Isaiah 3.6

*ACC Invitation*

Prayer

Carol, prayers for

Susan, Marlin Ogden

Ron, hip surgery wednesday

Pam, Faye double vision

Jean, Arlene with daughter in Colorado (Christy infection recovery waiting for chemo)

Bing, niece cathy having breast cancer surgery

Pam, Samson, curious and interested in faith.

Laura, unity in the country

Cheryl, Vicki hip surgery

Isaiah 31:4–9 ESV

4 For thus the Lord said to me, “As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey, and when a band of shepherds is called out against him he is not terrified by their shouting or daunted at their noise, so the Lord of hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill. 5 Like birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it; he will spare and rescue it.” 6 Turn to him from whom people have deeply revolted, O children of Israel. 7 For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you. 8 “And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man; and a sword, not of man, shall devour him; and he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be put to forced labor. 9 His rock shall pass away in terror, and his officers desert the standard in panic,” declares the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

Look at the image chatper 31 leaves us with. Yes, it is a call to repenance, but it is an assurance of what’s to come. The promise is that day all the idols will be cast aside, you will destroy your statues of silver and gold, everything made by human hands.

Look at the assurance it gives Judah with regard to their great enemy Assyria: “Assyria will fall by a sword, not of man, and a sword not of man shall devour him.”

We know it is Babylon that will crush Assyrians, but it says not a sword of man. Again, it’s this ever-present reminder in Isaiah that God is sovereign, God stands above the nations. He is over all things!

Repent, that’s the invitation. But the grounding of that invitation is this: God will prevail so you should repent!

Now let’s turn to chapter 32 and the image of the coming redeemer and king is here.

Isaiah 32:1–8 ESV

1 Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice. 2 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. 3 Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will give attention. 4 The heart of the hasty will understand and know, and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly. 5 The fool will no more be called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be honorable. 6 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. 7 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. 8 But he who is noble plans noble things, and on noble things he stands.

Here Isaiah explores the glories of the Day of the Lord, after judgment, after the wicked are done away with here, coming is a King who reign in righteousness. His judgments will be true and good.

One commentary put it this way: Isaiah has a vision of a coming King, this King is the Messiah who is necessary because human beings as Kings could never live up to the ideal, the high standard of a good, just, righteous King.

No longer will the leaders of Judah be threats to the people, oppressors or predators, but rather this King will be safety, a refuge, a safe and secure rock of protection for this people.

And this leader, this king will make possible spiritual transformation for His people—the spiritually blind will see, those who have ears will actually hear! This is a far cry from the circumstances of Isaiah’s ministry. It’s a reversal of the perverse and twisted society that had prevailed!

Whereas, in the past the foolish in the land were hailed as noble and righteous. But God is setting all things to right. The scoundrel will no longer be honorable.

The promise of God in that day, when He will reign over this world perfectly, is this: that all the injustice we see, all the twisted way of things, everything that is not of God, anywhere in society where the center is man and not God, all of this will be upended and set right.

God’s transformation is a whole-person (new heart) and whole-society transformation!

Now let’s look at the rest of chapter 32.

Isaiah 32:9–20 ESV

9 Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice; you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech. 10 In little more than a year you will shudder, you complacent women; for the grape harvest fails, the fruit harvest will not come. 11 Tremble, you women who are at ease, shudder, you complacent ones; strip, and make yourselves bare, and tie sackcloth around your waist. 12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine, 13 for the soil of my people growing up in thorns and briers, yes, for all the joyous houses in the exultant city. 14 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;

Isaiah 32:9–20 ESV

15 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. 16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. 17 And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. 18 My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. 19 And it will hail when the forest falls down, and the city will be utterly laid low. 20 Happy are you who sow beside all waters, who let the feet of the ox and the donkey range free.

There are two halves here—the first is a warning, classic Isaiah rhythm here. It’s a warning to the “complacent women,” those who are at ease. The sense of that phrase “who are at ease” is something like undisturbed, that is to say that they are undistrubed by the circumstances around them in Judah. There is this assumption among a group of people in Judah that says: nothing bad could possibly happen! We’ve got great military alliances, we’re trusting in the right people and places.

But Isaiah’s warning: Tremble, you who are ease. shudder! You should be in mourning. He warns, destruction, exile, wasted harvest, these and more are coming!

Now how do we take a warning like this for ourselves? One of the ways I thought about it is this: Are we at ease or complacent or undisturbed because of something that we’ve put our trust in besides Jesus. What I mean is this. Do you have peace in your heart? If so, examine yourself—for peace is good—but from where does that peace come? Does that peace come from Jesus and His spirit? Or does that peace come from an idol? a worldly security that is fleeting and will fail? And thus, is no peace at all!

