A Second Exodus

Our scripture reading this morning comes from Isaiah chapter 11.

So this afternoon, excuse me. So please go ahead and turn there. We'll be looking at verses 11 through 16.

And just to give you a recap of where we are in Isaiah, this section of Isaiah is very much focused on the division between the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom, also known as Judah.

And that division between Israel and Judah has resulted in war where another nation,

Assyria, has come and will be taking away the northern kingdom. So not only is

Isaiah prophesying about that coming advance of Assyria, but also God's restoration of the people, what he will do to ensure that this people who are called by his name will be restored.

You know, Isaiah, you could break it up into two sections, or possibly even three, where you look at the first section of Isaiah, and it's about God's holiness and how his holiness means that he will not let sin go unaccounted for.

And then the second part is his holiness in his name and the fact that if his name is holy, then his people, if they are ashamed, if they are disgraced by the other nations of the earth, that can't be.

So God must preserve his people. And so if you have these two things together, then the last section of Isaiah resolves all that and determines how he will do this.

He will make his people holy. And you see that resolution sprinkled throughout

Isaiah, including in this passage. How will he make sure that because he is holy, that he will not dwell with unholiness?

And because he is holy, he will preserve his people? He will make his people holy. He will restore his people.

So in this passage, we'll be looking at the enmity between Israel and Judah and how

God will deal with that. So if you would please stand for the reading of his word. And I think we might have some tinkering to do with the sitting and standing, given the previous hymn was so close to this.

So if we change things up next time, you'll know why. Isaiah 11, beginning in verse 11.

He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart, and those who harass Judah shall be cut off. Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not harass

Ephraim, but they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west, and together they shall plunder the peoples of the east.

They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab, and the Ammonite shall obey them. And the

Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the sea of Egypt and will wave his hand over the river with his scorching breath and strike it into seven channels.

And he will lead people across in sandals, and there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that remains of his people.

As there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt. You may be seated.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you would bless the reading and preaching of your word. I pray that as we look at this passage of Scripture, you would show us what you have for us here, that you would show us what you require of us and what you would have us to know of you and who you are.

I pray that you would open ears and hearts and that you would as well open my mouth and guide my tongue as I proclaim your word.

In Jesus' name, amen. So several years ago,

I was speaking to an elderly man who had had a feud in his family, and it was a family of seven or eight siblings, and siblings were split in two over an inheritance, over the family inheritance.

And this man, in describing his feelings about the matter, claimed that he would forgive his brother who had, you know, done wrongly with the inheritance, but that if his brother were to ever come crawling to his door asking for mercy, he would spit on his face.

That, of course, is not real forgiveness. And what we see in this world is that, though there are pockets of love, really this world is marked by enmity.

It's marked by enmity of man against man, nation against nation. And if we all come from Adam and we are all, in a human sense, brothers, we are all brothers against brothers.

This didn't just start with Cain and Abel. It goes back even another generation to Adam and Eve.

And then that sin and that division between brother and brother continues in such a way that it spirals and exacerbates itself.

So God, giving the people over to their iniquity, what did they do? They tried to gather for themselves in Babylon, or excuse me, and build the

Tower of Babel in Shinar. They were building the Tower of Babel, and because of their pride,

God decided to make it so they had different languages and they'd be dispersed over the face of the earth.

And so as a punishment for sin, God dispersed the people over the face of the earth. They were not able to gather together to do great things.

They'd be small and weak and on their own and fighting even more with each other. So this problem reinforces itself.

The problem of sin brings about enmity, and the problem of enmity brings about more sin, and then

God's judgment on this increases the matter until here we are in the year 2021, brother against brother, still nothing new under the sun, just as the preacher said.

And so what we are looking at in this passage is the civil war that developed between Judah and Israel and how, once again,

God and his judgment is determined to disperse the people over the face of the earth, specifically the northern kingdom of Israel, and how he will correct this problem of enmity, how he will bring salvation to this people who are opposed to each other.

So we're going to see how God is going to fix this problem of enmity, restore unity.

He's going to restore unity, bring the people unified together in proximity, unified together in love, and unified together in victory.

Let's begin here with verse 11. So here you have a description of God extending his hand to bring back the people.

Now when it says extending his hand a second time, it talks about God having extended his hand a first time.

What was that first time? Well, if you skip down to the end in verse 15, it lets you know.

God stretched his hand out the first time by his prophet Moses and split the sea so that the people could come to the land that was promised them.

They could come to the to the land of Israel, the promised land of Canaan. And God will once again put his hand out so that the people will have a highway to come back to Jerusalem, back to the promised land of Canaan.

It speaks of Assyria, that place where I said the northern kingdom had been captive, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, from the coastlands of the sea.

Now all these various places, what we're, what he's doing here is painting this big geographic picture.

You've got Assyria, which is off to the to the east. You've got Egypt, which is off to the west. The Pathros and Cush off to the southwest as well.

Elam and Shinar. Shinar is, I just mentioned that a minute ago, that's, that was the ancient name for Babylon.

Hamath from the coastlands of the sea, so it's from the north and to the far west.

So the idea is—and sorry, my west and east are kind of reversed cardinally from what yours are—but he is describing all these places, all these places where God's people are dispersed, coming back together.

It says he will raise a signal from the nations. We read about that signal back in verse 10, that signal coming from the root of Jesse, who stands as a signal, and he gathers the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

So if Jesus, as we looked at before, is the root of Jesse, if he is the signal, what this is primarily talking about is about the gospel bringing in God's people from all over the earth.

Now, God has, still in the history of Israel after Isaiah, he has many salvations and restorations planned for them, narratively speaking, from that point.

However, that is not primarily what this is talking about. Ephraim, the northern nation of Israel, was not restored.

Assyria does not exist as its own nation anymore. You do not have a fulfillment of this in a literal sense in the pages of Scripture, and it's such now that it could not be fulfilled in such a literal sense.

However, if you have been following not only what we've talked about about how the

New Testament interprets the Old Testament, but also the very clues that the Old Testament itself is giving us, that this is referring to what the

Messiah will do and that the fulfillment is much greater than God's people being these singular nation, but rather all the nations of the world, what this is referring to is the

Gentiles coming in into the church, God saving his people through Jesus Christ, who has shed his blood for the sins of the world.

What we see here is a reversal of judgment. You know, and that judgment goes back to multiple things, right?

God, in his judgment, has split this nation up. God, in his judgment, cast Adam and Eve out of the garden.

God, in his judgment, casts the nations apart at Babel. Together they were one, and then they dispersed over the nations of the earth.

I don't think it's very often that we think about that as a curse. You know, we think of—we know there are curses.

We know that the hard labor that we have to do in order to get things from the ground, we know that's part of the curse of Genesis 3.

We know that the pain, feeling childbirth, that's part of the curse. But we often don't think of the fact that we are so scattered across the earth as being part of a curse.

Now God, you know, in the garden, he told Adam to have dominion, and I believe that there's every reason to think that garden would have expanded to include the whole earth.

So I'm not saying that man wasn't intended to dwell in all the earth, but the way people are scattered and divided is, in fact, judgment that came from Babel.

And, you know, we live in a society that is very focused on celebrating diversity, and there's a lot of ways that diversity should be celebrated.

I love being exposed to different people and the different talents and different cultures and different languages.

And, you know, one of the most exciting things to see at this church—and it is a privilege we have here being in a more diverse area—is seeing

Chinese -speaking members of this church and Spanish - speaking members of this church help out at the food ministry to people who have difficulty speaking in English that I would not be able to communicate well with.

That is just a wonderful blessing we get to see here. But the fact that that is even needed at all is because of God's judgment at Babel.

