Isaiah Lesson 62

Who has heard of something called the vine that ate the south?

Yes, kudzu. If you drive down south, you will see it everywhere.

The fields are just lush, thick, deep, deep green.

I remember one time, I have a bucket list item.

I don't know if I'll ever get to finish it, but it's to run in all 50 states. It has to be at least two miles.

There have been times where Sandy and I were going from here to there.

She stops for lunch and you run. She'll stop. I'll get out and she'll drive two miles up the road.

Usually when I get within 15 -20 yards of her, she moves further up. Clever lady.

I was getting my South Carolina rung for the first time. We had gone to visit friends down in Georgia.

On the way back, I was equipped with my running gear on. We're going to cross into South Carolina and you're going to go the road a ways.

At one point, I ran by this field. Here you see a field and you might see some sort of grass or something growing.

It was thick. It was really thick with kudzu. They're little curly things that attach on to something.

I kind of get heebie -jeebies. This stuff is going to grab me and suck me in. Kudzu was first brought into the country in 1876 in a centennial exposition.

The first centennial of the country was held in Philadelphia. Kudzu was introduced into the country seven years later in 1783.

It was again featured in a New Orleans exposition. At that time, kudzu was thought to be an ornamental plant that could grow up on the side of your patio or your porch and provide shade.

It was presented that way as something for the rich to have on their property.

Then eventually, as we move into the 20th century, it was identified as a very effective plant that could grow, that could prevent soil erosion.

As we're in the middle of the 20th century, the government actually aided the distribution of 85 million kudzu seedlings.

What could possibly go wrong? People were paid $7 .99 for every acre that they planted kudzu.

It was thought at that time to be very beneficial. By 1946, over 3 million acres had been planted.

It did have uses, and it was expected to be a good thing. It had potential for livestock feed.

It was very definitely used for soil erosion. It was even used as an herbal medicine.

Unfortunately, it kills and destroys any plant that it attaches to by smothering it and blocking out all sunlight.

If you see a tree and kudzu has started to come up to it, it will work its way up the trunk, out the limbs, and it will go outside of the canopy of leaves.

The trees have a canopy of leaves to get sunlight. It will go outside of that, and the tree will get no sunlight, and so it kills its host, if you would.

This stuff grows a foot a day. You can almost perceive that watching it, you can almost perceive it growing.

I remember being at a meeting in South Carolina, and there was a railroad track, and there was kudzu, and signposts and everything else with kudzu.

I remember going in and coming out, and I could perceive how much higher that kudzu was, just in that period of time.

It's estimated right now that kudzu is destroying the forest production to the tune of $500 million a year, because it was introduced for potentially thought to be good reasons.

Okay, second concept. In 1962,

Madeline Murray O 'Hara, what did she do? Try to kill

God. Well, yes, yes. What was the

Supreme Court case that Madeline Murray O 'Hara... Limited of God in schools. That's true.

Specifically... Prayer. Prayer. Specifically prayer. In the Baltimore schools, the

Lord's Prayer could not be recited in public schools. A number of Supreme Court rulings have come out from them.

Now, her intentions were to honor what was perceived to be a constitutional edict, which it isn't, separation of church and state, which we know is not in the

Constitution. It was part of a letter, a paper written...

By Thomas Jefferson. By Thomas Jefferson to describe, and it wasn't even meant to be used the way that it's used now, but to protect those who don't want to be indoctrinated.

She felt it was important to honor this, what she thought was constitutional mandate, separation of church and state, and the

Supreme Court agreed. And in 1962, that happened. The Ten Commandments are gone.

And the impact and the result of what we've seen coming off of those rulings is pretty much the degradation of a generation.

I think it was Leonard Lennon... Leonard Levin? Leonard Lennon, who said,

Give me your children for four years, and I will make a change that will never be undone.

And so, removing God from our schools, removing prayer from our schools, removing the

Judeo -Christian ethic from our schools has had an impact. What do these two stories have in common?

The Kunzu story and the Madeleine Murray O 'Hare, what do they have in common?

Destruction. Destruction, excellent. Keep going. Invasiveness. Invasiveness, excellent.

