Isaiah - Lesson 10

Dr. John Oswalt

Isaiah

ot650-10

Woe to Those Who Will Not Wait

Lesson Transcript

We have now looked at two of the sections of the subdivision 13 through 35. The first of those sections was judgment upon the nations or oracles against the nations. The second was 24 through 27. Yahweh, a sovereign actor on the stage of history. I mentioned earlier that chapters 13 to 23 are particular dealing with particular nations, a narrow focus in on particulars. Now, in 24 to 27, the focus was more wide angle on God's rule of history and God's accomplishment in bringing down the ruthless fortified city. And. Raising the beautiful city of salvation. Now in the third section, chapters 28 through 33. Once again, we focus more particularly up on the historic situation in Judah between about 714 and 701 B.C. during this time. The. Assyrian threat that Isaiah had predicted to Ahaz back in about 735 has come. Two full flower. The Northern Empire. The North Excuse me, the Northern Kingdom. Israel has been destroyed in 722. Finally, Samaria, the capital city. The last holdout was captured. It was captured by two Assyrian emperors. The one was Shalmaneser, and that's the one the Bible mentions that spelled SAGAL m A and is r shalmaneser. That's the one the Bible mentions, but. It is evident that he died before the final exile of the leadership was carried out. It was carried out by his successor, Sargon. Here's another one of these interesting historical bits. When the Assyrian annals were discovered and it was seen that Sargon said he captured Samaria, the critics said, Oh yeah. Here's another place where the Bible got it wrong. The Bible said Shalmaneser captured Samaria and he didn't. It's really Sargon who did. Well, further study helped us to see Well, actually, it was Shalmaneser who finished the siege and received the surrender.

But then he died and Sargon did not actually captured the city. But he bragged that he did because he's the one that carried it out. So in fact, the Bible is quite correct. Again, not too surprising that people on the spot understood the data better than some others who were boasting about something else. But. But in 722. Just as Isaiah had predicted. Before a child conceived today, 735 is 12 years old. Yes. Now. We tend, I think, to overlook the incredible shock that this was. And I think this has a good deal to do with why Isaiah's book then looks on out into the future, because that exile, the exile of the Northern Kingdom, surely, surely must have been a terrible theological blow, not only to the people of the North who were carried off, but to the Judeans. Three quarters of their family. The descendants of Abraham are gone. And they perhaps could say, Oh, well, they were a bunch of sinners and they had this coming to them. I imagine they said that given that we humans are pretty good for finding excuses for things. But still, there has to been the sense what happened to the promises. How did this happen? Was God defeated? Are the Assyrian gods really stronger than the Lord? All those questions, I think, were flooding in. And Isaiah knows that the same thing is going to happen to the other quarter of the Israelite family sooner or later. And those questions are going to have to be dealt with. And I think that's what's going on in the second part of the book. I think they've been sparked in his mind by this thing that it's happened. By this point. And I want to show you a.

Map here. This map shows us the picture of events about 735. This is this is the way things were then. Now, by 714, the map is very much changed. Syria capital of Damascus is gone. Israel capital of Samaria is gone. Aman. Capital city alone is gone. The more bites are gone. Basically. Only Judah is left and the Assyrian army is campaigning in Felicity to the south west of Judah on their way to Egypt. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. What are we going to do? These chapters 28 through 3533 are dealing with that issue. Whom do we trust? Where can we turn in this hour? And the answer is Egypt. Egypt is our only hope. Now, again, I want to emphasize that if indeed your trust is in this world, then it's going to be progressively limited and limited and limited until it's only Egypt, the Egypts that are left to you to turn to. It's pretty clear that the idea of trusting your way is just not an option. It just doesn't enter their thinking and Isaiah is dealing with them on that basis. He is, again, as with a has 20 years earlier, he's saying, no, you don't have to do this. This is the wrong thing to do. Put your trust in your way. But I want to say to you again. Look how counter-intuitive that is. Would we say in America today? No. Don't trust your armaments. Don't trust Naito. Don't trust these alliances. Trust your way. Oh, well, we would be laughed out of the room. What a foolish, stupid thing to say. Is it? Is it? And it comes down then ultimately to each of us, What do I really trust? Do I trust my 403b? Do I trust my savings account? Do I trust? What am I truly hanging my life upon? That's a pretty difficult question.

