Ariel, Ariel!

Intro

Isaiah

Name means Yahweh is Salvation

Prophesied “740 b.c., and he lived long enough to record the death of Sennacherib (37:38), datable to 681”, so he was prophesying while the northern 10 tribes were defeated and dispersed by Assyria. He pronounced the judgement of God against all Israel, warning the southern kingdom they too would be judged by God.

Yet, Isaiah is full of hope. In the face of judgement, defeat and he told them that God had a greater future in store. Redemption beyond judgement. YHWH would be their salvation! ANd not Israel’s only, but slavation for the nations!

A lot of talk about “That Day” - the Day of the LORD. From Isaiah’s vantage it’s like he’s looking at a mountain range from the plain and they all look bunched up. But when you cross the first mountain you can see there are valleys inbetween. Jesus first coming signals that the DoY has begun, but the completion of these prophecies has not yet been finalised.

Our Passage is the second & third of 6 “woes” in this part of Isaiah

1. Woe for Ariel (v1-14)

Draw a beautiful city on a hill with a siege encamped against it.

a. Ariel will be Brought Low (v1-4)

Firstly we see that God is planning to distress and bring down his special city.

Isaiah 29:1–2 ESV

Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts run their round. Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me like an Ariel.

Translation note:

Ariel means Lion of God

But it also means “Altar Hearth”

In this context altar hearth looks like the best option. If it is Lion of God, then this becomes somewhat satirical, because Jerusalem has not been behaving like a lion of God should!

This is Jerusalem, the city that David laid seige to and conquered. Yet now, because of their pride and rebellion, the LORD is going to encamp against it. God will lay seige to the place of his own worship.

Jersalem was the centre of worship to God, where the feasts came year in and year out.

This where the temple was built, where the primary altar was. But now God promises to turn that city into an altar hearth itself. No more will it be just the place of scrifice, it will in some sense be burned up itself.

God is going to lay seige and defeat the city.

It’s as though the people will go into the grave:

Isaiah 29:4 ESV

And you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak, and from the dust your speech will be bowed down; your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost, and from the dust your speech shall whisper.

The rebelious city of God’s people will bre brought so low that it will be as if they are dead and buried. But it will not be the end!

God has every right to topple his people especially the wicked. Just because we are God’s chosen people does not mean we can get off scott free with bad worship and rebellion. Ask Ananias & Saphira.

Ask the churches that received the 7 letteers from revelation. How many of them are still standing?

The LORD will never abandon us or forsake us, but he may have to chastise us. But he does this because he love us, he loves his bride! He wants his bride clothed in the righteous deeds of the saints, not fake worship and evil deeds!

It’s good for us! Better to be brought low and learn obedience than to stubbornly

b. The LORD will visit and save you! (v5-8)

God sent the Assyrians and later the Babylonians to carry out his wrathful judgment on Israel. They didn’t defeat Israel because the were stronger, but because God permitted them.

When God arises to fight and deliver his people, there is no power on earth that can stand in his way. Indeed even the most overwhelming odds will be irrelevant, they wil become like dust and blow away:

Isaiah 29:5–6 ESV

But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff. And in an instant, suddenly, you will be visited by the Lord of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.

It will all come to nothing. It will be like a dream that disappears

Isaiah 29:7 ESV

And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her, shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.

You know that moment when you wake up, and that dream you had, that seemed so real, is suddenly gone? It was there one moment and then you can’t even remember the basic details? It slips though you fingers of your mind and then is lost. The enemies of God, when he arises to defend his people will melt away like a dream.

God will still save his people, and overthrow our enemies! We will be victorious, even if God has to chastise us first!

In revelation the defeat is instant:

Revelation 19:19–20 ESV

And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured, ...And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse...

It’s abrubt. It is sudden. It’s all over when God visits to save his people.

God has delivered his people before.

God has delivered us from Death in a moment.

And when Christ comes again, he will fully and finaly blow away the chaff.

c. Spiritual Blindness (v9-12)

What happens when you hand the uninitiated a medical journal?it is though it is sealed. I can read the words, but it is though they are sealed up and i don’t have the key.

Imagine then handing the same journal to somone who can’t read at all!

It is nonsense!

That’s what it was like in Judah in Isaiahs day, but for spiritual matters. The people couldn’t and wouldn’t understand!

They had spiritual leaders who were absent from their post. Instead of leading the nation in righteouness they were examples of drunken, selfish, sabotaging “leadership”. Because they were blind, the people were blind too.