Starting out as what some people thought was a good thing and really didn't know the attributes of what they were dealing with, and it turned out to be a very destructive thing, not a positive thing.

You're absolutely right. I'm going to put it this way, that actions have consequences. And you can look at it in a lot of different ways.

Actions have consequences. They can be well -meaning actions. The Kunzu was actually a well -meaning initiative, but it had negative consequences.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are a number of places that you can go.

Lake Winnipesaukee. No, not Lake Winnipesaukee. Oh, what's the big lake up in the

Poconos? I can't think of it. And then there's one in Maryland, Deep Creek Lake.

In fact, then they dammed up these rivers and created lakes. Now, there are positive and negative impacts to that.

It had its impact on wildlife, but it then created new ecosystems. But I do believe that as we get into Chapter 48 of Isaiah, it's clear that you cannot deny that your actions have consequences.

If a pastor chooses to try to reach as many people in the community as possible and allow them to feel comfortable in his church by diluting the word, you have consequences by coming to the least common denominator.

But there are consequences to that. A man who thinks nobody's looking, and so he watches bad things on his computer, there are consequences to that.

For the nation of Israel, there are consequences for things that they have done, places they have gone, ways that they have done, and quite frankly, seeking their own way instead of God's way.

Consequences because of actions. We're going to go into Isaiah 48. This would be the end of what

Jeff calls the trial of idols. There are idols in this chapter, but this is really a trial of the inadequacy of Israel to remain true to their

God. But that's what we're going to be. Let's have a prayer. Father, as we turn to your scripture, as we look at Isaiah 48, as we look at the way

Israel was careless in their devotion to God, there are consequences.

Pray, Father, that even the lessons of how Israel perceived things and then are punished because of it, we would understand the application even to our own lives.

We pray, Father, that your Holy Spirit would work through these words today. In Jesus' name, amen.

All right. Rich, I'm going to ask you to read, in Isaiah 48, the first five verses.

Matthew 15, John to Tully, Titus 1. There's two different verses, 10 and 16.

Chris, if you would get that. Kristen or Chris? I get that wrong. You got both of them right.

Either one's okay. Kristen, Kristen, or Chris. All right. And Matthew 7, if you would have that.

Go ahead. Give me the first five verses. Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel and have come forth from the wellspring of Judah, who swear by the name of the

Lord and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth or in righteousness.

For they call themselves after the holy city and lean on the God of Israel, the

Lord of hosts is his name. I have declared the former things from the beginning.

They went forth from my mouth, and I caused them to hear it. Suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.

Because I knew that you were obstinate and your neck was in iron sinew and your brow bronze, even from the beginning

I have declared it to you before it came to pass. I proclaimed it to you, lest you should say, my idol has done that, and my carved image, my molded image has commanded that.

The reminder of hypocrisy. This starts out with a call to God's people. We know that Old Testament tells us over and over and over again that Israel is

God's chosen people, not because of who they are, but because of his own choice, for his own glory.

He has called these people. We know the promises given to Abram way back when he was in Ur.

Leave the land of your fathers, go to the land I will show you, that I promised to you. I will make you great, your descendants like the sand on the seashore, and all nations will be blessed.

We know all of these truths, and we know how even as the nation of Israel goes into the promised land, that God promises, and he does, fight the fight for them so that the land is settled, and it becomes theirs.

We know all of these things, and so the reminder here as we start out, God calls them, you are my children, you are my people.

You're called the house of Israel. You're coming out of the waters of Judah. These are the people that have an identity, and if we go even into the

Gospels, how the Jews were incensed because Jesus would dare to say that there is a better way.

Well, we're of our father Abraham, and a true Jew is a

Jew who's one that's circumcised in the heart, not externally, but he's going to get their attention by saying here,

O house of Jacob, by self -proclamation, they say they call themselves after the holy city.

But at the end of verse one is the significant pivot point of this, and along with the beginning of verse four.

Hear this, O Jacob, who are called, who came out, who swore and confessed, and if we just stopped right there, it would sound like a great calling and acknowledgement of who these people are.

