When we concluded our last study session we found Isaiah predicting invasion, defeat, and captivity. He picks up there by saying "in that day" when he begins today's text, in order to link today's text with our last segment, for a day is coming when a remnant will return and rebuild. After that happens, never again will the people fall into pagan idolatry.
"In that day the Lord Almighty will be a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath for the remnant of His people. He will be a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment, a source of strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate." (Isaiah 28:5-6) The Lord promises provision and strength to those who are His.
But what about those who reject Him? What about those who scoff at the idea of following His holy laws? What about those who don't want to know Him and don't want to hear anything about Him? There are those type of people in all walks of life, and Isaiah knows that there is corruption among people of every class in his society: from peasants all the way up to prophets, kings, and priests.
"And these also stagger from wine and reel from beer: Priests and prophets stagger from beer and are befuddled with wine; they reel from beer, they stagger when seeing visions, they stumble when rendering decisions. All the tables are covered with vomit and there is not a spot without filth." (Isaiah 28:7-8) Isaiah uses graphic and stomach-turning words to describe the deplorable spiritual condition of those who are supposed to be setting a godly example for the nation. They are living lives of excess and debauchery. They render decisions without seeking counsel from the Lord. They give advice that isn't based on true visions from the Lord; it is based on their own drunken dreams and hallucinations.
They scorn the true word of God. They make fun of Isaiah for trying to get them back to godly principles. They say, "Who is it he is trying to teach? To whom is he explaining his message? To children weaned from their milk, to those just taken from the breast? For it is: Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there." (Isaiah 28:9-10) They are saying something like, "Why does he talk down to us as if we are children? Why does he keep expounding on the commandments and the law as if we have never heard these things before? We are tired of him pointing out where he thinks we are in error. Are we not the descendants of Jacob? Do we not have the ten commandments since many generations past? Have we not had the law for centuries? Why then is this man talking to us like he's teaching the alphabet to a group of kindergarteners? Away with him! We want him out of our faces and out of earshot."
If Isaiah is teaching them the basics as if they are little children, it is because they are acting like little children who have never been taught. They are behaving like people who don't know the commandments and the law. They are behaving like those who have never heard of the Lord and who don't know what He requires for holy living. Isaiah is getting back to the basics because they have strayed so far from the truth that they need a refresher course. If they would stop and listen and take his words to heart, and if they would humbly allow the Holy Spirit to minister to them, these words would bring about their repentance. These words would bring about their salvation.
But since so many have rejected the word of God for so long now, judgment will not be turned away. The threatened invasion will come. Thousands will be captured by the enemy and carried to foreign lands. The Lord makes that clear in the final portion of text we will look at today. "Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues God will speak to this people." (Isaiah 28:11)
By the time Israel falls to Assyria and by the time Judah falls to the Neo-Babylonian Empire, a great number of the people will have fallen into idolatry. Idolatry is already rampant in Israel in Isaiah's day and it's only because a godly king sits on the throne of Judah is there less public idolatry there in Isaiah's lifetime. Many people will be dispersed to lands filled with idols, where they don't know the language, where they will think back upon the blessings of the promised lands and the missteps they took that led them to lose it.
But a remnant will survive and return. The Lord has made that clear in today's passage. He will never break the promise He made: "This is what the Lord says, He who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar---the Lord Almighty is His name: 'Only if these decrees vanish from My sight,' declares the Lord, 'will Israel ever cease being a nation before Me.'" (Jeremiah 31:35-36)
No decree of the Lord can be undone. Just as the universe He created does what He created it to do without ceasing, the nation of Israel will never disappear from His sight. There have been times when Israel was overcome by enemy nations and was subject to them. There have been times when Israel was not a sovereign nation in the world. But the Lord never intended for Israel to disappear as a sovereign nation forever. He allowed other nations to gain control for a time, according to His purposes, but it was always His intention to reinstate Israel as a nation and to have Israel continue as a nation forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment