Northern California Preachers' Retreat, October 2003
In a world where every person had his god and every god had his people, Isaiah was called on to preach that Israel's God was on the side of the threatening Assyrians, not on the side of Judah. Someone has said that in every war, God is the first draftee and that truth is the first casualty. Instead of `immanu 'el ("God is with us"; Isa. 8:10), Isaiah was saying in essence, `im hemah 'el ("God is with them"). God was sending the Assyrians against a godless nation (Isa. 10:5), against Judah. The Lord acts through the nations. Jeremiah is called to be "a prophet to the nations" (Jer. 1:5), but Isaiah has much to say about God and the nations.
At various times Isaiah throws out descriptions of Assyria's invasion. "He [the Lord] will raise a signal for a nation afar off, / and whistle for it from the ends of the earth; / and lo, speedily, swiftly it comes! / None is weary, none stumbles, none slumbers or sleeps, / not a waistcloth is loose, not a saddle-thong broken; / their arrows are sharp, all their bows bent, / their horses' hoofs seem like flint, / and their wheels like the whirlwind. / Their roaring is like a lion, like young lions they roar; / they growl and seize their prey, / they carry it off, and none can rescue" (Isa. 5:26-29).
The idea of the Lord being on Assyria's side was so novel and so repulsive that it made Isaiah's audience deaf and blind (Isa. 6:9-10). It was completely beyond their mental horizon. Isaiah's preaching was to continue until the land was destroyed with only a remnant left, and even that is burned leaving only a stump (Isa. 6:13).
Assyria is the rod of God's anger, the staff of his indignation sent against a godless nation (Isa. 10:5-6), that is, sent against Judah, to tread it down like the mire of the streets (Isa. 10:6). The Lord's consecrated ones (cf. Isa. 13:3) are the Assyrian soldiers who engage in ruthless deeds (Isa. 13:16). This mission is not Assyria's intent. Assyria is solely geared for aggressive conquest. One nation is no more able to resist her than is another, whether it be Calno, Carchemish, Hamath, Samaria, or Damascus. Assyria intends to do to Jerusalem what she has done to Samaria (Isa. 10:5-11).
Assyria recognizes no right but force. She has overrun nations as easily as one robs a bird's nest. No one moved a wing or opened its mouth, or chirped (Isa. 10:14).
But there is another side to this picture of arrogant pride. An ax does not vaunt itself over the one who wields it (Isa. 10:16). Assyria is merely a rod in the Lord's hand. When the Lord has finished his work on Mount Zion, he will send a wasting sickness among the Assyrian soldiers. A fire will burn thorns and briars in one day. The Lord will destroy both soul and body in one day. The surviving Assyrian army is compared to the trees of a forest of which so few are left that a child can count them (Isa. 10:19). God can use Assyria, but then can punish her when she exceeds her commission.
Isaiah depicts the advance of the Assyrians as though coming down the mountain road from the north, and that very day it is halting at Nob and shaking its fist at Jerusalem (Isa. 10:27-32).
The standing international policy of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah was to ally with Egypt, hoping to get horses and chariots. It is this policy that brought the wrath of Shalmaneser V on Hoshea, the last king of Israel, in 722 B.C. (cf. 2 Kings 17:4). The politicians of Judah had no better plan. They had forgotten that at the time of the Exodus the Egyptians had horses and chariots; but they did not give Egypt victory.
It was Hezekiah's revolt against Assyria, twenty years later than the destruction of Israel that brought Sennacherib against him in 701 B.C. The Assyrian commander, attempting to demoralize the people of Jerusalem, insisted that Egypt was a broken reed of a staff which would pierce the hand of the one who leaned on it (2 Kings 18:21; Isa. 36:6). Ezekiel, much later than Isaiah, said of Egypt, "Because you have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel; when they grasped you with the hand, you broke, and tore all their shoulders; and when they leaned upon you, you broke, and made all their loins to shake" (Ezek. 29:6-7).
Isaiah's basic foreign policy was for Judah to put trust in the Lord and to have no foreign alliances. Speaking for the Lord, he satirizes those rebellious children who carry out a plan that is not the Lord's (Isa. 30:1). Egypt brings neither help nor profit, but brings shame and disgrace (Isa. 30:5).