That big old word but, but not in truth or right.

And so everything that has been described about them at the beginning of this verse, he's saying it's hypocrisy, it's all a sham.

What are these people, what credentials do they have to base a claim of a right standing with God?

In this verse, what credentials do they have? They were sons of Jacob. Sons of Jacob, absolutely.

And they invoked the God of Israel. So they worshipped him in some way or form.

Yeah, yeah, they will say, we do, we acknowledge you, we do, and in fact,

Isaiah's been rife with this, even when you pray I'm not going to listen because it's not coming of your heart. But they would say that we're calling on the name of the

Lord. And they would also say, we live in the holy city.

This is where God has chosen to have his place of worship set up. This is the temple that has been built for his direction.

And this is the holy of holies where the Shekinah of glory resides. And so these individuals say, we are your people called by name and we swear by your name.

We invoke you, we do all the things and we're the ones, we're living in the holy city.

That's who we are. John, if you think of what

Jesus said to the Pharisees about whitewashed tombs, they were all good on the outside. Yeah, it even goes, you're right

John, that's absolutely right. Everything is external. They're even going to claim here, in the middle of verse two, it depends on which translation you're reading, it will say that we stay themselves on the

God of Israel. It's kind of an awkward word. We rely on the God of Israel.

Or we lean on the God of Israel. That's what they're claiming, that when things are going on, whether they're good or bad, whatever, when we have decisions to make, whatever, our direction is to follow and to lean on and to rely on God for the decisions, the directions, the protection and everything else.

That's what they claim. Whitewashed sepulchres, as John just said, because right in the middle of it it says, but it's not in truth or in right.

And they claim to listen to the Lord of hosts. Matthew 15, who's got that one?

John? You hypocrites. Well did

Isaiah brought sight of you when he said, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. That's a pretty heavy phrase there, you hypocrites.

Now he doesn't say you have stopped doing the prescribed things. He doesn't say that.

He's saying you're doing the things, but your hearts are far from me. And oh by the way, this is not a bad verse to be meditating on occasionally in your morning devotions, you know, just as a self -check.

Are the things I'm doing, am I doing them because it's Wednesday, I should be at an Isaiah study, it's

Sunday, and I should be at church, whatever. Or is your heart really, really into it?

Because if it's not, he has one word for you. Hypocrite. Hypocrite.

The parent who has, let's say grown children, and the child will externally state that I really love my mom and dad, but you know they really aren't honoring you.

It hurts. It hurts as the mom and dad. How much more so would God feel that?

And right now he's talking about his call, his chosen people. Titus 1 .10. For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.

Verse 16. They profess to know

God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

To be having an external manifestation to professing to know

God is followed by the but, which is to say that they don't really know

God. And in fact, in Matthew 7, he puts it this way, John. 21 through 23.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my

Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?

And in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles. And I will tell them plainly, I never knew you.

Away from me, you evildoers. That's a frightening thought. To be living your life the way you think

God would be prescribing because it's in accordance with his word and then to think that there would be that time where you're up at that, you know, metaphorical pearly gates and Jesus says, why should

I let you into my heaven? And you say, I did, I did, I did, I did. And then they have Jesus say,

I never knew you. There's a reality that God does not, cannot be fooled.

He knows, he knows. All right, now he's going to go on and give me verses 3 to 5 again, please,

Rich. 3 to 5. I have declared former things from the beginning.

They went forth from my mouth and I caused them to hear it. Suddenly I did them and they came to pass because I knew that you were obstinate and your neck was an iron sinew and your brow a bronze.

Even from the beginning I have declared to you before it came to pass, I proclaimed it to you that you'd say, my idol has done them and my court image and my molded image have commanded them.

He talks now about things that I have had proclaimed to you by the prophets who have proclaimed things that were to come and he's done them and he says,

I've not only had them proclaimed and you heard these words, but every single time one of these things has happened you've seen that my hand has made it come to be.

And he emphasizes the fact that I proclaim things that are going to happen before they come to be.

So that when you see that they came to be it was me who proclaimed them.

