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Isaiah 3:12-4:1

Verses 12-15 continue to describe the failed leadership of Judah. Spiritual leaders should never forget just whose ”vineyard” they are tending (14), and whose ”people” they are leading (15). We have the privilege and responsibility of overseeing God’s church; the Lord’s people. Knowing that they are essentially His and not mine should shape my approach to ministry. The leaders of Judah should have protected the poor. Instead they abused their privileges and took advantage of them: ”You’ve played havoc with this country. Your houses are stuffed with what you’ve stolen from the poor. What is this anyway? Stomping on my people, grinding the faces of the poor into the dirt?” The Message

The proud and wealthy women of Jerusalem (16-23) were one big example of the decadence that was eating into the core of national life. The problem wasn’t so much that they were well off, but that they were proud, and did not care about the poor. It was also that they had got some, at least, of their riches unjustly, at the expense of the poor. (See Amos 4:1ff for a similar tirade against the women in Samaria, capital of the northern kingdom.) ”GOD says, ”Zion women are stuck-up, prancing around in their high heels, Making eyes at all the men in the street, swinging their hips, Tossing their hair, gaudy and garish in cheap jewelry.” The Master will fix it so those Zion women will all turn bald -Scabby, bald-headed women. The Master will do it. The time is coming when the Master will strip them of their fancy baubles – the dangling earrings, anklets and bracelets, combs and mirrors and silk scarves, diamond brooches and pearl necklaces, the rings on their fingers and rings on their toes, the latest fashions in hats, exotic perfumes and aphrodisiacs, gowns and capes, all the world’s finest in fabrics and design.” The Message. ”Isaiah was especially grieved because the women of the land had become addicted to wealth and fashion and were more interested in social status than spiritual character. The day would come when their artificial glamour would be gone and they would be sitting in the dust. (See 1 Pet.3:1-6).” Warren W. Wiersbe: With the Word, p.454.

Things can change! They can, let it be said, change for the worse as well as for the better (24 – 4:1). Isaiah foresaw that a calamitous reversal of fortune would come to the citizens of Jerusalem. After living in luxury they would be taken captive as slaves. Their men would die in battle (25). In fact, so many of Judah’s men would be lost in battle that the women would outnumber the men by seven to one (4:1). The war widows would seek to marry the few men who remained in order to have the security of a family name, and also bear children. (In ancient societies it was considered a ”disgrace” to remain childless: Gen.30:22, 23; Lk.1:24, 25) They would also be bereft of the leaders who used to sit in council at the ”gates” (26). ”Instead of wearing seductive scents, these women are going to smell like rotting cabbages; Instead of modeling flowing gowns, they’ll be sporting rags; Instead of their stylish hairdos, scruffy heads; Instead of beauty marks, scabs and scars. Your finest fighting men will be killed, your soldiers left dead on the battlefield. The entrance gate to Zion will be clotted with people mourning their dead – A city stooped under the weight of her loss, brought to her knees by her sorrow. ” The Message.

If we are living through days of prosperity, let’s ensure that it has all been gained justly and that it is used wisely, so that good stewards of what the Lord has entrusted to us. Let us always put the spiritual above the material. Let’s remember that care for the poor and needy is not optional.

Prayer: Lord, you have blessed us with much. May we never lose sight of our responsibility to use our wealth wisely in ways that fully please you. May we carry a great ambition to give all we can.

 Isaiah 3: 1 – 11

In this chapter Isaiah turns his thoughts from a distant ‘day of the Lord’ to a judgment that would be much more imminent for Judah and Jerusalem. In fact it fell more than a hundred years after Isaiah wrote these words, but the prophet’s description was spot on. The calamitous punishment came at the hands of the Babylonians. Though all the people would suffer, the leaders would face the worst. Leaders bear the greater responsibility, both for what goes right and what goes wrong (James 3:1). In these verses Isaiah lists the key leaders who would be removed from Jerusalem, leaving only the poor behind (2 Kings 24:14; 25:18-21). I take (1b) to refer to the ”supply” that would be removed, and (2, 3) to the ”support”. The Message has it that God ”…is emptying Jerusalem and Judah Of all the basic necessities, plain bread and water to begin with. He’s withdrawing police and protection, judges and courts, pastors and teachers, captains and generals, doctors and nurses, and, yes, even the repairmen and jacks-of-all-trades.” Our trust must not be in any man or woman but in the Lord Himself. ”God would take away in His wrath everything that dethroned Him in the hearts of the people…Beware living on substitutes!” Warren W. Wiersbe: With the Word,p.454.

