The Book Of Isaiah. Day 127, Spiritual Blindness And Spiritual Illiteracy

In our last study session we found the Lord promising a day in which He will judge every nation that has persecuted His people. But that day is not yet, for in Isaiah's time many things have already gone spiritually wrong in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. It will not be long before Israel falls to the Assyrian Empire due to rampant idolatry. Judah will last approximately 130 years longer than Israel, but due to spiritual decline it too will fall to an enemy: the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

In today's text the Lord talks about the spiritual blindness and the spiritual illiteracy of many of the people of Isaiah's era.

"Be stunned and amazed, blind yourselves and be sightless; be drunk, but not from wine, stagger, but not from beer." (Isaiah 29:9) This blindness is willful. Just as in our own day people like to turn a blind eye to the laws of God so they won't have to acknowledge how they've transgressed His laws, a lot of the people of Isaiah's day are doing the same thing. 

Because the people want to be blind to their sin, the Lord says something like, "Have it your way, then." He will allow them to do as they wish for a season. "The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep: He has sealed your eyes (the prophets); He has covered your heads (the seers)." (Isaiah 29:10) It's not that the Lord wants people to ignore their sins and it's not that He prevents anyone from repenting. It's that a number of the people have ignored the words of the true prophets for so long that, as discipline, the Lord has few words to say to them through the true prophets. 

It's often easier to get someone's attention with silence than with words, isn't it? Have you ever had anyone repeatedly ignore your warnings or your complaints about a particular situation? Have you ever noticed that, if you go silent, they suddenly pay attention to you and start asking what's wrong? The Lord has sent message after message to His people and a lot of them have refused to hear the prophets. He will have to use silence to get their attention; then they will want to hear Him.

The people's refusal to heed the word of God and obey it has rendered their hearts hard. They have ignored His words for so long that when they hear a true message from Him, it's difficult for them to recognize it as the word of God. They've refused to heed their consciences for so long that even when they read the word of God it doesn't immediately have an impact on them because they have become spiritually illiterate. "For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, 'Read this, please,' they will answer, 'I can't; it is sealed.' Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, 'Read this, please,' they will answer, 'I do not know how to read.'" (Isaiah 29:11-12)

It is a dangerous business to harden our hearts and our consciences against the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit reveals to us our shortcomings. The Holy Spirit opens the Scriptures to us. If we repeatedly harden our hearts against what He has to say to us, we may find ourselves looking as confusedly at a passage of Scripture as one who cannot read at all. And if we show the passage to someone who is as hard-hearted as we are, they will be unable to explain it to us. This is the spiritual condition of a great number of the people of Isaiah's day: they have become spiritually illiterate. 

That doesn't mean all is lost! They can repent and turn back to the Lord. They can submit themselves to the teaching of the Holy Spirit. They can pray and they can meditate over the Scriptures. The Lord never refuses to help anyone who sincerely wants to know Him and who wants to understand what He has to say to mankind. The problem is that a lot of the people of Isaiah's time do not want to do those things. That is why we conclude today's study with these words of the Lord. "The Lord says: 'These people come near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.'" (Isaiah 29:13a) 

They are talking the talk but not walking the walk. Outwardly they are using religious phrases and making a show of being children of God but it's all talk. The Lord sees into their hearts and knows that things are not as they should be in their hearts. Thankfully, this won't be their permanent condition, but as we continue on through the books of the prophets we learn that their spiritual condition gets worse before it gets better.

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 126, Enemies Vanquished

In yesterday's portion of Chapter 29 the prophet Isaiah predicted a siege against Jerusalem. 

Jerusalem has been under siege a number of times. For example, the Assyrian army came up to encamp against it and besiege it but the Lord delivered the city in a miraculous way. We studied this event in our study of the kings and we will take a fresh look at it later in the book of Isaiah. Also as we learned in our study of the kings, after the Neo-Babylonian Empire overthrew the Assyria Empire, the Neo-Babylonian army also besieged the city---and this time the Lord allowed the city to fall to the enemy. Later in Jerusalem's history the Roman army, for another example, laid siege to and overtook the city. We do not know which specific siege Isaiah had in mind or whether he had all of them in mind, although many scholars believe he was looking at the imminent threat of Assyria when he spoke the words of our chapter.

The Lord will supernaturally thwart the plans of the Assyrian army. He will also bring down every empire that ever has or ever will threaten the existence of Israel as a nation. In today's text the prophet foresees an end to all opposition to Israel.