And then in the middle of that again at the beginning of verse 4 is that phrase, but I knew you were obstinate.

And it's, even though the evidence and the things that I've done should be so clearly obvious to everybody,

I know that you were obstinate. Why is he choosing to emphasize the prophetic things that he said and that highlight the fact that they've come to be?

Why is he giving this as a teaching? And I'll give you a clue, it's in verse 5.

It's at the end of verse 5. Because he's showing that he is superior to their false gods. Absolutely, absolutely.

Or any other thing. Now those false gods can be graven images. They can be scientific rationale.

It could be anything that is not God, is a false god, is an idol. Exodus 32,

Barbara can ask if you would get that. I'll talk to 2 Chronicles, but give me

Exodus 32. Verse 1, and that's 7 to 8. So he's going to say here in this passage that all these things,

I've declared that you've seen that they've come to be. And I'm doing this so that you'll know that it's me and it's not your idols.

But what reaction does he actually know is going to come from the people? Even in spite of these things, how does he describe them?

A clue, it's in verse 4. Stubbornness. It's hard to come up with a better word to actually have the word of God, the projection of God, the prophecies of God actually come to be.

And you go, eh, it ain't so. How can you get better? You're just stupid. I mean, you cannot give

God credit. In your heart, you cannot give credit. So you're so obstinate that you're going to come up with another thing.

Well, it's an idol. And he's giving them this. And he's highlighting this so that their behavior and their mindset will just be made evident.

Just be made evident. I'm sorry? I said, you knuckleheads. Knuckleheads is a good word for it.

Barb, you have Exodus 33 verse 1 first. Jacob also went on his way and the angels of God met him.

Is that Exodus 32? Yes. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm in Genesis. I don't remember

Jacob in the book of Exodus. I open Exodus as I page to number 32, but it's in Genesis.

Sorry about that. I think the description here of his neck is similar to what he means in other places when he calls him stiff -necked.

Absolutely. I've never seen that connection before, but that's a good way to describe being stiff -necked,

I think. Where's that from? The sinews of your neck. They're iron. How stiff their necks must be.

Variations of my misspent youth, I would be playing in the outfield, playing softball, and there'd be a short fly ball.

I was really, really fast in those days. I'd come running at full speed and I'd reach out to catch the ball, stumbling forward, and I would tuck my shoulder and roll on the small of my back and pop right back up onto my seat.

Well, you do that often enough when you get arthritis in your neck. Sure. You felt so agile.

It looked good at the time. It actually put me in the hospital one time.

They had to take x -rays. But now, I'm saying this because now

I come into an intersection and if I'm heading to Shawnee High School, I'm going to be working a basketball game.

You go down, I don't remember what road it is into Medford. There's a McDonald's.

The road goes this way and you turn this way. You've got a mile and a half and then you've got an intersection like this that you've got to make a left turn.

My neck does not turn that well to see what's going on. I actually have to turn my whole body to be able to see back there.

So this idea of stiff neck, you don't see what's happening. They've chosen to make themselves this way.

Their stiff neck. Thank you for bringing that one up. Do you have Exodus? We'll try again. When the people saw that Moses was so long and coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, come make us gods who will go before us.

As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him.

Let's put the scene. We know they're in Mount Sinai. They've just gotten out of, they've just gotten through the

Red Sea. They were just relieved from slavery in Egypt. God's hand of deliverance has been there and God calls

Moses up. People can't go near the mountain but you've got the clouds and everything else going on there and they've already lost the bubble.

Stiff -necked, obstinate people, if you would. We have no idea what's happening to Moses.

We're tired of waiting. Let's make our own god. Go ahead. Continue on with 7 and 9.

Then the Lord said to Moses, go down because your people whom you brought up out of Egypt have become corrupt.

They have been quick to turn away from you and I commanded them and have made them themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf.

They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, these are your gods,

O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt. I have seen these people, the Lord said to Moses, and they are stiff -necked people.

There you go. I've seen these people and what they do is they quickly get tired of waiting and quickly feel they've got to take control of the situation.

Basically, they're stiff -necked. 2 Chronicles 30 is don't be stiff -necked like your forefathers.

