01/17/10 Grace Fellowship Armies, Earthquakes, and the Judgment of God Isaiah 1:9-31
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It truly is amazing what you can learn from the Bible when you take the time to actually read the text. Today we continue in our study in the first chapter of Isaiah, a book described by one writer as the book of Romans of the Old Testament. That sounds like fun! We read last week of God’s call to Isaiah to preach to the city of Jerusalem and its inhabitants. But things were not looking so good for the kingdom of Judah.
During the days of Isaiah’s prophecies which span 60 years or so, Judah had one of the most wicked kings in all their history: King Ahaz. They also lived for decades under the threat of an Assyrian invasion. Over the years the Jews gradually repented from following God. Instead, they followed in the footsteps of the northern kingdom of Israel and become like the wicked and idolatrous nations God drove out of Canaan.
Therefore, in chapter 1 of Isaiah, we read the Lord’s accusation against the people of Judah. They are brutish in their thinking. They don’t possess the sensibilities of their own animals (vs. 2&3). Even oxen and donkeys have enough sense to know who their masters are. But in their rebellion against God, the people of Judah have lost all reason. They have willingly become spiritually insane. Jerusalem has gone from being the city of God, to being the new Sodom and Gomorrah. Let’s read the text together, beginning in verse 9 where we stopped last week:
9 If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors,
we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah.
10 Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom!
Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
11 “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.
12 “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts?
13 Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations — I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.
18 “Come now, 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 become like wool.
19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;
20 but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword;
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
21 How the faithful city has become a whore, she who was full of justice!
Righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.
22 Your silver has become dross, your best wine mixed with water.
23 Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves.
Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts.
They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow's cause does not come to them.
24 Therefore the Lord declares, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel:
“Ah, I will get relief from my enemies and avenge myself on my foes.
25 I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy.
26 And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning.
Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.”
27 Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness.
28 But rebels and sinners shall be broken together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.
29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks that you desired; and you shall blush for the gardens that you have chosen.
30 For you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water.
31 And the strong shall become tinder, and his work a spark, and both of them shall burn together, with none to quench them. 1
Have you ever considered how much biblical real estate is given to this kind of talk? If we were able to collectively speed read through the Old Testament prophets, we would see that the vast majority of what the prophets said was about the judgment and destruction of Judah and Israel by Assyria and Babylon. Pretty much the entire first half of Isaiah is like that, and that’s a lot of text. Consequently, the real prophets who spoke like this weren’t real popular.
In Acts 7, Stephen is brought before the Sanhedrin because some people have accused him of saying negative things like Jesus is going to destroy Jerusalem and alter the customs that Moses gave them. Nobody seems to be concerned with whether or not he might be telling the truth, and we know from history that both of those things actually did come true. Jerusalem was indeed destroyed by Rome in the year 70 AD, and the Jews who believed in Jesus did in fact eventually alter their customs based upon the finished work of Christ. Ancient Judaism became obsolete because of the sacrifice of Christ and His work as our final, permanent, heavenly High Priest.
But the people complain and confront Stephen about all this negative talk about yet another destruction of Jerusalem and the end of Judaism as we know it. So Stephen begins to conduct a Bible study with the priests and the Pharisees and the Sadducees. After a little biblical historical background from the Old Testament, Stephen then says to the spiritual rulers in Israel,
"You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.” (Acts 7:51-52)
Not a lot of happiness there. But absolutely true. So, in response to all of this negative talk about Jerusalem and the Jews and their awesome spiritually-minded leadership, they all decide to stone Stephen to death. That will fix the problem. Negative but truthful preaching can, and sometimes does get the prophet killed.
Turn to 1 Kings 22. This is one of the most entertaining passages in the Bible except for the fact that it is actually true. Here we have the king of Israel and the king of Judah talking about getting together to invade Syria and take back a city named Ramoth-gilead. King Ahab of Israel is torqued because he wants his city back from those mean Syrians, so he has a summit meeting with King Jehoshaphat of Judah to talk about it. Jehoshaphat says to Ahab, “Maybe you should ask the Lord what to do.“ That sounds like a good idea, so Ahab decides to gather his prophets.
1 For three years Syria and Israel continued without war. 2 But in the third year Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel. 3 And the king of Israel said to his servants, “Do you know that Ramoth-gilead belongs to us, and we keep quiet and do not take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?” 4 And he said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to battle at Ramoth-gilead?” And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.”
5 And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Inquire first for the word of the Lord.” 6 Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go to battle against Ramoth-gilead, or shall I refrain?” And they said, “Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” 7 But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire?” 8 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.” And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say so.” 9 Then the king of Israel summoned an officer and said, “Bring quickly Micaiah the son of Imlah.” 10 Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah were sitting on their thrones, arrayed in their robes, at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them. 11 And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made for himself horns of iron and said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘With these you shall push the Syrians until they are destroyed.’” 12 And all the prophets prophesied so and said, “Go up to Ramoth-gilead and triumph; the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.”
