Sermon Tone Analysis

Indictment of the Lord

So we have shared a great deal of the Lord’s complaint with his people.

Israel and Judah alike have fell into sin, and God has sent punishment upon them for the way they have lived and acted.

But yet, in the midst of sin, there is hope.

God has promised that a remnant would be saved on the last day.

So lets begin this morning as we continue in this study.

Verse 1

So the chapter begins with a call for the people to pay attention, to hear and listen what the Lord is about to tell them.

The Lord calls for them to arise, stand up and get ready to speak , to defend your case before the mountains.

The mountains are serving as jury if you will, they will hear and decide the punishment of the nation.

Why are they called to plead their case before these objects, like hills and mountains… They have stood by and watched, they have witnessed how Israel has lived in relation to the covenant of God.

Here is an idea of what is happening.

And this naturally feeds into verse 2

So the mountains are called to hear the charges the Lord is bringing His case against the people… When He says He will contend with Israel, he is speaking of Judah but there are those in the Northern Kingdom as well that He is addressing.

Twice in this verse the Lord has used the word indictment, There are sure certain charges against these people, He has keep a perfect record of all done, good and bad.

Noe verse 3

Notice the Lord called them ‘my people” that is covenant language.

They were His people and He was their God.

And He poses the question, “...what have I done to you?”

The idea here is like this, what more could I have done for you my people?

I have not burdened you or wearied you...

The term wearied is the idea of burdened, I have not done this is reminiscent of what Jesus will say to the people in Matthew 11:28-30

The Lord has always cared for his people, He most certainly did not make life hard on the people.

But sadly they didn’t allow Him to walk with them and care for them as He wanted too.

He calls for them to answer Him his charges, it is like the idea of “what do you have to say for yourselves.”

Now verse 4

Listen to the Lord’s aid..

He reminded them how He brought the people (their ancestors) out from the land of bondage.

There is a little word play there, essentially the Lord is saying instead of weighing you down, burdening you, I brought you up out of the land of bondage.

I gave your freedom.

In truth He tells them, I have given you life. the law and even gave you great leaders.

I set Moses over you as the spiritual leader and along with Aaron as a priest and finally Miriam as a prophetess and poet among the people.

And even now, they have a good king Hezekiah, and they have prophets with Isaiah, Micah and Hosea during this time.

Now verse 5

And the Lord has even turned the enemies curses to blessings.

The Lord calls for them to remember back in time, remember what happened to King Balak when the King wanted the false prophet Balaam to pronounce a curse on Israel ( Numbers 22-24)

Balak wanted Balaam to call down a curse on Israel, but the Lord frustrated Balak’s plan and forced Balaam to prophesy good for Israel.

Listen to this action in Deut 23....

So in all of this, the Lord has exhorted his people to remember how he brought them from the plain of Moab to Canaan.

The Lord declares I have been and continue to be faithful, but what about you all.

Now we enter into a new section as the Lord speaks to them.

Verses 6-7

So now the defendant Israel gets the chance to respond to the Lord.

so the collective people express this response.

The people begin by asking what they should bring to the Lord to please Him when they come to worship Him.

They tell the truth , He is an exalted God

Then they make suggestions… burnt offerings, oil, rams… and sadly they even speak if they should offer their first born children to the Lord.

Will this atone for our sins....

Listen friends offerings never take the place of obedience to God’s will.

And God never would ask us to offer a child to Him.

The Ammonites sacrificed their children to their god Molech, and this practice spread to Phoenicia, Canaan, and even to the people of Israel.

So what does God desire.....

Lets look at verse 8

This verse stands as a motto of the alcove of religion in the reading room of the Congressional library in Washington.

The says I have told you man, man stands for corporate Israel.

God does not desire ritual sacrifices apart form a changed life.

A changed life is one that is given over completely to the covenant Lord.

So God’s people much change their heart and thier ways

So God gives three requirements...

A. Act Justly… it doesn’t mean talk about it, it means to do it yourself

B. Love Mercy… Mercy here equates to God’s faithful covenant love.

C. Walk humbly with their God....Walk mean to live a certain way, to walk carefully with your God.

So God is calling us to treat people fairly, love others faithfully and live carefully, walk carefully in front of God.

Now verse 9

Since the people are very far from actin gin the spirit the Lord has just mentioned to them, he begins to rebuke sternly becasue of sin.

The voice of the Lord is calling, the city probably refers to Jerusalem and that would speak for the nation itself.

They were to fear the name, literally the Lord himself.

Man that is a big one.. mankind has forgotten that we live in the presence of a holy God and we should be careful.

But people sin openly, they throw it up in the face of God… how sad

And to fear the Lord also has the meaning of worship, we are called to worship him.

He is the one and only, our Holy God.

Now verses 10-12

Here the Lord provides other reasons for the soon coming punishment that they Lord will execute upon them.

The Lord begins asking shall I forget the wealthy wicked of Jerusalem.

These that have stored up their stolen treasures, can I forget those who cheat others for their own gain.

The Lord goes on and says can I forgive the merchants that cheat others, they give people less than what they paid for using faulty scales cheated the people.

Their pockets grew fat and the peoples belt lines smaller.

And finally verse 12 tells us that Jerusalem and it inhabitants, the rick there in are denounced again.

They became wealthy through greed and fruad.

Their evil oppressive attitudes and actions had infected the general populations of the city

They did evil, spoke evil and sadly the Lord says no one could be trusted there.

They were ripe for judgement, divine judgment.

Now verses 13-15

God is at work against you of Jerusalem, Judah, We know that by 722 the Assyrians were attacking Jerusalem, and then Babylon would come in just a hundred years.

all this was because of their sin.

God says they will eat and not be satisfied… because of their sin, their will not be enough to eat.

Locusts, plagues, blight, and or famine they will be hungry.

Next they will store up food, they will work in hopes of meeting their future needs, but sadly the enemies when they strike will carry off or burn up their food stores thus leaving them without..

The sword speaks of violence and destruction in battle.

finally in verse 15, the Lord says you will plant but sadly not harvest any crops.

The people will suffer..why.

Because of their sins.

Friends if God holds them accountable, how can people in our world today expect to escape judgment.

Sadly they will experience judgment because they refused to turn to God.

Nothing will be left because they refused to turn to the Lord and confess their sin

Now lets look at verse 16

God’s people are condemned for observing the statues or ways of Omri and his sinful son king Ahab.

Both of theses, Omri and Ahab were bad kings of the northern kingdom.

Omri founded a dynasty as well as Israel’s capital city in Samaria.

Samaria represented the polices these kings promoted, these evil, wicked ways and the Lord hates it.