Isaiah 5 is a litany of woe oracles aimed at six different sins. Like last week’s oracle against vain women, this chapter is speaking directly to the Israelites, but the sins and consequences are strangely familiar.
Beginning with verses 8 and 9, Isaiah condemns people who exploit others. In his time, this looks like wealthy land owners buying up the houses and fields until there is not much left for anyone else. As a result, God promises a bad return on their crops and desolation of their fine homes. During Uzziah’s reign, Judah experienced great economic prosperity, but it would seem that there are many who are now abusing their wealth. Isaiah warns that the time is coming when God will shut their economy down.
Another side effect of prosperity, it could be argued, is laziness and indulgence. In verses 11 and 12, Isaiah speaks against those who spend their time and money getting drunk. They throw amazing parties, but have no interest in the Lord. As a result, these people who are reveling in their excess will soon have nothing, “…their men of rank will die of hunger and their masses will be parched with thirst.”
The people have become so confident in their strength and in their economic standing that they are no longer ashamed of their sin. In verses 18 and 19, Isaiah describes people who carry their sin around with them like oxen pulling a plow. They sarcastically provoke God to hurry up and send His judgment (essentially telling God to put His money where His mouth is). As we know, God did use Assyria and Babylon to bring about judgment on His people.
The next verses really caught my attention. Verse 20 condemns those who call what is evil good and what is good evil. They, literally, relish sin and disobedience while they mock righteous obedience. The note in my study Bible says, “When people do not carefully observe the distinction between good and evil, destruction soon follows. It is easy for people to say, ‘No one can decide for anyone else what is really right or wrong.’”
Verse 21 calls out the arrogant, while verse 23 focuses on those who deny justice to others.
What I notice about all of these sins is that they are sneaky, insidious sins. While all sin is rooted in the heart, some are more obvious than others. We usually don’t have a problem identifying and opposing obvious sins: murder, adultery, abusing the defenseless. With these six sneaky sins, though, I think what was happening to the Israelites is the same thing that happens to us--the line between wrong and right was getting smudged. Take, for instance, the drunkards mentioned in verses 11 and 12. It could be argued their behavior wasn’t hurting anyone, that they were just having a good time, so why was it wrong? Verse 12 tells us their hearts were wrong, their partying was an extension of them having no respect for God. Another reason is because they were so caught up in having fun that they stopped working, allowing famine and hunger to creep in.
For us today, the list of obvious sins is getting shorter. Like verse 5:20 says, we, too, are guilty of calling evil good and good evil. Our lines are smearing. We see Christians responding to sin in unappealing ways. There are the public embarrassments who bomb clinics, burn Korans and hurl hate speech. Then there are those who are so afraid of being offensive that they offer hugs and donuts, but sidestep the Truth.
We are called to live between the two extremes. To call evil evil, while being living testimonies to God’s mercy. It’s important that we do this, because we know what happened to Isaiah’s audience—God didn’t take their sin lightly, He judged it. God promises to judge our sin too, be it subtle or flagrant. We need to continually return to our Savior in repentance, and if we love our society, we need to be pointing others to Him as well.
Rather than answering questions at the end of this study, let me encourage you to spend some time this week comparing the Israelites of Isaiah's day with the Christians of ours. How do our responses to drunkenness, arrogance, greed, laziness, injustice and relativism stack up to Israel's response? To God's response?
As an interesting side note, I share with you an article I read this summer about why Christians our age don’t care about Proposition 8.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Week 2 Putting the Woe in Wo-man
Early in the school year, I got an e-mail from my boss telling teachers to fix our websites. In an attachment was each teacher’s name and what was wrong with her website. There it was in black and white, “Walters—has link to March lunch menu.” If the e-mail had been generic, I probably would have kept my website on the backburner, but when I was told specifically what to fix, I got right on it. The fact that someone knew exactly what was wrong and put it in my face (or my inbox) lit a fire under me.
