Our Choices and God’s Relentless Faithfulness - Isaiah 29

©Copyright by Bruce Goettsche April 3

There is one thing needed in the world today more than anything else: the world needs to repent and turn to the Lord. We seem to be moving in the other direction and perhaps that is because even God’s people struggle to trust Him. We know the right words but putting trust in God in pressure or crisis situations is a much bigger challenge. We are much more prone to say we trust Him while trying to make things happen on our own.

This is the problem we see in our text in Isaiah 29 today. The people of Israel (or Judah) were facing a crisis with invading armies. They saw the size of the armies and panicked rather than trust God. From chapters 8-36 Isaiah is preaching messages from the Lord which have one main theme: we should trust Him rather than others, or our own devices.

When God is Against You

The people of Judah have continued to respond to God with obstinacy. They looked for alliances, they schemed, they tried everything, it seemed, except trust Him. Since they would not turn to Him, God decided to get their attention by becoming their enemy! God was going to bring the Assyrian army against them. What they did not realize however was their real enemy was NOT the Assyrian army! It was the Lord who was using that army to declare His glory and get their attention. Let’s look at the first 4 verses.

1 “What sorrow awaits Ariel, the City of David.

Year after year you celebrate your feasts.

2 Yet I will bring disaster upon you,

and there will be much weeping and sorrow.

For Jerusalem will become what her name Ariel means—

an altar covered with blood.

3 I will be your enemy,

surrounding Jerusalem and attacking its walls.

I will build siege towers

and destroy it.

4 Then deep from the earth you will speak;

from low in the dust your words will come.

Your voice will whisper from the ground

like a ghost conjured up from the grave.

What I find insightful is this: Israel’s struggle with Assyria was not really about Assyria, it was about their relationship with the Lord. Repeatedly, God says “I will bring disaster,” “I will be your enemy,” “I will build siege towers.” Let this simmer here for a few seconds. What if it is true that every struggle we have (even Satanic assaults) are really about the same thing: our allegiance to Him! The annoying co-worker, the endless demands by others, the health struggles, the financial stresses, even government gridlock . . . could they all be God’s way of trying to get us to trust Him and put Him first? I find this to be an eye-opening thought. No matter what we face our FIRST step should be to draw close to Him. If you are like me, that is not usually my first instinct. First, I try to fix things. I muster up my discipline, I call on my friends, I purchase something to help me, I come up with a plan.

This is much easier to see on a national level. As a country, we approach problems by giving out money, passing new laws, starting new programs, or tinkering with our military strength. Have you ever in recent years, at least, heard anyone say: “Let’s devote ourselves more fully to the Lord and seek Him for an answer to our problems?” I realize this is more difficult on a national level because the majority of people don’t believe . . . but what about us? We say we believe but we ACT like we don’t believe either!

In the case of Israel, since they wouldn’t trust God, they would suffer first. God would allow the Assyrians to put a siege on Jerusalem. They would cut off their supply lines and build ramps to scale the walls of the city. The citizens could only watch in fear. God, however, was not meaning them harm; on the contrary, He wanted to draw them to Him.

God’s Faithfulness Demonstrated

But even with Judah’s faithlessness, God remained faithful. When God had their attention, He would do for them what no other alliance could ever do for them. The opposing forces would just disappear! And this would happen in such a dramatic way that the people would see that it could have been nothing but the hand of the Lord at work.

5 “But suddenly, your ruthless enemies will be crushed

like the finest of dust.

Your many attackers will be driven away

like chaff before the wind.

Suddenly, in an instant,

6 I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, will act for you

with thunder and earthquake and great noise,

with whirlwind and storm and consuming fire.

7 All the nations fighting against Jerusalem

will vanish like a dream!

Those who are attacking her walls

will vanish like a vision in the night.

8 A hungry person dreams of eating

but wakes up still hungry.

A thirsty person dreams of drinking

but is still faint from thirst when morning comes.

So it will be with your enemies, with those who attack Mount Zion.”

