Isaiah 3:1-9 - When God Judges
Notes
Transcript
1 For behold, the Lord God of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and supply, all support of bread, and all support of water; 2 the mighty man and the soldier, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder, 3 the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor and the skillful magician and the expert in charms. 4 And I will make boys their princes, and infants shall rule over them. 5 And the people will oppress one another, every one his fellow and every one his neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the despised to the honorable. 6 For a man will take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying: “You have a cloak; you shall be our leader, and this heap of ruins shall be under your rule”; 7 in that day he will speak out, saying: “I will not be a healer; in my house there is neither bread nor cloak; you shall not make me leader of the people.” 8 For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their deeds are against the Lord, defying his glorious presence. 9 For the look on their faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves.
Target Date: Sunday, 22 October 2023
Target Date: Sunday, 22 October 2023
Word Study/ Translation Notes:
Word Study/ Translation Notes:
1 – support and supply – the male and female versions of the same word. Derived from the word for “staff”, like a walking staff. Their use in this context is a hapax legomenon in the Bible. The meaning is the utter removal of all things that would cause Judah to stand.
stay (mašʿēn) and staff (mašʿēnâ) are closely related in Hebrew, the first being in the masculine gender and the second in the feminine. That the masculine form appears only here with this vocalization while the feminine form is a variant of the normal form of this word (mišʿeneṯ) suggests that the prophet was engaging in a conscious wordplay to stress the totality of the removal (Skinner compares the English “bag and baggage”).
Supply … support are the masculine and feminine forms of the same word, a Hebrew idiom for ‘every support of every kind’. Cf. verse 7 for the ‘other end’ of this inclusio.
5 – oppress - niggaš, “to oppress,” a Niphal with a reflexive meaning. – This indicates the anarchy of all the people seeking to gain for themselves at the expense of others.
Thoughts on the Passage:
Thoughts on the Passage:
1 - The sovereignty of God is not only the power which underwrites the end of history but also the power at work in the detailed ordering of earthly affairs in accordance with his immutable principles of righteousness.
This was fulfilled when Babylon conquered Judah:
Then he led away into exile all Jerusalem and all the captains and all the mighty men of valor, ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths. None remained except the poorest people of the land. – 2 Kings 24:14
But even with this final verbatim fulfillment, the leadership of Judah had been in decay long before. The kings had become petty and proud.
1-5 – The things and the people God is listing that He will remove are the very things He has provided. They were the unrecognized gifts of God that the people had turned into objects of faith and trust in themselves. These wise leaders, this prosperity, were the blessing of God that they had attributed to their own merits, wisdom, and greatness. They considered themselves worthy of these blessings.
Governments are ordained by God and responsible to Him, but they are never worthy of faith and trust. The good they do is only the good they ought to do as the instrument of God. It is not because of some inherent goodness or organization or system that should cause us to put our faith in them. Thus a monarchy is just as ordained as a democracy: each has the same God-given responsibility for the leadership of the people in their care. Each is established by God for His purposes, and each rules only at His sovereign pleasure.
Good government is one of God’s best gifts to a sinful race.
We see in this passage He may remove them at His pleasure, both for the cause of the mismanagement of their responsibility and for the cause of the failure of the people. It is quite possible for a good government to be brought down to the unworthiness of the people (see Josiah). And the worthiness of the people is measured only by their fidelity to God.
Where now is your king That he may save you in all your cities, And your judges of whom you requested, “Give me a king and princes”? 11 I gave you a king in My anger And took him away in My wrath. – Hosea 13:10-11
John Adams is a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and our second President. In a speech to the military in 1798, he warned his fellow countrymen stating, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion … Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
To make great men the source of a nation’s greatness is always to end up with a dearth of great men. Unless the greatness comes from within the community itself, a condition which is ultimately the result of trust in God, no great leaders will rise from it. Instead, the leaders will merely reflect the spiritual poverty of the community.
God’s judgment is not only on nations, but on all gatherings of people. Churches may lose their leadership because of the failure of the members.
But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent. – Revelation 2:4-5
At many times in history, God has judged a nation by depriving it of wise leaders. It would even be easy today to point to the decay of leadership into pandering politicians from sober statesmen, but that is not the point of this sermon. It is not the point of this passage. It is important to understand the dynamics of God’s judgment, but simply pointing to our current lack of political leadership is no more useful than screaming at a wall. Nothing moves; nothing changes.
The point, and the question we must ask is ‘What shall I do?’ How shall we live under the threat of God’s judgment upon us? Are to simply take the promises of vv. 10-11 and soothe ourselves with the calm assurance that God will protect us? If so, that is a most selfish attitude for someone whose very commission is to declare the imminent judgment of God and His sole terms to escape His wrath – the good news of Jesus Christ. How can we who are called in love and to love be so callous as to neglect this great transforming message?
Rather, as befits the people of God, we must live in the grace and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, attached, connected to Him as a branch to a vine. We are not wise – He is. We are not powerful – He is. We are not persuasive toward good – He is through us. Our message, as the message of the New Testament, must never be that unbelievers must obey the Law of God. They cannot. They can never. God’s Law will only and can only condemn them. They, like us, need His gospel of grace to live. Only then can we please Him. Only then can we live.
What is the profit for any unredeemed man to obey completely the Law of God? Will that Law save him? Will it make him right with God? No. Even if the people of Judah left every sin they had committed, their hearts would still be far from God.
If they decided to a man to only do the right things, to follow this great moral code outlined in the Ten Commandments, it would be nothing but a hollow morality. It carries with it no worthiness of forgiveness, no inherent righteousness that would absolve them of their sin, without the cry of repentance and faith to God for His mercy and forgiveness.
6-7 – The qualifications for leadership, rather than the wisdom of the leader, will be made as cheap and capricious as the ownership of a cloak. Leaders will be selected by the people for these trite reasons rather than for their integrity and godliness.
This affects not only nations, but congregations of the church, who choose ministers for their eloquence or their management ability rather than the call of God on him and his faithfulness to that call.
Even worse are those congregations who choose pastors they can control or dictate to, selecting weak men or even women to preach the messages they clamor to hear, messages that make them feel good.
In the political order there is a disinclination to treat leadership seriously and a breakdown in public spirit. Isaiah is not describing events but caricaturing attitudes where leadership merits not thoughtful but hasty action (seize), not a search for the best candidate but taking whatever is at hand (brothers at … home), not qualification but show (cloak). Despair has set in (heap of ruins), infecting the candidate like the proposers. ‘I have no remedy’/‘I will not be a healer/bandager’ is the same picture of the wounded body politic (and the same word) as in 1:6. The candidate takes his proposition at face value and disclaims even the pathetic qualifications urged in his favour. Behind this caricature lies the reality of unwillingness to accept responsibility and for reasons as frivolous as those put forward in his favour. Isaiah is in reality describing a breakdown in national character and seriousness; the spirit which treats national welfare, politics and leadership as a joke.
8 – for Jerusalem has stumbled – The Lord’s judgment is not simply making them stumble by removing their support and supply. They had already stumbled, already rebelled against God. As they chased after their prosperity and ease, as they bowed their hearts to mammon, they had left the strong sure protection of the God of hosts.
They made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the Lord of hosts - Zechariah 7:12
8-9 – Their sin grew out of their rebellion against God, not the other way around. Their speech and actions are against the Lord, rebelling against His glorious presence. They have built their very lives on a foundation that is NOT God, and all the sin, all the blasphemy, all the pride, all the apathy toward God has come rushing in.
Why is there all this evidence of disintegration? ‘Because Jerusalem has stumbled … fallen’. And why has this happened? ‘Because their tongue and their deeds are against the Lord’. Thus we are led to the root cause of social breakdown. It is both spiritual (against the Lord), evidenced verbally (their words), and practical (their … deeds). Jerusalem’s guilt is compounded by the fact that it is not regarded by the people as their guilty secret and they have no sense of guilt. Sin is no longer sin, it is the new morality. Thus it is that societies collapse.
9 – The expression on their faces – they hold themselves in pride and haughtiness. They revel in their sin because they are well-off, they are full. They do not see God’s judgment is at hand.
In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.” 5 His ways prosper at all times; your judgments are on high, out of his sight; as for all his foes, he puffs at them. 6 He says in his heart, “I shall not be moved; throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity.” - Psalm 10:4-6
“Were they ashamed because of the abomination they have done? They were not even ashamed at all; They did not even know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; At the time that I punish them, They shall be cast down,” says the Lord. – Jeremiah 6:15
Sermon Text:
Sermon Text:
This week in our worship of God, we will consider together this passage from Isaiah, chapter 3, verses 1-9.
Perhaps you noticed in our reading of this passage that it is not a soft and comforting passage.
It is not God whispering sweet, gentle words to the people of Judah, nor is He speaking gentle words here for us today.
It is certainly not God telling them or us that we are doing everything well, that we should be commended for our fidelity to Him.
No, those are the things we might tell ourself.
“You know – I am a pretty good Christian.”
They are certainly the things Satan will tell us from time to time.
“You are doing well. You are a fine and wise example of a follower of Jesus Christ.”
It is rare in Scripture that God sent a prophet to an obedient people.
Examples are quite few of a prophet commending anyone for their lives.
That was the message of the false prophets, not of God’s prophets.
And even when we approach the letters of the New Testament, I know of no letter that doesn’t have some measure of correction or exhortation.
