back to indexWed Bible Study - 04-13-16
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Okay, primarily judgment, right? Restoration as well, 00:00:12.000 |
but primarily judgment. So chapter 1 through 39 is 00:00:16.000 |
primarily about why judgment is coming upon Israel, why judgment is coming upon 00:00:20.000 |
the nations, right? For those who basically attacked Israel. 00:00:24.000 |
And then we said, so chapter 1 through 39 is about why judgment 00:00:40.000 |
So chapter, again, we're not saying that every single chapter, every verse is that way, 00:00:44.000 |
but generally speaking 1 through 39 establishes why judgment 00:00:52.000 |
to 66 establishes why the need for the Messiah, why is the 00:00:56.000 |
Messiah coming, right? So if we were to kind of put it in another way, 00:01:00.000 |
basically chapter 1 through 39 is the Old Testament, and 00:01:04.000 |
chapter 40 through 66 is the New Testament, if you want to see it in 00:01:12.000 |
through the 39 chapters, then by the time we come to the Messiah we're going to 00:01:16.000 |
say, "Oh, it's great the Messiah came." But if you kind of wrestle through 00:01:20.000 |
what He was saying, and wrestle through why judgment is coming, there's a reason why God 00:01:28.000 |
why the judgment, how the judgment is coming, what the sin looks like, what God thinks about 00:01:32.000 |
the sin, right? So that by the time we come and He begins to introduce the Messiah, 00:01:40.000 |
problem, right? So if you don't know the problem well, you're not going to know the 00:01:44.000 |
answer well either, right? If you skim through the sin, you're 00:01:48.000 |
not going to, by the time you come to salvation, it's going to be like, "Oh yeah, He just saved us. 00:01:52.000 |
We were bad, He saved us because we were bad." Right? 00:01:56.000 |
There's a reason why God spends two-thirds of the Old Testament 00:02:00.000 |
talking about and studying through the judgment that's coming upon 00:02:08.000 |
I know some of you guys are having a hard time going through Isaiah, you're kind of like, 00:02:12.000 |
"Oh, I don't get it. It's kind of all over the place." I told you from the beginning that Isaiah is like 00:02:16.000 |
that. It's not organized thematically, like chapter 1, 2, 00:02:20.000 |
3 is this and 4, 5, 6 is like that. He jumps around. Even historically, 00:02:24.000 |
sometimes He'll talk about something. Remember Isaiah chapter 6 is 00:02:28.000 |
about the calling of Isaiah? You know, you would think that would 00:02:32.000 |
begin at the beginning of the book, but it actually happens in chapter 6. The whole book 00:02:36.000 |
is like that. He'll just kind of interject thematically where He feels like it's the best place 00:02:40.000 |
to come in. So if you feel like, "You know, I don't get the flow of 00:02:44.000 |
Isaiah." Don't worry about it, okay? Just know the chapters that we're 00:02:48.000 |
studying, what is the theme of that, okay? And then hopefully 00:02:52.000 |
later on, next time you read it, you'll see a little bit better connection. 00:02:56.000 |
But from the beginning, if you try to swallow or digest too much, you're going to end up not 00:03:00.000 |
catching even the smaller stuff, okay? So if you're wrestling with that, don't feel 00:03:04.000 |
too bad. Just kind of pay attention to what's in front of you. And another thing I want to remind 00:03:08.000 |
you is that Isaiah is not one of those studies that if you come in 00:03:12.000 |
not prepared, right? If you come in not prepared, just kind of 00:03:16.000 |
you skim through it and you don't really know what's going on in the chapters that we're studying, 00:03:20.000 |
it's going to be very difficult for you to catch because I'm not there going to say, "Look at 00:03:24.000 |
verse 3 and what does that word mean and how it relates to this verse?" Because we're going over 00:03:28.000 |
two, sometimes four chapters at a time. And in the 30, 40 00:03:32.000 |
minutes that we have, there is no way that we're going to be able to do it expositionally like that. 00:03:36.000 |
So I have to just assume that the questions that I ask you, you're wrestling, at least 00:03:40.000 |
you know when I mention it that you know what I'm talking about, right? 00:03:44.000 |
So again, just as a reminder, there's a reason why the Bible studies 00:03:48.000 |
have been divided that way so that you guys can take plenty 00:03:52.000 |
of time to wrestle with it so that we can unpack what you wrestled with. But if you didn't 00:03:56.000 |
wrestle with it before you came, when we unpack it, it's going to be a lot harder for you to 00:04:00.000 |
grasp. Okay? Just as a reminder. Now having said that, 00:04:04.000 |
chapter 40 and on is a little bit easier. It's easier 00:04:08.000 |
because it is, one, the theme is about restoration 00:04:12.000 |
and secondly, there is a little bit more connection 00:04:16.000 |
in 40 and on than there is the first 39 chapters. And we'll see that 00:04:20.000 |
when we go. Okay? Alright, so let's jump into 00:04:28.000 |
is connected to the previous chapters where it's talking about the judgment. 00:04:36.000 |
God's judgment directed toward in verses 1 through 7? 00:04:44.000 |
details, it's probably related to the Assyrians. But again, 00:04:48.000 |
it's not just to them. If you look at the language, it's very public. 00:04:52.000 |
He says, "Draw near, O nations, O hear, and give attention, O peoples." 00:04:56.000 |
In other words, he's about to bring judgment, but this is 00:05:00.000 |
not done privately. And it is not done in secret. He's telling 00:05:04.000 |
the whole nations, what I'm about to do, I'm doing it very publicly. 00:05:08.000 |
