Isaiah -Judgment to Glory Introduction

Introduction

Think back on your childhood. What threats did your parents use, if any?

If you don’t clean your room, I will do it for you!

Just wait until your dad gets home!

If you don’t do such and such, your rear end will hurt so much that you won’t be able to sit for a week!

Perhaps you promised never to say things like that to your kids. Then you had children of your own and find yourself saying the same things

Punishment vs discipline

Punishment: pay for a wrong done. There is no goal of reform

Discipline: to provide consequences with the goal of reform (cause one to turn from his/her wicked ways)

Both have the idea of judgment.

Isaiah: God judges the nation Israel then provide appropriate consequences with the goal of turning them back to loving and serving Him

Has your parents’ discipline resulted in you choosing to change from doing the wrong thing?

If your parents never disciplined you, would you have naturally stopped doing things that were not good for you or anyone else?

Overall summary of Isaiah

Groan/Glory

Starts with a groan and ends with a glory

It is one long sermon by the prophet Isaiah

First 39 Chapters (Groan):

Isaiah stresses righteousness, holiness and the justice of God

Announcing God’s terrible judgment upon this sinful world (1:18) Corresponds to the O.T.

If you turn to God, your sins will be cleansed and it will go well with you (show gear illustration)

If you do not, it will not go well with you, no matter how hard you try

Illustration: H.S. attempting to solve a girlfriend problem on my own (over 30 years ago)

Last 27 Chapters (Glory):

Messiah’s coming

Good news, compassion and undeserved favor (the gospel)

Messiah will come as a Savior to bear a cross and as wear a crown where He will sit at the right hand of God making intercession for His own

With God there is never only bad news with His children

With those who reject Him and his discipline, there is only trials, emptiness, and punishment that lasts for all of eternity

Background

Who was Isaiah?

Prophet to Judah, the son of Amoz

What time period does Isaiah cover?

739-686 B.C. (53 yrs) - Looonng sermon series!

What was going on in Israel at the time? (history up to this point)

When David became king the tribe of Judah became the headquarters of the kingdom of Israel (there were twelve tribes from the twelve sons of Jacob - Benjamin, Ephraim, Manasseh, Naptali, Dan, Asher, Issachar, Judah, Zebulon, Simeon, Reuben, and Gad) - there will be a test! ;)

Around the time when the kingdom was passed on to his son, Solomon, a lot of contention began between the tribe. This was the time when Solomon began to fall out of favor with God for his behavior.

The tribes wanted Solomon to relieve some of the tax burdens

When Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, would not lessen the tax burden, eleven tribes left the kingdom of Judah

Israel split into two kingdoms in 931 BC (192 years prior to Isaiah’s prophecy/preaching) show map

Northern (Israel)

Southern (Judah)

Jeroboam, the man who led the revolt against the kingdom of Judah, set up his own worship system for the eleven tribes.

The tribes of Levi and Benjamin did not approve of this form of worship. Which was appropriate. So, they came back to partner with Judah (Levi, Benjamin and Judah as Southern Kingdom)

Isaiah comes on the scene 192 years later in 739 BC and, as the son of Amoz, ministered in and around Jerusalem as a prophet to Judah during the reign of four kings of Judah: Uzziah (Azariah in 2 Kings), Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah (Isa 1:1) 739-686 BC (53 years)

What caused Israel to split?

Solomon ceased being the spiritual leader in his home and for his nation

He allowed his son, Rehoboam, to do whatever he wanted

Over time it caused Israel to fall far enough away from the Lord’s ways that Isaiah had to come on the scene and explain all that God was going to do to discipline His people and bring them back to Himself.

Some of this is historical and some of it is still in the future when the Lord creates a new heaven and new earth and puts the nation Israel back in her rightful place as the worship leader

Lessons learned by all of this:

Jesus: A house divided against itself cannot stand (Matt. 12:25)

A house divided against itself will eventually go to war against one another.

Our families must be united in Christ, whether the church or your family at home

Has your home at times seem like WWIII? In the church?

How do we either become united in Christ or remain united?

Get in God’s Word together (Ps. 119:11 “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”)

Pray together (James 5:16 “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”)

Seek God’s will for your home together (Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “)

Husbands and Fathers: Be the spiritual leaders in your home and in the church (Eph. 6:4 “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”)

What caused Israel to split?

Solomon ceased being the spiritual leader in his home and for his nation

He allowed his son, Rehoboam, to do whatever he wanted

Over time it caused Israel to fall far enough away from the Lord’s ways that Isaiah had to come on the scene and explain all that God was going to do to discipline His people and bring them back to Himself.

Some of this is historical and some of it is still in the future when the Lord creates a new heaven and new earth and puts the nation Israel back in her rightful place as the worship leader

Judah’s Background during the time of Isaiah - one sermon series covering four kings. Imagine my sermon series covering four presidents!

