Isaiah Lesson 11

And good afternoon. It's great to have everybody back together again, and for those of you watching on video, welcome. I was a little bit concerned yesterday. My wife and I were coming back from the Y, and we come down Moorestown Road from where the municipal building is, and when we got to Elbow Lane, the road was closed.

You couldn't go any further, and my wife had said that she had gone down Hainesport and that you couldn't turn right onto Moorestown, and my concern was what's gonna happen tomorrow when people try to find us and the road is closed, but they've reopened it.

It's just graded, so everybody is able to get here, and okay, but it was open, so everybody got here, and that's a great thing. We are in a chapter in Isaiah that last week we spent time talking about six manifestations of evil that God sees within his people, and so he said, woe against, and woe against, and woe against over and over, and we looked at them, and as we read it, we think, well, this is how the people of Israel had gone against their Lord, but when we have those kind of passages, there's always those here and now applications.

Who am I, and how am I doing? Today, we are going to be looking at, in response to all of these woes and all of these observations God has against his people, it says, therefore, and the therefore obviously looks back to the passages, and some of the things that God is going to bring upon his people because of the way they've had.

It's a heavy chapter. It's a heavy chapter. Now, the good news is that next week, Jeff is going to take us into probably one of the most exciting chapters in all of Isaiah as the prophet is somehow transported into the very throne room of God, and he responds in some amazing ways, and God gives him a charge in some amazing ways, but as we're going to get there, these first chapters have done a lot to project a picture of how bad things have gotten in Israel and how God perceives it, and so we're in that chapter.

We're right in the thick of it today, and so that's where we'll be going. Pastor, would you give us an opening prayer? Yes.

So, Father, we're here again to open your word because we never tire of hearing from you, Lord God. We need to hear your word. You said in Amos that there's coming a time when you would send a famine, not a famine of food or thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord.

We thank you, Lord, that we are living in a time now where your word is open to us, and it is like bread that provides us with what we need for nourishment, and we pray that as we hear the words of Isaiah today, Lord, that we would be fed thereby and that we would be strengthened and encouraged and edified.

Build us up, Lord God, through your holy word. We look to you now for that in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Bob, you get the easy job. You're my Isaiah, my Isaiah chapter five reader, and Kimberly, eventually I'm gonna have you get Deuteronomy 28, there's a passage there, and Jeremiah 29, Louise, if you would get that ready.

In the beginning of, there's two sections in this chapter. There's a series of woes, and then there's a therefore, and then there's a series of woes, and then there's a therefore. In verse 13a, therefore, it actually says it also in 14.

And then when we get to 24 and 25, it says therefore. We do need to at least acknowledge and have in our mind the scenario that God has therefore, what he's teed up. The first one, the first therefore in 13 looks back to the first two woes, and we talked about these last week.

In verses eight to 10, there is a woe against indulgence. And the problem was that the people had been seeking after, adding to their possessions, they'd been seeking after finding satisfaction in possessions and things and stature and stuff like that.

The second woe in verses 11 and 12 is a woe against revelry. And there's a picture there about partying and having, making merry until all, finding fulfillment and finding just a sense of euphoria outside of God, outside of God.

We were talking, and I don't think it was here, I think it was over this past weekend, and maybe it was, I don't remember if it was here, about runner's high. Did we talk about that here last week? Yeah, about the reality of how the endorphins kick in and just this ability to feel just lifted up.

Well, that's, God is jealous, and he wants us to be seeking that extreme fulfillment in him. And so he looked at how they would party and how they would make music with the lyre and harp. And the picture there was just wanton revelry without God.

And so then that gets us into the verses 13 to 17. Bob, if you would give us 13 to 17, please. Not fun stuff, to be sure. We're gonna take a look at this in three pieces. Now again, the context of the therefore looking back is a picture of selecting, choosing, gratification, satisfaction, fulfillment apart from God and going after the pleasures of the world.

I think we might have done this here again too. Chronologically, not as recorded in the scripture, but chronologically, what was the first sin recorded? You're cheating because we just did this last night.

Chronologically, what's the first sin recorded in scripture?

Okay.

Satan's pride. If we go into Isaiah, we'll eventually get there. Lucifer says, I will make myself like the most high. And we know that's the first because Satan then is banished to earth. So we know that it occurs somewhere between Genesis 1 .1 and the fall of man.

We don't know where in there it falls, but that's the first sin recorded. I will make myself like the most high. He's then banished to earth. And from that time on, Satan has had an agenda to do what?

Destroy.

