Praying in Trials

Praying for Mercy and Understanding in Suffering

Amen. Please turn to Isaiah 27, Isaiah 27. We'll be looking at verses 6 -11 today in this chapter. Coming to the close of this section in Isaiah 24 -27, often known as the Little Apocalypse of Isaiah, as it prophesies of things to come.

Please stand when you have Isaiah 27 for the reading of God's Word. Isaiah 27, beginning in verse 7. Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain?

Measure by measure, by exile you contended with them. He removed them with his fierce breath in the day of the east wind. Therefore, by this the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin.

When he makes all the stones of the altars like the chalk stones crushed to pieces, no ashram or incense altars will remain standing. For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken like the wilderness.

There the calf grazes, there it lies down and strips its branches. When its bowels are dry, they are broken. Women come and make a fire of them. For this is a people without discernment. Therefore, he who made them will not have compassion on them.

He who formed them will show them no favor. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you for the precious knowledge and guidance it gives. We would be at a loss without your Word, so we thank you for giving this to us.

We thank you for the kindness of your mercy and discipline, and we thank you for the goodness of your justice and law. In Jesus' name, amen. So many people come to God for mercy, specifically to remove their suffering.

They want their sufferings to be removed, and indeed this is the hope, this is the Christian hope that on that last day all suffering will be taken care of. However, in this life, we have no such guarantee.

We have no such guarantee that suffering will be removed in this life. In fact, some of the greatest followers of God have had the most suffering to deal with. And so, the mature thought in coming to the Lord for guidance in this life is not typically one that looks to end suffering in this life, but rather one that wishes to understand suffering in this life, to understand it rightly so that they can respond to it rightly.

So not to have suffering removed so much as to have suffering understood. This is a passage that speaks of suffering, that speaks of the suffering that God's people face, that speaks of the suffering that God's enemies face, and explains those things.

And as we've seen time and time again throughout Isaiah, the suffering faced by God's enemies is different than the suffering faced by his own people. Suffering faced by his enemies is punishment. Suffering faced by God's people is discipline, and it is for their good.

And so it is in this passage that he very specifically speaks of such things, distinguishing between the two so that we might understand our suffering and respond to it rightly. That if we are God's people, we can recognize suffering as discipline and respond to it in a way where we learn from this discipline, as a child should learn from discipline.

Or if we are God's enemy, that we can recognize it as something else and come to God for mercy. That these afflictions that we suffer in this life might, rather than punishment, be discipline. That we can come to him for mercy and be, as we read in the previous passage about the briars that would hold on to God's strength and become part of his people.

So let's go ahead and look at this passage, and I'd like to, in particular, consider how we should pray in the midst of trials, in the midst of suffering, in the midst of discipline and hardship. How specifically we should pray, because if we understand discipline rightly, if we understand suffering rightly, it should lead us to pray rightly, to give a right response in our prayers.

God’s Measured Discipline Versus Punishment

So first he says in verse 7, as he struck them, as he struck those who struck them, or have they been slain as their slayers were slain? Now this is Isaiah speaking, telling us about the acts of God, that he has struck his people differently than he has struck those who struck them.

This is a rhetorical question. The answer here is obvious, that there has been a difference in the way that God has struck his own people than the way he has struck his enemies. God strikes his people, as I have said, with discipline.

He strikes his enemies with punishment, with, uh, penally, you know, it's the difference between what is corrective and what is penal. One is designed to restore and correct, the other is designed only to, to, uh, be retributive in nature.

There is, there is clearly a difference between the two. You might think of a surgeon, surgeon uses a scalpel on a, uh, on a patient in order to heal them, and if that surgeon later on that day is in an alley and he has a scalpel with him and he's about to be mugged and he stabs the mugger in defense, now, does he strike, he, both people, he's doing the same thing, right, he's putting the scalpel into their flesh.

Now, forgive me if I'm pronouncing that wrong, is it scalpel? How do you, how do you pronounce it? Anyway, uh, he takes a scalpel and he, he stabs someone with it. Is that different? It is absolutely different.

