“Repent and Trust”
[Isaiah 22:1-25]
February 10, 2019, Second Reformed Church
Many of us will be familiar with the song written and sung by Frank Sinatra, “I Did It My Way”:
“And now, the end is near
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I'll say it clear
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain
I've lived a life that's full
I've traveled each and every highway
And more, much more than this
I did it my way
“Regrets, I've had a few
But then again, too few to mention
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption
I planned each charted course
Each careful step along the byway
And more, much more than this
I did it my way
“Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all, when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out
I faced it all and I stood tall
And did it my way
“I've loved, I've laughed and cried
I've had my fill, my share of losing
And now,…”
Frank Sinatra well presents the sin of the people of Jerusalem: they saw themselves as self-sufficient. They didn’t need to rely on God or trust God or obey God – they took it all in stride, and in all things, they did it their way.
Chapter twenty-two of the book of Isaiah is an oracle against the Valley of Vision – which quickly becomes clear is the city of Jerusalem – though Isaiah does not explain the name that he gives it. It is a warning to the people of God both not to think that we are self-sufficient and to constantly turn to God in all things.
First, the people of Jerusalem party when they should weep.
The prophet opens the oracle asking Jerusalem, “What are you doing? What’s wrong with you? Why are you on your rooftops shouting and being rowdy and joyful – partying – when the city is being besieged?!”
“Don’t you understand – your leaders have not been killed by the sword – they have run away in cowardice. They have run off to distant lands to save themselves, and they have left you here to face the incoming hoards. And you are drinking champagne on the roof, listening to your favorite band, dancing around – are you nuts? You will be captured and taken away into captivity.”
And this did come to pass in 586 B.C., as we read:
“And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem and laid siege to it. And they built siegeworks all around it. So the city was besieged till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, by the king's garden, and the Chaldeans were around the city. And they went in the direction of the Arabah. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him. Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence on him. They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains and took him to Babylon” (2 Kings 25:1-7, ESV).
Isaiah can’t believe the self-centeredness – their total self-absorption – and he tells them to look away while he weeps – to not even consider trying to comfort him because he is devastated about the coming destruction of the daughter of his people – Jerusalem.
This is especially devastating to Isaiah because this is supposed to be the people of God. These were the people that God chose out of all of humanity to be a holy nation for Him on earth – and they are throwing up their hands and saying, “nothing to be done – might as well party while the ship goes down.”
Consider if you hear about a church or a minister involved in sin that becomes public and he suffers or the church suffers for it – Jimmy Swaggert used prostitutes – the Roman Catholic Church has some pedophile priests in it. Do we laugh and say, “Oh, well”? Do we party on because they are not part of our denomination or our church? If our denomination decides in 2020 to split into two denominations – will we rejoice and party that we don’t have to be associated with them anymore – or should we weep because part of our people have accepted the idea that not everything in the Bible is to be believed?
Second, Jerusalem looks to their weapons when they should be looking to God.
Whatever our view of gun control and the like, can we not all agree that weapons have been used to stop evil and to protect? It was God, after all, Who commanded Israel to kill everyone in Canaan. And God fought for Israel against her enemies. And our police officers have guns if, God forbid, they have to use them to stop crime and bloodshed by those unwilling to obey the law.
But, if you have a gun, or a knife, or a bat, are you guaranteed to be safe? Of course not.
And if there is crime in our neighborhood or home, shouldn’t we first go to God in prayer, before we get our weapons – excluding immediate danger, of course?
God warns Judah and Jerusalem that the day is coming – in 586 B.C. – when the Babylonians will invade and breach the walls of Jerusalem. We can read of the horror of this attack in the book of Lamentations.
God tells Jerusalem that He has set a day when there will be “tumult and trampling and confusion in the valley of vision,” and the walls of the city will not hold against the invaders.
Elam and Kir – neighboring nations to the east – will join in attacking Jerusalem, with shouts and bows and chariots and horsemen and shields, and they will be successful because the Lord God has taken away His protection from Jerusalem.
The response of God’s Word to the people is to run to the armory. They collect water. They break down their own homes to try to fortify the walls. But, as Isaiah tells them, “But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.”
“You hear the enemies are coming. They begin to break down the walls. You look for weapons and supplies and water and try to shore up the walls, but none of you thinks to call out – to pray – to the Almighty and Sovereign God Who planned for this to happen from before the foundation of the world.”
How stupid.
When you have trouble at home, when you are sick, when the nation is at war with itself, when you are having financial difficulties, when the Church is at odds with itself, when everything you can think of outside of you and around you and in you is going wrong – yes, go to all the means that we have on earth – doctors, financial planners, political figures, and so forth – but don’t neglect to go to God first – to plead before God first – to ask for help and direction and courage to trust God first, because God is the One Who is Sovereign and is bringing His plan to pass, including everything that we don’t understand and fret and seek solutions to.
