Isaiah Lesson 26

Lord God, we come together in anticipation that your Holy Spirit is going to speak to our hearts. We know, Father, that you've given this word, it's the inspired word, and it's the word that is, it's intended to draw us to you and to learn about having a relation.

It's your love letter to us, Father. So this morning, as Pastor Jeff gives us your word out of chapter 15, 16 in Isaiah, we continue to study the oracles, Father, for your power to speak through Jeff, prepare our hearts that we might draw to you.

In Jesus' name, amen.

David Gushy's Shift from Biblical Sexual Ethics to Empathy

Amen. David Gushy is a prominent Christian ethicist, a professor at Mercer University, teaching Christian ethics. He also taught at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, so he's known nationally and is kind of prominent in the field.

David Gushy once taught the biblical sexual ethic, but in recent years, he has departed from that and endorsed same-sex behavior, sexual behavior. He joins a long line of people like Matthew Vines and Rachel Held Evans, and even many of you will recognize Tony Campolo.

What was it that ultimately led to David Gushy's capitulation on this issue? Well, it's probably the word empathy. When we think of the word empathy, it means to put yourself in somebody else's shoes and to feel what they feel and to live as if their reality is your reality.

David Gushy has a younger sister who is a lesbian, and shortly after her coming out of the closet, his empathy towards her situation influenced his theological position. He's not uncommon in our culture.

Let's open the word of God and look at the precedent that we have for such things in the nation of Moab. So turn, if you will, to Isaiah 15 and 16. And John, would you like to pray? You already prayed.

I'd love to pray, but I didn't already. You did already pray. So Lord, we do seek your wisdom and your help as we open your word today. Okay, Moab began as a nation through a man who came into the world through sexual immorality.

Lot was notable for pitching his tent towards a town that was notable for sexual immorality, the place called Sodom. Lot at first pitched his tent towards Sodom, and then eventually he moved into Sodom, and then in a sense, he was a part of Sodom, being one of the elders at the gate.

His family was unable to avoid the corruption of Sodom. His wife, Lot, looked back because of her attachment to Sodom, and then after his daughters escaped with him, they got him so drunk that he didn't recognize them in having sex with them, and two sons were born to that immoral, incestuous relationship, Ammon and Moab.

Moab to the oldest. So Moab is a man who was born out of uniquely degraded sexuality, and this is the birth of a nation that comes from him. Now, for the history of Moab, you see a continued sexual immorality.

There was a king of Moab that you will recognize his name, Balak, and he saw the Israelites coming, and so he called on a prophet from a neighboring town named Balam to come and curse the Israelites, but when even this pagan prophet of a kind, a false prophet, came, even he prophesied in favor of Israel.

However, through his influence and the influence of the Moabites, what actually led to the downfall of Israel was not their outward force, but rather their sexual immorality. We learn from Revelation chapter two that Balam taught the children of Israel to sin and to fall into sexual immorality.

This is the history of Moab, a very sexually immoral people. They're also a people that are constantly getting trampled underfoot. You see that the Ammonites very often conquered them. Sihon, the king of Ammon, conquered them, and then the Israelites fought Sihon and conquered both, and very often you see Moab as kind of getting trampled underfoot.

It's almost a pitiful story. When you read and first hear how this poor boy was born into the world because of this incestuous relationship, you feel bad for Moab, and there can be a tendency in reading the story of Moab and how degraded the people are, and you picture the children born into that debauchery and growing up in it, and then constantly being overrun by enemies, you can begin to feel empathy for the Moabite people, but there's a difference between the biblical word sympathy that we have in first Peter three and in Hebrews 4 .15, that Jesus is able to sympathize with our weakness, and what you see in the problematic behavior of empathy.

You don't find the word empathy in scripture, yet in the last 20 years or so in our culture, empathy has become a buzzword. In fact, I'll take that back. There is one place that you'll find empathy in the Bible.

