Isaiah 2:6-4:6
The book of Isaiah is so essential to our grasp of divine viewpoint. We live in a culture that is saturated with humanism. I will call it HVP, or Human View Point. HVP blinds us to many of the realities around us, especially to what God is doing for His glory in redemptive history, and what He will assuredly do in the future.
And, in speaking of this tendency to be lost in the fog (high beams) of humanism, Donald Grey Barnhouse (one of the most effective Bible teachers of the 20ᵗʰ C) said, figuratively speaking, in our thought of God, “The mind of man has a kind of steel beam in it, when man is up, God is down, and when God is up, man is down.”
How true that is! The book of Isaiah has God up, and man down. For in the prophecies of Isaiah, God’s majesty bursts forth in His works of Creation, Providence, Redemption, Restoration, and yes, in Judgment also (Is 2:10).
We are going to see this morning that God’s judgments are not solely the execution of His justice, His judgments in history are necessary in order to purify a people for His own possession, and to prepare the earth for His Glorious Kingdom.
The book of Isaiah was written approximately 2700 years ago. I can just hear a skeptic saying, “That sure was a long time ago, how can it be relevant to me?” Dear friends, your connection today with Isaiah’s original readers is a far closer link than you might think. The reason why is that those individuals had to come to terms with the same God that you and I do. And, although world empires have come and gone since then, God has not changed one iota.
Therefore, you and I need to grow in our knowledge of God in precisely the same areas as they did. You’ll see in the sermon outline this morning that our chapters in Isaiah address your own needed growth in the areas of reverence, trust, discernment, and hope. None of these four virtues are natural to us.
I think you would heartily agree that when we are under the sound of Scripture, God intends that we apply ourselves to grow in our knowledge of Him and His works, ways, commands, and promises, that we might please Him and walk faithfully/obediently with Him.
We don’t just ‘check a sermon box’ when we hear His Word proclaimed. God intends to transform you by His Word, and that requires a response from you of faith and obedience. Thus, I am urging you to regard the intake of the Word of God today as vital to your progress in knowing your Lord.
- Deepening your REVERENCE for the God who is wrathful toward sin (2:6-22). Do you fear God? The fear of God must be learned (WOG). Vv. 6-11 – God has removed His favor from His rebellious people (‘abandoned’ v. 6; ‘do not forgive’ v. 9). Notice what they are trusting in: money, vehicles (horses), and idols (vv. 7-8). And, now they are being brought very low, abased, so that God alone will be exalted in that day (v. 11). God’s Day of Reckoning (the Day of the Lord, extreme wrath) is when He inserts Himself into a situation in mighty decisive judgment (providentially, and then supernaturally, Red Sea, Glorious Return).
Vv. 12-18 – God will radically abase the proud and their achievements. Vv. 19-22 – Where do moles live? How about bats? What a pathetic image this paints: of idolaters fleeing the invading armies by squeezing into caves, and holes in the ground, still clutching their idols (Rev 6). Then, realizing their images of gold and silver can do nothing for them as they seek to flee from the terrors. So, when the invaders began killing the inhabitants of Judah, they threw away like trash the gold and silver idols they once prized (African predators). Idolatry is alluring because it gives people a feeling of power and control, as if the devotee is really managing the source of supply. (EX. Choco Indians; Canaanites.) Vv. 21-22 – The terror of God’s wrath: NT Scriptures speak of God’s wrath to come (1 Thess 1:10). This means the full revelation of God’s nature at the second coming of Christ. God’s judgments within history are dwarfed by comparison to what lies ahead. The destruction of the world by water in the Genesis flood, and the incineration of Sodom and Gomora by burning sulfur are but a prefiguring of the wrath to come. What does that mean for you and me? Day by day God expects true believers to regard the temporal judgments happening around you as but a meager part of the wrath He will demonstrate at the second coming of Christ—fire, vengeance, retribution (2 Thess 1:5-10). Scripture says that God is a consuming fire toward wickedness (Heb 12:28-29). In eternal judgment the impenitent will experience complete loss: every plan shattered, all meaningful connections gone, no hope of recovery, only endless wreckage. That is the fearful eternal destiny of the impenitent. What brings about this devastation? It is God’s power released against sinners. Earthly sources of destruction such as atomic bombs, volcanoes, and tsunamis pale in comparison to God’s power released in judgment.
Divine wrath is God’s growing passionate hostility pent up now in His long suffering but released in an outburst of endless power. At the second coming, the unsaved will begin to experience an unending stream of anger that will pour forth upon them continually from the inner being of God for all eternity. His justice and holiness will be satisfied and vindicated (Rom 2:2-9). His wrath will be perpetual, unrelenting without interruption. God will demonstrate His holy hatred of sin throughout eternity. It will stream forth from His heavenly throne of justice (Dan 7:10). Do we really understand what our Savior accomplished in His wrath-bearing for believers? For those who know Christ, God sits upon a throne of grace.
- Strengthening your TRUST in an all-wise God who takes away in order to give (3:1-15). (In God’s world, sin causes confusion. EX. Sow thorns). Chapter 3 is a study in disintegration through scarcity of food, clothes, water, and leadership. This prophecy of Isaiah is beginning to be fulfilled by the Assyrian invasion, but, will be fulfilled fully during the Babylonian invasion which destroys Jerusalem and the Temple, and caries away Judah into exile in Babylon. Vv. 1-3 - They trusted men too much, God is going to take away any semblance of good government. Soldiers, leaders, judges, skilled workers will all be taken away. Those vocations and areas of calling are essential to security and to a working infrastructure, but God is removing them. Their society is going to be brought to the brink of total collapse.