I want you to see this is what's going to happen, and I want you to know why it's happening. 00:05:16.000 |
His judgment that he's talking about here, obviously 00:05:20.000 |
every judgment of God is harsh, but the judgment that he brings in chapter 34, 00:05:36.000 |
He describes the wrath of God in the Greek, the word is 00:05:40.000 |
"orgay." And the word "orgay" is the word where we 00:05:44.000 |
get the New Testament word, or the English word, "orgy." 00:05:48.000 |
And the word "orgy" basically means an unbridled, unadulterated 00:05:56.000 |
Right? Emotion, and there is no filter, it's just kind of 00:06:00.000 |
letting your flesh just have it. And R.C. Sproul describes that word 00:06:04.000 |
"orgay," and that's the word that's described to describe 00:06:08.000 |
the wrath of God is being revealed in the New Testament. And so when God talks 00:06:12.000 |
about the wrath of God, just like he gives love, 00:06:16.000 |
and he gives love to the fullest, his love is beyond what you and I will ever comprehend. 00:06:20.000 |
Right? To give his only begotten son. Well his wrath 00:06:24.000 |
is just as intense. Right? His wrath is unlike any 00:06:28.000 |
other kind of wrath that we've ever seen. And so that's why 00:06:32.000 |
again, we say it over and over again when we talk about the cross, the cross is a perfect 00:06:36.000 |
union of the intense wrath of God being satisfied 00:06:44.000 |
either side, you don't have the cross. If you minimize 00:06:48.000 |
the wrath of God, it's like did the Son of God really have to be 00:06:52.000 |
put on the cross? Right? Because if you don't understand the wrath of 00:06:56.000 |
God, you won't understand why only Christ could satisfy 00:07:00.000 |
the wrath of God. So one of the questions again I asked about that is when we 00:07:04.000 |
study about the wrath of God, we have a tendency to kind of 00:07:08.000 |
skim over the wrath and get to the cross, and get to His grace. But again 00:07:12.000 |
if you skim over His wrath and you don't fully understand that God is a 00:07:16.000 |
jealous God, and then we come through certain parts of the Bible 00:07:20.000 |
in the Old Testament where it is hard for us to understand. We go up to the New Testament 00:07:24.000 |
where He wipes out a third of the earth, a judgment of hell fire 00:07:28.000 |
that is going to be forever. And it's just kind of hard to understand because the 00:07:32.000 |
picture that we've created about God doesn't fit hell. 00:07:36.000 |
But the picture that we've created about God doesn't fit hell because that's the 00:07:40.000 |
God that we've created in our culture. The God of the Bible fits the Bible 00:07:44.000 |
because it's in the Bible. Or fits hell because it's in the Bible. Right? 00:07:48.000 |
So we have to ask ourselves, like the things that disturb us, things that 00:07:52.000 |
don't make sense to us, is that because the Bible 00:07:56.000 |
is causing us to create this conflict? Or is it because the 00:08:00.000 |
God that I've imaged, the image I have in my head doesn't fit 00:08:04.000 |
what I'm reading? Right? And if we're not careful we'll read 00:08:08.000 |
through it and just kind of, "Oh it doesn't make sense. I don't understand it." So we just kind of skim over it. 00:08:12.000 |
Right? Never really diving into it. Never wrestling with it. You just kind of like, 00:08:16.000 |
"Well this is who He is and we're satisfied with that." Right? And I think that's dangerous 00:08:20.000 |
because there is so much emphasis about the wrath of God, 00:08:24.000 |
about His jealousy, about His holiness, that if we just skim over it and 00:08:28.000 |
just have a vague understanding of that, you're not going to have 00:08:32.000 |
a clear picture of the cross either. Like why 00:08:36.000 |
was Jesus the only one? Why was the Son of God the only one who was able 00:08:44.000 |
He's described here as someone who was enraged. His wrath has been filled to the brim. 00:08:48.000 |
Right? So He's not simply talking about, "Hey you committed this 00:08:52.000 |
particular sin and I'm going to punish you for this." He's talking about all 00:08:56.000 |
the wrath combined. It's just kind of gotten to the point where He's no longer holding 00:09:04.000 |
upon the nations. Right? So if you look at the 00:09:08.000 |
description of all of this, He's not—it's beyond 00:09:20.000 |
what does it mean? The Lord has a sword. It is stated in blood. It is 00:09:24.000 |
gorged with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the donkeys or kidneys of 00:09:28.000 |
rams. What is this imagery about this animals and sacrifices 00:09:32.000 |
and what does that have to do with the wrath of God? 00:09:40.000 |
Any kind of—like wrestled with that? He's talking about judgment 00:10:12.000 |
If you look at verse 6 and 7, this is not just talking about any animals. He's talking about 00:10:16.000 |
sacrifices. Right? He said all these sacrifices are being made because 00:10:20.000 |
why are they being made? Why were they necessary? Because of sin. 00:10:24.000 |
So He's saying the wrath of God is coming just like there 00:10:28.000 |
was a need for the wrath of God to be appeased by the slaughter of these 00:10:32.000 |
animals. Now God's judgment is coming because of this sin. Right? 00:10:36.000 |
So as animals were sacrifices that needed to be 00:10:40.000 |
given because of the sins of God's people, judgment is coming as a result of sins of the 00:10:48.000 |
basically—He may not be saying this, but basically the only 00:10:52.000 |
way that you can appease the wrath of God is by the blood sacrifice 00:11:04.000 |
opportunity by faith when they sacrificed these things where the 00:11:08.000 |
wrath of God is being appeased, ultimately obviously by the blood of Christ. Right? 00:11:16.000 |
placed on Christ is going to come upon the nations. 00:11:28.000 |
this again, and you guys can talk about this later, but this question 00:11:32.000 |
basically is where all throughout Isaiah up to this point, 00:11:36.000 |
where Isaiah has been vacillating between God's judgment, His restoration, 00:11:40.000 |
judgment and restoration. Right? And in fact, you can probably summarize the whole Bible 00:11:44.000 |
as these two themes. Judgment coming because of sin, 00:11:48.000 |
but God having mercy for these sinners. But His mercy isn't just, 00:11:52.000 |
"You know what? I'm just going to forgive all of you." It's those who come to repent. 00:11:56.000 |
Those who receive the cleansing blood of Christ. Right? And He vacillates 00:12:00.000 |
back and forth. And as I mentioned before, if you minimize the wrath 00:12:04.000 |
of God, you will minimize the grace of God. Right? 00:12:08.000 |
If you don't talk about hell, heaven isn't going to be 00:12:12.000 |
as accurate. Right? Because it's in contrast. 00:12:20.000 |
Right? And His judgment. They have to be understood 00:12:28.000 |
You can't say, "Oh, that building is really tall." But it's really tall 00:12:32.000 |
in comparison to what? To the other buildings. Right? 00:12:36.000 |
You put that in Grand Canyon, it doesn't look that big. Right? But in comparison to other buildings 00:12:40.000 |
it's big. So His grace is always coupled in comparison 00:12:44.000 |
with His wrath, and vice versa. Right? Because that's how the Bible 00:12:52.000 |
Who or what is God's judgment directed towards? 00:12:56.000 |
He says, "All those who went against Zion." So Zion, obviously, 00:13:00.000 |
the immediate context is talking about Israel. But in the larger context 00:13:04.000 |
when we talk about the judgment of God, including the Gentiles, it's His church. It's His kingdom. 00:13:12.000 |
simply against one nation. Even though Assyria is 00:13:16.000 |
in the picture, again, we said that the larger application is 00:13:28.000 |
And Edom, in verse 9, is the focus of the judgment. Right? 00:13:36.000 |
but it has hated Israel more than any other nation. 00:13:44.000 |
the worst enemies were at one point good friends. 00:13:48.000 |
Right? And something went wrong. You don't have enemies that are 00:13:52.000 |
far away. Right? Typically. Because they don't know you. There's not 00:13:56.000 |
enough interaction to hate each other. Usually enemies are people who are close by. And so 00:14:00.000 |
the Edomites were kind of like sister nation to Israel. And they 00:14:04.000 |
were the constant antagonists to the nation of Israel. 00:14:08.000 |
So oftentimes Edom is mentioned to represent all the nations 00:14:20.000 |
the duration of the judgment and what is its significance? 00:14:24.000 |
The punishment is severe. It is nonstop. It is 00:14:28.000 |
night and day. Again, this is not just a slap on the 00:14:32.000 |
hand. And it sounds a lot like the white throne judgment 00:14:36.000 |
of Revelations. Once the judgment happens, that is 00:14:40.000 |
the final judgment. It is not a momentary judgment and 00:14:44.000 |
then restoration. This judgment that he's talking about is everlasting. 00:15:00.000 |
and 17. What does the gathering of different animals 00:15:04.000 |
by the Spirit have to do with God's judgment? Again, as it 00:15:08.000 |
states in verse 11, a plumb line is a way to measure for accuracy. This description of the 00:15:12.000 |
animals is a measurement of emptiness. So let's 00:15:16.000 |
look at verse 11. It says, "But the hawk and the porcupine 00:15:20.000 |
shall possess it, the owl and the raven shall dwell in it. He shall stretch the line of 00:15:24.000 |
the confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness." 00:15:28.000 |
In other words, he's describing, like the judgment is so thorough that these 00:15:32.000 |
animals can just kind of roam free. Because there's no human. 00:15:44.000 |
field that's not cultivated where there's wild animals and they're just roaming 00:15:52.000 |
Immediately I think about the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve is 00:16:00.000 |
to be caretakers of the land and because of the sin 00:16:04.000 |
they're cast out and is no longer taken care of. And that's the kind of picture that I see where 00:16:08.000 |
God's creation is intact but the caretakers are not there. Because of 00:16:16.000 |
again, chapter 34 is talking about the severity 00:16:20.000 |
and the intensity of God's wrath and His anger. 00:16:24.000 |
And He's making sure that He's not just angry. He's 00:16:32.000 |
He's not simply looking at the world and, you know, again, oftentimes we see 00:16:36.000 |
a picture of God only, and I'm not saying this is not accurate or it's not true, 00:16:40.000 |
we only see a picture of God as the prodigal son's father. 00:16:44.000 |
Right? Who's just waiting, waiting for sinners to come, 00:16:48.000 |
waiting for sinners to come. But the Bible also describes a God who is 00:16:52.000 |
enraged in anger. Right? Again, this is not just me. 00:16:56.000 |
Read the scripture. The scripture describes God who is 00:17:00.000 |
holding back His wrath but when the time of grace is 00:17:04.000 |
finished and He allows Himself and He says, "Okay, there's nothing holding Him 00:17:08.000 |
back anymore." He said, "The wrath of God is going to be revealed." Like ultimately 00:17:12.000 |
with nothing holding Him back. Right? And so at the very end 00:17:16.000 |
when He comes, He's not only coming to save and redeem 00:17:20.000 |
mankind, He's coming where as the cross absorbed 00:17:24.000 |