It's a mistranslation of first Peter three by the NIV. The New International Version alone, as far as I can find, translates the word sympathy as empathy, and I think at that particular point at Hebrews 4 .15.

The other versions don't do that. They use the Greek word from which we get the term sympathy, sympathies in the Greek. Sound more like empathy or sympathy? Sympathy. So there is a distinction. We're gonna see what that looks like in the sorrow, the heartbreak of Isaiah 15 .5, but a heartbreak that does not lead to putting oneself in the shoes of another and acting by emotion, but rather feeling pain and heartbreak for the suffering of another person without capitulating to the standards that would come with an emotion-driven choice.

So today, let's read. I'll call on John to be the primary reader just because that way the microphone will pick it up, but you guys please read along. We are picking up, again, in the judgment oracles, the judgment oracles against the nations, and these are being preached by Isaiah in Israel, and specifically, actually, in Judah in the southern kingdom, probably in the city of Jerusalem.

They are meant to be heard by Judah, although it'd be fine if that message got out to the nations. It's not secret in that way, but it's directed to Judah for their encouragement, and they will hear about the judgment coming on their enemies.

Now, it seems to me that what happens is the Assyrian army is advancing from the east, and they will come down upon Babylon, which is what John taught about over the last couple of weeks. Babylon in the far east will be the first to fall to the Assyrian influence, and I think that's what the author had in mind.

The fall of Babylon in 689 BC, not the later fall that we'll read about in terms of like the book of Daniel, when the transition of power from the Babylonian to the Medo-Persian empire happens, when Darius the Mede conquers the Babylonians.

This is an earlier fall of Babylon that we read about in chapter 13, and this is 689 BC. Well, the Assyrian army will then advance and also conquer Moab as you move to the west, and then going around the Dead Sea and up to the north, they'll come down through Tyre and eventually come neck deep around Jerusalem, but be unable to conquer the holy city because Hezekiah will pray and seek God's favor later in the book of Isaiah.

So what you have is the sweeping advance of the Assyrian army in judgment against the nations. It's God who wields them, but they do not so intend in their heart. Isaiah 10, they have their own intentions, their own wicked intentions for conquering nations and making cities into a pile of rubble.

They have no regard for the God of Israel. They consider Him just a local deity that they'll trample just like any other deity. So as they advance on Moab, they will conquer Moab, and it's pitiful, and we are to feel compassion and have sympathy, and we'll learn what the difference is there in verse five.

So John, would you read for me verses one to four first?

The oracle concerning Moab. Surely in a night, Er of Moab is devastated and ruined. Surely in a night, Ker of Moab is devastated and ruined. They have gone up to the temple and to Dibon, even to the high places to weep.

Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba. Everyone's head is bald and every beard is cut off. In their streets, they have girded themselves with sackcloth on their housetops, and in their squares, everyone is wailing, dissolved in tears.

Heshbon and Elalah also cry out. Their voices heard all the way to Jahaz. Therefore, the armed men of Moab cry aloud. His soul trembles within him.

Very good, thank you. So what you have here is the trampling of particular cities of Moab. Now, the language that you have here is reminiscent of earlier language. In Numbers 21, verses 26 to 31, you have Sihon, the king of the Amorites, conquering Moab.

And then Israel will do the conquering of both as Sihon refuses Israel passage as they come into the promised land. But listen to the ballad of the singers against Moab. Come to Heshbon, let it be built.

Let the city of Sihon be established. For fire came out from Heshbon, flame from the city of Sihon. It devoured Ar of Moab and swallowed the heights of the Arnon. Woe to you, O Moab. You are undone, O people of Chemosh.

He has made his sons fugitives and his daughters captives to an Amorite king, Sihon. So we overthrew them. Heshbon, as far as Dibon, perished. And we laid waste as far as Nofah. Fire spread as far as Mediba.

So flipping back now to Isaiah, you notice similar language. It's a history that keeps on repeating. In a sense, it's a generational curse that what has happened from the son of Lot, Moab, is that he has continued in the ways of his father, of Lot.

