The Prophecy of Isaiah – Lesson 24

God in His Grace has made a way for us and He must correct us because He cares for us.

Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers, who rule this people in Jerusalem! Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement, when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter”; therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’ And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”
Isaiah 28:14-17

There is a great deal of superstition about cornerstones and the establishing of cornerstones. God in His sovereignty has a hand in it I'm sure. In Greece it is customary to sacrifice a chicken, a ram, or a lamb put the blood on the stone and bury the animal under the stone. The older custom was to sacrifice a human and even today in some parts of Europe an effigy, a secret measurement of an unsuspecting person, or the shadow of a person is ceremonially stolen to be placed under the stone in the belief the person will then die within one year. Some Romanians have a quicker turn around time. They give you only 40 days in Transylvania and they will actually shout to warn you to be careful around new construction to avoid getting your shadow stolen and buried with the cornerstone. To measure the shadow is said to be the same as taking the shadow and is also said to be equivalent to taking the soul. The tradition is that it provides a ritual sacrifice to make the building strong.

However, The Cornerstone of God actually has taken your soul if you are a Christian. He snatched you away from the enemy. We are being built up together on God's foundation as a spiritual house to offer spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:4-5). I pray that the light of the Gospel would reveal the truth and end these false superstitions.

When we allow superstition into our lives then we allow an alien rule of law that is in conflict with God's law. Who do you think will win in that conflict. You don't want to be on the wrong side. You must not trust in things apart from God anymore than Judah. God as a faithful Father will correct you. Why not avoid the discipline and dump the ungodly alliances now. God will overturn your deals and covenants just as fast as He overturned Judah's deal with Egypt. There is the recurring picture of corporate Israel as the individual redeemed by Christ and to turn back to your Egypt when you were dead in your trespasses and sins whenever hard times come is not wise.

Then your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming scourge passes through, you will be beaten down by it. As often as it passes through it will take you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.
Isaiah 28:18-19

In our lives, God's keeping power is sheer terror to the Christian who tests God. Of course, what is the level of terror for the man who tests God and finds no discipline? To about God in heaven and know in your heart that He is Lord without bending the knee or placing your trust for salvation in Him should be far more terrifying. But we are so good at denial that some of us will live a heartbeat from dying in sin just so we can think we are in control of our lives. There is really no room in your life to be comfortable with that lie. As Motyer says, “The only way to flee from God is to flee to Him.”

For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on, and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in. For the Lord will rise up as on Mount Perazim; as in the Valley of Gibeon he will be roused; to do his deed—strange is his deed! and to work his work—alien is his work! Now therefore do not scoff, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord God of hosts against the whole land. Give ear, and hear my voice; give attention, and hear my speech.
Isaiah 28:20-24

There is no comfort when God's comfort is rejected or covering when God's covering is rejected. The references are to “as on Mount Perazim” for 2 Samuel 5:17-20 and to “as in the Valley of Gibeon” for 2 Samuel 5:22. It is indeed strange and alien because these examples show how broken the leadership is from the Covenant of David. These examples are victories when David sought God and God said to go up against the Philistines. They are going to be on the receiving end of God's wrath this time and Isaiah hears a decree destruction like David heard the sound of marching in the tops of the Balsam trees and knew it was time to attack because God was going out before him to attack his enemies. However, God knows precisely what response His correction will bring and is always under control.

Does he who plows for sowing plow continually? does he continually open and harrow his ground? When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill, sow cumin, and put in wheat in rows and barley in its proper place, and emmer as the border? For he is rightly instructed; his God teaches him. Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin, but dill is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod. Does one crush grain for bread? No, he does not thresh it forever; when he drives his cart wheel over it with his horses, he does not crush it. This also comes from the Lord of hosts; he is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom.
Isaiah 28:25-29

Isaiah moves into a “Wisdom Literature” style here to stress that God is not out of control and His actions have purpose. Just as a farmer wouldn't keep plowing or harrowing without purpose He also only prepares a seedbed and then sows seed. He seeds the right crop in the right place. Emmer is a relative of wheat that will perform adequately on poorer soils so it goes in its place and wheat and barley in their place. Harvest threshing is specific to the crop and God tailors His harvest so that it occurs in the right way at the right time. As God has shown men how to grow crops, God has wonderful counsel and wisdom in His actions to redeem sinful man.

