Wednesday, June 12, 2024

The Question of Hope for Rebellious Children in Isaiah 1

Isaiah chapter 1, as we continue this beginning portion of this very large prophetic book, and right out of the gate, we are asking the question, what hope is there for rebellious children? What hope is there for rebellious children?

Let's start with a word of prayer, and then we'll read verses 2 through 9 of chapter 1. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the day. We thank you for your watch care in our lives. We thank you for your provision.

Thank you for hearing us tonight by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and for the favor that you have on your son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for receiving all of our prayers, for knowing our needs, and for providing, for proving yourself to be such a good heavenly Father.

Now we pray that you would help us as we look at your word, and help us to rejoice in your truth. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Isaiah chapter 1, beginning in verse 2, hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken.

I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know. My people do not consider. Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corruptors.

They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel. They have turned away backward. Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints.

From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed or bound up or soothed with ointment. Your country is desolate.

Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land and your presence, and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers. So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a hut in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have been made like Sodom. We would have been made like Gomorrah. And so here in the first section of Isaiah, we have sermons for a difficult present.

And the difficulty comes from without, which would be Assyria, that great threat, but also from within, because the covenant people of Judah, the covenant people of God are under His judgment due to their rebellion.

The rebellion is deep. It is tenacious. And so Assyria is not their real problem. Their real problem is that they have forgotten God. And so God calls heaven and earth as witnesses against them. Now, you talked about last time how heaven and earth were there, are God's to command, to control, to invoke as witnesses, but also heaven and earth played very key roles in the development of the covenant, the establishment of the covenant that God made with Israel.

And so they are being brought to bear against Judah, against Israel, because judgment is coming. So we looked at the witnesses last time, there at the beginning of verse two, and now let's turn our attention to the word.

The Voice of the Lord and the Witnesses of Heaven and Earth

As God is addressing the situation, but He is speaking. That's why heaven and earth should pay attention. That's why heaven and earth should hear. That's why they should sit up and take notice, because the Lord has spoken.

He speaks, and the heavens and the earth and all that is in them were made. Remember that? God made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them simply by speaking His word. And so when He speaks, heaven and earth pay attention.

They obey. If you'll keep your bookmark there in Isaiah and then go over to Psalm 18 and Psalm 29, we see an example of this. Psalm 18 and Psalm 29. In Psalm 18, we have a composition by the King David.

Honoring the Lord and His divine power, concerning David's deliverance from King Saul and all of the enemies that would have tried to keep David from taking the throne. And in verses 13 through 15, we hear David's description of the victory that God rendered to him, the nature of the victory that the Lord secured for David.

Verse 13, the Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered His voice. Hail stones and coals of fire. He sent out His arrows and scattered the foe, lightnings in abundance, and He vanquished.

Them.

Then the channels of the sea were seen. The foundations of the world were uncovered at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils. Gives you a sense of what happens when God speaks.

Everything can be overthrown in a moment when God speaks. Everything was made like that. Everything can be unmade. Everything depends upon the word of God. If you'll flip over a couple of pages and look at Psalm 29, this is a psalm that focuses in on the voice of the Lord.

It is the psalm to sing, to give praise to God concerning the power of His voice. Give unto the Lord, O you mighty ones, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name.

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. The voice of the Lord is over the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. Yes, the Lord splinters the cedars of Lebanon. He makes them also skip like a calf. Lebanon and Syrian like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord divides the flames of fire.

The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forest bare. And in His temple, everyone says, glory.

The Lord sat enthroned at the flood. And the Lord sits as king forever. The Lord will give strength to His people. The Lord will bless His people with peace. So you can sense the to move from the glory and strength and the beauty of holiness to the power of God as king who sits enthroned over the flood and over His people.

You get the whole scope. But all in between the introduction and conclusion of that psalm, it's just praising the voice of the Lord, the voice of the Lord, the voice of the Lord. So here in Isaiah, and we think of Psalm 29, all that creation, all those visions of creation tied to the voice of the Lord.

Here, when God says, hear, O heavens, give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. All right, that's what should come into our minds, Psalm 29, how God controls and orchestrates everything by the power of His voice.

And when God is speaking, we see that all that is God's, all that belongs to Him, hears His voice and obeys. And in fact, all of creation seems to take His side when He's dealing with those who are made in His image and are rebellious against Him.

All right, Genesis 318, the curse that the ground will bring up thorns for you instead of good seed and so on. So we see that everything in heaven and on earth hear God's word and it responds and it obeys.

Everything that you could possibly think of in heaven and earth hears God's word and obeys, except His children. You catching the drift of what Isaiah is saying? Heaven and earth here, heaven and earth respond, but His children are corruptors, they forsaken the Lord, they provoke Him to anger, we read.

Now, deliverance will come by the word of God. The Lord will prove Himself the true Redeemer of His people and will deliver His people from without and from within by His word. We see that in Isaiah itself.

Firstly, those who are ignoring His word are chastened. In chapter 8, verses 16 to 20, when we read, bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples, and I will wait on the Lord who hides His face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in Him.

Here am I and the children whom the Lord has given me. We are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts who dwells in Mount Zion. So Isaiah and his children, his whole family, it doesn't matter that so many reject God and are not listening.

Isaiah says, we're listening, and in fact, we are signs and ones to all who may observe. Verse 19, and when they say to you, seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter. Should not a people seek their God?

Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony, if they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. So the centrality, the necessity of the word of God for those who are made in the image of God.

And there's more in Isaiah, but the word of God is ever central to the deliverance of His people, the redemption of His people. At the voice of the Lord, heaven and earth attend to and respond to the glory of someone speaking, right?

We have in Isaiah chapter 30, Isaiah chapter 30, and then look at verse 20. And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers.

Your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it. Whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left, the hope is that the voice of the Lord will be nearer, always there, somehow directly directing instead of from afar.

So this is another example of the hope of the word of God, how the word of God is going to be at the center of their salvation and their redemption. Now, we remember how vital the word is when we get to the New Testament.

All of heaven and earth is required to pay attention to the word become flesh and whatever he says, whatever he says. The wind and the waves obey him. He speaks and creation sits up, pays attention and does whatever he says.

He says to a tree to wither and it withers. He prays and blesses food and five loaves and two fishes feeds thousands. He's in complete control of the created order and heaven and earth obey. The word of the Lord become flesh.

And there in that is, there's hope there for rebellious children. Now, let's consider the wickedness that is truly described about these children. And I think my outline says it begins in verse three, but really it's the second half of verse two and three.

So I'll make that correction. But notice that Lord, what does he say? He says, I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner and the donkey is master's crib, but Israel does not know my people do not consider.

So in the beginning of verse two, we hear, hear O heavens, give ear O earth, the Lord has spoken. So heaven and earth, God has spoken. So pay attention, but when you go to the very end of verse three, but Israel does not know my people do not consider.

So two sets of parallels there, move in a step. God says, I have nourished and brought up children. And then verse three begins, the ox knows its owner and the donkey is master's crib. So you have relationships set side by side.

Here's a relationship of father and children. And here's a relationship of master and beast, right? So those two are set side by side and right in the middle, the main point that is being made at the heart of this chiasm is they have rebelled against me.

And in fact, his emphasis, they of all people have rebelled against me. So let's think about this and the wickedness that's being described here. The relationship is quite clear. God calls Israel his children, his children.

The stubbornness and the casual betrayals of Israel were egregious and haunting and awful precisely because they were his children. It just didn't hit the same if someone in Babylon was offering sacrifices to idols.

Sure, God took note of it. Sure, God mocked them and promised judgment, but it wasn't nearly as intense as when it comes to his own children, right? The metaphor rings true in our experience. It's one thing to see someone else's child doing something bad.

Oh, that's foolish. Oh, that's awful. But if it's your own child, this is exponentially more important. It hits you with a force far above and beyond what somebody else's child might be doing. And so God is pointing to this relationship.

They are his children, not simply children, like in the sense of, well, they're ignorant and their foolish folly is bound up in the heart of a child. It's not children in general. They're his children.

And so he's personally greatly offended. He had promised to make them his own peculiar people. He bought them on Mount Moriah, if you recall. All of Israel encapsulated there in the promised seed of Isaac.

Should Isaac die, there is no children of Israel. But God purchases all of Israel by offering up his ram. And so now Isaac and his descendants are his. And we have God naming them at the River Jabbok.

Jacob wrestles with a man all night long. He wrestles with the Lord and the Lord wounds him and renames him Israel. From that point on, his descendants are known as the children of Israel. God redeemed them out of Egypt.

And so he said, they are mine. So individually, they were his children, but corporately, he calls them his son. Let's turn in our Bibles to Exodus chapter 4. When God is using this language here in Isaiah and says, these are my children, he has all this background where he has brought them up and purchased them for his own.

And he has called them his own. Corporately, this people, they are his son, from whom would come his son in human nature in the incarnation. Consider how God put it in Exodus 4 verse 21 through 23. And the Lord said to Moses, when you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in your hand, but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.

Then you shall say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, Israel is my son, my firstborn. So I say to you, let my son go that he may serve me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed, I will kill your son, your firstborn.

Already, the 10th plague is in view. Already, the end game is in view. And God had it in view as he already had said, I'm going to harden his heart. He's not going to let you go. And he says, if you do not let my son go, if you do not let Israel go, I'm going to kill your firstborn son.

And that's what happened in the Passover. The angel of death came on Egypt and killed the firstborn of all the Egyptians, except for Israel and all those who came in with Israel and put the blood of the substitute lamb over their doorposts, their mantles, and God passed over them.

So when we think about this, God says, Israel is my son. Now, this has been building all the way through the storyline of Scripture. There is a seed in focus from Genesis 3 .15 moving forward. There's a son or a seed in whom all families of the earth are to be blessed, Genesis 12 says.

And so we go from Abraham to Sinai unto Zion and find God's consolidation and concentration of his relationship with Israel, whom he has called his son, and now what does he say about David's heir? What does he say about the son of David?

What does he say about Sholomon, the man of peace? What does he say about Jedidiah, his beloved? What does he say about this promised heir? 2 Samuel 7, verse 14. Speaking of the heir to come out of David, God says he's going to make David a household.

Verse 12, when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

Forever.

I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chase him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. But my mercy shall not depart from him as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you.

And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever. I don't know how many more times he's going to say it, but notice how he interacts with the promised son coming from David, exactly like he does with Israel.

He called Israel his son. Now, he said, I'm going to punish him when he does bad. I'll bless him when he does good. Now I'm going to do the very same thing with David's son. And so this sonship becomes more concentrated from the large group of Israel to the king who stands in their place and represents them in everything who he is.

So the covenants, which express the image of God and address the sin of man, define who the seed of promise is and expect that that seed of promise is coming. And so all the way from Noah to Abraham to Israel to David, that's in view.

And that covenantal relationship stands in…. So this relationship we're reading about in Isaiah chapter 1, where God says, they're my children and they're rebelling against me. That is in the flow of a developing theme.

Before the righteous son, there was a rebellious son. But the entire framework of the rebellious son is fulfilled in the righteous son. The one who reigns on David's throne forever. The one who blesses all the families of the earth.

The one to whom all the promises belong. Now, consider two things. First of all, consider how this charge is received. This is kind of a court setting. Witnesses are called. Hear, O heavens. Give ear, O earth.

They're kind of like the witnesses who have seen it all, have seen what's happened. And also they are to stand in judgment over and against, along with God is using them to give sentence and judgment upon Israel.

Now, what has he said about his children? They have rebelled against me. He says that they are laden with iniquity, verse 4, a brood of evildoers, children who are corruptors. Now, this is a particularly strong rebuke and a warning, given the covenantal standards established in the law, handed down from Mount Sinai.

What was the law concerning rebellious children? Deuteronomy 21, verses 18 through 21. If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, and God has been chastening Israel and chastening Israel, and they're still not paying attention, they're still not listening, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city.

Now, God hasn't done that, but he has called heaven and earth into that position. And they shall say to the elders of his city, this son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice, he is a glutton and a drunkard.

Then all the men of his city will stone him to death with stones, so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear in fear. Now, what's the point of that instruction? Ultimately, it comes into view here as God is saying, these are my children, this is my son, he is rebellious, he's not listening, he's not paying attention, no matter what I do.

So, what's left? What's left is what is righteous and fair according to the covenant standards God had given to Israel. They are heading for death, they're heading for destruction. Now, when we read in the Old Testament and we see Israel being called the children of God, we have to remember that this is being talked about in light of the covenant at Sinai, and the covenant with David and his heirs that would reign upon the throne, and that the king himself would stand as a son of God before him, and if the king did well, then the people would be blessed, if the king did poorly, the people would be judged.

But when we get to the New Covenant, what do we hear? Behold what manner of love this is, that we should be called the children of God, and such we are. Over in 1 John 3, Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God.

By the merits of someone else, we know God's fatherly smile. The Son has come. He still retains His throne. It will never be shaken. He intercedes for us as the High Priest. He will never be replaced.

By the merits of someone else, we know God's fatherly smile. By the gift of the Holy Spirit, we know the Father's loving affirmation. We know Abba, Father. We know God as Father. By the blood of Jesus, we are fully, freely adopted as sons and daughters.

You read it in Isaiah, what's the problem? The children are not keeping the covenant standards. Therefore, the judgment will fall. In the New Covenant, the Son keeps all the covenant standards. He's perfect.

He's righteous. He keeps it all. And He bears in His own body our transgressions and our sins, and bears the curse on the cross for us, and by our faith in Him, His righteousness is given to our account, so that we are as welcome to the Heavenly Father as Jesus Himself.

And that's why, when we read in the New Testament that we're called the children of God, we should not carry with it the same baggage, as it were, from the Old Covenant. Otherwise, you might get a little confused.

Wouldn't you think? There's some performance-based aspects of the Shadow Covenants that are fulfilled in Jesus Christ in the New. It's His performance, not ours. So, keeping in mind that distinction, we can appreciate the blessings of grace.

The New Covenant Son and the Blessings of Grace

Next time, we'll look more at the way in which God raised these children, how that informs the level of their rebellion. Consider the nature of the rebuke. Why is He calling them an ox? Why is He calling them a donkey?

What's the point of that? I'll have a story for you about Tennessee mules, so on and so forth. But before we close with a word of prayer, do you have any questions, observations, thoughts? Let's pray.

Father, I thank You so much for this day. I thank You for the longsuffering You demonstrated towards Israel, that time and again that You would show them patience and longsuffering and grace, and You would bring to mind the need for their faithfulness, that You desired a faithful son.

And Lord, we thank You that You have provided that faithful son, who in our place and for our sake, brings us to You all the way, to You in fellowship and in favor. We thank You for this, and we pray these things in His name.

Amen.