Welcome to The MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my 127th episode. In this episode I want to return to our study of the book of Isaiah. We are in chapter 56. The past few chapters in Isaiah have been showing us the great and precious promises of gospel grace. These promises were exemplified in temporal salvation, such as the salvation of the Israelites from their captivity in Babylon. Our ultimate salvation through Jesus Christ is our cause for hope in this world. But what do we do in the mean time? How do we live in a world that can feel very far from heaven? This chapter gives us instruction to be attentive to our duties and to our responsibilities as we await our Lord Jesus. This encouragement is not exclusive to any class of people either. The call to moral responsibility is extended even to those whom society considers outcasts. All of us are commanded to love God and love our neighbor, and all of us are able to receive God’s blessing when we do. This chapter concludes by leveling a serious charge against the watchmen of Israel. They were careless, unfaithful, and willfully blind in the service of their duties. Scripture convicts the hearts of those who have strayed from God. It comforts the hearts of those who are faithful. And it instructs all of us in the ways of righteousness.
This idea of willful blindness among the watchmen of Israel is particularly relevant today. At the time of this episode all of humanity is suffering under a global pandemic. It’s alarming how many pastors and religious leaders are willfully blind to the threat of COVID-19. They’re not even making contact with the reality of the situation and that is reflected both in their commentary as well as in their lack of preparation. It is patently unbiblical and clinically insane to dismiss the CDC’s protective measures as relying on humanity instead of relying on God. For those out there who refuse to listen to the medical experts on this basis I would ask you one question: who do you think you are? Are you not a human being whom God is using to shepherd His people? Are you not living proof that God protects and guides humanity by way of other human beings? How then can you claim that our leaders and medical researchers are not the instrument God is employing to protect His people from this virus? How can you claim the respect for authority Paul explicates in Romans 13 while also defying it? I don’t think these willfully blind church leaders are operating out of heroic faith, no, I think they are operating out of greed and ignorance. And not just plain ignorance – it’s something more like arrogant ignorance. I don’t know and I don’t need to know because God. Enlighten me as to how that sentiment is not taking the Lord’s name in vain? I’m sure we will return to this issue in our exposition of this chapter. So without further delay let’s read verses 1 and 2:
Isa 56:1 Thus says the LORD: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my righteousness be revealed.
Isa 56:2 Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
God is merciful towards us, therefore we should be dutiful towards Him. We don’t serve a God who keeps us guessing in the dark. The situation is not such that if we do this and if we do that then maybe God will save us. He’s already loved us and saved us while we were yet sinners. Our ultimate salvation was carried out by Jesus Christ. Before Christ the prophets inquired greatly regarding this salvation. This salvation was foreshadowed and typified by God’s rescuing of the Israelites from both Assyria and Babylon. God takes ownership of our salvation in the sense that He alone designed it, carried it out, controls it, and glories in it. God’s law reveals His righteousness and our own sinful nature. It is by God’s law that we recognize our own sin and see that we stand condemned. The gospel reveals God’s grace as the only hope we have for being saved from such condemnation. The Old Testament actors were given the prophets so they could see their own temporal salvation approaching. Daniel understood the writings of Jeremiah to herald Israel’s deliverance from Babylon. As Christians today, we understand the prophets to be calling attention to our own deliverance in Jesus Christ.
We are not left in the dark. God has given us His word that He will save those who trust in Jesus. Since we are able to live in light of this good news, there’s a certain mode of being that God looks for in us. It is our duty as Christians. We should not descend into what is called antinomianism as a consequence of God’s grace. Antinomianism means living exactly however we see fit since God’s grace is what saves us – not our own actions. Using the grace of God as an excuse for unrepentant sin is a clear indication that you do not love God. If you do not love God, the likelihood that He is the resting place of your faith is questionable. When salvation is near we should double our guard against sin. Some sins are harder to get away from than others – I understand this and I experience this. We must never look at God as if He offers no grace and no forgiveness. But it’s important that forgiveness remains just that – forgiveness. You are forgiven for that which you repent of and truly regret doing. That’s just not the same mindset as someone who uses God’s grace as an excuse to arrogantly embrace their own sin in defiance of Him. The further God sanctifies us and prepares us for His salvation, the more we fall under the obligation of obedience. But that doesn’t mean your obedience will occur as the result of some herculean effort of your own. The Holy Spirit helps you get there if you surrender to Him.
Our preparedness for God’s salvation looks something like being honest and just in all of our dealings. We walk according to God’s rule and pay close attention to what we say and what we do. We become careful not to do wrong to anyone. God is true to us, therefore we should be true to one another. The beautiful heuristic God gives for this is the golden rule. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Provided they are not very badly led astray, almost everyone understands this concept. Humanity has gone to great lengths in their effort to construct a moral system but they never seem to be able to reach deeper than love your neighbor as you love yourself. I think it’s because Christ has written this law on our hearts. I think the golden rule is complexity reduced to simplicity in such a way that can only be the product of omniscience. When we seek to administer justice wisely and faithfully, we display evidence of our own sincerity of faith and repentance. Being merciful to others is what opens the way for God to be merciful to us.
Part of our preparedness for God’s salvation includes keeping the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a holy day of rest established because God rested on His seventh day of creation. In our case as Christians, this means giving God His day during our week. It means setting aside time to worship, pray, and give our first-fruits to Him. When the Israelites were held captive in Babylon they were far away from the temple and weren’t able to observe the other institutions of their law. To show themselves separate from the heathen, they tried to keep the Sabbath once a week in observance of the Lord. Whether you go to church on Saturday or Sunday, whether your worship occurs in a building or online, it’s important that you be vigilant in preventing worldly affairs from corrupting the time you give to God. It’s not possible to love your neighbor if you do not first love God. You might say, what about all the atheists who do love their neighbors? I would say these individuals think they do not love God – but their true faith is revealed in their actions toward their neighbor. And as a Christian so is yours.
On a more practical level keeping the Sabbath actually helps you have a more blessed week. It’s critically important to take time each week to reset yourself and get properly calibrated to God. This will help you remain attentive to the ways He blesses you throughout the week so you won’t miss them. It will also prevent you from slowly backsliding into ungodly behavior or falling captive to ideology. There’s well documented evidence that workaholics are less productive than those who take time to rest. If you don’t put a conscious effort into protecting your day of rest then it will slip away from you. If you never rest then slowly but certainly your competence will deteriorate as well. There have been terrorists who were so tough they could endure hundreds of rounds of water-boarding without giving up information. But sleep deprivation broke them. You need to separate time for the Lord because He has commanded that you do so. Maintaining the Sabbath will allow you to walk through the rest of your week in wisdom – which will result in you living a better and more peaceful life.
Setting yourself apart for God also means being diligent to keep your hand from doing evil. You should work to avoid doing any wrong to your neighbor, whether it be in body, goods, or reputation. You should try to avoid anything that is displeasing to God. The reason God wants you to avoid these things is not for His own good – but for yours. Things which are displeasing to God are also harmful to your own soul. Remember, you are made in the image of God. If you do well in separating yourself from wickedness then you will be able to keep a good conscience. You’ll be at ease during conversations about holiness. Again, we need to be careful that we don’t make holiness about our own effort. The truth is if you look at yourself at a high enough resolution you will find something that disturbs your good conscience. Progressive sanctification is what we’re aiming at here. There’s a huge difference between aiming up and aiming down. Aiming up requires that you be sensitive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Aiming down requires that you sear your own conscience and shut yourself off to the call of God. We will be blessed if we aim up and walk forward with peaceful diligence in the grace of God. Let’s read verses 3-8:
Isa 56:3 Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely separate me from his people”; and let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”
Isa 56:4 For thus says the LORD: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant,
Isa 56:5 I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.
Isa 56:6 “And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant—
Isa 56:7 these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
Isa 56:8 The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.”
Here we see encouragement given to those who devoted themselves to God despite severe disadvantages. There were people who did not belong to Abraham’s lineage yet wanted to join themselves to the Lord. They were concerned that God wouldn’t accept them because they were sons and daughters of strangers. But Isaiah reassured them that their relationship with God is founded on their personal devotion to Him – not their ethnicity or their heritage. These people were Gentiles. They were foreigners to Israel and felt concerned that they had no part in the covenantal promises of God. They believed God had separated them from His own people and that He would not claim them or grant them access to the privileges of Israel. Contrary to their belief, as far back as Moses God had articulated that there shall be one law for everyone – whether they be native or foreign. It’s not uncommon for nefarious forces to suggest ideas and concepts about God that are directly opposite to the truth of God. If you’re struggling with your faith, be very careful about where you get your theology. Those who are wrestling with doubts are often most vulnerable to misapprehensions about God. Such was the case with these Gentile foreigners who mistakenly thought God wouldn’t welcome them.
It’s also important for ministers to be ready with answers so they can reassure doubtful Christians and straighten out their misunderstandings. There are few things more unnecessarily sad than watching someone walk away from a God they don’t understand. Aside from the foreigners, those who were incapable of having children also felt discouraged. Eunuchs and individuals who suffered sterility were often looked down upon in the ancient world. If you suffered this kind of problem it would be chief among your griefs. Society considered these people to be useless because they couldn’t have children. This social stigma was partially fueled by the Levitical laws that prohibited eunuchs from serving as priests or joining the congregation. One of God’s foremost blessings promised to Abraham and his people was a great progeny of people who would become a nation and give rise to the Messiah. The eunuchs felt left out of this promise. But through Isaiah, God encouraged the eunuchs not to make the worst of their situation simply because they were kept out of the Levitical priesthood. He promised them inclusion in the gospel church as well as equality in the spiritual priesthood of all believers. When Jesus died and the partition came down, both Gentiles and those excluded by ceremonial law were brought in as equal brothers and sisters in Christ.
Of course, this promise of inclusion didn’t take away the eunuch’s pain of being childless. To that affliction Isaiah will continue in his encouragement. But first it’s important to note that the eunuch’s virtue was not grounded in his status as a victim here. Unlike today, being a victim or being part of a marginalized class didn’t score you social prestige. When God looks at you, He sees right past your victim status and examines your character and your heart. The childless who would receive God’s comfort and encouragement had to in some way measure up to being Christlike. They had to keep the Sabbath as God appointed it to be kept. So this meant setting apart time to worship and praise God. Remember, for us the Sabbath is like taking time each week to calibrate ourselves to God so we can maintain a proper perspective of Him and of the world. They had to make every effort to please God in their daily life. This meant being vigilant in their conversation and choosing to speak in such a way that was pleasing to the Lord. Being aware of your conversation might sound hypercritical – but conversation is where ideologies are born. A faithful person endeavors to do what pleases God out of a sincere desire to please Him. It’s true that your infirmities and your finite nature will limit your capacity to please God and you will often fall short – but it’s the heart to please Him that matters. Above all the faithful take hold of God’s covenant of grace established by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We consent to the terms of allowing Him to be our God and allowing ourselves to be His people. We should view God’s covenant of grace as our sanctuary from a dying world. It’s the escape vehicle that we so desperately need.
Despite the fact that the childless were not built up into families, they would receive great comfort from God should their character reflect Christlike values. It’s not uncommon for parents to take solace in the idea that their legacy will live on in their children. But Isaiah is telling the childless that to be in covenant with God results in an even better place and an even better name. No longer will they feel useless or under the reproach of their neighbors. To be in covenant with God is the highest possible reputation. To be in covenant with God leads you to the most peaceful home full of life and love. Ask most parents and they’ll tell you that their kids are their greatest blessing. But the truth for all of us is that communion with God is infinitely greater. God extends His promise to the childless that their peace, reputation, and comfort will be found in Him.
The childless may not have an earthly home like the one they wanted, but they will be brought into the dwelling place of God Himself and will take root there for eternity. Isaiah assures them that to belong to God is a name still greater than the name of having children. Belonging to God means a relationship with God. It means having an interest in Christ. It means being entitled to the blessings of His covenant. Belonging to God gives us the hope of eternal life – and all of these are what make up our blessed place and our blessed name in the house of God. Furthermore, Isaiah reminds the childless that unlike children, the name you have when you belong to God is both everlasting and certain. Not all children turn out okay. A child can be the greatest blessing in a parent’s life or the greatest source of grief. The blessings we partake of in God’s house are not like this. They are certain, consistent, and everlasting. Spiritual blessings are a source of constant joy, honor, and comfort which cannot be embittered.
To the Gentiles who were foreign to the Jewish church, Isaiah promised that they shall now be welcomed in. When Israel was rescued from Babylon, they were encouraged to bring as many of their neighbors as they could. God resolved to find room for all of them in His house. And they could go with Israel without encountering various plagues and issues like what happened during the Exodus. But like God’s promise to the childless, the foreigners would also have to meet certain terms of character. They must forsake their idols and join themselves wholeheartedly to God. Renouncing idolatrous tribalism would allow the foreigners to be of one spirit with Israel. They must join God in obedience the way subjects join their king and soldiers join their general. It was an oath of constant fidelity and full devotion to the Lord’s interest. But God wanted more than plain servitude from the Gentiles. He wanted to be their friend. He wanted them to honor Him and promote the interests of His kingdom in this world. He wanted them to love the name of the Lord. The same is true for you today. God doesn’t want you to be His slave. He wants you to be His friend. Loving God and obeying God go hand-in-hand because God always knows what is best. This fidelity born of love creates the obedience which is most acceptable to God and most pleasant for us. God is not a tyrant. When you love someone it pleases you to please them and makes you happy to be faithful to them. The foreigners were also instructed to maintain the Sabbath and prevent their old idolatry or the world itself from infecting the Lord’s day. Most of all, to be accepted into the house of God the Gentiles must take hold of God’s covenant of grace established by Jesus Christ.
If they could do these things, then God promised them three blessings in the days ahead. The first was assistance. He would incline them to come to His holy mountain and show them the way there. Today, the church is God’s holy mountain and God is the One who adds to it. He puts it on the hearts of many to go to church and He leads them in the way there. The Gentiles would move to Zion and become subject to Zion’s King – Jesus – and they would become worshipers there as well. The second blessing was acceptance. Their sacrifices and devotion would be accepted despite the fact they did not come from the lineage of Abraham. Today, your prayers and your devotion are heard and accepted by God if your faith is in Jesus Christ. Your background, your ethnicity, your language, none of that matters if you belong to Jesus. The third blessing was comfort. God’s assistance and acceptance would result in their own pleasure for it. Being a Christian is a good life. Living life at peace with God is what it means to live your best life. The comfort you find in Jesus Christ goes beyond all comprehension.
God’s grace allows us to serve Him with gladness in our hearts. This joyful service brings glory to God. Sometimes we go to church with sadness and burdened by the worries of this world. But God’s promise is that you can cast those burdens onto Him and go away rejoicing. The church is a house of prayer. Many people have gone in with difficulties and left with ease because God hears their prayers. Such was the effect that multitudes of Gentiles streamed into the church. Joining together with other believers in prayer is a token of your united faith and mutual love. God makes it explicit that His house is a house of prayer for all people. The Apostle Peter said that in every nation anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God. It doesn’t matter whether you were a stranger to the church, if you love, trust, and obey God then He declares that you are no longer a stranger. The house of God is not comprised of Jews and Gentiles, both groups are folded into one flock under one good Shepherd who is Jesus Christ. There were many Jews who, by their unbelief, had cast themselves out of the congregation. By His grace God will gather back in the outcasts of Israel. Christ came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel to gather their outcasts and restore their preserved. But God is not done gathering. The church is still growing today and we should continue in this effort as long as God purposes to work it. The church will not stop growing until the fullness of the Gentiles come in and the mystical body of Christ is completed. Let’s read verses 9-12:
Isa 56:9 All you beasts of the field, come to devour— all you beasts in the forest.
Isa 56:10 His watchmen are blind; they are all without knowledge; they are all silent dogs; they cannot bark, dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.
Isa 56:11 The dogs have a mighty appetite; they never have enough. But they are shepherds who have no understanding; they have all turned to their own way, each to his own gain, one and all.
Isa 56:12 “Come,” they say, “let me get wine; let us fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow will be like this day, great beyond measure.”
For most of this chapter Isaiah has been speaking words of comfort to those who devote themselves to God. Now he switches to words of conviction and reproof aimed at the willfully blind leaders of Israel. So you can imagine his words of comfort being intended for the Israelites who would live during the time when God would end the Babylonian exile. But these words of conviction concerned Israel’s previous irresponsibility and sin which brought the exile into being. These irresponsible leaders lived during Isaiah’s own time – something like one hundred years before Israel’s captivity. These people loaded up the measure of Israel’s sin and brought the judgment of God down upon them. They turned from God to depend on their own prosperity and false alliances. For that, they were laid to waste by their fierce enemies.
Israel, once considered sheep with God as their Shepherd, had strayed away to the point of being slaughtered. The incoming Babylonian forces were likened to beasts of the field and forest coming to devour. By their very disposition they were an imperial society. God simply permitted them to capture Israel to exact judgment on His people. He employed them as His servants despite them having their own motives. This same idea of imperial powers being used by God to level judgment applies to the Romans destroying Jerusalem as well – much further into the future. The Roman armies came upon Israel as beasts of the forest to consume them. God’s justice means that sometimes He has terrifying work to do. History shows us that there has never been a shortage of tools He can use to do it.
That brings me back to our discussion of coronavirus. Is this virus a tool by which God is judging His people? I don’t think so. I think we live in a fallen world and bad things happen in a fallen world. This virus is a bad thing that happened. But in the wake of it you can already see attitudes emerging which are similar to the sins God cites as His reason for allowing Israel to fall into exile. The leaders of Israel were supposed to be like shepherds over their flock. They were supposed to be watchful for the beasts of the forests. But Israel’s leaders had become corrupt and treacherous. They abandoned their responsibilities and paid no attention to the trust that was invested in them. So Israel became vulnerable to the wild beasts. In a similar way, there have been outspoken Christian leaders who have balked at the coronavirus pandemic and advised their congregations against following the recommended guidelines. They didn’t take action until state and local governance ordered them to shutdown. But worst of all, they used the name of God to justify these positions of ignorance.
It’s possible that Isaiah’s rebuke is referring to the false prophets who lived during his time. These were individuals who claimed to know the word of God yet called on people to embrace their own wickedness. It’s likely that this conviction extended further to the evil princes of Josiah and their magistrates under them. These were vicious, profane leaders who betrayed trust and made conscious effort to augment God’s fierce anger. They abandoned wisdom and justice. These same sins were found in the religious elite who lived during the time of Christ. They were the watchmen of Israel. If anyone should have been able to recognize the approach of the Messiah – it was them. But instead they opposed Jesus and did everything they could to turn people against Him. The false prophets, the wicked governors, and the religious elite all had some characteristics in common. They had no wisdom or knowledge of their own business. Being so ignorant, they were certainly in no position to teach. They were blind watchmen. These were shepherds who had no idea what to do about the sheep and therefore made them vulnerable to attack.
What little knowledge God gave them they failed to make use of and no one was made better for it. They were blind watchmen who could not discern incoming danger. They were like guard dogs who wouldn’t bark. These leaders had fallen deep into moral relativism and would not reprove their followers for their faults. These so-called teachers also failed to tell their people about the danger associated with their sins and they didn’t warn them about the judgment of God. When true prophets like Isaiah stepped forward to warn the people – these false teachers attacked him. They spurned the messengers of God but gave no resistance to the predators that were hunting them. In addition to their ignorance, they were also very lazy. They would make no effort at improving themselves or doing any sort of work. So the blind watchmen were also asleep when the threats drew near. Not a good situation. Fortunately for those of us who belong to Christ, we serve a Shepherd who never sleeps and is always vigilant.
These irresponsible leaders were also very enamoured with worldly wealth. They loved silver so much that they never had enough of it. Many of them were doing the modern equivalent of just putting in their hours so they could get paid. They didn’t care about the flock, they cared about the money. They gave primacy to their own private interests over public welfare. They were seeking their own things and not the things of Jesus Christ. When everyone is fundamentally interested in advancing their own opinions, their own party, and their own people, the public interest tends to be wretchedly postponed and neglected. These were people whose morality ended the moment they thought you had nothing to give them. You can imagine their propensity to get drunk. They invited each other as well as their flock to drink with them to excess. This served only to exacerbate any problems their followers had and resulted in them hardening their hearts against God. The watchmen whom the people depended on to keep them safe led them all directly into danger.
These leaders were so arrogant that they wholeheartedly believed each day would bring them more to spend on their lusts than the prior. They were overly confident in the security of their own prosperity. They thought nothing of their frailty and never considered their own mortality. This ignorance of death was ironic given the fact that their sinfully excessive lifestyles were shortening their days and hastening their demise. They felt no dread concerning the judgments of God despite how they were provoking Him daily. They just never thought His wrath would come to them. These people paid no attention to the vacuous nature of their sinful pursuits. They didn’t want to think about the emptiness that followed the binge. So they wouldn’t stop to think about it. They’d just jump right into the next cycle and they resolved to continue down this course of wickedness. The number one priority was not looking to God and protecting the flock – it was doing whatever it takes to be as merry tomorrow as you are today. These leaders never imagined a scenario where they shouldn’t boast about tomorrow tonight because maybe their souls would not see the morning.
So what does that have to do with our response to the crisis of today? As Christian leaders, it can be very tempting to lay everything on God as an excuse for not doing the work. The house of God is a house of prayer and God hears our prayers. But prayer is completely ineffective when you are using it as a replacement for putting your boots on the ground. We should pray as if everything depends on God. We should work as if everything depends on us. If we’re not careful we will succumb to the temptation of abusing Scripture in order to advance our own interests over the interests of the congregation. No church leader wants to shut down for weeks. Shutting down for that long costs unthinkable amounts of money. But being willing to shut down for the well-being of your congregation is what it means to have faith in God. God is actually the One in control of this pandemic. But that doesn’t mean He’s absolved us of our own responsibilities.
The coronavirus pandemic has been a shining example of how valuable it is to have competent leaders during times of crisis. We are going to survive this. But we commit a grievous mistake if we don’t learn the value of knowledge and maturity. The only difference between surviving and being wiped out by this virus has been what we know versus what we don’t know. Not knowing things get you killed and causes unnecessary suffering. Knowing things allows you to survive and work for the well-being of the church. So let’s abandon this nonsense about how we don’t really need to learn anything because we depend on God. Depending on God is having the faith to square with reality and having the boldness to work for the kingdom of God right now. And you can’t do that unless you’re willing to put to death the ignorance of your past, so that by the power of God you can be resurrected into a brighter future.
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