The Return of Righteousness
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
How do you think about the future? How do you approach it?
Do you have a fundamentally negative view about what may happen? Or do you have high hopes for a better future?
Our passage today was to ancient Judah and it gave them a balanced view of what was ahead of them - that there would be judgement and hard times, but there were better times to come.
Funnily enough, thats where Christians are today: Judgement is coming for the whole world, but we have a secure hope of a better future where Righteousness reigns.
To catch you up to where we are,
Isaiah’s 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 and while Assyria still threatened the southern kingdom of Judah. He pronounced the judgement of God against all Israel, warning the southern kingdom they too would be judged by God.
We’re in the middle of 6 woes - Last woe next chapter
Alot of this is judgment announced on God’s people for their rebellion, for the way they ignored Him and misttreated him.
This passage is prophecy, but in parts has the whiff of wisdom literature. It’s like you find yourself reading proverbs.
There’s two main sections, so let’s look at the passage in two parts. Both parts paint visual pictures - the hearer is called to imagine this world and what it represents.
A King Will Reign in Righteousness (v1-8)
A King Will Reign in Righteousness (v1-8)
I’ve been around long enough to see some politicians have great intentions, only to have their whole agenda scuttled by the civil service and other politicians on their own “team”. They may be good, but they’re effectively hamstrung by others.
This is the picture of a world where that is not possible - it’s good governance from top to bottom!
Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice. Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
Good leaders
A king who reigns in righteousness. Good king, unlike many of the ones they have experienced down through the generations
Their kings had been idol worshippers, child sacrificers, generally did evil in the sight of God
But Isa forsees a world where that is no more and a Davidic king rules properly
And all the other rulers in the hierarchy will be good too, good princes that protect and serve people.
These leaders are like shelter in a storm, and like water in the desert, and like shade in the heat. Can you imagine having leaders like that?
In this beautiful picture of the future, The People will have their eyes opened, the will not live in ignorance.
Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will give attention. The heart of the hasty will understand and know, and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.
This is an undoing of what Is was living in:
Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
v4 - A day when there is not confusion and lack of knowledge. Babel confused the languages, understanding and wisdom is lacking. On this day these things will be undone!
v5 Why is it that fools seem to be able to fail-upward to positions of power and influence? Not so in this future.
The picture of the fool & Scoundrel
The fool will no more be called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be honorable. For the fool speaks folly, and his heart is busy with iniquity, to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the Lord, to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink.
As for the scoundrel—his devices are evil; he plans wicked schemes to ruin the poor with lying words, even when the plea of the needy is right. But he who is noble plans noble things, and on noble things he stands.
Has this day come? Yes & no. Now & not-yet.
Jesus is now reigning in righteousness - but we await the fullness of the kingdom
Jesus has “princes” - 12 apostles who will sit on 12 thrones judging justly, and many other saint will join in reigning alongside Christ in the world to come. But now, we pray and ask God for rulers on earth who will give us a foretaste of heaven and rule in justice. We have had tastes, but we long for more.
Christ has come into the world and opened blind eyes, opened deaf ears, he has brought understanding and clarity about God and Salvation. Jesus is undoing Babel by his spirit - yet there are still many who reject this, and they continue in their confusion, sometimes willingly turning a blind eye.
Fools still make their way into positions of influence and power. They practice iniquity and ungodliness, heresy, and they end up starving people of spiritual sustenance. In government they create problems that crush poor in, in the church they starve souls - but both put on airs as if they are doing just the opposite.
Noble deeds & plans are always the best option, not matter what world you are in.
Noble, honourable, magnificent, willing to give out of ones own supply.
Righteousness Will Abide in the Fruitful Field (v9-20)
Righteousness Will Abide in the Fruitful Field (v9-20)
Another picture, this time of the land. More agrarian imagery:
Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice; you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech. In little more than a year you will shudder, you complacent women; for the grape harvest fails, the fruit harvest will not come.
Addresses the women, women who are complacent. When men fail to lead in a godly way, it is often easy to pin all the blame on them - and to be fair, where men have responsibility they do need to bear the load of any failure. That said - it doesn’t absolve women acting badly.
In this case, it’s complacent women. Isaiah is trying to shock them to their senses. They’re not paying attention, they have it easy. They can afford to kick their feet up and relax. I’m not talking about taking the occasional holiday or having a day off once a week, we’re talking about women who’s way of life is easy and they’re just kind of skating through, living in luxury and relative ease.
They’ve got money coming in, they’ve got family, every year they expect the harvest to come in. It’s all good....
Except a day is coming when the harvest would fail.
No grapes (no wine)
No fruit
Instead of good crops, they will get weeds - blackberry bushes but without the blackberries.
Tremble, you women who are at ease, shudder, you complacent ones; strip, and make yourselves bare, and tie sackcloth around your waist. Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine, for the soil of my people growing up in thorns and briers, yes, for all the joyous houses in the exultant city.
And when the crops fail, the cities fail, eventually even the palace becomes empty. Then, when there’s no people to manage the land eventually it is no longer cultivated but becomes unimproved land fro grazing flocks. Remember they didn’t have fences like ours, flacks would have a shepherd/s and they would roam all over the countryside. Thus if flocks were grazing in your area, it was a sign that your place was now the outback, the wilderness.
For the palace is forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks;
This is not only about the crops, this is about their spiritual state. we get a hint in v13, but it is made clear in v15.
until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.
The health of the land was tied to the spiritual health of God’s people
And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.
And it will hail when the forest falls down, and the city will be utterly laid low. Happy are you who sow beside all waters, who let the feet of the ox and the donkey range free.
Has this day come? Yes & no. Now & not-yet.
The deprivations of warfare and exile came down upon Judah
But the Spirit has come! He brings fruit in hearts and churches and nations.
But there are places still full of brambles, there are places without peace.
Just as Go razed Assyria in the past, God will lay low all his present day enemies
But we look forward to a peaceful life of security, quietness and rest.
Then justice will dwell with God’s people and they shall forever be secure!
So what?
So what?
Anticipate the fullness of the Reign of Christ
Remember that Judgement comes first
Do not be the Fool
Do not be Complacent
“But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
