Sunday, November 24, 2024 PM

Up to plead and stands to judge the people. The Lord will enter into judgment with the elders of his people and his princes. For you have eaten up the vineyard. The plunder of the poor is in your houses.

What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor? Says the Lord God of hosts. Moreover, the Lord says, because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk without stretched necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, making a jingling with their feet.

Therefore the Lord will strike with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion and the Lord will uncover their secret parts. In that day, the Lord will take away the finery, the jingling ankles, the scarves and the crescents, the pendants, the bracelets and the veils, the headdresses, the leg ornaments and the headbands, the perfume boxes, the charms and the rings, the nose jewels, the festal apparel and the mantles, the outer garments, the purses and the mirrors, the fine linen, the turbans and the robes.

And so it shall be. Instead of a sweet smell, there will be a stench. Instead of a sash, a rope. Instead of well-set hair, baldness. Instead of a rich robe, a girding of sackcloth and branding instead of beauty.

Your men shall fall by the sword and you're mighty in the war. Her gates shall lament and mourn and she being desolate shall sit on the ground. And thus concludes Isaiah's fourfold rebuke against putting trust in things that do not pan out.

Trusting in things that are not trustworthy. Israel is trusting in self, trusting in idols, trusting in power and trusting in wealth. And this has been detailed for us from the middle of chapter two to this chapter.

These are sermons that begin the book of Isaiah and this introduction to Isaiah is asking a question. What hope is there? I mean, given the seriousness of Israel's spiritual condition and given the seriousness of the judgment of God promised on their horizon.

I mean, what hope is there? Certainly there's no hope in self. Certainly there's no hope in idols. There's no hope in power. There's no hope in wealth. They should not be trusting in those things. There's no hope there.

The hope for these children is for them to remember who their father is, whom they have forgotten according to chapter one. They are so foolish, even the ox knows the master, the donkey knows its master, but the children of Israel don't remember who their father is.

They don't remember God. That's how spiritually deaf and dumb and blind they have become. So the Lord puts himself forward in the first 12 chapters of Isaiah as the true redeemer. And of course, by putting himself as the true redeemer of Israel, he systematically strips away all of their thoughts that they could trust in another redeemer, trust in another savior, look for a different solution.

He leaves them with no other option. But the turn to him, like he does in the book of Hosea, where he talks about Hosea as a harlot who flees from her husband, and yet he hedges her way in from ahead and behind, takes her into the wilderness and shows her that he is her husband and that he is her true provider.

Very similarly here in Isaiah, God is taking Israel through every step and showing them very much the same thing. And so this last section, verses 13 through 26 of this fourfold rebuke is looking at wealth, not that wealth in and of itself is bad.

We know that it is the love of money that is a root of all kinds of evil, not just money in and of itself. So the Lord brings a rebuke. We see the Lord standing up. And we've already looked at verses 13 through 17.

We've already looked through that portion of the text. And so we've seen that the Lord must stand up and judges people because the elders and the princes are not doing their job. In fact, they're part of the conspiracy to extort the provision of the poor.

They look at Israel like a vineyard that belongs to them, and they're ready to scrape everything. In fact, they have scraped that vineyard clean. Of course, you weren't supposed to do that. In the Old Testament, provision was made for the poor.

You go through your vineyard once and then you leave the remainder for the poor to come and glean. You go through your field once and leave the corners and the gleanings for the poor to come gather. You don't go over your olive trees a second time, your fig trees a second time.

You go through it once, you grab what the Lord provided for you and you leave the rest for the poor. But the elders and the princes of Judah have taken what belongs to the poor and brought it into their own houses.

The plunder of the poor is in their houses. They've scraped the vineyard so dry, it's not even gonna come back next year. And then we read that the poor are like the grapes, and their faces are like the grapes, all those little grapes sitting in the wine press.

And who's stomping on their faces? The elders and the princes. And so God stands up and says, he will judge and he will bring correction and justice and wrath and vengeance against these leaders. And then he turns his attention to the daughters of Zion, whom he describes as haughty.

He describes their attitude as haughty, they are very proud, they think of themselves first, they think of themselves most. And that shows by the way that they act. They walk with outstretched eyes and wanton eyes.

