The Lord’s Hand Is Still Raised

Isaiah 9:8–10:15

We must be very careful lest we worship a God of our own making. It is true, isn’t it, that our nature as fallen people is to create God in our own image and worship it. We see that in our culture don’t we? We say things like “love is love” and God is love, so love is God. And we define love the way we want to, so whatever we like is called love.

We call that out as a church. God is love, but God defines what love is. We worship a God who is perfect love. We should find enjoyment in worshiping him for that. Its true, that is who is he. But he is not only love.

God is not made up of parts, we cannot pull out his attributes and worship he because of certain things we like about him. That is to make God a creature like us.

Do you worship God for his anger? His wrath? His fury? Shouldn’t we? Are we worshiping God if we don’t worship him for those as well?

The bible clearly demonstrates the wrath of God. We do not have an angry God of the Old Testament and a happy loving God of the New Testament, we have the same unchanging God throughout. God is righteously angry with sin, and we should worship him for it.

We’ll get into it as we look at our passage. This section is also going to be broken up into two parts like the last two messages. The previous two messages demonstrated God’s judgment and grace over the failures of Judah, and the book of Isaiah is primarily written to and about Judah. But these chapters, up through 11 are God’s judgment and grace over the failures of Israel.

We should expect, shouldn’t we, that the God of mercy toward his remnant would also have a remnant in Israel?

Well lets look at the wrath of God, and worship him together this morning in our passage. (READ)

Do you see the arrogance of God’s people in 8-12? God graciously sends a word against his people. That sentence might sound strange, but having a clear articulated reason for his wrath being poured out was a gracious thing. “This is why you are receiving this punishment, and this is what is going to happen.”

The wise and the humble would receive those words and change their ways, not this people. This people would be wiped out by 722 BC because of this arrogance toward God.

“Knock down our walls and we’ll just build it better next time.” Do you think like this? If I had just been better prepared I could have withstood the consequences of my actions better. This is not wisdom. Oh we are so stubborn, aren’t we?

God continues to deal with me, so i’m going to run farther away next time! Kids if you are listening, unless you have evil parents, when they take something away from you, its to help you see there’s a problem in your heart that needs to be dealt with.

God raises up the enemy. Assyria is raised up by God to deal with his wayward people. See if we didn’t understand the sovereignty of God that he is in control of all things, an answer like “We’ll just plant stronger trees for next time” makes sense. But the only reason the walls and the trees even get torn down is because God whistled to Assyria and they came running at his call.

We’ll see this refrain 4 times “For all this his anger has not turned away and his hand is stretched out still.”

What does this mean? It means this is not the end of his wrath.

Now if you are a thinking person, every time you hear this refrain you should be screaming “What will turn away his anger!” The bible supplies that answer, but we aren’t there yet.

13-14 explain what should happen, but what doesn’t happen. God’s anger toward sin, the consequences of sin, should cause us to run to him, but instead we run from him.

Some of you this morning have been hurt deeply by God. And rather than run to him, you have taken it as a point of arrogance and pride to show that he isn’t worthy of your worship if he’s going to treat you that way.

I don’t know who you think you are, except my heart works the same way. Wounds caused by God are meant to lead us to repentance, not to harden us further. James tells us, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

You’ve met your match. Maybe you’ve been able to stand up in pride and arrogance to every other entity you’ve met. Maybe they’ve all backed down or finally gone away. God isn’t going to back down, your unrelenting attitude is only going to cause you further harm, it will land you in hell.

Isaiah tells us that this attitude has filled the land. The leaders are like this, the people follow them. He cuts them all off. He doesn’t rejoice over them, they’re all godless as they’ve rejected him. His hand is still raised.

18-21, wickedness burns like fire. Some of you have convinced yourself of this, sometimes you get away with sin. Ray Orlund Jr. “The pain sin brings is not an addition to sin, piled on top, but simply the outworking of sin itself.”

You shoot yourself in the foot and shake your fist at God.

He pictures it in Israel like cannibalism. of the previous 6 kings, 5 came to the throne by assassination. They’re eating each other alive. You know sin does this in your life as well. It burns you up, it eats you alive. Its why your life is falling apart, its why your family is falling apart. His hand is still raised. God is still not relenting in his righteous anger toward sin.

10:1-4 he does some more describing the horrors that sin causes in life. People are oppressed, the poor and the widows are seen as people to be used for their own gain. Maybe you’ve seen this in your own life. People are no longer people, but either objects for your own pleasure, or stepping stones to be used to get where you want to go.

Listen to these three questions in verse 3, you need to hear these. Don’t just skip over them, ponder what your answer might be.

What will you do on the day of punishment? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth (glory, that which they boast in)?

See for the Israelites, Assyria was coming, who could they possibly turn to?

For you, it might be worse than Assyria. God is coming to judge. At the return of Christ he will raise up the just and the unjust and there will be a great reckoning. All will be judged. To whom will you flee for help?

His hand is still raised.

Now God turns to Assyria, this great power who thinks she is so great. God send them, but they don’t know it. They think they are in charge of time and space. The king of Assyria calls himself the king of kings and lord of lords.

He looks at all the nations he’s conquered and tells Jerusalem that their idol YHWH will be no different than all the other gods he’s trampled.

Our God is the true sovereign of the universe. Nothing happens outside of his control. He raises up nations for his use, and punishes them for their sin.

There is nothing in your life believer that happens without purpose. We saw last week that the rock, God himself is either a sanctuary, or a stumbling block. He is either an all consuming fire, or a refining fire.

The difficulties and the pains you face, if you are in Christ, are not meant to destroy you, they are meant to discipline you, to make you like your savior.

This is the answer to the question of our text. What will turn away his anger? He answered this in Jesus. God himself took his own wrath on his own self. Believer, the wrath of God toward you has been satisfied in Christ. Run to him.

When you face the pains of life, when God strikes you, don’t run away, run to him. His rod is a rod of discipline meant to lead us to repentance. Foolishness is bound up in our hearts, and his rod drives it out, teaches us wisdom.

Oh that we would learn this easy way! But thanks be to God that he pursues us when we don’t. Our savior drank the bitter cup of God’s wrath on our behalf. He is the propitiation for our sins. Run to your Christ, hide in him. Humble yourself before your God for his grace is for you.