In the following verses Ariel refers to Jerusalem. Ariel can be translated “Altar-Hearth” (Ezekiel 43:15-16) or a place for burnt offerings. In the temple God's fire burned constantly and consumed sacrifices offered for sin. It is a good thing to have and a bad thing to be.

Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts run their round. Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me like an Ariel. And I will encamp against you all around, and will besiege you with towers and I will raise siege works against you. And you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak, and from the dust your speech will be bowed down; your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost, and from the dust your speech shall whisper. But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff. And in an instant, suddenly, you will be visited by the Lord of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.
Isaiah 29:1-6

The picture of the hearth of the altar is vivid here as God sends devouring fire. Those in Jerusalem are seen as being brought down to a whisper from the ground while their enemies are in the air and God makes the big noise so they can know that sin is judged by God.

And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her, shall be like a dream, a vision of the night. As when a hungry man dreams he is eating and awakes with his hunger not satisfied, or as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched, so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.
Isaiah 29:7-8

We see here a futility in the sea of enemies. You dream you're making progress and working your way out of the dilemma but then you have a period in which you realize that your no better off. No peace or rest apart from God. The references to hunger and thirst were not going to be lost on a people who knew what a siege was like either. They would be having dreams of food and water before it was over.

Astonish yourselves and be astonished; blind yourselves and be blind! Be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not with strong drink! For the Lord has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers). And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”
Isaiah 29:9-12

This is a place that you never want to be. I guess that is an understatement but a sensitivity to the conviction of God is a wonderful gift. It isn't something natural because our natural state is a hard heart (Romans 1:21-25) produced by our sin natures. Conviction of sin is a gift of God's Grace and we need to ask God for the Grace to respond appropriately.

When we harden our hearts and persistently resist God's instruction then we loose our spiritual sight, our ability to reason, our ability to direct our lives wisely, and we simply don't have the eyes or the brain to understand what God has plainly said. Those who have the ability can't be bothered to open the book and those without the ability to read are not worried about what it might say. Apathy and ignorance are in joyful unity. 

And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.” Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”
Isaiah 29:13-15

God is going to deal with “religion” and eliminate it. This verse is cited in Matthew 15:8-9 and Mark 7:6-7; [also similar to Ezekiel 33:31]. So the Lord said it to Isaiah and then said it aloud Himself while teaching. Adopting men's opinions about obeying God is a dangerous thing. Moving to Scripture is always the only sure path. Mankind will consistently modify what God has said and teach a different level of obedience as a means of showing fear of God. I think it is also instructive at this point to remind ourselves that a fear of God includes respect of God but is not fully defined by the word respect. It has a component of fear and it is rational to fear God and irrational not to fear Him. He has revealed His love and Grace so that we can know Him and fellowship with Him. However, He has also revealed His holiness and to know His holiness and your own sinfulness should produce that response that Isaiah had (Isaiah 6:5).

You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”? Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest? In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.
Isaiah 29:16-19

This is Scripture hits close to home. Many in our culture deny that God made them by any means. In addition, there is a heresy in the Church today known as “Open God Theology” that teaches that God doesn't know the future for certain. However, the promise here is that God would have a people in which the deaf hear and the blind see. That is you. You exult in the Holy One of Israel as a result of God's work on earth. 

For the ruthless shall come to nothing and the scoffer cease, and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off, who by a word make a man out to be an offender, and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right. Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall no more be ashamed, no more shall his face grow pale. For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel. And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction.”
Isaiah 29:20-24

Remember that Romans makes it clear that, “... it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring (Romans 9:6-8).

The Prophecy of Isaiah - Lesson 23

Last week we saw a beginning of a shift of focus in portions of Isaiah's prophecy that have multiple fulfillments. I forgot to point out the parallel last week in which Isaiah (25:7-8) says, “And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.” He did not turn away from the cup in the garden (Matthew 26:39; Mark 14:36; Luke 22: 42; John 18:11) given Him by the Father. He swallowed up the shroud of death that covered us. Your salvation has been His plan since the beginning. Since the first promise of God to send a redeemer and end the rule of the enemy of our souls (Genesis 3:15) and the first animal sacrifice performed by God to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21), He has been focused on redeeming you. He saw you before you were born and before the foundation of the earth and purposed to redeem His people. That first promise in Genesis 3:15 had no conditions and neither did His promise to swallow death up forever. Soli Deo Gloria.

