Isaiah 3
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Declaration of God’s Judgment.
Declaration of God’s Judgment.
God is promising judgment on the People of Israel in the form of being over come and destroyed by a coming kingdom. This judgement will take the form of being stripped of their wealth and then left in a needy state. This will come in the form of an attack by Assyria. There is an additional warning from the country of Babylon.
Isaiah Boils their trouble down to three distinguishing characteristics.
Judah will be hungry.
For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, Doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, The whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,
This is a real threat the physical needs that they before could trust God with will now be held back from them. They could call on him for their sustenance but because of their rebellion they will now be held back from his provision.
Judah will not be very flashy
As we read in the opening God will send an enemy that will strip them of their beautiful jewels and gold. Gold had previously been an indicator that God was blessing them but now they will not have this to fall back on.
Judah will be lead poorly
The mighty man, and the man of war, The judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient,
The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, And the counseller, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator.
And I will give children to be their princes, And babes shall rule over them.
And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: The child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, And the base against the honourable.
When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, And let this ruin be under thy hand:
The Tragedy of Weak leadership...
This is not just speaking of the King he is warning from the top all the way down.
mighty man
man of war
judge
prophet
prudent
ancient
captains
honorable man
counsellor
the artist
the orator
All of these will be tossed out and God will give them a child to lead them. This is not just to say that they will be chronologically young. Though this will happen according to the book of Daniel. This is seen with the fact that they will take anyone to rule them because of the mess of the people. They will want anyone to take ownership for their lives and give them success at
But make no mistake about it the seeds of this issue were sown in I Samuel 8:6-8
But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord.
And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.
According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee.
What God is doing is reminding the people of Israel You won’t follow me then you will not have real leadership. This was a primary not a secondary issue. Israel would never have good leadership under a king. Saul would fail, David would fail, Solomon would fail, Rehoboam would fail. Uzziah would fail. The issue was they were not God. Understand that there is correlation here.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
Israel would get the leadership it deserves. The failings of the kings were a mere reflections of the peoples failure to keep Jehovah first.
This brings us to what God saw.
Shameless sin.
Our culture hates shame. They run from it. Actually if they really hated it then they would abandon The lives that come from it. Sin produces shame. Our shortcomings from God’s perfection and holiness produces Shame.
Just as with our father and mother Adam and Eve as soon as they had eaten the fruit. Hid themselves from the Lord. And the joy tha they had once shared with the fellowship of the most high was gone.
Jehovah would take the lives of innocent lambs to cover the nakedness of his two image bearers.
They hate shame but they hold fast to sin. Shame and Sin go hand in hand. But Paul describes how a man can become shameless.
Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
Beware when you can no longer feel shame for your own sin. It is a dangerous sign of one who greaves the Holy Spirit that dwells within them.
Abuse of the Poor.
We went to great length to describe this situation last week. The people have left their dependence on God so they walk in materialism and abuse of the poor is inevitable.
Immoral Culture.
Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, And walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, Walking and mincing as they go, And making a tinkling with their feet:
Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, And the Lord will discover their secret parts.
He uses the immorality of the women of Israel to illustrate the behavior of all the people of Israel. He calls them the daughters of Zion.
Our world can say all it wants about who we are a country. But we have not gotten better with the explosion of immorality. Young men and women are still being victimized but the sin that has been downplayed by each new generation.
So then consider the punishment of our text this morning.
Vs 18
Tinkling ornaments
Cauls - ornament of hair
Tires - clasping buckles
chains -
bracelets
Mufflers -
bonnets
ornaments
headbands
tablets
earrings
ring
nose jewels
multiple garments
wimples
mantels
crisping pins
glasses
fine linen
sweet smell
You know he‘s going to hurt them. Try getting around on your Cadillac Escalade without tires or mufflers. Bud-up-bump
Notice what they all have in common…
They are not large stocks and storehouses of wealth. They are the things that people see. Why would God take this away?
Because this is what they care about most. What matters to them is what people see. Not what is going on in the heart.
But the issue is that God sees what’s in the heart and it greaves him.
