Now you're all looking at me. Come on. Say something. What does he mean by mentioning lions and vipers and... Uh-huh? Okay. They're being careless? Okay. Anybody else? What are they doing? What is this a description of? Where are they going? Is that a reference to the Egyptian gods? No.

I was trying to figure out a way to answer that. There's no other in between. Is he there? Yes or no? Okay. So maybe it's saying that like... What it's saying is they're going through a land of trouble in English. It's like they're going through so much and they take all their stuff and they go through so much trial to go to a place that's not even a prophet.

That's why you go to UCI. Now we're even, okay? What? I went to UCSD. Come on, UCI. Step it up. All right. So, remember in the beginning he said they're devising all these plans? Right? They're devising all these plans but it has nothing to do with me. So what are they doing here?

They're making plans to go all the way to Egypt and that journey to Egypt is not a casual journey. They're loaded up with donkeys, right? Meaning that this is a long distance you have to travel. Remember Egyptians were not neighbors. Remember the map? The Syrians and the Babylonians are right at the corner but the Egyptians you have to travel all the way to the other side.

So, not only do they have to travel a long distance to get to them, that to travel through that you have to go and face lions and vipers and go through all this danger to get there. In other words, he's saying that you're going through all that trouble and facing all that danger thinking that your hope is there but you're going to find nothing.

Right? So, basically he's rebuking Israel. And when you think about all the comfort and hope that we seek out, does money come to us easily? It doesn't. Right? Does our job security, does that come easily? No. It requires a lot of work. It requires a lot of planning. Right?

A lot of risking. So, in other words, he's saying it's not that you're not planning, it's not that you're not working. You're working and planning and devising and pouring so much energy for what purpose? At the end of the day, what's waiting for you there? Egypt. So, why you're laboring, but why labor for something that's going to perish?

Right? So, in essence, that's basically what he's saying. It's not because you're not working hard. You're working hard, but you're pouring your energy into the wrong thing. At the end of the day, Egypt is going to fall. Right? What are they guilty of? Their lions? Right? They're willing to go through all these dangers, but did not consider to turn to God.

And as a result of that, they're going to see shame and humiliation. Right? And the whole reason why they're doing all of this is to save themselves from shame and humiliation. Right? Because they're concerned about the Assyrians. Remember what the Assyrians were known for? Their brutality. Right? They're the ones who are going to publicly humiliate you in front of your family, in front of your nation.

And so, he said, "You went through all of that to prevent that, but as a result of unbelief, that's exactly what you're going to get." Right? And so, neither, Egypt will neither be able to help nor profit Israel, but only shame and disgrace. You know? And I always think about that, you know, whenever we think about, you know, missionaries who pack their bags and they go to, you know, the remotest part of the world to share the Gospel.

When you get to the remotest part of the world to share the Gospel, do you know who you meet? Business people. Right? Business people. Business people will pack up everything, risk everything, and live in strange places because they think they're going to make money if they get there first.

Right? So, it's not just the missionaries who are sacrificing everything. People in this world sacrifice everything too. The only difference is why we're doing it. Right? So, it's not like, you know, the people who are rich, they risk. Right? They go through trouble, they go through hardship, but they think the payoff is going to be that they're going to make a lot of money.

Right? So, the difference is, are we putting in that kind of time and effort and sacrificing for the right thing? Right? It's just always interesting to me, like, you can go to India, you can go to the remotest part of China, you always run into another American, and when I run into them, my immediate thought is, "Oh, it must be a Christian.

Why would they be out here?" And then when I go there and talk to them, I find out that they're there for business. Right? They move their families and their children out there so that they can make more money. Right? And you say, "You're going to go through all that trouble to get to Egypt," and it keeps saying over and over again that there is no profit.

You're not going to profit by going there. Right? What are the qualities of these rebellious people that he says? He said, "They are lying children, unwilling to hear instruction from the Lord." And he gives specific things that he says. So, starting from verse 8. Right? Verse 9, "They are rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instructions of the Lord." And he says, "Who say to the seers, 'Do not see.'" Why would they say to the seers and the prophets, "Do not see," or "Do not prophesy"?

Why would they tell the prophets to stop prophesying? Right. In their heart, they know they're wrong. Right? In their heart, they know that what God is going to say is going to be against what they're doing. So, they don't even want to hear it. Which is interesting because they're still going to the temple.

