Isaiah 34

Draw near, O nations, to hear, and give attention, O peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that fills it; the world, and all that comes from it. 2 For the Lord is enraged against all the nations, and furious against all their host; he has devoted them to destruction, has given them over for slaughter. 3 Their slain shall be cast out, and the stench of their corpses shall rise; the mountains shall flow with their blood. 4 All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree. 5 For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction. 6 The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood; it is gorged with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 7 Wild oxen shall fall with them, and young steers with the mighty bulls. Their land shall drink its fill of blood, and their soil shall be gorged with fat. 8 For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. 9 And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, and her soil into sulfur; her land shall become burning pitch. 10 Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever. 11 But the hawk and the porcupine shall possess it, the owl and the raven shall dwell in it. He shall stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness. 12 Its nobles—there is no one there to call it a kingdom, and all its princes shall be nothing. 13 Thorns shall grow over its strongholds, nettles and thistles in its fortresses. It shall be the haunt of jackals, an abode for ostriches. 14 And wild animals shall meet with hyenas; the wild goat shall cry to his fellow; indeed, there the night bird settles and finds for herself a resting place. 15 There the owl nests and lays and hatches and gathers her young in her shadow; indeed, there the hawks are gathered, each one with her mate. 16 Seek and read from the book of the Lord: Not one of these shall be missing; none shall be without her mate. For the mouth of the Lord has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them. 17 He has cast the lot for them; his hand has portioned it out to them with the line; they shall possess it forever; from generation to generation they shall dwell in it. 35:1 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; 2 it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. 3 Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. 4 Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; 7 the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. 8 And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. 9 No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. 10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Target Date: Sunday, 27 October 2024

Thoughts on the Passage:

These two chapters represent the summation of the judgment of the nations (Isaiah 13-35).

5 – Edom – it might be asked “What has Edom done against God?” and reasons for God’s great judgment sought out from Scripture and history. We might, for example, turn to Obadiah to find specific sins and offenses committed by this people of Esau.

But in Obadiah, the sins of Edom are not enumerated. Most of the book is a general warning of God’s wrath.

The primary point of this shortest Old Testament book seems to be in v. 15:

For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head. - Obadiah 15

Edom, being the descendants of Esau, are RELATED to Israel, but not Israel.

They are close, born not only of the same father and mother, but twins, with Esau having the priority of birth.

Edom, with its copper wealth, had great advantages and kings before there was ever a king in Israel.

“Edom shall become a horror. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its disasters. 18 As when Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities were overthrown, says the Lord, no man shall dwell there, no man shall sojourn in her. - Jeremiah 49:17–18

To the choirmaster: according to Shushan Eduth. A Miktam of David; for instruction; when he strove with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah, and when Joab on his return struck down twelve thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt. - Psalm 60:title

God has spoken in his holiness: “With exultation I will divide up Shechem and portion out the Vale of Succoth. 7 Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet; Judah is my scepter. 8 Moab is my washbasin; upon Edom I cast my shoe; over Philistia I shout in triumph.” - Psalm 60:6–8

God has promised in his holiness: “With exultation I will divide up Shechem and portion out the Valley of Succoth. 8 Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet, Judah my scepter. 9 Moab is my washbasin; upon Edom I cast my shoe; over Philistia I shout in triumph.” - Psalm 108:7–9

The great teaching, then, of this part of Isaiah is that God needs no excuse or extraordinary causation to execute His judgments.

All nations – ALL NATIONS – stand as an offense to His holiness and rule.

There is none who does right, none who measures up to His holy requirements.

It is the operation of His common grace that keeps us from descending into a constant state of anarchy.

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. - Romans 13:1

Anarchy, chaos, and everyone doing what is right in their own eyes is just as grave an offense to God, perhaps even more so, as a despotic ruler like Nero or Domitian or Pharaoh.