Here's the deal. Yield yourself to the Lord. Serve the Lord. That's the anecdote to being a stiff -necked person.

But as we've seen here, he's declared this to them. He's told them things that would happen so that they couldn't give credit to their idols, but he knew in their heart of hearts they were obstinate, they were stiff -necked.

Rich, give me verses 6 through 8, and Karen, I'm going to ask if you would get

Psalm 2. 6 through 8. Yeah, Psalm 2, and Sandy, if you would get Psalm 119 ready.

Give me 6 through 8, please. You have heard, see all this, and will not declare it?

I have made you hear new things from this time, even hidden things, and you did not know them.

They are created now, and not from the beginning.

And before this day you have not heard them, lest you should say, of course I knew them.

Surely you did not hear. Surely you did not know. But surely from long ago your ear was not opened, for I knew that you would deal very treacherously and recall a transgressor from the womb.

What he's got here now is he's reminded them that over and over and over again, prophecies that I've given you, that I've proclaimed to you, have come to be so that you couldn't say it was me, it was

God who has done it, but you're stiff -necked. And he says now, in verse 6, the word now isn't necessarily there, but now hear this, and now see this.

He's got some new prophecies, he's got some more proclamations that he's gonna give them. He's already told you,

I've done it before, I'm gonna give you some more. Now hear this, and now see this, and go out and proclaim it and declare it.

Be obedient to me. You are supposed to be my nation, and one of the things that I expected out of you as my people was to be a seasoning to the world so that the word that I've given to you would go to the world.

Remember, all nations will be blessed through you. And that's a promise that I don't think

Israel really comprehended, that along with the promise of being the great nation through their father

Abraham, was that all nations would be blessed through them, which meant they had an obligation to be the light with the true word that's been entrusted to them so that all nations could be blessed.

So he says now hear this, now see this, and declare it. From this time forth

I'm gonna give you new things that you haven't heard before. They're now, they're new, they're created.

He can't say, yeah, I already knew about these before. No, I'm gonna give you something new. And he says in verse eight, these are things you have never heard before.

And he goes on again at the end of verse eight, and there's the other side of the coin again. But I knew that you would deal treacherously with these words.

I knew because of who you are that even though you've seen me do it before and I'm giving you new words now, you're just an obstinate people, you're stiff -necked people.

And in fact, at the end of verse eight, the way I have it here in the ESV, is perhaps a little easier to read.

I don't know what version you've got there. The New King James. The New King James. It says, and that from before birth you were called a rebel.

That's these chosen people, that's how he is seeing them. So he's emphasizing the fact that I've got some new, new prophecy to give you.

Basically what he's saying, I don't want you taking credit for any of this stuff in the future. I don't want you claiming, oh yeah, it was this, it was that.

He's saying, no, I want you to know that it's me, it's God, it's Yahweh, that I'm the one that's doing it.

Why are the people being treacherous? It says they're treacherous from the womb.

Why are they so? That's a very good answer. You catch it. Why are they so? You've inherited that from Adam.

What did they inherit? Great answer, Bob. What have they inherited from Adam? The sin nature.

They sin nature. And they're being deceived by Satan. Anything to deny the sovereignty of God is what they're, basically the way they're living and believing all of the lies that deny the sovereignty of God.

Psalm 2. We didn't get that yet. Go ahead. The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the

Lord and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.

He who sitteth on the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. I love that passage.

Here is man being obstinate, a rebel from birth, denying everything that it has, thinking that they're all that.

And God is just sitting up in heaven going, You fools. Now, this isn't a laughter of pleasure and of joy.

This is just... Seriously, guys? In derision. Yeah, and he sits up and he laughs at the folly of what these people are doing.

The way that we should know truth should come from listening to what

God has to say. Not finding our own way to define it. Psalm 119.

Sandy? The sum of your word is truth and every one of your righteous ordinances is everlasting.

Put that one again on your refrigerator and meditate on that thought.

The sum of your words is truth and everything you say is everlasting. This should be my reaction to the proclamation of God's revealed word in his scripture.

