Isaiah 29
OGCEXAMINATION Chapter S TWENTY-EIGHT THROUGH TWENTY-NINE
DEFINITION
(Define the following words or phrases as they were discussed in the comments.)
fat valley
a mighty and strong one
residue
precept upon precept
men of strange lips
covenant with death
fitches
Ariel
familiar spirit out of the ground
hungry man dreameth
him that is not learned
fruitful field esteemed as forest
MEMORIZATION
And the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people _____ nigh unto me, and with their _____ and with their ______ do ______ me, but have _____ their ______ far from me, and their ______ of me is a commandment of _____ which hath been ______ them; therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a _____ work among this people, even a marvellous work and a ______; and the _____ of their wise men shall perish, and the ______ of their prudent men shall be hid. (Isaiah 29:13-14)
EXPLANATION
Explain the predicament Judah was in as a result of the drunkenness of its priests and prophets (Isaiah 28:1-8).
Explain the people’s question, Whom will he teach knowledge? and whom will he make to understand the message? them that are weaned. ? Isaiah 28:9
Explain why and when God’s people would sanctify God’s name upon seeing His children. (Isaiah 29:23)
APPLICATION
(In its context every scripture has one meaningthe author’s intended meaning. How may the following be applied in the believer’s life?)
How may Isaiah’s warning to the immature, unteachable people of his day be applied to the Corinthian church of the New Testament and to the church today? (Isaiah 28:9-13)
What lesson will be learned by Judah in its attempt to make lies its refuge and hide itself under falsehood and what application may be made to national politics today? (Isaiah 28:14-22)
How did the Lord pour out upon the people a spirit of deep sleep, and how may this whole discussion of their refusal to know God’s will be applied today? (Isaiah 29:9-16)
SPECIAL STUDY
UNBELIEF IS DELIBERATE by Paul T. Butler INTRODUCTION
First of all you must understand this, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions and saying, -Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation.-’ They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago, and an earth formed out of water and by means of water, through which the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 2 Peter 3:3-6
I.
Unbelief Almost Incomprehensible
A.
Faced by what seems so logical and reasonable, so sensible and so beneficial evidence. so true and right. we do not understand why there is unbelief.
Why do so many people who seem sensible, sincere, reasonable, not acknowledge the same truths we hold to be so self-evident? Why, in a world of so many intelligent, relatively moral and upright people, is there so much unbelief?
B.
Peter, in our text, I believe, shows the primary cause of unbeliefDELIBERATE IGNORANCE.
The Bible has a great deal to say about this. we will discuss it in just a moment from the aspect of Peter’s entire 3rd chapter of this 2nd epistle.
II.
Some Unbelief is Due to a Simple Lack of Knowledge
A.
Faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ. Romans 10:17
B.
Often times children grow up, even in Christian homes, without ever having been given a faith with foundations in facts or evidence (cf. Deuteronomy 6:6-25).
C.
The church has not fulfilled her mission until she has presented the good news founded on the evidences of factual history.
D.
But even a lack of knowledge will not be accepted as an excuse by God since all men have had enough knowledge of God revealed to them that they stand condemned by God if they disbelieve (cf. Romans 1:18 ff).
So, PRIMARILY SPEAKING, UNBELIEF IS MORAL REBELLION.
DISCUSSION
I.
Unbelief is deliberate.
A.
For this they willingly are ignorant of. another translation says, They purposely ignore this fact. 2 Peter 3:5
Unbelief comes to men because they deliberately choose to ignore the facts as these facts reveal a God to whom they have a moral responsibility.
Romans 1:21 men. became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles. Romans 1:25, they exchanged the truth about God for a lie. Romans 1:28 they refused to have God in their knowledge.
But the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse. Romans 1:20
Men may deny the facts if they wish. but they are without excuse because God is so sufficiently revealed even in nature that unbelief condemns men. the evidence, the facts are so abundant that any man who says there is no God is a fool, for only a fool is willingly ignorant.
Dr. G. G. Simpson, famous Paleontologist from Harvard once said concerning some highly improbable evidence as to the origin of the horse it is so improbable as to be unacceptable unless we can find no hypothesis more likely to explain the facts. IN OTHER WORDS, HE IS WILLING TO ACCEPT AN UNACCEPTABLE EXPLANATION IF THERE IS, IN HIS ESTIMATION, NONE BETTER!
Jesus once made a most shocking accusation against the Pharisees, But because I say the truth, ye believe me not. John 8:45 The very reason they would not believe Jesus was the fact that he told them the truth. There is hardly a worse state man can get himself into than this!
Those who hate the truth will be deceived and believe a lie (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12). These do not love the truth; therefore, they are not attracted to it and even when they see it, they hastily reject it and rationalize their reaction.
The god of this world has blinded the minds of those who believe not (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). These refuse to listen to the truth when it condemns the unrighteous things in which they find pleasure and which they are determined to continue. Thus they seek for some message which will assure them that the unrighteous thing is right and thus permit them to continue in it without being rebuked by their conscience. God sends such people strong delusions in that He has ordained the laws of man’s heart and of morality, and that person who has no love for the truth and who lives in and takes pleasure in unrighteousness will unfit his heart for the reception of truth and fit it for the reception of strong delusions which comfort and assure him in his error and unrighteousness.
Dr. Henry Morris, when on the OBC campus for the 1966 Science & Scripture Forum, emphasizing the impact of the 2nd law of thermodynamics upon theories of evolution concluded that ANY SCIENTIST AWARE OF THIS LAW (AND ALL SHOULD BE) WHO REMAINS AN EVOLUTIONIST OR UNIFORMITARIAN, MUST DO SO BY DELIBERATELY IGNORING THIS FACT!
Jeremiah put it this way. Behold their ears are closed, they cannot listen; behold, the word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn, they take no pleasure in it. Jeremiah 6:10 (see also Jeremiah 6:16-19).
B.
scoffers. walking after their own lusts. 2 Peter 3:3
Unbelief comes to men because they choose to walk after their own lusts. Romans 1. God gave them up to the lusts of their own hearts. unto vile affections. they not only do these things but even take pleasure in seeing others do them.
The people of Israel cried out to Moses as Pharaoh approached, It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate bread to the full. Exodus 14:10-12; Exodus 16:1-3
Desire to satisfy the flesh chokes out the word, Matthew 13:13-23
Unbelief is due to the fact that men choose deliberately to have physical security, or sensual pleasure, or pride.
Agrippa’s lust for a woman not his own caused him to deliberately refuse to believe Paul. Acts 26:28
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved (exposed for what they really are). John 3:19-20
For the time will come when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths. (2 Timothy 4:3-4) (cf. also Micah 2:11; Hosea 5:4; Hosea 4:6)
One of man’s lusts which causes him to deliberately disbelieve is PRIDE.
a.
Pride from wealth, Deuteronomy 8:1-20
b.
Pride from power, Exodus 5:2; Daniel 4:30; Daniel 5:23
c.