Much of what we see in Isaiah about the redemption of Israel applies to us as the Body of Christ although we have fulfillment of portions in the restoration of the nation of Israel prior to the birth of Christ.

In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea. In that day, “A pleasant vineyard, sing of it! I, the Lord, am its keeper; every moment I water it. Lest anyone punish it, I keep it night and day; I have no wrath. Would that I had thorns and briers to battle! I would march against them, I would burn them up together. Or let them lay hold of my protection, let them make peace with me, let them make peace with me.” In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit.

Isaiah 27:1-6

God describes His sword in three ways and names three enemies. The sword is hard (fierce, harsh, severe, unsparing), it is great (sufficient to any task), and it is strong (powerful enough for any enemy). The sword is used against Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and the dragon that is in the sea. Leviathan is used in various ways in the Old Testament including as a reference to Egypt. It can also mean a real horrible animal. Like a Crocodile and I've mentioned before that Judah and Israel never really cared for the sea so the dragons of the sea were enemies to be feared. The point is that the worst that can come against God's elect spiritually or physically is no match for God's protection of us.

God celebrates His vineyard and pours out His Grace on it. He declares Himself the keeper, He irrigates, He watches it night and day, and has no wrath. He says, “I have no anger at all.” There is no anger and no weeds and if there were weeds then Grace would be offered to the weeds. Jacob roots, Israel blossoms and the whole world has fruit. This would be an encouragement in Isaiah's day to the Northern Kingdom but in context we'd see the link of both Southern and Northern Kingdom to these Patriarchs and of course our link by our being made the People of God. God is doing great things and many more great things will be done I'm sure by God in the world but remember how many elect God had in Isaiah's day and how they were distributed and how many elect God has now and how they are distributed in the whole world. God has not been sleeping and I pray we find ourselves in the center of His work for as many days as each of us has.

God also begins to address how these things are accomplished.

Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain? Measure by measure, by exile you contended with them; he removed them with his fierce breath in the day of the east wind. Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: when he makes all the stones of the altars like chalkstones crushed to pieces, no Asherim or incense altars will remain standing. For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness; there the calf grazes; there it lies down and strips its branches. When its boughs are dry, they are broken; women come and make a fire of them. For this is a people without discernment; therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them; he who formed them will show them no favor.

Isaiah 27:7-11

God's point is that, while He kept a remnant and the nation of Israel was punished, they never were crumbled like Egypt at the Red Sea, Babylon's destruction, or the Assyrian's losses. He didn't save a remnant of those who struck Israel and work salvation into their nation. God's dealing with us is “measure by measure” and as a Shepherd. His actions can be severe because sin in our life warrants severe measures but He never acts without control.

The fruit of God's actions is a purified man. With false gods removed and false altars gone. The contrast is with the fortified worldly city that, rather than being purified and redeemed, is deserted, forsaken, like a wilderness, and without Grace.

Sometimes we whine and complain at God's correction in our lives. Thankfully what God takes us through is typically minor compared with the difficulties we see in Judah and Israel. Some of us will likely face real hardship in our lives and some of us have so I don't want to belittle that and no trial is pleasant when you're in it. However, think of how fortunate we are that , like “the guilt of Jacob” here, God works all things together for God in our lives to make us mature men who trust Him and gain the “peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Hebrews 12:11).

In that day from the river Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt the Lord will thresh out the grain, and you will be gleaned one by one, O people of Israel. And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

Isaiah 27:12-13

God redeems one at a time. There are no accidental salvations or back door conversions. Sometimes we may feel that way sometimes when we look at our lives. However, God moves sovereignly to redeem individuals. Always has and always will. He gleans one by one. If you are a Christian then He gleaned you. He wasn't aiming at the guy in the seat next to you. It was not an accidental discharge of the salvation gun. He changed your heart, you heard the trumpet, and now you worship God. Soli Deo Gloria.