Everything that's there is true and it's everlasting. It just dawned on me.

When she read Exodus about him going up to the mountain and they couldn't wait.

I'm thinking to myself, he must have been up there a really long time if they had the time to make a calf and worship it and all that.

Forty days. Forty days. He was up there. And then he did it again. After he destroyed the tablets he went and did it again another forty days.

That is a long time. Yes. Well, I'm thinking of us. We don't have patience.

They didn't either. That's really good. Well said. That is really well said.

Do you think they thought he was dead? Well, that's what they said. We don't know what's happened to this dude. Because you just crossed the

Red Sea on dry land and watched the Egyptian army drown behind you. You would think that would give you some clue that God has some kind of special protection in mind for you.

You'd think. And yet. Three days. However, it was a very scary thing, wasn't it?

God's presence on the mountain. Thunder. All this stuff was happening. Powerful.

So maybe in their minds, well, how can any man survive that?

It just showed you how hard hearted they were. Yeah, absolutely hard. Now, let's put this again, and you bring up some really good, interesting points here.

He was on the mountain for forty days and then he comes back down. It didn't take them forty days to get to this point of we're tired of waiting.

Because it took a while to collect the gold and to melt the gold and to form the calf.

That took a while, too. So, it was less than forty days and they eventually got tired of waiting.

And then they're like, we threw the gold into the fire and look what came out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, what? Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Like Aaron's saying, I didn't have nothing to do with it. Yes, yes. Like a two year old.

By the way, this all began back in Genesis 3. It was that woman you gave me. Can't be.

Gotta blame somebody else. However, even if he was dead, it shows how quickly they were willing to just go do their own thing.

You know, like, alright, we don't know where he is, let's just do our thing. We want to do that anyway. Except following God, who they just showed them his power.

But he was the only one, I think, who was transformed by God's presence at that time, in that group.

He was transformed. He was different. Whereas the other people hadn't accepted who

God was or didn't understand or didn't know. So he was the only one. So it's a good thing he did come back.

Because they never... There's always been a remnant. Yeah, there's always been a remnant.

Now, did Moses' transformation start in the wilderness in front of the burning bush?

Did that where it started? I tend to think so. Out of curiosity, he went to this bush that was in fire but never consumed.

That would freak me out to have a voice coming out of it. He had to take his shoes off because he was standing on holy ground.

So he had an encounter there. He absolutely did. Aaron had something of an encounter along with him.

I wouldn't think that you would have no impact if you threw your rod down and it turned into a snake and it ate the other snakes.

And then you picked it up and it was a rod again. It's got to be some transformation. That being said,

Aaron was at the bottom of the camp. He was part of that inner circle.

That being said, the sum of thy word is truth that's everlasting. The opposite of that is man's word has knowledge and wisdom.

It doesn't. It doesn't. All scripture is given by inspiration of God.

His word won't return void. It doesn't return void. It's living and active. What he's telling them here is

I've got words I'm going to be telling you. Open up your eyes. Listen. Pay attention. And I want you to proclaim it to the world.

Because these are the things that haven't happened yet. And I want you to be able to proclaim it to the world. And you're going to be able to see.

But I know that you're not going to do it. You're going to deal treacherously because you've been a rebel from the very beginning.

The refining. I'll give you 9 through 11. I'm going to talk to these verses as we get there.

Give me 9 through 11, please. 9 through 11. For my name's sake,

I will defer my anger. And for my praise, I will restrain it from you so that I do not cut you off.

Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. I have tested you in the firmness of affliction.

For my own sake, for my own sake, I will do it. For how should my name be profaned and I will not give my glory to another.

Alright. We're going to end with this section because I recognize the time. This starts now to show that although there are consequences, and what the nation of Israel, what the people have done, they have consequences.

You cannot be obstinate and stiff -necked and think that you're going to get away with it.

He is actually going to say here that I have anger. He says here that for my name's sake,

I'm going to defer my anger. But pick up on that phrasing there.

It says that he is angry with them. And how they have treated

God, how they've been stiff -necked, been rebels and everything else. It has displeased

God. And that's something that we have to acknowledge.