Isaiah depicts Judah as a people who load their treasures on the backs of donkeys and camels to carry them to a people who cannot profit. Egypt's help is worthless (Isa. 30:6-7).
Isaiah expresses denouncing sympathy for those who go down to Egypt for help, relying on horses and chariots, but who do not trust the Holy One of Israel or consult the Lord. "The Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses are flesh, and not spirit" (Isa. 31:3). When the Lord stretches out his hand, the helper will stumble and the one helped will fall, and they will all perish together (Isa. 31:3). Isaiah had used as a refrain about the Lord, "His hand is stretched out still" (Isa. 5:25; 9:12, 17, 21; 10:4). There was disappointment yet to come.
I lived through the war period in which one of the popular songs was, "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition." Isaiah is dealing with people who passed the Lord and praised the ammunition. They trusted neither the Lord nor his prophet (Isa. 30:9-10). Isaiah's preaching is a call to repentance. "Turn to him from whom you have deeply revolted, O people of Israel. For on that day every one of you shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you" (Isa. 31:6-7). The Lord had promised before the conquest of the land that five Israelites could chase a hundred and a hundred chase ten thousand (Lev. 26:8), but also had threatened that if disobedient, "How should one [of the enemy] chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and their Lord had given them up?" (Deut. 32:30). Isaiah is echoing the second of these alternatives when he threatens that a thousand shall flee at the threat of one (Isa. 30:17).
Isaiah's reception by the people is reflected in an oracle aimed at the drunkards of Ephraim who would be people of the northern kingdom. The undated oracle of Isaiah 28 must have been delivered before the demise of Israel in 722 B.C. Apparently Isaiah came upon a drunken party. His threat of doom is made when he compared the flower of Ephraim to a first-ripe fig before the summer: when a man sees it, he eats it up as soon as it is in his hand" (Isa. 28:1-4).
Isaiah describes their drunken behavior in disgusting terms. They respond in sarcasm, which used either baby talk or drunken prattle. He will teach those barely weaned. Translators have tried hard to make sensible words out of tsab letsab tsab letsab qaw leqaw qaw leqaw which possibly should be unintelligible, "blah, blah, blah!"
Isaiah picks up their ridicule to say that God will speak to them by men of strange language--by the Assyrians. When he does, the message will be "blah, blah, blah." It will be beyond their comprehension. The statement certainly should not be made to say that God reveals himself in small pieces; here a little and there a little.
Isaiah applies his message to the plans of the politicians who claim safety through their covenant with death (Isa. 28:15). Their covenant with death will be annulled. It will be sheer terror to understand the message. Their plans are compared to a bed too short to stretch out on and to covers too narrow to wrap oneself in (Isa. 28:20). What more telling description of inadequacy could be found? "The Lord will rise up as on Mount Perazim, / he will be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon; / to do his deed--strange is his deed! / and to work his work--alien is his work!" (Isa. 28:21). If one does not know what happened at Perazim and at Gibeon, one is up the creek with no paddle for understanding what is being said. David won a notable victory over the Philistines at Baal-perazim (2 Sam. 5:20; 1 Chron. 14:11, 16), and in Joshua's day the sun stood still in Gibeon (Josh. 10:12-13). Isaiah has turned the concept upside down. On those occasions God wrought victory; but now he is bringing defeat. The prophets were skilled in taking popular beliefs and turning them upside down.
Isaiah rebuts the skeptics who insist that God is always on the side of Judah and cannot possibly act as Isaiah is proclaiming, by a comparison of God to a farmer (Isa. 28:23-29). The farmer does not plow his land the same way all year long; nor does he plant every crop the same way. He does not harvest every grain in the same way. Neither does the Lord always do the same thing. He is wonderful in counsel (cf. Isa. 2:6; 20:1) and excellent in wisdom. His work is exactly suited to the need. He can bless when that is suitable; he can punish when that is required.
Isaiah in this image has given us an excellent rebuttal to those who have their neat schemes of what God must or must not do. When we are generally not dealing with farming people, after expounding the text, we might need to give a parallel from the life they know. In the kitchen in making a multicolored ice-cream pie, the lady does not freeze it all at once. She thaws and freezes as layer is put on layer. God can bless, punish, and bless as is appropriate.
In chapter 29, Isaiah deals with Jerusalem which he calls "Ariel" which means "Lion of God." The threat is that God will encamp against her. But Isaiah's threat is still beyond comprehension to his audience. It is like the words of a book that is sealed. If one is asked to read, he cannot for it is sealed. If given to another who cannot read, and he is told to read it, he replies, "I cannot read." Jesus applied these words of Isa. 29:11-12 to the people of his generation (Matt. 15:8-9; Mark 7:6-8).
Each of the Major Prophets has three divisions in his material. There are oracles against his own people, oracles on foreign nations (Isa. 13-23; Jer. 46-51; Ezek. 25-32; cf. Amos 1-2; Zeph. 2:4-15), and oracles of hope. Isaiah expounds the Lord as the God of the nations in a series or sections beginning at chapter 13 each of which has the heading massa'. The KJV translated this term as "burden"; however, it would now be rendered "oracle." The word means a prophetic statement and occurs ten times in this section of Isaiah (13:1; 14:28; 15:1; 17:1; 19:1; 21:1, 11, 13; 22:1; 23:1).
Isaiah begins with Babylon against whom the Lord of hosts is assembling his army for battle. The word "hosts" in the prophets means "armies," and whether heavenly or earthy is disputable. The event is a day of the Lord in which people are in anguish compared to a woman in childbirth. This simile is frequent in the Old Testament. The Lord puts an end to the pride of the arrogant [Babylon] as he stirs up the Medes who cannot be bought off. The usual atrocities of ancient warfare (cf. 2 Kings 8:12; Ps. 137:7-9; Hos. 10:14; Amos 1:13; Nah. 3:10; Zech. 14:2)--children dashed to pieces and women ravished--are to be experienced. Babylon is to be as Sodom and Gomorrah; it is to be a place occupied by wild creatures rather than people.
The fall of Babylon results in the return of exiles to Israel (Isa. 14:1-2). The exiles will rule those who ruled them. But there is also the taunt (mashal) on the King of Babylon at whose demise the whole earth is at rest and quiet. Sheol beneath is stirred at his descent there. The shades there greet him with taunts, "You too have become as weak as we! You have become like us!" They say, "Maggots are the bed beneath you, and worms are your covering" (Isa. 14:9-11). This passage, along with Job 3:13-19, are the significant passages for depicting what the Hebrews thought of Sheol where people go at death.
The taunt declares, "How are you fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn!" (Isa. 14:12). The Latin translation rendered the helel of this passage as "Lucifer" which means "Light bringer." Some of the Church Fathers, as early as Tertullian, then interpreted Lucifer as the name of the Devil. Likely Jesus' statement about seeing Satan fall like lightning from heaven in the work of his disciples on the Limited Commission (Luke 10:18), played a role in people's exegesis. Its context was ignored. And that interpretation is perpetuated by the King James Version, and by John Milton's Paradise Lost with its story of the fall of the Devil. This is the one occurrence of "Lucifer" in Scripture; but Lucifer as a name for the Devil has become universal. The passage in Isaiah is not speaking of the Devil; it is speaking of the king of Babylon.
The king's plans to dominate the earth are ended. Sheol and the Pit where he has gone are equated in the passage. The kings of the nations have their tombs, but this king is not joined with them in burial. This passage makes a difference between the tomb and Sheol. In Canaan, where rock faces are abundant, rock cut tombs were used rather than graves. An unburied person goes to Sheol the same as a buried person does.
Further attention is given Babylon in "The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea" in which the fall of Babylon is announced (Isa. 21). Babylon is also dealt with further in Isa. 46, 47. There, her idols are unable to deliver her. She is personified as a proud woman who is stripped of her position and power. No one can save her.