Chapter 28 is a major transition in Isaiah. Motyer titles chapter 28 through 37 as “The Lord of History” and we see God's actions in that sense. Again we'll continue to move through verses that have been memorized by generations of Christians and see them in their original context. One of the primary points of these chapters is that God is sovereign and God really wants us to grasp that truth. Also remember that Ephraim is a way of saying the Samaritan portion of the Northern Kingdom.

Ah, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine! Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong; like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest, like a storm of mighty, overflowing waters, he casts down to the earth with his hand. The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden underfoot; and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley, will be like a first-ripe fig before the summer: when someone sees it, he swallows it as soon as it is in his hand.

Isaiah 28:1-4

Rather than “crown” this word is better “wreath” as in the adornment of drunkenness at the head of the valley of those drunks. Their adornment is a drunken, fading, and inept protection of their their land. They will be gone like the first fig without much notice. However, Isaiah gives some hope since God is in control.

In that day the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people, and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

Isaiah 28:5-6

God, not drunkenness will be the wreath of adornment and diadem of beauty for His redeemed. “In that day” the government and defense will be God's and it will be righteousness and effective.

These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink; the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are swallowed by wine, they stagger with strong drink, they reel in vision, they stumble in giving judgment. For all tables are full of filthy vomit, with no space left.

Isaiah 28:7-8

It is possible that Isaiah witnessed this. Maybe as a ceremony after ambassadors worked out a deal with a nation like Egypt. In any case the religious leadership is just as useless as the rest of the population and stumble in judgment.

“To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast? For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”

Isaiah 28:9-10

Isaiah was considered to have too simple a message. But Isaiah kept it simple on purpose. If you've failed to grasp the fundamentals then why would you feel entitled to discuss complexity? Judah and Israel had failed in the fundamentals. You would build up precepts and concepts gradually but you can't build on a flawed foundation and they did not trust God.

For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the Lord will speak to this people, to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they would not hear. And the word of the Lord will be to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

Isaiah 28:11-13

At the risk of totally butchering the Hebrew, we move from verse 10 which is a derogatory baby talk that sounds like “ki saw l'saw, saw l'saw, qaw l'qaw, qaw l'qaw, same ze-er, same ze-er” to the promise that they will hear strange things and foreign tongues. They'll get complicated because they refused to rest in God. They will lean the first principles of trusting and resting in God. They will understand the baby talk of Isaiah. If they won't move forward into the things God has promised then they will move backwards without seeing what is coming, be broken, snared, and taken on Isaiah's baby talk. Foundations matter. Especially for us as men. Motyer says, “Trusting the Lord is not only an interior exercise of the soul in the calm of Sunday but a repose of the soul in the hard pressures of Monday.” If you're not resting in God on Monday then you haven't learned the fundamentals on Sunday.

God in His Grace will not leave us to ourselves. He must correct us because He cares for us.

Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers, who rule this people in Jerusalem! Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement, when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter”; therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’ And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”

Isaiah 28:14-17

The people of the day viewed Isaiah as a simpleton. They laughed at his pointing to trust in God and His promises. They had a political solution. They had a deal with the devil and in their minds they were going to be just fine. The whip would not touch them. God laid the foundation. He lays the foundation for you. The chief cornerstone. Whoever believes in Him will not panic. He gives justice as the measuring line and righteousness as the plumb line. Cornerstones were far more central to their building process. It was a reference point and standard for the entire building. Christ is ours. All of the Old Testament points forward to the Cross and all of the New Testament explains the Cross (Psalm 118:22; Romans 9:33 and 10:11; 1 Corinthians 3:11; Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:4-8)

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:4-5.

Soli Deo Gloria

The Prophecy of Isaiah – Lesson 22

In this weeks lesson we get more of the verses, some memorized by generations, that have a fulfillment in BC and then again in Christ and then again at the end of our age.

O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure. For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin; the foreigners’ palace is a city no more; it will never be rebuilt. Therefore strong peoples will glorify you; cities of ruthless nations will fear you. For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat; for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall, like heat in a dry place. You subdue the noise of the foreigners; as heat by the shade of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is put down.