More difficult than it might seem in our discussion here. Well, yes, of course. Trust Yahweh. Silly people. Maybe it's not quite that simple. Maybe it's much more drastic. Maybe it's much more demanding than we may think is the case. So in these chapters. Isaiah challenges. The Judeans to wait for the Lord to deliver its. We've talked about this before. In the Old Testament. Weight and trust are synonyms. I like to say weight is trust with clothes on. It's putting feet to trust. It's saying, I'm not going to run ahead of God. I'm not going to figure out that I know the situation better than he does. I'm not going to figure that I know the solution better than he does. I'm not going to figure I know the best resources to use. I'm going to wait for him to reveal his way of meeting these. Needs his way of fulfilling his promises. But I say again, it doesn't mean merely passing time. It doesn't mean merely sitting on your hands. It's a confident expectation. I know God's going to take care of this situation in his time and in his way, and I can live in confident hope and expectation. In the meantime. The New Testament Word for hope has many of these same connotations. It's not. Well, I hope you'll come. I hope maybe this situation will turn out okay. No, it's I'm confident he'll come. I'm confident that this situation will turn out right in his in his care and in his working. So Isaiah says to them, No, no, don't rush off to Egypt. Wait. Wait. Are you crazy? Suppose we wait and God fails us. Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Faith is for what you don't see. Otherwise it's not faith, says the writer to the Hebrews.

So that's what's going on in these chapters. The title that I will give to them is alas, for those who will not wait. Alas, for those who will not wait and as I have said to you several times through this series, the Hebrew word is OII, and you may be. Aware of the phrase as it's used in Yiddish or they and it's a for me. That word boy shows up in these chapters five times. Each segment, the prophet begins with joy. Alas, alas, alas. Alas. For those who will not wait. Regret, sorrow. Gloom. For those who will not wait. First of all, in chapter 28, verse one, it's a loss for the blind, drunken, scoffing leaders. And there's a sense of focusing running through the chapter in the SEC section. It becomes clearer as we go along what their foolish trust is. But it begins there. Interestingly. I'll say more about it in a moment. This seems to be an oracle that Isaiah spoke to the leaders of Israel before 722. I think he's repurposing it here. He's saying I said these things to them back there and now they apply here just as well. In the middle of the chapter, chapter 28. He's going to switch over to the Jerusalem leadership and he's basically going to say, you guys are just recreating what those folks who are now gone did. Not bright. Not bright. The second. Alas, the Second World is in chapter 29, verse one, and it is addressed to Ariel. And we'll talk about the possible meaning of that name. But it is the city of David and the City of David that seems to be depending like Chapter 22 on its religiosity, on its rituals, on his cult. Foolish. Foolish. The Third World shows up in the middle of Chapter 29, and it is addressed to those who hide their counsel deep from the Lord.

And again, what he's doing is he's slowly boring in on this stupidity of trusting Egypt. We'll talk more about this. But I like to think of people as the the advisers to the king. Now, now, we can't tell Isaiah about this. We can't let him know about it. So So let's keep this all secret. And they come out of the door of the chancellery and there's Isaiah. And he says, Hi, guys. What were you talking about? You can't hide your counsel from the Lord. You can't hide your decisions. You can't hide your wise, quote unquote, thinking from him. The fourth. Woe is upon rebellious children. Who take false council and the false council to make an alliance with Egypt. I said five words there. Six. Sorry. Chapter 31, verse one. Alas, for those who go to Egypt for help, now he's come down to the bottom line. What a very foolish, dangerous, ultimately deadly thing you have chosen. And then. The sixth. Whoa. Chapter 33 is on the Destroyer. Most commentators agree that this is a reference to a Syria. And it, of course, is a climactic kind of thing. You know, you don't have to be doing all these stupid things because the destroyer is under judgment. Under my judgment. And you may remember back in chapter 16, I believe it is God says, I'm going to destroy Assyria on the mountains of Judah. He's already made the promise. So the folly of these decisions, the folly of these. Faulty alliances. Is obvious. The fate of the destroyer has already been determined. And here you are doing all these stupid things. When you don't need to at all. So five classes directed to Judah and one directed the final one directed almost certainly against Assyria.

