Wednesday, July 16, 2025 PM

Isaiah’s Call and the Judgment Announced in Isaiah 6

Isaiah chapter 6, beginning in verse 8. But yet a tenth will be in it, and will return, and be for consuming. As a terebinth tree, or as an oak, whose stump remains when it is cut down, so the holy seed shall be its stump.".

Now we are considering the voice of the Lord that comes to Isaiah to instruct him, call him into this prophetic ministry, to give him the word that is to be preached in general, to tell him the purpose for that word, and how long he is to continue until the Lord has accomplished his purposes.

So we are now looking at verse 11, and we just thought together about the question that Isaiah asked, Lord how long? How long should I preach this message that shuts down the ears, that shuts the eyes, that hardens the heart?

How long do I preach that? In fact, good question, how long can that really continue? At a certain point, wildfire has got to burn out. At a certain point, this has got to come to an end. And he wanted to know how long he would have to preach.

Well, the Lord answers there in verse 11, and he answered,. "...until the cities are laid waste, and without inhabitants, the houses are without a man, the land is utterly desolate, the Lord has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.".

Now this rapid fire description of judgment is something we have already seen in more detail in chapters 3 and 5 of Isaiah. In fact, in some ways it is surveyed in a past tense devastating vision in chapter 1.

Covenant Curses, Apostasy, and Exile from the Land

So, in Isaiah chapter 3, verses 24 through 26, we read,. "...and so it shall be, instead of a sweet smell there will be a stench, instead of a sash, a rope, instead of well-set hair, baldness, instead of a rich robe, a girding of sackcloth, and branding instead of beauty.

Your young men shall fall by the sword, and your mighty in the war. Your gates shall lament and mourn, and she being desolate shall sit on the ground.". A description of Jerusalem and the fact that the finest, most renowned women and men of the city will be devastated, sold into slavery, the city itself will be destroyed.

Similarly, we have in chapter 5, in verse 24,. "...therefore as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom will ascend like dust.".

This is building off of the imagery of the vineyard that we have at the beginning of chapter 5, in which there's a vineyard that the Lord planted and did everything right for it to be fruitful, and yet they only brought forth sour grapes in their rebellion, and so now God is burning the vineyard.

In agriculture, when you burn a plot of ground, you're anticipating that ground becoming fertile after the burning. There's something that's going to come after this, and we're going to see a little bit more of that in our passage.

But there is a description in both chapters 3 and 5 of this kind of destruction that we also see here in chapter 6. So, we are invited to look at the cities with Isaiah, to consider the houses with Isaiah.

We're surveying the land, and what do we find? We find it laid waste. We find this word desolate. Both of those terms are the very same in the Hebrew. Laid waste and desolate. The meaning of the term in the original has the idea of something being made empty by being ruined.

And this emptiness is repeated, this theme is repeated throughout verses 11 and 12 with these gloomy phrases, without inhabitant, without a man, the removing of men far away. And so, you're invited to survey the land as the crow flies, or as the drone flies now.

And you see places where once human life filled villages, it filled towns, homesteads, and cities, but even though you see the remnants of that, now there's no life there. Everything looks abandoned. In fact, the Hebrew term is built off a term that also is used to describe apostasy, an abandonment of God.

Judah has abandoned God, and now Judah will have to abandon her land. And those were the terms of the old covenant, if you recall. God made a very close connection between the faithfulness of Israel to God, in their covenant with Him, and their connection to the land in which they lived.

So, the more faithful they were to God, the more abundant their land was, the more filled with people, their animals would be fertile, their crops, their cropland would be fertile, their harvests would be amazing.

The more faithful they were to God, the more protected their borders would be from foreign armies and from all manner of trouble. And yet, the more unfaithful to God they were, if they were idolatrous, if they were immoral, if they harbored injustice amongst them, then the more difficult things would be in their.

Land.

In the progression of the covenantal curses in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, we have things like disease breaking out, barrenness, famine, mercenaries plaguing them on their borders and within, foreign armies coming through and conquering, and they would become the losers in world trade.

So, there was a very close connection forged. The more faithful they were to God, the better off things would be in their land. The less faithful they were to God, the worse off things would be in their land.

In fact, if they were to disobey God, they would lose the land altogether. Now, we see that in a couple of passages. Deuteronomy chapter 8 is a bit of a summary of that, and then also we'll look at Leviticus 18.

Remembering the Lord in Deuteronomy 8

But first of all, Deuteronomy chapter 8 verses 18 through 20. Moses, again, is...we can picture Moses nearing his 120th year. He's with the second generation. They're encamped in the Acacia Grove under the shadow of Mount Peor.