Even the restored autonomy of the Jews under the Maccabees lasted only 30 years, from 165 BC to 135 BC. In this, the priestly family of Mattathias led a revolt that gave the Jews the first local rule since Babylon conquered them in over 400 years (587 BC). But even that local rule was short-lived. God overthrew that dynasty as well when the Romans came in and took over, preparing the way for the Messiah’s day.

This chapter does have a great theological explanation in Romans 9:

And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” 14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. - Romans 9:10–18

Ch. 35 – The providence of God, the election of God, is not just bad news.

It is the gospel of God, through Jesus Christ, promising deliverance to the people He has set His love on.

Sermon Text:

This morning, we come to the end of a great section of Isaiah, commonly called “The Judgment of the Nations”.

It began all the way back in chapter 13 and runs through 35.

As you read forward, you will find in chapter 36 the account of God’s miraculous defeat of the Assyrians, long-prophesied by Isaiah.

And that begins the next great division of this book.

In our passage today, we are taking a broad look at chapter 34.

And I would like to look specifically at possibly the most surprising thing in this chapter.

It is, for many commentators, a real stumbling-block in interpreting or even translating these verses of the word of God.

It is the nation mentioned in chapter 34: Edom.

34:5 begins this declaration against Edom thus:

For My [God’s] sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; behold it descends for judgment upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction.

Edom?

Not “Assyria”? Not “Babylon”? Not “Egypt”? Not the great enemies of the Jewish nation? Not even the Northern Kingdom, Israel?

Tiny little Edom?

They are barely mentioned in any of the narratives from this part of Israel’s history.

Barely mentioned in secular histories, to the point that without some rigorous archaeology, many scholars of the past have doubted the existence of a nation called Edom.

The question it is so easy to ask is this: what did Edom do to deserve God’s wrath, to be specially called out here?

For most of the people in churches today, maybe some of us here, we have this idea that if God has devoted this people for destruction, they must have done something REALLY bad.

That they must be the very example of evil in the world.

But if we look in this chapter, we find no indictment of Edom for their rampant evil; we find suggestions but no statement of any specific sin that has earned them God’s displeasure.

We don’t see, for example, the systemmatic murder of the unborn.

Or the rampant and aggressive corruption of homosexuality and promiscuity.

Or the capitalistic greed of the Edomites, competing and fighting for the good things of this world.

They may have been guilty of these things – we don’t know.

But we don’t see these sins or others called out as the “one big thing” that causes God’s judgment.

So perhaps we look to the other times Edom’s judgment is mentioned in the Old Testament.

Twice in the Psalms, we find exactly the same chorus sung:

God has spoken in his holiness: “With exultation I will divide up Shechem and portion out the Vale of Succoth. 7 Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet; Judah is my scepter. 8 Moab is my washbasin; upon Edom I cast my shoe; over Philistia I shout in triumph.” - Psalm 60:6–8 and 108:7-9

In the prophecies of Jeremiah and in the book of Obadiah, we find the statement of God and His intention to judge them, but even there we can make only guesses as to any great sin of this people.

Nowhere do we see a list of grievances like we see God make against Israel or Judah or many of the other nations.

What we do find is this in Obadiah 15:

For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head. - Obadiah 15

The truth is that God needs no excuse to pour out His wrath on any nation, on any people.

He requires no extra-ordinary cause to execute His judgments on any people.

It is not as if God is abiding in heaven watching for a nation to REALLY mess us, to make that final, fatal sinful mistake that gives Him the excuse to remove them from the roll of earthly nations.

All nations – ALL NATIONS – stand as an offense to His holiness and rule.

There is none who does right, none who measures up to His holy requirements.

Isaiah 34:2 says it:

For the Lord is enraged against all the nations, and furious against all their host; he has devoted them to destruction, has given them over for slaughter.

For every nation, there is a time and place for them to exist, often in peace. But all of them will one day fall from their sin.

And there is no indication in Scripture that any nation EVER will do the things that please God, until that Day our Lord returns in power, judging all the people in all the nations of the world.

It is the operation of His common grace that keeps us from descending into a constant state of anarchy.