I’ve been to a number of these church growth seminars that our denomination has put out, and inevitably, they say that we need to begin with a survey of this or that or the other thing. No, we ought to begin with prayer – ongoing intense prayer until God gives us an answer or moves us in a certain way. Go to the Word of God and pray and pray and pray, and then seek the wisdom of these other things. One that was told to us years ago was that if we removed the weeds from between the slabs of cement in the sidewalk people would come to this church. Really? Do you pray?
Third, God calls Jerusalem to repent, and they party.
“In that day” – sometime in the future from when Isaiah is preaching, the Lord God of hosts will call upon Jerusalem to repent of her sins – to weep and mourn and show the signs of repentance such as sackcloth and baldness. God will call on them to show with all sincerity that they repent of their sins against God.
However, their response will be to ignore God – to rejoice and be glad – to slaughter oxen and sheep – to eat and drink and say, “You know what, God? We’re not going to repent. We’re not sorry. We’re going to party until we drop dead, because we might as get all the pleasure out of life we can and then call it a day.”
And God tells them that if they do not repent – if they continue unrepentantly in their sin – God will never forgive their sin – they will suffer eternally under the Wrath of God.
It is not surprising that there are unbelievers in the Church. Jesus says there will be weeds amidst the wheat until the harvest at the end of the age. But to not even pretend – to hear God’s call to repentance and to throw it back in God’s face and say, “no!” To go on living in the Church, working in the Church, claiming to be a part of the Church, and yet saying that you will never obey God, much less repent of your sin.
Bishop John Spong of Newark, NJ, claims to be a Christian. He says that God does not exist. Original Sin is a myth. The Virgin Birth is a myth. Jesus is not God. Jesus was not sacrificed for our sins. There are no miracles. Jesus did not ascend. And there is no objective morality. And unless Bishop Spong repents of his sin and believes in Jesus Alone for salvation, he will suffer eternal Hell. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Shelby_Spong).
You can’t say you’re a Christian an unrepentantly continue in your sins. Yes, we all sin. We ought to be quick to repent of our sin and believe all that God has said. But, if we hear the Word of God and say, “I don’t care. I’m going to keep on sinning and enjoying my life until it is over” – then it doesn’t matter if you have been a member of the Church for eighty years, and paid for a new wing, and are a fourth generation parishioner, and wash the feet of widows and bring them food. You will go to Hell and suffer eternally. And, if you know anyone so deluded, it should break your heart and bring you to tears and to prayer to God on their behalf.
Fourth, God removes a leader in Jerusalem as an example to them.
Shebna is a high official in Jerusalem, but he was full of himself – self-absorbed – assured of his own importance and ability – and he wants to be remembered for all generations for how great he knows he is. So, Shebna carves out a tomb for himself in Jerusalem where everyone would see him day in and day out throughout the generations. And God asks him, “Who does that?”
God tells him, for his sin, he will be taken away with violence. He will be thrown around like a ball and cast out into the wilderness. He will lose his office and die in disgrace – away from all the people who fawn over him.
In his place, God appoints Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, And God gives Eliakim Shebna’s position, and Shebna’s robe, and Shebna’s sash, and he is given the legislative authority that Shebna had. And God installs Eliakim like a peg in the wall to be a force of stability for Jerusalem, but God will take him out like He took out Shebna, if Eliakim becomes like him.
And we might look at all of this and say, “Who can blame Jerusalem?” They were under attack. Their leaders deserted them. God has withdrawn His protection. What hope did they have? How could they know that God would forgive them, even if He did not save them from the invasion? Wouldn’t we have acted the same way – turned to our weapons, tried to stay alive, and then just said, “It’s over; let’s go out with a bang?”
Hear how Jesus reacted, knowing much worse was about to befall Him:
“And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, ‘Pray that you may not enter into temptation.’ And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.’ And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, and he said to them, ‘Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation’” (Luke 22:39-46, ESV).
Jesus, in His humanity, knew He was about to suffer more horrifically than any person in all of human history. His response was not to give up. His response was not to party and be in denial. His response was not to engage in sin. He response was to go to God in prayer and to submit to the Will of His Father. And if we think that was easy for Him because He is the Son of God, notice that Luke records that He was so traumatized by what He was willingly doing, that His blood vessels burst and mixed with His sweat and fell to the ground like great drops of blood. No, this was not easy for Jesus to do, but it was the right thing for Him to do – it was for the glory of His Father and our salvation that He did and endured all these horrific things.
What about you and me?
Pray to God our Father. Trust Him and repent of our sins. Pray. Seek to follow Him in all that He calls us to do and be – and pray. Pray for wisdom and strength – for the ability to obey and be satisfied in God through Jesus whatever may come. Pray for revival. Pray that God would look down upon us and grow us in faith and obedience and draw His people into this congregation and into the true churches in our town. Pray that God the Holy Spirit would change the hearts of those people who are just “playing Christian” in our congregations – may their hearts of stone be torn out and be replaced with hearts of flesh.
Let us all pray silently right now…in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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