They are little Jezebels running around Jerusalem. They walk and they mince as they go, making a jingling with their feet. So attention starved they are that they put bells on their ankles and walk with tiny steps to make sure that everybody looks at them and says, well, what's that noise?

And so they take several little steps they don't have to take in order to get the attention of everybody, listen to me jingle, watch me walk. Well, that's where we left off thinking about the wealth being flaunted and this attitude and the affectation of the daughters of Zion.

Now we're going to think about this appearance, these 21 items of finery that are listed for us in Isaiah three, verses 18 through 23. In that day, the Lord will take away the finery. Now notice the 21 items and think of them as sets of three and there are seven sets.

The jingling anklets, the scarves and the crescents, the pendants, the bracelets and the veils, the headdresses, the leg ornaments and the headbands, the perfume boxes, the charms and the rings, the nose jewels, the festal apparel and the mantles, the outer garments, the purses and the mirrors, the fine linen, the turbans and the robes.

Hmm, so beyond that haughty attitude of the daughters of Zion, they have that actual prancing about, beyond all of that are these layers that they put themselves in. They do what they can with their craning necks and wanton eyes and prancing steps and jingling bells to catch attention, but once the attention is on them, what do they want everyone to see?

Look at all the things that I have layered upon me. Right, they are flaunting the wealth. How'd they get that wealth? Well, the elders and princes, their husbands, their men have grabbed all this excessive wealth from the poor, unjust wealth by force, grabbed it from the poor and have given it to their women to flaunt.

That's the picture of how corrupt Judah's society is in this moment. And so they have people looking at them because they're jingling around the room and they're hoping that their finery will be noticed.

They're completely decked out. This is an impressive list. Isaiah is a superb writer. He's the best writer in the Old Testament. He has the most poetry, the most punch in his writing. And the fact that he can get 21 different items and list them like this is very impressive.

What do we think about when we see this list? The word excessive comes to mind. The idea of it being overdone way too much. The outrageousness of this scene. What's the point? I think it shows an emphasis on the externals in seeking to communicate an identity, but it is consistent with an empty, hollow inner person.

There's so much going on on the outside. That's where all the emphasis is placed. Remember how often Jesus would put the emphasis on the inside. The emphasis here is all on the outside. The entire existence, think about this.

Remember that they're very haughty, very proud. They think they're very self-focused. It doesn't mean that they think that they hung the moon. Very often prideful people are the most miserable people because all they can think about is themselves and they see nothing but the horrors of the self and they're consumed with how bad they are.

So being prideful doesn't mean that you think well of yourself. Prideful means that you think all about yourself. But what they do is they put all these layers on the outside because that's what they want people to see.

Look at these layers, look at these layers, look at these layers. And that means that as they jingle around, their entire existence is to be validated by the perception and the compliments of outside observation.

That's what they're looking for. That's why they have these layers. But under that many layers, what are they committed to other than lying? They don't want to be seen. Isn't that an interesting irony?

They want to be seen, but they don't want to be seen. They want to be observed, but they don't really want too close an observation. They want you to see the finery. They want you to see what they're flaunting.

Whatever they're about, it is not authenticity. It's not truth. Somebody under this many layers is not glad to be made in God's image. They're not glad to simply be made in God's image and to be God's creature.

They make themselves, I'll watch this, they make themselves like they make their idols. A block of wood and a block of stone is just not very impressive, especially when they're small. How much detail can you get in one of those little idols anyway?

Little block of wood, little block of stone, not very impressive. But what are you supposed to do with that block of wood? What are you supposed to do with that block of stone? You cover them with silver.

You plaster them with gold. What do you do with yourself? You cover and you plaster. The end thereof is death. Think about Psalm 115, those who make them and trust them shall become like them. Those who make the idols and keep on plastering them and covering them, what are they doing with themselves?

We become like that which we worship. To take an extreme example, the transgender movement has brought home and clarified I think some basic concepts from the scripture. One of the greatest apologetic proofs of the Bible is our observance of total depravity in the world.

When you see some young person, undoubtedly the victim of some kind of emotional, relational or sexual abuse, undoubtedly responsible for their own actions still and yet because they're still made in God's image.