There are there are some who think this might be a statement about Egypt. That they're not the helper. They're the destroyer. And that's not out of the realm of possibility. But I think it's more likely to be addressed to a Syria, the one they're worried about. One of the interesting features of this unit is a slow, progressive change in the focus of the leadership. In the beginning chapters. The major emphasis is upon the false leaders who are proposing these stupid ideas. And the minor emphasis is upon the Lord and his leadership. But as the section develops, as we see the people plunging deeper and deeper into this foolish council, you get more and more material on the true leadership. Until by the time you come to chapter 33, almost the entire chapter is dealing with your way. So in a very. Smooth and progressive way. We change focus. You depended on these foolish false human leaders, and they have led you into a pit. If you would turn to your way, your way would in fact, and will deliver you in the end. Who are you going to trust? Here's the issue Lessons in trust. That's what's going on in these chapters. Which where are you going to turn? As I've said to you before. The. Focus all the way through here is upon this issue of dependance. Now, that in itself is a problem. We want to be as little dependent as possible. Sometimes we're forced to be, but it's against our will. There's something in us. Something in us that says, No, I will take care of myself. I think again of a story I heard years ago. A mother and father and a little boy are walking on a spring evening, and the little boy is collecting God's gift to children dandelions.

And he has in his hand a mass of dandelions that are beginning to wilt. And he's kind of dragging. And the mother says to her husband, Oh, honey, pick him up. So he does carries the little boy along. But as he does, the little boy begins to get more and more wriggly. And finally he says, Put me down. I want to carry my own dandelions. Yeah. I want to carry my own dandelions. And so there is the issue that is running all through here, because you and I were made to be dependent. You and I were made. Not to be independent. We're not self-created. We're not self maintaining, we're not self-sustaining, were made to be dependent. And that's the issue. It's running all through. And I remind you. I'm calling the subdivision chapter 7 to 39. Trust. The basis of service. HOOD Coming to that acceptance of our dependance and gladly recognizing that we can depend upon the Lord. So let's turn to chapter 28. Alas, for that wreath, the pride of Ephraim is drunkards to the fading flower. His glorious beauty sat on the head of a fertile valley. To that city, the pride of those laid low by wine. See, the Lord has one who is powerful and strong, like a hailstorm and a destructive wind, like a driving rain in the flooding downpour. He will throw it forcefully to the ground. That wreath, the pride of Ephraim's drunkards, will be trampled underfoot. That fading flower, his glorious beauty sat on the head of a fertile valley will be like figs ripe before harvest. As soon as people see them and take them in hand to swallow them. What's he talking about? He's talking about. Samaria. Samaria is the crown on the top of the hill.

As the illustration you can see here shows you. The crenelated walls of the city were on the top of a hill. They looked like a crown. And so Isaiah very skillfully is using that. He's saying this crown is like the wreath of flowers that a drunk is wearing. And it's going to be thrown down and trampled on the ground in the middle of the drunken revels. So in the same way, Somalia, the proud crown is going to be thrown down into the valley by the destroyer who's coming this proud crown that the drunk leaders of Samarra are so proud of is going to be trashed. Now look at verse five. Here is the only reference to the Lord in chapter 28. But I shouldn't say the only reference. I should say this is a reference to the Lord's leadership in that day. There it is again, some future point. The Lord of Heaven's armies, Yahweh of Heaven's armies will be a glorious crown. A beautiful wreath for the remnant of his people. He will be the spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment, a source of strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate. Instead of the proud crown of the drunkards of Samaria. Yahweh is the true crown. Yahweh is the true wreath of glory and honor. But you won't go with him, will you? Then he describes these foolish leaders. They are drunk. Verse seven, their tables for sacrifice and divination are covered with vomit. And what are they trying to teach? How are they trying to teach? All they have to say is rote memory and a good deal of question about verse ten. The Hebrew says Kavala Kav, Kavala, kav. Oh, what is that? And the NIV says, Do this, do that.