They're still making sacrifices. They just don't want to know the truth. They still hold on to religiousness, yet they don't want to know the truth. Right? I mean, isn't it interesting that you would think that people who are making sacrifices to come to church week after week, that at the core, what they would want to hear is the truth?

Right? And yet, hundreds of thousands of people, maybe millions, are flocking to church, and yet, they're not interested in the Word of God. Right? He said, "That's exactly what was happening to the nation of Israel." It wasn't because they weren't going to the temples. They just chose to listen to the false prophets rather than the true prophets.

Right? So, they tell the prophets not to speak or to see. They only want to hear smooth things of illusion. They do not want to hear the truth of the Lord. What does this passage sound like? What warning… Right? Yeah, Isaiah 6, right? These people are going to listen, but they're not going to… You know, they're going to hear, but they're not going to listen.

What other passage? Mm-hmm. Can you say it for us? I'm telling you, they're not going to put up with sound doctrine. They're going to gather around themselves, right? Mm-hmm. Right. Okay. So, it says, "At the end time, that's what they're going to be known for." It's not that they're not listening to the Word.

They just have formulated it for themselves. Right? They're going to want to gather teachers around themselves. They're going to tickle their ears. In other words, it's like, "Teach me what I want to know." Right? But I don't want to know the truth. Right? And so that's exactly how they described the nation of Israel at this time.

It's not that God didn't send the prophets. There were plenty of prophets during this time. Right? Isaiah, Amos, Hosea. What did I miss? There's more. Right? God sent plenty of prophets to talk to them. It's just that they didn't want to listen. Right? And then they cling to the false prophets.

And what they were saying, "Why would God be angry with you? You're the apple of God's eye." So they chose to. And the reason why they didn't want to hear the truth is because they knew they were wrong. In their heart. Right? What will result from their rebelliousness? Their very sins, right, will eventually become a burden that they can't bear.

Right? The more accustomed to sin we become, the more burden that sin will become, eventually. Right? It's kind of like when your house gets dirty and you know you need to clean it, you need to clean it, but you keep putting it off. The longer you put it off, the harder it becomes to clean it.

No? Basically saying that your sin is eventually going to become a burden. Right? I hear people say that all the time. It's like, "I'm not ready. You know, once this period, once I have my kid, or once I get married, once I have this job, or once things settle down." And eventually you kind of kick it down the road thinking like, "Oh, later on." But you know, Spirit of God just doesn't work like that.

You know what I mean? Spirit of God just doesn't wait at the door. He's not ready. You know, He says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." Right? He's not always there knocking 24/7, waiting for you to come to the door. And then you say, "Okay, now I'm ready." Right?

I see so many people in their 20s kicking this responsibility, this conviction down the street. And then three, four years later down the line, they have no desire. They have no desire. Not realizing that they've hardened their heart to the point where there is no knocking anymore. The Holy Spirit isn't softening their hearts.

Right? So it's not like God's grace. That's why I keep saying over and over again, "Today, if you hear His voice today, do not harden your heart." Right? Because it is not, God is not there always softening your heart. Now tell me when you're ready. Right? The devastation caused by their sins will be ruthless.

They will become utterly useless. In other words, the very reason why God called the nation of Israel is that God may bless them and that they may bless many others. Right? So it's kind of like He says in the New Testament, "What good is it if the salt loses its flavor?" Right?

Absolutely useless. What would salt be good for if it wasn't salty? You can't build with it. What do you do with it? You play, you stand. What do you do with salt if it loses its flavor? Other than to be thrown onto the ground. Okay? So, they will flee from their enemies.

Right? They're fleeing to Egypt seeking security, but instead, they're not going to find that. Eventually, the very reason why they went over there is they're going to end up fleeing anyway. And then they said, they will fear even small numbers. Verse 17. Right? It says, "A thousand shall flee at the threat of one, at the threat of five you shall flee till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill." Let me see.

Can somebody turn to Deuteronomy chapter 32.30? Okay. And then, Mike, can you turn to Joshua 23.10? Okay. David, can you turn to Judges 7.22? And 23. And then Lynn. Deuteronomy 32.30. Okay. Can you start with Deuteronomy? Okay. Next, Joshua. Okay. Judges. When they blew the 300 trumpets, the Lord said, "Every man swore against his comrade and his people, and he was a traitor." Okay.

And then, "Every man swore against his comrade and against all the army. The army fled as far as Smith, Chittag, Tora, Zerath, as far as the border of Abel, Jephiel, and Abdullah. And the men of Israel were called out from Natalia, from Asher, and from all Manasseh, and they pursued after a medium." Okay.