"But your many enemies will become like fine dust, the ruthless hordes like blown chaff. Suddenly, in an instant, the Lord Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire." (Isaiah 29:5-6) 

Although the Lord struck dead, overnight, many thousands of soldiers of the Assyrian army, I don't believe that's the event that is in view here. I think that particular event was an example of how mightily He fights on the side of those who are faithful to Him (for when He struck down the Assyrians the people of Jerusalem and Judah were calling upon Him for help), but I believe the words of verses 5-6 are intended for the end times when, before the Messiah comes to reign forever, the Lord puts an end to all nations that persecute His people Israel.

More than one nation is is view here. Although the Lord has already put an end to several nations that were enemies of Israel in the past, I think Isaiah's words regard events that take place in the book of Revelation when prejudice against Israel will reach an all-time high in the corrupt world government of that era. I think this prophecy is about a final end to all prejudice against the Jews and an end of all persecution of them.

"Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel, that attack her and her fortress and besiege her, will be as it is with a dream, with a vision in the night---as when a hungry person dreams of eating, but awakens hungry still; as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking, but awakens faint and thirsty still. So will it be with the hordes of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion." (Isaiah 29:7-8) Isaiah uses the names of  "Ariel" and "Mount Zion" synonymously with "Jerusalem". 

In the book of Revelation in the end times we will find a coalition of nations joining together to fight against the Lord, to fight against Israel, and to fight against those who have come to faith in the Lord during the Great Tribulation. But the Lord Jesus Christ (in an event often referred to as the "Second Coming of Christ") comes in person to fight against these enemies and He supernaturally destroys them before He sets up His eternal kingdom on earth, with His capital being at Jerusalem. When that takes place, the memory of Israel's enemies will be like the faint memory of a dream. The old enemies will be no more. No new enemies will arise. If anyone should think back on the past and the various eras in which Israel was opposed by enemies, it will be like speaking of a time so far gone that it will be like speaking of a dream a person might have had far back in childhood. Times will be so peaceful and joyous that they will somehow, through the Lord's infinite grace and mercy, erase the sting of all past hurts.

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 125, A Prophecy Regarding A Siege Of Jerusalem

As we begin Chapter 29 we find the prophet speaking a prophecy against the city of David but we also find him speaking a prophecy of future glory for that city---and of defeat of Israel's enemies.

We know from our previous study of the Old Testament that the forces of the Assyrian army will come to lay siege to Jerusalem. We know that later on the Neo-Babylonian army will come and lay siege to Jerusalem. Isaiah foresees great troubles coming against the city, some in the nearer future and some in the farther off future. 

"Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David settled!" (Isaiah 29:1a) I don't believe we have ever seen Jerusalem referred to as "Ariel" before and scholars are divided in their opinions as to what the name means. Depending on the proper translation, it either means "lion of God" or "altar hearth of God". 

Either translation---or both---is appropriate. Jacob spoke of his son Judah as a lion's whelp back in the book of Genesis and he prophesied that the tribe of Judah would become the royal line of Israel, stating that the scepter would not depart from Judah until the One to whom it belongs comes. This is generally interpreted to be a reference to the eternal King of kings who is of the direct line of David, of the royal line of Judah. The Lord Jesus Christ is often referred to as "the lion of the tribe of Judah", for He fulfills the prophecies regarding the lineage of the Messiah and someday He will take up the scepter and reign from David's throne forever. So it is clear that Jerusalem is the city that Isaiah calls "Ariel" since it is the city where David settled and it is the royal city of the kingdom of Judah and it will be the capital of the Messiah.

If "Ariel" is also intended to represent the "altar hearth of God" then it may be a reference to the fact that the Lord's temple was in Jerusalem and that the only altar authorized by God was there. This also backs up our belief that Isaiah can be talking about no other city than Jerusalem. 

What will happen there? While life appears to be going on as usual, disaster will strike. "Add year to year and let your cycle of festivals go on. Yet I will besiege Ariel; she will mourn and lament, she will be to me like an altar hearth." (Isaiah 29:1b-2) 

In this passage the mention of an altar hearth indicates burning and ashes, whether literally or figuratively or both. It warns of destruction. It speaks of the useless works of any who eschew God and any who worship idols. As the Lord will say later in the book of Isaiah, the one who bows at the altar of a false god is like one who "feeds on ashes". (Isaiah 44:20) Just as ashes cannot nourish the body and bring health to it, a life lived apart from God cannot nourish the soul or save it.

"I will encamp against you on all sides; I will encircle you with towers and set up My siege works against you. Brought low, you will speak from the ground; your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth; out of the dust your speech will whisper." (Isaiah 29:3-4) The Lord speaks of these difficult circumstances as though He Himself is encircling the city and laying siege to it. Though He will use enemy armies to do it, this work is His. It will happen at His command to suit His purpose, and His purpose is to bring corrective discipline. Corrective discipline is not administered to destroy the one who has gone off course but to help them see the error of their ways, repent of the error, and get on the right track.

