Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the evening. Thank you for the meal and the time to fellowship together.

Pray that you would bless our study of your word and our prayer time together, and that you would be honored and glorified tonight.

We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. In Isaiah chapter 1, we are considering what hope there is for rebellious children, focusing in on the section verses 10 through 20, in which the rebellion of Israel in terms of their religion is being considered.

That they're fine going through the motions, but their actual confession of sin and their repentance of sin is quite lacking.

And so God calls them to come to him, not by the way of the altar, not by the way of the assembly or by way of official appeal, but to come to him through the confession of their sins, that they might find cleansing, that they may find forgiveness.

After he gives them this promise in verse 18 of chapter 1, we then hear him reiterate the covenant requirements, the covenant structure of blessing and cursing in verses 19 through 20.

So let's read verses 18 through 20 this evening. Isaiah 1, verses 18 through 20.

Come now and let us reason together, says 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. Now last time we surveyed verses 19 and 20 and thought about the big picture of what these verses were saying, particularly going back and reading some portions of Deuteronomy 28, in which you have the first 14 verses affirming

God's blessings upon Israel, if they should obey him. And then the following balance of the chapter, verses 15 through 68, talking about the curse of God upon Israel, should they continue to disobey and rebel.

And we thought about the way in which that covenant that God made with Israel at Sinai, and how he structured blessing and cursing, really is a reflection of what it means to be made in the image of God.

For we remember that God made Adam and Eve in his own image, and he put them in the Garden of Eden and blessed them and called them to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it, to enjoy all the good things that he had given to them, and also to refrain from eating from that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which would be tantamount to them saying, we're going to be like God and determine good and evil for ourselves.

And while they were doing what the Lord called them to do, and they were in communion with him, they were obeying him, thus they were abiding with him.

And their custom, as we understand it from Genesis, was that they would walk with him in the cool of the day, and they knew

God and were in right fellowship with him. But it was their disobedience that caused them to be separated from God and to experience the curse.

Now that's why in the covenant God made with Israel, there is that dichotomy of blessing and cursing.

Will they abide with him in obedience and know his blessing, or will they disobey him and suffer the separation and suffer death and suffer that curse apart from him?

So now, let's think a little bit more in depth about verse 19, and think about this promise of blessing.

When we read verse 19, you see the conditionality of the blessing.

This is not an unconditional blessing. This is not a blessing simply because they exist, they get this.

But this is a conditional blessing. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.

Now what it means to eat the good of the land, I think, becomes fairly clear by way of contrast in Isaiah chapter 1.

The land's not doing all that well. If you go back to chapter 1 verses 5 through 7, you see that there are a lot of problems in the land.

And the metaphor that God uses to describe the condition of the land is that of a fool that is being beaten by the magistrate again and again.

He is so intent on breaking the law over and over again that there's just no time for all of the wounds to heal in between beatings.

This is how stubborn Israel is. And after giving that metaphor in verses 5 and 6,

God explains what he means in verse 7. Your country, he says, is desolate.

Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land in your presence, and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers.

So God is explaining in this metaphor, he's saying to Israel, you're the fool, and I'm the magistrate.

He had promised to punish them, to chastise them, to correct them, to judge them as they broke covenant, but they just keep on breaking covenant.

But the promise is that they would eat the good of the land. They would, the rain would come in its season, the crops would bear forth the fruit, the animals would have their young, and there would be prosperity in the land if only

Israel would be willing and obedient.

Willing and obedient. Now we know this land is a good land. It's famous because it's the land of milk and honey.

It's the idea of the milk meaning that the livestock is so plentiful and so abundant that there is milk left over for those who are shepherding all of these flocks.

And there's honey, which means there's a lot of bees, that means that there's great pollination, that means there's just an abundance of crops as well.

So we know that this is a good land. In fact, it's one of the more repeated descriptions of the land that is a good land.

When you read the book of Numbers, the book of Deuteronomy, the book of Joshua, you just hear it again and again.

It's a good land. It's a good land. It's a good land. However, there's no good in the land if the people do not worship the

God who gave them that land. In fact, the entire good of the land is evacuated almost overnight when they rebel against God and it's time for chastisement.

Everything that's good in the land just evaporates when they don't worship

God, when they don't pursue God. And this theme becomes more and more clear as you move through the

Old Testament. The faithful, their conception of what good is, what the real good is, is far deeper than the geographical survey.

More than the dew coming down from Mount Hermon and more than the plentiful crops in the valley and so on, the good is understood as God.

So we have that theme in the Psalms, for example. So in Psalm 143, we have a

Psalm of David and he writes,

Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications. In your faithfulness answer me, and in your righteousness.

Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for in your sight no one living is righteous. For the enemy has persecuted my soul, he has crushed my life to the ground, he has made me dwell in darkness like those who have long been dead.

Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me, my heart within me is distressed. I remember the days of old,

I meditate on all your works, I muse in the work of your hands, I spread out my hands to you, for my soul longs for you like a thirsty land.

So David is describing his situation in terms of,

God, you are my good. I am under duress because of the enemy, but I know where my good lies, and it's in you.

Verse 7, Answer me speedily, O Lord, my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me, lest I be like those who go down into the pit.

