Oct. 1, 2017 PM Service - Wounds that Speak by Conley Owens

The Meaning of Suffering as God’s Speech

Is speaking to say that he has already spoken. They didn't understand him the first time through their suffering, and so this must be interpreted for them in a more explicit way. If a child disobeys over and over and gets punished, if it still keeps disobeying, usually there's the sit-down, right?

The teenager who's going off breaking curfew and getting grounded over and over, you know, you have the sit-down with him, and you explain to him, look, this is what's happened. This is why you've been punished each of these times.

This is what I expect to see in the future. God, through Isaiah right now, is sitting the people of Judah down, explaining to them what's been going on. And right now you, God is sitting you down, explaining to you what is going on.

Why is it that you suffer? What is God speaking to you? Isaiah uses two analogies to describe the people of Judah. He uses the analogy of a body, the analogy of a city. So I'd like to look at the analogy of a body first.

That is in verse 5, 5 and 6. So this body represents Judah, and these wounds are their suffering, and this is not something that has just happened from within or arbitrarily. They are struck down. This is something that God has done to them.

He has punished them. Now there are three things that I think we should notice about their suffering. First, that suffering, even though it's coming from the outside, it is natural. The more they rebel, the more they're struck down, the more they're wounded and have sores.

The less they rebel, the less they're struck down. And so even though this is coming from the outside, and this is coming from God, their suffering and their sin is so inextricably linked, you could call it the effects of the poison of sin.

Another thing to notice about this is that this suffering is total. You know, he says, the whole head is sick, the whole heart faint, from the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it.

People think that they can relegate the effects of sin to one part of their life or another, but you can't do that. In 1 Corinthians, Paul says that the church is like a body, and if one part suffers, then the whole body suffers.

Right? And this analogy kind of makes sense to us. If your finger hurts, you don't say, oh my finger hurts, but I feel fine. No, you are you, so you identify with this finger and you hurt. If that is true for the body, how much more is it true for the soul?

The soul doesn't have, you know, there's no finger of the soul or foot to the soul. The soul is indivisible. If you touch any part of the soul, if any part of the soul is affected by sin, the whole spiritual health of the man is affected.

These are the effects of sin. They are total. They are natural, and they are total. In addition, these wounds, they are resilient. They don't go away on their own. He says they're not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil.

Now if you were to get a cut, it would scab up, and you weren't to treat it. It would scab up and scar up, and it'd be fine. But these aren't healing. Why not? Because it's not as though this happened and then it's set to heal.

They continue disobeying, and so they continue being struck down, and there's no chance for any of their wounds to heal. God's punishment on them by sending enemies or by having their villages razed, any of these various things that have happened to them, there's no chance for them to recover because they continue to sin.

They continue to rebel, and so they continue to be struck down. This is not a good state for a body to be in. Next he describes Jerusalem as a city, which it is a city, but he describes it as a besieged city, even though it's not actually besieged.

Your country lies desolate. This is verse 7. Your cities are burned with fire, and your very presence foreigners devour your land. It is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners, and the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field.

Like a besieged city. So even though Jerusalem is not yet affected, God describes it as though it has already been affected. It might as well be. This is the spiritual condition of the city. And if 5 through 6 were describing Judah as a body, now we have just Jerusalem, just the capital being described as a besieged city, because it is the leadership of that capital city that is to be blamed for the wickedness of the whole nation.

Listen to some of the phrases that are used. The country lies desolate. The cities are burned with fire. So all the surrounding area, all the surrounding cities are suffering because of you, the capital city, who is especially to blame for this wickedness.

Foreigners devour your land. It is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners. The problem with that is not just that the nation is being attacked. It's that it's being attacked by foreigners. Jerusalem has this responsibility to keep the nation clean, and part of that cleanness is all the ceremonies that God has set up, and these foreigners do not respect those ceremonies.

They are unclean. They come in and attack. They are bringing uncleanness into the land of Judah. You know, he calls Jerusalem the daughter of Zion. Zion is the mountain that Judah is on and around, but Zion is also the mountain where the temple is.

So in speaking of the daughter of Zion, he's talking about the political power as being subservient to that religious power, that religious authority. These political leaders, they have a special obligation to God that they are failing to fulfill, and because of that, the whole country is desolate.

Like a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field. Wow. This is a very confusing phrase. What exactly—what's wrong with cucumbers? I like cucumbers. But what this is describing is a practice that farmers would have.

During harvest, they would create some kind of shack for shade, and then when the harvest is gone, the whole field is empty. They just leave the shack there. And so this shack that was already pathetic becomes even more pitiful after they've left it.

The harvest is gone. There's no fruit or anything. It's just this empty field and a shack. I grew up in Virginia, and if you go out into the woods very far, you'll oftentimes find shacks in the middle of the woods.