Four Kings

Uzziah

During Uzziah’s prosperous 52-year reign Judah developed into a strong commercial and military state with a port for commerce on the Red Sea and the construction of walls, towers, and fortifications.

Spiritual state was in decline

Uzziah’s ruin was when he burned incense on the altar, assuming the privileges of a priest. He died of leprosy

Jatham

Son of Uzziah

Reigned 19 years

Assyria emerged as a new international power

Judah gained opposition from Israel and Syria

Just like his father

Israel was still declining spiritually

Ahaz

25 when he began to reign

Reigned 16 years

Israel and Syria formed an alliance

Ahaz refused to take part in this

As a result, his throne was threatened and war erupted

Out of fear, he sought an alliance with Assyria

Through that alliance, many in Israel was taken into captivity

Ahaz set up a heathen altar in Solomon’s temple

Hezekiah

Reigned 29 years

Reformation was his priority

He was afraid of Assyria: Threat of an Assyrian invasion caused heavy tributes given to Assyria “peace money”

Hezekiah became very ill and asked God to spare his life - he gained fifteen more years

During that time Assyria became weak, so Hezekiah decided not to pay the taxes

As a result, Assyria took many Judean towns captive and carried them off to Assyria

They failed to overtake Jerusalem and Hezekiah refused surrender as Isaiah told him to do

Israel was taken captive by the Assyrians in 732 BC (Almost 200 years later)

Summary

During Uzziah’s reign, Judah became prosperous, but was going downhill spiritually - Uzziah was not a good spiritual leader

Jatham followed in his father’s footsteps and Judah continued to go downhill spiritually - Also not a good spiritual leader

Ahaz sought an alliance with Assyria out of fear (not seeking God’s will) - result: Many in Judah were taken captive and Ahaz desecrated God’s holy temple

Hezekiah also did not seek God’s will, but instead decided to give into Assyria out of fear and paid “peace money” to them. Then, when he thought Assyria was no longer a threat, he stopped paying the tribute

Lessons Learned

All of this is in 2 Kings and 2 Chron.

Sin has a rippling effect (Luke 12:2-3)

Sin of Achin

Israel was defeated at Ai

Caused their hearts to melt

Note: God said Israel had sinned, though what Achan did was in secret

When Achan confessed, his punishment was still the death of him and his family

Illustration

"CBS Radio Mystery Theater" once presented the story of a prosperous and respected college professor. He was married and the father of two children about to enter college, and he lived in an upscale, wooded, suburban neighborhood. To others, he seemed to "have it all." Inside, however, he felt cheated, conspired against, and held back by superiors who did not realize his value to the university. He especially believed he was underpaid for his many contributions to the university's reputation.

In emotional turmoil one day, he decided to leave the office early, go home, and think things through. Upon arriving home and discovering that his wife had gone shopping, he left his car in the garage and started to stroll through the neighborhood to a nearby wood. Before he left the house, though, he took the garbage to the curb because his wife had failed to take it out and the refuse truck was in the neighborhood.

Unknown to him, in another part of town at the same time, a bank had been robbed. The thieves made their escape with the loot, but the police were in hot pursuit. They were so close that the thieves decided they should get rid of the stolen goods. Pulling into the professor's neighborhood, the thieves deposited the money bag in his neighbor's garbage container. From his hidden position in the woods, the professor watched the thieves speed away. But before long, his curiosity drove him to inspect the contents of the mysterious bag. He casually retrieved the bag and took it inside.

When he opened it, he discovered $80,000 in cash! The perfect crime! he thought. Now I have the money I deserve! And nobody is hurt—the bank's money is insured, isn't it? The thieves dumped the money into the neighbor's garbage, so if they get caught and confess, the focus will be on the neighbors, not me. If the police question me, I can just conveniently remember it was garbage collection day.

Before the story concluded, the professor's wife had been murdered and his best friend wounded. His own mind snapped from the stress of the ordeal. His children, burdened with a name stained by the crime, had to go on with their lives without their parents and without a college education.

What Jesus said and the radio program dramatized is that the effects of our sins will eventually show. God warned Ruben and Gad who promised to go to war when entering the promised land that if they did not keep their promise they would have, “have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out.” (Numbers 32:23)

We do not sin in a vacuum; no man is an island for good or bad. God wants us to repent of our sin, but if no other way will produce repentance, He will bring it out into the full light for all to see.

Our sins can also affect the local church

God cares about His people

Hebrews 12:5-6 “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

Everything God did in Isaiah was to discipline His people so that they would turn back to Him

There is hope in Isaiah: discipline is for a time, but some day Israel will again be one perfect nation loving and serving God under a new heaven and on a new earth. They will not only worship God perfectly, but they will lead the nations into worship as well, which was God’s original plan for them.

God cares about those who are not His people

Israel’s responsibility was two-fold:

To love and worship God and obey his commandments

To display God’s glory among the nations (God-fearers who though Israel’s witness, would realize who God is and desire to worship Him)

Our responsibility is the same. God wants all people to come to know Christ as their Savior