To what now? To take over. And he is bringing as many people along with him as he possibly can. And it's interesting too, because one of Satan's agendas is also at the fall is when the first time that there is a promise of one that will come that will crush his head.

And Satan is not omniscient, but he is pretty smart. I think Satan probably has knowledge of scripture that exceeds our own thoughts of how much he knows. He just doesn't apply it. It never makes a change.

He knows that there has been a Messiah coming. So he has always been trying to break the line of the Messiah. He's always been trying to break the line of the Messiah. We can look at so many places where that happened.

One of them would be in the story of Esther. When Haman got so upset because Mordecai wouldn't bow before him and he has this edict, all Jews are to be killed. And we know how God intervened. You can go forward into that and Stalin had a plan to murder all Jews in the country of Russia.

The night before he signed that edict, he mysteriously died. Satan is always trying to push us aside. And for his people, God's chosen people, they have allowed the lie of Satan to encourage them towards lives that don't rely on God, that don't accept the sovereignty of God, that choose their own way instead of the blessings of God.

Therefore, my people go into exile. Why? Why put his people into exile? That's probably a very good answer. What do you mean by control? That's an interesting answer.

What do you mean by that?

Yeah, Bob. And that's a great answer too. He's gonna allow them to be in a situation where now they have no choice but to depend on God. Their own strength is going to be. Deuteronomy, who's got Deuteronomy 28?

There you go, yeah.

Okay, so putting it into the context of Deuteronomy 28, at the beginning, if you obey blessings, and in the middle, if you don't obey curses with the ultimate promise and reality that as things go so far down, exile is gonna be the response.

We have a holy God, all right? We have a God that loves us, and we have a God that wants us to be obedient, but we also have a holy God, and when sin gets to that extent, there needs to be God because of his nature.

Thank you, he's faithful to his own word. Who's got Jeremiah 29? Louise? That's okay. While she's looking it up, I'll rabbit trail for a minute, going into dead time. I get to look at these videos, and it's more of a self-critique than anything else, and I find amusing my facial reactions while I'm waiting for somebody to read.

I need to learn. One of my worst facial reactions while I'm waiting for somebody to read is the open mouth. Go ahead, Louise. I'm bringing that one out because what happened in 586 BC? Yeah, and Kimberly's right, but what happened?

How did that occur? All of these things are true. Okay, sequentially, the nation had gone apostate. They were actually doing pagan worship in the temple. The glory, the Shekinah glory left. It goes to the threshold, it goes to the gate, and it goes up, and now it's gone.

Now the temple is left unprotected, the siege, and Babylon is coming. In fact, Babylon was predicted, even Habakkuk, before they were even a nation. Now they're gonna come, and the nation was destroyed.

That's not the answer. God delivered them over is the right answer, and it's pretty simple to look at the history of the thing and to look at the campaign of armed forces. No, that's not, and Jeremiah says very clearly, I gave them over, and it's not gonna happen.

God's people are not gonna go into exile except that God allowed it. In fact, God sovereignly ordained it, and God called it to be, and the reason that they're there is not because Babylon was stronger than they.

That's a true statement. But God, the nation of Israel could never be defeated when God was on their side, because that made them stronger than everybody. Go take a look at the Battle of Jericho. There's no way that that ragtag group of people take down those walls, and in fact, they didn't take down those walls.

All they did was walk around and shout. God took down the walls. The nation of Israel goes into exile, and they go into exile because of their lack of knowledge. Now, in this case, read that to mean their lack of applying the truths into their lives that God has already given them, and they've walked away from it to act like there is no knowledge, and then it says their honored men are gonna go hungry, their multitudes are gonna be thirsty.

The picture of just complete destruction and complete annihilation by this force that God called, that God called. Verse 14, give me that again, please, Bob.

Yep.

Therefore, it will descender.

You're reading out of which version?

NIV.

NIV, that's okay. I got no problem with that.

The needs improvement version.

No. No. No. No.

No.

Right, right. Not the 1984. The 2011 is the NIV needs improvement version, yeah.

As you were reading along with Bob, you might have picked up on a different word as opposed to death. What else did you see there? The grave or shiel. Yeah, and in fact, the Hebrew word there is shiel.

And in fact, shiel means either grave or death. So all of these are, they're all, no improvement needed there, Bob. They just took it one step further. The verse here is kind of interesting. It says, shiel has enlarged its appetite.

The mouth has increased beyond measure. Now again, we're talking about God's chosen people. We're talking about God's chosen people who have fallen away from the relationship with God. And shiel is now presented as becoming voraciously hungry with an increasing, what's the picture there?