One is designed to heal, the other is designed to hurt, the other is designed to harm. And so it is with God. God is the great physician and he works on his people to heal them, to correct them, and he works on his enemies only for them to suffer without any corrective end.

And he is sovereign in all of this. You know, it's very interesting to see the way that this is phrased. It says, has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Now, that word struck is repeated several times, this is the word slain, have they been slain as their slayers were slain?

What is he pointing to? The fact that how were his people disciplined? His people were disciplined through the enemies of God. God used his enemies to discipline his people. And it's very easy to read that wrongly.

Someone might see God's enemies attacking them and think that perhaps since they are doing well and I'm doing poorly, uh, they are, uh, they have God's favor and I do not. Or, differently, that the ones who are being sovereignly used by God to oppress his people might think that they have the favor of God.

Many people do. Many who oppress God's people think that they have the favor of God. In fact, Jesus even predicted this, said there will come a time when, when those who oppress you will think they are, they are working for God as they do this.

Many people who are enemies of God's people think they are, are friends of God in doing so. But that is not the case. He is sovereign over all of these things and as he is enacting discipline through his agents, he is keeping track of who is truly serving him, who is truly his child, and who is not.

And he is, he is sovereign. He is completely wise. He is ordering all things according to his purpose. And so here is the first way that you can pray when you are in the midst of a trial. So you can pray by beginning to confess your myopia, confessing the fact that you can't see what he sees.

You cannot see what he's accomplishing. It's very easy to read these things wrongly, to think that God's accomplishing something that he's not accomplishing, think that his priorities are elsewhere than they actually are.

And so come to him confessing your weakness, that you do not have all the tools, you do not have all the information to be able to read what he is doing, but you understand that he is wise and that he is doing what is good.

That is the, that is the first step in order to respond to suffering rightly, is to recognize that God is wise and doing what is right, and that we don't always understand how he is doing what is right, but that he is.

Discipline Measured for Our Good

In verse 8 it says, measure by measure, by exile you contended with them. Measure by measure. God's people were disciplined measure by measure. In other words, it wasn't without measure. It wasn't so excessive that they could not bear it.

Instead, God has disciplined them with a specific purpose. By exile he contended with them. He moved them out of their land, and yet they still remained a people. Now other peoples that have been banished from their land don't remain a people.

In fact, they, once they are dispersed, they are no people anymore. But that is not how God has disciplined his people here. Speaking of Israel and the affliction sent by, by Assyria and Babylon, that when they went into Babylon in exile, they still remained a people.

His discipline is not without measure. Indeed, his discipline towards us is not without measure. And speaking of testing and temptation, 1 Corinthians 10 .13 says that no temptation has come upon us which is not common to man.

God is faithful, and in any temptation he gives us everything we need in order to escape. See, God has, God has not given us more than we can handle. In fact, any time he does give us more than he can handle, we can handle, he gives us everything we need in order to escape.

Whether it be from temptation proper as being something, some temptation to sin, or the other way that you might consider temptation is simply in any trial the temptation to despair. God has given us everything we need.

Hebrews 12 speaks of God's measured discipline as being something that is for our good, that our earthly parents may discipline without measure, may discipline as they think what is good, but not actually for our good, but God always disciplines for our good.

Jeremiah 10 .24 says, correct me, O Lord, but in justice, not in anger, lest I be brought to nothing. This is a way that you can pray to the Lord. You can pray for the Lord to correct you, not just, not just bear that correction while gritting your teeth, but rather pray that he would correct you, and then pray that he would do so mercifully, not in anger, lest you be brought to nothing.

Just like with the Israelites, measure by measure they were disciplined, so they were not brought to nothing, they were maintained as a people, and so God can correct us and does correct us without destroying us.

Says in this next line here that he removed them with his fierce breath in the day of the east wind. His fierce breath in the day of the east wind. If you imagine a wind coming from the east, this is referring to both Assyria and Babylon, probably particularly Babylon, since it's considering the exile of Judah, and that he has used this wind to blow the people out of their land, but as an act of, as an act of discipline.

