Isaiah 46-48
So Isaiah 46, 47, and 48. 46 verse one says, Bell bows
down, Nebo stoops. Their idols are on beast and
livestock. These things you carry are born
as burdens on weary beasts. They stoop, they bow down together.
They cannot save the burden, but themselves go into captivity.
Listen to me, O house of Jacob, as are all the remnant of the
house of Israel. who have been born by me from
before your birth, carried from the womb. Even to your old age,
I am he, and to gray hairs, I will carry you. I have made, I will
bear, and I will carry, and I will save. To whom will you liken
me and make me equal? And compare me that we may be
alike. Those who lavish gold from the
purse and weigh out silver in the scales hire a goldsmith,
and he makes it into a god, and they fall down and worship. They
lift it to their shoulders. They carry it. They set it in
its place and it stands there. It cannot move from its place.
If one cries to it, it does not answer or save him from his trouble.
Remember this and stand firm. Recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things of
old. For I am God and there is no other. I am God and there
is none like me. declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times the things not yet done, saying, my council
shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose, calling a bird
of prey from the east, the man of my council from a far country,
I have spoken, I will bring it to pass. I have purposed, and
I will do it. Listen to me, you stubborn of
heart, you who are far from righteousness. I bring near my righteousness.
It is not far off, and my salvation will not delay. I will put salvation
in Zion for Israel my glory. Come down and sit in the dust,
O virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne.
O daughter of the Chaldeans, for you shall no more be called
tender and delicate. Take the millstones and grind
flour. Put off your veil. Strip off your robe. Uncover
your legs. Pass through the rivers. Your
nakedness shall be uncovered, and your disgrace shall be seen. I will take vengeance. I will
spare no one. Our Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts
is His name, is the Holy One of Israel. Sit in silence and
go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans, for you shall
no more be called the mistress of kingdoms. I was angry with
my people, I profaned my heritage, I gave them into your hand, but
you showed them no mercy. On the aged you made your yoke
exceedingly heavy. You said, I shall be mistress
forever, so that you did not lay these things to heart or
remember their end. Now, therefore, hear this, you
lover of pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, I am and
there is no one besides me. I shall not sit as a widow or
know the loss of children. These two things shall come to
you in a moment, in one day. The loss of children and widowhood
shall come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries
and the great power of your enchantments. You felt secure in your wickedness.
You said, no one sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge
led you astray. And you said in your heart, I
am, and there is no one besides me. But evil shall come upon
you, which you will not. know how to charm away. Disaster
shall fall upon you for which you will not be able to atone.
And ruin shall come upon you suddenly, of which you know nothing. Stand fast in your enchantments
and your many sorceries with which you have labored from your
youth. Perhaps you may be able to succeed. Perhaps you may inspire
terror. You are wearied with your many
counsels. Let them stand forth and save you. Those who divide
the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons make
known what shall come upon you. Behold, they are like stubble.
The fire consumes them. They cannot deliver themselves
from the power of the flame. No coal for warming oneself is
this. No fire to sit before. Such to
you are those with whom you have labored. You have done business. with you, who have done business
with you from your youth. They wander about each in his
own direction, and there is no one to save you. Hear this, O
house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who
come from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the
Lord and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right, for
they call themselves after the holy city and stay themselves
on the God of Israel. The Lord of hosts is his name.
The former things I declared of old, they went out from my
mouth and I announced them. Then suddenly I did them, they
came to pass. Because I know that you are obstinate
and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass. I declared
them to you from of old. Before they came to pass, I announced
them to you, lest you should say, my idol did them. My carved
image and my metal image commanded them. You have heard, now see
all this. And will you not declare it?
From this time forth, I announce to you new things, hidden things
that you have not known. They are created now, not long
ago. Before today, you have never heard of them. Lest you should
say, behold, I knew them. You have never heard. You have
never known. From of old, your ear has not
been opened. For I knew that you would surely
deal treacherously. And that from before birth, you
were called a rebel. For my name’s sake, I defer my
anger, and for the sake of my praise, I restrain it for you,
that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but
not as silver. I have tried you in the furnace
of affliction, but for my own sake, for my own sake, I do it.
For how should my name be profaned? My glory, I will not give to
another. Listen to me, old Jacob and Israel
whom I have called. I am he, I am the first and I
am the last. My hand laid the foundations
of the earth. My right hand spread out the heavens. When I call
to them, they stand forth together. Assemble all of you and listen.
Who among them has declared these things? The Lord loves him. He
shall perform his purpose on Babylon and his arms shall be
against the Chaldeans. I, even I have spoken and have
called him. I have brought him and will prosper
in his way, draw near to me and hear this from the beginning.
I have not spoken in secret from the time it became, uh, came
to be. I have been there and now the
Lord God has sent me in his spirit. Thus says the Lord, your redeemer,
the Holy one of Israel. I am the Lord, your God, who
teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go.
Oh, that you had paid attention to my commandments. Then your
peace would have been like a river and your righteousness like the
waves of the sea. Your offspring would have been
like the sand, your descendants like its grains. Their name would
never be cut off or destroyed from before me. Go out from Babylon,
flee from Chaldea, declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim
it, send it out to the ends of the earth. Say the Lord has redeemed
his servant Jacob. They did not thirst when he led
them through the deserts. He made the water flow for them
from the rock. He split the rock and the water
gushed out. There is no peace as the Lord
for the wicked. Amen. Okay. That’s a mouthful
and there’s a whole lot going on there. We’re going to see
if we can, we’re going to see if we can pick our way through
this in a way that helps us. We’re going to start at the very
last verse. There is no peace for the wicked. For us, no peace
means the cable went out. For us means the power’s out
for two hours and we’re worried about opening the fridge, letting
all the cold out. For us, no peace means we got
to the line a little late and had to wait a little more. For
us, no peace is the traffic light that won’t seem to turn green.
For us, no peace is a microwave meal that’s four minutes and
not two, right? That’s how fragile we are, right? That’s how snowflakish we are.
We have gotten ourselves in this spot where peace is comfort. And when God
says there is no peace, it means he does a couple of things. One
is he pulls away his restraining hand and wickedness is let loose. Wickedness runs its course. There is no peace because there
is no law. There is no order. There is only
anarchy. And so it is not safe to go out
at night. It’s not safe to leave your windows open. It’s not safe
to, uh, You know, go to the Walmart, that sort of thing, because there
is no peace. There is not a restraint. But
also the other side of the there is no peace is God sends you
away from his presence into everlasting darkness, where there is weeping
and there is gnashing of teeth. There is no relief from the heat. There is no relief from the fires
of Hades and hell. There is no relief from that
everlasting punishment that he has promised. And so we probably
better get a better definition of peace. There is no peace.
Now back your way up through this passage and remember all
the covenant promises that God has made in the scriptures. You
can understand the latter half of chapter 48 really, really,
really well when you understand the covenant, which I know you
all do because you paid attention during those seven or eight Sundays
during Christmas and New Year’s when we thought about the whole
covenant business. Well, what does God promise?
as part of covenant blessings. He promises peace. He promises
well-being. He promises security. He promises
no blight on our crops. He promises that our cattle and
our animals will not miscarry, but will give forth offspring.
He promises all those things. He promises peace, but where
there is wickedness. There is no peace. And that’s
why Israel is in Babylon. That’s why he raised up Babylon
as a instrument for his chastisement of them. They, they came in,
they destroyed, they hauled off. Uh, what is, what does God say?
Even, even of his own doing that, he says for, for my, uh, um,
For my name’s sake, for my anger’s sake, I was angry with my people.
I profaned my heritage. I gave them into your hand. But
he says of Babylon, you showed them no mercy. Even the aged
you put a heavy burden on. And so if you do not want peace,
stop listening to God. If you don’t want peace, stop
obeying God. That’s how this passage ends. Verse 18. Oh, that you had paid
attention to my commandments. Then you would have had peace
like a river. I think we’ll sing that song
and just a little bit. Oh, that you had paid attention
to my commandments. Your righteousness would have
been like waves of the sea. Your offspring would have been
like the sand on the seashore. Your descendants like it’s grains.
Their names never would have been cut off. Names never would
have been destroyed. before me. And so we want the
covenant promises, but not the covenant obligations. That’s
our way. We want the covenant promises,
but not the covenant obligations. Well, how do we get peace then?
How do we find it? Well, in Israel’s case here,
here’s the big picture. God is showing them that on the
stage of human history, dynasties or nations will rise and they
will fall. If you’re a student of history, you know that history
ebbed and flowed in this part of the world, and then it ebbed
and flowed in this part of the world, ebbed and flowed in this
part of the world, and this part of the world, this part of the
world. And if you’re a student of human history, you can pretty
quickly see that nations rise and nations fall. And you can
also see what makes them rise, hard work, a desire, a goal,
and doggedly working to get there. But we also can see what makes
those nations fall and it usually has something to do with idolatry.
And it can be the idolatry of riches, it can be the idolatry
of wanting just one more piece of land and that did the nation
in. It can be the idolatry of money or prosperity or sex or
you fill in the blank. That idolatry will make a nation
rise. And it’ll make a nation fall.
And so what God is saying to us in the whole book of Isaiah,
really in the whole Bible, but in these chapters, which are
a summary of how it’s been said, what 9,000 times other ways in
book of Isaiah, he’s saying, I’m the Lord of history. Babylon
will rise. I’ll use them. They’ll fall.
And then I’m going to raise up Cyrus. He’s the one from the
East who will come and rescue and redeem Israel. But we are
reminded over and over in scripture, are we not? God is the King of
the universe. He is the King of Kings. He is
the Lord of Lords. And when human Kings have ambitions,
what does God do when he looks down on Babel? He kind of looks
down, peeps over the edge of heaven and says, Oh, what are
the little pipsqueaks down there doing? And remember the funny
language of Genesis 11, let’s go down and check it out. Let’s
go see what those little people are up to. And so our ambitions
and our successes, our rises and our dynasties are all under
the sovereignty of God. And if you think about it, God
uses these things in human histories to accomplish his will. There’s
only one kingdom that will last. And that’s the kingdom of almighty
God. That’s the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. It will last
and it will last forever. So in the big picture, nations
rise and fall, but also in the big picture, there’s God. And
if you look at 46, there’s just a little snippet from each chapter,
46, 8, 9, 10, and 11. He says, remember this
and stand firm. Recall it to mind you transgressors.
Remember the former things of old. I am God. There is no other.
I am God, there is none like me. I declare the end from the
beginning. I am from ancient times, and from ancient times,
things not done. My counsel shall stand. I will
accomplish my purpose. And then he announces Persia.
I’ll call a bird of prey from the east. The man of my counsel
from a far country. And so Israel is worried, circumstances,
but what does God tell them? I am the God of circumstances. Then if you jump over to 47,
three and four, He says, your nakedness shall
be uncovered. He’s talking to Babylon. Your disgrace shall
be seen. I’ll take vengeance. I’ll spare
no one. Our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, is his name, the Holy
One of Israel. So can God rescue and redeem
Israel? Of course he can. And there he
names it. And then jump over to 48, 12
and 13. Here’s another little glimpse
of God. Listen to me, old Jacob and Israel, whom I called. I
am he, I’m the first, I’m the last. If you don’t believe me,
my hand laid the foundation of the earth. If you don’t think
I can, my right hand spread out the heavens. When I called to
them, they stand forth together. And so we get a glimpse in this
big picture. Nations rise and fall. God is
the same yesterday, today, and forever. Okay, so got the big
picture. Let’s think about idols, or Israel
idols in Babylon. Israel, God has made them, God
has been carrying them or bearing them, and he’s been saving them
in 46, three and four. God says, listen to me, house
of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, this would
be all the people left over in Babylon, the saved remnant who
will get to go back. He says, I have, you have been
born by me. That’s B-O-R-N-E, not birthed,
not birth born, but carried born. You’ve been born by me from before
your birth, carried from the womb, even to your old age, I
am he. And to gray hairs, I will carry you. I have made you and
I will bear, I will carry, I will save. Now this is after, what
has he said about their idols? You get some gold, you get some
silver, you make them, you haul them around, you stand them up,
you say, oh God, and then you haul them around again so they
can get worship some more. And guess what? They can’t do
anything. And so Israel has been carried and born and saved and
rescued and redeemed by the Holy One of Israel who spread the
heavens, who spoke and these things that we seek have come
to pass. And so Israel, the remnant, Israel,
the returnees, have confidence in their being named from of
old. They’re being, uh, founded as
a nation. They’re being carried by God.
Even, even into Babylon, it seemed like God abandoned them, but
he hadn’t and he was able to save them. And I think that’s
probably why I picked Romans eight, not 18, uh, or one to
read. Um, because now that I think
about way back last week, doesn’t Romans eight tell us when we’re
in and out of the messiness and the miseries of this life. We
need to remember nothing separates us from the love of God. And
I think that’s, in a sense, what God is saying here to Israel.
You’ve been through some really bad times. You earned it. You deserved it. You’re chastisement.
But I never left you. I never forsook you. I never
dropped you. And so Israel has a great God
and a great redeemer. And if you jump to the end of
48, 18, and then verse 22, if they want peace, verse 22, what
do they have to do? They have to pay attention to
the commandments. They have to pay attention to the covenant.
They have to be covenant keepers, not covenant breakers. How’d
they get into the fix they’re in? Covenant breaking. How they’re
getting out of the fix they’re in, covenant keeping God is going
to rescue and redeem them. So there’s, in the midst of this
whole fuss about Babylon going down, their dynasty ending, hey
Israel, you’ve been disobedient bad too, so if you want peace,
better get things right. Usually what do we do? Oh look,
God’s pointed out our enemies. They’re bad, bad, bad, bad, bad,
and what do we say? And what’s God saying here? And
I think it’s interesting, I believe our book of discipline in our
Presbyterian form of government says this, when we deal with
the sin of others, we need to take a really long look at ourselves.
And so God is saying here to Israel, hey, let’s don’t just
kick Babylon while they’re down, let’s look at our own hearts.
All right, the idols. Now in Isaiah, God has poked
fun at idols pretty good. And here’s another one, it’s
spread through 46 and 47, I believe. You get your silver, you get
your gold, you find a smith, you find a fashioner, he takes
your silver, he takes your gold, he fashions something, and you
carry it home in the shopping bag, you dust off the table in
front of the window, it’s like the leg lamp. The Christmas story,
you make sure it goes in the front window, and you put your
idol up, And what do you do? You bow down to it and you say,
this is my God. This is the one I serve. And so they have to haul it around. They have to haul their idol
around. It can do nothing. It can say nothing and it can
act in no way. And what’s God said, the little
compare and contrast here, you haul your idols around, Well,
guess what? When Babylon goes into captivity,
the idols are gonna get hauled out of Babylon. And then, funny
thing, what does God say about Israel? I carry you around. Isn’t it interesting? God has
a funny and poetic way of putting things in perspective. So idols
do no good. God alone is God. Now think about Babylon. Babylon,
in chapter 47, they get shamed. They get really put down for
who they are and what they’ve done. God said, I was mad at
my people. I used you as a tool of vengeance. I brought shame
to my heritage and I used you to do it. And you took advantage
of that. You made old people bear a burden. You had no mercy. You read Jeremiah’s
lamentations. and the refrain, burn it down,
burn it down. They pillaged, they destroyed,
they knocked over and they set to fire the great city of God.
And now shame is going to come on them. They call themselves
the mistress. I guess that was a term of endearment.
Hey, we’re the mistress, us big Babylon. And what does he say?
You’re going to be a widow and you’re going to be childless.
And how fast is it going to happen? Just like that. As soon as you
think it, it shall come to pass. In a moment, you’ll lose your
kids. And in a moment there will be widowhood. Who does this? It’s the Redeemer. Who does this?
It’s the Holy One of Israel. And there are a couple of little
phrases in here that remind us how God turns the tables. One
is he says of the Babylonians, you’re going to be grinding at
the mill. Imagine by now at this point, it was beneath them to
grind at the mill. They were like the Egyptians.
They had outsiders, they had slaves. And so now the tables
have turned. They’ve set themselves up as
God. I don’t know if he spotted that, but in 47 verse eight, He says, now hear this, you lovers
of pleasure. Now hear this, you who sit securely,
who say in your heart, I am he and there is no other. That’s
God language, isn’t it? I am he and there is no other.
You could be reading along in your Bible and say, oh, that’s
God saying I am he and there is no other. No, that’s Babylon
saying about themselves, we are he. And besides us, there is
no other. I shall not sit as a widow, they
say. I shall not know the loss of children. But in a moment,
in a day, And then you get to verse 10, you felt secure in
your wickedness. I don’t know where y’all stand
politically. I’m sure I know where most of you are, if not
all of you are. And we look at the world we live
in and we look at what politicians have done and what they have
built up for themselves and how they treat. And you listen to
the language of today. And over the last couple weeks,
if you’ve watched a couple things in our political arena, you can’t
help but arrive at this conclusion. This is not political, it’s just
an observation. There are a class of people who
just hate others. There’s just no other way to
put it. They’re secure in their wickedness, and they have their
sorcery, and they have their ways, and their magic, and they
think to themselves, I am untouchable. And what’s happened now that
they’re vulnerable. They’re like the snake in the
corner that’s trying to strike and escape and get away. Verse 10 says, you felt, this
is a 47, you felt secure in your wicked. You said, no one sees
me. You’ve been led astray. I am. I am and there is none besides
me. And then he goes on to say, you can’t use all your sorceries. You can’t use all your powers.
You can’t take the recipes you were cooking to get the wicked
success you now have. It’s not going to help you anymore,
because in a moment, God is going to come. So what are we to think
of all this? Well, a couple of things. One
is we don’t need to fear when nations rise. The city of man
will not last. It may rise and it may get big
and it may be, it may get scary and it may get successful, but
it will not last. And what can God do in a moment?
He can take a nation down. Second thing we need to think
about is our own nation. I know Chronicles speaks specifically
of Israel. If a nation called by my name
sees their wicked ways, repents and turns, I’ll turn and I’ll
heal their land. I know that’s about Israel and
the kingship and all the rest, but there is some truth to that
to a nation like ours, if we would honor God. Now, if we started
honoring God, And we were a Christian nation again, whatever all that
is. And I’m not getting into all that Christian nationalism
craziness, but I’m just saying, just say that everybody in America
obeyed God, went to church and lived a righteous life. That
is still going to end because only God’s eternal kingdom is
everlasting. And so we don’t want to think
too utopian, but we do want to remember We do want to remember
God has a limit and a patience. And even a nation like ours that
has risen to greatness can be in the twilight of its greatness
because we have idolized many, many things. We hope our nation
may turn and last for a little while. So there’s a little bit
about nations rising, a little bit about our own nation. What’s
another thought for us? It’s this, we don’t need to think
too much of ourselves. I know in America we can get
a big checkbook. I know in America we can have
success. I know in America we can put some things on our wall
that say, whoop-dee-doo, look at me. Whether it’s degrees or
awards or successes, whatever, we can do all kinds of things.
But what does God say? Where there is wickedness, there
is no peace. And so if you want peace, like
a river, he says, then you should pay attention to the commandments
of God. So let’s ask that he might help
and bless us with that. Pray with me. Lord, when it comes
down to the brass tacks of the Christian life, the God-fearing
life, we want to love you and keep your commandments. If we
seek first the kingdom, Jesus says, all the stuff we worry
about, all the stuff we get anxious about will be added to us. So
help us to pull back to the husk of life, the basics of life,
and to look to you, look to your word and ways, and the rest will
be added as covenant, covenant graces, covenant blessings. Forgive
us for loving this present world and for building up our own little
kingdoms and saying, Our success will never be taken away. It
is you who caused the rise and the fall of mice and of men,
of nations and kingdoms. So humble us, we pray in Christ’s
great name. Amen. We want to