I think—I'm not sure, but I think they were for moonshine, for stills. And some of these—and sometimes you'll find houses, you know, no roadway access, but just a house right in the middle of the woods.

And I don't think they've been used for a hundred years. They're really—they're very decrepit. Some of them—one I have found that has a second story. I was very scared to walk around the second story.

But this is not a good condition. You don't want to be a shack out in the middle of a cucumber field. You don't want to be a moonshine shack out in the middle of the woods. And what is it that has caused this people's failing condition?

Why are they being attacked by so many enemies? The answer is because of their sin. Verse 4. Ah, sinful nation! People laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly. They have forsaken the Lord.

They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are utterly estranged. Okay, do you hear all those phrases? Sinful nation, laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly. It is their sin that's the reason that they're so— they're so afflicted.

And Isaiah calls God the Holy One of Israel. This is a phrase that's common in Isaiah, but it's fairly rare outside of Isaiah. And it probably has something to do with chapter 6 when Isaiah is commissioned and all the angels are singing, holy, holy, holy.

That's probably why he calls God the Holy One of Israel so frequently. But here it has a special importance, because here it contrasts with the people's wickedness. God is holy. These people are wicked.

By their wickedness, they've despised the Holy One. They are estranged. It's because their sin, because God is holy—holy means separate from sin— he cannot be around their sin. Their sin has estranged them from him.

It has separated them. And since they're the ones who are sinning, it is they themselves that have removed themselves from God. So on one hand, we talk about this being God's punishment to the people.

On the other hand, the people have done this to themselves. They have— there's only one source of blessing. That source is God. If you remove that from that source of blessing, there's nowhere else so that you can be blessed.

You can only receive curses. So what is it? Yeah, think about your own life and whether or not this might be the case with you. If you have relationship issues, are they due to sin? Are they being fed with passivity, with backstabbing?

You have family issues that are being fed with anger. Do you have discontentment that's being fed with lust? There's a lot of things that could be going on, reasons why you're suffering. And at this point, you might be thinking to yourself, well, hang on, not every bit of suffering is God speaking to me.

Not every bit of suffering is because of sin. Yes, I believe it is. And I believe that every bit of suffering is God speaking to you. Now you might say to yourself, what about the book of Job? You know, doesn't the book of Job show that not every bit of suffering is, you know, because of some sin?

Job didn't have some sin. It was something else entirely. That didn't explain his suffering. Think about the book of Job for a second. Satan shows up, challenges God. God responds to that challenge by afflicting Job.

The next chapter, chapter two, Satan shows up again, challenges God. God responds to that challenge by afflicting Job, and Job remains faithful. But then after that, Satan doesn't show up again. If that was all God was trying to do, if all he was trying to do was answer Satan's challenge, why does Job go on suffering for another 40 chapters?

God had something to say to Job through his suffering. He speaks out of the whirlwind. He speaks out of the whirlwind and tells Job, you still have heart issues. Though you were faithful to me, relatively speaking, you still doubt my wisdom and what I do.

And so it is through Job's suffering that Job learns. Think about it this way also. All suffering either falls into the two categories of punishment or discipline. If a wicked person is punished, that's just.

If a wicked person is disciplined, that doesn't make sense because God only disciplines his children. If something happens to the wicked that's neither discipline nor punishment, then God is capricious, afflicting people arbitrarily.

Now for someone who is a child of God, if they are punished, well, that would be unjust because Jesus has already paid for their sins. If they are disciplined, that's appropriate. If they are neither punished nor disciplined, then God has failed to protect his children.

Every bit of suffering is either discipline or it's punishment. Every bit of suffering that you experience, every paper cut, is God speaking to you. Now like with Job, it may not be some specific thing you did to bring about this specific suffering, but God could be trying to teach you patience.

He could be trying to teach you to trust him, to trust him better. I don't know what it is God is speaking to you, but he is speaking to you. He is calling. He's calling you to repent, to grow in holiness.

He's calling you to think on his son who suffered so that we would not have to suffer anymore and would have a hope of eternal life. These are the things he is calling you to. Listen to some of this calling.

Hearing God’s Rebuke in Isaiah 1

Verse two. These children are, of course, the people of Judah. They're called the people in the next verse. And they have rebelled against the Lord. They have rebelled by not listening to him, by not hearing him.

He speaks to them. He's spoken through prophets in the past. They don't listen. He speaks through suffering, as we're talking about now. They don't listen. He speaks now through Isaiah. And many of them will continue not to listen.

He makes a comparison to the oxen and the donkeys. Now, the oxen and donkeys are some of the lowest creatures. That's why there's that Christmas song that talks about Jesus being born in a lowly condition.

It says, Right? Right? Oxen and donkeys are lowly creatures. And yet, even they have the dignity to respond when their master calls them. They're some of the dumbest creatures. And yet, they know their master's voice.