If you consider what mankind could build if it were all one culture, if it were all capable of speaking in the same language, all these different cultures, all these different societies that have built up their own things, how much greater, how much better would it be if there were just one?

But there is not, because God has sent this curse. As a software engineer,

I work on—occasionally I've worked on internationalization, which is basically all the software that's necessary to make sure that a user interface is presented in multiple different languages, depending on which users the software has.

And then there's a second task of localization. So localization isn't about the language, but about the presentation.

Maybe in some cultures, first name, last name, other cultures—well, it's not last name, first name.

It's a family name, then given name. Or maybe the date is year, month, day, or maybe it's day, month, year, or month, day, year.

There's just all these different tasks that we have because we are all separate in all these little ways that extend from Babel.

And I think to myself occasionally, I don't know whether there will be software development in heaven, but if there is, no one will spend any time worrying about those things because we will be all praising

God with one tongue, and we will be united in even these small things.

So I would ask you that as you celebrate, you know, that God has made people differently—you know, he has made male and female, he's given people different gifts—as you celebrate different aspects of diversity, that you also mourn the diversity that is resulting from Babel, that you not just celebrate and enjoy it, different things that God has given different people, but also that when you see that the reason why we have these differences, the reason why my values are not aligned with someone from even just a different region in the

United States, is because of a curse. It is because of sin.

Just consider that we are not only to celebrate diversity, but to mourn those aspects of diversity that come from a curse.

And this is something that God must deal with, and that he will deal with, and that he has already dealt with in his

Son through Jesus Christ, a signal raised for the nations. Next verse, verse 13.

The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart, and those who harass Judah shall be cut off.

Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not harass Ephraim. Ephraim was a particular tribe in Judah, but by the time of Isaiah, this title of Ephraim is just used to speak of the northern kingdom of us all.

So you can really think of this as not being one tribe, but being ten tribes. This is a large portion of Israel that's being talked of here.

And that jealousy, where they are both fighting over an inheritance, right? They both want the kingdom for themselves.

It rightfully belongs to Judah. Ephraim wants it for itself. They're fighting over it. That envy and that jealousy ceases with God's plan.

It ceases with the gospel. You know, we experience, just within God's kingdom, envy and jealousy all the time.

You know, as a church that's relatively small and also has very particular beliefs, it's very easy to feel jealous of churches that are larger and more broader in their doctrine.

It feels like often that, well, they don't deserve this, we do. That jealousy ceases when you realize that Christ has died equally for all his people.

When you—you might not think of this as envy, but when you have a problem with a brother and sister and have difficulty showing forgiveness, having mercy and grace with them, why is that?

What's going on in your heart is that you believe that you are more deserving of mercy and grace than this other person.

Christ died equally for all of them. His blood is just as precious for every one of his children. This problem of envy is resolved.

But notice that in the context of this passage, what's going on here is not a kingdom that's already been unified that's experiencing envy, but a kingdom that is where half of it has been dispersed across the land having envy.

As we think about that in our context and how New Testament apostles might interpret this passage, it seems obvious to me that in God bringing in the

Gentiles, that we should consider Ephraim as it's spread abroad, as those who are not yet part of the church, and those who are gathered in Judah as being those who are already in.

And is this not the case that we have enmity between the elect who are already part of God's kingdom and the elect who are not yet part of God's kingdom?

Let me ask you a question, you know. If you are saved, if you are in Christ, are you one of the sheep or one of the goats, you know, in Jesus's analogy?

You're one of the sheep. You're next door neighbor, your unbelieving neighbor, assuming you have one.

Are they one of the sheep or one of the goats? You don't know. You don't know whether or not they're a sheep or a goat.

They could be a sheep, and you could have enmity between you and this other one who is a child of God, not yet adopted, but a child of wrath.

That enmity has a resolution. It has a resolution in Jesus Christ. God will restore all his people.

We're told by Peter that God is being patient. Jesus Christ, the reason he hasn't returned is because the last of his children have not been saved.

The last of the elect have not come into the fold. We have a promise here that God will do this thing, that he will bring in all the others who are missing, all the others who are destined to be brothers but are not yet experiencing that brotherhood with us.

I hope that is an encouragement to you to share the gospel with others. There's no one who is so hard that God could not open their heart.

Verse 14 says, So here you have, so we've looked at, we've looked at God unifying the people in proximity, and you know, in our context, that's in ideology, us coming together with one understanding of the gospel, with one reverence for God.

It is not until Jesus comes back that we will actually be gathered in one place. And then you have

God unifying the people in love so that God's people love each other instead of being apart from each other and fighting and warring.

And then you have them unifying them in victory because as they come together, they come together to be a powerful force to fight against the enemy.

So you see, together they join forces. It's very ironic because at this time, they've all allied themselves with different people.

Judah allied itself with Assyria. The northern kingdom of Israel allied itself with Syria.

Assyria versus Syria. And, but instead they will become united, ally themselves together, and defeat their enemies instead of allying with their enemies to defeat each other.

God will do this great and wonderful thing. And so they swoop down on the shoulder of the

Philistines in the west. Together they plunder the people of the east, taking their treasures, put out their hand against Edom, Moab, and the

Ammonites. And so what you see here is a, once again, you know, geographic picture. You've got the

Philistines in the west, and then you have Edom, you know, south, southeast -ish.

Moab, Ammonites moving up, you know, we're moving counterclockwise at this point.

All these, all these God grants them victory. Now, not only is the author by, you know, describing this counterclockwise flow, you know, trying to show that the geographic spread of this victory, but there's another thing he's alluding to.

If you look at First, excuse me, Second Samuel, I believe it's 2 through 12, this describes

David's conquest. These are all the enemies that David plundered. So what the, what the author is doing is he's talking about the restoration of this kingship of David.

You remember, that is, that is the context that's going on here. In verse 11, from the stump of Jesse shall come a branch.

In verse 10, from the root of Jesse, he will stand as a signal. It's talking about the restoration of the throne of David.

And here, in speaking of the conquest of David and all the enemies that he defeated, it's talking about how

God is going to restore that, that kingship of David in a way where it has the same power and force that it had before to keep the people united and to conquer the enemies.

Who is the son of David? We've already said it's Jesus Christ. He is the one who has victory for his people.

He is the one who leads the people into victory. Jesus Christ, in dying on the cross, the cross has already defeated death and sin.

He has guaranteed us victory. I don't know what kind of things you're facing. I don't know what kind of sin or worldly calamity or, or persecution, but all these things have a certain indefinite end because the throne of David has already been restored.

Because there is one who conquers the Philistines, Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, and far, far more than his great -great -grandfather

David, Jesus Christ. Doesn't matter what kind of persecution, what kind of calamity, what kind of sin you're dealing with, there is great hope in him because he is our king.

If we have our trust in him, if you are looking to him for victory, it is already guaranteed.

And it's not just, it is not just guaranteed in him, but it is guaranteed in him with camaraderie, with, through the church.

This is, this is why it's describing these people coming together, being led by this king. Do not, there are many temptations to split yourself off from, from other brothers and sisters, many temptations to kind of go about it on your own.

You know, if you are, if you are here present in this place, you have not fallen as far into temptation as many have who think they can be

Christians apart from any sort of attendance in the church. But it is still easy, even for those who are churchgoers, to, to try to live the

Christian life on their own. These relationships that you have here, they will last for an eternity, and they are worth investing in, not only because of that eternal payoff, but also because in the here and now, this is the means by which

Christ has decided that the enemies will be conquered, by his blood and then by the sanctification of his people as they work together, as they build one another up, so that we, side by side, can fly on the shoulder of the

Philistines. Verse 15. Okay, so when he talks about the

Sea of Egypt, he's speaking of the Nile. When he's talking about the river, he's talking about the Euphrates.

