Isaiah 14 Outline

Introduction

One of my favorite sports growing up was volleyball. My love for volleyball began when I would follow my sister to her school during summer break and watch her practice the sport with her high school team. As I watched I became more and more intrigued. They had fun, challenged one another, and were down right good at it. I couldn’t wait to get in to high school so I could play. City Bracket, we were winning. Coach let the frosoph players in and we lost. No one got the MVP award during the award ceremony. Coach later told me I was the MVP but because of my attitude during the game they decided not to reward me.

Who is Isaiah: 1st active Prophet in the land of Judah. He prophesied in Judah for 41 years from 742 to 701.

1. God’s Compassion is reserved for the righteous: None are righteous no not one. (Who, Why & possibly How?)

a. Anchoring

Isaiah 14:1-3 For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob. And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the Lord’s land as male and female slaves. They will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them. When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service which you were made to serve,

Hosea 11: 1-11 vs 3 - Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.

Psalm 103:8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Isaiah 9:6-7 To us a child is born, to us a son is given.

Exodus 33:19

Isaiah 63:1-14 Why does God show compassion? To make for himself a glorious name.

Genesis 3:15

b. Validating

The trials of COVID helped us see the hearts of others and ourselves. We were already demeaning before COVID, God used it as a tool to sanctify us, its His Grace.

c. Explaining

Jacob: His father is Isaac, and Abraham is his Grandfather. Jacob now carries the case of the covenant of God that was made to Abraham. What this tells us about God is that God has compassion not on the people of Israel alone, not on Jacob alone, and not even on Abraham. God’s compassion is for himself, to glorify His name by making it known throughout all the nations. Because God is who He is, all powerful, all knowing, everywhere all at once, perfect integrity, His covenant with Abraham...

Will Again Choose Israel: What this verse is not saying is that God, at any point, God did not have compassion, God did not change His mind. God is eternal, and everything about God remains the same, He, everything about Him, is eternal; this includes compassion as one of His many attributes. The issue we see in this verse, this message from Isaiah, is not a question of God’s compassion but an assertion about Israel’s blindness. To get this you can’t just read chapter 14 of Isaiah, you can understand through earnestly reading the entire book of Isaiah. In keeping with this idea, you can understand the book of Isaiah by reading scripture in its entirety.

Knowledge from faith vs knowledge from experience:

Society wants faith to be emotion, if it feels good it is faith. This could be why many Christians make the assertion that God must not be with them because they don’t feel Him.

What is knowledge from faith

Wisdom Applied

As many of you know, shortly after our church camp out, Joel was involved in a motorcycle accident. A nurse arrived and, from what I was told, the first thing they heard her say, the first action she took, was not grabbing a first aid kit, or assessing the injuries. She didn’t call out to him to see if he was responsive, which she should’ve done, after all she took the oath of a health provider. The first thing she did was say a prayer to the Lord, “Lord I pray that this man knows you”. You see, she was living under the knowledge of faith, faith in the one who gives and takes away, the one with the power to do all things. Notice that she didn’t pray for Joel’s survival either. She prayed that Joel would know the Father, know the Son, and that the Holy Spirit would regenerate his heart. WOW. She recognized the importance of having a relationship with the Lord. Better to die knowing the Lord than to live blind. When Joel was asked by a nurse at the hospital “were you scared” he responded with “no, i’m a Christian.” This is the response of a man who lives life under the knowledge achieved by faith and not experience.

What is knowledge from experience or emotion

Foolishness Applied

in 2018 we were living in Rexburg, Idaho. The summer heat invited a usual drought in the west accompanied with fires. Tiff and i were visiting with our neighbors and discussing the fires when a comment was made that through me back. “They need to repent.” You see, my neighbor believed that wild fires were the hand of God, punishing the people for being sinners. From this comment I gather that my neighbors believe in works salvation, which turned out to be true as Rexburg, Idaho’s population is %96 Mormon. Suddenly many in this room, online, and around the world would go aha, that makes sense. But seldom consider this being a train of thought amongst many Christians. Even God’s people, the Israelite, performed works to appease God. The issue with knowledge from experience is that we all fall into this wrongful thinking from time to time; some more than others; but none the less all. Isaiahs message is one of caution, but more so of hope, we will get there soon enough.

If you think this is not you than remember what Jason pointed out on August 1st when teaching about Gossip, Slander, Scorn, & Mockery.

