The Message of Woe
Notes
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Intro:
Intro:
AG:
TS: The prominent thought in this passage is immanent disaster. The Walls of Samaria were the “crown” of a beautiful hill over looking a lush valley leading toward the Mediterranean. Ephraim, the Northern kingdom of Israel had fallen to the Assyrians, leaving a lesson for Jerusalem.
This makes up the first of 3 messages of woe.
RS:
1. Israel’s Rejection
1. Israel’s Rejection
A. The Northern 10 Tribes
A. The Northern 10 Tribes
1 The Sin
Ah, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine!
The northern Kingdom has become a nation of arrogant drunkards
Their excesses had prevailed before their fall to the Assyrians.
They were partying and playing in violation of God’s word and ignoring the warnings which God had sent through prophets. Their sinful pleasure and entertainment won out over living God’s way and repentance.
2 The suffering
Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong; like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest, like a storm of mighty, overflowing waters, he casts down to the earth with his hand.
The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden underfoot;
and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley, will be like a first-ripe fig before the summer: when someone sees it, he swallows it as soon as it is in his hand.
God Brought the Assyrians against His people, resulting in their deportation.
Isaiah used such forceful language to wake them to the dangers. The Assyrian conquest would be swift and total.
Figs ripened earlier in the summer before the regular harvest season. They were eaten as they ripened.
B. The Southern 2 Tribes
B. The Southern 2 Tribes
1 The Perversions
a Drunkenness
These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink; the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are swallowed by wine, they stagger with strong drink, they reel in vision, they stumble in giving judgment.
For all tables are full of filthy vomit, with no space left.
The priests and prophets are unable to carry out their responsibilities.
Even the religious leaders had abandoned righteous living and were so drunk, they couldn’t carry out their ministries.
They taught what people WANTED rather than what they NEEDED and thus led to further unrighteousness.
Paul warned us of this in our day:
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
People want to be encouraged and comforted rather than have their sin confronted.
Unfaithful teachers (Preachers) will give the audience what it wants rather than what it needs.
b Disdain
“To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast?
For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”
The religious leaders ridicule Isaiah’s warning
They didn’t like being treated like toddlers because they didn’t want to know the elementary truths of right and wrong.
They ridicule Isaiah’s teaching v. 10 in Hebrew is several words of only 1 syllable.
c Disbelief
1 In God’s Power
Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers, who rule this people in Jerusalem!
Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement, when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter”;
In times of danger, they turn to Egypt for help.
Judah should have learned from Israel, yet they had not.
Their faith in Egypt and thinking they were immune to invasion was a false hope.
2 In God’s Promise
Astonish yourselves and be astonished; blind yourselves and be blind! Be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not with strong drink!
They were like blind and drunk men.
Unable to comprehend Isaiah’s message about trusting God rather than Egypt..
d Deceit
Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”
You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?
They attempt to hide both their sin and themselves from God
They tried a “secret alliance” with Egypt, but you can’t hide from God!
2 The Punishment
God’s terrible wrath upon His people will be twofold
a for Judah, the horrors of the Babylonian Captivity
For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the Lord will speak to this people,
to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they would not hear.
And the word of the Lord will be to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”
Then your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming scourge passes through, you will be beaten down by it.
As often as it passes through it will take you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.
For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on, and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in.
For the Lord will rise up as on Mount Perazim; as in the Valley of Gibeon he will be roused; to do his deed—strange is his deed! and to work his work—alien is his work!
Now therefore do not scoff, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord God of hosts against the whole land.
Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts run their round.
Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me like an Ariel.
And I will encamp against you all around, and will besiege you with towers and I will raise siegeworks against you.
And you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak, and from the dust your speech will be bowed down; your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost, and from the dust your speech shall whisper.
The people refuse to listen to God, so He will send the enemy like a flood to destroy them.
b For all Israel, a spiritual sleep, causing the people in the blindness to later reject their own Messiah
therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’
And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”
And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”
And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,
The events of the future have been made like a sealed book.
3 The parable
Give ear, and hear my voice; give attention, and hear my speech.
Does he who plows for sowing plow continually? Does he continually open and harrow his ground?
When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill, sow cumin, and put in wheat in rows and barley in its proper place, and emmer as the border?
For he is rightly instructed; his God teaches him.
Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin, but dill is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod.
Does one crush grain for bread? No, he does not thresh it forever; when he drives his cart wheel over it with his horses, he does not crush it.
This also comes from the Lord of hosts; he is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom.
Isaiah compares God’s workings among nations to those of a farmer working his soil.
God worked His purpose
sometimes judgment, sometimes relief
ALL to call them to repentance.
2. Israel’s Restoration
2. Israel’s Restoration
A. The Redeemer
A. The Redeemer
therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’
Jesus Christ Himself is Israel’s chief cornerstone
He is the only sure foundation upon which we an build a life.
Cornerstone:
A cornerstone is a useful part of a building, especially in ancient times, because it serves as a principal stone placed at a corner of an edifice to guide the workers in their course to complete the masonry.
It serves as a foundation for other masonry layouts and that is why this building block is the most important part of ancient construction methods. It makes all construction areas align and measure correctly.
B. The Redemption
B. The Redemption
1 He will provide justice and strength for His people.
In that day the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people,
and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
He will be the pride and joy of the remnant.
He alone is able to bring lasting Justice.
2 He will provide victory and protection for His people.
But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff. And in an instant, suddenly,
you will be visited by the Lord of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.
And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her, shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.
As when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he is eating, and awakes with his hunger not satisfied, or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he is drinking, and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched, so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.
For the ruthless shall come to nothing and the scoffer cease, and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off,
Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall no more be ashamed, no more shall his face grow pale.
Israel’s enemies will disappear, and the people will no longer be afraid.
In the final judgment, all enemies will be destroyed.
Those who fought His people will be the judged rather then being the ones to bring judgment
Yes, Israel and Judah would fall, but they would rise again!
3 He will provide healing and joy for His people
Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?
In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.
The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.
who by a word make a man out to be an offender, and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right.
For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction.”
The roles of the mighty and weak will be reversed.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
We often want justice now, but It will only come in God’s time.
This message of woe and then encouragement to Israel applies to us as well
Sin will be judged. We should listen to God’s word and preachers and teachers who teach the truth and repent.
The righteous will be restored. God wins in the end! Be encouraged. Keep the faith!