Isaiah 59
Notes
Transcript
God tells them of His people’s evil.
God tells them of His people’s evil.
Good evening!
We come back to the book of Isaiah and with it we continue to see God reminding them of their different types of evil.
Last week we looked at how they practiced those religious activities like fasting but sadly the heart wasn’t right and their motivation wasn’t right either.
So their actions and their heart didn’t match up. if the heart isn’t right, we can never experience the blessing of God.
We are called to do the right things for the right reasons.
So we will move to chapter 59 today, a God speaks of the peoples evil.
So lets look, verse 1 Isa 59:1
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
We start off with the word “behold” it is meant to draw attention to what the Lord is saying…
And God speaks that His ability to help, to work and to save are not limited, they are unlimited.
God can always save and always hears the cry’s of his people.
He can always reach out and save the vilest of sinners and change them. And when we call out, He is ready to help, to save, to guide to answer, to do what He knows is right to help.
Verse 2 Isa 59:2
2 but your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not hear.
But… there is the problem. Your iniquities have made a separation.
Iniquities refers to sin. Our human sinfulness causes a separation. He is holy and sin separates us from a holy God. So when sin is present, God cannot accept our worship, and nothing we do will please or honor him until the account is settled.
But he will help, will answer and will bless those who are righteous and are pleasing to Him.
God relates to people based on the condition of their heart. But when people act unjustly, when sin controls their life, sin is like a solid brick wall that separates people from God.
Verses 3-4, Isa 59:3-4
3 For your hands are defiled with blood
and your fingers with iniquity;
your lips have spoken lies;
your tongue mutters wickedness.
4 No one enters suit justly;
no one goes to law honestly;
they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies,
they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
So what happened? God says here that sin as blood on their hands and fingers with iniquity, lips that have spoken lies and a tongue that muttered wickedness..
They have shed blood, committed crimes against others, instead of praise delivered to him they have told falsehoods and moaned and complained against others and perhaps God himself.
In all these things, they are a sinful people. What the do, think and say betrays them. They have defiled themselves and again, it is separated them from God.
And in verse 4, there are legal perversions. In a effort to gain their own ways, the even go to court with lies and manipulations to achieve their own way.
We see this in the book of Esther as the evil Haman did evil and lied in a effort to bring about a social justice of getting rid of the Jewish population.
In all the efforts of wicked men, they just give rise to more and more evil.
Now lets move on, verses 5-6 Isa 59:5-6
5 They hatch adders’ eggs;
they weave the spider’s web;
he who eats their eggs dies,
and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched.
6 Their webs will not serve as clothing;
men will not cover themselves with what they make.
Their works are works of iniquity,
and deeds of violence are in their hands.
Isaiah uses a series of animal analogies to characterize the wickedness of sinners.
And right off the bat, in verse 5 we see a dangerous snake that lays eggs, it is referred to as a adder, some sort of viper. And then they were referred too as a spider who weaves a web.
In some ways these sinful people are comparable to this snake and spider. And then the person who eats these eggs, well they die from the poison that is within them.
And also in the picture, the web cannot serve as clothing, and their deeds though make look nice, they are not sufficient to hide them so that their sin is not perceived.
The spiders wed is beautiful in design, but it brings death to the insects they get caught in its web. So the evil deeds of sinful people, the webs of violence they spin will bring harm to those caught in their evil schemes.
Now verse 7 Isa 59:7
7 Their feet run to evil,
and they are swift to shed innocent blood;
their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
desolation and destruction are in their highways.
Now Isaiah moves from the animals to the humans who are in sin.
These people are not pictured as the ones who want to be at peace and practice doing the “right things.” No! these are the ones who at the first opportunity will attack and take advantage of others.
They are without excuse, they run toward evil. They do not hesitate to even shed innocent blood if it benefits them and helps them achieve their goal.
Cain killing his brother Abel is an example of shedding innocent blood in Genesis 4 or Jezebel’s plot to falsely accuse Naboth of treason in order to take his vineyard is another famous example of killing the innocent person for personal gain I Kings 21.
They do these things because that is all they think off, the road they walk are filled with such treachery.
Sinful people tend to act in sinful ways, no matter when or where they live. They might have a elevated status but they will still practice these ways. They are guilty before God.
Verse 8 Isa 59:8
8 The way of peace they do not know,
and there is no justice in their paths;
they have made their roads crooked;
no one who treads on them knows peace.
God will not give any peace to the wicked, because they do not know that way of life, they do not know what it means to live in righteousness before God and others.
Their paths Isaiah says are twisted instead of being straight...
And just think in about 700 years, John the Baptist will come to help make the crooked paths straight in order to prepare a people ready before the Lord.
Now there is a new section where by confession of sins comes ..
Verses 9-10 Isa 59:9-10
9 Therefore justice is far from us,
and righteousness does not overtake us;
we hope for light, and behold, darkness,
and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
10 We grope for the wall like the blind;
we grope like those who have no eyes;
we stumble at noon as in the twilight,
among those in full vigor we are like dead men.
Isaiah here knows the sinful people he is dealing with, and they are in distress.
They recognize because of their life, justice is far from them. They are guilty before God.