The peoples knowledge of God did not come from faith but from experience. In their perspective God must have removed His hand from them. By all measures of outward appearances the people were war torn, hungry, witnessing the desolation of their land and being driven out from the very place that God proclaimed to be theirs. The people were so focused on the lowercase power of man that they had forgotten the uppercase Sovereignty of God. As a result they were led to believe that God forsook them. They were led to believe that it was up to them, they must be the ones to provide, to protect, and to conquer. This is why king Ahaz pleaded with the king of Assyria for provision and safety. They did not turn to the Lord. they were being destroyed from all sides What can be learned by this verse is the preservation of the saints. When God chastises us, our inability to recognize it as love, or even compassion, does not constitute our defining it as rejection. On the contrary. One of the many clear signs of God’s love and compassion is in His discipline. The one thing we deserve is discipline. Here are just a few examples of the merited discipline the people of Israel/Jacob/Judah received. Give a list of ways they turned against the Lord in Isaiah. God uses the hand of men to discipline those he loves, and you know what, that doesn’t always look so pretty or feel so nice. GIVE ILLUSTRATIONS.

Sojourners will join them: Micah 5:7; Isaiah 60:10; Zechariah 8:23;

The story of Ruth.

Ruth saw something in Naomi.

Do others see you and by reputation hear that God is with you. What fruit is being produced in your life?

When the Lord works in the hearts of men others notice. ILLUSTRATION. Not only do they notice but they eventually desire to know what it is that they are witnessing in you and others around you. It is important to know that this transformation doe snot occur by you but it is of God alone. There are no works you can perform, no duties you can fulfill, no efforts to be made, that will ever transform you into a righteous man woman or child. Recall what we just covered about the sins of the people of God, in what manner and fashion did they become righteous enough to deserve God’s compassion? What the sojourners have witnessed is miraculous, and beautiful enough that they would be willing to leave their own home lands, traditions, family, comforts, to follow those who talk about this wonderfully magnificent, life giving God. Is this starting to sound familiar? It should. We learned of such an experience when we spent time in the book of Ruth. Coincidence???? Not a chance.

MAYBE GO IN TO THE DYNAMIC LIFE OF A SOJOURNER/FOREIGNER TO GOD: Sojourners were foreign to God and therefore must’ve lived unrighteous lives like others. In a sense, the fact that they didn’t know God places them in a better position—or does it?

Male and Female Slaves: Isaiah 60:14; Ezra 1:4; To reiterate, God will do a work in a people group so great that people from around the world would come to join them. They would rather become someone else’ slave then live the life they had been living, one of hopelessness and despair I presume. Are we any different? Take a moment to consider the fact that you did in fact leave an old life behind to become a slave, only rather than being a slave to sin you are now a slave to Christ…or are you?

Capturing the captors and ruling the oppressed:

Pain and turmoil: If for some reason you think or have been led to believe that what befalls you in this life is new, never before seen, or that you are somehow unique in your experiences, think again. The realization of experiencing pain and turmoil began with the first parents; we will now turn to the book of Genesis where we explore the fall of man. Genesis Chapter 3

Oppression: ILLUSTRATE being careful what you ask/wish for. When king Ahaz recognized the situation he and his nation were in, he called upon the king of Assyria for rescue. Not only did he call upon Assyria for rescue but he took the things that belong to God and handed them over as payment. Then he turns around and builds an altar that resembled that of the altar in Damascus and sacrificed on it, all the while moving the altar of the Lord aside. The rebuke of the Lord came in the form of national loss through oppression and war. The Assyrians, whom king Ahaz called upon for rescue, would instead rule over the house of Jacob. Have you ever heard the saying “be careful what you wish for”? The nations that Isaiah is mentioning in this passage are both the Jews and the Gentiles. In this specific case the present nation is the Jews and boy have they really done a number. Despite all that they have done God still chooses to have compassion on them, and any who would attach themselves to the people of God. There is no sin, except one, for which the Lord will not forgive, and once the Lord has regenerated the person there’s no going back, but you must not ever conclude that the preservation of the saints is for the saint alone, no, it is solely for God’s glory, the saints simply benefit from it.

d. Illustrating:

Rexburg and the western fires (Need of Repentance)

Joel’s accident

e. Applying

Repent: Change the way you think, Change the way you see and perceive.

A few weeks ago we discussed the topic of Gossip, Slander, and such. That night at care group we furthered the discussion when addressing one root cause of slander, having a negative mind, or always seeing what we perceive as bad.

2. God’s wrath is reserved for the wicked: All have sinned and fall short of the glory.

a. Anchoring

i. Ezekiel 28:2-10

ii. Isaiah 14:4-21

iii. Nebuchadnezzar

iv. Isaiah 47:1-15

b. Validating

c. Explaining

i. Day star: rising early

How is it that the oppressor ceases? He measures the works of the wicked with the same measure they used on the people. The wicked consumed the people with evil continually, therefore God will consume the rulers of the sinners, he will utterly destroy them so that there is not even a remnant. Nothing of this sort has ever been witnessed before and nor shall it ever be again.

All the rulers of hell are gathered together at the coming of the Lord.

kingdom power is built on pride, and the freedoms and liberties to be found can only be ruined by ones own strength…or weakness because the same strength that acquired such freedoms and liberties is pride.

d. Illustrating

e. Applying

3. God’s plan will never fail:

a. Anchoring

b. Validating

c. Explaining

d. Illustrating

e. Applying