From Vainglory to True Glory

Isaiah 3:1-4:6

“The LORD gives and the LORD takes away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.” - Job.

I wonder who of us can actually utter these words in sincerity. I don’t know that I can. I was reading the journal of Jonathan Edward’s daughter, Vice President, Aaron Burr’s mother this week. There was a time when Aaron was an infant, very sick, on the brink of death, and Esther wrote this in her journal as she reflected on the situation:

“here was the greatest tryal that ever I meet with in my life—I may compare the struggles with my self to the Agonies of Death—but O God made me submit! He made me say the Lord gave, and the Lord may take, and I will bless his name—He shewed me that he had the first right, that the Child was not mine he was only lent, and I could freely return him and say Lord do as seemeth good in thy sight. …What obligations are we laid under to bring up this Child in a pecular manner for God?”

That has to be our prayer, mustn't it? God I don’t want this, but I want to submit to your will.

The truth is, as we’ve seen so far in Isaiah, the affections of our heart are often not filled so much with things like the health of our children, as in Esther’s case, but with our own glory. These things are manifested in many different ways, we’ll see them today in our text. The message of the prophet in these two chapters has to do with this: God is removing and will remove the false glories of our hearts and replace them with true glory in Christ. Oh that God would make us submit!

Loss of security and supply

Isaiah is very good at illustrations, which I appreciate. Notice in verse 1 he uses the words “taking away.” He does this also in verse 18. He illustrates the loss of false human glory in these two ways. This first section he illustrates it in ways that men will understand. And in the second in ways that women will understand.

Now all of this pictures God’s wayward people, jerusalem… our own hearts if we are willing to look. So this first section isn’t only for men, but he’s using illustrations that resonate with the men of Judah.

Every bit of this is language of the effects of coming war. But notice Isaiah isn’t interested in talking about Assyria here as the cause of this loss. The Lord God of Hosts is doing this. Yes Assyria is the tool, but it is a tool in the hand of the sovereign God. He’s doing this. There should be terror and comfort in that for you, believer. God loves you so much that he will cause you the pain necessary to refine you. But he also does it with holy precision meant for your good and his glory.

Isaiah says he’s removing support and supply. Bread, water. These are the most basic necessities of life. He’s picking up where we left off last week in 2:22, man needs certain things to live. Now these picture the leadership of Judah. They provide for the people. Assyria’s tactic was to take the leadership captive first. You can imagine the effects this would have on a nation.

Not only will their sustenance be taken away but also anyone will ability to protect and provide. The great men. Heroes, soldiers, judges, prophets. Judah has proven herself unworthy of these things and so God is going to replace them with boys and infants.

This has been said many times throughout history, but it is a sign of judgment on a nation when God gives them wicked and inept leaders.

Everyone is against everyone, kids run the nation, and the despised run things. Your eyes are not working if you cannot see that our nation is under judgment.

Notice how Isaiah identifies the problem. It isn’t that Judah needed to legislate better. Morality cannot come solely through legislation. You can’t stop sin by making it illegal. He says in verse 8 that Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen because they act and speak against the Lord and do these things right in front of the eyes of his glory.

Some of you lead sin filled lives, but behind closed doors. The Lord sees what is done in secret. He is the only one who can and does discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Everyone is laid naked and exposed before the eyes of his glory.

Judah is in such a spiritual state that the leaders are described as grinding up the faces of the poor like wheat in a mill to make bread for themselves.

To hear the sensitivity of the heart of God in Isaiah just listen to the way that God cares for the lowest. He always calls them “my people.”

Loss of finery

Well if men understand strength and supply, Isaiah turns to illustrate this for the women by describing the loss of beauty.

Now again understand that he is talking in terms of war and its effects. But he’s applying it spiritually. If a woman is impressed with her own beauty, when war comes that which she is impressed by will also impress her abusive captors and she was be torn to pieces. Horrible picture, isn’t it? And yet understand that significance of it, sin and judgment work the same way.

We find comfort in the the vainglorious decadence of our trinkets, and yet when spiritual judgment comes it is the love of our own glory that will result in our destruction.

These chapters are incredible in their understanding of a nation under judgment aren’t they? How could Isaiah know that a nation would be filled with rulers who are interested only in making a buck off the weak and an internet full of onlyfans models and instagram influencers? History may not repeat itself, but it definitely rhymes.

There is true beauty and there is false beauty. Isaiah describes all of the trinkets. These women are so decked out in makeup and jewelry that they have to scoot their feet so they don’t trip. These are a people with every priority backwards.

He pictures judgment again, instead of (5x)… And finally tells us what he’s been picturing… Jerusalem. Her gates will be lonely and she’ll sit empty on the ground.

It is the Lord that takes all of these things away. It’s often these things we mourn the loss of. False glories that bring us false comforts and false peace. These things will not withstand what is coming.

New Creation

Ah but Isaiah gives us a description of true glory. It’s not found in the strength of men or women. It’s not found in the greatness of nation states. He says it’s found in someone he calls the Branch of the Lord. The Fruit of the Land.

We have here the first explicit prophecy of Christ who is coming to redeem and restore Jerusalem. Notice the way that Isaiah describes him, the Branch and the Fruit. The Branch that comes from the Lord and the fruit that comes from the land. Isaiah is explaining here that he is both divine and human. He is the God-man.

The fruit of the land isn’t simply that one day the fields of Israel will grow fruitful again, but that the seed promised to the woman would be born. Jesus himself is the fruit. But he’s also the Branch. The prophets picture David as a tree that had fallen and that out of that fallen tree comes a Branch. A Branch who is himself the LORD.

Now Isaiah says he will be beautiful and glorious. Beautiful is the same word used of the finery around the anklets of the women that will be taken away. False beauty replaced with true beauty.

Isaiah—God Saves Sinners Loss of Finery

The secret beauty of a Christian woman is a persona radiant with the Holy Spirit (1 Timothy 2:9, 10; 1 Peter 3:4). The world does not have a category for that beauty, but it’s real. A God-filled woman is beautiful, whatever her age or features. She is dressed properly for The Occasion—that coming day when the Lord alone will be exalted (Isaiah 2:11, 17).

The world doesn’t have a category for true feminine beauty and true masculine strength, because it lacks an understanding of a Spirit indwelled creation. True masculine strength is Spirit empowered and true feminine beauty is Spirit Indwelt.

You can see this and Isaiah says it’s Christ who is beautiful and glorious, and the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel.

It’s the survivors, the remnant who are called holy and live in this new Jerusalem.

The righteous ones are the survivors. Their survival was not without pain. They were cleansed and washed through judgment, but they were washed and cleansed because they were in Christ.

The other’s did not survive because the glory of their own strength and beauty were their gods.

Before we close I want you to see these last verses. When the LORD has cleansed and washed his people he creates over the whole site of Mt Zion a cloud and fire. What is this? This is the glory of the presence of God. This is how his presence was manifested in the exodus, this is what settled on the tabernacle after its construction was finished.

And John tells us this is Jesus when he came to dwell among us.

True glory is found only in Christ. He is our beauty, he is our strength. Look he protects and sustains us. Let go of those things which won’t survive and cling instead to the Branch. Let him be your pride and honor.

Isaiah—God Saves Sinners Gain of Perfection

He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain this, which he can never lose.