It says here though that he chooses to defer the anger for the sake of my name, for the sake of my praise.

I don't want to cut you off. And so on top of the reality of our actions have consequences and our consequences do impact

God's response to us and instead of pleasure, there is anger, yet there's this reality that he is saying, you are my covenant people.

I am not going to completely cut you off. What I am going to do is

I'm going to refine you. This is not like silver.

I've tried you in the furnace of affliction. What is it he's going to do to the nation in refining them?

How is he going to refine them? Send them into captivity is one of the ways he'll refine them.

That's the main way. And in the context of what we have here, the chapter before this was Babylon and at the end of this chapter again is going to be

Babylon. And so clearly the context of this is it's coming. You can go back to the book of Habakkuk or forward to the book of Habakkuk if you follow that.

Anyway, they're pretty much contemporaries of each other. Hey dude, God, this is really bad down here.

Aren't you watching? Yeah, you're right. I'm going to send Babylon. And he goes, no, no, no, no. They're worse than that. God is displeased and the people are needing to be refined.

But he says that he's going to defer his anger. Why is

God deferring his anger? Now again, this book of Isaiah is written a couple hundred years before they go into captivity.

So he isn't going to do it to them right then. He's going to do it later. Why does he delay the punishment?

His grace. His grace. Good answer. Repentance. I'm going to repent. Okay, so what is his grace?

How would that be manifested if you're saying that they might repent? That they might repent. 2

Peter 3 nights, He loves them.

He does. He loves them. But here's the thing. He loves them so much he's going to give them a chance, but he loves them so much he's going to refine them.

He loves them so much that he's not going to let them just go away. Now the northern kingdom, you can read between the lines, was so obstinate and so stiff -necked that they go into captivity and there's no record of them being returned to the land.

They were evil and more evil as time went. They will come back.

I promise you that on the strength of Revelation. All 12 tribes by name are going to come back.

He has not abandoned them, but he's going to allow this to come.

Psalm 25, 11 says, For my name's sake the iniquity will be pardoned.

It's for his name's sake because he's God. It says that deferring my anger so that my name would be praised.

In what way does deferring his anger protect his name?

It shows, I think, his character. He has many names actually,

I think, that we read about in the Old Testament that describe him. It shows his character that he is merciful and he does have grace.

Unlike the other gods who are looked upon at that time as all they want is revenge against anybody that acts against them.

It's showing that he's different than these gods, I believe. He's protecting the reality that all creation will know that he is the sovereign, all -powerful

God. That he is the one who knows right and wrong. He is the one who has to protect.

Reasonably, it extends time too because he could even now be wrapping up this thing, but he is extending time so that anyone who will come to repentance will.

As soon as he ordains that it's over and judgment is to be administered, the time is up.

But right now, as we're in this age of grace, as I understand it, time is extended. There's this parenthesis between the 69th and 70th, which we don't know how long that parenthesis lasts.

He finishes this phrase, this section off, differently than he's identified in the others where he says,

I knew you were obstinate. I knew you didn't worship me in truth. I knew that you were stiff -necked and everything else.

In the end of verse 11, he says, my glory, I will not give to another. Yes, there are consequences for our actions, but one of the consequences for what we do, we don't diminish the glory of God.

His glory stands forever. We're going to call it here and finish this section up next time we get together as we look at consequence fraction.

I just want to re -quote something you said, God, to his covenant people. I will not cut you off, but I will refine you.

As you read the Old Testament, as I've been reading in Exodus, the phrase, I will,

I will, just began jumping out at me. Like, oh my goodness. He desires to do the work.

He is doing the work. He is the one doing the work. When we examine and observe all of those

I wills, we can trust God to be faithful to do all that he will do. That was an encouragement to me.

That's really good, powerful stuff. Tie in the I wills with the I ams. I am and I will.

Let's go ahead and pray. Father, we have seen the reality of the hypocrisy of Israel, but yet we know that God's glory does not come to another.

We know the power of God saying, I am and then I will. Lord, surrendering to the sovereignty of God with our whole hearts is what we're called to.