Nearer geographically to Israel than Babylon is Philistia whose oracle is next (Isa. 14:28-32). The Philistines left their name on the land, which earlier was Canaan, for Palestine means the land of the Philistines. The year that King Ahaz died would be 715 B.C. Rejoicing by the Philistines is premature; further difficulties, compared to a snake producing an adder, await them. A negative answer is to be given their representatives by the Judeans. "The Lord has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people take refuge" (Isa. 14:32). Judah needs no alliance with Philistia.
Doom is envisioned for Moab whose major cities are mentioned (Isa. 15-16). Here is a good opportunity to test your knowledge of Bible geography. Moab's pride is mentioned (Isa. 16:6). Sympathy is expressed for Moab whose time is described as three years, like the years of a hireling (Isa. 16:14; cf. 21:16). A further statement on Moab is in Isa. 25:10-12 where Moab is trodden down as straw is trodden down in a dung-pit.
Damascus gets notice along with Ephraim (Isa. 17), and its ruin projected. Damascus fell to Tiglath-pileser II about 734 B.C. The destruction is not envisioned, however, as being total. Rather what is left is compared to gleanings left behind by a reaper. Isaiah has some very impressive figures for the remnant: two or three berries on the highest bough of an olive tree, or four or five on the branches of a fruit tree (Isa. 17:6). Though the political structure of Israel was destroyed, not everyone went into exile. The Assyrians imported people to fill the vacuum they had created in Israel (2 Kings 17:24). The charge against Ephraim is, "You have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge" (Isa. 17:10).
Ethiopia gets notice (Isa. 18) as does Egypt for whom civil strife is projected (Isa. 19). The plans of the Egyptians are to be confounded.
"The oracle of the wilderness of the sea" apparently deals with Babylon. News of its fall is projected. (Isa. 21).
Next is Dumah which is conjectured to deal with Edom. Here we have the well-known phrase, "Watchman, what of the night?" (Isa. 21:11).
Next is Arabia where the end of the glory of Kedar is projected to take place within a year. The interesting metaphor, "the years of a hireling" (Isa. 21:16; cf. 16:14) describe the extent of time.
Finally, there is the oracle on Tyre whose fall brings lament to all because of commercial concerns. A period of ruin of seventy years is projected (Isa. 23).
The picture of the Lord's using nations in his plan is further elaborated concerning the rise of Cyrus to power. The Lord has stirred up one from the east whom victory meets at ever step (Isa. 41:2). "He makes kings like dust with his sword, like driven stubble with his bow." Cyrus is called "a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country." The Lord has purposed and he will do it (Isa. 46:11).
The Lord has grasped the right hand of Cyrus to subdue nations before him (Isa. 45:1). He has called Cyrus by name though Cyrus does not know it (Isa. 45:4). Cyrus is the Lord's shepherd fulfilling his purpose (Isa. 44:28). Kings and other rulers in the Near East were described by the image of shepherd both in the Bible and in secular literature.
Cyrus is the Lord's anointed (Isa. 45:1). He declares that Jerusalem shall be built and the foundation of the temple be laid. He will set the exiles free, not for any price or reward (Isa. 45:13).
A couple of decades ago, Joshua Loth Liebman published his widely read Peace of Mind which was responded to by Fulton Sheen with Peace of Soul. We were reminded that Christians are in error when they assume that everyone out of Christ is miserable. The human personality is very adaptable. It can make peace with the life of sin and even with a life with no hope. The gospel invitation is to those who are hungry and thirsty with the promise they shall be filled. But the non-hungry and non-thirsty shall also be filled. But filled with what? That is the important question.
In the Arabic-speaking world the greeting is salam, and in the Hebrew world it is shalom. The term has a far wider meaning than just the absence of war. It designates prosperity, health, and general well-being. It can cover well-being with God as well as well-being with people. The Bible has much to say about peace; and the concept is a frequently used concept in the Book of Isaiah.
If Israel had only been obedient to the Lord, her peace would have been like a river (Isa. 48:18; cf. 66:12). We sing, "When peace like a river attends my way"; but what is the point of the simile? Do we not think of that which is quiet and undisturbed? But not all rivers are quiet and undisturbed. The simile likely describes that which is on-going and uninterrupted. The spiritual says, "Old man river just keeps on rolling along." One's continuous and on-going relationship with God, which itself is dependent on a right relation with people, should be thought of.