Cause me to hear your love and kindness in the morning, for in you do I trust. Cause me to know the way in which

I should walk, for I lift up my soul to you. Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies, in you

I take shelter. Teach me to do your will, for you are my

God, your spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness. Revive me,

O Lord, for your name's sake, for your righteousness' sake, bring my soul out of trouble. In your mercy, cut off my enemies and destroy all those who afflict my soul, for I am your servant.

Now, when we read through there, we hear about David saying, deliver me from death and deliver me from my enemies, which, again, are going to be in the promises of the blessings.

And the assurances of the curses are that the enemies will have their way against the people in the land.

But notice where David's focus is, it's upon the Lord. He's like, you're my shelter.

My shelter's not in the mountains, it's not in the hills, it's not in the city, it's not in the fortified city, it's in you.

And he's asking the Lord to forgive him. He's asking the Lord to be favorable to him.

He's asking the Lord to be his good. And David is demonstrating that he is a man after God's own heart.

Now, this is to be the attitude of all of Israel. And David, of course, standing in as the representative of the entirety of Israel, as a good king, is exhibiting that kind of approach that Israel is supposed to have as a full nation, as those who are in covenant with God.

Now, very connected to this, what David began meditating on, Asaph also meditated on and concluded in Psalm 73, verses 23 through 28.

He says, Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You hold me by my right hand.

You will guide me with your counsel and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have

I in heaven but you? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

My allotment, my inheritance. For indeed, those who are far off from you shall perish.

You hear the separation. To be separated from God is to perish.

You have destroyed all those who desert you for harlotry. That's coming up in Isaiah chapter 1, verse 21.

But it is good for me to draw near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord God that I may declare all your works.

This is the attitude of the one who is faithful, the faithful covenant keeper in Israel.

The attention is put upon the Lord. This is what is lacking in the life of Israel here in Isaiah chapter 1.

This is what is being indicted. They are the children of God, but they don't know their father anymore.

They are children who don't even remember their father. They have utterly forgotten him. They're not looking at the

Lord as their good. They're not appealing to him as their good. They are forgetting

God and operating as those who are distant from him. This is important for us to understand the whole idea of what a blessing is.

Okay, what is a blessing? We use the term, maybe we use it as we pray over our food before we eat.

Somebody say the blessing. Perhaps we use the term to describe some gift of God's providence in our life, some provision that he made, some answer to prayer.

What a blessing. We might describe someone's encouraging word to us as a blessing, but what do we mean by that?

How are we to understand that? Because we could, in one sense, say that the land that God gave to Israel was to be a blessing to them.

It was a blessed land. But we see that when they are distant from God and separate from God, there is no good left in the land.

There is no blessing left in the land. In fact, it becomes a curse upon them.

And he uses the very same land that was flowing with milk and honey, and now it becomes a great burden upon them.

And he uses the land to come against them. So, what is really the basic nature of a blessing?

So, a famous blessing will help us understand that. The classic blessing is in Numbers chapter 6.

And when it was time for the tabernacle to be up and going, the blessing would be declared.

And in Numbers 6, we read in verse 22, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel.

So, here's what you're going to say. Say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

So they shall put my name on the children of Israel and I will bless them. So, do you hear the essential element of blessing is

God's favorable nearness and favorable countenance upon the people.

That's the blessing. So, if there's not a favorable abiding with in relationship with God, then the things that we might look around and say,

Well, that's beneficial to my bank account, or that's beneficial to my health, or that's beneficial to my career.

What good is there left in these things other than what there is in our relationship with God?

Do we recognize who our good is in any of these things?

As every good and perfect gift comes down from the father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

So, when we think about the idea of eating of the good of the land, the conditionality of it is if they are willing and obedient, because they have to be in right relationship with God.

And if they're covenant breakers and they're not in right relationship with God, then they're not going to eat of the good of the land.

That's the way he structured that entire covenant in reflection of being made in the image of God and in anticipation of the true servant to come in the new covenant.

Where do our meditations and reflections lead? We can be anxious about the state of the land.

We could be anxious about the pinch of the pocketbook and the horizon of our health, which is why in Matthew 6,

Jesus says, Live one day at a time. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.

He tells us to live one day at a time, keeping our attention about who is our good and then trusting the

Lord to provide all of those basic needs that become acknowledged blessings from God.

So, when we bless the food, we pray for the food, what are we doing except acknowledging

God, you are the creator, God, you are the one who gives us the sustenance, you are the one who has provided this, you are the one who gives us health and life, and we do honor to God before we eat.

That's biblical. That's biblical because we're recognizing whatever good happens here at this meal or in this feast, whatever good happens here is because of God, because he is our good.

As co -heirs with Christ, we have our experience of all of this good in our willing obedience, which is tantamount to our abiding.

Now, Christ is the one who is the willing and obedient servant, and he's proven that, all the way in obedience even to the cross, and he is the willing, obedient servant by whom all the blessings come, in whom all the curses are taken away.

So how do we, not at all how we earn our salvation, but how do we experience it?

How do we know these blessings? How do we live in these blessings? That's what John 15 is about.