A rule for this. A rule for that. A little here, a little there. It probably is a child's. Rote memory line. These drunks are trying to teach you and you are so ignorant that all they can do is teach you this rote memory stuff that really means nothing and leads to nothing. So God says, Okay. Since these drunks are trying to lead you ignorant people in these foolish ways, I'm going to call in some people, some teachers who speak a language you don't know. With foreign lips and strange tongues. God will speak to this people. To whom he said, This is the resting place. Let the weary rest. This is a place of repose. But they would not listen. So the Word of the Lord will become to them like rote memory. It'll become as unintelligible as the stuff your drunken leaders are trying to tell you. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. So diverse. 13 As I said, this seems to have been an oracle that he spoke to some area before. 722. Where he condemned the foolish leaders there and told them destruction is coming. And that's that. He seems to have repurposed that and is now using it to speak to the leaders of Jerusalem. You look at verse 14. Therefore. In the light of what I said to them earlier and it's fulfillment. Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem. Hmm. The word that is translated scoffers is the most. Pejorative word that you can use of someone in the Old Testament. The marker the score for. The one who not merely rejects truth, but in fact mocks it. As we saw earlier, the one who calls evil good and good evil. That's the score for.

And you remember in Psalm one, that's the last. You don't want to sit in this seat at this coffer. So these rulers are not merely not doing the Lord's will. They are mocking the Lord and his teaching. You boast. We have entered into a covenant with death, with the realm of the dead. We have made an agreement. When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it can't touch us. For we've made a lie. Our refuge and falsehood, our hiding place. Now, I'm almost certain that he is mocking them. They've made an alliance with Egypt. He says you've made an alliance with death. They think they have made a good deal, a deal that's going to secure them, a deal that's reliable. That is true. He says, no, it's a lie. Hmm. Verse 16. I lay a stone in Zion, attested Stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation. The one who trusts in it will never be stricken with panic. I will make justice. The measuring line Righteous the plumb line. Hail will sweep away your refuge. The lie and water will overflow your hiding place. Mm hmm. If you would trust me. The building that you would build would stand. It would be set on a firm cornerstone. But instead. The building that you have built, a building of lies is going to be washed away. I'm pretty certain this is where Jesus got the idea for the closing illustration of his Sermon on the Mount. If you listen to my words, you will be building a house on the rock, the cornerstone. But if you won't listen, then the house that you build on the sand will be washed away. Now you say, Can you prove that? No, I can't. But certainly the same point is being made.

Build on me and it will last. What you build, build on anything else. And it's going to be washed away in the floods. That will come. That will come. So. He says. As we go on through verse 18, your covenant with death will be annulled. You'll be carried away. Verse 21, The Lord will rise up as he did at Mount Peres. Him. He will rouse himself, as in the valley of Gideon, to do his work, his strange work, perform his task, his Aryan task judgment. That's not what he wants to do. That's not his normal chosen task. But if that's what you want. Verse 22. So stop your mocking or your chains will become heavier. Yahweh, Yahweh, of Heaven's Armies, has told me of the destruction decreed against the whole land. That's the Nivi. Here's that word that I talked about before Arats. So it could be decreed against the whole Earth. Sort of harking back to chapter 24. So a couple of options there that are not entirely clear. Then the remainder of Chapter 28 is is interesting because it's not absolutely clear what he's doing. He talks about the farmer who. Follows a fixed order and is planting you plow. Then you harrow. Then you plant and you plant certain seeds. In one way. You plant other seeds in another way. All according to this order. And in the end, you harvest it in certain ways. You don't. You don't use a big stone roller on little tender seeds. Use that on wheat or barley. Little tender seed. You use a flail. Almost certainly what he's saying here is. You guys, you mockers in Jerusalem. You think farmers are stupid? You think they don't know anything? Well, let me tell you something. The most unlettered farmer knows how life works.

