Axe-wielding, Joy-multiplying.
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Promised Joy helps us endure the hard times:
A hard season is endured in expectation of a holiday
Labour is endured is expectation of a baby
Hours in the garden tilling and digging and pruning and watering, all endured in hope of a harvest.
Prison is endured in hope of release.
Even war, sad as it is, is endured in hope of peace.
Today’s passage holds out a future hope for God’s people, but one that is on the other side of hard times.
There are national security threats
God’s Judgment will be poured out,
There nation will be destroyed,
But God does not forget His people, or his promises. There is a greater, better future coming, despite what they had to face.
Historical Background
Can’t assume you were here, or that you remember! :)
God’s people split into Judah & Israel
AT this time Ahaz is king in the south (Judah).
Two other relevant nations:
Syria (Aram) - Capital Damascus (includes Lebanon)
Assyria (Ashur) - On the Euphrates & Tigris rivers.
Syria & Israel teamed up to attack Judah.
Ahaz got scared, didn’t trust God and so then bribed Assyria to come and saved Judah from the Israel-Syria coalition.
They did! But then Assyria wouldn't be satisfied with that! They would continue to march south to Jerusalem.
We’ll talk more about what happened there soon!
Can’t do every verse in detail.
Poetic, painting a picture, moving between imagery and specific detail. Moves between the near future and the far future.
Like a symphony, there are distinct sections in this unfolding text, and each section contrasts against the others.
5 Movements in the text.
Good news from Galilee
Good news from Galilee
9:1-7
The last passage finished with a prediction for those who would refuse to heed God’s Word:
And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.
This is the reality for all who would turn aside from God's word.
Although Israel (north) had turned aside, there would be hope still for them. The Gloom would be taken away.
But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
Zebulun and Naphtali were in the northern kingdom and although Assyria would conquer and destroy them, they will still be redeemed, they will be Glorified!
Do you know anyone special who comes from the area around Galilee?
Jesus!
This prophecy that Isaiah proclaims into the gloom of the north looks forward 7 centuries to the “latter time” When God would reveal his glory in that region.
Lets just read the prochecy verse by verse, from v2-7 and talk about what is revealed there:
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.
You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.
For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
All about Jesus!!
But this is the hope on the other side of darkness. For now, Judah and Israel had to case the judgement of God.
The LORD’s Wrath Against His People
The LORD’s Wrath Against His People
9:9-10:4
In this movement God particularly addresses Israel, the norther Kingdom, whose Capital was Samaria.
They thought they could stand on their own, they thought they could rebuild and make themselves great again, but God says:
But the Lord raises the adversaries of Rezin against him, and stirs up his enemies.
The Syrians on the east and the Philistines on the west devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.
4 times in this movement we see that refrain: “For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.”
He brings his anger through invading nations, through letting wickedness take it’s course (because sin has a destructive effect), and through internal division.
Why is God angry?
Looked to their own devices, ignored God
Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!
When we continually turn away from God, he will “give us up” to our sinful desires.
Part of the judgement of God on us is the proliferation of wickedness and godless leaders.
Then hopefully, when we find out we are empty and ruined, then maybe we will be prayed to turn back to the LORD!
Perhaps you are a prodigal? You have chosen the path away from the father only to find yourself empty, destitute and foul. Return to the Father!!
The LORD’s Wrath Against Arrogant Nations
The LORD’s Wrath Against Arrogant Nations
10:5-19
God Raised up Assyria for his own purpose, like a rod in His hand.
Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury! Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
But Assyria is arrogant and prideful, thinking that they’re “self made”
When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes. For he says: “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding; I remove the boundaries of peoples, and plunder their treasures; like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones.
But God will undercut them, like sickness, like fire, like cutting down a Forrest.
Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood! Therefore the Lord God of hosts will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors, and under his glory a burning will be kindled, like the burning of fire.
The LORD cast’s down arrogant nations. From Tyre to Tripoli, Babylon to Barbados, Egypt to Estonia. The pattern of history is that God will overthrow arrogant nations.
Whether they be a city state, or an empire, God holds that group of people to account through their covenant heads, i.e. their king/Emperor/Prime Minister.
But God is merciful and patient, and so he gives people ample time time turn from their ways. Throughout the pages of Scripture many nations are given ample warning that God’s judgment is coming because of their evil.
The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day.
A Remnant will Return to the LORD
A Remnant will Return to the LORD
11:20-23
Once more holding out a future hope for the other side of coming judgment.
In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness. For the Lord God of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth.
“That Day” a eschatological day, a future day.
They will finally come to their senses and stop looking to Assyria who attacked them, and they will instead place their trust where it always should have been!
They will repent and turn to God, but even then, only a few.
Righteous destruction will come for Israel, but there will be a remnant.
The Near fulfillment:
Judah would be destroyed by Babylon
War survivors would be carried off into exile for 70 years.
The severely reduced and chastened people, Some would come back and start to rebuild.
Of those that returned, many would take seriously God's word so that they would truly lean on God.
These would eventually become the Pharisees.
The Full-fillment
At Pentecost Exile ended,
A remnant was those who put their faith and trust in Jesus. They repented.
The children of Israel who trust in Jesus are truly those who “lean on the Lord in Truth”
The temple was destroyed in 70AD because God is done with the old order of a faithless covenant people, and has instead made a new covenant that does not rely on man at all!
From the remnant, Christ has made a better Kingdom.
The LORD comforts with promises of deliverance.
The LORD comforts with promises of deliverance.
10:24-34
Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts: “O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did. For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction.
The March to Jerusalem
This very day he will halt at Nob; he will shake his fist at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
Assyria won’t be able to take Jerusalem!
God is the “Last man Standing”
Behold, the Lord God of hosts will lop the boughs with terrifying power; the great in height will be hewn down, and the lofty will be brought low. He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe, and Lebanon will fall by the Majestic One.
God comforts us with promises of deliverance!
Though we face much opposition, though we will suffer,
The gates of hell will not prevail!
Today’s passage holds out a future hope for God’s people, but one that is on the other side of hard times.
But God does not forget His people, or his promises. There is a greater, better future coming for Christians, despite what they have to face between now and the Second Coming of Christ!