Isaiah 25:1-5

God has always shown Himself to be the God of our salvation. His plans for the restoration and His plans for your salvation are “plans formed of old, faithful and sure”. The civilizations that we've read about are seen in this prophecy to be ruins and never to be rebuilt. God proves Himself faithful in keeping us when we are poor, when we are in distress, and when we are in the storms and fiery trials of life. He is the shade we live under (Psalm 91:1; 121:5).

The first and most natural application of these verses is too Babylon and the restoration of Israel and the rebuilding of the temple years after Isaiah but the next few verses turn the view down through history to Jesus and even to the end of our age.

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.

Isaiah 25:6

This verse looks back to the covenant banquet of Israel's elders (Exodus 24:11), forward to Communion and the blood of the covenant (Matthew 26:26-28) instituted by Christ and yet spiritually something that we participate in right now.

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Hebrews 12:22-24

But this verse also points forward to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb at the end of our age.

Then I heard what seemed to be wthe voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

Revelation 19:6-9

These next verses are some of the most beautiful descriptions of what happened on the Cross I think in the Bible. The poetry even comes through the translation.

And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

Isaiah 25:7-9

This veil or shroud of death is swallowed up (Verse 8 quoted in 1 Corinthians 15:54). The victory of death is gone. He did not turn away from the cup in the garden (Matthew 26:39; Mark 14:36; Luke 22: 42; John 18:11) given Him by the Father. He swallowed up the shroud of death that covered us. The reproach of our sin nature and death with the power of sin in the law ends as God gives us victory through Jesus our Lord.

Think of the faithful Simeon and Anna waiting in the reconstructed temple 700 years later. Anna came out of her fasting and prayer and the infant Jesus was presented in the temple to speak of Him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. Simeon held Jesus, Blessed God, and said;

“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”

Luke 2:29-32

This is our God, we have waited for Him that He might save us. He is in us a light to the unsaved and He is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

In the next verses God reminds us that the wisdom of men will not be rewarded. Remember that Moab (the cousin nation) was offered refuge a few chapters back (16:6). It was refused and they sought their own solution.

For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain, and Moab shall be trampled down in his place, as straw is trampled down in a dunghill. And he will spread out his hands in the midst of it as a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim, but the Lord will lay low his pompous pride together with the skill of his hands. And the high fortifications of his walls he will bring down, lay low, and cast to the ground, to the dust.

Isaiah 25:10-12

It is foolish to trust in your own way and in your own strength. Moab becomes an example of people who refuse the direction and refuge of God and suffer the consequences. The banquet is real and so is the straw trampled down into a dunghill. Our culture loves the lone ranger doing his own thing and winning against all odds but if that lone ranger doesn't acknowledge his complete dependence on God and even on the Body of Christ it is just an error that God will eventually deal with. This city of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” is then contrasted with the City of God.

In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; he sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks. Open the gates, that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in. You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

Isaiah 26:1-4

Thinking back to the first comments about Ahaz and his worry with additional water supplies it seems that this is the redeemed city of Jerusalem. God sets up salvation as a wall and bulwark around His people. They are in perfect peace (peace peace) because He is the rock they run to. Ahaz trusted fundamentally in a combined military, political, and engineering solution to his security problem. He could never have perfect peace that way. What he was doing was not fundamentally bad but placing his trust in his solution and not in God was fundamentally bad.

The following verses could be Babylon, could be Nineveh under Sennacherib but could also be the unredeemed Jerusalem under Ahaz. I think it makes more sense as the unredeemed Jerusalem representing man's best shot without God's blessing. Think of the coming judgment and listen to the perfection of heart in Isaiah as he looks toward judgment.

For he has humbled the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city. He lays it low, lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust. The foot tramples it, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy. The path of the righteous is level; you make level the way of the righteous. In the path of your judgments, O Lord, we wait for you; your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul. My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly and does not see the majesty of the Lord. O Lord, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed. Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.

Isaiah 26:5-11

For someone facing God's judgment for the sins of their nation I can't think of a better heart attitude than to say, “In the paths of your judgments, O Lord, we wait for you; your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul.”

The blindness of sin is shown by Isaiah. Blessing for the wicked does not result in righteousness. In fact, he sins by dealing corruptly in an upright place. God judgment did eventually bring back a righteous people to the land.

