Welcome to The MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my ninety third episode. In this episode I want to study Isaiah chapter 29. This chapter foretells the siege of Jerusalem and discusses the problem of spiritual blindness. It also talks about how God is the divine Creator who will reshape the world. The people in Jerusalem had become very proud and had fallen out of favor with God. They believed themselves to be highly honorable and their festivals changed from honoring God to trying to manipulate Him. They had become spiritually blind, and so God warned them through Isaiah of their impending wake up call. Let’s read verses 1-4:
Isa 29:1 Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts run their round.
Isa 29:2 Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me like an Ariel.
Isa 29:3 And I will encamp against you all around, and will besiege you with towers and I will raise siegeworks against you.
Isa 29:4 And you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak, and from the dust your speech will be bowed down; your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost, and from the dust your speech shall whisper.
The first thing we notice about these verses in the unique name given to Jerusalem – it’s being called Ariel. This is actually the only chapter in the Bible where Jerusalem is given this name. The name Ariel has a couple different meanings. It could mean an altar for burning or it could mean Lion of God. Some scholars have argued for it to mean altar for burning because of the bloodshed that would be involved with a siege on the city. They thought all of the death would make the whole city become like an altar of sacrifice. I don’t think that’s what Ariel means here. I think it means Lion of God. I think Isaiah is calling the city Ariel out of sarcasm because the people had become so proud that they viewed themselves as the Lion of God. They had become confident in their own strength and authority – so Isaiah is showing them that their strength and authority is laughable compared to God’s.
It’s likely that the people of Jerusalem were also depending on their heritage to consider themselves spiritually elite. After all, they were descendants of King David! We see this same attitude in the Pharisees and Saducees of the New Testament. They thought their Jewish heritage meant they weren’t subject to God’s judgment. John the Baptist gave one of the most memorable answers to this. Listen to Matthew 3:1-12:
Mat 3:1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,
Mat 3:2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Mat 3:3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’”
Mat 3:4 Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
Mat 3:5 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him,
Mat 3:6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
Mat 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Mat 3:8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
Mat 3:9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.
Mat 3:10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Mat 3:11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Mat 3:12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
So Isaiah is warning the people in Jerusalem that if they do not return to God they will face judgment regardless of their heritage. But being proud of their heritage was not their only offense. They also held religious festivals over and over again in an attempt to hide their rebellion and placate God. You might know some Christians who are like this today. Many churches have problems with family units considering themselves elite or above other members of the church. There’s also no shortage of Christians who live in rebellion but flaunt their religiosity as if to manipulate God.
We see from the people of Jerusalem that this type of behavior never works out. God sees right past it and brings distress onto the people. Instead of accepting their routines of false worship – God brings heaviness and sorrow onto them. If Jerusalem saw itself as the Lion, then God was going to be the Lion Hunter. He was going to battle against them as fiercely as the hunter battles the lion. Going to war with God promised the fall of Jerusalem and it was brought low. God’s entire purpose for submitting Jerusalem was to destroy their lofty self-image. Instead of calling herself Ariel and the city where David dwelt, their speech would be brought down to a whisper from out of the dust. Let’s read verses 5-8:
Isa 29:5 But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff. And in an instant, suddenly,
Isa 29:6 you will be visited by the LORD of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.
Isa 29:7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her, shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.
Isa 29:8 As when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he is eating, and awakes with his hunger not satisfied, or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he is drinking, and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched, so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.
In the first four verses we saw God bring hordes of enemies against Jerusalem to knock them off of their pedestal of arrogance. Now that they’ve been humbled, God switches His position and becomes Divine Protector of the city. He descends on Jerusalem in an instant with power like that of a raging tempest – with the flames of devouring fire. God scatters Jerusalem’s enemies like fine dust and like chaff that passes away.
Once the horde of enemies had accomplished His purpose in humbling Jerusalem, God punished them for their own evil and wickedness. He frustrated their goals of plundering the city and made them like people starved for conquest. They would dream of stolen treasures but they would wake up with nothing. You would think that God’s defense of the now-humbled Jerusalem would cause the people to turn back to him in gratitude. But the pathological effects of their arrogance lingered. Let’s read verses 9-10:
Isa 29:9 Astonish yourselves and be astonished; blind yourselves and be blind! Be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not with strong drink!
Isa 29:10 For the LORD has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers).
Despite being humbled and then saved by God – the people are still lost in their incomprehension of Him. All of their false worship and religiosity has made them spiritually blind and spiritually drunk. In the previous episode I warned you of the utmost importance of maintaining the wrongfulness of sin. I told you that if you start saying a sin is not a sin, then you run the risk of warping your conscience and pathologizing the mechanism that helps you find the proper way into well being. I think something similar has happened to the people Isaiah is speaking to. They’ve gone so far sideways that they can no longer comprehend God. God tells them to pause and wonder at this, because though they do it to themselves, they lack the self-awareness to see their own condition.
This passage is another indictment against those who claim to be drunk in the Holy Spirit. Clearly we see that God sent a curse onto these people as a consequence of their choice to be blind. It’s not a good thing. It’s not a blessing. Furthermore, since the people have chosen darkness, God responds by putting them into a spiritual deep sleep. Think about sleep for a moment. During sleep we are unable to do anything productive. During sleep we are vulnerable. During sleep we become insensitive. Jerusalem’s pride, blindness, and drunkenness has caused them to fall into a state of vulnerability, insensitivity, and failure to be productive.
But this condition is not exclusive to the people of that age. When Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, he told them that now is the time to awake out of sleep; for our salvation has drawn near. Many people are in spiritual deep sleep today. It’s easy to get lost in your daily routine and forget to look up. It’s easy to leave your Bible on the shelf winter after winter as it collects dust. It’s easy to convince ourselves that our lives depend on only on ourselves and to steer clear of petitioning God.
Also notice this idea of the prophets and the seers falling silent. When a population has become callous and has descended into a spiritual sleep – they actually want it this way. They don’t want to hear the full counsel of God because they are convicted by it. They want to reshape the Gospel into their own image so that they can become their own point of reference for perfection and moral authority. Isaiah likens this to a staggering drunk who has poor perception and blurred vision. The longer a population remains in this condition – the more they begin to thirst for meaning and purpose. Listen to Amos 8:11-13:
Amo 8:11 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.
Amo 8:12 They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it.
Amo 8:13 “In that day the lovely virgins and the young men shall faint for thirst.
It is this thirst that has caused modern people to form cults out of causes – including climate change. Climate change is a real problem, but the activists have formed their own communities and drafted their own doctrines regarding what to do about it. Any suggestions that deviate from the canon are considered heretical. They even have their own prophets heralding the incoming apocalypse if we don’t act now in accordance with their worship. This thirst for meaning is what drives the invention of countless new age spiritual movements and events like Burning Man. Jesus said, “Man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” This is what the West is starving for. This is what Jerusalem was starving for. Let’s read verses 11-12:
Isa 29:11 And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”
Isa 29:12 And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”
These verses are showing how the people are indifferent to the message revealed through Isaiah. He compares them to the illiterate. It’s important to remember that this is not suggesting they actually cannot read. It’s as if they cannot read. The message is being delivered but it means nothing to them. Some Christians are like this today. They go to church and can pick out a few words here and there. They are able to appear as if they are enjoying themselves – but the true meaning of what’s being said escapes them. The divine mystery blinds all who prefer not to see. Let’s read verses 13-16:
Isa 29:13 And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,
Isa 29:14 therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”
Isa 29:15 Ah, you who hide deep from the LORD your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”
Isa 29:16 You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?
Here we see a point that I’ve always made about faith. It’s hard to say what the most fundamental expression of faith is – but it’s certainly not what comes out of your mouth. You can lie and fake all sorts of things by speaking. The people in Jerusalem paid lip service to God but their hearts were far from Him. Outwardly proper worship offends God if it is a way of evading him at a deeper level. Jesus Himself quoted verse 13 out of this chapter of Isaiah. Listen to Him rebuke the religious leaders of His time:
Mat 15:7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
Mat 15:8 “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
Mat 15:9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
That’s the danger of being somebody whose heart is far removed from God. You can say all of the right things in church but it’s your heart that God wants. Even when everyone around you is praising and honoring you for your great acts of religion – God knows your heart. If your heart isn’t in it, then God will not accept your worship. I want to plant a flag here and tell you that I’m not saying you should hide from God when you feel guilty. Contrarily, God is the One you need to cling to when you feel guilty. You don’t become like these people in Jerusalem just because you are struggling with sin or struggling with God. You become like these people in Jerusalem when you choose to use God for your own devious purposes.
We see this idea of Jerusalem treating God’s commandments as if they are man’s commandments. What this means is that they had no fear of God in their hearts. If they were going to obey the commandments – it was only because they feared what other people thought of them. Their hearts did not respond to God, but only to other people.
Without God Jerusalem would lose all wisdom and discernment. It happens that a population becomes so confident of their own progress that they become arrogant. Then they depart from God. This departure from God causes their wisdom to perish. By the time they’ve realized their mistake it’s too late because the pillars of their society have been too thoroughly eroded. Isaiah calls God’s rejection of human wisdom a marvelous work and wonder. This process of God flipping entire societies upside down in order to bring them back to him amazed Paul as well. Listen to 1 Corinthians 1:18-31:
1Co 1:18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
1Co 1:19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
1Co 1:20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
1Co 1:21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
1Co 1:22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,
1Co 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,
1Co 1:24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1Co 1:25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
1Co 1:26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
1Co 1:27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
1Co 1:28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,
1Co 1:29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
1Co 1:30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
1Co 1:31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
The people of Jerusalem thought they could hide their thoughts, their counsel, their deeds, and their works away from God in the darkness. But they didn’t realize God is with them in the darkness as well. Their relationship with God was completely turned around and confused. It’s worth noting back in Genesis how Adam also tried to hide from God immediately after his sin with Eve. The people in Jerusalem tried to deceive God. But they didn’t understand that they had the truth completely reversed on itself. God is the One who had them figured out while they really didn’t know God at all.
These people raised themselves up out of a desire to be like God. They wanted to be their own gods. The clay wanted to be as esteemed, as intelligent, and as powerful as the Potter Himself. And the clay declared to the Potter, He did not make me! Isn’t this exactly what we say today? Molecules to man evolution. Mindless. Unguided. And the clay screamed out to the Potter, He has no understanding! Today we search the grandeur of the cosmos and we have the audacity to say it has no Designer. There’s something about the universe being a product of blind, random, purposeless chance that draws us in. I think it’s the temptation of nihilism. I think it’s the same ancient tempter who plagued Adam and Eve when he said they, too, could be like God. Let’s read verses 17-21:
Isa 29:17 Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?
Isa 29:18 In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.
Isa 29:19 The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the LORD, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.
Isa 29:20 For the ruthless shall come to nothing and the scoffer cease, and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off,
Isa 29:21 who by a word make a man out to be an offender, and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right.
These verses are showing us God’s restoration. Our restoration. It is the purpose behind all that He does with us. In the big picture this will seem like not very long from now. But I’ll readily admit it feels like forever when you are going through suffering or through a trial. Despite human unbelief, God plans to transform the moral order of the world. Lebanon was known for its mighty forests. The imagery of Lebanon being turned into a fruitful field is meant to convey the message of one thing being cut down so another can be raised up. It is the crucifixion followed by the resurrection. It is the fallen world being destroyed so the perfect one can be ushered in. It is your life ending with your last breath so that you will be raised up in eternity.
Being restored to God means that your pride no longer prevents you from hearing His Word or seeing His work. If you humbly seek God He will give you eyes to see and ears to hear. The meek obtaining fresh joy in the Lord means that if you are humble you will be filled with joy. This idea is about perspective. If you are humble, you will have an accurate estimation of yourself and a proper understanding of yourself in relation to God and to others. It’s a lot pressure being proud. You constantly walk around with the fear of being exposed as wrong or as less than you make yourself out to be. Pride puts the cruel, iron yoke of the world on your shoulders. Humility removes it and gives you rest in Jesus.
But the work of God will not stop at restoring His people. He’s also going to bring justice down upon the evil and the wicked. Ruthless and merciless people shall come to nothing. Those who scoff at the idea of God will scoff no more. Those who wait in the darkness for a chance to do evil will be intercepted by God. And here’s one for the fascist enforcers of political correctness: those who by a word make a man out to be an offender shall come to nothing. Let’s finish with verses 22-24:
Isa 29:22 Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall no more be ashamed, no more shall his face grow pale.
Isa 29:23 For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
Isa 29:24 And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction.”
This is one of the more hopeful passages we find in Scripture. God chooses to address His people as Jacob in these verses. This is significant because the name Jacob, the father of the 12 tribes, carries the meaning of trickster and con-man. People who act in this way have reasons to be ashamed. But in God’s restored order, even these people will no longer carry their shame. Verse 23 gives us a picture of Jacob, a patriarch of God’s people, looking over his descendants and seeing that they hallow the name of the Lord and respect the holiness of the Lord. In the restored order, even those who went astray in spirit will finally see the truth. And those who murmured in doubt will accept instruction because at last they will see the truth. I love those verses because they show me that God will not lose any person who desires to be with Him – even if that person is wildly confused and ignorant.
In this chapter we dealt with spiritual blindness. We know that spiritual blindness begins with pride and the height of spiritual blindness is the clay rejecting the Potter as its maker. If this is where you are today, I would encourage you to humble yourself and keep your eyes open. Pay attention and seek God. If you do this with the right heart and with genuine humility – He will reveal Himself to you. And you, too, will be restored into the joy and peace that comes as part of being in relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
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