Sermon Tone Analysis

The opening words of Psalm 2 pose a question that has baffled mankind through the centuries.

The Psalmist asks, "Why do the nations rage?"

That is, why is it so difficult to bring about international peace?

Why, after thousands of peace conferences, security accords, and negotiations held through the millennia, are we no closer to world peace?

In the 60's, the Burmese statesman U Thant, who was then Secretary-General of the United Nations, convened an international conference to try to discover a way to world peace and to help resolve the international conflicts of that day.

Some 1600 delegates from 42 different countries assembled in the United Nation's headquarters.

In his opening address, U Thant asked three remarkable questions:

1) What element is lacking so that with all our skill and all our knowledge we still find ourselves in the dark valley of discord and enmity?

2) What is it that inhibits us from going forward together to enjoy the fruits of human endeavor and to reap the harvest of human experience?

3) Why is it that, for all our professed ideals, our hopes and our skills, peace on earth is still a distant objective, seen only dimly through the storms and turmoils of our present difficulties?

Here is an honest cry of frustration and bafflement from the heart of a statesman wrestling with the problem, "Why do the nations rage?"

Since 1976, an organization called The Ploughshares Monitor has yearly reported on the number of armed conflicts taking place in the world.

Including insurrections, civil wars, drug wars and warring nations, currently there are 33 conflicts taking place around the globe.

Most of these conflicts are fueled by racial, ethnic, or religious animosities.

Why do the nations rage?

That question is answered many times in the Scriptures, but notably here in this section of Isaiah, beginning with Chapter 13 and running through Chapter 23.

In a word ... Pride is what makes the nations rage.

They are at enmity with God, and therefore at enmity with each other.

In these chapters the prophet is given a Word from God—oracles—concerning the great, and not so great world powers that surrounded Israel in that day.

These series of prophecies begin with a word concerning Babylon; then move on to include Assyria, Moab, Egypt, Philistia, Edom and other nations; and ends in Chapter 23 with the oracle against the city-nation of Tyre.

An oracle, sometimes translated burden, comes from a verb meaning “to be lifted or carried.”

Oracles are weighty or burdensome kind of message to deliver.

Chapters thirteen through twenty-three reveal that God holds the nations of the world accountable for their actions.

The introductory phrase of each section begins with the words “the oracle of”.

The phrase ends with the nation’s individual names.

Sometimes the name of the nation or empire is not used, but some symbolic name.

An example is Isa.

21:1:

/“The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.

As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on, it comes from the wilderness, from a terrible land.”/

(Isaiah 21:1, ESV)

In this passage Isaiah is referring to Babylon by the Persian Gulf.

Just as President Nixon had his ‘enemies list’ so these ten chapters contains Israel’s ‘enemies list’.

In them, Isaiah records the nations who have been or will be a thorn in Israel’s side.

You need to remember that these oracles were wholly predictive when they were uttered.

They point out things that have not yet taken place, but are going to happen from Isaiah's time onward.

In the day that Isaiah writes, for example, Babylon was not yet a world power, but only a small city on the banks of the Euphrates River.

Yet, two-hundred years later, Babylon had superceded Assyria, becoming the super-power of its day and was the nation that destroyed Judah and took its inhabitants into captivity.

And yet, in his oracle, Isaiah prophesies that Babylon itself will become desolate (13:20-22).

This, too, came true.

For centuries the site of Babylon was actually lost.

So totally destroyed was the city that no one could even find where it had been located.

Not until archeologists re-discovered the city, did it come to light once again.

It is equally clear that some of these oracles have not yet taken place.

The oracle concerning Damascus says that “ ... Damascus will cease to be a city, and will become a heap of ruins,” (Isa.

17:1).

This has yet to be fulfilled.

Yet, the infallible Word of God says that Damascus, a large and very old city, ultimately will be destroyed.

We are not told how or when this will happen, but it will happen.

As we look back on history we can see that much of this prophecy has already been fulfilled.

One of the secrets of understanding Old Testament prophecy is to separate the historic from the yet still future (not always the easiest thing to do!)

These nations are not only historic but are symbols of forces at work in every age and every generation.

If these eleven chapters have a theme, it is found in Isaiah 14:26-27:

/“This is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.

For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it?

His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?”/

(Isaiah 14:26–27, ESV)

Because of God’s sovereign control over all nations nothing can thwart His plans by turning back His hand.

God is in control of the rise and fall of the nations as He works out His divine purposes in the world.

Assyria, Babylon, Moab, Egypt, Philistia, Edom—all of these nations are His tools to accomplish His purposes.

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I. THE ANGER OF THE NATIONS (2:1-3)

/"Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, "Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us."/ (Psalm 2:1-3, ESV)

1. the Psalmist opens his song with a lyric declaring man's rebellion against the Lord of

Hosts

a. the psalmist stands amazed at the plans—vain plans, but plans nonetheless—of the

world's nations to overthrow the Lord and His Anointed One

1) the earth's nation-states are conspiring, and the earth's people are plotting to

rebel against the Lord's anointed one

b. in one of the most clear applications of the Psalm, the Apostle Peter quotes it

shortly after he and the Apostle John have been released from custody for preaching Jesus at the Temple in Jerusalem

"On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.

When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.

You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:" 'Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.' Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.

They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.

Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.

Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."

(Acts 4:23-30, NIV)

c.

Peter clearly tells us that both Jew and Gentile, both worldly rulers and common

people have taken a stand against God, and against God's Anointed One

1) it is not some earthly king or potentate that the nations and people of the earth

are raging and plotting against

2) it is the Lord Himself, and his Anointed

A. THE NATIONS HAVE A MALICIOUS ATTITUDE

1. the psalmist begins with a rhetorical question: "Why"?—Why do the nations rage and

the peoples plot in vain?

"Why"?—Why do the kings and rulers of the earth set themselves against the Lord?

2. the picture of man's rebellion is complete

a. the nations are in a rage

b. the peoples of the earth are plotting

c. the kings of the earth are setting themselves against God's authority

d. the rulers of lesser principalities are counseling together against the Lord

1) in all of this, we see the complete and utter enmity that a fallen race has toward

the sovereign Lord of the universe

3. the nations rage can literally be translated as tumultuous agitation as when

ocean waves are lashed to fury by the winds

4. in his fallen condition, man not only is not looking for God, but is in open rebellion

against Him

a. God is God

b. man is not God, but wants to be