It's an act of essentially fumigation, you know, you leave your house, remember one time we had this place fumigated, you know, it had a big tent over it and all that, and no one could come and use it, and so if you didn't understand what was going on, you'd think that we no longer had this, that we no longer, you know, maybe God didn't love us anymore since we didn't have our property.

No, not the case. Such things are needed to cleanse, and so we should pray for God to cleanse us. Psalm 19, 12 says, who can discern his errors, declare me innocent from hidden fault. We have so many issues in our heart that we don't know about.

The heart is, the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can understand it? We don't understand our own hearts, and so as God's measured discipline is designed to correct us, is designed to be the fumigation of the soul, I pray to him, pray to him that he would cleanse us from such things.

Atonement, Forgiveness, and Growth in Holiness

Verse 9, it says, therefore, by this the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin. When he makes all the stones of the altars like the chalk stones crushed to pieces, crushed to pieces, no ashram or incense altars will remain standing.

So this is a, this is a fascinating verse. By this, the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for. When it speaks of removing all the fruit of his sin, now how is atonement accomplished? How is oneness with God accomplished?

If you understand the Christian faith, you would say it's by the, by the perfect life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Indeed, it is by that that our sin is atoned for, and yet here it describes sin being atoned for through this act of suffering, through this act of purification.

And so how did this, how does this sit together with what we understand about Jesus doing everything and not us? It's not, it's not our suffering that makes us right with God. It's Jesus' suffering that makes us right with God.

How should we understand this verse? Well, when the Bible speaks of things like atonement, speaks of things like forgiveness, it's not always using them in one singular sense the way a textbook might use them.

Often, forgiveness refers to different kinds of forgiveness. For example, if you consider that when we are forgiven by God eternally so that we, our sins are not held against us anymore, that is very different than the forgiveness that you see in the Old Testament where, and not, of course, people were forgiven in that way in the Old Testament, but when it speaks of the animal sacrifices forgiving the people, this is in terms of that covenant so that they could continue living long in the land.

Right? The New Testament makes it very clear that the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin. It can't, it can't forgive sin in the eternal sense. However, in the terms of that covenant that God had made with his people where they needed to maintain certain standards in order that they could live in the land, it was forgiven in those terms.

So that's just one example of, for example, the word forgiveness being used differently. And here, when it speaks of atonement, there are different ways to think of atonement. There is one, the forgiveness of our sin, but two, there is also the restoring of our own selves that we might have that right relationship with God.

For example, if you had someone who is, who commits some insane act of violence, maybe you would have the party that was harmed out of mercy decide that they won't press charges. And so they forgive them in that sense.

Yet that person would still not be allowed near them. They'd still be not allowed in society. There is a second kind of forgiveness that is needed, which is something that can only be had with a full restoration of that person to mental health.

It's the same thing here. God's people, even if you are forgiven, even if you are forgiven and justified, there is still something more that is needed. You must grow in holiness so that you can be in the presence of God.

So we can be right with God and still not fit for his presence, right? We can be right with God and justified as everyone is, as soon as they believe, but only through growing in holiness that we can see God, as it says in Hebrews 12, 14.

Someone asked today in the Sunday school class, why would we pray for God to forgive us if we've already been justified and that justification is forever? And we have God's forgiveness already. Why would we continue to pray for that each time we sin?

Well, there's more to forgiveness than just being right with God in a legal sense. There is additionally growing in holiness that we might be fit for his presence. And so this is how God accomplishes.

He accomplishes it through suffering, not in doing some penance, but in using this so that we can pay off our sins or anything like that. There's no way that we could ever do such a thing, but he uses the process of suffering in order to cause us to recognize our need for him, to become increasingly dependent upon him, that we might grow in holiness, that we might rely on him for everything.

It speaks of making the stones of the altars like chalk stones crushed to pieces. This is referring to pagan altars. No ashram, ashram being essentially poles or something out in the forest that someone would use to worship in kind of very pagan nature-oriented sense, or incense altars or main standing.

