God Judges His People
Notes
Transcript
Intro:
Intro:
Judgment on Jerusalem
Judgment on Jerusalem
The Revelation
The Revelation
Isaiah sees a vision of a future attack against Jerusalem by a powerful and cruel enemy (probably either Assyria or Babylon)
The oracle concerning the valley of vision. What do you mean that you have gone up, all of you, to the housetops,
you who are full of shoutings, tumultuous city, exultant town? Your slain are not slain with the sword or dead in battle.
All your leaders have fled together; without the bow they were captured. All of you who were found were captured, though they had fled far away.
Therefore I said: “Look away from me; let me weep bitter tears; do not labor to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
For the Lord God of hosts has a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the valley of vision, a battering down of walls and a shouting to the mountains.
And Elam bore the quiver with chariots and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield.
Your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.
The valley of vision is a reference to Israel
It is based on the fact that God often revealed Himself to His people in Jerusalem through visions.
The people were not repentant
They had alack of vision and awareness of God’s wrath which was about to fall upon them
they thought their status as “God’s People” exempted them judgment and gave them a license to sin!
What is the matter with you?” (what do you mean…)
The prophet confronts them and attempts to snap them to awareness
They were partying when they should be repenting!
They were celebrating for all the wrong reasons!
They had so little awareness of reality.
Babylon or Assyria both happened
Assyria: 711 or 701
Assyria had attacked Jerusalem and God delivered her
This prompted a celebratory display
Babylon: 586
Babylon actually captured Jerusalem in 586 BC
Death came through starvation or disease as Babylonians besieged
Rulers fled (v3)
Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, by the king’s garden, and the Chaldeans were around the city. And they went in the direction of the Arabah.
But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him.
Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence on him.
They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains and took him to Babylon.
They fled as cowards rather than standing to defend, yet were still captured.
The Reason
The Reason
Judah in the past has turned against God, so God will turn against Judah.
He has taken away the covering of Judah. In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest,
and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool,
and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall.
You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.
In that day the Lord God of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth;
and behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
The Lord of hosts has revealed himself in my ears: “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,” says the Lord God of hosts.
12 and 13 reveal the reason.
God had sent Assyria and delivered them as a warning
Instead of repenting, they partied!
They missed the point
They were arrogant, congratulating themselves
They were sinful,
Idolatry, immorality and injustice were the behavior of the day
Instead of seeing God’s judgment and repenting, they just celebrated the deliverance
They needed to repent
AP: God hold us to the same standard today!
but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another.
I can’t point to a specific disaster or attack and say with certainty, See! That is God’s judgment!
HOWEVER: God judges His people! God judges nations! Any disaster, natural or supernatural, SHOULD be a warning to us.
Is God judging? Is there sin from which we should repent?
Let it be a wake up call!
Let us never get so off target that we miss the point like Jerusalem did
Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he uttered,
He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth.
Judgment on Shebna
Judgment on Shebna
His removal (Is 22:15-19)
His removal (Is 22:15-19)
God will discard this greedy and pompous palace administrator, who disgraces his office, and will allow him to be carried off into captivity.
Shebna, as steward, was probably second only to the king, and thus bore great responsibility
Thus says the Lord God of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him:
What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock?
Behold, the Lord will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you
and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master’s house.
I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station.
In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the Lord has spoken.”
Shebna was corrupt and promoted himself instead of doing his job
One mentioned is creating a tomb fit for a king to memorialize himself
All the while, he should have been calling Israel back to God’s standard and be meeting the needs of the people.
Other references later call him a scribe showing that this prophesy is fulfilled and the demotion occured just as God said. He even went into captivity and died far away from the elaborate tomb he built
His replacement
His replacement
Eliakim, the godly son of Hilkiah, will be chosen to assume the duties of the disgraced Shebna.
In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,
and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.
And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father’s house.
And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father’s house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons.
Eliakim was just opposite!
“My servant”-
illustrates his devotion to God
Held keys to house of David
entrusted with controlling who could enter the king’s presence
AP: Which steward is you?
Self-serving
spend time and effort on yourself, your image, your comfort?
This selfishness is running rampant today!
Our actions reveal the truth
Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.
By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
God’s servant
spend time and effort on serving the Lord
includes living righteously by His standard
Includes loving God with all you have
Includes loving your neighbor as yourself
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
Conclusion:
Conclusion: