Sunday, Aug 4, 2024 PM

as the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.

But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword, for the mouth of the

Lord has spoken." So we are thinking about what hope there is for rebellious children that are addressed here in Isaiah chapter 1.

They are in such rebellion that they act as if they have no father at all.

God addresses this, He exposes this, and demonstrates in the different arenas of their life, their society, that rebellion.

And He shows that not only in their politics, but also in their religion.

And He's about to talk about their society, their social fabric in verses 21 through 31.

But at this point, He's wrapping up His indictment of their failed religion. Of course,

He has prescribed them a way of worshipping Him. He has instructed them in their religious calendar and their sacrifices.

He has told them how to gather and pray to Him. But now

He's telling them that none of these things are in order. None of these things are pleasing to Him.

He's been saying this in Isaiah chapter 1 verses 10 through 15. And He makes clear that the element that is lacking is that of repentance.

They're not repentant of their sins. They're not confessing their sins to the Lord. They're simply going through the religious motions and calling it good.

And so, He has called for repentance. We see that in verses 16 and 17. He promises covenant renewal in verse 18, as He compels them to come to Him by way of confession.

The term reason and come, let us reason together is the term for rebuke.

But it's structured in such a way in which the people being rebuked are also agreeing with God about it, which is the idea of confession.

And so, God promises them cleansing and forgiveness if they would only confess their sins.

And then, in verses 19 and 20, He reminds them of the covenant requirements. The covenant requirements that we surveyed in Deuteronomy 28, but are also found in Leviticus 26.

And we thought about blessing, how it is that the good of the land is

God. The good of the harvest is God.

The good of the livestock is God. The good of the milk and honey, the land flowing with milk and honey, was really

God. It wasn't the milk and honey, it was God. Without God, there was no blessing.

And the fact that they have been rebelling against God and separating from God vacated all of these things from there being an actual blessing.

So, we have these two promises that are made that are conditional. Verse 19, if, so we see the conditionality, if you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.

And in verse 20, the conditionality continues, but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword.

The reliability of those two conditional promises is then demonstrated by the very last line where we read, for, here's why you know this to be true, for the mouth of the

Lord has spoken. So, you can count on this being the case because it is the Lord who has spoken.

So, let's think about this summary of cursing. We saw the summary of blessing, you shall eat the good of the land.

And indeed, we surveyed in the Old Testament Scriptures that it was a good land and so much about the blessings of the land was about eating.

I mean, there's milk and there's honey and there's crops and there are livestock and there's a lot about eating, about why this was such a good land.

Remember that when they brought samples back from the land, they brought back grapes the size of a man's fist.

They're very focused on food as this primary need that God would be supplying to them and doing so bountifully through the land.

To eat the good of the land is a great summary of the blessings that God promised them, but also a good summary of the curses that God promised them is you shall be devoured by the sword.

The primary instrument of God's judgment against Israel when they were in rebellion against him, the way that he chastised them and brought difficult times upon them because of their idolatry, foreign nations.

As you read through the book of Judges, you have cycle after cycle in which Israel would at first be obedient to God, but then they would become idolatrous and lazy and they would not do the job of thoroughly conquering the land.

God would bring a foreign oppressor upon them. They would be in dire straits until such time that they called out for help and God would send a deliverer and bring them up out of the problem and they would turn back to the

Lord for a time. There would be peace maybe 40 years, every once in a while 80 years, and then the whole cycle would start again and that same cycle is similar to the days of the kings of Israel.

We see these cycles continuing in some fashion in that time as well, but why the foreign oppressor?

Because God said this is how it was going to work. So in Leviticus 26, we're going to see several different instances of this.

I will say that in Deuteronomy 28, which has the summary of all the blessings and curses in the covenant that God made with Israel at Sinai, that there is in verses 22 through 25 and verses 49 through 52 of Deuteronomy 28, clear expressions of foreign oppressors being used as God's instruments of judgment against Israel.

But the things that go along with foreign invasions are these. Famine, because of the disruption of the planting and harvesting of crops.

Disease, because of the bringing in of foreign peoples into a new land and also because of the malnourishment that occurs.