Pride from security, Obadiah 1:3
d.
Pride in self-righteousness, Job 33:9; Luke 18:11; John 9:39-41; Revelation 3:17
e.
Pride from self-sufficiency, James 4:13-17
f.
Pride is man’s desire for human autonomy over against the sovereignty of God. a proud man does not need a Provider, Protector, Guide and Saviour. But he is not free; he hidesone way or another, he hides.
ANIMAL LUSTS OF MEN DECEIVE THEM INTO DELIBERATELY DENYING GOD, THE BIBLE, HEAVEN AND HELL, BECAUSE THEY WANT TO SATISFY THEIR FLESHLY DESIRES. THEY DO NOT NEED GOD FOR THEY ARE SELF-SUFFICIENT; THEREFORE THEY WANDER (deliberately) INTO THE MYTHS OF EVOLUTION, HUMANISM, COMMUNISM, AND JUST PLAIN STUBBORNNESS. ALL OF US HAVE HEARD PEOPLE SAY, I KNOW THE BIBLE IS HISTORY AND IT’S TRUE AND I OUGHT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT ITS DEMANDS, BUT I-‘M NOT READY TO GIVE UP THIS AND THAT, AND SO ON.. OR SOME WILL SAY, I CAN-‘T BELIEVE THE BIBLE IS TRUE BECAUSE THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS IT CONDEMNS WHICH I FEEL ARE ALL RIGHT.
C.
they that are unlearned and unstable wrest the scriptures unto their own destruction 2 Peter 3:16
Unbelief comes to men when they wrest the scriptures.
Satan, the father of unbelief, perverted the scripture at the temptation of Jesus (Matthew 4:5-6).
Paul had to contend with the Judaizers who corrupted (2 Corinthians 2:17) and dishonestly handled the word of God deceitfully (2 Corinthians 4:2).
The prejudiced and biased mind is a form of deliberate unbelief (cf. John 8:12; John 7:24); so also is the one who allows himself to be influenced by rumor or opinions of so-called intelligentsia (cf. John 7:12; John 7:40-43; James 1:6-7; Ephesians 4:13-14).
Cowardice or conformity also leads to deliberate unbelief (cf. John 12:41-43; John 9).
Liberalism, Modernisma result of men who have deceitfully and dishonestly handled the Word of Godhas infected hundreds of thousands of gullible people who feel they must conform in churches all around us and within the Restoration Movement.
Existentialism, by deceit, has duped many into unbelief.
Men, by their traditions, have made void the word of God and led many unto unbelief.
THE WRESTING OF THE SCRIPTURES TO MAINTAIN DIVISION WITHIN CHRISTENDOM BRINGS UNBELIEF. JESUS PRAYED IN John 17. THAT THEY ALL MAY BE ONE, THAT THE WORLD MAY BELIEVE THAT THOU DIDST SEND ME!
WRESTING THE SCRIPTURES IS CERTAIN EVIDENCE OF DISRESPECT FOR GOD AND, ON THE OTHER HAND PRIDE IN SELF! WHEN MEN EXCHANGE THE TRUTH OF GOD FOR A LIE, THEY BEGIN TO WORSHIP THE CREATURE RATHER THAN THE CREATOR. PERHAPS NOT FROGS AND CROCODILES LIKE THE EGYPTIANS. BUT MAN WORSHIPPING MAN IS JUST AS DESPICABLE FOR IT IS CREATURE WORSHIP!
The Jews of the Prophet’s days wrested the scripture by interpreting the promise of the Messiah and His kingdom as one of fleshly indulgence. their hearts were filled with unbelief.
The Pharisees wrested the scriptures to declare their goods Corban. they deceitfully handled the Word of God to take oaths by the gold of the altar rather than the altar itself and robbed people and refused to pay pledges (Matthew 23).
THE SEEMING SLACKNESS OF GOD IN BRINGING JUDGMENT UPON DISOBEDIENCE OR PERVERSION OF GOD’S WORD CAUSES MEN TO FEEL THEY CAN USURP GOD AND DO AS THEY PLEASE WITH HIS WORD. WRESTING IT TO SERVE THEIR LUSTS. It is clear that the evidences for Christianity are of such nature that they bring to the surface what is in a man! If one is unwilling to follow Christ because of the demand which such would make on his life, he can think up reasons to justify his unwillingness. The real reasonhis unwillingnesswill be hidden from others by these rationalizations and finally even from himself because he does not think beyond these reasons. The fact that one must love the truth indicates that the attitude of heart has something to do with whether or not one will believe. He who wants a careless, immoral life will not want the faith which is a constant rebuke to such a life.
II.
Belief is deliberate.
A.
Saving faith is voluntary. Had the revelation of God been so strong that anyone beholding could not disbelieve, it would have overridden moral freedom and this would be evidence unsuitable to moral subjects.
B.
The true purpose of God is not to produce obedience by force, but to treat men as free moral agents.
C.
Belief comes to an informed mind.
Peter writes to stir up their mind and to call to remembrance the revealed word of God. 2 Peter 3:1
God’s revelation was made intelligently, and he expects man to apprehend it with the use of intelligence (Romans 10:17)
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:3
Paul reasoned with the Jews from the scriptures about the Christ.
WE MUST DELIBERATELY LEARN AND RECEIVE THE FACTS ABOUT GOD, JESUS AND THE BIBLE, BEFORE WE CAN BELIEVE. PETER IS ONE WHO PUTS A PREMIUM ON KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST THROUGH THE WORD FOR HE KNOWS THAT BELIEF COMES THIS WAY! (1 Peter 1:22-25; 1 Peter 3:15; 2 Peter 1:3-21; 2 Peter 3:18)
B.
Belief comes to a submissive will.
If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. John 7:17
The Pharisees of Jesus day were filled with unbelief because they would not let the word of Christ have free course in them. John 8:37
THIS SAME STUBBORN UNWILLINGNESS TO DO GOD’S WILL LED THE PHARISEES TO REJECT THE COUNSEL OF GOD, REFUSING TO BE BAPTIZED OF JOHN THE BAPTIST (Luke 7:29-30).
And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. 1 John 2:3
GOD GAVE MAN A WILL. HE GAVE HIM A FREE WILL. MAN IS FREE TO SURRENDER TO WHATEVER HE WISHES. BELIEF OR UNBELIEF.
C.
Belief comes to a pure heart.
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Does not Jesus mean believe in God?
The honest and good heart is the soil upon which the seed (the word of God) falls and brings forth much fruit. Luke 8
But he that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. John 3:21
A HEART CALLOUSED BY IMPURITY, GREED, LASIVIOUSNESS, AND SIN IS HARDENED AGAINST ANY KIND OF BELIEF EXCEPT UNBELIEF! THE HEART THAT IS PURE, CLEAN, AND WHOLESOME IS MALLEABLE, SOFT, COMPASSIONATE, EASILY ENTREATED, RESPONSIVE TO THE HIGHEST AND NOBLEST. RESPONSIVE TO THE DIVINE LOVE LETTER. GOD’S BOOK OF LOVE!
CONCLUSION
HOW DOES MAN, SNARED IN THE TRAP OF THE DEVIL, BLINDED BY THE DEVIL, DECEIVED BY THE DEVIL INTO UNBELIEF, COME TO BELIEF??
I.
There must be an a priori which must be admitted. Man must admit that he is rational and that there are objects and facts to be known. To deny he thinks he must think. Even to represent himself to be irrational he must think rationally!
II.
Many facts (truths) are MORAL FACTS. That is they exhibit, form or display moral character or attributes. All of God’s works (both natural and supernatural) exhibit His moral attributes and character. His wrath upon sin; His love for the sinner (cf. Romans 1:18-22; Acts 14:15-17; Acts 17:22-31; John 3:16, etc.)
III.
The will or the heart or the mind of man must be changed or moved or transformed by a presentation of moral facts (cf. Romans 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 10:3-5; Romans 10:17).
IV.
Man then makes a choice or gives assent to what he knows to be true and moral and right. An emotion is an experience brought about by the prospect of some value’s being gained or lost. We become emotional about something after receiving the moral facts and reasoning on themthen we make a choice. WHICH IS MOST TO BE DESIRED. MATERIAL OR SPIRITUAL?
V.
MAN THEN COMES TO FAITH. Faith is trust, love, obedience, commitment. Faith is an experiencebased squarely on the foregoing steps.
An infamous woman atheist, speaking on the campus of Drake University, asked why she speaks on college campuses, replied, To corrupt the youth! She said, I believe this would be the best of all possible worlds if everybody were an atheist or an agnostic or a humanist. I don-’t think the church has ever contributed anything to anybody, any place, at any time. I can-’t pinpoint a period in history or a place in the universe where religion has actually helped the welfare of man. There is absolutely no conclusive evidence that Jesus ever really existed, even as a mortal. I don-’t believe he was a historical figure at all. Until someone proves otherwise, therefore, these stories about him must be considered nothing more than folk tales consisting in equal parts of legend and wish fulfillment. But there is never going to be any way of verifying them one way or the other. WOULD YOU SAY THIS WOMAN IS A FREE-THINKER. ALWAYS WILLING TO INVESTIGATE EVIDENCE. OPENMINDED. OBJECTIVE!!!? Also, I reject the idea of a life hereafter on the same grounds. Do you know anybody who has come back with a first-hand report on heaven? If you do, let me know. Until then you-’ll pardon me if I don-’t buy it. I agree with Mark Twain, who wrote about the hereafter, that there is no sex in it; you can-’t eat anything in it; there is absolutely nothing physical in it. You wouldn-’t have your brain, you wouldn-’t have any sensation, you wouldn-’t be able to enjoy anythingunless you were queer for hymn singing and harp playing. So who needs it? SPEAKING FOR MYSELF, I-‘D RATHER GO TO HELL. UNBELIEF CAN-‘T GET ANY MORE DELIBERATE THAN THAT! It is a matter of choice! Choose ye this day whom you will serve. Why go ye limp between the two sides, if Baal be God worship him. Jesus depicted life as a choice between two waysnot three (no neutrality).
SPECIAL STUDY
THE CHRISTIAN AND WAR by Paul T. Butler INTRODUCTION
I.
A Continuing Christian Concern
A.
As long as there are unregenerate people there will be wars, James 4:1-4
B.
Viet Nam cease fire and end of the draft do not necessarily mean the Christian will never have to face the problem again.
C.
In addition, when we broach this subject we have entered the whole area of the Christian and civil government (laws, taxes, politics, social welfare, etc.).
D.
If I read the N.T. correctly at all, I am convinced the Christian cannot ignore these problems. We may not be of the world, but we certainly are in the world. E. To a larger extent than we may realize, unbelievers may be watching our Christian witness in this area (government) more than they watch it in the religious rituals we perform!
II.
A Coherent Christian Certitude
A.
Christians, of all people, should have the most coherent answers to these problems.
B.
Christians, because they have regenerated their minds and they are no longer prejudiced by sin, should think logically, reasonably and sensibly.
C.
But more important than that, Christians have the written, revealed mind of Christ in the N.T.the Divine Will settles the question.
D.
We will approach the subject on these two bases:
Reason
Revelation
DISCUSSION
I.
Reason (Natural Law; Conscience)
A.
All men, even those who do not have a special-revealed law of God (O.T. or N.T.) have a revelation in the natural order of God’s creation and in their reasoning capabilities which tells them
God’s wrath on ungodliness and wickedness and suppression of the truth (Romans 1:18 ft); and His eternal power and deity.
They are either doing or not doing God’s law (Romans 2:14-16)
Of course, sinful men may wilfully refuse to recognize truth and may deliberately ignore historical and rational facts (2 Peter 3:5; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12; 1 Corinthians 15:34).
But Christians are commanded to use logic (Romans 12:1-2) as a result of having their minds transformed. CHRISTIANS ARE NOT PERMITTED THE LUXURY OF IRRATIONALITY! CHRISTIANS ARE NOT PERMITTED THE ESCAPISM OF REFUSING TO FACE REALITY!
B.
Axioms
Necessity of law and order (local, national and international)
a.
In order to the maintenance of any kind of society (and man is by nature and necessity a social being) there must be law and order.
b.
If this is doubted, just universalize a few actions which are presently considered anti-social:
(1)
What if there were no sanctions against murder, i.e., that anyone and everyone were free to take anyone else’s life violently, indiscriminately, without cause or for any cause, at any time.
(2)
What if there were no laws against theft and robbery. What if any man were free to rob or steal from any other at any time, for any cause or without cause.
c.
The two above are, in effect, what wars of aggression and imperialism are all about. What if all nations acted as described above?
d.
1 Timothy 1:8-9 Law is not for just but lawless. etc.
Where there are no sanctions or penalties and where penalties are not executed, THERE IS NO LAW!
a.
We may enact and write local and national laws against murder, draft-dodging, theft, etc., until we are blue in the face but if we have no penalty or the penalty is not executed, we have no lawswe just have reams and reams of paper!
b.
We can join United Nations bodies, debate, enact, sign and proclaim eloquently the international laws controlling our nations all we want, but if there is no penalty and no enforcement, there is no international law!
c.
Ecclesiastes 8:11; Because sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the sons of men is fully set to do evil.
d.
As Socrates reasoned: An unjust law is bad, but no law is worse!
Punishment must fit the crime
a.
Senator Taft (Robert Sr.) reportedly said: The war criminals at the Nuremburg trials were tried and punished after fact, i.e., they were tried and sentenced for a crime for which there was no law.
Perhaps, technically speaking, there are no written international laws by which political leaders of nations which perpetuate international murder (war) may be tried and punished, but there certainly is a natural moral lawJUSTICE.
b.
Justice is the action according to which one renders to another that which is the latter’s right or the latter’s due.
c.
To sustain the majesty of the law there must be just and commensurate punishments (national or international).
d.