And Moab, as a people, has been sexually immoral, enticing the Israelites, and they get conquered again and again, trampled underfoot. There is a judgment that follows the sinful behavior. So you see Nebo, you see Mediba, these same cities mentioned.

They keep getting trampled underfoot and there is great weeping. Sorrow. They're sad. And this is something which breaks Isaiah's heart. Now notice in verse five.

John, will you read this for me? My heart cries out for Moab. His fugitives are as far as Zoar and Eglath-Shelish-Leah, for they go up the ascent of Luhith, weeping. Surely on the road to Heronium, they raise a cry of distress over their ruin.

Okay. This is very telling right here. This is very important actually. The word for what you read in verse five is sympathy. It is right and good for Christians to feel sympathy for suffering, regardless of how that suffering comes about.

When you see somebody suffering because of sexual immorality, it breaks your heart. The wisest man who ever lived was Solomon, apart from Jesus, who is omniscient. But Solomon wrote the Proverbs. And in the seventh Proverb, he tells about an unwise young man.

And this unwise young man sees a woman who he's attracted to and is drawn like a bird into a trap to sleep with her while her husband is away. And in Proverbs 7 .23, it says, till an arrow pierces its liver, as a bird rushes into a snare, he does not know that it will cost him his life.

Do you notice the sympathy that Solomon feels for this dear boy? He's sexually enticed. He's led away by his flesh. And in his sin, he goes to a woman that he's attracted to, but she's another man's wife.

The result of this sexual immorality is heartbreaking. This poor teenage boy will die. When the husband comes back, when it gets out in the city, like a bird shot through with an arrow, he will die. The judgment will come and it's heartbreaking.

But here's what does not happen in Proverbs 7. The sympathy does not turn into empathy. It doesn't become, well, let's put ourselves in this young man's shoes. How can a young man keep his way pure? The answer according to Psalm 119 is by guarding it according to your word.

The word takes precedent over the emotion. But if you switch that over and you put yourself in someone's shoes and you say, you know, I know my sister, David Gushy, has always struggled romantically. And I know she's never been attracted to boys.

And this has always been her lot in life. Put yourself in her shoes. Wouldn't you wanna be loved? And isn't love love? Wouldn't you wanna feel connection and companionship with another human being? You know, it's easy for you to say, white, heterosexual, male, Protestant, whatever the list of privileged position is in our culture.

It's easy for you to say that she should be celibate because you're attracted as a heterosexual in a way that's allowed in our culture. But she doesn't have that privilege that you have. Why don't you walk in her shoes for a minute?

Why don't you feel her situation? And you see how emotion can carry you along in this word empathy, which has been championed for the last 20 years, and lead a David Gushy to say, you know what, I stand with my sister.

And you know what, I'll perform the wedding. I'm an evangelical minister of the gospel, but from now on, all sexual activity is welcome. That's not what Solomon does. He warns about the piercing of the arrow and it breaks his heart.

In the same way, look at Isaiah 15, five. My heart cries out for Moab. Sympathy. I will turn to a couple of verses. Flip with me to 1 Peter chapter three. After a teaching on appropriate gender roles in marriage, verses one to seven, you have a word to all people, and particularly Christians in this context.

Verse eight and following, finally all of you have unity of mind. This is 1 Peter 3, eight. Sympathy. Brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Sympathy is taught in scripture. Turn back with me to Hebrews 4, 15.

To be sympathetic towards any kind of human suffering is to see that pain, to understand what pain is like. It would be close. Yeah, there'd probably be some parsing of difference, but you're feeling with.

Passion is the same word for like a pathos, a feeling, and to feel with them is similar to sympathy. You're feeling in sync with that. You're having feelings. Your heart goes out. You rejoice with those who rejoice.

You weep with those who weep, but you don't put yourself in that position of them and begin to allow the emotion of what they're feeling dictate the behavior. That's, I think, what happens with empathy.