All of these things will be destroyed. Now, it's quite possible that this is speaking of what will be accomplished by Hezekiah. Ahaz, his father, had set up many of these things, set up many of the ashram, and Hezekiah ends up breaking some of these things down.

Ahaz and Hezekiah being kings of Judah. So it's possible it's speaking of such things, yet also talking of exile, I think that it's imagining something more, something even beyond this. And even speaking of God's people throughout history, that this is how He cleanses us of sin.

He breaks down every altar. He breaks down every idol. It doesn't matter if it's an idol in the traditional sense of being a physical image, or a pole, or any other kind of pagan worship, but every kind of false ideal that we hold, everything that competes with God for our worship, for our submission, these things He breaks down in our life piece by piece, sometimes violently, sometimes in a way that causes great suffering in our lives as we feel those things being stripped away, as we feel our hearts being remolded.

And so we should pray that we would learn in that process, that we would not be fools who hold on to such idols, but that as God destroy such things that we would have, that we would readily give them over.

Psalm 119 .71 says, It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. You know, as we pray to God, we should pray, we should pray that He would teach us. He always has something to teach us in our sufferings, whether it be patience, or some other Christian virtue, or some reliance on Him.

We always have something to learn. So pray that you would learn whatever it is that God is teaching you. This is often how I pray for others. I pray, you know, whatever you are teaching this person during their trial, I pray that they would be a quick learner, that you would teach them quickly, and that you would, so that you might remove the suffering from them with them having learned whatever it is you are teaching them in this time.

God’s Judgment on the Fortified City

And now it switches from talking to about God's people to speaking of the enemies. Isaiah switches to speaking of their enemies in verse 10. For the fortified city is solitary, habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness.

There the calf grazes, there it lies down and strips its branches. The fortified city, if you imagine the pride of the world being gathered together, and a city being united in their hatred of God, fortified, thinking that nothing can come against them, and yet God is much greater, God is much stronger than any kind of worldly city, than any kind of, any abandonment of him, any rebellion against him.

God is stronger than that. And so, he will destroy every last one of his enemies. And in fact, every one of his enemies that has ever existed, on the day that he dies, he learns that God is greater, and that there is no hope in going against the Lord.

In describing the scene, the calf grazing, stripping its branches, there's a picture of the city being so destroyed that animals are free to roam around in it. This is a frequent picture in Isaiah, and so I've frequently pointed to the thing that it reminds me of.

So forgive me if I'm repeating myself, but I remember in 2020, especially near the beginning when everything was shutting down, there were headlines coming out about San Francisco and coyotes roaming around in San Francisco, and all the kind of wildlife that people were beginning to see in the city that they had never seen before.

That's a picture of God's judgment. Coyotes and all kinds of wild animals roaming around in a city, a place for people, not animals. And this is what we see here, a picture of God's judgment. There it lies down and strips its branches.

When its boughs are dry, they are broken. Women come and make a fire of them. And so consider what the context of this was, what the last passage we looked at. God sang a song to his pleasant vineyard, to the vine that he was growing, said in verse 6, in the days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit.

But here we have a picture of a different vine, of something whose, a different plant, whose boughs and branches are all being, are all useless. No good fruit coming from, and so they are taken down there, cast into the fire.

God upholds his people. God works on his people, producing in them what is necessary in order that they would bear fruit. But yet for the enemies, none of God's correction provides any of that. And so there's no, there's no growing fruit.

There's no coming to a restored state like we saw compared to the vineyard of Isaiah 5, where you have the vineyard in Isaiah 5 that's producing bad fruit. And here in Isaiah 27, the vineyard has started producing good fruit because of this work of God.

There's none of that for the enemy. Rather, it is chopped up and it is thrown into the fire. And consider what the purpose of a vine is in the Bible. The purpose of the vine is to give joy. Bible speak, frequently speaks of wine as bringing joy.

Jesus' first miracle, making water into wine, represents the joy of his ministry. Judges 9, 13 speaks of wine cheering the hearts of God and man. The chief end of wine is to bring joy. And yet, what is the chief end of this vine?