Isaiah then begins to describe the blessing that made them a nation and mourns the lack of blessing they were to those around them by bringing salvation.

O Lord, you will ordain peace for us; you have done for us all our works. O Lord our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone we bring to remembrance. They are dead, they will not live; they are shades, they will not arise; to that end you have visited them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them. But you have increased the nation, O Lord, you have increased the nation; you are glorified; you have enlarged all the borders of the land. O Lord, in distress they sought you; they poured out a whispered prayer when your discipline was upon them. Like a pregnant woman who writhes and cries out in her pangs when she is near to giving birth, so were we because of you, O Lord; we were pregnant, we writhed, but we have given birth to wind. We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth, and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.

Isaiah 26:12-18

Isaiah praise God for all he did to bring them out of Egypt and make a nation of them and expand their borders. But they sought God in distress in the midst of God's discipline and then it was a strained whisper. They didn't seek Him early, they sought Him late. They cried out then as a woman in childbirth. Certainly even in Isaiah's day the Northern Kingdom was crying out under the oppression of the Assyrians. Given the context and Motyer's comments on the words used it is likely that the last line should read, “and the inhabitants of the world have not come to new life.” The particular word translated “fallen” here can mean “born”. I think that for each of us we can have a “Saving Private Ryan” moment here and ask if we've been faithful to use all that God has given us. He blessed Israel and they gave birth to nothing. Clearly our opportunities to serve Him are to be sought out and handled with all the Grace we can pray into the situations of our lives. We've seen deliverance on the earth and we've seen the inhabitants born into new life but we need to pray that God would make it possible for us to not drop the ball and have an attention to His works in our lives.

Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead. Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the fury has passed by. For behold, the Lord is coming out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it, and will no more cover its slain.

Isaiah 26:19-21

People argue a bit about these verses. They get excited about an individual resurrection versus a national resurrection. I think we should take it both ways here (purposeful ambiguity). Those who serve God and die in the path of judgment will live. They will rise. On the other hand. The Nation (those who are righteous in Judah and Israel) will need to hide for a while as the judgment is poured forth. Knowing what is going on they need to cling to God as they did in Egypt during the Passover. God will recover His remnant but He will also raise the dead.

The promise of a physical resurrection is one of our most precious hopes in God. We will not be disembodied spirits playing harps on clouds. We will have resurrection bodies similar to the physical body that Jesus now has. I'm especially blessed to have God tell me these things through Scripture in the wake of our recent loss of Bubber Skruggs.

The Prophecy of Isaiah – Lesson 21

I mentioned that Isaiah “nests” poems within poems and I'll continue to use Motyer's outline to look at the following nested section. We are in a section that is describing the judgment that will come upon Jerusalem.

C1 – The song stilled: the fall of the city

The wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted sigh. The mirth of the tambourines is stilled, the noise of the jubilant has ceased, the mirth of the lyre is stilled. No more do they drink wine with singing; strong drink is bitter to those who drink it. The wasted city is broken down; every house is shut up so that none can enter. There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine; all joy has grown dark; the gladness of the earth is banished. Desolation is left in the city; the gates are battered into ruins.

Isaiah 24:7-12

These verses are actually a poem nested in the nest that we are working through. Motyer says that it can be laid out in 15 lines of mostly 3 word lines. He says it has a feeling of a series of hammer blows.

These verses look back to the party town that God indicated had the wrong response to their situation but remember that Noah is in view here too. So this is describing a curse with the blight of the earlier verses moving to the land. The vines are blighted. This is an agrarian society that lived close to the land and this is a sign of crop failure. The party town celebrated when they should have been mourning. The sin was found in that they had a joy that came only from grapes and did not come from valuing God. So they didn't celebrate God's blessing. They merely celebrated themselves and their harvest. Eventually they stopped celebrating and wine is only seen as a means of escape as their way of life ends and their city is left without protection. The word that gives us the translation “wasted” to describe city is the same word translated “formless” in Genesis 1:2. So the city is without form. Think of a lump of clay before the potter has begun to form it as it is beaten down. All the structure we associate with the word “city” is shattered. A city is defined by the physical, social, religious, and financial structure. Even joy itself has been taken captive in the desolation of this city. Apart from God, humankind's greatest city is a city without meaning. Babylon is a euphemism for that city. At the root it is without form and void of transcendent worth.