Perhaps the most challenging statement in Isaiah on peace is his twice repeated declaration, "There is no peace to the wicked, says the Lord God" (Isa. 48:11; 57:21). But it is the second of these that is the most colorful and challenging.
"Peace, peace, to the far and to the near; says the Lord / and I will heal him. / But the wicked are like the tossing sea; / for it cannot rest, / and its waters toss up mire and dirt. / There is no peace, say my God for the wicked" (Isa. 57:19-21).
"Those far and those near" form a merism in which extremes include all that is in between. In other words, it in this case takes in everyone.
What more picturesque description of futile activity can one find? The Lord set the bounds of the sea and declared, "Thus far shall you come and no farther" (cf. Jer. 5:22). Stand on the shore of any sea and observe the violence with which the waves dash against the rocks! Observe the added violence in time of storm! So is the person who has not made peace with his Creator who formed him and who gave the guide lines by which the creature is to conduct himself! He is futilely breaking himself against unchangeable boundaries. The futility can only be escaped when one brings himself to say with total dedication, "Your will, not mine, be done!"
How futile are the substitutes for peace that people trust!
The rural person can hardly stand it until he gets off the farm, sees the lights of Paris, and has himself an eight until five job. But he discovers that the city is a place of violence and dog eat dog.
The city person, tired of his eight to five job, can dream of a few acres in the country where he can watch the cows graze while he swings back and forth in the swing on his porch or lawn. He learns that fences have to be built and continuously maintained or those cows will be out and gone. He discovers that hardly has the winter gone by when the weeds and grass take over. One person said he thought a yard should never be more than one mower width wide. One pass around the house would take care of the whole mowing problem!
Others dream of finding peace in their trips to the counselor. The advice columns in the paper regularly advise, "See your counselor." No doubt many people are helped. But when the counselor's marriage breaks up, or when the counselor himself commits suicide, one realizes that not all the answers are to be found here.
People seek peace in the infallible church. Just turn the whole problem over to the church. The adverse publicity that the church has been getting over child molestation has shown that many people have not found peace here.
One of the titles Isaiah uses for the Messiah is sar shalom ("Prince of Peace"; Isa. 9:6, 7) with the promise "of his government and of peace there shall be no end." The term "prince" never designates the one first in command; and so first of all is "the God of peace" (Rom. 15:33; 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:11; Phil. 4:9; 1 Thess. 5:23). Through his Son who made both Jew and Gentile one (Eph. 2:14) is to be found peace.
In Isaiah, speaking of the Lord, this relationship carries the promise, "Thou dost keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is staid on thee, because he trusts in thee" (Isa. 26:3). In another setting, one of the alternatives offered is, "Or let them lay hold of my protection, / let them make peace with me, / let them make peace with me" (Isa. 27:5). "The effect of righteousness shall be peace, and the result of righteousness, quiet and trust for ever. / My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places" (Isa. 32:17-18).
Bill Crosby asked an audience what a dysfunctional family was. A person in the audience (whom I expect was a plant) answered "One that has kids." The house roared as Crosby intended it to.
The Lord intended the family to be the place where people are trained for his service. The prophet Malachi in denouncing divorce asks, "And what does he desire? Godly offspring" (Mal. 2:15). The law of Moses placed upon fathers the responsibility of training their children to fear the Lord (Deut. 6:6ff.).
Yet history is replete with cases of fathers with dysfunctional families. Jacob's sons sold their brother Joseph into Egyptian slavery. That is a pretty dysfunctional family is it not? Eli was a godly man about whom no evil is recorded except his failure with his children.
"Now Eli was very old, and he hears all that his sons were doing to all Israel and how they lay with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting. And he said to them, `Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people. No, my sons; it is no good report that I hear the people of the Lord spreading abroad. If a man sins against a man, God will mediate for him, but if a man sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?' But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the Lord to slay them" (1 Sam. 2:22-25).