So it says in verse 15. This is Hebrews 4, 15. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize. And that Greek word sympathize would give us that. With our weaknesses. Now, does that mean that he was tempted in every single possible temptation that any human would ever have?

No, but he's tempted in the kinds, you know? The lust of the flesh, the pride of life. What is the other one, the third one? The lust of flesh and the pride of life. In the way that Jesus was tempted three times kind of along those lines, in categories, but he wouldn't have had every single temptation.

For example, I don't think he would have been tempted with a homosexual desire or something like that, but he's been tempted for his flesh to feed in an inappropriate way when he had been fasting for 40 days by turning a rock into bread.

So we get the idea there. So the prophet here feels sympathy, but what follows is what's so striking. As pitiful as Moab becomes, judgment is not averted. In fact, let's read verses six to nine, John, if you will.

We're returning to Isaiah 15, six through nine. That was in 1 Peter 3, let me. Yeah, yeah.

Okay, there we go. You gotta be quick today, we're moving. For the waters of Nimrim are desolate. Surely the grass is withered. The tender grass dried out. There is no green thing. Therefore, the abundance which they have acquired and stored up, they carry off over the brook of Erebim.

For the cry of distress has gone around the territory of Moab. Its wall goes as far as Eglam, with its wailing even to Be 'erilim. For the waters of Dimun are full of blood. Surely I will bring added woes upon Dimun, a lion upon the fugitives of Moab and upon the remnant of the land.

Okay, very good.

So you see a lot of weeping. You see, your heart goes out. There is weeping, there's crying, there's wailing. Even the waters of Dimun, as my translation ESV has it, I think it's the same city referenced in Numbers 21.

This city on the southern part of Moab, and by the way, Moab is just a small strip of land. It's on the other side of the Dead Sea. So as you're coming in from Babylon, it's east of Israel. Just a small strip of land on the other side of the Dead Sea.

Here's a people that is just desolated. In a not too favorable environmental condition, kind of desert out there, not a great place to live, and the sexual immorality, and now just constantly trampled.

Here's their, this is wailing. So what does God do to that remnant, that small group of people that are left? It says, a lion for those of Moab who escape for the remnant of the land. God's judgment is not at all moved based on the sympathy that we see in verse five.

You see in verse five? My heart cries out. It is possible to hold on one hand, sympathy towards the sufferer, and on the other hand, the righteous standard of law. Isn't that amazing? And it seems so hard because this is, those who have escaped, like enough is enough.

There's only a small remnant of people left. And what does God do? After Assyria will overrun them. These are a people that are devastated. Little children left without parents. Individuals of a whole household.

That's all that's left. It says in verse nine, a lion for those who escape. And God has done this before. Look with me at 2 Kings 17, 24 to 26. One of the interpreters I was reading, I think it was the Bible Knowledge Commentary, said, well, this is a figurative lion that Assyria will come through even after you think they're done and still do some more killing.

I think this is a literal lion. Because of the precedent I see in 2 Kings 17, 24 to 26. I'll just read this because we're moving quickly. The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Kuthah, Avah, Hamath, and Saffarvim.

I also spare you from having to read those names. I'll just read them confidently like that's the right way to pronounce it. And placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities.

And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the Lord. Therefore, the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. So the king of Assyria was told, the nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the God of the land.

Therefore, he has sent lions among them. Behold, they're killing them because they don't know the law of the God of the land. Isn't this an interesting picture of the compatibilism we talk about? Assyria has this policy.

When they conquer a people, they take from among the remnant and relocate them to another place. And they bring people from other populations there to interbreed and intermarry to kind of break down the culture of that people and assimilate them into their empire.

It's rather smart actually to do that, right? If you wanna assimilate them as Assyrians, why not mix and match everybody up and break down any particular culture? And that's how the Samaritans came about.

Yeah, it was the northern tribe of Israel intermarrying with the Assyrians. So, but what happens here is even amongst this remnant people that's left after being conquered, there's these outbreaks of lions to the point where the king of Assyria is noticing it.

It's like, we're trying to get this thing rebuilt in Assyrian culture, but lions keep coming and eating everybody. His interpretation is, well, they don't know how to appease the God of that land. And therefore the God of that land is angry in sending lions because this just seems supernatural.

Like, how is it that there's like lions everywhere all of a sudden eating everybody? But what we know from this text, verse nine, again, get back there quick, John. Isaiah 15, nine, read it for me.

For the waters of Dimun are full of blood. Surely I will bring added woes upon Dimun, a lion upon the fugitives of Moab and upon the remnant of the land.

Look carefully at our text that John just read. And we need to pay attention to nouns and verbs when we study scripture. Who brings the lion? I. And who's the speaker here? It's God. Isaiah is speaking for God.

I will bring. So God does not empathize with the Moabite. Yeah. If lions overrun America, just like, we've already seen, we've seen COVID, you know, come through and then we saw race riots burn down the cities.

Then we saw election theft probably and nonsense all about. If we are overrun by lions in 2021, will we recognize that we're under judgment at that point? My goodness. What's that? Yeah, figuratively speaking.

But I'll tell you what, if we're overrun by lions and cops start putting them down, the outcry will be for the lions, not for the people they killed. Wouldn't it? I mean, remember when, didn't they have to shoot a lion in a zoo one time?

Cause he, it was a gorilla. And remember the outcry. I mean, how many 3 ,000 babies aborted every day in this country? I'm not saying that we should just try to kill, we should be trying to care for animals as we, but keep it in perspective.

The human life is, the lion tamer. Yeah. They had to put the lion down. Well, we put a dog down that attacks a kid in the neighborhood. We have commercials to save dogs, but we kill babies. Yeah. Right.

So here, we kind of got a little bit on a sidetrack there, but here we have lions sent by God. And you notice that God is doing two things here. One, there is to be human sympathy for suffering. And when I hear about, you know, someone who's always struggled with same-sex attraction and things like that, there is sympathy for that.

That's okay. But it just doesn't change the standard. It never changes the standard of God's word. And if someone then acts on that, as much as you feel sympathy for them, if they act on that, we need to warn that there is an arrow that will pierce you.

The Proverbs 7 warning is still in effect. And this is what God is... God made them male and female. And he blesses sex within marriage. And not otherwise. It's just God's... And when you see a culture completely depart from that and then come under judgment, we have sympathy for the suffering, especially for children that are raised out of sexual immorality and in the brokenness of such a society.

But it never changes the standard. So 16, one through five, John.

Send the tribute lamb to the ruler of the land, from cellar by the way of the wilderness to the mountain of the daughter of Zion. Then like fleeting birds or scattered nestlings, the daughters of Moab will be at the fords of Ammon.

Give us advice, make a decision, cast your shadow like night at high noon, hide the outcasts, do not betray the fugitive. Let the outcasts of Moab stay with you, be a hiding place to them from the destroyer.

For the extortioner has come to an end. Destruction has ceased. Oppressors have completely disappeared from the land. A throne will even be established in loving kindness. And a judge will sit on it in faithfulness in the tent of David.

Moreover, he will seek justice and be prompt in righteousness.

Refuge in Zion, the Lion and the Lamb, and the Tent of David

Okay, I don't know if you guys caught that just as we're reading quickly through, but that was an amazing, redemptive twist in the plot. Here you have at the end of chapter 15, lions wiping out whoever's left.

But look at 16, one, send the lamb to the ruler of the land. Now in the near context of this, the land of Moab was known for raising sheep. In fact, we learn from 2 Kings 3, 4, now Misha, king of Moab, was a sheep breeder, and he had to deliver to the king of Israel 100 ,000 lambs and the wool of 100 ,000 rams.

So this is going back a few generations before the wiping out by the Assyrian. The Moabites are raising lambs and they're paying tribute to which kingdom? North or south? North. King of Israel, it says in 2 Kings 3, 4.

It's in my notes, by the way. They're paying tribute to the north. They're sending lambs. But in verse one, it says, send the lamb to the ruler of the land, from Selah, that's from there, by way of the desert, to the mount of where?

The daughter of Zion. Moab, stop sending your tribute to the north, who is the enemy in alliance with Pekah, the Assyrian king, who's trying to conquer the south. No, you send a lamb to the south. In other words, you seek refuge in Judah, and particularly in the house of David.

Verse five, on it will sit in faithfulness in the tent of David. There is a southern king of descent from David, one who judges and seeks justice and is swift to do righteousness. Now, this passage, one to five, pictures the redemption that there is in Christ.

He is a lamb. And pictured in that sending of a lamb is the idea of fleeing to take refuge in the God of the house of Judah. He's also a lion, that is a great point. He's the lion of the tribe of Judah.

Genesis 49, 10, I didn't even pick up on that connection. The lion and the lamb, look at that. And there's no chapter distinctions. So verse nine and verse one, from 15 to 16, you have the lion and the lamb.

Well done, Lord. So it's a picturing here, Christ, but the idea is as wicked and sexually immoral as is the people of Moab. Generationally so, from Moab on down to the children who are raised the same way that Moab was raised, and they repeat the sins of their parents, and they come under the same judgment.

It's these cycles of sin and judgment, sin and judgment. Yet, there is an offer. Of refuge for the sinner. Of interest. Yeah. Ruth. Yes, I have in the notes here, and we'll get to that. Ruth, then, becomes a perfect example of that.

Ruth is a Moabitess, and she takes refuge in Judah. And she marries Boaz. And she's in the New Testament. And you'll find her in Matthew chapter one, verse five. In the very line of the lion and the lamb.

A Moabitess. That was a perfect time to bring that up. So thank you, yeah. There is refuge in Judah. So let's look at some of the words here. Like fleeing birds like a scattered nest, so are the daughters of Moab.

So it's pitiful, it's sad, but listen. There is a place where they can go. Give counsel. Preach the gospel. Grant justice. It's atoned for in the death of Christ. Make your shade like night at the height of noon.

Shelter the outcasts. Do not reveal the fugitive. That means if they come to Judah, don't hand them over to the Assyrian destroyer. This is a place of salvation. This is a rock that you can run into. This is a fortress.

This is a resting place and a hiding place where you can be safe from the coming destroyer.

Beautiful. Ruth had a sister-in-law that decided not to go. Wow.

Ruth had a sister-in-law that decided not to go. And we're about to get that. And that's what's gonna happen in verse six and following. Their pride will keep them from coming. So in verse four, let the outcasts of Moab sojourn among you.

The Gentiles are welcome at the table through Christ. Be a shelter to them from the destroyer. When the oppressor is no more and destruction has ceased and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land, then, look at this word, a throne.

This is Christ on his kingdom throne will be established in steadfast love. Now, how does love operate contra empathy where you just sort of emotionally get caught up? You know, you picture an empathetic, trying to think of an example of empathy.

A woman is talking to her friend and her friend's husband cheated on her. And they begin to commiserate about this. And before long, she's angry at her own husband. And they both get divorced. You get so caught up in the emotion that now you just transfer that emotion.

And all men are bad. You know, like the carrying away of emotion. I think it's just so prevalent in our culture today. Empathy, leading people to put yourself in someone's shoes to the point where you're carried away by that emotion.

But love is not empathy. Love is sympathy. There is a compassion, a feeling, a heartbrokenness for the ravages of sin. But love is the offer of an atonement for sin where justice is satisfied. You see that justice in verse three?

Love satisfies justice in the cross so that God can be both just and the justifier of those who have faith in him. Romans three. And it involves forgiveness. On it will sit in faithfulness in the tent of David, one who judges and seeks justice and is swift to do righteousness.