A football supporter was telling me recently about his team. They are not doing well in their league and the potential of relegation looms large. It would appear their confidence is shot to pieces. ‘No-one seems to want the ball,’ he said. Verses 4 – 7 describe such a situation politically, where no-one wants ‘the ball’. Usually it doesn’t take much encouragement to get people to become leaders! But here people will recognise that the situation is hopeless and not want office. In the vacuum created by (1-3) there will be poor and immature leadership (see also 12) and social anarchy will reign: ”I’ll put little kids in charge of the city. Schoolboys and schoolgirls will order everyone around…One brother will grab another and say, ‘You look like you’ve got a head on your shoulders. Do something! Get us out of this mess.’ And he’ll say, ‘Me? Not me! I don’t have a clue. Don’t put me in charge of anything.’ ” The Message. ”Generally men aspire to be rulers; the emolument and honour of the position are infinitely attractive… What a striking contrast is suggested to the love of Jesus Christ! ‘He saw that there was no man…therefore his own arm brought salvation.” He knew that if he espoused the cause of our lost race, it would involve Him in the bitterest agony and woe. But He steadfastly set his face to the accomplishment of our redemption.” F.B.Meyer: Great verses through the Bible,p.270.

There is no escaping the Biblical principle that we will reap what we sow (8-11). You cannot sow dahlias in your allotment and expect onions to come up! Here are key lines in this passage: ”They have brought disaster upon themselves…they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds…They will be paid back…” (9b, 10, 11: You will notice that this works both ways: sow goodness and that’s what will grow; sow wickednessand… you know the rest!!) What is fascinating here is that even as the ship is going down, and they are responsible for it, the people remain on deck shaking their fists at God. ”Jerusalem’s on its last legs. Judah is soon down for the count. Everything people say and do is at cross – purposes with GOD, a slap in my face. Brazen in their depravity, they flout their sins like degenerate Sodom. Doom to their eternal souls! They’ve made their bed; now they’ll sleep in it.” The Message. On Good Friday I took part in a small march of witness in our village, as we carried the cross up the High Street. Someone said to me afterwards that they could see the derision and even anger in some facial expressions. Whilst we are not the judges of what is happening in anyone’s hearts, it is certainly true that scorn and hatred can be writ large on people’s faces (9).

Note the promise to ”the righteous” (10). Even when everything is crumbling around us, let us not lose heart and just blend in with the crowd because it’s easier. We should continue to walk in God’s ways. We will not regret it if we do.

Prayer: I acknowledge, Lord, the feebleness of anything I try to rely on apart from you. It will not hold me. Forgive me if I ever, even for a moment, try to live on substitutes.

 Isaiah 2: 6 -22

Someone pointed out that in chapter 2 Isaiah begins by describing the ”ideal” (1-5), but then goes on to talk about the ”reality” of the situation. The people of Judah were not walking ”in the light of the LORD” (5) but clasping ”hands with pagans” (6). In other words, they were living as worldly people and not as godly. The challenge is to live godly lives in a godless world; to seek the ideal in the midst of imperfect reality (Matt.5:48).

So this was the ”reality” Isaiah faced: ”GOD, you’ve walked out on your family Jacob because their world is full of hokey religion, Philistine witchcraft, and pagan hocus-pocus, a world rolling in wealth, Stuffed with things, no end to its machines and gadgets, And gods – gods of all sorts and sizes. These people make their own gods and worship what they make. A degenerate race, facedown in the gutter.” The Message.