When Paul describes the purpose of the Scriptures to Timothy, he says:
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. - 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Every word in that description:
Teaching
Reproof
Correction
Training in Righteousness
Every word in that assumes that SOMETHING in us needs to change, and God has given His word to do it.
Do you notice a word that is missing from that list?
‘Comfort’
That does not mean that the Bible has no word of comfort to God’s people – it most certainly does.
But the comfort of the Scriptures is only meant for those in whom the work of the Spirit is proceeding.
For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. – 2 Chronicles 16:9
I don’t want to digress too far, but I would point out that this is a statement by the prophet Hanani to King Asa of Judah.
Asa began his reign well, but this verse is in the middle of God’s condemnation of his loss of faith in God’s deliverance.
And we are told he became so angry with Hanani that he threw him in prison.
So this king, just like we, needed to be changed by the word of God.
It is not surprising – we are all coming from a state of systemic and complete inability to choose to do the right thing for the right reason.
Every one of us is utterly and radically broken,
So much so that we cannot even be repaired.
We are broken so much, so unable to please God at all, that we must “put on” Jesus Christ, and must rely on Him to hold us together and make us function for God’s glory.
So if that is true of believers, those who have been saved through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our Lord,
What hope does a person have who is still in their sin, still in their pride, who refuses to see their perilous state, what hope does he have to please God?
For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And if it is with difficulty that the righteous is saved, what will become of the godless man and the sinner? – 1 Peter 4:17-18
What God judges: That judgment is the very thing Isaiah is declaring – the judgment of God upon the nation of Judah.
But this is not simply a history lesson; the things he describes in his prophecy are in full motion right now in the USA.
Make no mistake – if the Lord tarries in His appearing, we will see God’s good and righteous judgment on our nation.
We have the same disease:
(vv.8-9) – For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their deeds are against the Lord, defying his glorious presence. 9 For the look on their faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves.
Now we must be sure we understand here what is the disease and what is the symptom.
Because dangerous errors come, for example, when doctors treat only the symptoms but do not cure the disease.
A person goes to the doctor complaining of a crushing headache, but the doctor only prescribes a strong pain killer.
He doesn’t seek the underlying cause of the headache, which in this case, is a fast-growing tumor.
And so the patient will die, perhaps in less pain, but dying nonetheless because the doctor treated only the symptom.
There is the same danger in only treating spiritual symptoms.
We might make the sinner feel better about himself, but he will still die in his sin.
In these verses 8 and 9, sin is merely the symptom of their disease.
The disease for Judah, and the disease for every unregenerate person, is their fallen state.
Just as the disease causes the symptom, so our fallenness causes our sin.
We aren’t fallen because we sinned;
We sin because we are fallen.
Judah has fallen.
Their speech and deeds are AGAINST the Lord.
They are rebels.
Their hearts are not His.
They DEFY His glorious presence.
And so they sin – proudly, loudly.
They have PRIDE in their sin – they proclaim it like Sodom.
If that is not a description of the people all around us today, I don’t know what is.
Homosexuals are PROUD of their perversion, DEMANDING that they be called normal.
Addicts REVEL in their substances.
Adulterers BROADCAST their degradation.
Murderers of infants MARCH for their right to ‘choose’.
Liars SMILE as they destroy.
Thieves JUSTIFY their thefts.
A generation of godless youths INVENTS new gender identities,
Some even MUTILATING themselves to fit a fallen self-image.
Entertainment EXALTS this rubbish and filth.
And some in the church SUPPORT some of these.
What sin was Judah guilty of that we do not practice even more?
We are fallen.
Our nation has stumbled.
And I am afraid that the hearts of God’s people have been captured by the luxury, ease, and vibrant sin of our day so that we might be blinded to our rebellion.
Unaware that we trust in our nation, our prosperity, or our own strength instead of placing our whole trust in God.
Or even worse: becoming apathetic toward the things that God commands.
How God judges: Notice in verses 1-4 how God’s judgment happens.
For behold, the Lord God of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and supply, all support of bread, and all support of water; 2 the mighty man and the soldier, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder, 3 the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor and the skillful magician and the expert in charms. 4 And I will make boys their princes, and infants shall rule over them.
We see some cases in Scripture that God’s judgment is sudden.
The judgment of Sodom is one instance.
But even in this case, we do not know that God had not begun with these.
Notice what God is taking away:
And I would like to point out from the outset that each of these was given by God in the first place.
He is the one who supplies each of these, and in His sovereignty may withhold them at His pleasure.
Support and supply – that is a way of saying He will remove all those things, great and small, that keep Judah prosperous.
Bread and water – even the necessities will be rarer and more costly.
Mighty man and soldier – the army will be devastated.
Judge and the prophet – the wise leaders and the good, godly leaders will be removed.