You're finding refuge in a just judge. Now, so if that offer is there, they're sexually immoral, surely they'll flee and find life, right? We're preaching this gospel. Surely people will find refuge in Christ.

Let's read now, John, will you, six to 12.

We have heard of the pride of Moab, an excessive pride. Even of his arrogance, pride, and fury, his idle boasts are false. Therefore, Moab shall wail. Every one of Moab shall wail. You shall mourn for the raisin cakes of Kir Heresheth as those who are utterly stricken.

For the fields of Heshbon have withered and the vines of Shibmah as well. The lords of the nations have trampled down its choice clusters, which reached as far as Jazer and wandered into the deserts. Its tendrils spread themselves out and passed over the sea.

Therefore, I will weep bitterly for Jazer, for the vine of Shibmah. I will drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elallah, for the shouting over your summer fruits and your harvest has fallen away, and gladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful field.

In the vineyards also there will be no cries of joy or jubilant shouting. No treader treads out wine in the presses, for I have made the shouting to cease. Therefore, my heart intones like a harp for Moab and my inward feelings for Kir Heresheth.

So it will come about when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself upon his high place and comes to his sanctuary to pray that he will not prevail.

Isn't this an amazing juxtaposition? You have Isaiah weeping and wailing, just drenching himself with tears. I picture Paul in Romans nine, he says, unceasing anguish in his heart. He even says, I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people.

My brothers, the Israelites. Heartbroken that they're not coming. You have genuine sympathy in the heart of Isaiah. You guys see that? It's such a passage about his wailing. Look at verse 12. When Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high places, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail.

All that sympathy, but for a people who continues to trust in their own God. They go to their own high places, they will not quit. They keep going to the high place. He goes to that sanctuary to pray.

He will not prevail. Now, here's the big idea of verses six to 12. What ultimately destroys the Moabite is not sexual sin, but pride. The sexual sin is condemning, and it is enough to send a person to hell, right?

But here, they're being offered refuge in Christ, essentially, metaphorically, and they turn it down. And it's pride that goes before the fall. Verse six, we have heard of the pride of Moab. How proud he is.

And isn't that how, that's how I see people in our culture so often. My heart breaks when you see some kind of parade down the main street of a town, and people are dancing in a gay festival. And for a moment, they're rejoicing, but you know that you're watching a heartbroken and a broken person.

Somebody who was probably sexually abused as a child, as I think is very much often the case. Someone who was a victim and a sufferer, and who then continued and never turned to Christ. And you picture children being raised in the inner city or in some other part where there is, you know, I remember one statistic I read when I was an inner city missionary, that more people in the inner city were abused sexually than not.

More than half the people raised there had been sexually abused as children. And it just breaks your heart. And very often, the patterns repeat. You see this brokenness? People who don't come to Christ.

But for all that brokenness, there remains pride in the heart. I'm gonna make it my own way. And so they crusade for what they call justice. And the drag queen, she needs to be allowed to, or he needs to be allowed to read in a library dressed up as a woman and entertain children.

And if you say no to that, then you're homophobic. But that's a broken person, and it's a demonic manifestation. And it breaks your heart because you love people. But it doesn't change the standard. And so let's finish here, and then Rich, okay, quickly, yeah.

Yeah. Okay, yeah. Well, sure, yeah. Yep, Romans 1, exchanging the glory of God for their own. Yeah. Yeah.

And John, would you read 13 and 14? This is the word which the Lord spoke earlier concerning Moab, but now the Lord speaks, saying, within three years, as a hired man would count them, the glory of Moab will be degraded along with his great population, and his remnant will be very small and impotent.

This is an utter ruin. The Assyrians, three years, that's how much time they have left. And that's reminiscent of earlier in Isaiah when the Assyrian, I'm sorry, the Syrian and northern alliance, within three years, before Maher Shalal Hashbaz can say mommy and daddy, they will be wiped out.