Chief end of this vine is to be chopped up and thrown into a fire. Rather than being something that brings king's joy, it is something that is used by women to throw into a fire. This stark, stark contrast that is there.

Discernment, Deuteronomy 32, and Coming to Christ for Mercy

For this is a people without discernment. Therefore, he who made them will not have compassion on them. He who formed them will show them no favor. This is a people without discernment. Now, God does not take issue with the fact of those who are truly and not culpably ignorant.

However, Romans 1 explains that people are culpably ignorant. Those who reject God do so culpably. People think that they seek for God and they just haven't found him. But Romans 3 makes it clear that no one seeks for God.

Romans makes this exceptionally clear. The problem with people not having discernment is that God has given everything people need in order to know what is right from wrong. He has written a conscience onto their hearts.

He's written his law onto their hearts so they can have a conscience by which they know what is right and wrong. And they reject these things. They know that they ought to honor God, as it says in Romans 1, and yet they do not honor God.

And so it is for this reason, is for this reason that he takes issue with them. That he will not have compassion on them. And here, if you're familiar with the first five books of the Bible, you might recognize some of the words that Isaiah is using, speaking of a particularly important passage in the books of Moses.

Please turn, if you will, to Deuteronomy 32. And we'll see what Isaiah is alluding to. Isaiah 32, beginning in verse 28. I'll read this passage. For they are a nation void of counsel, and there is no understanding in them.

If they were wise, they would understand this. They would discern their latter end. How could one have chased a thousand, and two have put ten thousand to flight, unless their rock had sold them up, and the Lord had given them up?

For their rock is not as our rock. Our enemies are by themselves. For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom, and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of poison. Their clusters are bitter.

Their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of asps. So you see what Isaiah is alluding to, and how it fits into this context? He's just spoken of the the vineyard, the vineyard of God. And here in saying that it's a people without counsel, and there's no understanding, and they can't discern.

It's alluding here to Deuteronomy 32, which speaks of a vine that comes from Sodom and Gomorrah, whose grapes are poison. This is a contrast between the true people of God and God's enemies. Now here in Deuteronomy, it's not speaking particularly of other nations.

It's speaking even of Israel itself. So the takeaway here is not that one can have status by being part of God's physical nation, or even being a member of a church. Rather, it is only through faith in Jesus Christ that one is truly God's friend, that one is truly one of his people.

And so just as in Deuteronomy, being part of the nation of Israel did not save anyone, being part of the nation of Israel did not guarantee that they were not subject to this passage, so it is with us.

We must have that rock. We must have that rock in full, and not in a way where we are given up. And so how can we have him? How can we have that rock? By coming to faith in Jesus Christ. You know, consider your rock.

Who is your rock? Is your rock Jesus Christ? Are you relying on another? Are you relying on yourself? Are you relying on some other thing in the world? If so, you will be given up. Your rock is not as our rock if you are relying on something else.

You will be given up. You will be given over to punishment. Your sufferings will not be something that produce good fruit in your life. Rather, your vine is from Sodom, and so are your branches. The grapes are grapes of poison, and their clusters are bitter.

But the one who, who comes to God, who prays to him for mercy in their suffering, always finds mercy. They always find, they don't necessarily find a removal of suffering in this life, even though it is promised to us in the end, but they always find mercy.

They find an understanding of suffering, and they find a good in suffering. It's not punishment, but that is discipline. So as we pray to the Lord, pray with the right response to our suffering. Pray in a way that humbles yourself before the Lord and recognizes what he is trying to accomplish, that we don't know everything, but he is perfectly wise, and he is doing what is good.

Pray coming to him for that mercy of Jesus Christ. Proverbs 12, 1 says, Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid. Do not be stupid. Love discipline. Love knowledge.

Come to the Lord for mercy. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the great discipline that you give us, that as we are found in Jesus Christ, adopted by you and to your family, that we find your love and your fatherly discipline.

God, I pray that you would use the sufferings in this life to accomplish these purposes, and may you hasten the day that Christ returns and these sufferings would be no more. In Jesus' name, amen.