Vv. 4-5 – Nebuchadnezzar has removed the most able citizens. Things are upside down, when God’s authority in a culture is not honored, it is only a matter of time before anarchy or totalitarianism rushes into the vacuum (distortion). Vv. 6-7 - Not even the most ambitious person remaining has any desire to rule over a situation of anarchy, and “a heap of ruins.”
Vv. 8-9 - This judgment of utter defeatism is traced back to the bravado, arrogance, hubris of their ‘free-thinking’ and moral daring (‘they display their sin like Sodom’, 3:9; ‘they don’t conceal it’). This is an affront to God who is the only source of glory (they will be stripped of everything to believe in). God traces this disaster to their blatant, insolent rebellion against Him (v. 9).
Vv. 10-12 – Two paths; two destinies—how infinitely better it is to walk righteously. Here the national leadership is depicted as walking in the counsel of the wicked. God energizes moral cause and effect—sowing and reaping (‘Payday someday’). These aristocrats may have escaped the justice of human courts for their lawless deeds of oppression, but they will not escape God’s justice. Vv. 13-15 – Their leaders should have been protectors; but they were users, oppressors. God will avenge Himself on those who worship their own luxury and who ‘grind the face of the poor’. ‘PM’ means first servant, but these leaders were not servants, but were materialistic, self-centered, opportunistic, and oppressive. Application: In Philippians chapter 3 we are told that the key to life is the loss we willingly incur in order to gain Christ. Christ wants His people to be able to answer this question in the affirmative. Do you believe enough in the glory of God that you are convinced it will make you happy forever? That is only possible if a person stops valuing idols.
God’s work is both terrible and beautiful. His sometimes, violent confrontation of sin stands within a larger context of grace. Everything is moving toward the Day of the Lord. He is going to save His people. God knows how to enrich His people through loss. You cannot lose by giving up what you cannot keep. God often takes away things that He might give us something far better. The cross of Christ applied to your life is about loss for the sake of gain. To what are you clinging? (See Jeremiah 13:11.) You must build yourself up on your most holy faith (Jude 20). Do you have joy in your dependency upon God? Your trust honors His trustworthiness. (EX. TMU, Noah and ego props.)
- Growing in your spiritual DISCERNMENT from the God who destroys pride (3:16-4:1).
Vv. 16-23 – Here Isaiah mercilessly targets the triviality and vanity of the Judean women. They have used their finery, immodest dress, flirtatious manners, and ornamentation to fuel lust—seeking to draw away the husbands of others.
Their arrogance has caused them to ‘sell their souls’ to the false god of luxury. And now the prophet spells out the consequences. This prophecy depicts what will happen when their Babylonian captors remove their jewelry and wardrobes. Tragedy has abruptly overtaken them.
Vv. 24-4:1 – In these verses we see the horror of what were, fashionable urban women, now, stripped naked, are being pulled by a rope. They crouch in a corner mourning; their men are dying in battle. Some have been branded by their captors to serve as slaves. All of their earthly possessions are gone. In that horrific state, they seek to minister to their reproach by competing to find a husband (4:1)–in their desperation, they offer to be self-supporting!
Let us draw from this sorrowful vision of dejection a timeless truth. When, women cultivate beauty for self, for vain glory, for beauty sake (to allure), they reflect moral decay. They detract from the glory of God. So rather than emphasizing outward appearance, God calls them in Scripture to cultivate inward beauty through Christian character (1 Tim 2:9-10; 1 Pet 3:3-4).
When we cultivate humility, God advances us (1 Pet 5:6-7). Self-glorification actually empties us. Judah had to be reduced to helplessness so that she would perceive that she needed to be restored by God’s unmerited grace.
Pride in the world (in what it values) exalts itself against God. Self-exaltation is degrading. Our problem is we think God’s glory and our joy are not compatible. Only through the work of the cross do we come to understand that His glory and our joy reside together in the depths of God’s heart—the Person and work of Christ are proof that this is so. Every true believer affirms that.
Those who (who’s heart is in this world) (who still love this present world), see the God’s glory as a threat. If that is true of you, you need to repent of that, (need a new heart) for God has bound up His glory in the joy of His people.
- Feeding your HOPE in the God who fully gives Himself to those He redeems (4:2-6).
Vv. 2-3 – In these verses, splendor breaks through! The lengthy indictment is followed by the promise of restoration—the promise of great comfort after stinging judgment. Some would survive the terrible blow (a remnant). This prophecy looks to the future Great Tribulation in which Israel will be greatly humbled in order to be brought into boundless millennial blessing. The ‘Branch’ (fruitful) will shoot our new abundant growth; Israel will be reborn.
Vv. 4-6 – Only those sanctified by the new birth and transformed to reflect Christ’s holiness will be ‘enrolled’ in this great assembly. The cleansing here stands in radical contrast to the impurity described in chapter 3. The City is purged of idolatry and wickedness by the fires of judgment. Then, and only then will God’s glorious presence be granted to Israel (the final fulfillment of the covenant plan for Israel). The messianic age will have Israel feel to it (see Ezekiel 40-48). God’s glory will not be only in a portion of the city (the sanctuary), but over the entire site. And the redeemed will be sheltered in the Lord’s presence forever.
Conclusion: our passage this morning is hitting us with unblinking realism about all false hopes. There is a clear application. God is saying to us relocate your happiness in the future. Set your affection on things above (Col 3:1). Biblical hope understands that there is great power in trusting God’s promises about the future; it means trusting in a world that does not exist yet. If you won’t, you will be devastated when all the idols of human pride are trashed.
Jesus preached the kingdom of God; that heaven rules. The Day of the Lord is coming to destroy every proud barrier to true joy. God alone will be exalted in that day (2:11). To delight in God’s glory is to be enthralled with God. That is the description of a truly free person. All else is contaminated with idolatry.