Time and time again in the Bible we find the Lord humbling those who are lifted up in pride, who feel they have no need of Him, who are behaving as if they are the lords of their own lives. But also, time and time again, we find Him blessing and lifting up those who are humble. In today's study we find Isaiah predicting some circumstances through which the Lord will humble the prideful and the idolatrous. In our next segment there is good news though! In time He will lift up Jerusalem again and He will destroy the enemies of His people.

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 124, The Lord's Timing And The Lord's Methods

Chapter 28 concludes with a metaphor that compares the work of the Lord to the work of a farmer. Just as there are seasons in the year for plowing, for planting, for growing and for harvesting, so also are there seasons in which the Lord must deal with people in different ways. Isaiah has been predicting a season in which the Lord will have to discipline the people. They have not borne godly fruit---indeed, many have forsaken the Lord altogether---and a time of hardship is coming. But this hardship is intended for their good, just as the things a farmer does for his crops are good. 

Isaiah speaks of the plowing and planting work of the farmer. "Listen and hear my voice; pay attention and hear what I say. When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually? Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil? When he has leveled the surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin? Does he not plant wheat in its place, barley in its plot, and spelt in its field? His God instructs him and teaches him the right way." (Isaiah 28:23-26) 

A farmer doesn't start plowing and keep plowing all season long; a time comes to plant. A farmer doesn't keep planting all season long; a time comes to stop planting and to start watering and tending the plants so they will grow. A farmer doesn't keep letting the plants grow until they overtake the land and become useless; he harvests at the proper time. The Lord operates in the same way. He knows when is the right time to deal with His people in the best way. He gives people time to repent, encouraging them by the Holy Spirit and by other people to repent, but there comes a point when corrective action must be taken if they do not repent. 

The Lord only uses as much corrective force as is necessary. A farmer who harvests his crops doesn't use undue force and destroy the products of his labor; neither is the Lord going to use undue force with the descendants of Jacob and destroy them as a people. Isaiah now speaks of the various ways in which a farmer harvests and processes the crops. "Caraway is not threshed with a sledge, nor is the wheel of a cart rolled over cumin; caraway is beaten out with a rod, and cumin with a stick. Grain must be ground to make bread; so one does not go on threshing it forever. The wheels of a threshing cart may be rolled over it, but one does not use horses to grind grain. This also comes from the Lord Almighty, whose plan is wonderful, whose wisdom is magnificent." (Isaiah 28:27-29)

The methods Isaiah says farmers do not use on particular types of grain are methods that would render the grain unusable. The Lord's purpose for correcting Isaiah's people is not to render them unusable, but usable. His purpose for allowing hardship is not to destroy them but to prevent them from destroying themselves with useless idolatry and sinful living. His purpose for discipline is not to cast them away from His presence but to draw them near to Him.

We all go through times of hardship in life. Sometimes they arrive because we have gotten off course and the Lord is using hardship to get us back on course. Sometimes we have not gotten off course but the Lord allows hardship for some other purpose, such as to help us build spiritual strength so we will be ready to confidently step ahead in faith for a wonderful opportunity He is going to send our way. Hardship is never fun, but if we have made the Lord the God of our lives we can rest assured that He doesn't allow anything in the lives of His children that He does not intend for our good. The hardship He is going to send upon Isaiah's people will not be fun but it is going to produce godly fruit and bring them back to Him. 

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 123, A Strange Work

Before we begin today's study I want to thank everyone for your patience while I was sick for the past five days and while I was unable to be online long enough to do the Bible study. I am feeling much better today.

Our text from Isaiah 28 regards work the Lord is going to perform which He refers to as "strange work" and as an "alien task". The reason this work feels strange and alien to Him is because it involves fighting against the descendants of Jacob. He is not fighting against the enemies of Israel and Judah; He is fighting against Israel and Judah.

"The Lord will rise up as He did at Mount Perazim, He will rouse Himself as in the Valley of Gibeon---to do His work, His strange work, and perform His task, His alien task." (Isaiah 28:21) Mount Perazim and the Valley of Gibeon are places where the Lord worked on behalf of the descendants of Jacob. These are places where He won great victories for them.

But now He is preparing to win a great victory against them. This is a victory for holiness. This is a victory for righteous living. In Isaiah's day a large number of the people of the northern kingdom of Israel have been living in idolatry for a very long time. In his nation of Judah the people have dabbled with idolatry off and on; some of their kings have been blatant idolaters, though the current king is not. The Lord fought on the side of the people while they were on His side but as more and more are fighting against Him, He will fight against them. But we must keep in mind that He does not intend to make a permanent end of them as a nation, never to rise again, as He intends to destroy some of the pagan nations around them. He will fight against them not to put an end to them but to heal them.