In the realm of civil or national law, capital punishment is a vindicatory sanction; that is, it vindicates the majesty and justness of the law against taking of life in cold blood. A murderer, when he takes another person’s life, has taken something out of the totality of being which cannot be restored, namely, the victim’s greatest good (his life); hence the state (society acting through its government), in order to restore the balance of justice, takes the murderer’s greatest good (his life) in reciprocity.
e.
Man is a person by virtue of the fact that he is a rational being. By heinous crimes which are offenses against the law of reason, he withdraws violently from the society of reason and sets out wilfully to destroy society. Therefore he forfeits his right to continue to live in that society.
f.
Crimes of murder, robbery, aggressive war, etc. are all crimes against SOCIETY. not merely crimes against individuals. THE WHOLE STRUCTURAL FABRIC OF SOCIETY IS AT STAKE!
g.
This principle of justice, punishment commensurate with the crime, has to be applied to international criminal acts. WHEN ONE NATION COMMITS VIOLENT, HEINOUS CRIMES (WARS) AGAINST INTERNATIONAL STRUCTURES OF SOCIETY, COERCIVE, PUNISHING, RESTRAINING FORCES OF DEFENSIVE WARS MUST BE WAGED TO VINDICATE THE INTERNATIONAL LAWS AGAINST WAR!
h.
A punishment which is not commensurate with the crime will not vindicate the law against the crime!
C.
Conclusions
Man must have government to exist.
Without government there would be social chaos.
There can be no government without law.
If obedience to government or law is determined individually or subjectively, then no law would be immune from some people’s disapproval or disobedience. The result would be anarchy.
It is a greater evil not to resist an international aggressor than to fight against him. All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
II.
Revelation
A.
Government, in general
Is ordained by God (Romans 13:1)
a.
No Christian is exempt from obedience to government just on the grounds that he is a Christian.
b.
He who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed.
c.
The O.T. teaches the authority of civil government as a God-ordained institution (Ezra 7:26; Exodus 22:28; Proverbs 24:21-22).
d.
The N.T. is plain and specific (Matthew 22:21; Titus 2:15 to Titus 3:2; 1 Peter 2:13-17).
e.
Society must have government. God has provided it and preserves iteven pagan government (Jeremiah 27:5-7; Isaiah 10:5 ff).
He (the Christian) may exert his effort to have unjust laws changed and unjust national objectives withdrawn. He may use every legitimate effort to convince the ruler that the laws are unjust or the war is unjust. But he has absolutely no scriptural authority to incite anarchy. Anarchy is satanic. God does not will anarchy in this present world; He wills order. Satan is the one who seeks anarchy, in order to oppose the will of God. Wm. LaSor, C.T. 1-30-70.
Anarchy is satanic whether it be by Bolsheviks, Red Guards, Black Panthers or Weathermen (see Reader’s Digest, November 1970, The Destruction of Diana).
Originated for God (Romans 13:1-7)
a.
As a terror to bad conductto restrain evil and to punish the wrong-doer (the unrestrainable)to execute the wrath of God upon the wrongdoer. Government is God’s executive!
b.
Now we know that the law is good, if any one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient. I Tim. Isaiah 1:8-9
c.
d.
Rulers do not wield the sword (instrument of execution) in vain! There is a purpose, a God-ordained purpose, in punishmenteven in capital punishment!
e.
It seems to me that those who advocate abolition of all capital punishment ignore three vital factors (1) The absolute sovereignty of God as the creator and giver of human existence on earth; (2) the malignancy of sin which left unchecked would destroy the universe; (3) the divinely delegated authority to human society to remove from its fabric those who are incorrigibly devoted to the destruction of that fabric by acts of violence against the innocent.
It is not the distance from animals but the proximity to God which makes man unique. Man abdicates his responsibility when he gets on the animal level or when he seeks to dethrone God. And he does both when he becomes a wilful and malicious murderer. He attempts to be under what he is over (animal)and aspires to be over what he is under (God). AND IT IS HERE THAT GOD DECREES THAT MAN FORFEITS HIS RIGHT TO CONTINUE TO LIVE WITH THOSE WHO REMAIN WITHIN THE STATUS FOR WHICH MAN WAS MADE. Carl Ketcherside, Mission Messenger, Vol. 31, August 1969, p. 118ff.
f.
Whoso sheddeth man’s blood by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made he man. Genesis 9:6 (the first book of the Bible)
g.
He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Revelation 13:10 (the last book of the Bible)
h.
Some object that capital punishment is action so utterly final and. irretrievable, but it is not any more so than the death of a victim shot in the heart by a robber, or the death of a woman choked or bludgeoned to death in her own home by a rapist. Why is it that modern morality seems always to be on the side of the criminal aggressor without taking account of the rights of the innocent victim. Capital punishment for murder is to be exacted because it is the divine judgment to keep the land from being drenched in innocent blood. The forfeiture of one’s right to continue in the land of the living is conditioned upon his blatant disrespect for the person of one made in the image of God. -Mercy but murder, pardoning those who kill.-’ Ketcherside, ibid.
i.
People against capital punishment always quote the Decalogue Thou shalt not kill (Exodus 20:13). This is ridiculous because just 27 verses later in the same book, God said, If a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die. (Exodus 21:12-17). GOD HAS ALWAYS DISTINGUISHED BETWEEN MURDER AND JUDICIAL EXECUTION.. ALL MURDER IS KILLING BUT NOT ALL KILLING IS MURDER!
He (the Christian) has no Biblical authority to tell the state it must renounce the use of force in order to preserve law, or to demand that the law of the state be changed to disarm policemen. This would be to take the -sword-’ from the magistrateand the bearing of the sword by the magistrate is recognized and approved by the Word of God. LaSor, op. cit.
j.
The great apostle Paul stood for the fair and just execution of capital punishmenteven if it meant his own death! Acts 25:11
B.
Government in International relationships (war, etc.)
The erosion of the public conscience against capital punishment and against international policing (war) against aggression is a device of Satan to take the sting out of rebellion, anarchy and social chaos.
… it seems to me that nothing is more unrealistic in the present state of the world than to say that war must never be used as a means of thwarting wilful and deliberate aggression. This position ignores the fact that God employed war as a judgment upon nations, and even upon Jerusalem (Ezekiel 14:21). Surely He was not immoral. This does not mean that God likes war any more than I like it. I did not punish my children because I derived pleasure from the experience but in order to produce -the fruit of real goodness-’ in their characters. Gen. Sherman said that -War is hell,-’ and I concur, but I do not forget that God also made hell. And it was made as the result of war in heaven! If Michael and his angels had been pacifists, the devil might have taken heaven over, and if this had happened those who went to heaven would have been in hell.. Certainly war is an evil, but it is not necessarily a sin. All sin is evil, but not all -evil-’ is sin. Obviously not every war is justified, but that is not the question. it will be necessary for all nations to desist from lifting up the sword against each other, for so long as one learns war with a view to the destruction of others, the others will have to defend themselves. God will turn those nations which hate Him and His rule into hell. War is the judgment of God upon such sin here, and hell is the judgment of God upon such sin hereafter. When I assist in the work of rewarding good or in striking terror into the hearts of evil men, I am abiding God’s minister to fulfill a responsibility to God. Ketcherside, op. cit.
