God's Decree Upon Israel
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Intro:
Intro:
I. The Devastation upon Israel
I. The Devastation upon Israel
A What Israel has done to God
A What Israel has done to God
“Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord, “who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin;
who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!
Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.
For though his officials are at Zoan and his envoys reach Hanes,
everyone comes to shame through a people that cannot profit them, that brings neither help nor profit, but shame and disgrace.”
An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb. Through a land of trouble and anguish, from where come the lioness and the lion, the adder and the flying fiery serpent, they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that cannot profit them.
Egypt’s help is worthless and empty; therefore I have called her “Rahab who sits still.”
And now, go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever.
For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord;
who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions,
leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
1 They Make plans without consulting God
Hezekiah’s advisors encouraged him to reject God and trust in Egypt for security and help against the invading Assyrians.
Relying on any one other than God is wrong!
God has specifically warned them against this
Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’
They made their plans without consulting and even outright rejecting God’s perspective on the issues.
2 They demand that their prophets cease from preaching on sin
who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions,
leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
They urged Isaiah & other prophets to stop preaching about the Holy One of Israel
3 They listen to soothing sermons.
They wanted good positive vibes instead of preaching repentance
They rejected truth which corrected them for lies to comfort them.
B What God will do to Israel
B What God will do to Israel
Since they rejected the word of God, they would hear from God’s judgment
1 His judgment will fall on them like a bulging wall
Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them,
therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;
and its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.”
Two illustrations
They will fall like a suddenly collapsing wall
They will be smashed like pottery
Destruction would come suddenly and be complete
2 A thousand of them will flee from 1 enemy soldier
and you said, “No! We will flee upon horses”; therefore you shall flee away; and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”; therefore your pursuers shall be swift.
A thousand shall flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill.
Their military would be completely routed!
The same ratio, 1000 to 1, had previously been used to describe Israel’s victories!
And as for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues.
One man of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the Lord your God who fights for you, just as he promised you.
This is a reversal of her fortunes do to a rebellion
II. The Invitation to Israel
II. The Invitation to Israel
For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling,
Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.
Turn to him from whom people have deeply revolted, O children of Israel.
For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.
God repeats invitations urging His people to Repent and Return
Part of their problem is that the had often done the 1st half: repent, they turned from some of their sins and cried out for deliverance, but they never followed through. Lasting change didn’t come.
When we are wandering away from God, the same invitation comes to us
Repent-
Turn away from sins
It starts with acknowledging that the actions we are doing is sin
If God calls it sin, it is SIN
not a choice, not something with which we are born, not an outdated concept from ancient times
SIN
1 an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law.
Divine LAW not popular opinion!
It was never a subject of debate. No vote was held. God gave us HIS WORD.
every list of sins in the Bible, both OT and NT, is based on God’s unchanging law.
When in sin, we must first STOP SINNING
Return-
Return to God and follow Him faithfully
Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
Be careful to DO
All the Law
but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—
to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.
Paul in his great letter explaining grace reminds us of the obedience of faith
We believe GOD so we obey God!
III. The Salvation of Israel
III. The Salvation of Israel
The lord will do several things for Israel:
A. Comfort His people and hear their prayers
A. Comfort His people and hear their prayers
For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you.
God will be gracious and respond to their cries
Jerusalem would be rebuilt and He would remain attentiveness
God does discipline His children, but He NEVER casts us away!
B. Teach and guide them
B. Teach and guide them
And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher.
And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.
Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!”
They would again receive and follow God’s instruction!
They will follow Him faithfully
C. Give them abundant crops
C. Give them abundant crops
And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures,
and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork.
And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the Lord binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.
The economy of the land would be restored
Their crops and livestock would flourish
Even nature will be restored (brighter sunlight)
This is metaphorical and possibly points to future eternal Kingdom
D. Defeat their enemies
D. Defeat their enemies
Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke; his lips are full of fury, and his tongue is like a devouring fire;
his breath is like an overflowing stream that reaches up to the neck; to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.
And the Lord will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones.
The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the Lord, when he strikes with his rod.
And every stroke of the appointed staff that the Lord lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them.
For a burning place has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.
For thus the Lord said to me, “As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey, and when a band of shepherds is called out against him he is not terrified by their shouting or daunted at their noise, so the Lord of hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill.
Like birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it; he will spare and rescue it.”
“And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man; and a sword, not of man, shall devour him; and he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be put to forced labor.
His rock shall pass away in terror, and his officers desert the standard in panic,” declares the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.
Though judged by enemies, those enemies will be defeated.
E. Fill their hearts with joy
E. Fill their hearts with joy
You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel.
They would rejoice and celebrate the Lord’s feasts in victory
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
God judges sin and sinners
Accept His invitation to repent and return to faithfulness
See His marvelous salvation