Well good evening everyone and welcome to my fifty first episode. Tonight, I want to take a look at the second part of Isaiah chapter nine, which will be verses eight through twenty one. Remember, the aim here is to dive deep into the text and develop it thoroughly. This is less about identifying and developing principles. However, I think you will find that God’s Word speaks directly to your heart and that the principles of the stories will arise within you. So let’s go ahead and get started with verses eight through ten.
9:8-10 The Lord has spoken out against Jacob; his judgment has fallen upon Israel. And the people of Israel and Samaria, who spoke with such pride and arrogance, will soon know it. They said, “We will replace the broken bricks of our ruins with finished stone, and replant the felled sycamore-fig trees with cedars.”
Can you imagine this? The almighty, creator God who loves us so much that he wants nothing more than for us to follow his ways into well being – had leveled a devastating judgment to get Israel’s attention. Did they turn back to him? No. No, they said forget God. They said, we are certain of our own ways. If God wants to turn our bricks into ruins then we’ll come back at him with finished stone. If God wants to bring down our sycamore-fig trees, then we will plant cedars. Let’s see just how mighty our God really is.
Pride was one of the chief causes of the downfall of Israel and Samaria. Their pride cut them off from being able to see and hear what God wanted them to do and it cut them off from his help. Back in chapter seven, God spoke through Isaiah and said, “Syria is no stronger than its capital, Damascus, and Damascus is no stronger than its king, Rezin. As for Israel, within sixty-five years it will be crushed and completely destroyed. Israel is no stronger than its capital, Samaria, and Samaria is no stronger than its king, Pekah son of Remaliah. Unless your faith is firm, I cannot make you stand firm.” If you are not with me, then you are against me. The message here is clear: if we are too proud to put our faith in God then we stand alone. When we cut ourselves off from God, we’re putting all of our trust in ourselves. That is a very dangerous way to live, because the chances of us being right about everything all of the time is zero. We will make mistakes where God will not make mistakes. So let’s see what happens to these proud people of Israel:
9:11-12 But the Lord will bring Rezin’s enemies against Israel and stir up all their foes. The Syrians from the east and the Philistines from the west will bare their fangs and devour Israel. But even then the Lord’s anger will not be satisfied. His fist is still poised to strike.
You can imagine the people in Israel who have defied God. We don’t need him. Let’s invent our own values. Let’s invent our own morality. Let’s rave and revel the nights away in our sin. If someone offends us, if someone even thinks of telling us we’re wrong, we will cut them down and show no mercy. For we are the gods of men in our time. Oh, they were so convinced of this. But in the distance – beyond where they could see, beyond where they could hear past their own debauchery – real enemies were being raised up. Real enemies were coming for them.
Things were not looking good for Israel. God was raising up Israel’s enemies to devour them. So think of today. What do people have to be like in order to warrant this kind of judgment? In Psalm 53, David describes them as those who do evil and never learn, those who wouldn’t even think of praying to God. In Psalm 79, Asaph writes, “Pour out your wrath on the nations that refuse to acknowledge you – on kingdoms that do not call upon your name. For they have devoured your people Israel, making the land a desolate wilderness.” The irony with Asaph though, being from Israel, is that he was calling on God to bring judgment upon other nations who were guilty of the same thing his own nation was in the midst of being judged for – pride and refusal to acknowledge God. Jeremiah speaks much the same way during his prayer to God in Jeremiah 10:23-25:
I know, Lord, that our lives are not our own. We are not able to plan our own course. So correct me, Lord, but please be gentle. Do not correct me in anger, for I would die. Pour out your wrath on the nations that refuse to acknowledge you – for they have devoured your people Israel, they have devoured and consumed them, making the land a desolate wilderness.
9:13 For after all this punishment, the people will still not repent. They will not seek the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
This is a really important thing to remember. God is practically spelling it out for these people and they still want nothing to do with him. Jeremiah describes this by saying, “Lord, you are searching for honesty. You struck your people, but they paid no attention. You crushed them, but they refused to be corrected. They are determined, with faces set like stone; they have refused to repent.” Just like in ancient Israel, God wants us to be honest with him. When we pray, sing, speak, or serve, nothing shuts us off from God quite as much as hypocrisy, lying, or pretense. If we want to be close to God we must be honest with him.