Some scripture references: (additional to ones already cited)
a.
Genesis 14:21-24; Abram’s going after and defeating the kings of the East who had kidnapped his nephew, Lot, and the blessing of God’s great high priest Melchizedek.
b.
Joshua 8:1-29; Joshua’s conquest of Ai, even instructed by God to ambush the warriors of Ai.
c.
1 Samuel 30:1-31; David inquired of the Lord about avenging violent aggression done upon his people by the Amalekites, and God commanded David to do so.
d.
Ecclesiastes 3:8; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. Ecclesiastes 8:8; No man has power to retain the spirit, or authority over the day of death; there is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it. Ecclesiastes 8:11 Because sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the sons of men is fully set to do evil.
e.
Jeremiah 48:10; Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord with slackness; and cursed is he who keeps back his sword from bloodshed.
f.
Daniel 5:17-28; Daniel informed Belshazzar of God’s providential maintenance of Nebuchadnezzar’s policing of the world and that all rulers, even pagan ones, when they usurp God’s sovereignty, God brings them down.
g.
Obadiah 1:10-14; Obadiah tells the Edomites they should not have stood aloof when their neighbor nation (Israel) was being plundered by aggressors. GOD HOLDS ALL NATIONS (EVEN PAGAN ONES) RESPONSIBLE TO HELP OTHER NATIONS DEFEND THEMSELVES AGAINST AGGRESSION!
h.
Amos 1:9; Amos says God will judge Tyre because Tyre broke a covenant she had made with Israel by allowing Edom to plunder Israel. GOD HOLDS NATIONS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE TREATIES AND COVENANTS THEY MAKE WITH ONE ANOTHER!
Some examples:
a.
Cornelius, a devout Roman soldier became a Christian and was not (so far as we know) forbidden to continue as such (Acts 10, 11).
b.
John the Baptist and the soldiers (Luke 3:14). John the Baptist did not tell them to give up soldiering.
c.
Sergius Paulus became a Christian and continued as a proconsul. Acts 13:5-12
d.
It appears that Paul may have converted some of the elite military personnel of Caesar’s own body guard (Philippians 1:13; Philippians 4:21).
e.
Erastus was city treasurer in Rome (Romans 16:23); this meant he was an official of a pagan government.
f.
Paul did not command the jailer at Philippi to resign when the jailer became a Christian (Acts 16:25-40).
g.
Angels, servants of God, moral beings with power to choose to obey or disobey God, serve God by engaging in war and in killing rebellious aggressive oppressors (Isaiah 37:36-38; Daniel 10:1 ff, etc.).
h.
Heaven protected itself by entering into a war of self-defense (Revelation 12:7-17; Revelation 19:11-16).
C.
Conscientious Objection
The only conscience a Christian should have against compulsory military service in a world with continued aggressive pressures like ours which demands a ready military establishment as a deterrent, would be if he were a missionary or a minister actively preaching the Gospel. and even then there may come a time when all able-bodied men might be needed to hasten the overthrow of evil aggressive forces at work in the world.
Conscientious objection to war or military service cannot be based on personal desires, but on the direction of God’s expressed will in matters. Romans 13 (and all the other scriptures and reasons we have cited) is a clear expression of God’s will for Christians in regard to war and the use of force and killing, if necessary, to check and punish aggression!
The Christian has a right to only one conscience. A conscience directed by God. The non-Christian must be forced to do right and justly by laws (conscription/draft) if he will not do right otherwise (cf. 1 Timothy 1:8 ff). This is exactly what government and law is for! Men cannot be left to do only what they feel is right (especially unregenerate, lawless men). The main function of government is to force the immoral and ungodly to be as moral as is necessary to maintain society. Government was instituted by God to protect and enforce this fundamental necessity.
CONCLUSION
In America, a man stood up in a free pulpit to preach; he quoted detached sentences from the Christ whose hand held the lash when His Father’s House was a den of thieves, and whose eyes were often as a flame of fire. The preacher declared that evil, no matter how diabolical, was never to be resisted with any physical weapons. Rhetorically, he asked, -What has a sword ever accomplished worthwhile?-’ In a pew was a worshipper in whose heart was an aching void and in whose home was a Gold Star, speaking of the valor of a young crusader who marched forth with a righteous sword and came not back. At the church door, following the service, that worshipper said to the clergyman: -I can tell you one thing that righteous sword has done.-’ What?-’ replied the minister. Replied the listener with deep feeling: -The sword in the hand of those who have resisted militant evil has given you the right to stand here today and to proclaim your convictions without fear of being liquidated.-’ The one who had publicly said that rampant evil was never to be resisted by force paused for a moment and then acknowledged, -I am afraid I cannot refute that.-’ There is no refutation in God’s world and man’s for the flash of a righteous sword! (Dr. Frederick Brown Harris, Chaplain, U.S. Senate, 1943-1969, quoted in U.S. News and World Report, October 30, 1972.)
Isaiah 29:1-8
- SUCCESS
TEXT: Isaiah 29:1-8
1
Ho Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! add ye year to year; let the feasts come round:
2
then will I distress Ariel, and there shall be mourning and lamentation; and she shall be unto me as Ariel.
3
And I will encamp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with posted troops, and I will raise siege works against thee.
4
And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust; and thy voice shall be as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.
5
But the multitude of thy foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be in an instant suddenly.
6
She shall be visited of Jehovah of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.
7
And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her stronghold, and that distress her, shall be as a dream, a vision of the night.
8
And it shall be as when a hungry man dreameth, and, behold he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.
QUERIES
a.
What is Ariel?
b.
What is the voice as of one that hath a familiar spirit?
c.
What is the meaning of the use of dreaming as an illustration?
PARAPHRASE
Woe to you altar-city, altar-city, Jerusalem, David’s city. Let year follow year and the ceaseless round of feasts and sacrifices continue! But I will bring tribulation upon you, altar-city, and there shall be groaning and grief, and you will indeed become to me an altar of sacrifice! The enemy camp that surrounds you will be My camp; the entrenched troops surrounding you will be My troops; the siegeworks built up around you will be My siegeworks. And you shall be humiliated so that you will no longer boast loudly but you will speak humbly and lowyour voice will be but a whisper like the low moaning of a ghost, barely audible. But then suddenly, the multitudes of enemy troops will vanish from their siege against you like dust and chaff when it is blown away in the wind. I, Jehovah of hosts, will come upon them with terrible judgment and power and but multitudes of enemy troops that come upon her will fall short of completing total destruction of Ariel just like when a hungry or thirsty man goes to bed and dreams he is eating and drinking but awakens in the middle of his dream and finds himself only dreaming and still hungry and thirsty. Even so, the appetite of Zion’s enemies to devour her will not be satisfied.