The key message in these verses is that a day of judgment is coming. It will be a day when the arrogance and pride of men is humbled. It will be a terrible day. People will try to hide from God’s ”dazzling presence’’ (10, 19 and 21) The Message, but they will be unable to do so. ”The LORD alone will be exalted in that day” (11b, 17b). That, of course, is how it should be in this day. True life is found now in worshipping God. (”Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” The Westminster Shorter Catechism. ) This is what we were made for. (‘It’s GOD alone at front-and-center on the Day we’re talking about…” is how The Message puts it.) ”Pride is the attitude in man that leads him to exalt himself and put himself in the place of God; it is this attitude which leads a man to create his own ”gods” – idols – rather than worship the true God who created him! All manifestations of human pride will be brought low by God.” Tom Hale: The applied Old Testament Commentary, p.995. By the way, all the things mentioned in (13-16) are poetic representations of human pride. This comes across clearly in The Message: ”People with a big head are headed for a fall, pretentious egos brought down a peg, It’s GOD alone at front-and-center on the Day we’re talking about, The Day that GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies is matched against all big-talking rivals, against all swaggering big names; Against all giant sequoias hugely towering, and against the expansive chestnut; Against Kilimanjaro and Annapurna, against the ranges of Alps and Andes; Against every soaring skyscraper, against all proud obelisks and statues; Against ocean-going luxury liners, against elegant three-masted schooners. The swelled big heads will be punctured bladders, the pretentious egos brought down to earth, Leaving God alone at front-and-center on the Day we’re talking about.”

People trust in all manner of things:

• Occultic/superstitious things (6);
• Material things and wealth and trade (7a and 16a);
• Military strength and fortifications (7b and 15);
• gods of their own making (8 and 20);
• Pleasure and leisure (16);
• Man himself (22)

But you can only properly prepare for ‘the Day of the Lord’ if you abandon all these ‘idols’ (for that is what they are) and trust solely in God.

One final thought: a day of judgment is coming. But even in this life there can be ‘mini’ days of judgment on the way to the big one. Arrogance and pride so often get dealt with here and now. There can be an abandoning by God even while we live in the world (6; see also Rom.1: 18-32.)

Prayer: Help me Lord to trust you only.

Isaiah 2:1-5

I want to show immediately that there is a vital connection between verses 1 and 5. When God causes us to see a truth we then need to live ”in the light” of it, or rather ”in the light of the LORD” who gave it, and who is Himself light. Yesterday morning, in a church service, I believe God spoke to me clearly. It was a powerful and memorable moment. I now need to live in the light of what He showed me, and I’m pretty sure that at times it will be a fight to do so. The enemy of our souls would much prefer to consign us to the shadow lands.

Isaiah’s ‘vision’ had to do with ”the last days”. These are the days of the Messiah. They were inaugurated at the first coming of Christ and will be fulfilled finally at His second appearing. There are things here that are being fulfilled currently in the church, but there are other matters that probably will not be totally realised until the very end of time, and even after the return of Jesus to the earth. Here are at least five truths to ”walk in the light of”:

• God will ‘elevate’ the church (2): He is building his church as a city on a hill so that it cannot be hidden. He doesn’t want to keep His work ‘under wraps’ but on display.

• God will make His church a truly international community (2c, 3a): ”…all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come…” The church will draw in men and women, boys and girls from all over the world, and so the Lord’s original plan to bless all peoples through Abraham and his descendants will come to pass (Gen.12:1-3). ”All nations will river toward it, people from all over set out for it.” The Message.

• God will cause His church to be attractive and magnetic (3b): This is not about our publicity saying, ”Come ” (although there is admittedly a place for that.) This refers to such a movement of God that people are saying to each other: ”Come, let us go up…’ This is about men fishing for men and catching men. They are saying to each other: ”He’ll show us the way he works so we can live the way we’re made.” The Message.

• The church is meant to get the Word of God out (3c). We are not meant to keep it locked up within our tight little Christian community. This wonderful prophecy (also found in Micah 4:1-5) shows an inflowing of people but also an outflowing of God’s Word.