Have you ever had one of these experiences? Have you ever seen the Lord unmistakably move in a problem area of your life? Did you have to hit rock bottom before He had your attention? Too often that is exactly what happens. We become exhausted, have a breakdown, reach a point of complete despair, and at times even are heard to say, “I give up!” And then, when we are at that point of surrender, the Lord does something that reminds us of His power and goodness. The Lord wants us to know Him and trust Him. He wants to demonstrate His love, but He wants us to be paying attention.

Ray Ortlund believes in the Bible, God is saying, “You won’t always understand me, but you can always trust me. If I surprise you with trouble, I will also surprise you with the joy I’ll bring out of that trouble. You may struggle to believe that right now. But what seems so impossible is the very thing I specialize in.”[1]

The Lessons

God has a point in telling Jerusalem (and us) these things. He wants us to re-orient our lives. God desires a good and healthy relationship with us. This is relationship that is genuine rather than surface; that is transforming rather than annoying. He wants us to see Him not as someone we have to obey, but as someone we can trust and delight in. To that end I see three principles we can apply to our lives.

11 All the future events in this vision are like a sealed book to them. When you give it to those who can read, they will say, “We can’t read it because it is sealed.”

12 When you give it to those who cannot read, they will say, “We don’t know how to read.” 13 And so the Lord says,

“These people say they are mine.

They honor me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me.

And their worship of me

is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.

14 Because of this, I will once again astound these hypocrites

with amazing wonders.

The wisdom of the wise will pass away,

and the intelligence of the intelligent will disappear.”

There are two men in verses 11, 12. The man who can read is too lazy to open it up to see what it says. The illiterate man can’t read but also isn’t all that interested in learning how to read these words of God. Both are indicators of the indifference of the people to God’s heart and desires for His people

The principle here is: true faith is active. We show our faith as much by our actions as our words. In our very first message in this series, we looked at chapter 1 where very similar words were spoken. The Lord hated the superficiality of the worship of the people. He said they talked a good game but all they were doing was putting on a show. They professed allegiance to the Lord, but they lacked allegiance in the way they lived their lives.

Think about how God may see the same thing in our lives

· We sing about how we love Him, but we don’t have any time for Him.

· We say we trust Him, but we don’t seek His help when we have a need, instead we come up with all kinds of plans for how WE can fix things.

· We call the Bible “God’s Word,” but we have little idea what is actually in the book or about what it says about the issues of our life. We “cherish” it but never open it!

· We talk about wanting to hear from God, but we never talk to Him or listen for Him.

· We choose our churches by what we think we can get from the church, instead of what we believe can contribute.

· We talk about the poor and needy and how much God loves them, but we would be unlikely to invite any of those people to worship with us.

· We pray for lost people to come to faith, but we won’t talk to them about the gospel.

This list, as I’m sure you can imagine, is just a sampling of the ways we honor God with our lips but our hearts are far from Him. One commentator asked. “Will our worship be consumed with God, or will it be consumed by God?”[2] In other words, does our worship really focus on God or is it the kind of worship that is about us rather than Him? The latter is the kind of empty worship God condemns. The problem is: we have a doctrine about the power of God, but we have no real experience of the power of God. That will only change as we dare to put faith into practice in the most basic of ways.

Second, Isaiah points out the need to Be Honest Before Him

15 What sorrow awaits those who try to hide their plans from the Lord,

who do their evil deeds in the dark!

“The Lord can’t see us,” they say.

“He doesn’t know what’s going on!”

16 How foolish can you be?

He is the Potter, and he is certainly greater than you, the clay!

Should the created thing say of the one who made it,

“He didn’t make me”?

Does a jar ever say,

“The potter who made me is stupid”?

Judah was looking at making an alliance with Egypt, rather than trust God. They believed God would not be offended because He didn’t know what they were doing! This shows either a very diminished view of God, or a really foolish way of thinking. Yet, it is striking to me how many people seem to have the same kind of attitude.

