“Sins of the Nation”
[Isaiah 1:1-9]
February 25, 2018, Second Reformed
Church
This morning we begin a look at the
book of Isaiah:
“The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz,
which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham,
Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.”
All we know about Isaiah is that he is the
son of Amoz. He preaches primarily to
the southern kingdom of Judah and during the reign of four kings: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. We don’t know when Isaiah was born or how or when
he died. However, in Isaiah chapter 6,
we have Isaiah answering God’s call “in the year that King Uzziah died” – which
we know was in 740 B.C. And we know that
Hezekiah died in 687 B.C.
What does that tell us?
If Isaiah begins preaching in 740 and continues
until 687 B.C., that would tell us that Isaiah preaches for about 53
years. However, there are texts that
show Isaiah preaches during Uzziah’s reign, which began in 792 B.C., so it is
possible that Isaiah preached for as long as 105 years.
In any event, Isaiah preaches for a long
time.
We also know that Isaiah is a
witness to the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel to the Assyrians in 722
B.C.
There are at least three layers to
his preaching: God’s Word for the people
of Isaiah’s day. God’s Word for the
people who will fall under the Babylonian conquest some 200 years later in 586
B.C. And God’s Word concerning the first
and second comings of the promised Savior.
The overarching theme of his
preaching is that God is the Holy One of Israel. God is the Holy One of Israel.
Isaiah’s preaching begins with a
condemnation of the sins of three groups.
This morning, we are looking at the sins of the nation of Israel – and specifically
the southern kingdom of Judah.
And we see, first, God adopts a people
of His choice.
“Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for
the LORD has spoken: ‘Children have I reared and brought up, but they have
rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but
Israel does not know, my people do not understand.’ Ah, sinful nation, a people
laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They
have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are
utterly estranged.”
Isaiah begins to deliver God’s
indictment against Israel by calling on the Creation witness. In this courtroom scene, the heavens and the
earth are witnesses against Israel before God, the judge and prosecutor.
This is not unusual among the
prophets. Moses cries out, “Give ear, O
heavens, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth” (Deuteronomy
32:1, ESV).
We have an expression, “the walls
have ears,” but in a very real sense – before God – the Creation does have eyes
and ears and does witness before God.
Nothing shall remain hidden.
The Lord has spoken – witness to it
Creation: God, in the highest greatness
of His Mercy, chose a people to be His – Israel. And God chose Israel out of all of the people
of the world to come first out of the nation that He would raise up, give His
written Word, and bring into the Promised Land.
God chose a people for Himself and made them His sons and daughters. God
adopted a people for Himself.
Under the reign of King Uzziah, the
nation prospered and was at peace. The
stock market was through the roof.
Everyone had his or her own sports car.
No one had lack and everyone had more than each needed. And their response was to turn their backs on
God – to rebel against God.
“Everything is just fine that way it
is. Why should I obey God? Why shouldn’t I just enjoy myself? Why should I bow to Him when I pulled myself
up by my own bootstraps? Even if God
doesn’t like the way I live my life, God is God – God is love – so He has to
forgive me – after all – I’m His son – He adopted me.”
All was well, so Israel turned her
backs on God as a nation and despised Him – and God rose up in fury:
“The ox and the donkey know who they
belong to – they know who they owe their thanks to – they know who they are to
be loyal to – but this nation – the children I adopted from the seed of
evildoers – they pile up sins upon themselves.
They are corrupt. They have forsaken
Me – the Holy One of Israel – they are totally estranged from Me – and they
think everything is just fine.”
Can we imagine?
Orphans sinking in sin with no hope
for a future – God chooses some to be His – He adopts them and makes them His
people – He gives them His Word, a land, and prospers them – and they turn away
from God and sin against God and despise Him – they don’t care that they were
sinning against Him.
Is this not a warning?
Peter writes, “But you are a chosen
race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that
you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into
his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once
you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and
exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your
soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak
against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the
day of visitation” (I Peter 2:9-12, ESV).
And Paul writes, “So then, brothers,
we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you
live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death
the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God
are sons of God. For you did not receive
the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit
of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our
spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God
and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may
also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:12-17, ESV).
May we remember that we are the
adopted sons and daughters of the One Holy God and we owe thanks and obedience
to Him. Not that He will cut off any
that Christ has died for, but we may endure suffering for our sins in this life
as discipline to turn us back. Let us
obey our loving Father.
Second, God wants His people to
repent.
“Why will you still be struck down? Why
will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From
the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises
and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with
oil.”
God calls to His children to repent and
waits on us to confess our sins to Him and ask for His forgiveness as we
promise not to sin again. Just as that
father waited with sure hope that one day he would see his prodigal son coming
down the road to repent of his sin against the father, so God calls His children
to repent and return to Him.
God asks Israel if they are going to
continue to rebel against Him – if they are going to continue to be
irrational. They know they have sinned
against God, and they have been struck down.
So, God tells them to stop and repent, and they will not be struck down
again, but they continue. Why?