The diviner and elder – those who can understand, either through natural gifting or experience.
Captain of fifty and the man of rank – the officers and sergeants will be removed so that the warriors that remain will lack leaders.
Counselor and skillful magician - even the ungodly but competent will be removed.
All that will be left to lead will be children.
That last item – I will make boys their princes – should not, I think, be taken literally.
Although we do see some kings of Judah after this who began their reigns at young ages (Josiah was 8),
The importance of this statement is that the leaders that are left will ACT like children – and not in a good way.
They will be petulant, demanding their own will above anything else.
They will change their minds capriciously, never allowing people to trust their decisions.
They will boast and allow their ego to decide great matters.
They will move from sin to sin with no self-control.
They will cease to be statesmen, becoming mere politicians with no integrity.
I will not call any names, but by that definition, it has been a LONG time since a MAN occupied the White House.
For most of the people in here – before you were born.
And far longer still since either house of Congress carried a plurality of them.
I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one. – Ezekiel 22:30
What does a man do according to this chapter of Ezekiel?
He stands with integrity.
He gives with generosity.
He speaks with honesty.
He cherishes the holy.
He protects the vulnerable.
I know of very few men, whether male of female, in leadership today.
Finally, we look at Why God judges: Why is God removing these things He has previously provided?
Put more specifically – is it the sin of the leaders, or the army, or the wise or godly men that has caused God to begin His judgment?
There is no specific statement of it.
There are other places in Scripture where God does indict the leaders, but here, through Isaiah, the fault of the judgement falls squarely on the shoulders of the people.
It makes sense – if it was merely the sin of the king, then God could remove just the king.
That happened to King Asa, who we talked about earlier.
After he imprisoned the prophet Hanani, he became diseased in the feet and died as a result.
But here in Isaiah we see God’s judgment on a nation, and the cause is national sin.
Sin that is pervasive throughout the people.
Flowing from their fallen hearts, trusting their darkened minds, they practice all kinds of wickedness.
Otherwise good leaders, otherwise faithful servants, are removed from their offices.
Perhaps through death, or rejection, or other reasons, they are taken out and their office given to another.
The people, once God’s judgment begins, get the leaders they deserve.
Not the gracious gift of wise, unselfish, prudent leaders.
But leaders that are children in men’s suits.
And here, I would like to change the scope from nations to more local, more intimate groups.
Because I see the same dynamic, the same judgment, on churches all around us.
If you consider Revelation chapters 2 and 3, the sin of the 5 churches who were sternly warned was not the fault of their pastors or elders; it was the sin of the church as a whole.
In verses 6 and 7 of our passage in Isaiah today, we see something of this:
For a man will take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying: “You have a cloak; you shall be our leader, and this heap of ruins shall be under your rule”; 7 in that day he will speak out, saying: “I will not be a healer; in my house there is neither bread nor cloak; you shall not make me leader of the people.”
Now, some read this to be the extreme poverty that will come, such that owning a cloak would make you among the wealthy.
But others with whom I agree think this is Isaiah making an illustration on the absurdity of the people who have rejected God.
That a person would use the most ridiculous reasons to select for themselves a leader.
Churches all around us are selecting or removing pastors for the flimsiest of reasons.
They like the way he speaks.
They like the way he looks.
They think he can help them grow in number.
They don’t consider the most important things:
Is he called of God to preach?
Is he soberly faithful to that call?
Does he hold Scripture above all?
I suggest it is God’s judgment on the church of the United States that we have so many good, faithful pastors departing the pulpits of unregenerate or unrepentant congregations,
And even severer judgment on congregations who choose men, or even women, they can control and dictate what they are allowed to preach.
The people Isaiah lampoons did not take their responsibility in supporting godly leaders seriously;
Any man in a cloak would do.
And God gave them that fool.
So how must we proceed? What shall we do?
1. We must place our trust in God alone for our lives.
Not anything else, whose support can be removed at any moment.
2. We must become more serious about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
One of the old preachers sayings is this: “If you want to get ‘amens’, preach about the evils of society”.
That is certainly not my point or reason today.
The reason people may ‘amen’ is that everyone SEES the problems.
Everyone knows the evil of this world.
There is generally no real controversy there.
The disagreement comes between those who would give more laws, more rules, more legislation,
And those who would happily support good and God-honoring laws, but who would spend their time, effort, and lives carrying the gospel of Jesus Christ instead of wasting time advocating for legislation that might be overturned.
And perhaps a third group who would just like to do neither and enjoy their entertainments and sin.
In a time if the imminent judgment of God, as we shall see next week, it is the righteous who will be cared for by God.
But we know that righteousness is not found in any law, not even God’s Law (Philippians 3:9),
But is found only in faith in Jesus Christ.
be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith
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