The people wished for light, and brightness, but they walked in gloom and darkness. The ways of their life have kept them from the best things, and they think if they had only lived responsibility, things would be different.
The people were blind verse 10 tells us, they were blind, and groping along the wall in order that they might walk safely in the house.
Blindness is often a mark of not seeing and understanding the ways of God, they have failed to follow His instruction.
So Isaiah says they have no spiritual eyes to see, they stumble around like it was night even in the middle of the day. Sadly the last line says that they look like dead men among the healthy
Sin and sinful living ages and corrupts a person, their life is touched by that sin and it can lead to a miserable life. No joy, no peace, no hope and no contentment.
It’s so sad to see people lost in their sin...
Now verses 11-12 Isa 59:11-12
11 We all growl like bears;
we moan and moan like doves;
we hope for justice, but there is none;
for salvation, but it is far from us.
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before you,
and our sins testify against us;
for our transgressions are with us,
and we know our iniquities:
Verse 11-12 tells us of the unhappiness of people, so much so that they moan and make the woeful sounds of a groaning bear or that of a dove.
There is disappointment and sorrow, pain and misery being communicated here.
They hope for justice but there is none, for salvation but it is far off Isaiah says… this is so because sin is still present in their lives. Since the people have not fully confessed, repented and turned from their sinful ways,
There is still many rebellious ways and actions being done
And because they do not deal with sin completely, because they did not take responsibility for their way of living, the sin is multiplying, adding up in their record...
If they would only turn to God for help, the would wipe it all away. But yet they will not...
Verse 13 Isa 59:13
13 transgressing, and denying the Lord,
and turning back from following our God,
speaking oppression and revolt,
conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words.
here the guilty acknowledge their sinfulness by admitting they are rebellious, they have turned from His ways, they speak oppressive ways ...
When we speak of rebellion, we are saying they reject the authority over them, in this case it is not man, it is God.
The last thought there in verse 13 relate to imagining evil thoughts and speaking deceptive words.
All of these sins destroy the possibility of having a relationship with God. The hearts of the people are wicked and they need a transformation of the heart and only God can do that.. so they must turn to him fully...
Verses 14-15 Isa 59:14-15
14 Justice is turned back,
and righteousness stands far away;
for truth has stumbled in the public squares,
and uprightness cannot enter.
15 Truth is lacking,
and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.
The Lord saw it, and it displeased him
that there was no justice.
The scene shifts a little here, people are so lost in their sin they have no standard of truth.
So much untruthfulness present, that what is truth cannot be heard.
The evil they do make him like a prey, hunted for his wrong doing..
And the Lord has seen this, and it has grieved him, it displeases him. Sin is the worst sorrow that I think God sees, and it breaks His heart when people wander away from Him.
Verse 16-17 Isa 59:16-17
16 He saw that there was no man,
and wondered that there was no one to intercede;
then his own arm brought him salvation,
and his righteousness upheld him.
17 He put on righteousness as a breastplate,
and a helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on garments of vengeance for clothing,
and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.
God saw that there was no one, no one who would address the situation they were in, this rebellion and sin. And it appears as if God was looking for someone who might intercede for the people. Perhaps someone like Moses who prayed and interecede for the Isarelites when they sinned before God.
God did act, he employed his own arm, a symbol of power to do his work of salvation. It was his righteousness that allowed him to accomplish his righteous deeds.
And we see in verse 17 that he clothes himself in righteousness, in these divine qualities like a soldier wearing armory.
It is like what we are told to dress our self in Eph 6.
what does all this tell us, when God appears, righteousness, salvation, vengeance and zeal will be evident to all who encounter him. He will bring hope to the righteous and destruction to the wicked.
Now the last section, verses 18-20 Isa 59:18-20
18 According to their deeds, so will he repay,
wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies;
to the coastlands he will render repayment.
19 So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west,
and his glory from the rising of the sun;
for he will come like a rushing stream,
which the wind of the Lord drives.
20 “And a Redeemer will come to Zion,
to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord.
Verse 18 tells us that God will repay each person according to their deeds. The fact that he will repay is a biblical theme, what a person does is what they reap..
His judgement will bring fear upon all the people. When he brings his judgement upon the wicked he will cause his glory to fill the earth and his his salvation to all people.
God’s holy arm will powerfully reveal His power to the nations and it will as we have said bring judgement to the wicked and salvation to the righteous.
Verse 20 tells us that a Redeemer will come to Zion. And redemptions waits for those who wait for Him.
The phrase a redeemer is one who is different from the one who brings wrath. And while God does both, we are talking about hope for the future right here, and that hope is that redemption bring freedom, help and life for those who follow the Lord.
Verse 21 Isa 59:21
21 “And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children’s offspring,” says the Lord, “from this time forth and forevermore.”
Here God declares his commitment to the people. His covenant is with them. The people who revered his name and repent from their sins.
He has placed his Spirit and words upon his Redeemer, His Messiah. His servant will bring justice to the nations.
And the children of this one who is the Messiah, God’s word will stay upon their mouth and heart from tis time and forever.
What the Lord has said, this is what he will do!