In the same way, Isaiah doesn’t do generic with the people of Judah. Return, repent, be renewed. According to my study Bible, these are the three things we hear Isaiah repeating throughout his prophecy. His words challenge the people to turn from specific sins before the judgment that is coming.
As I read through Isaiah this summer, I was always surprised when the sins of Judah were not all that different than my sins, or the sins that permeate this culture I live in and love.
For instance, Isaiah 3:16-4:1 is a specific prophecy directed at the women of Judah. Their sin, be it manifested by flirting with their eyes or by tripping along with mincing steps, was placing too great an emphasis on their outward appearances. In a time of imminent destruction and oppression, they worried about their bangles, headbands and purses. Sound familiar? They placed too much value on these possessions and wound up with nothing.
I can’t help but think of Heidi Montag and her ten plastic surgery procedures in one day. I want to point at her and say, “She’s got issues with her appearance. I’m doing just fine.” But then, there are days when I force myself to the gym because I’m convinced my pants won’t fit if I don’t (and you thought I was just super-committed!).
When Isaiah issues the call to return and to repent, he is not just talking to Judah. He is telling all of us. And when Isaiah predicts their ultimate salvation, we can pin our hopes on the same Savior.
For the women of Judah, just when things are at their most desperate (4:1), he lays out God’s plan for their ultimate renewal.
“’We will eat our own food and provide our own clothes; only let us be called by your name. Take away our disgrace!’ In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious...”
At the time of Judah’s destruction, God was planning to protect a remnant under the shelter of His glorious Branch. They would be people marked by their righteousness, not by their physical appearance. In the same way, what marks us as godly women is our character, not our finery. Of course, we know this. We’ve heard the message more times than we can count, haven’t we? We need frequent reminders, though. I, especially, need to be reminded that the beautiful and glorious Branch of the LORD transferred His beauty to me.
As we begin studying Isaiah, as we see the specific sins of Judah laid out in black and white, it’s important to remember that we are just as likely to sin in the same ways, and to need a reminder to return and repent. There is a strong temptation to shake our heads at the foolish Israelites who kept missing the point and to distance ourselves from this text that was written so long ago. But if we overlook our sins, we overlook our Savior—the beautiful and glorious One Isaiah promised would come.
1. Draw a picture of the kind of woman Isaiah describes in chapter 3. Draw another woman who represents the appearance-obsession of our present day. How are these women similar? How are they different?
2. In your prayer life, is it your practice to repent of specific sins, or to repent in broad strokes? How can Isaiah’s judgment of Judah’s women inform our prayer lives? How will this affect our view of Jesus?
In the same way, Isaiah doesn’t do generic with the people of Judah. Return, repent, be renewed. According to my study Bible, these are the three things we hear Isaiah repeating throughout his prophecy. His words challenge the people to turn from specific sins before the judgment that is coming.
As I read through Isaiah this summer, I was always surprised when the sins of Judah were not all that different than my sins, or the sins that permeate this culture I live in and love.
For instance, Isaiah 3:16-4:1 is a specific prophecy directed at the women of Judah. Their sin, be it manifested by flirting with their eyes or by tripping along with mincing steps, was placing too great an emphasis on their outward appearances. In a time of imminent destruction and oppression, they worried about their bangles, headbands and purses. Sound familiar? They placed too much value on these possessions and wound up with nothing.
I can’t help but think of Heidi Montag and her ten plastic surgery procedures in one day. I want to point at her and say, “She’s got issues with her appearance. I’m doing just fine.” But then, there are days when I force myself to the gym because I’m convinced my pants won’t fit if I don’t (and you thought I was just super-committed!).
When Isaiah issues the call to return and to repent, he is not just talking to Judah. He is telling all of us. And when Isaiah predicts their ultimate salvation, we can pin our hopes on the same Savior.
For the women of Judah, just when things are at their most desperate (4:1), he lays out God’s plan for their ultimate renewal.
“’We will eat our own food and provide our own clothes; only let us be called by your name. Take away our disgrace!’ In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious...”