He knows that there are principles of behavior that if you follow them, you're going to get the desired results. And if you do other things, you're going to get other results. Why are you guys that bright? Why don't you understand how life is meant to work? Why don't you understand God's principles of behavior? Why do you think you can mock God and make a deal with unbelievers, a pagan nation, and think that they're going to keep their word in the end? How foolish. The farmer knows better than you do how life works. I think that's what's going on. I think that's what he's saying. We move then to 29. Alas, to you, Ariel. Ariel, the city where David settled and year to year, let your cycle of festivals go on. Yeah. Keep doing your rituals. Keep doing Passover. First fruits. Tabernacles. David. Yeah. Yeah. Keep it up. Yet. I will besiege Ariel. She will mourn and lament. She will be to me like an altar hearth. Ariel, it seems he has chosen as a possible wordplay. An aerial is an altar hearth. The opening piece of the altar. But it also can mean the City of God. RDL. Is this the city of God or is it an altar hearth? You think it's a city of God? You think you've got a lock on me? You can do your rituals and your cult and your liturgy, and you can manage me. Remember chapter one. God says, I'm sick of that stuff. I didn't ask you for this. I ask you for your heart's. But you think you can keep your heart's. And give me religion. No, no. You think you're the city of God? I say to you, you're an altar hearth, and you're going to be the sacrifice of it.

Hmm. It's a similar picture that you have in Amos. The book of Amos closes with a series of visions where he sees God's judgment coming upon the Northern Kingdom. And the last one is the Lord standing beside the altar. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Who's going to be the sacrifice? The sacrifice that God provides for us. For those of a contrite and repentant heart. Or are we going to be the sacrifice? But. Look at verse three. He says, I'm going to camp against you on all sides. I'll be the besieging army, in other words. Brought low. And here again, this is just an example of of Isaiah's. Mastery of language brought low. You will speak from the ground. Your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will come. Ghostlike from the earth. Out of the dust. Your speech will whisper. Down, down, down, down, down. But now look at verse five. But your many enemies will become fine. Dust the ruthless hordes blown like. Like blown chaff. Suddenly, in an instant, the Lord Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise and windstorm and tempest and flames of devouring fire. And then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel, that attack her and her fortress and jaw will be as it is with a dream. And so forth. Hmm. Will you forgive me? Destruction is never God's intended. Last word. Yes. Yes. You brought judgment on yourself, but. My intention is out of that. To bring refinement and renewal and repentance and hope. Is there hope for Judah and Jerusalem? Yes. But it is through judgment. Now go back to verse nine. Be stunned and amazed. Blind yourselves and be sightless. Be drunk. But not from wine. Stagger, but not from beer.

The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep. He has sealed your eyes. The prophets. He's covered your heads, the seers. For you. This whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. If you give the scroll to someone who can read and say, Read this, please, they'll answer. I can't. It's sealed. Or if you give the scroll to someone who can't read and say, Read this, please, they'll answer. I don't know how to read. Isaiah is speaking to his generation. You can't hear God's promise. That on the other side of judgment there is hope because you can't believe that judgment is coming. It's a sealed scroll. Remember chapter eight. Here am I and my disciples. SEAL up the scroll. And as I said when we were talking about chapter six, God says to Isaiah, If you'll be faithful, if you'll preach the whole counsel of my truth, it's not going to help this generation. But it will accomplish its ultimate purpose if you're faithful. That's what's going on here. It's a sealed scroll to you folks. I'm sorry. You can't hear it. But it's the truth anyway. Verse 13 These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules. Hmm. Do this. Do this. Do this. Say that. Say this. Say this. Human rules they've been taught. So that's the second world to Ariel. With their ritual and their religion, they are facing judgment. But that's not God's ultimate purpose. Third one then comes in 2915. Alas, for those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord who will do their work in darkness and think, who sees us, who will know you turn things upside down as if the potter were thought to be like the clay shall what is formed say to the one who formed it? You didn't make me.