Place of the dead. And we need to explore that just a little bit. In this context, we could be talking about exile and we could be talking about those who would have died in the siege. We could be talking about that.

But more correctly, what we're talking about is spiritually dead. Spiritually unresponsive to God. Spiritually dead. Shiel, death, the grave, has had their way with the nation of Israel to the point where they are spiritually unable, spiritually unable to respond to God.

They've become spiritually dead. Deuteronomy 32, I'm gonna let you read that, David. And then Psalm 9, Carol, if you would get that for me, please. In Psalm 18, oh, by the way, it's a Psalm of David where he's in severe attack, severe distress, and it's one of these Psalms of pleading.

And he basically says, the cords of shiel have surrounded me and I call out to the Lord. Now, he's not talking about I've died and I'm in shiel. He's talking about I have been so attacked by this death, by this that's surrounding me that I recognize it.

And my response is I have to call out to the Lord. Give me Deuteronomy 32. Now, in that passage, I'm going to acknowledge that there is an indication that it's talking about the physical destruction, the physical abandonment, if you would.

But I believe that there's also this reality that when my people have gone so deep, so far away, that he is going to allow their hearts to become hardened. And it's going to be as if the fires of shiel have actually consumed them.

Psalm 9, please. Eventually, the wicked will go down to the grave is now a picture of going to death apart from God. It's a picture of, there is no, we do know in the Old Testament, anticipation and faith in the cross to come.

We do know that. But for those who have just abandoned, God is going to abandon them to that ultimate destruction. And shiel just keeps voraciously bringing in those who have gone. Woe to those who have been so bad, they're going to go into exile.

And shiel, that spiritual death, is just going to continue to grow. Verse 15, please, Bob. While the nation of Israel, again, we're talking in the writing of Isaiah, they're not yet in exile. From what we understand, from what we've been reading in Isaiah so far, what is the lifestyle of the people?

Okay, thank you. Define, why? Why? I feel, I sound like a three-year-old.

Yeah.

All right, now we start to get into it. It sounds like what? It does sound like today. Absolutely does sound like today. The nation has found no need to submit, no desire to submit, because they are satisfying themselves and doing all this stuff.

And then it says that man is going to be humbled and brought low. The eyes of the haughty are going to be brought down. The perception that live and have, make merry and fulfill everything that we want.

God is saying, this lifestyle that you've been leading, I got news for you. It ain't going to last, because I'm going to, I'm sorry?

It never does.

It never does. Malachi 4 .1, Barb, if you would get that. In Proverbs 29 .23, it says that pride brings the individual down. The individual who understands and perceives himself as lowly and unworthy is elevated.

And the call here against the nation of Israel is that you have chosen to make yourself good, to fulfill your desires. And the only result that that's going to bring is you are going to be brought down.

Malachi 4 .1?

It is coming. It will burn like a furnace. All arrogant and

Start that verse again, because it's important.

Stop.

Surely there is a day coming. How strong of a warning that is to the people of the time of Isaiah, there is a day coming, but this is one of those hooks that we can clearly make application. Carol, you said it sounds like today.

It surely sounds like today. The desires to fulfill, the desires to be all that, the thoughts that we know better, and significantly what's missing in today's culture. Significantly what's missing in today's culture.

God, it's always a good answer whenever you have a question about God. Conscience, all of this stuff. That's a great answer. We are in what is often called a postmodern culture. What is one of the cornerstones of the postmodern culture?

No absolute truth.

No absolute truth. Everything's relative. You get to decide what

Yeah.

Now, this is just an, oh, by the way, the cancel culture has leapfrogged beyond the postmodern culture, because they now know truth, and everybody has to abide by their truth. So we've leapfrogged out of postmodern into cancel culture, if you would.

Yeah, it is. The reality is there is a day coming. Put whatever spins you want to put on life and how you can live life, and however you want to spin it, God says there is a day coming, and when that day comes, what's gonna happen to the arrogant and to the self-pride?

They're gonna be burned. So they're gonna be like chaff. They're gonna be absolutely devoid of any substance. God's gonna have their way with them. God's going to have their way with them, and then comes one of those great words in scripture.

But.

Give me verse 16, please.

What's the word online?

Oh, yeah, you gotta, come on, give me that. Don't just slide by that word but.

Go ahead.

Oh, thank you. Okay, Psalm 1511. Rich, you're gonna get that in a minute. The people, as we have been reading in Isaiah so far, and specifically here in chapter five, are all about self-gratification.

They're all about, by no means submitting to the sovereignty of God or being satisfied by God. That's a huge theme here. And then we get to this strong word. After God has warned them the things he's going to do, they're gonna go into exile.