C2 – The song heard: world-wide gleanings

For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is done. They lift up their voices, they sing for joy; over the majesty of the Lord they shout from the west. Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord; in the coastlands of the sea, give glory to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the Righteous One.

Isaiah 24:13-16b

The gates are battered but Isaiah turns to battering olive trees for another picture of harvesting. So the city fades but then the nations begin to deliver a song. Harvest is a careful gleaning to gather from the nations. The nations accept the revelation and covenant that was ignored, modified, and broken by Jerusalem and they lift up their voices in worship. From the west, the east, and the farthest coastlines we see the Lord lifted up and praised. We have seen two significant fulfillments of these verses. First at the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem and secondly, and more significantly for you, in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Gentiles as they become children of Abraham. The last picture is of hearing praise from the ends of the earth. Have you ever thought about the wave of praise the circles the earth on a Sunday from timezone to timezone?

B2 – Personal wasting away: grief over treachery and its outcome

But I say, “I waste away, I waste away. Woe is me! For the traitors have betrayed, with betrayal the traitors have betrayed.” Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth! He who flees at the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit, and he who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the snare.

Isaiah 24:16c-18d

Here, again, I think we see Isaiah in shock over the judgment. I think a secondary fulfillment of these verses is found in Christ as Grace and mercy have been poured out on Gentiles and yet it is also tied to the horror of the destruction that came to Jerusalem in 70 AD. Just as the Apostle Paul said, "I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh (Romans 9:1-3).

Judas is the eternal example of a traitor and he changed what a kiss on the cheek can mean. Often the Bible doesn't pick what we consider big sins as it describes a coming judgment. Being a traitor may not always be seen as a big sin. We look for big sins and God looks at the heart. Isaiah doesn't generally describe the effect of these prophecies on him personally. However, I can't imagine it being any less than the impact on Daniel who tells us that his prophecies would put him in bed (i. e., Daniel 8:27). The impact on Isaiah personally must have been tremendous but we only get hints of the way it made him feel as a man (Isaiah 6:5; Isaiah 21; Isaiah 24:16c-18d).

A2 – The earth broken up: moral/spiritual causation

For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. The earth is utterly broken, the earth is split apart, the earth is violently shaken. The earth staggers like a drunken man; it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again.

Isaiah 24:18e-20

These verses pick up the imagery of Noah as the windows of heaven are opened in judgment and close out this section of the poem by referring back to the beginning of the chapter. The word translated "windows" here is the same word as “floodgates” in Genesis 7:11. So the judgment is seen to come from above and below. I think of the events following the crucifixion of Jesus in this regard. The weight of rebellion or transgression is viewed as a heavy load bearing down upon a people who refuse to serve God. Creation itself, at the command of God, becomes an adversary.

Now from the sixth hour (noon) there was darkness over all the land (earth) until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

Matthew 27:45-54

This was just the beginning of the judgment that would come upon Jerusalem over about 35 years. All of Scripture revolves around the atonement as God's plan to redeem. Our sins exchanged for His righteousness as His kingdom comes to the earth.

A1 Divine Visitation: v21 On that day the Lord will punish

a1 in the heavens: the host of heaven, in heaven,

b1 on earth: and the kings of the earth, on the earth.

B2 Dungeon Darkness: v22a They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit;

they will be shut up in a prison,

C The undated future: v22b and after many days they will be punished.

B2 Unparalleled brightness: v23a Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed,

A2 Divine Reign: for the Lord of hosts reigns

b2 in Jerusalem: on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,

a2 gloriously: and his glory will be before his elders.

Isaiah 24:21-23

In this small poem we see Him high and lifted up. He sits on the throne and punishes the prince of the power of the air. His kingdom has aspects of both “already” and “not yet” or prophecy fulfilled and prophecy not yet fulfilled. God forbid that we would ever act as if He isn't on the throne and yet we also pray “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

Ephesians 1:16-2:6).

Pray this portion of Scripture for yourself as Paul inspired by the Holy Spirit prayed it for the Ephesian Church.