• God will one day establish world peace (4): He will actually do this. We can and should work for peace and we will be blessed if we are peace makers (Matt.5:9), but only the Lord will be able to usher in an era of world peace. Even listening to the news today we are reminded of how difficult it is for people to resolve conflicts, and that we live with ”wars and rumours of wars’’ (Matt.24:6) as the background noise of life. But if today’s headlines distress you, remember what God will do in just a little while. Verse 4 is ”on a block of granite outside the United Nations headquarters in New York. It’s a pity that they didn’t quote the whole verse, for it starts, ‘He shall judge among the nations…’ Without God to judge between the nations, there is no way that anyone will ever manage to complete the second half of the verse.” J.D. Pawson: Unlocking the Bible, p.499.

So, as we read this passage, let’s be clear about what God will do and what we are called to do: a.) He will build His international church with ‘many’. We can expect great church growth across the world; b.)He will ensure that people flow in and the Word goes out; c.)He will bring in world peace;

We are to walk in the light of all He shows us. Let’s play our part; He will surely play His.

Prayer: Thank you Lord that we, your people, get to be workers together with you. But let me always be clear about my role and never confuse it with yours.

Isaiah 1:10-20

”…whoever divided Isaiah into chapters did a rather interesting thing, though I doubt whether it was deliberate. They divided the book into 66 chapters, the same number as the books of the Bible. Furthermore, they divided Isaiah into two distinct parts of 39 chapters and 27 chapters. It just happens that the Old Testament has 39 books and the New Testament 27. Also, the message of the first 39 chapters summarizes the message of the Old Testament, and the message of the last 27 chapters summarizes exactly the message of the New Testament! The second part of Isaiah (i.e. chapter 40) begins with the voice crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord’ – words later used by John the Baptist. It moves on to a servant of the Lord who is anointed by the Holy Spirit, dies for the sins of his people, and is raised and exalted after his death. It then moves on to the declaration that ‘You shall be my witnesses to the ends of the earth’, and it finishes up with God saying, ‘I am making all things new. I create a new heaven and a new earth.’ In other words, if somebody took the whole Bible and squeezed it into one book, you’d finish up with the prophecy of Isaiah. It is the Bible in miniature.” J.D.Pawson:’Unlocking the Bible’, pp.497,498

Well, continuing to work through chapter 1, you see how in (10-14) Isaiah addresses the people of Judah as if they themselves were the wicked inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah (see also 9). God has no pleasure in lavish sacrifices and numerous meetings if they are empty rituals, without heart, and do not positively affect lives (1 Sam.15:22; Prov.15:8; 21:27). ”Quit your worship charades. I can’t stand your trivial religious games: Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings – I can’t stand one more! Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them! You’ve worn me out! I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion, while you go right on sinning.” The Message. There is always a possibility that God may hate some of the services we love. We congratulate ourselves on ‘a really blessed time’, but did it bless the Lord? That’s the key question.

God will not listen to our prayers if we cherish sin (15; Ps.66:18). He is not interested in mere words. He looks for the fruit of repentance (16, 17; Mt.3:8; Lk.19:8,9). ”Go home and wash up. Clean up your act. Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings so I don’t have to look at them any longer. Say no to wrong. Learn to do good. Work for justice. Help the down-and-out. Stand up for the homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless.” The Message.

These words are followed by a beautiful promise (18-20). No matter how much God hates their sin, if they are truly repentant (willing and obedient) their sins will be washed away as if they had never existed. But if they persist in their sins they will be punished. So, through Isaiah, ‘the evangelical prophet’, the Lord offers them the same choice He put to their ancestors: blessings or curses, life or death (Lev.26:3-39; Deut.30:15-20). Still today we must choose. These options remain before us. Will we turn to Christ or remain turned away from Him? We too can know the slate wiped clean and a fresh start. But there has to be a willingness to turn to the Lord.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for the beauty and the wonder of the total forgiveness you offer through Jesus. I stand amazed.