So, over and over again, the Bible illustrates when the Lord is with us, a few will chase thousands. But when we're not, the Lord will scare us. What's a perfect example of that? Remember when Israel was going into the Canaanite land? That's like the first lesson God taught them.

(Audience member speaking) Mm-hmm. (Audience member speaking) Right. Right. So, as soon as they go into the Promised Land, the very first lesson that they taught was this lesson. This small, tiny little nation who was wandering for 40 years, they come in and all they did was obey, and then all of a sudden they march into this fortified city and they conquer it.

God told them don't touch anything. And what was his name? Achan, right? Achan goes in and he takes some articles, and then he keeps it to himself, and then they go to fight this small little town of Ai. And then they go on thinking like, "Oh, man, we just conquered Jericho.

We're going to be a nation." Right? So that's the very first lesson. And so, remember the way God punishes them? He gets the whole nation of Israel to stand, right? All 600,000 of them, maybe more, if you include the wives and children, right? And then he pulls them out by tribe, by clan, by family, and then he pulls him out.

The one guy, right? But he's saying because you didn't obey, look at the consequences, that even a large nation, look what you were able to do to Jericho. Not because of you, but because of me, right? So how important is this lesson? I mean, isn't this the same lesson that God is teaching us over and over?

I mean, you could think of, I could think of two dozen examples in the Bible where this exact same lesson is over and over again, right? When the Holy Spirit is with us, like, there's power. The Holy Spirit has power. But when the Holy Spirit is not with us, right, even a few can rock our security, right?

We always think about the disciples, how God used these few disciples and you're thinking like, wow, you know, God can use even foolish people. Yes, because God is the one working, right? It wasn't anything about these two, oh, you know, they learn the tricks and they learn how to preach and they saw all that.

No, it's despite all of that, God still used them in their weakness, right? So the same lesson, again, this is the lesson of the Bible, right? You're strong when you're with the Lord and you're weak when you're not, right? But even in the midst of all of this judgment and all of this fleeing and saying, I don't want to listen to your word, God is still pleading with the nation of Israel that if you would turn, you would find rest and be saved, right?

So basically what that means is, as long as you're in sin, there is no rest. Right? Remember we talked about that? Sabbath, right? The shalom basically is the Sabbath that was broken, peace. And so when he says this, as long as you are in sin, there is no Sabbath, right?

You can't go to church and, you know, like, oh, I'm not going to work on Sabbath. I'm not going to walk on Sabbath. I'm not going to do this on Sabbath. That's not what the Sabbath was about. The Sabbath was about the rest that God took Israel or the world into which got broken.

So he's saying as long as you don't repent, as long as you stay in your sin, there is no rest, there is no salvation. There is no Sabbath. Right? Quietness and trust will be their strength. In other words, it's not your might, it's not the soldiers, it's not the horses that are pouncing around, that in the quietness, right, in gentleness, even in your gentleness and in meekness, you will see power.

So he who waits upon the Lord, what does it mean to wait? Right? He waits to be gracious. Right? In other words, he's not simply saying, like, I'm waiting. In other words, like, well, let's, you know, I'm waiting for Tuesday, it's only Sunday. Right? So he doesn't mean to sit passively and just kind of let time pass.

To wait means that God is waiting for a response from his people, right, to repent. So he exalts himself to show mercy, verse 18. So therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you. In other words, he's giving you opportunity to repent. Right? And isn't that exactly what he's doing today?

Right? In 1 Peter, say, why is he taking so long to come? Right? Because he's being gracious. He's waiting. He's waiting for people to repent and come, the Gospel to be spread to the remotest part of the world. And therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. Right?

It is in God's glory that we find mercy. To wait for the Lord means for his justice to be complete and to return to God. In other words, what God had intended in these judgments would have its effect and would cause us to come to him. So again, you know, as we've been studying, you'll see back and forth, back and forth, where God brings judgment, and yet he is pleading with his people to return.

Right? In other words, he's disciplining. Remember we talked about that last week, how he judges the pagan nations and Israel is very different. Where he says when he judges the pagan nations, he crushes them and they're gone. But it's the nation of Israel, he crushes them, but he never forsakes them.

Right? So we see God again, over and over again, pleading with his people. Because he's eager to forgive. He says, "When that day comes, in that day, they will weep no more." Again, all of this sounds like very familiar to the book of Revelation. "Their eye shall see their teacher and hear his guidance." What do you think this means?