And all manner of poverty and death. All of these things accompanied the invasion of foreign armies and we also find this theme in Leviticus 26.

So you will see that Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 are fairly parallel in their themes and what they talk about, the blessings and the curses, based on whether or not

Israel would be faithful to him in covenant. In verses 16 and 17, we read about God's warning about his punishment of them if they were to be idolatrous.

Verse 16 says, I also will do this to you. I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart and you shall sow your seed in vain for your enemies shall eat it.

I will set my face against you and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you and you shall flee when no one pursues you.

Another example is verse 25. And I will bring a sword against you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant.

Why are they being punished? Because they have broken the covenant. So he's bringing the vengeance of the covenant upon them.

The vengeance of the covenant when you are gathered together within your cities, I will send pestilence among you and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

Verse 33 says, I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you.

Your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. And then verses 36 and 37.

And as for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts, into the land of their enemies.

The sound of a shaken leaf shall cause them to flee. They shall flee as though fleeing from a sword and they shall fall when no one pursues.

They shall stumble over one another as were before a sword when no one pursues.

And you will have no power to stand before your enemies. Of course, verse 38 also says you shall perish among the nations and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.

Now that is the language that Isaiah is reflecting on when he uses the expression, you shall be devoured by the sword.

He's using that very rich metaphor and expression saying the sword is going to devour you.

You are going to be eaten by foreign military action.

The idea is that when foreign armies invade and occupy the land, the fields and the flocks and the stores are raided and consumed to support the ravenous troops.

And all the progress made throughout many, many years just evaporates in the face of these foreign armies.

Famine always accompanies war, even of the apocalypse.

And in Isaiah chapter 1, that the sword has afflicted them already.

So Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 7 says your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire.

Fire is the primary instrument of war. Strangers devour your land and your presence.

You're all cooped up in your fortified cities watching your enemies devour your fields.

That's part of the punishment that God has already talked about. And the sword is bound to devour them again in their rebellion and refusal.

In Isaiah chapter 5 verses 25 through 30, we hear this again.

Therefore the anger of the Lord is aroused against his people. He has stretched out his hand against them and stricken them.

And the hills trembled. Their carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets.

For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar and will whistle to them from the end of the earth.

Surely they will come with speed swiftly. No one will be weary or stumble among them. No one will slumber or sleep, nor will the belt on their loins be loosed, nor the strap of their sandals be broken.

The irony of this is deep, but basically God is going to speed along the journeys of enemies to come attack

Israel, and he's going to bless them like he blessed Israel when they were in the wilderness. He will take care of all of their needs, and they're not going to have any trouble making it all the way.

Verse 28, whose arrows are sharp and all their bows bent, their horses' hooves will seem like flint and their wheels like a whirlwind.

Their roaring will be like a lion. They will roar like young lions. Yes, they will roar and lay hold of the prey.

They will carry it away safely, and no one will deliver. In that day, they will roar against them like the roaring of the sea.

And if one looks to the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened by the clouds.

So these are expressions here in Isaiah that talk about the way in which

God brings judgment upon his people for breaking the covenant, and he is inclined to use foreign nations again and again and again.

We hear in the stories of Scripture about the Philistines. Oh, the Philistines.

And we hear about the Canaanites. Oh, the Canaanites. We hear about the Assyrians and the

Babylonians. And time and again, God uses these foreign powers to afflict his people.

We think of the Moabites, the Midianites, and all those ites that God used to come against them. What goes on here?

What we have here are the people who are called to be God's special people to love him and to worship him and to declare his glory and worthiness to all the nation.

They don't fear the Lord. They're worshiping idols. And they don't even remember that the

Lord is their covenant father. They don't even remember that they're his children.

Everything in their society was built on the idea that they should fear the Lord, to think of him first, to think of him most.

But they do not fear the Lord. They fear men, and they fear death. So God brings judgment upon them in the realization of those fears.

They fear men, men come upon them. They fear death, death comes upon them. Interesting.

They are so anxious, they're so afraid, and they respond in these ways.

A little bit later on in Isaiah chapter 7, as Isaiah speaks with King Ahaz about the situation, he is so scared of the kings to the north.

He's so consumed with what they might do to him and his nation. And God says, you know, ask for a sign.

I'll encourage you and comfort you with a sign that indeed, that things will go all right. And Ahaz is just too scared of men and death to trust.

As terrifying as the tumult of war is, God is to be more feared.

Imagine, and it's hard to imagine, but imagine what life would be like in the midst of war.

How consuming every day, every moment, this war would be in terms of your safety, in terms of your in terms of your nourishment, in terms of what you can and can't do.

An all -consuming focus. And yet, even in the midst of war,

God is still to be feared more than death. God is still to be feared more than men.

Israel's refusal and rebellion is tied to their idolatry and what they actually fear they worship.

What we think of first and think of most, what we fear, we worship. And God piles upon them what they fear.

It's worth considering how often believers will sometimes act as the

Israelites do. And to offer some level of penance before false gods, offering a pinch of incense to this or that anti -christian nonsense.

To sound that we are not haters and run scientific and I'll say all these different things in certain acceptable well -adjusted member of a secular society.

Why? Do we need that kind of insurance?

Do we need that kind of protection? Do we need to have that kind of image? Are we desirous of that kind of acceptance?

Why is the approach of Christians so often, don't hate us, don't hurt us, please.

We'll comply with whatever your ever -shifting standards of rightness is.

But God is to be feared. You know, God, wonderful thing about God is he never changes.

Oh man, he changes. Man changes his mind. Man lies. Things are always shifting around and the righteousness of today will not be the righteousness of tomorrow.

The paragons of virtue today, their statues will be torn down tomorrow. But if we fear

God, if we fear God, then we're going to be following in eternal principles, in eternal value.

When God says that they refuse and rebel in verse 20, refusing and rebelling should remind us of that wicked and perverse generation in the wilderness.

Remember them at Massa and Meribah in Exodus 17, 7.

It is as if they stand once again at the point of decision, the place of contention. Will they grumble against God or will they serve him?

If Israel insists that God is not her good, the sword she so fears will consume her.

This is what God is saying. Continuing in rebellion and refusal is continuing in death, separation from our maker.

Outside of communion with God, we only have death. This is why coming to God through Christ so that we may have eternal life in the

Holy Spirit is called moving from death into life. It is described as a resurrection.

We were once dead, now we are alive. I walked and talked just fine before.

Remember in Scripture, death is separation. We once were separated away from God, now we're in union with him.

Before we had no life, now we do have life. This is eternal life that we know God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent.

So this is what our last and true Adam does, who bears our curse and suffers our separating death and brings us all the way back to God.

When we think about the way in which the death of Jesus Christ is described in that he atones for us and reconciles us to God.

He brings us back to God, suffering in our place and for sake what we deserve and taking away that separation.

He says on the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

So that we will never be forsaken. He was forsaken, he was separated that we will not be separated, that we are brought to God and that we have eternal life in him.

Now the assurance that this is the way that it works is given to the children of Israel.

In his last line, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. So we remember that this dichotomy of covenant blessings and covenant cursings is witnessed by heaven and earth.

In Isaiah chapter 1 verse 2, God says, hear oh heavens and give ear oh earth for the

Lord has spoken. And we remember that heaven and earth were called to be the witnesses of the forging of the covenant at Mount Sinai, the witnesses of the blessings and curses of the covenant that God made with Israel.

And so it is most certain and sure without the possibility of failure that God will bless and he will curse according to these covenant standards.

Why? For the mouth of the Lord has spoken because he said so, because he said so.

And we are assured in scripture that heaven and earth may pass away, but what does not pass away?

Right? The word of God, what he says will not pass away. He does bring the entire creational covenantal arrangements that once dominated the entire way of thinking and the whole arrangement of God and humanity in creation.

He can bring that to an end and restart it again. He can cause heaven and earth to pass away like an old garment, like a shadow and bring out a new heaven and a new earth.

He can cause the old covenant to pass away even as he brings in a new covenant. He can do that and he does do that all according to his word.

Heaven and earth pass away, but not his word. And as we read here in verse 20, for the mouth of the

Lord has spoken, what are we assured here? We are assured of disaster.

This is the context. This is there under judgment. These people are breaking covenant and he assures them that disaster will continue and it will get worse by saying, for the mouth of the

Lord has spoken. So the phrase affirms disaster here, but it can also affirm salvation.

So in Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 5, we read, the glory of the

Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the

Lord has spoken. Now read a little bit broader, hear the context. Verse one of Isaiah 40, comfort, oh comfort my people.

How can they have comfort? Because the Lord said so. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Comfort, yes, comfort my people says your God. Speak comfort to Jerusalem and cry out to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned for she has received from the

Lord's hand double for all her sins. The voice of the one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the

Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Remember who this is, who's the voice in the wilderness was

John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah. Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill brought low.

The crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth. The glory of the

Lord shall be revealed and all flesh will see it together, whom

John the Baptist spoke of. So the word which can affirm disaster also affirms salvation.

The certainty of God's holy judgment, we also have the certainty of God's merciful salvation.

The very word that we pick up and read that cuts to the heart, the sharp two -edged sword that eviscerates also is the balm that heals.

The very word by which sinners are condemned is the very word by which sinners are saved and the certainty of both is that the

Lord has spoken. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.

So with all of this certainty to be considered,

I invite you to turn over to Galatians chapter 3. Now remember all those curses?

Oh man, there's a bunch of them. Deuteronomy 28 is heavily, if you had a scales of blessings and curses in Deuteronomy 28, the curses are like whoa, it's a lot of curses.

Same with Leviticus 26. Remember all those curses? Here's what's going to happen to your nation, here's what's going to happen to your armies, here's what's going to happen to your cities and so on.

Galatians chapter 3 verse 10. For as many as are the works of the law, meaning the people, the folks, those who are all about the works of the law, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.

For it is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

And that means everything. But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith.

Yet the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them. Now that's verse 13.

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.

For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. The blessing of Abraham might come upon the

Gentiles, the nations in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Now I want to make an application here as we're talking about blessings and curses and covenant faithfulness and so on.

I don't think that it is a proper biblical framework for us to look at our nation today and take ownership of its iniquity and sins and call them our own.

This is very traditional to do in American Christianity. It's look around and say, we are such a wicked people.

We are rightly under the judgment of God. And then to relate to passages in the scripture and say, oh yes, we deserve all of that because look, they're in Deuteronomy 28.

We don't live under the old covenant, folks. I'm not aborting babies.

I'm not parading for the alphabet people. I'm not doing that.

I belong to Jesus Christ. He's my king. I'm not responsible for the sins of the empire in which

I live. In this great big empire, in all the wickedness that it is engaged in,

I'm not responsible for that. I'm not covenantally obligated for a scrap of it.

I belong to Jesus. And he has suffered all the curses for me in my place for my sake.

So when I go to bed tonight, I wake up tomorrow. I'm not guilty of the sins of the empire of America.

I am righteous in the sight of God, justified by faith in Jesus Christ. And I get to live in the freedom of that.

I am not bound by the chains of an old covenant remixed and re -envisioned in American terms.

A further extension with a little bit more peculiarity. Since we live in the new covenant and we belong to a kingdom of Jesus Christ that spans throughout many different nations, no matter which empire those nations are a part of.

I hope you're following me with that. We're also not like Israel trying to hang all of our hopes on getting ourselves a good king this time.

Right? We are not Israel suffering under, oh, we had an

Ahab on our hands for the last four years. Boy, I hope we get an Asa next time around.

Donald Trump is not the Lord's anointed. And he's not a king when put into place will bring the

Lord's blessings upon our empire. We don't live in the old covenant. We have our king.

He's a wonderful king. He reigns from a throne that is above all the other kings.

And we can rejoice in what he's doing in our lives and in the world around us. And if we live in it, and we do live in a late stage empire with a lot of problems, consider it a target rich environment to declare the glories and the good and the grace of Jesus Christ.

Does that help? Right. When we read about the blessings and curses in the old covenant that Israel operated under, we are to see them being satisfyingly fulfilled in Jesus Christ, not operating in perpetuity, still burdening us in our

American context. I hope that helps. We'll work more through that and parse more of that as we continue our study in Isaiah in the future.

Okay. Well, let's close our time together by singing the doxology. Praise God from...