Can the pot say to the potter, You know nothing. And then comes again. The promise. Hmm. In a very short time. Will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field? And the fertile fields seem like a forest. In that day, the death, we'll hear the words of the scroll and out of the gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind will see. Yes, you foolish leaders. You are blind and deaf and drunk. But the day is coming. The day is coming. In my purpose. And the needy will rejoice in the holy one of Israel. Yes. Yes. So we go on. As God continues his promise. Verse 22 No longer will Jacob be ashamed. No longer will their faces grow pale when they see among them their children. The work of my hands. They will keep my name holy. They will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy one of Jacob. It's the only place that phrase occurs in the Bible will stand in honor of the God of Israel. Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding. Those who complain will accept instruction. Once again, there is a connection here with the later parts of the book. What's this business about when they see among them their children? The work of my hands? Well, the threat of the exile is you're going to lose your kids. Your kids are going to become good Babylonians. Your kids will no longer know the word. They will no longer accept what it means to be separate, distinct. They're going to be just sucked into the empire. That's the whole purpose of exile. You lose your kids. In chapter 44. God says, I'm going to pour out my spirit on your descendants and your descendants will write the name Jacob on their hand.

Your descendants will say, I belong to the Lord. No. No. Israel is not going to disappear. It's not going to disappear among the nations. It's going to be kept as a distinctive. People group. Now 2700 years after Isaiah. They still exist as a people. And in the lifetime of some of us, it has become a nation against all the odds. There is no explanation for why the Jewish people should still exist as a people except God. And that's a pretty good explanation. I wanted you to reflect on something else you had said, because it's something I think a lot about and I suspect a lot of people do, And that is this whole thing about trusting in the Lord. And in practical ways, how do you balance that with human responsibility? I don't imagine that you're saying that God wants us to let go of the gods. But I was trying to think of some practical illustrations for one, that biblical training. I'm concerned about certain media outlets shutting us down. And so I make I'm making plans. Sole is this shuts down. I can switch the technology over here and stuff. Am I not trusting the Lord or does White House just at a very practical level, how would you balance the trust in word and then human action? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, first of all, it is a mental attitude. It is. Am I ultimately wanting God to have his way in this that I'm doing? Am I. Am I truly, to the best of my knowledge, surrendered to him. I don't want my way, Lord. I want your way. I years ago, when I was in seminary here, I had three options for graduate school. I had been accepted at three universities, and Karen and I were in a couples group with a with a professor.

And I was just agonizing about which of these should I do. And the professor looked at me and said, You want God to send you a telegram, don't you? I said, Well, yeah, if he's got a will for me, tell me to do it and I'll do it. Well, he didn't answer the thing, but I thought, I've thought since about that. God is more concerned about the development of my faith in making these choices than necessarily what I do. I have the feeling that probably he could have used any of those three schools to accomplish his purposes. But the issue was, Would I? Lord, as best I know, this is what you want me to do and I'm going to do it unless you stop me. And to me, it's it's in that saying, okay, God has led us in this organization to do this work in his name as best we know. This all belongs to God as best we know. This is all His work. Now, Lord, in order for it to go forward, we need to make some decisions. We're trusting you to enable us to make the right decisions in this hour. To me, that's. That's the glorious synergy between free will and sovereignty as as we say. Okay. God. I'm not sure that this is the step you want us to take. But as best I know it is. If it's not, it's your job to stop me here. To me, that's how it works. That it is. And perhaps it's a good thing Robbie's not here. It sounds terribly, Wesley. But it is the synergy. The synergy between God's leadership and. And then him saying. I gave you a brain. I gave you opportunities. Now you make the best of those in faith.

To me, that's. That's where it constantly works.