Are we at ease because we’re a “good person?” Or because we go to church every week! Because we go through the religious motions? Are we at ease because of our own security?

Friends, none of these things can save us from the judgment that is coming, by the way.

Think of the story of Noah—which Isaiah has just referenced a few chapters ago—Noah is saved, but Noah’s salvation did not hold back the judgment on the earth. The judgment still came. From Isaiah’s point of view, he sees this: judgment is coming. Are you going to be in the city of God’s salvation, in the ark? Or will you be left out, having thought that Egypt, or Assyria, or whatever it was would save you?

That’s the essential question from the prophet to the people? Judgement is coming, where will you be?

For the believer? Where will you be? With Christ? Will you find your dwelling in the Lord Jesus? Or will you, to use Jesus’ image, build you life on sand?

Now, that flows right into the second half here of 32. The Prophet sees that the Spirit will be poured out on the people, and that because of this spirit, even the wilderness will become a fruitful field. The Spirit of the Lord will cause growth, redemption, new life, it will lead to a renewed heart—not one that is a wilderness of sin, rebellion, and disobedience, but a new heart that bears fruit.

Again we see this theme that was introduced in the earliest chapters of Isaiah, God’s justice will reign down and bring: peace, quietness and trust, the people will live in peace and in security.

Now let’s move on to chapter 33.

This section now from chapter 33-35:10 represent the sixth and final woe of this section of Isaiah. A couple of things to note: the woe is aimed at Assyria who is referred to as “the destroyer” or “the traitor” here in the passage.

Isaiah 33:1–12 ESV

1 Ah, you destroyer, who yourself have not been destroyed, you traitor, whom none has betrayed! When you have ceased to destroy, you will be destroyed; and when you have finished betraying, they will betray you. 2 O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for you. Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble. 3 At the tumultuous noise peoples flee; when you lift yourself up, nations are scattered, 4 and your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers; as locusts leap, it is leapt upon. 5 The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness, 6 and he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure. 7 Behold, their heroes cry in the streets; the envoys of peace weep bitterly. 8 The highways lie waste; the traveler ceases. Covenants are broken; cities are despised; there is no regard for man. 9 The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is confounded and withers away; Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves. 10 “Now I will arise,” says the Lord, “now I will lift myself up; now I will be exalted. 11 You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble; your breath is a fire that will consume you. 12 And the peoples will be as if burned to lime, like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.”

Here in the opening verses the destruction of the destroyer is framed in the ultimate reality—a reality, a view, much bigger than just the current situation for Isaiah and Judah, but rather an eternal long-view of what is to come. That ultimate reality of salvation and judgment.

Salvation will eventually come! The destroyer will be destroyed, the betrayer will be betrayed and laid waste. Yes, this is Assyria, but in a larger sense, this is all the enemies of God—this is the destroyer that is known as death and sin.

The trouble for an ancient Judahite is that they looked at the world and their enemies—Assyria, Babylon, etc.‚ and they said: these nations are wicked, they commit grievous injustice, AND they’re getting away with it!

That’s the “have not been destroyed…whom have not been betrayed,” like you’ve gone all these things and there are no consequences for you! Amidst the moral perversity of the world, the Lord’s people have resources beyond the earthly ones? Their resources are the hope of the Lord, waiting on Him. His strength, His deliverance, His rescue!

And v. 3-4 give us the picture of the wicked of the world then fleeing, scattering, helpless before divine power of YHWH.

Look, if any of this makes us uncomfortable, I would encourage you to consider if you have an appropriate view of sin in the world. If we bristle at God’s judgment against the wicked and against sin, it is because we have been so influenced by the Western, post-modern individualism of our world. And by the way, there are good aspects of that too. The post-modern worldview invites a level of empathy for our neighbor and for those different than us in a way that would have been different among other cultures.

We don’t like the idea of divine justice, in part, because we’ve so (I think to a good degree!) internalized the idea of non-violence as a way to make change.

BUT, about the issue of justice, Tim Keller used to tell the story of a philosopher who was a refugee from the balkans in Europe. He bore witness to violent civil war, countryman killing countryman in his home of Croatia. He said this: that nonviolence requires, it demands a belief in divine justice, that God will actually do something! And that violence flourishes in the world fundmaentally because of the belief that God will not do anything.

But do you see Isaiah’s worldview? God will do something! Be strong and courageous and wait on the Lord. He also never encourages them to take up arms or to bring violence themselves.

The whole point of this section is this: everything we face, every evil, every sin, every enemy, death itself—God Himself will deal with this. Whether it’s in us or out in the world. God, through Jesus Christ, will deal with it. We just need to believe that He will.