COMMENTS
Isaiah 29:1-4 TROUBLE TO ARIEL: Ariel in Hebrew is usually translated the lion of God. Sometimes it is translated the hearth of God. However, in Ezekiel 45:13 ff the same word with the definite article added (hariel) is translated altar. The context of Isa 29:1-2 form the basis for our paraphrase of the word as altar-city for it appears Jehovah is speaking irony or sarcasm to Jerusalem. Jerusalem took pride in the multitude of her altars and sacrifices and religiosity (cf. Isaiah 1:10-20). Jerusalem trusted in her own self-righteousness and religiousness rather than in God. She, like Samaria, thought she could solve her own difficulties with her pagan neighbors through deceit, bribery and compromise. So Jehovah, speaking through His prophet Isaiah, warns Jerusalem that He, even the Lord God of Hosts, is going to bring trouble and distress upon Jerusalem. And the city which took such pride in her altars and sacrifices would (Isaiah 29:2) itself become an altar of sacrifice to be used as such by God. All the troops which come to encamp and raise siege works against Jerusalem (the Assyrians in Hezekiah’s day, cf. Isa. ch. 36-39) will be, in a very definite sense, God’s army. God uses pagan armies to carry out His will (cf. Isaiah 10:5 ff; Jeremiah 27:1 ff; Dan. ch. 7-8, etc.). And Jerusalem, proud, arrogant, haughty and self-righteous, will be humiliated. This undoubtedly has reference to the humiliating experience of Hezekiah and all of Jerusalem when the city was besieged by the Assyrians. In Isaiah 29:4 the Hebrew word keaov (with familiar spirit) describes the weakened, humiliated and inarticulate condition Jerusalem will find herself in when God finishes bringing trouble upon her. She will be so weak that what she says will come as spoken by one prostrate upon the ground and as indistinct, unnatural, inaudible and inarticulate as that coming from a necromancer or medium in a trance. The point is the extreme weakness and powerlessness that is to come upon Jerusalem at the hand of Jehovah.
Isaiah 29:5-8 TRIUMPH OF ZION: But in the city of Jerusalem there are a few, a remnant, who have not trusted in self-righteousness. There is a remnant trusting in Jehovahdisciples of Isaiah who have held fast to the teaching and to the testimony (cf. Isaiah 8:16-22), and God will save Jerusalem from the Assyrians on their account. The instantaneous suddenness with which God will dispose of Jerusalem’s enemies is the miraculous event recorded in 2Kings 19, 2, Chronicles 32 and Isaiah 37:36-38. The Lord sent His angel to slay 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night and the king of Assyria returned with shame of face to his own land, and some of his own sons struck him down with the sword there. Isaiah 29:6 uses highly figurative language to describe the terror and the swiftness of God’s destruction of the Assyrian siege. It may be that God used a literal earthquake, whirlwind, tempest and flaming fire to devour the Assyrians. We are not told specifically how His angel accomplished the destruction. It is interesting to note the figure Isaiah uses to describe the frustrated plans of the Assyrians to devour Jerusalem. Nearly everyone has had the experience of dreaming and awakening with the dream only half completed. In fact, most dreams conclude only partially visualized. Some persons even anticipate in their dream the fact that their dream is going to end incomplete! That is the very nature of dreams. So, the Assyrian attempt to consume Jerusalem is going to come to an end just like a dream. incomplete! frustrated! Evil and ungodly men have dreamed for centuries of usurping God’s rule of the universe. They have dreamed grandiose dreams of eradicating God’s covenant people, the church, Zion, from among mankind, but their dreams have always ended sooner or later uncompleted, frustrated and shamed. So shall all be that fight against Zion! God says it is so! History demonstrated it to be so!
QUIZ
Why is Ariel most likely to be translated altar?
How would Jehovah encamp against Jerusalem?
What is the point of likening Jerusalem’s voice to that of a medium?
How do we know God’s judgment upon Jerusalem’s enemies was sudden?
How did God deliver Jerusalem from her enemies?
What does dreaming have to do with the downfall of Jerusalem’s enemies?
Isaiah 29:9-16
- SULLENNESS
TEXT: Isaiah 29:9-16
9
Tarry ye and wonder; take your pleasure and be blind: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
10
For Jehovah hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes, the prophets; and your heads, the seers, hath he covered.
11
And all vision is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I cannot, for it is sealed:
12
and the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I am not learned.
13
And the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw nigh unto me, and with their mouth and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which hath been taught them;
14
therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.
15
Woe unto them that hide deep their counsel from Jehovah, and whose works are in the dark, and say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?
16
Ye turn things upside down! Shall the potter be esteemed as clay; that the thing made should say of him that made it, He made me not; or the thing formed say of him that formed it, He hath no understanding?
QUERIES
a.
How is the book sealed?
b.
What was to be God’s marvelous work?
PARAPHRASE
Yes, go ahead and stand around with that look of incredulity. Go ahead and stagger around in your stupor of blinding self-indulgence. The Lord has allowed you to drown yourselves in a spirit of deep stupor. The Lord has permitted your prophets and wise men to refuse to see His message. God’s revelation has become a closed book to you. When men give it to a learned man and ask him to read it he says, I do not understand it, it is a closed book and I cannot read it. When they give it to the illiterate and ask him to read it, he says, I cannot read. None of you, therefore, know God’s revelation. Now the Lord says, because you people pay Me only lip-service while your heart’s desire is far away from Me, and because you revere the tradition and ritualism of men about My revelation, I will proceed with My program of judgment. I am going to manifest a miraculous judgment, such as only God can do. I am going to destroy the wisdom of your wise men. I am going to bring you into such difficult and impossible circumstances that none of your counselors will know the solution and their so-called wisdom will be shown to be folly. All this woe is to come upon you people because your leaders have taught you to reject the will of the Lord in your lives and they have taught you to believe the Lord is not the sovereign of your life. Your teachers have caused you to reverse reality! You have gotten every thing in life backwards. The clay vessel does not create the potterthe potter is maker and sovereign of the vessel. The pot does not say of the potter, he has no sense.
COMMENTS
Isaiah 29:9-12 BROODING: Isaiah represents the people as standing in a sort of stunned, hesitant, stupified state of sullen disbelief. They think it incredible that Isaiah is predicting Jerusalem will become a bloody altar to the Lord’s vengeance. It does not make sense to them. They stare at the prophet like a drunken man stares when he does not comprehend what is being said to him. The Lord has allowed them to fall into a spiritual stupor. They have inebriated themselves and deadened their spiritual comprehension with rebellion against God’s revelation and the heady intoxicant of self-exalting, self-justifying human traditions and rituals. And the Lord has made man a moral being whose choices either make him better or worse. Man’s moral choices either blind him or enlighten him. That is the way God made man, so it is ultimately God’s doing. The prophet who continues to choose what is false will eventually be blinded to anything true. What a man does not use he loses. When men do not exercise their faculties to choose between evil and good they soon lose the ability to see good as distinguished from evil. The people of Jerusalem have made up their minds that safety and security from the Assyrian menace is to be found in their own political shrewdness and their treaties with Egypt. They have left the Lord completely out of their plans. They do not trust Him. They do not believe He will act in their best interests. They believe their way is superior.