The Euphrates is just called the river in the Bible most frequently. You know, just as a small aside, as you're reading a prophet like Isaiah, geography becomes very important.

You don't have to learn where each and every little tribe lived or anything like that, but I would encourage you, if you don't, don't know, just go make sure you know where Egypt is relative to Israel, relative to Assyria, and relative to Babylon.

Just those four, you know, Egypt, Israel, Babylon, and Assyria. Sometimes your

Bibles will have a map in the back, and as you go through Isaiah, a lot of these pictures that are being drawn require you to, you know, have some kind of understanding of where these things are to get the idea.

So he's talking about the two major bodies of water on either side of Israel, the

Euphrates and the Nile, that God will break them into seven channels.

Now there have been many opinions on what this means. Calvin says that the

Nile forms at the beginning in seven channels, so when God says he'll break it into seven channels, he's saying he'll stop it at the beginning.

John Gill said that later on, during Cyrus's reign, he created—I forget if it was a dam or what, but he created something that split the

Euphrates into seven channels, and so it's talking about that. I think it's reasonable just to say that this is talking about the completeness with which he will spread this massive river up, you know, that you couldn't cross, into something that you could cross.

And then it said that the people will walk over it in sandals, you know, in other words, on dry ground.

If it's not immediately obvious what the picture that's being drawn here is, he goes ahead and says that, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt, God is bringing about a second exodus.

It's an exodus that's far greater than the exodus that happened before. The exodus that happened before, you have one people being led from one land to another land, and this one, in this picture, they're coming from all over.

There are multiple rivers that have to be stopped so that the people can cross over to dry land to get to their home, to get to their promised land.

And as we consider what the intention is when we realize that this is a prophecy of Jesus, that this second exodus, fulfilled in the cross and continuing to be fulfilled as that highway has been built, people are coming to him.

People are coming to him and joining his church, joining the number of the saints.

If you are not one of those saints, if you do not have your trust in him, you will not, you will not join back into the promised land.

You will instead be like Edom, be like Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines. You will be destroyed by this mounting force.

Right now, right now, Christianity does not look like a very strong force. You know, with just the visible eyes that you have, it does not look like much at all.

But as Jesus builds and builds his kingdom, there will be a day when that victory will be so fully manifest that people will wonder why they doubted, why they ever doubted.

Do not look with the eyes that are just your physical eyes in your head.

Look with eyes of faith and recognize that this highway that has been built from Assyria that will restore the people of God to him is one that is, one that is clean.

It is the Audubon of the gospel. I have no better way of saying this.

Whatever difficulty you may be up against in your life, whatever person with the hardness of heart that you think

God can't reach them, there is a highway from Assyria. They can come so quickly as soon as the

Holy Spirit moves and puts them on that road. Do not assume who the sheep and the goats are.

Do not assume what God can do with someone and be encouraged that his plan includes a great salvation that will spread even further than it has already spread.

And if we believe that promise, if we know that the salvation that we have experienced is just so great, we meditate on what

Christ has done for us and our sin and our need for forgiveness, and we realize how much more he is capable of doing, if we truly trust that,

I think it would really change the way that we approach the world with a certain victory, a knowledge of victory, an anticipation of that victory.

And one day when he has perfectly gotten rid of enmity and his kingdom will be fully manifest, we'll all gather together in one place, one culture glorifying him, and praise him with one tongue.

Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this wonderful promise we have, this wonderful promise of a second exodus where the rivers will be stopped up, the people will come back.

I pray that that would be more and more fulfilled. We thank you that it has already been accomplished in Jesus and that we ourselves are already ones who have benefited from this.

And God, for those who are not, I pray that they would recognize, recognize the great danger that they are in being enemies of God and not his friends, being opposed to his people instead of not with them as companions and as allies.

I pray that you would restore all your people into the fold, and that you would hasten the day that the last of your people comes in to Zion, and that you would hasten the day that Christ returns.