”
I like how the NKJV has v. 7, ““I cannot cure your ills, For in my house is neither food nor clothing; Do not make me a ruler of the people.”
[ILLUS] At a press conference on August 12, 1986, President Ronald Reagan said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”
In Isaiah’s day, those were terrifying words in the Hebrew language as well.
[APP] Government and its leaders are established by God who “removes kings and establishes kings” (Dan. 2:21), who is “ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whom He wishes and sets over it the lowliest of men,” (Dan. 4:17). “For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God,” (Rom. 13:1).
Government is meant to be “a minister of God to (us) for good… bringing wrath on the one who practices evil,” (Rom. 13:4).
But when government practices evil by oppressing its people, the result is chaos.
This is the judgment of God, and as these United States continue to rebel against God, we should expect to see more and more of it in our own nation until we repent or until we are ruined.
[TS]…
PART #2: Causes (vv. 8-15)
PART #2: Causes (vv. 8-15)
8 For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen, Because their speech and their actions are against the Lord, To rebel against His glorious presence. 9 The expression of their faces bears witness against them, And they display their sin like Sodom; They do not even conceal it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves. 10 Say to the righteous that it will go well with them, For they will eat the fruit of their actions. 11 Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him, For what he deserves will be done to him. 12 O My people! Their oppressors are children, And women rule over them. O My people! Those who guide you lead you astray And confuse the direction of your paths. 13 The Lord arises to contend, And stands to judge the people. 14 The Lord enters into judgment with the elders and princes of His people, “It is you who have devoured the vineyard; The plunder of the poor is in your houses. 15 “What do you mean by crushing My people And grinding the face of the poor?” Declares the Lord God of hosts.
[EXP] In Ezekiel 34:5, God said His people were scattered for lack of a shepherd, for lack of a godly leader. The shepherds (i.e., the leaders) in Ezekiel’s day fed themselves by slaughtering the sheep. The leaders of God’s people dominated God’s people with force and severity. Therefore, judgment would come to the leaders.
Jeremiah and Zechariah prophesy this same thing.
Isaiah carries the same message in this passage.
How did Judah’s leadership cause the chaos of God’s judgment?
One, they spoke and acted against the Lord (v. 8).
Two, they displayed their sin like Sodom (v. 9).
God said they didn’t even conceal their sin.
Hypocritical speech conceals sinful action and a false face conceals hidden sin.
That’s how the Pharisees in Jesus’ day lived.
That’s how Judas behaved when he came to betray Jesus with a kiss.
But in Isaiah’s day, the leaders of Judah aren’t being hypocritical or false; they are being boldly, proudly, overtly rebellious.
They do not conceal their sin.
Third, the leaders of Judah lead the people astray (v. 12).
In v. 12, the rulers are referred to as “their oppressors” and are said to be children and women.
Having a woman or a child in leadership was an indication of God’s judgment.
But here too, these so-called leaders lead the people astray and confuse the way of God’s people.
Rather than leading God’s people along the singular path of righteousness, these leaders lead the people along the multi-laned road to destruction.
Fourth, the leaders of Judah devour the vineyard that is God’s people (vv. 14-15).
The elders and princes plunder the poor.
They crush the people.
They grind the face of the poor.
What is God’s response to this?
13 The Lord arises to contend, And stands to judge the people.
The leaders that represent the people of God—the leaders who have flaunted their sin and misled and oppressed the people—these leaders who think they are above the law will have to contend with the Lord.
[ILLUS] Norman “Kid” McCoy, who was welterweight boxing champion in 1896, was fighting a contender who had the misfortune of being deaf. Once McCoy discovered his opponent’s disability, he wasted no time in taking advantage of it. Near the end of the third round McCoy stepped back a pace and pointed to his adversary’s corner, indicating that the bell had rung.
“Oh, thank you so much,” said McCoy’s opponent. “very civil of you.” But the bell hadn’t rung, and as soon as the other boxer dropped his hands and turned away, McCoy immediately knocked him out.
I hate stories like that because I hate to see people take advantage of the disadvantaged. I hear stories like that and long for justice.
Couldn’t the judges do something? Couldn’t the referee? Couldn’t they disqualify Kid McCoy and award the victory to the deaf boxer? Couldn’t someone do something?
[APP] As God’s people were oppressed by their leaders, maybe they asked the same sorts of questions: Can’t the Judge do something? And the answer is, He can and He will.
God will contend with His rebellious people and with their rebellious leaders who have led them astray.
[TS] But as a rebellious society descends into chaos, how should we live?
PART #3: Compensation (vv. 10-11)
PART #3: Compensation (vv. 10-11)
10 Say to the righteous that it will go well with them, For they will eat the fruit of their actions. 11 Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him, For what he deserves will be done to him.
[EXP] God is just in judgment; He only gives what is owed.
To the righteous, He gives the sweet fruit of righteous living.
In other words, even as the rebellious nation descends into chaos, the righteous remnant that does righteously will reap rewards.
To the wicked, God gives the bitter fruit of wicked living.
In other words, as the rebellious nation descends into chaos, the wicked majority will be punished accordingly.
[APP] Someone once said, “Salvation depends upon Christ’s work for us, while rewards depend upon our works for Christ,” (Milburn Cockrell).
Brothers and sisters, our nation is descending into chaos. Sometimes it seems that it is descending rapidly and at other time more slowly but always descending because we are always rebelling against God.
Our nation rebels.
Our religious institutions rebel.
Our society rebels.
And our leaders rebel and lead us to do the same.
But we have a decision to make: Will we be part of the righteous remnant or the wicked majority?
Will we walk in the light of the Lord or will we walk in darkness like everyone else?
Will we follow our rebellious leaders or will we follow the Lord Jesus?
He is the Light, and those of us who follow Him walk in the Light and walk in the good works God prepared for us beforehand.
6 who will render to each person according to his deeds: 7 to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; 8 but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 11 For there is no partiality with God.
[TS]…
Conclusion
Conclusion
[PRAYER]