Samuel, was a figure who spent his entire life in public service. At retirement time he openly challenged the people to mention any fault of which he had been guilty. There were no charges. But Samuel had a dysfunctional family. "When Samuel grew old, he made his sons judges over Israel. . . . Yet his sons did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after gain; they took bribes and perverted justice" (1 Sam. 8:1-3).
No dysfunctional family is more notorious than that of David. The problems started with David himself. He committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had her husband Uriah killed to cover over his sin. Both of these acts-- adultery and murder--were capital crimes in Israel. Nathan the prophet threatened, "I will raise up evil against you out of your own house" (2 Sam. 12:11).
Amnon, David's son raped his sister Tamar, and in revenge, Absalom, another son, murdered Amnon. David exiled Absalom but later allowed him to return. David would not speak to him. That is a fine way for a father to treat a son! Then Absalom raised a revolt to dethrone his father. There is no question that Absalom would have killed his father David had the revolt succeeded. What an example of a godly family!
King Hezekiah is ranked by the writer of the book of Kings as being the best of Judah's kings after Solomon. "He trusted in the Lord the God of Israel; so that there was none like him among the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. For he held fast to the Lord; he did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses. And the Lord was with him; wherever he went forth, he prospered" (2 Kings 18:5-7). Yet Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, who succeeded him, seems to have set himself to undo all that his father had accomplished. Manasseh was neither the first nor the last son who has rebelled against all that his father stood for. We really have no good explanation why good people produce bad kids. Manasseh led Judah to do more evil than had been done by the people the Lord dispossessed in giving Israel the land. He brought on Judah the decree of its destruction and exile (2 Kings 21:9, 14).
According to the prophet Isaiah, God also has a dysfunctional family. The metaphor of Israel being God's son is not original with Isaiah. Through Moses, God had said to Pharaoh in Egypt, "Israel is my first-born son, and I say to you, `Let my son go that he may serve me'; if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your son" (Exod. 4:22-23). The prophet Hosea had said, Out of Egypt have I called my son" (Hos. 11:1).
The Lord had brought up sons, who, instead of appreciating the blessings showered on them, have rebelled against him. He has prodigal sons. They are less appreciative than the beasts about us. The ox knows his owner, and the donkey knows his mater's crib. Put a block of salt on the open range and you will not have to search for the cows. Put out feed and one does not have to hunt for the donkey. He will show up to eat.
But all the blessings God has showered on Israel--deliverance from Egyptian bondage, the entering into a covenant with Israel at Sinai, preservation for forty years in the desert, displacing the Canaanites and giving Israel their land, raising Israel to the glories of the kingdoms of David and Solomon--all have accomplished nothing. Israel has forsaken the Holy One of Israel who has done all these things for her. She is a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity (Isa. 1:4). Instead of being "sons of God," they are "sons who deal corruptly." They have forsaken the Lord.
The present calamity being experienced by Judah has made personified Judah like a person who has been beaten to a pulp. No place on the body remains without a bruise. No first aid has been given. One person saw in the description the image of a beaten slave standing in the slave market. Dropping the figure, the prophet describes a country overran by an enemy army. Jerusalem, the daughter of Zion, is left as lonely as a booth in a vineyard or a lodge in a cucumber field. She is a besieged city. If the Lord had not left a few survivors she would be destroyed as Sodom and Gomorrah were. This seems to be the condition of the city when the Assyrian representatives came to demand its surrender in 701 B.C.
Isaiah returns to the dysfunctional family image in chapter 30. Judeans are rebellious children who carry out a plan but not the Lord's plan (Isa. 30:1). "They are a rebellious people, lying sons, sons who will not hear the instruction of the Lord" (Isa. 30:9).
In many O.T. passages "son/sons" is a term of character description rather than a term of physical descent. The sons of God are the people who manifest the character God desires. God's cry is a cry of concern. It is out of his distress that he utters it. If Israel's behavior would change, sins that are as scarlet could be as white as snow; but it is Israel's move. They have to return.
Paul makes clear in the letter to the Corinthians that the experience of Israel contains lessons for those in the church (1 Cor. 10). He speaks of "the Israel of God" (Gal. 6:16). This text of Isaiah should be a challenge to every person whether in the church or out.