This fight is intended for discipline. The discipline will be as light or as harsh as it needs to be to turn them around, so He informs them through the prophet Isaiah that the severity of the discipline is up to them. "Now stop your mocking, or your chains will become heavier; the Lord, the Lord Almighty, has told me of the destruction decreed against the whole land." (Isaiah 28:22) 

The coming discipline is a done deal, for the Lord knows that's what it is going to take to cause the people to forsake their useless idols and turn back to him. Nothing short of enemy invasion and captivity is going to bring about repentance. But the sooner the people start turning back to Him, the lighter the yoke will be. The sooner the people start turning back to Him, the shorter the captivity will be. 

Later in the Bible, when we find the people turning back to Him and when we find them returning to rebuild the land, the Lord will fight on their side again against those who don't want them to rebuild. Enemies around them will attempt to prevent them from rises from the ashes but the Lord will enable them to rise. 

Sickness In Our Home

I'm sorry I've been absent from the Bible study for several days. I've been very sick since Thursday and now my husband has been sick since Saturday night.

We appreciate your prayers that we will soon be well. I hope to be back hopefully tomorrow.

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 122, A Prophecy Against The Land

In yesterday's text the Lord announced His intention to lay in Zion a "precious cornerstone". We talked about the way this passage is applied to the Lord Jesus Christ on the pages of the Bible. We talked about how the Lord gave Isaiah this message 700 years before the birth of Christ. As we look at today's text we see that before the advent of the "precious cornerstone" there will be an era of judgment against the land of Isaiah's people.

Earlier in our chapter we learned that even those who should be setting a godly example for the people---priests and prophets---were living lives of excess and debauchery. The Lord deplored their drunkenness and their refusal to follow and teach His holy laws. There are still faithful prophets in the land, such as Isaiah, but a large number of the people were choosing to believe the false words of unfaithful prophets who were assuring them that Jerusalem would never fall. A lot of people chose to believe these lies because they wanted to believe them; if they believed the words of the true prophets they would have to change their ways.

In Isaiah's day the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel is imminent. But Isaiah's birthplace, which is the southern kingdom of Judah, will endure for over a century after the fall of Israel. During the majority of Isaiah's ministry there was a godly king on the throne of Judah and a spiritual revival took place that lengthened the time it took for the people of Judah to fall into as much abject idolatry as the people of Israel. But they will fall spiritually and, as a result, they will fall as a nation.

The Lord spoke earlier in our chapter about how a lot of the people of Judah have already made a "covenant with death" because they have believed lies. A fierce destruction will come that will reveal those lies for what they are, so He says, "Hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place. Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the realm of the dead will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it. As often as it comes it will carry you away; morning after morning, by day and by night, it will sweep through. The understanding of this message will bring sheer terror." (Isaiah 28:17b-19)

When the Lord spoke of the downfall of Israel to the Assyrian Empire, He spoke of the invasion and captivity in terms related to natural disasters. He used the imagery of severe storms to describe how the Assyrian army would storm into the nation, causing the fall of its capital city of Samaria, and seizing and deporting thousands of citizens. The Lord uses similar imagery in today's text when He talks about how Judah will fall to the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Babylon took all but the poorest of the land captive but this was done in three major stages, which may be why in our passage above the Lord says, "As often as it comes it will carry you away."

No rest or relief will be had in those days, when Judah is under constant threat by the enemy. The Lord uses the metaphor of someone unable to get comfortable in bed when He talks about that time. "The bed is too short to stretch out on, the blanket too narrow to stretch out on, the blanket too narrow to wrap around you." (Isaiah 28:20) Nothing in which the people placed their trust will be able to help them. They were depending on the wrong people (sinful priests, false prophets) to guide them. They were calling upon the wrong powers (false gods) to protect them against the enemy. 

Living in sin is a hard life. Oh, there is no doubt that there is pleasure in sin but those pleasures only last for a season. (Hebrews 11:25) We can have most anything we want in this life---anything that satisfies the carnal side of our nature---but a price must be paid for it. There will be consequences. As King Solomon, who was the wisest man who ever lived with the exception of the Lord Jesus Christ, said: "The way of a transgressor is hard." (Proverbs 13:15) We may think we are living it up when we are living in sin, but we are harming ourselves and we are harming those around us. There are natural consequences for sin (doing wrong will cause problems for us in this world when we break moral and governmental laws) and there is judgment for sin (from the hand of a holy God). 

It is very uncomfortable when we realize we are lost in our sins. I tossed and turned for many a night when I realized I was lost in my sins. The distractions of the daytime didn't bring me any peace of mind either. Night by night and morning by morning I was plagued with this terrifying knowledge. When we continue with our chapter in our next study session we will find the Lord urging the people to use this knowledge for their good: to repent and stop going down the wrong path. They can turn around and avoid a great deal of sorrow.