The nation's about to cross over the Jordan River. Of course, they're going to leave without him. Moses is going to die. And he's not going to be able to go with them, but he's writing the first five books of the Bible.

And he's giving instruction to this second generation about how they're supposed to live and what they're supposed to think, where their affections are to lie, as they will go on beyond him and without him.

They're going to go into the land. They're going to receive houses they did not build. They're going to drink from wells that they did not dig. They're even going to collect some harvests from plants that they did not tend and grow.

And so this is one very important instruction that's going to win the day for them, for blessing. And it's there in verse 18. And you shall remember the Lord your God. You shall remember the Lord your God.

Do we remember that everything in the life of Israel was designed to help them with that? Their calendar from the week to the months and the years, their calendar was to help them remember the Lord their God.

Their daily life together as a family was supposed to help them remember the Lord their God. All of their feasts, all of their customs, all of their ways of eating, what they ate and did not eat, how they would wash their hands, everything in their life was designed to remind them of the Lord their God.

And what does Isaiah 1 say? They no longer remember the Lord their God. They've forgotten that he's even their father and that they're his children. They have completely forgotten him. And that is the root issue of their disaster, that they have forgotten the Lord.

But here in verse 18 of Deuteronomy 8,. And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant, which he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

All this benefit, all these blessings that you're going to gain with this land. God is the one who gives you the power for it. He's keeping his covenant with you as he had made with your fathers. Remember the Lord your God.

Verse 19,. Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them. If by any means, what were some of those means? How was it that they went after foreign gods?

Do we remember some of the means by which they actively forgot the one true God and began to actively pursue false gods? Yeah, they would intermarry with the pagans. Now that wasn't strictly forbidden, but there was strict instructions that when a man of Israel married a foreign woman, the instructions concerning her idolatry and her purification, all of that had to go away and she had to be completely brought in and converted into Israel, like Ruth.

She didn't bring Chemosh with her into Boaz's household. She worshiped the one true God. So that was one of the ways. What are some other ways that idolatry came in and they forgot the Lord their God?

They began to make acquaintance with all the foreign nations and their ways and their customs. They wanted a king and we see how Solomon brought much idolatry into the land by his many wives and foreign alliances.

They wanted to be just like the other nations around them. And just making alliances in general. How often do we see Israel getting a little worried about the political situation and then making alliances with a variety of pagan nations?

Because they view them in a stronger position politically and militarily. We're going to make alliances with these folks and we're going to depend upon them. Well, what are these nations doing except Egypt in the name of Ra conquering?

Moab in the name of Molech conquering. So when they're making alliances with these nations, they are agreeing with their gods, their theology, their teaching. But Moses says, if you by any means forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish.

As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, you're about to go into Canaan and you're going to be conquering the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, all of the Ites and the Enes throughout this whole Canaanite area, this whole land of Canaan, as the nations which the Lord destroys before you.

So you shall perish because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God. So think about that in the context of how Isaiah is preaching. Israel, Judah is compromised with idolatry. Judah has forgotten God.

Judah is not listening to the voice of the Lord their God. In fact, things are so bad that God is sending his prophet to them to be his voice. And what does the voice of God do but stop up the ears so they don't understand?

Shut down the eyes so that they do not perceive. So this is a progression towards a judgment that doesn't look like it's going to be avoidable. The passage from Leviticus 18 is a little bit longer, but there's one line out of it that I think is very memorable.

And basically in verses 24 through 30, God says, don't take up all of the abominations of the tribes who live in Canaan. Don't adopt their ways. If you do adopt their ways, something's going to happen to you.

So if you do adopt all of their abominations, he says in verse 28 that the land will vomit you out also when you defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you. You hear that? So he says the land itself is going to spew you out.

Everything is going to be against you. To, you know, when the events of the Dust Bowl occurred in the Midwest, including Oklahoma, you could, in the most part, people just couldn't stay. A handful did, but for the most part, you just couldn't stay.

The whole land was just driving all of the horrible conditions of the land. Couldn't stay, had to leave, had to flee, had to find better areas. In the same sense, because of the covenant judgments of God, the barrenness and the lack of fertility in the land, and the famine, and all of the natural phenomenon that God used to drive out the Canaanites before them.

Remember the hornets that God sent before the Israelites to chase out the Canaanites? The whole land just spewed them out. And God says it's going to happen to you too when you adopt their customs and their abominations.

So, when we read Isaiah's warning, or he asks the Lord how long, and the Lord says, preach until all these things happen, these are things that God said were through Moses that were going to happen to Judah if they were not faithful.

Exile, the Fall of Jerusalem, and the Return for Consuming

Now, what does this story remind us of? Faithfulness to God tied together with where you get to stay. Faithful to God, you get to stay somewhere, be really blessed. Unfaithful to God, yeah, Garden of Eden, right?

The covenant that God made is an amplification of what happened, a reminder of what happened, a retelling of what happened. And in like manner, Adam and Eve were exiled from the garden because of their death by sin.

That separation, separation from Eden, separation from God, exile, this is what is being said here, you're going to be exiled. Well, that is a testimony to the issue of all mankind. In our sinfulness, we have been exiled from God, separated from God, cast away into the realm of death.

What we need is to be in the realm of life. And so, this intentionally echoes Adam's exile. Life is desolated by sin. Man is exiled from God who is the creator and the giver of life. So, this word of God through the prophet is preached on repeat until the rebellious covenant partner of Judah is completely exiled and destroyed out of the land.

This is the message that God wants to say to the world. Israel is God's mouth to the world. God is saying something through Israel. God is saying, this is who I am. This is what I made everything for.

Pay attention, right? And so, the prophets will often say one way or the other, whether by their blessing of Israel or by the cursing of Israel, one way or the other, God is going to get his message across.

He's saying something about who he is and who mankind is made in his image. Now, this is not, therefore, a failure on God's part that Judah is judged, that Judah is cast out. That there is a failure on their part does not mean there's a failure on God's part.

In 2 Chronicles 36, we have a summary of how this portion of history comes to a close. 2 Chronicles 36, beginning in verse 14. So, it's kind of a summary of the problem. Moreover, all the leaders of the priests and the people transgressed more and more according to all the abominations of the nations.

Reminds us of what God said in Leviticus. And defiled the house of the Lord which he had consecrated in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by his messengers. One of those was Isaiah, right?

Rising up early and sending them because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedy.

Therefore he brought against them the king of the Chaldeans, that's the Babylonians, which the second half of Isaiah talks a great deal about, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on a young man or virgin, on the aged or the weak.

He gave them all into his hand and all the articles from the house of God, great and small, the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king and of his leaders, all these he took to Babylon.

Then they burned the house of God, broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its precious possessions. And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, and then notice this, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths as long as she lay desolate, she kept sabbath to fulfill 70 years.

You hear how the judgment of God and the exile of the people out of the land is still connected in this judgment. Their relationship to the land and the relationship to God are made a very close connection.

So, when God cast them out, they did come back, and we're going to see the pattern of that in verse 13 next time, but we need to remember something. Verse 13 of Isaiah 6 reminds us that there will be a return, it says, but do you see that this return will be for consuming?

There's some kind of fire that awaits, some kind of further purification, some kind of further end that awaits even after the remnant comes back, they come back during the kings of Persia, Ezra, Nehemiah, they come back to rebuild the temple, they rebuild the city walls, and all of that, but it says here they came back for consuming.

Isaiah 6 in the New Testament and the Sifting Power of the Word

So, when we get to passages in the New Testament, such as in Acts 28, remember Paul preaching to the Jews in Rome, he quotes Isaiah 6 and says the reason why the Jews in Rome don't believe what he has to say is because of what Isaiah said, this is an ongoing judgment of God, closing eyes, stopping up the years.

Jesus says the same thing in Matthew 13, when he's telling his parables, remember the parable of the soils, and right in the middle of the parable of the soils, Jesus quotes at length Isaiah chapter 6, this passage, and says this is why so many reject, so many don't believe, and don't hear, and he says now blessed are your ears, they do hear.

So there's, in the midst of this, he's stressing the grace of God while he's affirming the judgment of God. What makes it clear? What makes it clear is the Word of God. The Word of God goes forth and it sifts.

The Word of God goes forth and it clarifies. Where the Word of God is preached, where the Word of God is proclaimed, everyone gets sifted. Those who rejoice in the Word of the Lord and humble themselves before the Word of the Lord, who take up the nourishing milk of the Word of the Lord and grow, those who hunger for it and seek it and want to know more, those folks are clarified.

And then those who don't want to hear it, don't want to see it, find every kind of workaround that they can about it, it's clarifying. It clarifies who's who. Every time the Word of God is read, every time the Word of God is preached, every time the Word of God is taught, it is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword cuts right to the heart of the matter and there's a sifting that occurs.

Do I lean into it or do I try to hide from it? Do I want to grow in the Word of God or do I want to find workarounds as best as I can? You see, so this is very much what Isaiah is sent to do and to preach and to preach and to preach and to clarify and to clarify and to clarify.

There's a difference between simply being an Israelite and being of Israel. But more on that next time because in verse 13, we're going to talk about how the tree became a stump and how the stump is a tree.