Somebody explain, like, in your own words, what does that mean? Is it kind of like one of those, like, your way of, like looking, kind of, Yeah, there's going to be a famine of the Word of God. And so, when he's saying that sin is repented of, and things are the way it ought to be, right, one of the first things that he talks about is that you shall see him.

Right? Isn't that what it says in the Bible? That we see him dimly, right? But we shall see him as he is. In other words, sin is what's causing us to not to see who God is. Because if salvation, think about what salvation is. Salvation is being able to see the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Right? Where you were blind to it, and then God convicts you, the preaching of the Word of God causes you to open your eyes to see the glory, and when you see his glory, you're changed. Right? We're changed. Right? Think about a particular event that happened in your life, or something that you've experienced that just utterly changed you.

Maybe think about, you know, the first time you laid eyes on your wife, or your child, or maybe you visited somewhere that was like, scenery was so awesome, and you got changed. Right? We're creatures of worship. When we're in the presence of something beyond us, and the more beyond us it is, the greater effect that it has on us.

Right? Am I right? The more spectacular the thing that we are exposed to, the more impact it has on us. Right? So in other words, what he's saying is that when our sins are taken away, we're able to see the magnificence of who he is. That's salvation. We are changed.

Right? And part of the reason why sanctification is difficult, if sanctification is just changing your behavior, and you're not really being changed because you're observing the glory of God, you don't have motivation. Right? So he says salvation, again, often is described as seeing God's glory as he is. Right?

And you just change. It's not something like, "Oh, I gotta change, I gotta change." You're just changed. You can't help the change, because you're being affected by what you're seeing, what you're observing. And then he says, "It's a comparison." And I remember, I was talking to somebody, I think it was last week, about this, right?

I mean, if you really think about it, salvation and life and freedom that Jesus talks about ultimately is dying to yourself. Right? Think about how much of stress and relational issue happens when you're thinking about yourself. Right? You're thinking too much about yourself. If I do this, what will they think?

If I do this, am I going to be happy? Am I going to be okay with this? And even when we don't think we're not thinking about ourselves, even in our humility, we're thinking too much about ourselves. You know what I mean? You're thinking too much about ourselves, something beyond you that is so magnificent that you forget.

Right? I mean, you know, I always revert back to sports because that's the greatest illustration. Right? You see something beyond yourselves and people pay money and they want to get closer to it because it affects them. They talk about it for days, sometimes years, and it's not just a basketball game or a baseball game.

It affects people. They talk about it, you know, when they're 60s, like, "Oh, I was there when I was 19." They talk about a silly baseball game or a basketball game that was so spectacular that people talk about it for years. Imagine seeing the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as He intended.

Like, what saves us from ourselves? Something so beyond us that we forget. Right? We forget who we are. We forget what we wore. We forget who we're sitting next to. We forget that we're hungry. You know what I mean? You ever been in a situation where you felt sick until something spectacular happened and then you just forgot you were sick?

Does that ever happen to you? Yeah. I think you guys know what I'm talking about. Like, something that magnificent, you forget that you don't have any bills. You don't have money to pay your bills. You forget. You just forget. Right? I mean, I'm going off, but in the end, summary of salvation is beholding His glory.

Right? That's why He says when He is glorified, we live. When He's magnified, we live. Right? When we try to magnify ourselves, we forget about ourselves. Right? And then ultimately, He will provide for their daily needs. Right? Something that every human being is laboring, planning, working. Right? Scheming, so that we can have a better life.

We can have all of these things. But He says, but if you return to the Lord, all of these things will happen. Your weeping will turn to joy. You will see who He is. Sanctification happens. Your needs are met. Right? All of it. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.

Right? Oops, what did I forget? Why is depending on Egypt for help so foolish? According to this passage, according to this passage, right? I did? Huh? This one? This one you're talking about? Oh, you just needed more time to fill it out. Okay. Because they're just mere men. Right?

You think about it, if you're having financial problems, you're going to go to somebody who has more money than you to help you out. You're going to go to the bank. You're going to go to the bank. You're going to go to the bank. You're going to go to the bank.

You're going to go to the bank. You're going to go to the bank. You're going to go to the bank. You're going to go to the bank. You're going to go to the bank. You're going to go to the bank. You're going to go to the bank. You're going to go to the bank.

You're going to go to the bank. You're going to go to the bank. You're going to go to the bank. You're going to go to the bank. And ultimately, because they're men, when the Lord judges, they will fall. Who were the Egyptians in history? I mean, you really think about it?

