The Oracle Against Moab: God's Mercy in Light of His Justice

Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church

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seated, if you'll remain standing for a reading of Isaiah 15.

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If you pull out Isaiah 15, we'll be reading verses 1 all the way through chapter 6, verse 5.

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Isaiah 15. An oracle concerning Moab. Because Ar of Moab is laid waste in a night,

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Moab is undone. Because Ker of Moab is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone.

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He has gone up to the temple and to Divan, to the high places, to weep. Over Nebo and over Medeba, Moab wails.

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On every head is baldness, every beard is shorn, in the streets they wear sackcloth.

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On the housetops and in the squares, everyone wails and melts in tears. Heshbon and Leala cry out.

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Their voice is heard as far as Jahaz. Therefore, the armed men of Moab cry aloud.

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His soul trembles. My heart cries out for Moab. Her fugitives flee to Zoar, to Eglath, Shelechiah.

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For at the ascent of Luhith, they go up weeping. On the road to Horonayim, they raise a cry of destruction.

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The waters of Nimrim are a desolation. The grass is withered, the vegetation fails, the greenery is no more.

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Therefore, the abundance they have gained and what they have laid up, they carry away over the brook of the

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Willows. For a cry has gone around the land of Moab. Her wailing reaches to Eglam.

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Her wailing reaches to Bir Elim. For the waters of Divan are full of blood. For I will bring upon Divan even more, a line for those of Moab who escape, for the remnant of the land.

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Send the lamb to the ruler of the land, from Selah by way of the desert, to the mount of the daughter of Zion.

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Like fleeing birds, like a scattered nest, so are the daughters of Moab at the fords of the

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Arnon. Give counsel, grant justice, make your shade like night at the height of noon.

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Shelter the outcasts, do not reveal the fugitive. Let the outcasts of Moab sojourn among you.

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Be a shelter to them from the destroyer. When the oppressor is no more and destruction has ceased, and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land, then a throne will be established in steadfast love, and on it will sit in faithfulness in the tent of David, one who judges and seeks justice and is swift to do righteousness.

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You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, as we come to your word that you have given by the prophet

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Isaiah, we ask that it would not return void, that it would do in us the work that it was intended to do.

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God, I pray that you would help us to understand this passage, but not only to understand it, to be transformed by it.

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God, I pray that we would not be one who are helpless and hopeless, but ones who have come to Zion for rescue, for salvation.

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In Jesus' name, amen. If you've ever traveled to a foreign country, you know that one of the, you know, typically there are many anxieties you might have being in an unknown place, but one of them is knowing that you might not have the same rights that a citizen does.

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You don't know if you're going to be treated fairly by others, but especially if there was ever some kind of situation that would escalate to the police or higher, whether or not you would receive the same treatment a citizen of that place would.

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Well, as God's kingdom has implications for all the kingdoms around, it is the case that there is no mercy for other nations when

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God's kingdom goes forward. However, there is mercy for those who are willing to come to him for mercy.

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And these two things sound very opposite and sound contradictory. There is no mercy for the foreigner, and there is mercy for the foreigner, but there is no mercy for the foreigner continuing as a citizen of his own country.

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But there is mercy. They're willing to leave their country and come to Jesus. They're willing to leave and come to the

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Lord Almighty. And that's what we see here in this passage. We see God's judgment on Moab, and yet, surprisingly, a statement of mercy and a statement of compassion on Moab.

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He speaks of how there will be no remnant, how the line will destroy the remnant, and how they're—and yet there's hope given to those who would come to him for mercy.

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And so you see, on this backdrop of God's justice, a statement of his mercy for those who are willing to leave their people behind and to come to the

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Lord Jerusalem, to come to God's kingdom, to come to the throne of David, on which now stands—on which now sits—Jesus

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Christ. So let's go ahead and walk through this passage.

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There's a lot of details. There's a lot of geography that—some of it's even uncertain, but hopefully

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I'll do a sufficient job of explaining what the picture Isaiah is trying to paint here is. An oracle concerning Moab.

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Because R of Moab is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone. Because Kerr of Moab is laid waste in a night,

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Moab is undone. So you have R, more northern place, Kir, more southern place, describing in parallel, each of them being destroyed, and because of that,

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Moab as a whole being undone, because these are the great cities of Moab. He has gone up to the temple and to Dibun, to the high places to weep, over Nebo and over Mediba, Moab, Wales.

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So speaking of Moab as a singular individual, because Moab once was, you know, Moab is the daughter of Lot—or excuse me, he's the son of Lot and his oldest daughter, if you remember that story.

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So speaking of him as a single individual, he goes up to weep on the high places over Nebo and over Mediba, Moab, Wales.

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So goes up to Dibun, down to Nebo, over to Mediba.

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It describes someone going to each of the high places to go seek mercy.

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The high places are places where people would go to reach their gods, you know, a high place that's closer to the heavens.

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People recognize that God is in the heavens, and they want to reach out to some kind of higher power.

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So they go there. They go to one mountain, find no mercy. They go to another mountain, they find no mercy.

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They go over here to another mountain, they find no mercy. None of the high places are offering any mercy.

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You know, one of the most famous psalms—I believe it's 127, but I might have that wrong—or

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David, one of the Songs of Ascent, where David says, I look to the hills. Where does my help come from?

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My help comes from the Lord. Right? So these people, they're looking to the hills. Where is their help coming from? Is it going to come from this hill, from this hill, from this hill?

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Which hill? That's why later, when you see that help comes from Zion, that is the answer to their problems.

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On every head is baldness, every beard is shorn. Right? People shave, and they shave their heads bald to show that they are mourning, right?

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They're mourning before their gods, looking for mercy. In the streets, they wear sackcloth, once again, a sign of mourning.

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On the housetops and in the squares, everyone wails and melts in tears.

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Heshbon and Elillah cry out. So two cities that are fairly close to each other. Their voice is heard as far as Jehaz.

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Jehaz is a city 10 miles south. So it's a picture of people crying so loudly that they can be heard 10 miles away.

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Therefore, the armed men of Moab cry loud. His soul trembles.

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There is some military conquest that has happened. Ar of Moab has been destroyed.

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Kir of Moab has been destroyed. It hasn't said it specifically, but there's some kind of military conquest that is coming that the people need help from.

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And even the armed men, even the soldiers, cannot bear to stand this coming destruction.

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And so even they are crying for mercy. Their soul trembles.

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Now this is the state of everyone who is not right with God. These oracles against the various nations, though much of the destruction that's being described is not at the hand of God's people, it's not at the hand of even

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God himself in any direct miraculous sense, many of them. A lot of it is coming from other nations.

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But in specifying these oracles as coming from God to the nations, we are to recognize the destruction ultimately does come from God.

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And this is the fate of all those who stand against them. Now as people experience that destruction, you know, they realize they need help.

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Prior to that, it is very hard for people to sympathize or to resonate with these concerns.

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How many people in the world have no idea that they are not right with God, have no idea that there is a great disaster coming their way?

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You know, just think about this. How did most people feel 20 years and two days ago compared to 20 years and one day ago?

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You know, September 11th, 20th anniversary was yesterday. There is a drastic change in the security that most people felt between one day to the next.

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And how did most people feel 18 months ago versus 17 months ago? Once again, just a drastic change in how people realized that their security was just a vapor.

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It was just a mist. There was nothing to it. It was a mirage. But this is the status of everyone who is not right with God.

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They must be right with God. He continues on with a very surprising statement.

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So it is describing going further and further south. These are the people fleeing into Edom, the land of Edom just south of them.

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Vegetation fails. The greenery is no more. So the waters of Nimrim being in Moab, no more is the land good for them.

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The grass has given way. There is famine. They cannot stay in their own land. They must go south. They must go into another land.

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And just to fill out some more of the geography for you, this is all happening just to the east of the

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Dead Sea, so to the east of the land of Canaan. And they're moving further and further south.

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Therefore, the abundance they have gained and what they have laid up, they carry away over the brook of the willows.

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So you can imagine trying to carry with you your possessions. It's very dignified, you know, to have possessions and to have them in one place.

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It's less dignified to carry your possessions. If you ever see, you know, a homeless person, do they look more or less dignified when they have a shopping cart full of stuff, you know, about this high?

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It's less dignified to carry your stuff, you know, frantically around trying to get from one place to another.

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For cry has gone around the land of Moab. Her wailing reaches to Eglam. Her wailing reaches to Beartlim.

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For the waters of Dibin are full of blood. For I will bring upon Dibin even more. And a lion for those of Moab who escape for the remnant of the land."

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So this surprising statement, my heart cries out for Moab. Who here is the speaker?

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You know, it's not the Moabites, obviously. It's not

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Isaiah either. If you look down at verse 9, it says, "'For I will bring upon Dibin even more.'"

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Right? Who is the one bringing judgment upon Dibin? It's the Lord. And so who is the one whose heart cries out for Dibin?

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It's the Lord. If you look at the next chapter, in chapter 16, in verse 10, it says, let's see, in verse 10, "'And joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful field, and in the vineyards no songs are sung, no cheers are raised, no treader treads out wine in the presses.

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I have put an end to the shouting.'" So this is the one determining judgment.

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He's putting an end to the shouting. "'Therefore, my inner parts moan like a liar for Moab, and my inmost self for keer harsh self.'"

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This is a statement of God, the one who is bringing judgment, also sympathizing with these people that he's bringing judgment against.

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This is very surprising, because usually you see just one picture of God. You just see in these statements of judgment that he will have no mercy and that he has set himself to destroy them.

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He sits in the heavens and laughs. That's one way that the

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Bible puts it. But yet here you see something more. Now, once again, if you see these things as contradictory, they are not contradictory.

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God is not so simplistic a being that we should only understand one aspect of him and not others.

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You know, it is not contradictory for him to determine that judgment is necessary, but also to have some remorse in an anthropological sense, in speaking of God as though he were a human, to have some sense of remorse about this thing that he had created, about these people made in his own image.

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You know, when the Bible says things like, "'I will have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.'"

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You know, those aren't—a lot of people will call those Arminian verses, right? If you don't know what that word means, don't worry about it.

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But, you know, there are no Arminian verses in the Bible. These statements are true.

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We have to have room to hold them all together. And so God, in his judgment, judges the people.

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And yet he is not so simplistic as a being as though he does not recognize his own image placed in these people.

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And so we, likewise, if we want to be sons of the Father who loves—who gave himself, or who, because he loved the world, sent his own son—if we want to be sons of that Father, we must also have compassion.

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You know, God told us to love our enemies so that we could be sons of him who is good to his enemies, who sends rain on the just and the unjust.

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I've heard a lot of people lately, because the world has become so polarized, say that they find it very hard to pray for those who

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God has called them to pray for. Read this and consider how you can pray for them in a way that recognizes, one, they do stand opposite of God, and yet if God himself cares for this person, we ought to as well.

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Verse 8. "'For a cry has gone around the land of Moab. Her wailing reaches to Eglam, her wailing reaches to Beorleim, for the waters of Dibon are full of blood, for I will bring upon Dibon even more.'"

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You see this picture of bloodshed, the waters being full of blood.

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You have those pictures frequently in the Bible, occasionally, the waters are pictured as full of blood to describe just how much destruction there's been.

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And something that's interesting here, and I think your ESV should have a footnote on Dibon, is that there's actually only one scroll that we have that says

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Dibon. The rest all say Dimon, and no one knows what Dimon is. It probably is referring to the city of Dimon, but the reason all the other scrolls say

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Dimon is because it is a pun on the word blood, which is

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Dom. So you have this picture of the city being—I wish

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I had thought of some kind of analogy for this—but a play on words with the city name, so it's described as being a bloody city.

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So here the waters are full of blood, the city itself is being renamed as a city of blood, and a lion for those of Moab who escaped for the remnant of the land, the remnant being destroyed.

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And so here you have a picture of compassion, and yet the people are hopeless. So how do those two get resolved?

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We see that in the remainder of the passage. Send the lamb to the ruler of the land from Selah by way of the desert.

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Selah is in Edom, so south. That's as the people are making their exodus south, fleeing their own land.

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To the mount of the daughter of Zion, like fleeing birds, like a scattered nest, so are the daughters of Moab at the fords of the

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Arnon. So that was back up north, the Arnon, and you have a picture of many women in Arnon stranded up there, not able to make it south.

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In sending a lamb, they're essentially sending tribute, declaring allegiance, asking for peace.

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It's actually the case in 2 Kings 16, I believe, where Moab sends lambs to Israel, not

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Judah, but to Israel because they want peace with the northern kingdom of Israel.

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So here you have them sending a tribute, asking Zion for peace. Or this is a statement, rather, from Isaiah that if they were to, that they would receive mercy.

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Send a lamb. And then you have the statement in verse 3. Give counsel. Grant justice.

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Make your shade like night at the height of noon. Shelter the outcast.

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Do not reveal the fugitive. This is what they say as they bring their tribute.

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Give counsel. Grant justice. Make your shade like night at the height of the noon.

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This is a picture we've seen before in Isaiah where shade represents God's protection. They want God's protection.

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They want his counsel. They want his justice. Justice meaning, you know, from the enemy that's pursuing them wrongly.

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Let the outcasts of Moab sojourn among you. Be a shelter to them from the destroyer.

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When the oppressor is no more, and destruction has ceased, and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land, then on a throne will be established in steadfast love, and on it will sit in faithfulness in the tent of David, one who judges and seeks justice, and is swift to do righteousness."

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They want the enemy to be defeated. Now, in the context of their history, obviously, there's an enemy that's pursuing them.

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This is picturing them coming to Zion asking for help. But it should be obvious from this language and the way the

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New Testament interprets language like that, that it is pointing forward, speaking of Jesus, the one who sits on the throne of David, and speaking of Satan, the destroyer, accuser, extortioner.

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This is the only way we can have peace. It is not to be our own people like Moab, to continue on going to the high places looking for mercy everywhere we might think we can find it.

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We must come to the only Lord who can give mercy. We must send tribute, give him our all.

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He is a good God who is merciful to people.

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He has compassion. He is not merciful to those who are of their own people and remain in their own people, but he is merciful to those who come to him who desire to be part of his people.

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He destroys the destroyer. The one who accuses is defeated completely by the power of the cross.

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And as we come to Jesus Christ, we know that we come to one who sits on the throne of David and stands forever doing what is right.

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We cannot find mercy anywhere else, but we can find mercy here. Let's pray.

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Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you would help us as we think this passage, as we struggle often to have mercy on others, as we struggle often to love our enemy, but you are a good

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God who is kind and compassionate and rich in mercy, and yet, all the same, you are just.

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I pray that you would save many people, that you would bring them into Zion, that they would recognize that they can have no mercy anywhere else, from no other hill, but they can find mercy in the hill of Zion, coming to your son who sits on the throne of David forever.