So Israel wants nothing to do with God. Hosea comments on this when he describes Israel’s wickedness. He says, “Their arrogance testifies against them, yet they don’t return to the Lord their God or even try to find him.” This idea of their arrogance testifying against them: this happens when you’re wrong about something but are too afraid to admit you’re wrong about it. There are some people who get so wrapped up in this that they would rather define their life around wrong ideas or failures than suffer the pain of admitting their mistakes. I think it’s true that pride intensifies all of our other sins. It shuts us off from being able to ask God for help and it also causes us to identify with our sins. And when we identify with our sins, we integrate them into the very fabric of who we are. That makes these sins all the more dangerous and all the more difficult to give up. Having identified with their sin, the proud people of Israel have chosen to test the might of their God – let’s see what happens:
9:14-15 Therefore, in a single day the Lord will destroy both the head and the tail, the noble palm branch and the lowly reed. The leaders of Israel are the head, and the lying prophets are the tail.
When a nation has used up all of their warnings and God brings a judgment, he brings it fast. The impact is felt from the wisest and mightiest of us to the lowest and simplest of us. Isaiah describes this happening to Egypt in chapter 19 when he says, “The Lord has sent a spirit of foolishness on them, so all their suggestions are wrong. They cause Egypt to stagger like a drunk in his vomit. There is nothing Egypt can do. All are helpless – the head and the tail, the noble palm branch and the lowly reed.” This is a picture of Egypt’s judgment coming in the form of just widespread utter bewilderment. Ten years ago you might have wondered how widespread confusion could sweep an entire nation. Take a look around today and you can clearly see that it’s still possible.
We see this idea of judgment coming swiftly again with the fall of Babylon in the book of Revelation: “Therefore, these plagues will overtake her in a single day – death and mourning and famine. She will be completely consumed by fire, for the Lord God who judges her is mighty.” When Babylon made God their enemy, God spoke to them through Jeremiah, saying: “See, I am your enemy, you arrogant people, says the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. Your day of reckoning has arrived – the day when I will punish you. O land of arrogance, you will stumble and fall, and no one will raise you up. For I will light a fire in the cities of Babylon that will burn up everything around them.” We see it again and again: pride and arrogance are the fastest ways to cut yourself off from God. But you’ll notice in this passage of Isaiah there is specific mention of the leaders and the lying prophets:
9:16 For the leaders of the people have misled them. They have led them down the path of destruction.
This is an example of badly confused people leading other badly confused people. Jesus talks about this in Matthew when he says, “Every plant not planted by my heavenly Father will be uprooted, so ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind, and if one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a ditch.” We need to be very careful about who we follow and who we listen to. The best way that you can prevent being misled by a confused teacher is by having God as the foundation of your discernment. Knowing God and knowing his Word will allow you to test everything and keep what is good. So the leaders have misled the people and the people have followed them into wickedness:
9:17 That is why the Lord takes no pleasure in the young men and shows no mercy even to the widows and orphans. For they are all wicked hypocrites, and they all speak foolishness. But even then the Lord’s anger will not be satisfied. His fist is still poised to strike.
So, even youthful people in their prime can become faded and found wanting in God’s sight. Now listen to what the prophet Amos says about this, this is so interesting. Amos writes, “The time is surely coming, says the Sovereign Lord, when I will send a famine on the land – not a famine of bread or water but of hearing the words of the Lord. People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from border to border searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it. Beautiful girls and strong young men will grow faint in that day, thirsting for the Lord’s word.” Amos says the young people are thirsting for the Word of God. Could that be happening today, right now? Could that explain why depression, anxiety, drug abuse, and suicide are on the rise? Could it be that huge numbers of young people are starving for the sustenance of God and can’t find it because they don’t know that is what they need?
With Israel, we can also know that these young people had wicked and corrupt hearts, because their speech was wicked and corrupt. Jesus said to the Pharisees, “You brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart.” This is an injunction from Jesus that if you find your mouth full of wickedness, it’s a good sign you need to check what’s in your heart.
9:18 This wickedness is like a brushfire. It burns not only briers and thorns but also sets the forests ablaze. Its burning sends up clouds of smoke.