If you are out of Christ, think of the blessings you enjoy in a country like America--the highest material standard of living the world has ever seen, the security with which you live, and the educational opportunities you have. From whence is all of this, and what is its purpose? Is it to gamble away in the casinos? Is it to enable one to change mates with the season? Or is it to enable one to glorify the God who made him in his own image and who gave his Son for him?
The same searching questions face the one who has named the name of Christ but who is not glorifying him with the life he is living. Isaiah's thoughts are the equivalent of those raised by the parable of the Prodigal Son, but the son has not yet abandoned the pigpen and come home.
Text: Isa. 33:13-16
Introduction: One of the very popular television shows is "Survivor." Isaiah also has his survivors. Despite the fact that the Old Testament has very little about life after death, here in Isaiah is a summary list of actions to emulate. Like with other summaries, one should not assume total inclusiveness for the list. Parallels are Psalm 15 and 24:3ff.
1. He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly. Both behavior and speech are included.
2. He who despises the gain of oppression. Isaiah like the other prophets is concerned over "grinding the face of the poor." How many fortunes have been built up by paying inadequate wages? How many poor have been taken advantage of?
3. He shakes his hand lest they hold a bribe. The Old Testament has much to say about bribery. In third world countries today bribery is a way of life. There is also more in the USA than we would admit.
4. He stops his ear from hearing of bloodshed.
5. He shuts his eyes from looking upon evil. None of these suggests a callous attitude where one looks the other way or just closes his eyes to what is going on.
A blessing is pronounced on the person who avoids these sins. He dwells on the heights; his place of defense will be a fortress of rocks. Such a fortress would be secure. He also has an ample supply of necessities that include bread and water. He is a survivor.
Text: Isa. 55:1-5
Isaiah seeks attention by the use of "HO." Three times in the text the invitation "Come" is repeated. The invitation is neither limited to the "haves," nor is it limited to the "have nots." Social standing, money, education, suitable clothing, or who one knows all play no roles. All that is needed is thirst. The New Testament closes with a like inclusive invitation: "Let him who is desires take of the water of life without price" (Rev. 22:17).
Isaiah uses the metaphor of "thirst" for the spiritual longing of the human soul. Jesus picked up the metaphor in one of the Beatitudes: "Blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied" (Matt. 5:6). The tragedy is that those who do not hunger and thirst for righteousness also shall be filled, but filled with what?
With an abundance of food as near as the closest market, we have little way to grasp what hunger will drive a person to. But the body can survive longer without food than it can without water. With plenty of faucets to turn on, and with drinking fountains in most public places, what do we know of thirst? Water was scarce in the biblical world where it did not rain from April to October. Jeremiah has one of the most challenging indictments, "for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns, that can hold no water" (Jer. 2:13).
Jesus talked to the Samaritan woman at the well about water from which if one drank, he would not thirst again (John 4:1-14).
No charge is attached to Isaiah's offer. There are no hidden strings attached, no hidden costs. I went to buy a car advertised at a price in the paper, but I discovered there was a preparation charge and a delivery charge added on that the paper had not mentioned. Isaiah's invitation is one without money and without price.
Next, Isaiah compares values. Benjamin Franklin tells of buying a whistle, which attracted him. But soon he learned that he had paid too much for his whistle.
Raising the question of values, Isaiah asks the reader why he spends his money on that which is not food. Why labor for that which does not satisfy?
We have all chased some fancy only to find when we have acquired it that it was not really as much fun as we had imagined it would be.
For Isaiah's readers, lasting satisfaction was to be found in sharing the everlasting covenant made by the Lord with David. It was through that covenant that God's plan for the ages was to be carried out.
New Testament writers explain that the coming of Jesus is the accomplishment of that promise. He is the way, the truth, and the life. Anything short of a relation with God and his Christ cannot bring lasting satisfaction to the soul. There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. In this relationship is hunger and thirst satisfied.
The invitation is built on God's power to save and God's eagerness to save.
Return to Northern California Preachers' Retreat Page