Sullenly they brood over the revelation of God delivered through the writings of Isaiah (cf. Isaiah 8:16-22), and when someone asks them what Isaiah’s revelation means, their scholars and wise men scoff at it and call it a lot of gibberish and incredible nonsense which no one can understand. Isaiah’s writings are like the sealed book of a mysticthey are completely unrealistic and far-fetched. What Isaiah says will never happen according to the wise men of Jerusalem. And, of course, in Isaiah’s day many people were illiterate and depended upon priests and prophets and scribes for all their knowledge of what was written in books. The illiterate could not read for themselves, and when the literate would not read Isaiah’s writings to them no one knew what Isaiah was revealing from the Lord. The whole nation learned only what the unbelieving, ungodly leaders taught them.
Isaiah 29:13-16 BELLIGERENT: Now Isaiah turns his attention to the cause of their blindness. Their leaders were teaching them to trust in their religion as it was then being practiced. It was a syncretism of paganism and Jewish tradition. It was a religion of self-merit based on ritual observance and disassociated from any relationship to a personal, righteous, holy, loving God. It was a religion of going through certain motions and saying certain words, but it had nothing to do with morality, goodness, truth, holiness of life. They had fallen into the same trap the devil has laid for so many men and womenthat of compartmentalizing life. Religion is in one compartment; vocation is in another compartment; family relationships in another compartment; recreation in another compartment; none of these compartments of life are supposed to have any influence on the others. These people of Jerusalem gave God lip-service, but their hearttheir desires and aspirationswas focused on themselves and the things of the world. The center of their lives was not God and His holiness but their own self-esteem and self-indulgence. They practiced a religion but it had no relationship to their way of life. They did not treasure God so their heart was not with Him (cf. Matthew 5:21). They reverenced the esteem of men; they treasured the traditions and opinions of men; they believed in man and his ability to solve all his own problems by his human wisdom and so they did not need God. They had simply turned a deaf ear to His prophet and eliminated God from all their plans.
Jesus quoted Isaiah 29:13 in a confrontation with the Pharisees (Matthew 15:1-20; Mark 7:1-23) over Jewish traditions. The Pharisees valued their traditions and opinions so highly they were eager to break the commandment of God in order to promote their traditions. It is the same old story of mankind’s pride rejecting divine wisdom and sovereignty in favor of its own finite and fallible wisdom. To accept and be guided by divine revelation from The Sovereign God entails human surrender and self-humiliationa full and complete trust in God’s word over one’s own wisdom. This is not easy. God has never said it was easy. But man’s historic experience, coupled with God’s historic demonstration of Himself in His Son, should prove beyond the slightest doubt that man is lost if left to his own wisdom.
Isaiah’s prophecy here had immediate reference to the marvelous wonder God was about to do in the Assyrian siege and the deliverance of Jerusalem by the angel of death slaying 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night. When God sent the Assyrian hordes and they got their strangle-hold on Jerusalem, the wisdom of Jerusalem’s wise men was shown to be the foolishness it really was. Judah’s leaders had advised that an alliance with Egypt would protect them from Assyria. The leaders discounted all Isaiah’s warnings of judgment from Jehovah as so much nonsense. In effect they were saying, Isaiah is a fool and he is wrong; God has nothing to do with our political affairs; what God supposedly advises through Isaiah is foolishness; we know what is right and effective in our own affairs. So, when God allowed them to be brought to utter helplessness and near to being completely consumed by the Assyrians, He was destroying the wisdom of the wise.
The climactic point in history where God demonstrably destroyed the wisdom of the wise was at the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. All the human schemes and philosophies of self-righteousness, self-esteem and self-salvation were thoroughly invalidated and shown to be foolishness. The cross and the resurrection were demonstrated to be the wisdom of God and the power of God unto salvation. That is why the apostle Paul quoted Isaiah 29:14. Every historic demonstration of God’s wisdom versus man’s foolishness in the Old Testament was a type and a prophecy of the climactic demonstration at the cross and the empty tomb! The Assyrian siege and the deliverance by the Lord’s angel was one of those types!
When a man takes it upon himself to exclude God from any area or circumstance of his life, that man has turned things upside down! The man who tries to hide his doings and thinkings from the Omniscient God is a fool! His attempt is as absurd as the clay vessel attempting to say that it made itself and the potter had nothing to do with it. And when man gets his relationship to his Creator upside down all of man’s existence gets perverted and in opposition to his real self! All man’s moral perverseness, intra-personal antagonisms and self-conflicts are directly related to man’s rejection of the sovereignty of his Creator in all the areas of life.
God extends Himself in love to reclaim autonomous, belligerent, sullen man. God carries out His program of reclamation through judgments and redemptions. But man, a free moral agent, must make a willing, humble, surrendered response. Man must surrender to God’s sovereignty. God’s judgment and redemption of Jerusalem at the siege of Assyria accomplished the reclamation of a remnant through which the Messiah was to be born. But the majority of the Jews continued in their belligerence and sullenness rejecting God’s wisdom spoken through the prophets until in Jeremiah’s day practically the whole nation (cf. Jeremiah 5:1) was in rebellion.
QUIZ
Characterize the people of Jerusalem as Isaiah saw them in this chapter.
How was Jerusalem to become an altar to Jehovah?
What was the response of the people of Jerusalem to Isaiah’s revelation?
What was the cause of the people’s attitude toward God’s prophet?
What was the climactic demonstration of God’s destruction of the wisdom of the wise?
What is the cause of man’s perverseness?
How may man find salvation from his perverseness?
Isaiah 29:17-24
- SANCTIFICATION
TEXT: Isaiah 29:17-24
17
Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?
18
And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.
19
The meek also shall increase their joy in Jehovah, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20
For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scoffer ceaseth, and all they that watch for iniquity are cut off;
21
that make a man an offender in his cause, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just with a thing of nought.
22
Therefore thus saith Jehovah, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.
23
But when he seeth his children, the work of my hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name; yea, they shall sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24
They also that err in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmur shall receive instruction.
QUERIES
a.
What day will the deaf hear words of the book?
b.
Who are the children of Isa 29:23?