the sin of mankind, that wrath, that whatever was not placed on Jesus is going 00:17:32.000 |
picture of the Bible. It's not just a picture of the 00:17:36.000 |
father, prodigal son, just waiting, waiting, waiting. He's also 00:17:40.000 |
that same God who wiped out the earth. Right? 00:17:44.000 |
And only eight people remained. Right? He said, "That's that 00:17:48.000 |
same God. The same God who came and just wiped out Jericho." 00:17:52.000 |
Right? These people are under ban because they're all going to be under judgment. 00:18:04.000 |
coming. Right? And again, I think that's why if you've never read 00:18:08.000 |
the book "Holiness of God" I strongly encourage you to read it because when we have 00:18:12.000 |
a skewed perspective or imperfect perspective 00:18:24.000 |
going to seem amazing. It's just going to be grace. 00:18:28.000 |
Right? I think it's extremely important for us that we have an accurate picture 00:18:32.000 |
of how the Bible describes God. And chapter 34 00:18:36.000 |
makes sure that we get that. We get that. Okay? 00:18:44.000 |
We're not going to go through this right now for the sake of time because I want to get through all of it. 00:18:52.000 |
is about restoration. So those of you guys, hopefully you read through, 00:18:56.000 |
you know that chapter 36 through 39 is about history, specific 00:19:04.000 |
about judgment and then again, vacillates back 00:19:08.000 |
and forth to restoration. So He ends with promise of restoration. 00:19:16.000 |
promised from the coming of the Lord? First it says vengeance. 00:19:28.000 |
I think every Christian, there should be a tension. There should be 00:19:32.000 |
a tension when we think about His second coming. Because as much 00:19:36.000 |
as second coming means our life and it is our glory, 00:19:40.000 |
it means judgment for mankind. Right? It means judgment 00:19:44.000 |
for people that we may care about, our co-workers. It means judgment to 00:19:48.000 |
everyone who does not confess Christ. Right? So I think 00:19:52.000 |
every Christian, in one sense, we ought to be longing for Him and that should 00:19:56.000 |
affect the way that we live. But there also ought to be a sense 00:20:04.000 |
He says He's going to come in His full vengeance. Right? 00:20:08.000 |
I think there's a reason why when Paul was going out and he's saying 00:20:16.000 |
You know, he knows the sovereignty of God. He knows that God is completely 00:20:20.000 |
in control. But at the same time, he knows the consequence 00:20:24.000 |
of not knowing Christ. Right? He knows the consequence of when He does 00:20:28.000 |
come. So humanly speaking, there's a sense of urgency. He wasn't just living 00:20:32.000 |
casually. He lived so that the gospel may spread to the remotest 00:20:36.000 |
part of the world as fast as it can. It's not like, "Oh, God is sovereign, so therefore 00:20:40.000 |
let's not worry about tomorrow." Right? He's the one who teaches about the sovereignty 00:20:44.000 |
of God and yet He lives every single day. Right? With that sense of urgency. 00:20:48.000 |
And I think this has something to do with it. Right? Knowing that His coming 00:20:52.000 |
isn't just Santa Claus coming to pass out candy. He's going to come in 00:20:56.000 |
His full glory. And His full glory always means grace and judgment at the same 00:21:00.000 |
time. Right? If He doesn't come in His judgment, that's 00:21:04.000 |
not His full glory. His full glory means every part of who He is is going to be glorified. 00:21:16.000 |
Right? Open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf. 00:21:28.000 |
for joy. So if you notice all of this, that it's not just they see. 00:21:32.000 |
Right? It's not just that they hear. It's that lame aren't just going to walk. 00:21:36.000 |
They're going to leap for joy like a deer. Right? People who couldn't talk and all of a 00:21:40.000 |
sudden, you know, they're talking. He said, "No, they're going to be singing for joy." 00:21:44.000 |
So just as vengeance is intense, His wrath is intense, 00:21:52.000 |
So when we say that God is a jealous God, that every part of Him is intense, 00:21:56.000 |
right? Just as salvation is intense, so is judgment. 00:22:00.000 |
What do you think the highway called the way of holiness is in reference to? 00:22:18.000 |
I want you to think about what highway, like when you think of highway, 00:22:26.000 |
I mean, the only reference we have is highway. 00:22:30.000 |
Right? If you thought of something else, I don't know where 00:22:34.000 |
you're from, but the only highway that I know of is 00:22:38.000 |
five, the freeway. I was thinking about other numbers. 00:22:46.000 |
We think about that, but think about at that time when they said 00:22:50.000 |
highway, what they would have meant, because obviously they didn't have cars. Right? 00:22:54.000 |
They didn't have nice roads. In fact, nice roads didn't come 00:23:02.000 |
Yeah, until the time of Rome. Right? There weren't nice roads. 00:23:06.000 |
It was basically somebody would travel down this mountain, and if enough people 00:23:10.000 |
took that road, the grass started to die, and then the roads started flattening out, 00:23:14.000 |
and that became the best road. So even the best of roads 00:23:18.000 |
weren't that good. Right? It wasn't the Romans until they came, 00:23:22.000 |
and their empire was so huge, and they wanted to 00:23:26.000 |
make sure that their soldiers were able to get to wherever they needed to get to as quickly as they could. 00:23:30.000 |
And that was one of the keys to their success. They made roads 00:23:34.000 |
for military purposes. And all of a sudden, it became, like 00:23:38.000 |
once the roads got connected, people were able to exchange commerce and go back 00:23:42.000 |
and forth because of these roads. None of that happened until the Romans came in. 00:23:46.000 |
Until then, even if you wanted to, let's say if you lived here, and you wanted to go over 00:23:50.000 |
there, you had to take all of your supplies and go over this mountain, 00:23:54.000 |
go over the terrain, through the woods, rivers, whatever, to get to the other side. 00:23:58.000 |
Right? So when the Bible talks about how God's going to bring, and He's going to bring 00:24:02.000 |
a holy highway. Right? So think about it from their 00:24:06.000 |
point of view. The word highway literally means road lifted. 00:24:10.000 |
Right? Because literally that's what that means. Right? So if a Jew 00:24:14.000 |
was reading this in his language, highway, he would have immediately pictured 00:24:18.000 |
a road that's lifted up. Right? And so that's the picture 00:24:22.000 |
that's given. It's like when Christ comes, that this road, and what does this 00:24:34.000 |
was difficult to get through, maybe impossible, 00:24:38.000 |
maybe there was a mountain between you, maybe there was a deep valley that you couldn't pass. 00:24:42.000 |
And when He comes, the path to His glory is going to be paved. It's going 00:24:46.000 |
to be high. It's going to be the best road. Remember we talked about that, 00:24:50.000 |
the cities of refuge? That these particular cities were spread out, 00:24:54.000 |
that no matter where you were in Israel, that you had a clear sight of 00:24:58.000 |
one of these cities, and that every road was the best 00:25:02.000 |
roads in Israel were always the ones that led to the cities of refuge. 00:25:18.000 |
So think about how often do you think that happened, that six 00:25:22.000 |
different cities were built on top of a hill, and best roads. 00:25:30.000 |
and fill in the valleys, and make the best roads. So how often do you think this 00:25:34.000 |
happened that God would say, that make these cities, dedicate all your 00:25:38.000 |
time, money, and energy to build these cities. I'm thinking this 00:25:42.000 |
road probably was not taken that often. Right? 00:25:46.000 |
I don't think that was a happen, like every two days, like where's he running? Oh he just killed somebody. 00:25:50.000 |
You know, I don't think that was a common occurrence. Right? 00:25:54.000 |
Because I think that that was built for the purpose of, again, as a 00:25:58.000 |
shadow to teach us that the refuge, at the end of it, 00:26:02.000 |
the high priest, who we know as to be Christ, 00:26:06.000 |
that he's the protector once you get to that city. I think all of that 00:26:10.000 |
drama, and all of that money spent on the road was for the purpose of teaching us in the New Testament 00:26:14.000 |
that the best roads, right, the best roads that 00:26:18.000 |
he prepared for us to get to our refuge, Christ, 00:26:22.000 |
was built. And that was the city of refuge was a shadow of that. Right? 00:26:30.000 |
You know, I think the pragmatist would have seen that and said, like, really? Dedicate all our 00:26:34.000 |
money for that? You know what I mean? There's poor people that can't go from one village 00:26:38.000 |
to the other and you're going to make us build this on top of the hill? Right? 00:26:42.000 |
But again, all of that was to prepare to teach us about who Christ is. 00:26:54.000 |
think about, like, oh it would have been great if we invented 00:26:58.000 |
the car, you know, 200 years ago. 200 years ago your car would have been absolutely useless. 00:27:02.000 |
Think about how many things needed to be invented 00:27:06.000 |
before a car was able to be used. If you don't have roads, 00:27:18.000 |
At Grand Canyon? Like, where are you going to go 80 miles per hour, 100 miles per hour? 00:27:22.000 |
If you don't have the roads, it's absolutely useless. Right? So all these 00:27:26.000 |
things have to happen. So today we think about roads and we take that for granted, but without 00:27:30.000 |
these roads, we can't go to where we want to go. 00:27:38.000 |
raised roads. So all that stuff that would get in the way of 00:27:42.000 |
your carriage or, you know, you walking, said it would be raised so you would go 00:27:50.000 |
Now was there a road that was like this? The only roads that we know of 00:27:54.000 |
in Israel before the time of Christ was these roads, cities of refuge. 00:28:02.000 |
for that purpose, to go somewhere that far, would have been these. Right? 00:28:06.000 |
So again, you know, we're not going to take some time to study, but I really encourage 00:28:10.000 |
you, if you have time, to study the cities of refuge and what he teaches 00:28:18.000 |
highlight who Jesus is and what he means to us in the New Testament. 00:28:26.000 |
when we, we went through that years and years ago. I'm assuming if you were here 00:28:30.000 |
you forgot, and most of you probably don't remember. Right? 00:28:38.000 |
What causes the sorrow and sighing to flee to be replaced by singing and rejoicing? 00:28:42.000 |
Right? Presence of the Lord, when he comes in his full glory. 00:28:50.000 |
This is not what he brings, it's not that he's going to make things right, 00:29:02.000 |
It is no different today. I think about all the problems 00:29:06.000 |
and all the things that we pray for, all the things that we long for, in the end, if you have 00:29:10.000 |
deep fellowship with Christ, for whatever the reason, it makes it right. 00:29:18.000 |
Like all the loneliness, all the pain, all the frustration, but for whatever 00:29:22.000 |
the reason, when you're near Christ, all of a sudden you can endure it. 00:29:26.000 |
That things make sense. Right? And I'm sure you can 00:29:30.000 |
testify that too. Like, you know, when I met Christ, all the anger 00:29:34.000 |
and bitterness, hatred, just overnight, it made sense. 00:29:38.000 |
It didn't fix all my problems, but it made sense. Right? Because I 00:29:42.000 |
knew that God was in control. Right? So, again, it's 00:29:46.000 |
described when he comes, simply by his presence. 00:29:54.000 |
ramification of sins, all the curse is going to be reversed, simply by his presence. 00:29:58.000 |
So the whole point of salvation is to open the door to get to him. 00:30:02.000 |
Right? So, again, when we come to the New Testament, 00:30:10.000 |
fellowship with him, because the gift of salvation is Christ, 00:30:14.000 |
and if we proclaim that it's Christ, and we sing that it's 00:30:18.000 |
Christ, but we don't come to him, you miss the whole gift of salvation. 00:30:22.000 |
Right? Because the point of salvation is Christ. 00:30:26.000 |
It's to love Christ, to fellowship with Christ. If his presence 00:30:34.000 |
You miss the whole point of salvation just to say, "Look at that wide open 00:30:38.000 |
door. Look at what Jesus did." And you celebrate the Gospel because you're celebrating 00:30:46.000 |
It's just like going to Grand Canyon and celebrating the picture. 00:30:50.000 |
You know what I mean? Instead of enjoying Grand Canyon, you're just looking at 00:30:54.000 |
the pictures. "Look how awesome this picture is." But the whole point of it is 00:31:02.000 |
do not take advantage of the fact that the door has been opened, we can 00:31:06.000 |
commune with him, we can talk to him, we can pray to him, then you 00:31:10.000 |
miss the whole point of salvation. The whole point of salvation is not simply going to heaven. 00:31:14.000 |
Right? The gift of salvation, of heaven, is because heaven 00:31:18.000 |
is the unadulterated presence of God is in heaven. 00:31:22.000 |
So we get a taste of that here, we get the full 00:31:26.000 |
meal when we get to heaven. Right? But it has to start here. 00:31:34.000 |
Alright, so chapter 36 to 39, I'm just going to go over 00:31:38.000 |
it real quick. I'm not going to go into too much detail. Because it's strict 00:31:46.000 |
against Israel's threat. Assyrian threat. So obviously, hopefully you had some time to 00:31:50.000 |
read it. Historical background. It's almost identical. It's placed in 00:31:54.000 |
three separate places. In King's Chronicles and here. 00:32:02.000 |
because remember what Hezekiah does? Right? Hezekiah kind of 00:32:06.000 |
gets excited because he's delivered from Assyrians. And then he thinks like, oh it's 00:32:10.000 |
safe. And then he lets them in. Not realizing that once 00:32:14.000 |
they get a taste of, oh this is what Israel has. Eventually they are going to come and covet that. 00:32:18.000 |
And then come and take it. Right? So the prophecy is about the judgment coming. 00:32:22.000 |
Right? Now you're delivered from Assyrians, but now you're going to be judged by the 00:32:26.000 |
Babylonians. So that's how those four chapters break out. Right? 00:32:38.000 |
was a broad background behind everything that we've been talking about. 00:32:50.000 |
of what happened during the time he prophesied. So again, you don't need to know 00:32:54.000 |
all the details, but just kind of as a broad reference, historical background. 00:32:58.000 |
This is what's going on. So what you read in chapter 36, 37, 38, 00:33:02.000 |
and 39 is kind of the historical background of what 00:33:06.000 |
we were talking about in the last chapter 1 through 38. 00:33:18.000 |
theme right here is the name of the guy that comes. 00:33:30.000 |
his actual name, but a title. He's a high official or 00:33:34.000 |
commander in the Assyrian army. So it's a title. It's not a name. 00:33:38.000 |
So a commander of the Assyrian army is coming, basically mocking Israel, 00:33:42.000 |
saying, "Why do you think? We've conquered everybody else. Why do you 00:33:46.000 |
think that you're going to be safe from us?" And the whole dialogue between him is to 00:33:50.000 |
put fear into Assyria, saying, "Don't trust Hezekiah." 00:33:54.000 |
And so again, the theme of this section is, "What is the confidence 00:33:58.000 |
in which you trust?" And so Isaiah is using what he's 00:34:06.000 |
"We'll tell you what we trust." And that's a revelation in these 00:34:10.000 |
historical passages, is Isaiah revealing that this is what 00:34:18.000 |
So one of the great battles for Hezekiah during his time was the temptation to make 00:34:22.000 |
defensive alliance with Egypt. So he saw the Assyrians 00:34:26.000 |
coming. He saw what he did to his neighbors, to Syria and to 00:34:30.000 |
the northern kingdom. So the only other superpower at that time, 00:34:34.000 |
because Babylonians were not a superpower yet, until they conquered 00:34:38.000 |
the Assyrians, right? So the only other superpower at that time were the Egyptians. 00:34:42.000 |
Now Egyptians were not as powerful as the Assyrians, but if they were 00:34:46.000 |
going to ally with anybody to get help, Egyptians would be the only ones. 00:34:50.000 |
So that's why, remember, Isaiah keeps saying over and over again, "Why are you trusting 00:34:54.000 |
in man?" Right? "Why are you trusting in chariots?" Because they kept 00:34:58.000 |
on making allegiance with other nations to protect themselves 00:35:02.000 |
from a greater enemy. And so that's kind of like the historical context. 00:35:06.000 |
And so that's why he's saying, he says, "Oh, these Egyptians, they're 00:35:10.000 |
dogs. We can rip them apart, they're nothing." Is that where your confidence is? 00:35:18.000 |
Isaiah is discouraging Hezekiah to not put trust 00:35:22.000 |
in man. And we see that over and over again in all of his writings up to this point. 00:35:26.000 |
Right? That theme over and over again. Why do you go to these 00:35:30.000 |
other human beings? All they are is just other human beings. 00:35:34.000 |
They're just idols. Why would you put confidence in them? 00:35:38.000 |
So the whole point of Isaiah's writing is, "Don't put your trust in them, put your 00:35:46.000 |
But if you say to me, "We trust in the Lord our God." 00:35:50.000 |
Meaning like, "Okay, so are you putting trust in Egypt?" Right? 00:35:54.000 |
"We conquered everybody else. Why do you think they're going to help you?" Well, maybe 00:35:58.000 |
you're trusting in your God. Right? So basically he's mocking them. 00:36:06.000 |
Wasn't Hezekiah the one who took away your high places? 00:36:18.000 |
Worship of foreign gods. And sometimes they worship Yahweh there. 00:36:22.000 |
God strictly prohibited them to worship in high places. 00:36:26.000 |
Remember when the kingdom splits? Right? The sin of Jeroboam 00:36:30.000 |
and sin of Rehoboam. And these are the two sins that kind of followed 00:36:34.000 |
these two kingdoms. So what was the sin of Jeroboam? 00:36:50.000 |
worship. He set up a temple in Dan and then said, "This is your 00:36:54.000 |
God. This is Yahweh." Right? And so that was the sin of Jeroboam. And that led to 00:37:02.000 |
of worshiping in high places. So they were still worshiping God, but it wasn't 00:37:06.000 |
prescribed the way that God wanted them to. Right? So 00:37:10.000 |
typically the high places were all the idol worships took place. So Israel basically 00:37:14.000 |
took the worship of Yahweh and said, "We're going to worship here." Just like the 00:37:18.000 |
pagans do. So they were following, they were worshiping Yahweh, but they were worshiping 00:37:26.000 |
always detested that. And remember even the good kings, He says, 00:37:30.000 |
"They did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, except they did not put away the high places." 00:37:38.000 |
revival came under his leadership, it was thorough. He got rid of that 00:37:46.000 |
so the commander is saying, the Assyrian commander is saying, "Well if you worship 00:37:50.000 |
God, right, and you put your trust in Him, wasn't Hezekiah 00:37:54.000 |
the one who prohibited you from worshiping Him in the high places?" In other 00:37:58.000 |
words, he's mocking him. He's like, "He won't even let you worship God." Even though that was 00:38:02.000 |
for the purpose of rightly worshiping God. Right? So in other words, he's kind of 00:38:06.000 |
poking holes. Almost like Satan talking to Eve. Did God really say that? 00:38:10.000 |
You know? God doesn't want you to be wise like Him. 00:38:14.000 |
And so he's kind of like Satan putting his, "Oh, isn't He the 00:38:18.000 |
one who prevented you from getting to your God? Why would you put your confidence in Hezekiah 00:38:22.000 |
if He won't even allow you to get to Him?" Right? 00:38:30.000 |
mocking what Hezekiah did and hoping that he would put some fear into 00:38:46.000 |
in the next passage, in verse 10, he actually says, 00:38:50.000 |
"Well if you're going to worship Him, you know, and you have confidence in Him, 00:38:54.000 |
your God is on my side, not on your side." Right? "He must be on my 00:38:58.000 |
side because look at all of this stuff. Look at our power. Look at all the other 00:39:02.000 |
nations that we conquered. So your God could not possibly be with you, but your God is 00:39:06.000 |
already with me." So he's basically just kind of, you know, this is a false prophet 00:39:10.000 |
just going and just planting seeds of doubt, of fear. 00:39:30.000 |
don't say anything. You know, Hezekiah instructs the commanders on the wall, 00:39:34.000 |
"Don't respond to him." Right? Basically he's a 00:39:38.000 |
mad dog barking. Right? If you engage him, you're going to get 00:39:42.000 |
bit. Right? "Don't engage him. Just stay silent." And so what does he do? 00:39:58.000 |
He was like any other man. You know, even though he 00:40:02.000 |
brought reform, he prayed to God. You know, when he was fearful, he 00:40:06.000 |
ran to Egypt. And Isaiah is saying, "No, don't go to Egypt." Right? 00:40:10.000 |
"God's going to deliver you." And so in trouble, he turns 00:40:14.000 |
to the Lord and he prays. And specifically God says, "Because you prayed, 00:40:22.000 |
So think about that. You know, in God's sovereignty, I think partially 00:40:26.000 |
the reason why we don't pray, partially, is because we believe in a sovereign God. 00:40:34.000 |
needs even before I say it. So do I really need to wrestle and struggle 00:40:38.000 |
since God already knows? Right? Again, in this case, I mean, 00:40:42.000 |
God loves the nation of Israel. His whole point was to deliver. Right? And yet 00:40:46.000 |
He says, "Because you prayed, I will answer you." Right? 00:40:54.000 |
predestined will that He will respond when we pray. Now how does that 00:40:58.000 |
work? I'll tell you after Bible study. Right? Because I figured it out. 00:41:02.000 |
I don't know. But that's what the Bible says. Right? 00:41:14.000 |
You know, I endure all things for the sake of the elect. 00:41:18.000 |
If He elected them, why endure? But that's what He says. 00:41:22.000 |
God has ordained our work, our preaching, our perseverance, 00:41:26.000 |
our prayer to accomplish His purpose. And again, you see it working 00:41:34.000 |
God promises deliver because of His prayer. And then 00:41:38.000 |
chapter 38 and 39. Again, I'm not going to get 00:41:42.000 |
too deep into this. In fact, I'm not going to get into it at all. 00:41:50.000 |
requires a lot more discussion than what I'm going to be able to say. 00:41:54.000 |