You may have heard of conditioning experiments
where animals are given a shock if they do one thing and a treat if they do
another – or even nothing at all, but they are not hurt. The animals are smart enough to understand
the relationship between getting hurt and certain actions, so they stop those
actions that cause them pain. But God
tells us that Israel is struck down and they rebel and they are struck down and
they rebel and they are struck down – does that make any sense? That’s not rational. If you could stop the pain, why wouldn’t you?
But it’s more than that – God diagnoses
their sin and rebellion as causing them to be sick in their head and sick in
their heart, since from the top of their heads to the bottom of their feet –
they are bruised and cut and sore and they do nothing to try to heal
themselves. They don’t bind their wounds
or cover their sores or disinfect themselves.
That’s not rational. They are
being irrational. It is irrational to
sin against God – because God knows and as a just Judge must receive payment
for the sin against Him – and all sin is ultimately against Him.
God calls His children to utter
obedience: “For I am the LORD who
brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy,
for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45, ESV).
And the same is true for the Israel of God
today – all we who believe:
“As obedient children, do not be conformed
to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you
also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for
I am holy.’ And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according
to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your
exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your
forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the
precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was
foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last
times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him
from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” (I
Peter 1:14-21, ESV).
Kevin DeYoung explains in his book, The Hole in Our Holiness, that we in the
reformed church are very good at explaining what holiness is, but not so good
at being holy – not so good at striving for absolute obedience – not for
salvation, of course, our works are worthless for salvation – but in obedience
and thanks to the God Who has saved us and adopted us as His children.
Why do we continue to disobey? Why do we continue to sin?
Paul writes, “No temptation has overtaken
you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be
tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the
way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (I Corinthians 10:13, ESV).
What does that mean?
It means we always have the choice whether
to sin or not, and we never have to give in to sin. We are indwelled with God the Holy Spirit so
if we choose to sin, we are rebelling against God and being irrational.
If we do not strive for absolute obedience
in the joy of our adoption and salvation, we are asking to be struck down again
– we are irrationally rebelling against our God and Father. Let us respond to God’s Fatherly Love and His
adoption and salvation of us by striving to be absolutely obedient to Him – let
us truly strive to be holy.
Third, God disciplines His children.
“Your country lies desolate; your
cities are burned with fire; in your very presence foreigners devour your land;
it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners. And the daughter of Zion is left like
a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.”
Isaiah foretells God’s discipline
and Israel’s anemic reaction: God would
send the Babylonians to destroy Judah and take them into captivity – just as
our friend Habakkuk was told, but this is about 150 years or so before Habakkuk
– the Babylonians – the Chaldeans – would come and slaughter the people and
take them into captivity some 200 years after Isaiah preached.
At best, the reaction of Israel in
Judah is to give up and accept the slaughter that God sent upon them. At worst, they did little to fight against
foreigners taking the land that God gave to His people – they did little to
protect the Temple and the people of Israel.
Some may say, “Well, this is God’s
discipline of Israel, they ought not to fight it, but to just take whatever
comes against them.”
This is the wrong answer – they were
not to enjoy foreigners coming against them and stealing and killing – and this
has nothing to do with immigration. The
very least they could have done was fought against the Babylonians with
everything they had to protect the women and children and God’s Holy
Temple. Being disciplined is not an
excuse for being disobedient. And it is
surely not a reason to give up.
The author of Hebrews writes, “For
the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it
yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it”
(Hebrews 12:11, ESV).
Discipline is given to us to lead us
to peace and to train us in righteousness.
It is not given to destroy us but to turn us around and follow the path
that God has set before us.
Finally, God is faithful.
“If the LORD of hosts had not left
us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah.”
In punishing Israel for her sin – in
crushing the nation by the Babylonians – God did not kill off everyone, but He
chose to show mercy and leave a remnant, because God is faithful to all that He
has said and promised – and God promised a Savior from the line of David.
In the midst of the fall of the city
of Jerusalem, Jeremiah writes, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his
mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your
faithfulness. ‘The LORD is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in
him’” (Lamentations 3:22-24, ESV).
Because the Lord is faithful, there
were survivors of the devastation brought down upon Israel and Judah.
Because the Lord is faithful, the
Savior came to earth to save His people, making us sons and daughters of God,
and He is returning.
Because the Lord is faithful, the
line of David did not end like Sodom and Gomorrah – as we read, “And Abraham
went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD. And
he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley,
and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a
furnace” (Genesis 19:27-28, ESV).
God adopts a people of His choice.
God wants His people to repent.
God disciplines His children.
God remains faithful to us, even
when we are faithless.
Good news for the nation, isn’t it?
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You for
choosing and adopting a people in Your Mercy, for growing us and for
disciplining us. Help us to repent
quickly. Help us to rely upon God the
Holy Spirit. Help us to know that You
are always faithful. And may we strive
after absolute obedience in joy and thanks to You for Your Son, our
Savior. For it is in Jesus’ Name we
pray, Amen.
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