PARAPHRASE
It shall surely not be long before what seems impressive among men, great, forest-like, man-dominating world empires like Assyria will be turned into plowed fields producing fruit for the Lord. And what seems unimpressive among men, the covenant people of God, will be turned into a majestic forest. In that day, many spiritually deaf and blind will hear the word from the book of God’s messengers, and they will be brought out of the darkness of falsehood and sin into the marvelous light of God’s truth. The meek who have learned patience through discipline and the poor who, having no riches to buy favors, have had to commit their cause into the Lord’s hands, shall all find fulfillment and joy in their trust in the Holy One of Israel. Because at this time, those who have tyrannized God’s faithful ones and those who have scoffed at them and shamed them, and all those who have deliberately done evil to them shall be overcome. In that day justice will reign in God’s kingdom. Those who try to make the innocent appear to be the guilty, those who try to impugn the integrity of judges, and those who take bribes to pervert justice will be overcome. So, the God who redeemed Abraham from a world of sin, says concerning the progeny of Jacob, the messianic people, You shall never be ashamed of your God again when that day arrives. In that day, Jacob’s progeny shall see the work of God in all its fulfillment in their midst in the person of the Messiah, and they shall sanctify themselves unto Him, in reverence and awe to His name. That God keeps His word will be so thoroughly proven then, Jacob’s progeny will openly and unashamedly acknowledge Him as the Holy One of Israel. Many of those who had erred will be enlightened, and many who had found fault will learn the truth.
COMMENTS
Isaiah 29:17-21 REDEMPTION: God predicts through Isaiah that He is going to work a transformation of the people described in Chapter s Isaiah 28:1 to Isaiah 29:16. This nation of stupid, unstable, sullen people is to form the basis for a changed society sanctified unto the Holy One of Israel. God is going to refocus the ideas of men concerning the value of human structures versus God’s kingdom. Human sovereignty and human schemes (such as the world-encompassing empires have formed to build human utopiasfrom ancient Babylon to modern Communism) are going to be hewn down, brought low and made to be fields from which God’s kingdom will reap its citizenry. The helplessness of human schemes of salvation is going to be demonstrated by centuries of judgments and redemptions of the Jewish nation and by one great historic act of God when He takes what men have counted as common and unimpressive (the covenant believers) and makes them like a majestic forest in the Messiah and His church. Lebanon (a great forest) represents Assyria and all succeeding world-utopian-schemes. It will be brought low. Judah (a fruitful field) represents the faithful covenant people of God. It will be esteemed as a forest. Part of the sanctifying process is a reorientation of men’s sense of valuesa regeneration of their thinking. All the history of the Hebrew people between Isaiah and the Messiah will be given to this goal of reorienting the thinking of those who will believe. It will involve all the captivities, oppressions, deliverances, restorations predicted by the prophets (esp. Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah) and will culminate in the death and resurrection of the Messiah and the establishment of His church.
When that process takes place, some of the spiritually deaf and blind (those who have excluded God from their plans and have turned to human programs and rulers, Egypt, Assyria, etc.) will pay heed to the words of the prophets (like Isaiah) who have delivered God’s revealed wisdom in books. They will be enlightened and come to know the truth about where man’s salvation liesnot in Egypt (or any human-utopia)but in Jehovah and His covenant. Those who walk in darkness will see a great light (Isaiah 9:1-2) and the veil will be lifted (Isaiah 25:6-9).
A reorientation of values concerning what kind of people God chooses as His own will be necessary also. The meek and the poor, who have little to rejoice over in relationship to worldly circumstances, are going to have a joyful inheritance. Through a program of decisive reversals of successive human schemes to rule mankind God is going to demonstrate the only viable program of salvation and regeneration. That program will be one of belief and obedience to His beneficent and sovereign will. Kings and kingdoms will crumble into dust. Pagan philosophies and religions will show themselves to be more harmful than helpful. But the meek and poor humble believers in the Lord will show that keeping his commandments changes man into the image of his Creator and transforms man into a holy, good, honest, true, loving person. The Hebrew word aoriyts in Isaiah 29:20 may be translated violent, fierce, tyrannical one. Three classes of ungodly will be removed from the midst of God’s new society (the messianic kingdom). God’s redemption will rescue those who trust Him from all who want to destroy their soulstyrants, scoffers and evil-doers. The prophet is not saying that those who kill the body will be cut off. As long as the present world exists there will be tyrants, scoffers and evil-doers killing and persecuting believers. But they can destroy only the body. Those who trust in the Lord will be rescued from the spiritual destruction these ungodly ones can cause. God’s new society will also be characterized by the absence of dishonest, unjust, greedy persons (Isaiah 29:21).
Isaiah 29:22-24 REGENERATION: The Lord, Jehovah, rescued Abraham from idolatrous Ur of the Chaldees. As a result of his redemption Abraham became a changed man. He became a giant of the faith-named by God as a friend of God (cf. Hebrews 11:8-12; James 2:21-24). Just so, God’s redemption of the progeny (house) of Jacob will bring about regeneration, spiritual rebirth. The descendants of Jacob (those who believe and trust Godboth Jew and Gentile; cf. Romans 2:28-29; Galatians 3:6 ff; Galatians 6:16; etc.) will be changed in attitude and deed. Israel oftentimes thought of herself as inferior to the rich, powerful, sophisticated, indulgent pagan nations surrounding her. Her consuming desire was to be like the nations. She was ashamed of her God. But when God culminates His great redemptive program, Jacob’s spiritual descendants will change their minds (repent) of that attitude. The RSV more properly translates the latter half of Isa 29:22 … Jacob shall no more be ashamed, no more shall his face grow pale.
In view of the context we think Isaiah 29:23 could be paraphrased as follows: When the covenant nation sees true children of God, the work of God’s hands, in its midst, many of the nation will be converted and set apart in the new, messianic kingdom, the church. Many will sanctify God and revere Him as sovereign of their lives. The fulfillment of this may be readily seen in the book of Acts of Apostles. When God had completed His great redemptive work in the death and resurrection of Christ, the church was begun on the Day of Pentecost. Those converted Jews began to go into all the world preaching and living the gospel. Thousands upon thousands, seeing true children of God, the work of God’s hands, sanctified the name of the Lord in their lives also. This was a great manifestation of regeneration of the house of Jacob from what they were in Isaiah’s day!
Those wandering in spirit and those finding fault (Isaiah 29:24) will also be regenerated in their attitude. These are the spiritually blind and deaf. The history of Israel is replete with wanderers and murmurers (cf. Hebrews 3:7 ff, etc.). They wandered in spirit because they succumbed to false teachings, and they murmured resisting the truth. Isaiah connects regeneration and sanctification directly to instruction and understanding. Conversion begins in the mind. Sanctification (continuing conversion) is a continuing mental process. Neither conversion nor sanctification comes to any man unless it comes through the process of learning, understanding and practicing the truth! No one can be converted without knowing what the Bible says. No one can continue in the sanctified life without knowing, understanding and practicing what the Bible says. Teaching and preaching the word of God is not just importantit is crucial! Knowing and understanding the word of the Lord would be a complete change from the Israel of Isaiah’s day (cf. Hosea 4:1-6, etc.).
QUIZ
Who is Lebanon and who is the fruitful field?
Why is God going to change the position of the two mentioned above?
Who are the meek and poor and what will be their new circumstances?
Why mention the redemption of Abraham?
Name three changes of attitude that Isaiah predicts will take place in Jacob’s house.
What does instruction and understanding have to do with conversion and sanctification?