13 And the messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, “Behold, the words of the prophets with one accord are favorable to the king. Let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably.” 14 But Micaiah said, “As the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that I will speak.” 15 And when he had come to the king, the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall we refrain?” And he answered him, “Go up and triumph; the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” 16 But the king said to him, “How many times shall I make you swear that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?” 17 And he said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, ‘These have no master; let each return to his home in peace.’” 18 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?”
Don’t you hate it when that happens? There’s always somebody speaking for the Lord who insists the glass is half empty. EVERYBODY else speaks positively. But some prophetic worry-wart always comes along to ruin all the good vibes. The only viable option in a situation like that is to kill him. If you can’t bring us anything good from the Lord, we’ll just have to kill you.
Elijah, the prophet of God, meets with 450 prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18). I’m sure they were all really nice guys. Good men. Elijah is just a sanctified trouble maker. Why can’t he conform to majority opinion. Why can’t he be more ecumenical? Why does he always have to insist that the people worship only Jehovah and do away with Baal worship? I mean, other than having to send your children through the fire, Baal worship is really great! Elijah’s God is so narrow-minded. Elijah has such a negative attitude. He’s so exclusive.
Well, he also just happens to be right! He’s telling the truth! God is pretty upset with the people of Israel. How do we know this? Elijah calls for a meeting with the 450 prophets of Baal at the Multi-Faith Spiritual Life Center on Mt. Carmel.
22 Then Elijah said to the people, "I alone am left a prophet of the LORD, but Baal's prophets are 450 men. 23 "Now let them give us two oxen; and let them choose one ox for themselves and cut it up, and place it on the wood, but put no fire {under it;} and I will prepare the other ox and lay it on the wood, and I will not put a fire {under it.} 24 "Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD, and the God who answers by fire, He is God." And all the people said, "That is a good idea." (1 Kings 18:22-24).
To make a long story short, the prophets of Baal spend the day calling on Baal to respond to them, but nobody’s home. Then it’s Elijah’s turn and he says this little prayer like, “Lord, show ‘em who’s Boss,” and God immediately sends fire out of the sky to burn up Elijah’s offering, and the altar, and the water they used to soak it all down. Jehovah: a BIG 1. Baal: a big goose egg. The prophets of Baal couldn’t get Baal to do anything BECAUSE HE DOESN’T EXIST!
So the people gather round and kill all the bad guys on the Baal team. But when Queen Jezebel hears about it, she is quite miffed that all her prophets are dead, and threatens to kill the real prophet Elijah for showing the people of Israel who the real God is! Once again, if you don’t like the message, even if he’s obviously telling the obvious truth, the only logical recourse is to kill the messenger. So Elijah runs for his life.
Isaiah’s sermons to Judah are not very ticklish. His message which we just read is filled with dire predictions of great misery and woe. How would you like to start your prophecy career by telling your congregation they don’t even have bird-sized brains, and they are all Sodomites? This prophecy gig is not going to be a walk in the park! It never is.
In verses 9 and 10, when Isaiah refers to Jerusalem as Sodom and Gomorrah, the people understand that is not a compliment. Do you know what those two words mean, literally? Sodom = "burning". Gomorrah = "submersion". Burning and submersion. Listen to this quote from John the Baptist, another not-so-lucky prophet:
"I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (Matthew 3:11).
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Baptism and fire. Submersion and burning. Sodom and Gomorrah. The two words together paint a picture of a “lake of fire”. That is what awaits those who spurn the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and go whoring after non-gods. But even so, notice again God’s incredibly gracious call to His people through Isaiah:
18 “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet, [like blood that stains your hands] they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;
20 but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword;
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
God calls them to come to their senses, to reason together with Him. If they are willing, He will remove the blood stains from their hands and bless them abundantly. They can either repent and eat the good of the land, or they can persevere in their rebellion and be eaten by the swords of their enemies.
In verse 25, Isaiah uses a very troubling, harsh, and fairly negative word: smelt.
24 Therefore the Lord declares, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel:
“Ah, I will get relief from my enemies and avenge myself on my foes.
25 I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy.
26 And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning.
Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.”
In other words, it’s going to get worse before it gets better. God’s people have slowly but steadily rejected God while going through all the religious motions associated with Judaism. They have their feasts, they bring their sacrifices, they come trampling through the courts of the Temple. But God’s commentary through Isaiah (v14) about their piety is, "Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates." God hates religion for the sake of being religious. But God is going to get relief by sending Assyria against them.