Hezekiah prays. And when does this happen? Hezekiah gets sick 00:41:58.000 |
and God says, "You're going to die." When does this happen? 00:42:06.000 |
During the siege. God says, "He's going to die." So I'm thinking maybe Hezekiah 00:42:10.000 |
is thinking, "You can't kill me now. I'm the king and I have to 00:42:14.000 |
protect them. If I die now, who's going to lead them?" Maybe he's thinking about all of this. 00:42:18.000 |
And he's pleading with God. Maybe it wasn't just that he was afraid to die. 00:42:22.000 |
Maybe he was just reading into it. Right? But this happened while he was 00:42:26.000 |
under siege and he prays to God to prolong his life. And God 00:42:30.000 |
delivers him. And how many years does he add to his life? 00:42:34.000 |
Fifteen years. Right? So we can get into all of that. It's like, wait a minute. 00:42:38.000 |
God said he was going to die and he didn't die. You know, is that God's will? What is God's will? 00:42:42.000 |
Right? I think R.C. Sproul probably does the best 00:42:50.000 |
that's in. But do some research. It's in there. 00:42:54.000 |
I forgot where it is. Right? I think he describes 00:42:58.000 |
it as God's expressed will and his hidden will. Right? I'll just leave it at that. 00:43:06.000 |
Hezekiah foolishly shows all the treasures. So basically the foolishness of 00:43:10.000 |
Hezekiah is, now that, again, this happens after the Assyrians are conquered. 00:43:18.000 |
And so now he feels safe enough. He's like, hey, you know, now that Assyria is 00:43:22.000 |
out of the way, we want to make friends with the Babylonians. So 00:43:26.000 |
what was the sin? Was it because he was boasting? Right? 00:43:30.000 |
Was it because he was proud? I think behind it, Hezekiah 00:43:34.000 |
had the same reason why he was trying to get alliance with the Egyptians. 00:43:38.000 |
Now the Assyrians are gone, you know, was it going to hurt 00:43:42.000 |
allying with the Babylonians? They are the ones who seem to be coming in power. 00:43:46.000 |
So this may have been a political maneuver to 00:43:50.000 |
get alliance. And this is exactly what God was prophesying 00:43:54.000 |
against. Don't put your confidence in man. And this 00:43:58.000 |
seems like that he was beginning to open that door. He's like, oh, since these guys are 00:44:02.000 |
gone and God delivered us from them, so he allows the Babylonians 00:44:06.000 |
to come and shows them all of this. Like, oh, why did you do that? And it was such a grievous sin 00:44:10.000 |
that they come in, they see all the treasures, and they covet it. So when they 00:44:14.000 |
become super powers, hey, remember all that treasure that Hezekiah 00:44:18.000 |
showed us? And they come in and they get all of that. So they take the most choiced things 00:44:22.000 |
in the land, even the people and the cattle, all of that, and they take it into Babylonian, all because 00:44:26.000 |
of this sin. Right? Because you open that door again. 00:44:30.000 |
And so, you know, again that's where chapter 39 ends, and then we'll 00:44:34.000 |
jump into chapter 40 next week. But again, this is the sin 00:44:38.000 |
of mankind. You know, we talk about sanctification, 00:44:42.000 |
and this is at the core of sanctification. Our 00:44:46.000 |
constant dependence and glorifying of man over God. 00:44:54.000 |
and reliance and glorifying of man instead of 00:45:02.000 |
faith. If you really think about it, God has one 00:45:10.000 |
If you remain in Me, you live. Apart from Me, 00:45:18.000 |
just, you know, you have life and then there's, fruit is kind of like 00:45:22.000 |
the decoration. The fruit is life. Right? Fruit is not 00:45:26.000 |
just like, oh, okay, you have a great tree, and then some trees don't have fruit. 00:45:30.000 |
No, if you don't have fruit, it's a dead tree. Right? Bad tree, 00:45:34.000 |
bad fruit. So He's talking about you cannot bear fruit. 00:45:38.000 |
He's not simply talking about evangelism and memorizing Scripture 00:45:42.000 |
and you know, like mission work. He says if you don't have fruit, you don't have 00:45:46.000 |
life. So when Jesus says, "If you don't abide in Me, you cannot bear fruit." He's 00:45:50.000 |
saying, "If you don't abide in Me, you can't live." Right? So that's 00:45:54.000 |
the same lesson. Look at Israel. Go back and read 00:45:58.000 |
the Old Testament, New Testament, all through the Revelation. It's the same 00:46:02.000 |
lesson. If you abide in Him, if you are near Him, there's life. 00:46:06.000 |
If you're away from Him, there's death. Right? So again, 00:46:10.000 |
that's, again, Hezekiah is making that mistake. It's like, now that he feels 00:46:14.000 |
safe, it's like, oh, okay, let's connect with the Babylonians, not knowing 00:46:18.000 |
that that's going to lead to destruction. Okay? 00:46:22.000 |
All right. Chapter 40, I almost, I was tempted 00:46:30.000 |
it's one of the, my, Chapter 40, 41 is one of my favorite chapters 00:46:34.000 |
in probably the whole Bible. I have a whole testimony behind Chapter 40 00:46:38.000 |
I'm not going to get into. But if we did that, it would take way too 00:46:42.000 |
long. So I strongly encourage you, especially those 00:46:46.000 |
of you who have been kind of wrestling, like, oh, this is too hard. Chapter 40 is 00:46:50.000 |
not hard at all. Right? Just read it for what it is. It's one of those passages 00:46:54.000 |
that you probably want to just memorize, Chapter 40, 41. 00:46:58.000 |
And so take some time, like really do quiet time through that, and really 00:47:02.000 |
like be saturated with it so that when we dive into it, 00:47:06.000 |
it would make a lot more sense to you. Okay? All right.