But when you see them layering themselves in all kinds of deceptive gilding so that you can only see what's on the externals, they are not content with what they think of themselves. Why is it that somebody is not content in their transgenderism to simply be fine with who they are but they always must demand loud public affirmation and be part of pride parades?

Because they need the external affirmation from everyone around them to tell them who they are. That's not unique to the transgender movement. That is common to human pride, all human pride. So if somebody wants to be well thought of and successful and everybody sees, oh, you have your life together, maybe they don't have their life together at all but they will address to the nines and the finest whatevers and they walk around and they're gilded and everyone thinks, wow, successful person.

See, that's just human pride. That's not unique but it's a desire to be affirmed by the externals. So today, people walk around and mince their feet with jingling social media accounts and cry out for approval.

So all the finery and all of the virtue with which we may cover ourselves all of the finery and all of the virtue that we may cover ourselves with will never ever gain enough approval from others to ever grant us rest.

The problem with putting bells around your ankles and mincing around and jingling is you never can stop. You just never can stop prancing around and jingling the bells because as soon as you do, your identity goes away, your confidence goes away, the compliments go away and then you're nothing.

You know what Jesus says? Come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden and I'll give you rest. He says, lose your life and find your life in me. Deny yourself, take up my cross as your own. Lose your life for my sake.

Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Whoever desires to save his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

For what profit is it to a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? We live in a time, it's called the information age, but it's not the understanding age, right?

We live in a time where identity is front and center to everybody's sense of what virtue means, where goodness is, the self-affirmation of one's own identity. Jesus says, lose your life, deny yourself.

The world says, affirm yourself, gain your life. It's a completely opposite. There's no peace between those two worldviews. There really isn't. Until we get to the point where we're ready for Jesus to tell us who we are, right?

Isn't that what repentance and belief is in our day for so many people? Just to say, you know what? I'm done telling Jesus who I am. Jesus, you're the master, you're the savior, you're the Lord, you're the king of kings.

You're the son of man. You tell me who I am, and that's who I am. That's real submission to Christ. Well, all this affluence, all this finery, it maybe, you know, maybe it's a little bit lost on us, but the decorations and the clothing are elements of wealth.

If you had three sets of clothes, you're pretty well off in a lot of different areas in human history, okay? So to have changes of clothes meant that you were well off. That was part of wealth. You remember the story when Naaman came to find Elisha and he was trying to offer Elisha, you know, a bounty to, hey, heal me from my leprosy.

Elisha's like, I'm not taking anything from you. And finally, Naaman said, well, can I just take some dirt with me? He's like, fine, you can take some dirt, go ahead. And Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, thought that was a pretty raw deal.

Gehazi's like, he was offering clothes and silver, right? You know, clothes and silver next to each other. That was wealth. And so all these clothes, all this affluence, they are covering themselves in their affluence, thinking that in it they find safety.

Now, many, many times we might look and say, okay, what's my bank account at? What's my 401k at? What's my financial planning at? And if things are looking good, oh, I feel all right about myself. I feel all right about life.

But if that looks bad, if there's financial struggles, if there's difficulty and it's really tight and maybe, you know, worse than tight, then we feel anxious and afraid. Isn't that common to the human experience?

It's pretty common. So how are we to think about wealth? In this prophecy, in this rebuke, the daughters of Zion have covered themselves in their wealth, in their finery, and it's a sense of their own security.

Everything's fine because look, we're all decked out. But in the day of judgment, the Lord will take away all those external appearances that they trusted in. Proverbs 18 verse 11 says, the rich man's wealth is his strong city.

You hear that? The rich man's wealth is his strong city and like a high wall in his esteem. You hear how he leans on that and trusts on that? That's a little clever sparkle in the eye critique coming from Solomon, who also wrote Ecclesiastes and knows how fleeting wealth is as well.

Those who make idols and trust in those idols soon become like them and so wealth is fleeting. Wealth is fleeting. It is not lasting. Proverbs 11 verse four says, riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.