It’s interesting that wickedness and sinful behavior can multiply and spread like fire. Also like fire, if you aren’t vigilant, then wickedness and sin can grow out of control underneath you. But this verse also indicates what will happen when the wicked face judgment. The prophet Malachi elaborates when he says, “The day of judgment is coming, burning like a furnace. On that day the arrogant and the wicked will be burned up like straw. They will be consumed – roots, branches, and all.” This is a picture of the fire of God’s wrath being poured out on evil.
9:19 The land will be blackened by the fury of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. The people will be fuel for the fire, and no one will spare even his own brother.
God’s judgment is totally decimating the land. The prophet Joel writes a description of what it looks like when God sends a locust plague to destroy the land in Judah. He says, “Fire burns in front of them, and flames follow after them. Ahead of them the land lies as beautiful as the Garden of Eden. Behind them is nothing but desolation; not one thing escapes.”
There’s also this element of family members turning against one another. Micah describes this in his warning to Judah. He says, “The godly people have all disappeared; not one honest person is left on the earth. They are all murderers, setting traps even for their own brothers…Don’t trust anyone – not your best friend or even your wife! For the son despises his father. The daughter defies her mother. The daughter-in-law defies her mother-in-law. Your enemies are in your own household.” We really need to be careful with the identity politics game that has emerged in our culture. You can absolutely turn two family members against each other if each of them identifies with opposing views. Another classic example of families ripping each other apart is when someone dies without any advance directives. When a person leaves an inheritance, the greed that is stirred in the hearts of family can cause them to demonize each other to the point of never speaking again. We must always remember, ideas are not people. We are called to love people – even if we don’t love their ideas.
9:20 They will attack their neighbor on the right but will still be hungry. They will devour their neighbor on the left but will not be satisfied. In the end they will even eat their own children.
Isaiah chapter eight points to people who refuse God’s Word as the people who will end up starving. Isaiah says, “Look to God’s instruction and teachings! People who contradict his word are completely in the dark. They will go from one place to another, weary and hungry. And because they are hungry, they will rage and curse their king and their God. They will look up to heaven and down at the earth, but wherever they look, there will be trouble and anguish and dark despair. They will be thrown out into the darkness.”
Depending on what translation you use, this line: “In the end they will even eat their own children”, can be read, “In the end they will even eat their own arms.” I think this idea is suggesting that enemies of God always end up turning on each other. That’s pretty close to what we see today with people trying to cut each other down for any offense they can find. In Isaiah chapter 50 God speaks, saying, “I will feed your enemies with their own flesh. They will be drunk with rivers of their own blood. All the world will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Israel.” You know this is exactly what Nietzsche was afraid of when he pronounced that “God is dead.” He knew that everything we valued would have its foundation ripped out from beneath it. He knew that with no sovereign ideal to look up to, human beings would slaughter each other over the question of whose values are most legitimate. Let’s watch Israel do this:
9:21 Manasseh will feed on Ephraim, Ephraim will feed on Manasseh, and both will devour Judah. But even then the Lord’s anger will not be satisfied. His fist is still poised to strike.
Wickedness and jealousy between the tribes of Israel led to conflict and civil war. When we turn away from God, we lose any chance we have of uniting under him. The only option left to us is to gather into tribes and factions and make war with one another. One of the most important lessons we should take from Isaiah chapter nine is that God is actively sustaining whatever good we have in our lives in ways that we can’t possibly imagine. That if we entertain – even for a second – turning away from God and striking out on our own, all of these hidden ways he is taking care of us are going to emerge as disasters and tragedies in our lives. We are called to have child like faith, and one of the reasons is because God is working for us in places we just aren’t aware of. All of this stuff that Israel suffered: rage, greed, hatred, dysfunction, and misery. God will save us from all of that if we have the faith to remain under the wings of the Lord. He will give us peace, stability, meaning, and rest.
If you find this content valuable, feel free to share it and to use it in your own studies. If you’d like to support this podcast, you can do so at http://www.patreon.com/michaelhbaun. There is a link in the description. Your generosity goes a long way to promoting the growth of this enterprise and the cause of free speech. Thank you all for joining me this evening, and I will see you in the next episode.
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