Most of the time these people justify their actions saying, “I’m not hurting anybody.” They say what they are doing is “private” so it is nothing for anyone else to be concerned about. However, the Lord sees in secret. He knows what we are doing! It is offensive to Him!

Isaiah used an analogy of a potter and the clay (much like Jeremiah and then Paul in Romans 9). Though there are different nuances and some different points being made in each passage, the general analogy is this: He is the Potter, we are the clay. The clay does not have a life of its own. It is the potter who fashions it. In the same way, God made us, He knows us, and He is supreme over us.

Nothing is done in secret. We live our lives before the audience of the Lord of Life. Jesus said “we will give and account for every idle word.” (Mt. 12:36) The things we say are heard by Him, the things we do are seen by Him, the thoughts we think are known by Him. We are accountable to Him and should live that way. We have a responsibility to live in such a way that we can stand before Him knowing we have been honest about our deeds, our motivations, our words, and our thoughts. And where there is sin, we must repent honestly as well.

In a good marriage, the flaws are usually known. There is little that is hidden. What is hidden will usually be found out. If the bad things are found out late, they may destroy the marriage, and certainly will undermine trust. But if failures are confessed immediately and remorsefully, not only does the marriage have a good chance of surviving, it has a good chance of flourishing. Honesty draws people together. The same is true in our relationship with God.

The third principle is in verses 17-22 We are to Trust His Promises Even When They Seem Distant.

17 Soon—and it will not be very long—

the forests of Lebanon will become a fertile field,

and the fertile field will yield bountiful crops.

18 In that day the deaf will hear words read from a book,

and the blind will see through the gloom and darkness.

19 The humble will be filled with fresh joy from the Lord.

The poor will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

20 The scoffer will be gone,

the arrogant will disappear,

and those who plot evil will be killed.

21 Those who convict the innocent

by their false testimony will disappear.

A similar fate awaits those who use trickery to pervert justice

and who tell lies to destroy the innocent.

22 That is why the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, says to the people of Israel,

“My people will no longer be ashamed

or turn pale with fear.

23 For when they see their many children

and all the blessings I have given them,

they will recognize the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob.

They will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

24 Then the wayward will gain understanding,

and complainers will accept instruction.

Life is often difficult. There are times we are tired, feel beaten up, and at times may even want to walk away from it all. Things won’t always be bad. In comparison to the splendor of eternal life . . . the problems of this life are barely blips on the screen. In this text the Lord says life will blossom again.

It’s a great picture, isn’t it? At this time of the year, we are excited that the barren areas will soon be once again filled with crops and flowers. The trees will again provide shade and the streets will be beautifully framed by those trees. You may feel the chill of winter in your life right now, but the rebirth of spring is right around the corner.

The wrongs of this world will be made right. The deaf will hear, the blind will see, the humble will be honored, and the poor will have plenty. The false teachers will be gone, the cynics will be silenced, and the evil will be purged from our midst.

And don’t miss the last part, we will no longer be wayward children. We will not wander, be ashamed of our faith, or live fear-filled lives. Instead, we will recognize what God has done. We will meet those God reached through something we did. And we will stand in joyful awe at the character of God.

For now, in the hard times we must learn to examine ourselves to consider where we are putting our trust. The difficulty before us may be God’s “wake-up call.” If so, it doesn’t matter what we do in the situation. It won’t get better because it isn’t about the trial; it is about your heart!

We must “fix” our eyes on Jesus, who is the author and perfector of our faith. We must focus on what He did for us and what He has given to us as a result. We are now citizens of the Kingdom of God. It is our job to dwell on His faithfulness, trust Him for all things, and keep before us the picture of the home He is preparing for us.

He is able to do “exceeding abundantly beyond all we can ask or imagine.” It is time for us to act like we believe those words.

[1] Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. and R. Kent Hughes, Isaiah: God Saves Sinners, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005), 159. [2] Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. and R. Kent Hughes, Isaiah: God Saves Sinners, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005), 161.