By this time, they probably already forgot. They were the oppressors at one point, right? They were the ones who were oppressing them. And they forgot it was the Lord who delivered them from Egypt. So why would you go back? Right? Doesn't the Bible say that? The one who repents and returns, what is he like?

It's like a dog returning to its vomit. Right? God saves us from an empty way of life. And then, instead of praising and worshipping him, you keep longing for the empty things that he saved us from. Right? Went through all that drama to deliver them from Egypt, and then now they're going through all that drama to go back to Egypt.

In that day, everyone will cast away his idols of silver and of gold. Even in the Lord's greatest judgment, he pleads for his people. So over and over again, even as he is pronouncing judgment, he's pleading with his people to return. Right? Too fast? Okay, I hear groaning. I don't know what that is.

Right? So when he says that the Syrians will fall by the sword, not by man, in other words, when you see this happening, it wasn't the might of the Babylonians. Right? It wasn't the might of the Babylonians. It wasn't the might of the Babylonians. Right? Obviously Assyria falls because Babylonians come into power.

But when they fall, you'll know that it wasn't men. It was God. Right? As terrifying as the Assyrians were known to be, when God's judgment comes, that even their most mightiest of men are going to flee. I remember when I was a little kid in Korea, there was this kid in our neighborhood who was a bully.

Nobody like my age, like when I was like, I was like five or six years old, we could not roam around our streets in peace because there was one bully. But I had an older brother who was three years older, and so everybody was scared of my brother. People are still scared of him today, but everybody was scared of my brother.

So because of him, I was the only one in that neighborhood who was able to do whatever I wanted. Because everybody knew I had an older brother. Right? He didn't play with the little kids. Right? But because of him, I lived free. Right? Kind of made me think about this.

Obviously on a larger scale, but God is basically saying like, I'm your protector. Why would you worry about them? Why are you going from one bully to the next bully to the next bully when you have God behind you? Right? And so God keeps playing. You're running from Syria to us Syria to the Babylonians to the Egyptians over and over again.

And then why would you not return to me? I can crush these people. I made these people. Right? If I show up, even their mightiest of soldiers are going to run in terror. Why would you keep going to them? Right? So what God is pleading with the nation of Israel is take your eyes off of them and look at me.

Right? Don't forget who I am. Because the moment you lose faith in me, you're going to be surrounded by bullies. Right? And that's why, again, over and over again, all of this, like, again, what I want to encourage you guys to do is we study the book of Isaiah and any other book.

You know, I know Isaiah is not the easiest book to study because the theme kind of sometimes seems like it jumps around and it's hard to figure out the historical context and there's not a clear continuity to some of the things that he's saying. But don't ever forget what the purpose of the Bible is.

Right? What is it? The Bible is a revelation of God in the end. This is who he is. Right? He said his very breath is in the Word of God. So all of these things, even if you don't understand all the historical context and how the prophecies are going to be fulfilled, in the end, this is about him.

Right? So if there's anything that you're able to get from Isaiah, you clearly see the heart of God. Because in the end, that's the ultimate purpose of why we studied the Bible. Right? So that we can understand and know the heart of God. And you can clearly see, right, how much he cares for his people, how much he hates sin, that, but even in the context of judgment, he's eager to be gracious, eager to forgive.

Right? So again, I want to leave with this encouragement. You know, sometimes we can repeat the same thing over and over again. We can repeat sins and we can fall short so often that we feel like, you know, like we've exhausted his grace, that I can't possibly come to him again after what I've done, after what I did.

That is not possible. Right? Like our God, if we are his children, you know, even in the context, when he says, "Forgive seven times seven," as long as your repentance is genuine, it's not like, "Okay, I'm going to ask for forgiveness, he's going to forgive and I'm going to go back and sin." That's not repentance.

Right? That's not repentance. As long as repentance is genuine, you're genuinely broken over your sin, genuinely desire for forgiveness, God forgives. He's eager to forgive. Right? I'm not just saying that to tickle your ears. That's the God that we see in the Bible. Right? So any thought or anything that causes you to think that you cannot possibly come to God in your sins, that's not from God.

That's when you need God the most. Right? So not to add sin upon sin. Right? Sometimes we let sin be the cause of more sin. Because we sin, we can't go to God, and then that causes us to spiral out of control. The time that we need his grace the most is when we are in sin.

That's why he started this passage by saying, "Don't add sin upon sin." When you sin, turn to God. Right? All right. Take some time.