“Boys for Leaders” – FBC Morning Light (8/29/2023)

A good Tuesday morning to you. Hope your week has gotten off to a good start thus far. Well today in our Bible reading we're reading Isaiah chapters 3 and 4, Ephesians 4, and the first chapter of Proverbs.

So we've left the Psalms behind, we've been a hundred and, well, half the year, more than half the year in the book of Psalms, and now we're going to be reading in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon as we round out this year.

Judgment on Pride in Isaiah 3

But I want to focus on Isaiah chapter 3 in this really interesting couple of verses that give us some insight into one of the ways that God brings judgment upon a people who are, you know, really kind of proud and arrogant in their sin.

You see the arrogance and the pride in verse 9 where it says,. And they declare their sin as Sodom. They do not hide it. Woe to their soul, for they have brought evil upon themselves. They declare their sin as Sodom, and they do not hide it.

They are proud, unabashed in their arrogance regarding their sin. Kind of reminds me a little bit of what our culture has done with the month of June. Declared it Pride Month. Hmm. And who is it that is supposed to be so proud during the month of June?

Think on that one for a little while. But that's not what I wanted to really focus on. What I want to focus on is some of the kinds of judgment that God brings to a nation or to a people who are so proud and arrogant in their sin.

God Gives Immature Leaders as Judgment

And when you look back at verses 2 or verses 3 and 4 in Isaiah 3, you see a few different examples of how God is going to judge his people. And this is Judah and Jerusalem that he's referring to here, who is going to be so judged.

He says, I'm sorry, verses 4 and 5. He says, I will give children to be their princes, and boys shall rule over them. Think about that. What kind of rulers, what kind of leaders are given to a land that is arrogantly proud of its sin, that will declare national holidays that celebrate sin, that take a whole month to celebrate sin?

What's one of the forms of judgment? God gives immature, childlike people to be their leaders. Think on that for a little while. And then another form is, he says, I will not only give children to be their princes and boys shall rule over them, the people will be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbor.

Oppression, Conscience, and Cultural Disorder

There is an increase of oppression of people against each other. And I'm not talking here about the wokeism and this so-called critical race theory thing that says all white people are the oppressors, and especially white males are oppressors, and everybody else is the oppressed, and there are different strata of those who are oppressed depending, you know, etc.

I'm not talking about that. That's a fiction. What I'm talking about is where there's real oppression of a group of people against another group of people, or, you know, like some employers can be oppressive toward their employees, forcing them to participate in activities that are violating their conscience.

I think, for example, of some of the, and I don't want to broad brush here, but I have heard of people, Christian believers, who have been in certain kinds of unions, and their unions have forced them to go to support things that they never would support.

And so in some cases, these individuals have been able to opt out of paying the union dues because they don't want to be part of that. Others, they're not allowed to opt out. It depends on the state, I guess, and the laws, and so forth.

But anyway, that's a form of oppression, and he says, this is the way I'm going to judge you. The people will be oppressed, everyone by his neighbor, and then in verse 5 he goes on to say, the child will be insolent toward the elder, have no respect whatsoever toward those who are older, and the base toward those who are honorable.

Disrespect for Elders and National Decline

I think about some of the stuff that's going on in our country, and how there's a whole generation of young people that have shown, I shouldn't say a whole generation, there are a vocal number of people in a generation who have voiced their absolute disrespect for older generations, and everything has to be overturned and upended, and we have to tear down statues of people, and we have to eliminate, and so on and so forth.

Look at the cultural crisis of our nation, for example. Why is it that things are the way they are? Have you paused to consider that? Is this just an anomaly of history? Is this just the way things go in history?

Is this part of the historical cycle? Or is it another example of a reflection, if you will, of how God brings punishment on a people who are proud and boastful of their sin? I think that's something to think about, and to ponder.

Certainly was true in Isaiah's day. So our Heavenly Father, we pray that we would give some serious thought to this, and realize that the state of affairs, even that we're dealing with in our day, very similar to the things described in Isaiah 3, we're seeing, we see it all around us.

I pray that it wouldn't cause us to despair, but instead would cause us to realize that you are doing a work. You are doing a work of reproof and chastening, and I pray that it would bring about a real repentance and a turn to you.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well, listen, have a good rest of your Tuesday. I hope this wasn't a downer for you, but just a perspective to give you on our day. All right, good day. God bless.