That's a good observation. There's a day of judgment coming that Isaiah has been talking about. The Assyrians are on the horizon and beyond that, it's the Babylonians. Chapters one through 35 in Isaiah talk about the threat of the Assyrians and then the last section of Isaiah, the prophecies about Assyria, then you hear the actual story of how Assyria invades in chapters 36 and 37.

Then the threat becomes the Babylonians in chapters 38 and 39 and they are prophesied of from chapters 40 through 66. There are these nations, these superpowers that are greater than Judah that God is using to bring judgment upon all the nations in their region and there's a day of the Lord coming.

There's a day of reckoning coming. When that happens, these folks' wealth are not gonna help them at all. They're all gonna be taken away. So they shouldn't be trusting in it now. Psalm 49 verses six through seven says, those who trust in their wealth and boast in the multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him.

So let's look over in Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12 and verses 13 and following. Then one from the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But he said to him, man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you?

And he said to them, take heed and beware of covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. Then he spoke a parable to them saying, the ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully and he thought within himself saying, what shall I do since I have no room to store my crops?

So he said, I will do this. I will pull down my barns and build greater and there I will store all my crops and my goods and I will say to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.

But God said to him, fool,.

This night your soul will be required of you. Then whose will those things be which you have provided? So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. And then there's the therefore of not worrying and obsessing over material goods.

So Jesus had a way of talking about riches and affluence as something that was to be stewarded but it was not to be counted on. It was not to be depended on. It was not supposed to be wrapped up into our understanding of how we stand with God and how we stand with others as so often it does.

Jesus talked about riches and wealth as something that his audience often thought of as a sign that you were close to God. That gives, it makes some degree of sense living under the old covenant. If you ended up with a lot of affluence and wealth, maybe it's because those are the blessings of the covenant and you're closer to God than anybody else.

But Jesus told his listeners and his disciples, he said, it's easier for a rich man, it is harder for a rich man to get to heaven than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. So it's harder for a rich man to get into heaven than the largest moving thing you've ever seen to go through the smallest opening you've ever seen.

He said, well, then who can be saved? And Jesus says, well, man is impossible. With God, all things are possible. His point was that those they thought were closest to God, those that they thought were closest to God, it was impossible for them to be saved outside of God's grace.

That was his point. He wasn't picking on the rich saying to have wealth necessarily makes you evil in and of having wealth. His point was those that you think are closest to God, it's impossible for them to be saved, so also for the rest of you.

It's only by the grace of God is his point. Now, wealth in and of itself is not a problem. The Bible says that Abraham was a glorious man because he was a heavy man in the Hebrew, kabod. He had a lot of gold, a lot of silver, a lot of flocks, a lot of tents, a lot of slaves.

He had a lot of possessions. He was a very glorious man, the Old Testament says. He had a lot of wealth. Now the question is how did he steward it? David was a wealthy man. Solomon was a wealthy man. Wealth is not in and of itself evil.

It's why is it put into our stewardship and what are we supposed to do with it? What are we supposed to do with it? The greatest steward of all is Jesus Christ, who is King of kings and Lord of lords, and he, as we're told, he is the heir of all things, not a square inch of this universe that he doesn't own, lock, stock, and barrel.

He's got it all and he has all the glory. Question is how does he steward it? Perfect faithfulness. I like this passage out of Proverbs 10, 22, and we'll end here. The blessing of the Lord makes one rich.

So it's, you know, if you're rich, then you say, well, thank you, Lord, because it wasn't because of my strength and my wit and so on and so forth. You give praise to the Lord. The blessing of the Lord makes one rich and he adds no sorrow with it.

Ah, you see, whatever God has given us to steward, we can praise him for it, say, wow, what a blessing. Thank you, Lord, and when you do that, guess what? Sorrow, misery, the anxiety of having to steward that doesn't come with it because we're being thankful to the Lord and recognizing that we're just stewards of what he has blessed us with.

Next time, we're gonna take a closer look at verses 17 and verses 24 through 26 and consider the nature of the reversal that God brings. We've already seen what they were trusting in and the displays that they were making, but then we're going to see particularly the actions of the Lord.

That's verse 17 and verses 24 through 26 and how he reverses everything and brings the judgment. All right, well, let's go ahead and close by singing the doxology together.