They chose this, but it was also the Lords’ doing He was blinding them to the truth in the midst of their rebellion.

Isaiah 29:10 ESV

For the Lord has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers).

Isaiah 29:11–12 ESV

And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”

We know in our day that there are many who refuse to listen to the Word. It is both their own sin, and because God has closed their eyes. Jesus says this specifically, while quoting Isaiah!

We too have “seers” who can’t see anything. Leaders who are like the blind leading the blind. And because of this, the church is full of people who can’t read.

But the only way around this is for the Holy Spirit to come and work in us. We need the LORD to open our eyes! We need him to teach us in our hearts!

Cry out to the Lord to reveal himself!

Will we listen to what the Lord has to say to us?

d. God will do wonderful things! (v13-14)

This really encapsulates where the peaopl were up to:

Isaiah 29:13 ESV

And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,

They sacrificed, but not like they should. ANd they encrusted the truth with traditions that undermined God’s Law.

Traditions like the ones that Jesus would confront.

So God would come and do something wonderful. But wonderful in a way that they would not expect:

Isaiah 29:14 ESV

therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”

“his power to astound them is turned against them” Geoffrey W. Grogan, EBC: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel), 189.

Their wisdom will be turned upside down. Their “truth” shall be hidden.

We need our inventions overthrown. We need our “truth” to be buried. “What I beleive” should be utterly done away with - only God’s truth and wisdom should remain! Modern phsycology, modern justice theorys, modern

We don’t need new perspectives.

We don’t need old traditions.

We need Truth.

We need God’s Wisdom.

So this is a double warning. For you who are tempted to the traditions of the past without a view to Christ, you should know God will despise it. He wants your heart not your rituals.

For you who are tempted to the lastest and must “authentic” mood of the moment? that stuff too needs to perish. Most of you would be better off not buying anything off the “christian living” shelf at Koorong for 10 years and instead becoming better schooled in the rishes of Gods never-changing truth!

Give up the “wisdom” of man! Receive instead the wisdom of God.

1 Corinthians 1:18–20 ESV

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

Traditions are not God’s Word! Turn to God, not tradition.

Christ came and showed-up the pharisees and our traditions.

2. Woe for the Upside Down (v15-24)

Draw a potter working a pot, with the pot being rude to him.

a. Who do pots think they are? (v15-16)

People try to hide from God.

Isaiah 29:15 ESV

Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”

Secretive Egyptian negotiations? A general atheistic spirit?

The deception of sin goes so deep people even think they can hide their thoughts from God. Jews today will teach that you can imagine great evil, so long as you don’t participate.

Jesus sets that straight. Sin in the mind must be taken captive. The LORD sees your heart, he sees your thoughts.

Isaiah 29:16 ESV

You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

God knows best. Like parents for children. Like Pest for owners. Like pots for Potters.

Special kind of pride that says “no, I’ll tell God how it should be.”

You’re made by God, don’t presume you’re in the drivers seat. Give up your protesting and recognise the LORD. Don’t be the fool who says “there is no God”

b. God will transform the world (v17-21)

Isaiah 29:18–19 ESV

In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah 29:20–21 ESV

For the ruthless shall come to nothing and the scoffer cease, and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off, who by a word make a man out to be an offender, and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right.

v21 - all refer to sins with the mouth

God will transform our world so, take heart.

c. No more shame, Sanctify His NAME (v22-24)

Isaiah 29:22–23 ESV

Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall no more be ashamed, no more shall his face grow pale. For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

Jesus!

Stand in awe, and sanctify HIS name.

Hallowed be they name

Isaiah 29:24 ESV

And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction.”

God will bring the fools to understanding.

Promised in the NC - Spirit of God who will teach us!

So what?

God brought low his chosen city, his chosen people, his chosen love.

But he will still protect them and deliver them even in the midst of their refining fire.

Many are too spiritually blind to see this, and because the leadership can’t see it, the people won’t see it either.

God calls his people to stop prioritising traditions over faithfulness, to not just say the words but to have a heart turned toward God.

God’s people are like pots made by the potter. What right do we have to tell the potter off? To say that God doesn’t know what he’s doing?

But the good news is that God is going to remake the world - set all things right. Restore justice, bring healing, bring joy.

He does this through Jesus Christ!

The Lord will do away with shame, he will work in our midst, and we will sanctify the LORD. The Lord will bring us to understanding, he will teach us.