John 15 verses 9 through 11, Jesus says, as the father loved me, I also have loved you.

And he says, abide in my love. So notice he's not saying, access my love.

He's not saying, make a pilgrimage to come find my love.

He's not saying, earn my love, deserve my love. What is he saying? As the father loved me,

I also have loved you. Settled and done. The invitation is then what?

Abide in my love. It's there. Okay, so how do we do it? Yes, thank you.

That's the invitation. So how do we abide in the love of God in Christ? Verse 10, if you keep my commandments, which you will remember he says are not burdensome.

Remember, he says, come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.

See, following Jesus, trusting him to lead and obeying him is not the deserving of God's love.

It is not the earning of God's love. It is the experiencing of it. We will abide in his love as we follow him and keep his commandments.

You will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. So he is our standing with God and the assurance that we have the love of God.

Verse 11, these things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full.

So as Christ is giving these instructions to his disciples, not so long after talking about being fruitful and abiding in him, that's we're bearing fruit because we're a part of the true vine, we see that one of the very first things he says that is the fruit that we're bearing as we abide in him is joy, joy.

I found it interesting, I did, the only time I did a survey of gospel preaching in Luke and Acts.

And in the declared blessings of salvation, of course, the

Holy Spirit and forgiveness were the ones that were most repeated. This is what it means to be saved, that you are given the

Holy Spirit, you're forgiven of your sins. And that was repeated most of the time through Luke and Acts. But joy showed up a lot, joy showed up a lot.

This is what Christ desires for us, that our joy will be full in him. Now, when you look at verse 19, you see in this covenant arrangement with Israel, both the reflection of Genesis 1 and 2 and the anticipation of Christ in the new covenant, because you see this willing and obedient.

You see this phrase, willing and obedient. These two terms capture everything that Israel was not in Isaiah's day.

This is the indictment, this is the problem. The second term, obedient, is more commonly translated in the

Old Testament as hearing, as listening. It's the word for hearing and listening, but in the sense of agreement to the point of action.

It's the kind of hearing that is full of understanding and agreement, bursting with initiative to follow through.

And thus it's paired very well with the term willing, which has the idea to breathe or pant after.

Remember the deer that pants for the water?

It is to desire something as vital, and that desire is as steady as breathing.

So God says, if you're willing and obedient, then you will eat of the good of the land.

So in Psalm 32, verses 8 through 11, God talks about this and makes a contrast.

He says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go. I will guide you with my eye. Remember the blessing from Numbers, his countenance upon them.

He says in verse nine, do not be like the horse or like the mule. Anybody who raised animals, you know what it's like.

Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed by bit and bridle, else they will not come near you.

So he doesn't want that kind of obedience. He doesn't want that kind of constraint.

He's looking for those who will be glad in him and rejoice in him and shout for joy, as verse 11 of that Psalm says.

So God desires a willing obedience, one that desires him properly.

There was a great contrast of this given in John chapter six.

And so remember John chapter six, we have Jesus giving instruction and displaying the glories of God's grace and salvation.

But the whole chapter starts off with him engaging with the crowds who have been stalking him.

They just won't leave him alone. They keep on following him from place to place. And reason why is he just fed them with the five loaves and two fishes that fed thousands.

And for people, you know, in 70 % of the population in Jesus' day, they were hand -to -mouth subsistence farmers, just enough food for the next day.

So if you had somebody who was giving you this food, just miraculously, he's like, all right, you're our new source of sustenance.

So they were following Jesus because they wanted the loaves. They wanted the food that he had given them.

And so they kept on entreating him to kind of be the new Moses. They wanted him to be their new leader.

They wanted to have him provide for everything so that they wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. And they even bring it up in verse 31 of John 6.

Our fathers ate the manna in the desert. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. And then, so they're looking for what you would think is a blessing, but they're not desiring the

God of the blessing. They just want the food. So all the good of it has run out.

So Jesus says in verse 32 of John 6, most assuredly I say to you,

Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven.

Because first of all, Moses didn't give you anything. It was God. And yes, my father does give you the true bread from heaven for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

So the bread is a person. And they said to him, Lord, give us this bread always. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. What I think is remarkable about that is that he said this to people who were soon to be entrenched as his enemies.

Many of them by the end of the chapters were fed up with him, and they walked away, followed him no more, because they were fed up with what he was saying and they couldn't stand it.

Undoubtedly, some of these would have been present in the coming crucifixion of Jesus as they were on their way to Jerusalem.

This, I think, circles us back to the question that we're trying to answer from Isaiah chapter 1.

The question is this. What hope is there for rebellious children?

Jesus says in Matthew 5 .44, I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.

Aren't you glad that Jesus loves his enemies, that he blesses those who curse him, that he does good to those who hate him, and that even now he intercedes for those who at one time spitefully used him and persecuted him?

While we were yet enemies, Christ died for us. He is our good, and every good thing that we enjoy, the good of it is the

God who gave it to us in his grace. Next time, we'll take a look at verse 20 and consider both the nature of the curse in the first two stanzas and in the last line, thinking about the assurance of what it means when

God says something. And that'll be our goal next time. Let's turn our attention now to prayer.