At the time of Judah’s destruction, God was planning to protect a remnant under the shelter of His glorious Branch. They would be people marked by their righteousness, not by their physical appearance. In the same way, what marks us as godly women is our character, not our finery. Of course, we know this. We’ve heard the message more times than we can count, haven’t we? We need frequent reminders, though. I, especially, need to be reminded that the beautiful and glorious Branch of the LORD transferred His beauty to me.
As we begin studying Isaiah, as we see the specific sins of Judah laid out in black and white, it’s important to remember that we are just as likely to sin in the same ways, and to need a reminder to return and repent. There is a strong temptation to shake our heads at the foolish Israelites who kept missing the point and to distance ourselves from this text that was written so long ago. But if we overlook our sins, we overlook our Savior—the beautiful and glorious One Isaiah promised would come.
1. Draw a picture of the kind of woman Isaiah describes in chapter 3. Draw another woman who represents the appearance-obsession of our present day. How are these women similar? How are they different?
2. In your prayer life, is it your practice to repent of specific sins, or to repent in broad strokes? How can Isaiah’s judgment of Judah’s women inform our prayer lives? How will this affect our view of Jesus?
Monday, September 13, 2010
Isaiah 6
The first five chapters of Isaiah are a picture of a court room where God's people are asked to give an account of their actions. We are going to go back and look at those chapters but this week we are going to skip ahead to chapter six. I think that it would be easy for the people to be a little upset about all that Isaiah has said about them in the introduction to his book but in chapter six he backtracks and shows that before he went digging specks out of their eyes he did some serious demolition on the house in his own. Isaiah's own sin disturbed him so greatly that he wanted to die, but in the year Uzziah died something happened that changed everything.
With the death of the king uncertainty filled the hearts of God's people. Although Uzziah wasn't the best king spiritually the people felt safe under his care in a world where nations were falling to the Assyrians right and left. It was in this time that Isaiah was reminded that whoever held the thrown on earth would come and go but the true ruler of Israel does not come and go like shifting shadows.
Isaiah 6:1-4
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory."
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
This is an amazing picture. The Lord in all his glory being worshiped as He ought. No one is defaming Him, no one is exercising their will to not believe, no one is calling him a liar or calming he is not powerful for this or that and NO ONE is trying to say he doesn't exist. I love this picture! I can't imagine anything greater than a world where the truth is so bright that nothing else can possibly exist.
Dwelling on the Holiness of God's can affect us in two ways.
1) We can be encouraged and filled with the comfort of knowing that with the perfect unchanging Holy God on the thrown we have nothing to fear and
2) With the perfect unchanging holy God we, as sinful broken powerless people have everything to fear, because we do not deserve to live.
Isaiah saw the holiness of God next to the corruptness of himself and reacted accordingly.
" 5 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
And then of course the Holy, LOVING God revealed to Isaiah His perfect plan for removing his sin and taking him as His own.
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
And so Isaiah is free to worship the Lord without fear. It is here that Isaiah is telling the people that he too has sinned but his sin has been taken away by his Lord and that is why he is writing this book. He explains exactly what the Lord called him, or rather saved him to do.
9 He said, "Go and tell this people:
" 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'
10 Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed."
11 Then I said, "For how long, O Lord?"
And he answered:
"Until the cities lie ruined
and without inhabitant,
until the houses are left deserted
and the fields ruined and ravaged,
12 until the LORD has sent everyone far away
and the land is utterly forsaken.
13 And though a tenth remains in the land,
it will again be laid waste.
But as the terebinth and oak
leave stumps when they are cut down,
so the holy seed will be the stump in the land."
So if you were Isaiah would you be like, YES SIGN ME UP! There isn't a lot of encouragement here. Isaiah's ministry will actually cause some people to be even more hard hearted, deft and blind to the truth. Rather than make things better, his ministry is going to end in failure and he knows that from the very beginning. But this isn't chapter one of Isaiah it's chapter six. We already know that ultimate "failure" has not stopped him from following God's call. He did not ask what the task would be and THEN say he would go, he said he would before he even knew what God would ask. Because it wasn't about him. He saw the Lord in all his glory and his sin was taken away. That was all that mattered, that he be like those surrounding the throne continually calling out to the world to take notice that, "Holy, Holy is the Lord God almighty and the whole earth is filled with his glory!"
1) Why would God close the peoples ears and hearts if it meant the destruction of his nation?
Is this sarcasm? (Verse 9-10)
These verse are quoted six times in the new testament, Matt.13:13-15,Mark 4:12, Luke 8:10,John 12:40, Acts 28:25-28, Romans 11:8. Read a few of these and consider the context in which they are quoted.
How does this close minded attitude apply to the church today?
2) How does the symbolism of nation as a tree being cut down bring hope? (read verse 13)
3) How real is the holiness of God to you? Does this make a difference in the way you live your life?
With the death of the king uncertainty filled the hearts of God's people. Although Uzziah wasn't the best king spiritually the people felt safe under his care in a world where nations were falling to the Assyrians right and left. It was in this time that Isaiah was reminded that whoever held the thrown on earth would come and go but the true ruler of Israel does not come and go like shifting shadows.
Isaiah 6:1-4
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory."
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
This is an amazing picture. The Lord in all his glory being worshiped as He ought. No one is defaming Him, no one is exercising their will to not believe, no one is calling him a liar or calming he is not powerful for this or that and NO ONE is trying to say he doesn't exist. I love this picture! I can't imagine anything greater than a world where the truth is so bright that nothing else can possibly exist.
Dwelling on the Holiness of God's can affect us in two ways.
1) We can be encouraged and filled with the comfort of knowing that with the perfect unchanging Holy God on the thrown we have nothing to fear and
2) With the perfect unchanging holy God we, as sinful broken powerless people have everything to fear, because we do not deserve to live.
Isaiah saw the holiness of God next to the corruptness of himself and reacted accordingly.
" 5 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
And then of course the Holy, LOVING God revealed to Isaiah His perfect plan for removing his sin and taking him as His own.
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
And so Isaiah is free to worship the Lord without fear. It is here that Isaiah is telling the people that he too has sinned but his sin has been taken away by his Lord and that is why he is writing this book. He explains exactly what the Lord called him, or rather saved him to do.
9 He said, "Go and tell this people:
" 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'
10 Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed."
11 Then I said, "For how long, O Lord?"
And he answered:
"Until the cities lie ruined
and without inhabitant,
until the houses are left deserted
and the fields ruined and ravaged,
12 until the LORD has sent everyone far away
and the land is utterly forsaken.
13 And though a tenth remains in the land,
it will again be laid waste.
But as the terebinth and oak
leave stumps when they are cut down,
so the holy seed will be the stump in the land."
So if you were Isaiah would you be like, YES SIGN ME UP! There isn't a lot of encouragement here. Isaiah's ministry will actually cause some people to be even more hard hearted, deft and blind to the truth. Rather than make things better, his ministry is going to end in failure and he knows that from the very beginning. But this isn't chapter one of Isaiah it's chapter six. We already know that ultimate "failure" has not stopped him from following God's call. He did not ask what the task would be and THEN say he would go, he said he would before he even knew what God would ask. Because it wasn't about him. He saw the Lord in all his glory and his sin was taken away. That was all that mattered, that he be like those surrounding the throne continually calling out to the world to take notice that, "Holy, Holy is the Lord God almighty and the whole earth is filled with his glory!"
1) Why would God close the peoples ears and hearts if it meant the destruction of his nation?
Is this sarcasm? (Verse 9-10)
These verse are quoted six times in the new testament, Matt.13:13-15,Mark 4:12, Luke 8:10,John 12:40, Acts 28:25-28, Romans 11:8. Read a few of these and consider the context in which they are quoted.
How does this close minded attitude apply to the church today?
2) How does the symbolism of nation as a tree being cut down bring hope? (read verse 13)
3) How real is the holiness of God to you? Does this make a difference in the way you live your life?
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