Sheol, spiritual death, is just gonna ravagely be taking you. And those who are proud, they're gonna be humbled. And then comes this great word, but God will be exalted. No matter what's going on in the world, the cell phone is gonna ring.

No, thank you. But God is, I'm sorry, Exodus. I apologize, Exodus 1511. Men are expecting to be able to gratify themselves. The people desire increase. The people think that having more and more is better and better.

And at the end of the day, God said, I got news for you. The best that you can hope for is God being exalted. The best you can hope for is to exalt God. The Exodus 1511, please.

Exodus.

I'd like to challenge you to maybe write that particular verse on a three by five card. And each day meditate on that verse and come up with a thought that that verse brings to your mind. It is a great vaccine against the things that Israel is experiencing and that we're subject to.

Read that one more time carefully for us, Rich.

Who is like you?

It's a great way to just to have your day focused. Who is like you, oh God? It's not me and it's not anything else, but it's who like you. And then he gives one more warning in this section. Bob, give us 17 again.

And in contrast to that, Sandy, if you would get Zephaniah two, six and seven. In Zephaniah, the people coming out of exile back into Jerusalem to rebuild the temple are given some projections of how tremendous things can be now that the God has brought them back into their land.

And he gives them encouraging words. Go ahead and read that, please. She's page turning. I need to tell another joke.

Just make funny faces.

Please.

It's beautiful. He talks about the lands near the seacoast, the pastures that there will be flocks. He talks about the houses of Ashkelon. There talks about dwellings that are gonna be magnificent, that are gonna be for their enjoyment and for their pleasure, the Lord of hosts is going to be and dwelling in their midst.

It's a beautiful picture of God's care and his blessings and his bestowment. Contrasting, Bob's gonna read 17 again for us. Instead of plenty, the fields are gonna go wild. That's what's the picture there.

That's what he's talking about, that the lambs are gonna graze in the pasture. We're not talking about shepherded lands. We're talking about things have gone wild and it's not yours anymore. It's just gone wild.

And then it talks about nomads are gonna be among the ruins of the rich. Those who don't belong there, the dwellings that you had are now just gonna be left ruins and for whoever wants to pass by. As opposed to Zephaniah, where these lands are going to be made plentiful and enriching for you.

And I will dwell, this is a picture of abandonment. The land that the people had had. What promise had the people received even prior to Kadesh Barnea? They were promised a land. And how is it described?

Flowing with milk and honey.

Flowing with milk and honey. In fact, the spies went in and 10 of them said it is a land flowing with milk and honey. But there are giants who were like grasshoppers. And then eventually, when they're in Shittim, on the east side of the Jordan, ready to cross in under Joshua, and they're told all these promises and he says, but I will be with you, but I will be with you.

And the people have just abandoned their God to the time where it's gotten down that they are going to be sent into exile. Sheol is going to expand its appetite. The people are just going to be humbled and brought low.

The land is going to be left wild. God's not there. Eventually, God returns after exile. But it's a very, very, very bleak picture. The second section in verses 24 and beyond reflects to the second set of woes.

In verses 18 and 19, the people choose sin. And they want the flesh instead of God. In verse 20, the people are even exchanging good for evil. They're choosing to abandon good and to choose evil. And they're even calling evil good.

They've gone so far. The unnatural passions of the flesh have overtaken. In verse 21, they are self-wise. What they see in their own eyes is good enough for them. They have no need for God anymore. And then in verse 20, in drunken state, they're now influenced by the drunkenness and how intoxication just completely overtakes wisdom and leaves you totally vulnerable.

Give me verses 24 and 25, Bob, if you would. The first thing that he talks about, again, these next set of woes that he talks about, the choosing sin, even choosing to make evil appear to be good, to be self-wise, to be so totally influenced by intoxication.

And he says, it's just, I'm gonna consume it all. What you have, it's gonna become like nothing and God's consuming fire. Leviticus 10, Bob, if you would get that. Leviticus 10, one and two. Genesis 29 talks about this picture of sinfulness.

In fact, God has used this picture of sinfulness against the nation of Israel by calling them Sodom and Gomorrah. And as the ultimate judgment comes on against Sodom and Gomorrah, he rains fire upon the city.

He consumes it. Numbers 11 talks about how the people in the wilderness are complaining and complaining and complaining. And the Lord heard it and the Lord sent fire and consumed many of those who were complaining.

The judgment of God is very frequently pictured through the execution of his fire. Leviticus 10, one and two. The nation of Israel would have been well-versed in the fear of God's judgment applied through the fires that consume.