He sets governments and leaders up in His time and FOR His timing.

It is His great mercy for the people thus gathered to set governments and leaders up for the sake of order and law.

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. - Romans 13:1

Even sinful leaders are given their moment under His divine sovereignty to care for the people they have been given as a trust.

Anarchy, chaos, and everyone doing what is right in their own eyes is just as grave an offense to God, perhaps even more so, as a despotic ruler like Nero or Domitian or Pharaoh.

Even the restored autonomy of the Jews under the Maccabees lasted only 30 years, from 165 BC to 135 BC.

In this, the priestly family of Mattathias led a revolt that gave the Jews the first local rule since Babylon conquered them in over 400 years (587 BC). But even that local rule was short-lived.

God removed that dynasty as well when the Romans came in and took over, preparing the way for the Messiah’s day.

All of that, I think, we have understood from the preceding chapters in this section of Isaiah.

And I do realize the sermons of late have delved into national politics far more than I would typically want.

I assure you that I have touched on these subjects for the primary reason that the section we have been in speaks of NATIONAL – NATION-LEVEL – things, and politics is not a subject untouched in Scripture.

Do not believe for an instant that I have chosen these subjects because of our impending national election. I have not.

I have just found it impossible to deal honestly with the text of Scripture without an acknowledgement of the state of our own country and culture.

Particularly since we are so heavily and easily influenced by the political shows we see played out in front of us, and the constant commentary about it.

But I would suggest to you there is another reason that God has singled out Edom here to be His example of destruction for the entire world.

And we know He is using them as an example, for His own glory, to the whole world because of verse 1 of chapter 34:

Draw near, O nations, to hear, and give attention, O peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that fills it; the world, and all that comes from it. - Isaiah 34:1

He is calling on everyone in the world to give attention to the destruction He is bringing on Edom.

So the first question we asked was what great sin has Edom done?

And the answer is that God, because He is sovereign, does not require one big provokation to His holiness – He suffers long with every nation, indeed, each person – far longer than He needs to.

But the second question we will ask today reveals, I think, the reason God chose to single out Edom in this chapter:

The question is: When did God choose to destroy Edom?

Scripture gives us the answer to this question with certainty.

Recall the original name of the father of the Edomites:

And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.) - Genesis 25:30

Esau, the older twin brother of Jacob, also called Israel, was called Edom.

These are the generations of Esau (that is, Edom). - Genesis 36:1

These are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir. - Genesis 36:9

Esau, grandson of Abraham, which makes him likewise a child of Abraham, although not the child of God’s promise.

Esau was as close to being Israel as anyone could be who was not OF Israel. He was the twin brother.

So at what point does God sovereignly choose that Edom/ Esau would not earn or receive His favor and blessing?

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” 14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. - Romans 9:6–18

So we see that Edom is called out here because of God’s choice before either forefather had been born or done any meritorious thing, good or bad.

So when Edom is called out in Isaiah, he stands for all those whose very existence and presence is offensive to God’s holiness.

All those who God has no intention to save from their sins and to Himself by grace through a provided faith.

And we find that Edom had only to live in their natural, inborn sinful state to earn the full measure of God’s wrath and judgment here.

It is like the verses we looked at this last Wednesday in John 3:

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. - John 3:18–19

Even on a personal level, many people count on the fact they are “not as bad as that other person” or the defense “I haven’t killed anyone” when they think of standing before God on the great Day.

And even many of those who are believers, trained in the church, struggle with the idea that God would judge and cast out friends or relatives who are “really nice people” or who wouldn’t hurt a fly, but don’t know or follow Jesus Christ.

But the Bible doesn’t draw the line at “acting right” or “doing the right thing”.

The Bible has a single indication for salvation: faith in Jesus Christ, the risen Son of God.

Everything else, all the good works and obedience and love flow out of that primary relationship of love and faith toward our Lord.

So that those who do not believe are condemned already.

And their only hope, the only hope of the good people and the bad people, is faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.