Consider what Joel says during his day just some 65 years after Isaiah’s last writting.
Joel had a similar warning.
That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; And that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; And that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.
The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord;
The priests, the Lord’s ministers, mourn.
The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth;
The pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree,
Even all the trees of the field, are withered:
Because joy is withered away from the sons of men.
Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: Howl, ye ministers of the altar: Come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: For the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.
Joel’s warning to the same nation was that because they had stopped worshipping God as he commanded then God was sending and army of Locusts. Literally the warning to Judah was God is going to make your front yard look as barren as your heart.
So Isaiah is prophesying to the people. You have put on a good show long enough. You have all the wealth to look like you are walking with me but you are termite eaten. You heart will be on full display.
You are spiritually broke, morally bankrupt and your love is at zero balance. You will now look the part. Your neighbor wont be able to think well look at how good a upstanding person he is…
God says they will actually stink.
You cannot be a Holy Spirit Filled Christian and be a hypocrite.
Galatians 5:16–17 (KJV 1900)
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Hypocrite smoke stacks
The Queen Mary was the largest ship to cross the oceans when it was launched in 1936. Through four decades and a World War she served until she was retired as a floating hotel and museum in Long Beach, California.
During the conversion into a hotel her three massive smokestacks were taken off to be scraped down and repainted. But, on the dock they crumbled. Nothing was left of the 3/4 inch steel plate from which the stacks had been formed. All that remained were more than thirty coats of paint that had been applied over the years. The steel had rusted away.
Source: Unknown
The grace purchased but the blood of Jesus Christ was not meant to cover a wicked heart but to Heal it completely. Giving you grounds to walk in a genuine relationship with the Father.
Consider the Savior who took your place as a substitution on Calvary.
1. Walk in Christ’s Humility.
1. Walk in Christ’s Humility.
You see if the people had acted as the children of God and stayed humble. Then they wouldn’t need to be humbled by having a child be their leader.
2. Walk in Christ’s Truth
2. Walk in Christ’s Truth
Be Genuine
The story is told of a zoo that was noted for their great collection of different animals. One day the gorilla died, and to keep up the appearance of a full range of animals, the zookeeper hired a man to wear a gorilla suit and fill in for the dead animal. It was his first day on the job, and the man didn’t know how to act like a gorilla very well. As he tried to move convincingly, he got too close to the wall of the enclosure and tripped and fell into the lion exhibit. He began to scream, convinced his life was over…until the lion spoke to him: “Be quiet, or you’re going to get us both fired!”
- You can imagine going to a church of a bunch of self willed hypocrites…You wouldn’t know what was real and what wasn’t.
3. Walk in Christ’s Accountability.
3. Walk in Christ’s Accountability.
To God’s Word
To the Church
To a Godly Friend
Have you ever heard the expression “face the music”? Here’s how that phrase came about.
Many years ago, a man wanted to play in the Imperial Orchestra, but he couldn’t play a note. Since he was a person of great wealth and influence, however, he demanded to be allowed to join the orchestra so that he could perform in front of the king. The conductor agreed to let him sit in the second row of the orchestra. Even though he couldn't read music, he was given a flute, and when a concert would begin, he would raise his instrument, pucker his lips, and move his fingers. He went through all the motions of playing, but he never made a sound.
This deception went on for two years. Then one day a new conductor took over the Imperial Orchestra. He told the orchestra that he wanted to personally audition all the players to see how well they could play. The audition would weed out all those who did not meet his standards, and he would dismiss them from the orchestra.
One by one the players performed in his presence. Frantic with worry when it was his turn, the phony flutist pretended to be sick. The doctor who was ordered to examine him, however, declared that he was perfectly well. The conductor insisted that the man appear and demonstrate his skill.
Shamefacedly, the man had to confess that he was a fake. That was the day he had to “face the music.”
Many people through the motions of the Christian life. They attend church or youth group, recite Bible verses, and say all the right things. In reality, though, they are fakes. A time is coming when everyone will be called to stand before the Judge of Heaven and earth and “face the music.”
Though these tools of God’s Word, The church, and our true friends we have exactly what we need to face the music.