They would have been well-versed in that. And then he says, as the tongues of fire are devouring the stubble, that's what you are because you've become nothing but rotten and your blossoms have become like dust.

The judgment of God will come down like fire. Give me verse, let's see now. Therefore, okay, the rest of verse 24 gives us an insight as to the reason, the driving, they have rejected. What have they rejected?

I'm sorry. They rejected the law, they rejected the word. In fact, they've rejected the Lord of hosts. That's why they're under indictment. That's why God has gotten them to the point where they need to be judged.

Jeremiah 6 .10, Neba, if you would get that one. And then, I'm sorry, get that. Gus, if you would get Hosea 4 .6. Hosea, yeah, if you wanna pull that together. Remember, God is a holy God and his judgment and his indictments against his people aren't from some vindictiveness, they're from his holiness.

He's always asked, what is the Lord God desire of you? Your heart, serve him with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind. Okay, and the people have gone away from that. They've rejected him and they've rejected their word.

Do you have Hosea? Are you ready, Gus? All right, do you wanna get Hosea out for me, 4 .6? Give me Jeremiah 6 .10, Neba.

Yeah.

This becomes a situation now where the people have gone so numb to God, they have got so foreign to submitting to his will that it says, what good is it even to speak to them? Their ears are closed. What good is it even for me to warn them because when I speak, my words have become a reproach to them.

And it's, yeah, Bob. So I'm gonna try to paraphrase for those because this is an important observation that Bob is making. We have the scripture and it's incumbent upon us to remain faithful to the scripture, to exhort one another.

And I'm going to expand on what you said, even to be so, have such a love for our brothers, one another, that when behavior is deviating from God, we love them enough to bring scripture back in so that they can hear scripture, so that they can get brought on the right path.

Does that agree with where you were going?

Yes.

One of the Proverbs, blessed are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. Proverbs 27 .5, I think it is, something like that. Blessed are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.

If there is a behavior that needs to be adjusted, a friend will tell you that. And it may hurt, but it's intended to bring you back. The enemy will just, that's okay, keep going. Keep going. And one is better.

It is so important, my brothers and sisters, to put yourself and encourage others to be put in the presence. Somebody like Pastor Jeff, who's gonna speak truth, and then to prepare yourself to hear it.

One of the sad things would be to come into a Sunday morning, come into a Wednesday study, and to not have your spirit, your heart, listening to truth, but to have become dull and hard of hearing and saying, well, I know that applies to him.

I know that applies to her. Well, that's not how scripture works. That's not how scripture works. You've got, which one was I on? Hosea, yeah.

Hosea 4 .6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

That is a frightening point. Because you have rejected, God will reject also. That's a frightening, frightening point. Exhortation, don't let that happen. Give me verse 25, please, Bob. It gets to a point where God finally says enough is enough and his anger will be raised.

Jeff, give me 26 to 30, and I'm just going to summarize that because this now is what's gonna happen.

He will raise a signal for nations far away and whistle for them from the ends of the earth. And behold, quickly, speedily, they come. None is weary, none stumbles, none slumbers or sleeps. Not a waistband is loose, not a sandal strap broken.

Their arrows are sharp, all their bows bent. Their horses' hooves seem like flint and their wheels like the whirlwind. Their roaring is like a lion. Their young lions they roar, like young lions they roar.

They growl and seize their prey. They carry it off and none can rescue. They will growl over it on that day, like the growling of the sea. And if one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress and the light is darkened by its clouds.

It is coming, it is coming. I'm gonna refer to Habakkuk chapter one, verses five to seven where the prophet said, God, are you not looking? Our people are wicked. And he says, yes, I am listening. And I am gonna send the Chaldeans, aka the Babylonians.

That wicked and perverse generation, even though he knows who they were, he will make a signal for the nations far away and like a whistle for them to the ends of the earth and they come quickly and speedily.

It is happening, it is going to happen. And the warning to the people here. It all because of the six woes and the therefores. So warning to them, there will be a warning to us. But fortunately next week, he's got some amazing news for us.

So do you wanna turn that? We'll close this in prayer and then turn that off.

So Father, we thank you for these warnings and we know about your wrath and your judgment. We thank you, Lord, that you have given us wrath escape in the sun. Thank you for the blood of Jesus that completely cleanses us and averts judgment on our behalf because that judgment has been satisfied in Christ for us who believe.

So thank you for that gift. Thank you for this warning. Lord, we pray that we would be trained and disciplined by it. We thank you for your word to us today in Jesus name, amen.