When the donkey is called to eat, he knows where the trough is. That's what the crib is, by the way. He knows where that trough is. And yet, Judah, Israel, does not understand this nation. He says, In summoning the whole world to witness against this crime, God is saying not only that he is making something akin to an oath, but he's also saying that the heavens and the earth should be able to agree with him.

They should be able to sympathize with what's going on. Because it's not just oxen and donkeys that do as they were created to do. It's the whole heavens. It's the whole earth that do as they were created to do.

The whole earth operates as it's supposed to. All the heavens operate as they are supposed to. The oxen and the donkey. The planets, they go around. There are stars just as they're supposed to. Nothing out of place.

And yet, those who are supposed to be God's people do not listen to God's voice. And so God asks later on in verse 5, Why will you be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? He is calling them. He is calling them out of their sin.

He's calling you. Verse 9 says, If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah. Now Sodom— Sodom and Gomorrah are the wicked nations that were destroyed by fire.

And God is saying that the sins of Judah are roughly the equivalent of the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. That they're just as bad, so bad that they deserve the same fate. Now if you think about that, that might not make sense to you.

Why would some, you know, some disregard for God and the worship of him, how would that equate to, you know, beating down people's door to sexually molest the guests of other people? How does that compare?

God has a special—has a special requirement. There's a special obligation put on those children who he raised up, who he nurtured, and he has been merciful to these people. And if you think to yourself, well, am I such a recipient of mercy?

You know, they were God's—they were God's chosen people. Do I fall into that category? In the New Testament, who's God's chosen people? It's the church. And whether or not you're a member of a church, if you're sitting in this place among that people, you're a recipient of that mercy.

Hearing the words of God, you have been given a mercy even greater than that mercy extended to Judah. In the book of Romans in chapter 9, Paul relates—Paul quotes this verse and uses it to describe those Jews who believe in Jesus, because not all the— not all the Jews turned away from Jesus, but some of them believed.

So that shows that this is not— while Isaiah has in mind the fact that not all the people have been destroyed by physical military enemies, Paul is telling us that this is also true spiritually. People have been spared spiritually, even though they deserve otherwise.

If this is true of them, the Jews, this is true of everybody, because everybody has received God's mercy, especially those people who hear his words, who have been around his church. They have received a special mercy and must respond to him.

They must hear the voice of God when he speaks, and even when he speaks through suffering. Maybe you don't feel like you can gin up the desire to repent, to come to God. Maybe you're fine with your wounds.

They're not so bad. Maybe he's been speaking to you your whole life, and you just don't want to come. There is an answer to this. There's the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because he suffered and died in your place, you can have a hope that you don't have to suffer anymore.

Now, you see, this is not just good news because it tells you how you can be saved. It's also good news because it is the way of salvation. Now, that distinction may not be clear to you, but what I'm saying is that if God speaks to you and tells you that you need to repent by by giving you suffering, by either punishing you, disciplining you, if he does that, and if you even recognize that this is because of my sin, and if I repent, this would stop, that isn't necessarily going to—that isn't going to turn you to him.

You must have a message of hope. You must have something greater to look forward to. You must have the promises that, similar to what Isaiah gives later, that you can be made as white as snow, that this can cease.

That is the gospel. That is the good news. And Jesus is the fullest message that—his death is the fullest expression of that gospel. So if there is some hope that you can actually— the suffering that you've never been able to listen to in the past, or that you've had difficulty listening to in the past— if some measure of hope can cause you to listen to that, then thinking on Jesus Christ and what he has done for you can very much so cause you to listen to that message of suffering and what it is telling you, how it is telling you that you should trust in the Lord more.

You should believe in him. Because if you don't, you are becoming more and more like a shack, more and more like a wounded body, festering. You're on a road to destruction. You know, trees falling down on fire.

Take the off ramp. Listen to his voice. So if you have never trusted in Christ, this is the only way of salvation. If you have never believed that God could save you, believing is the only way that you can be saved.

He speaks to you now through your suffering, letting you know of your sin, and he speaks softly now. One day he will speak much louder, and if you find it bearable now, there's a day when you no longer will be able to bear it.

For those of you who consider yourself children of God, do not think that, oh, my suffering is just arbitrary. It has nothing to do with with sin. God's not speaking to me. God is speaking to you as well.

And if you have difficulty hearing his voice in your suffering, seeing what he's saying to you in his suffering, then contemplate what he says to you in Jesus' suffering, that you can have that suffering end, that you can turn to him, grow in holiness, eventually, through his power, through his blood, be made perfectly holy after death, and have eternal life.

That's the gospel, and that is what Isaiah has for us in this first chapter. Let's pray. Dear Holy Father, I pray that we would be able to hear your voice in these words, and that we would be able to hear your voice in the suffering, that we would be able to hear your voice in the suffering of Jesus.

I pray that this people would turn to you, both those who have never trusted in you before and those who already have. I pray that we would not not be ignorant of the things you say to us. In Jesus' name, amen.