No doubt, when that happens, when Assyria invades, when the armies come against them and decimate them, there will be people standing around saying, “Where was God? Where was God when the Assyrians showed up and burned our houses and destroyed our crops and stole our animals and killed our children and raped our women and murdered our men with the sword? Where was God? If God is so good, why did He allow Assyria to do all this to us?”
A: BECAUSE YOU ARE GOD'S ENEMIES! You have become His foes, Judah! Because Assyria is the tool of God’s vengeance upon you. God hates what you’ve become, and what makes it worse is that you pretend to worship Him while you worship the false gods He hates! God is going to smelt away the dross and the alloy in order to build something worthwhile from you. He is going to make things better. God is going to restore justice and righteousness in Jerusalem. But not before it becomes a hell for you, a baptism by fire. God is going to remove the spiritual dross and the religious impurities from His people who have become His foes and His enemies.
For days, I have been watching and crying over the catastrophic suffering in Haiti. We understand that the earth is the Lord’s. The people on the earth are the Lord’s. Everything that is belongs to Him. He sovereignly rules over His creation and everything in it.
That being said, why does God allow such disaster? No, why does God send such disaster? It is easy (or easier) to understand why God would send Assyria to bring punishment and to purge His own people in Judah. They had warning after warning from many prophets who begged the people of Israel and Judah to repent and turn back to the worship of God.
But we see the news coming out of Haiti and it causes us to wonder why such an impoverished people should have to suffer like that. This earthquake which took place on Tuesday literally shook that country to pieces. Haiti was a disaster BEFORE the earthquake. Why? Why did God bring this to pass? What possible good could be accomplished by such terrible destruction and by the loss of so many lives? If God is good, why did this happen?
I am going to say something now that many would consider blasphemous, so listen carefully. I don’t want you to misunderstand me. Here it is: There is something more important than human life. Human life is not the most important thing in the world. The human race is not the focal point of the universe. Next Sunday is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. We know life is precious! We despise the destruction of the unborn. We despise the destruction of any life by means of murder. But the fact remains: There is something more important than human life.
God is more important than life. God is infinitely more important. Bear in mind that there was a time, if you can call it that, when only God existed, and He got along quite well all by Himself. There was no human race. There was no heaven and earth as we see it before us. There was only God, and He was sufficient in Himself. God, and everything He is and does, supersedes anything and everything we are and do. The universe exists for His purposes, not ours, and He can do with it whatever He chooses, including the creation, the preservation, and the destruction of human life.
But because sin causes reasonable people to not have the common sense of a loon, catastrophe is necessary. In order for evil people to realize that God is more important than anything else, even their own lives, God sometimes brings about the destruction of everything they hold dear. Everything.
Yesterday I heard someone on the news say that Haitians are 85% Catholic, 15% Protestant, and 100% Voodoo. While that is obviously not mathematically accurate, if it is true that the people of Haiti are that steeped in a demonic religion, I submit to you that it is possible God has begun a cleansing process in that country to cause the people who remain to reconsider who the true God is. It may be that as a result of this horror in which they are now living and dying, multitudes will hear God’s word preached and taught, and they will be willing to listen.
If prophets and missionaries and Bibles and churches are routinely ignored and minimized by a group of people (like Judah, for example), does God not have the right to destroy them? The answer is yes.
But in the example of Judah, notice that God is bringing His wrath to bear in order to clean them up, purge them of evil, remove their false gods and false religions, and RESTORE justice, RESTORE mercy towards the poor and the widows and the orphans. God does not send destruction for the sake of destruction, but for the sake of the preservation of His people and restoration of His truth.
25 I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy. 26 And I will RESTORE your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning.
AFTERWARD you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.”
27 Zion shall be REDEEMED by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness.
Redemption and restoration are God’s purposes in calamity. There are warnings beforehand, and calls for repentance. God says, “COME! Reason together with Me! Even though your hands are covered in blood because of your sin, I will make them clean. I will make you whiter than snow! Come to me! Repent, put away your false gods and your phony religiosity. Repent and obey My Word. I will cleanse you and forgive your sins, and you will be My people once again.”
28 But rebels and sinners shall be broken together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.
That is what God did in Judah. Is that what God is doing in Haiti? I don’t know. Thankfully, I am not a prophet and I don’t want to be one. But if God in His wisdom and sovereignty IS bringing His judgment and vengeance upon Haiti by means of this awful earthquake, how long can it be before He does the same here in our country amongst a people that are quick to shout, “God bless America”, but who fight for the right to kill their unborn children and legalize homosexual marriage? How far are we from being described by God as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah? Is there any blood on our hands?
Will we repent as a nation, or will God deal with rebels His way in order to fix the problem?
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1. All Scripture is from the ESV unless otherwise stated.