Take your Bibles with me and turn to Isaiah 2 again. We're going to be reading at chapters 2, 3, and 4 this evening, picking up where we left off last week, which is verse 10 of chapter 2.
Remember, this first part of the book of Isaiah is God pronouncing his judgment and his future for the nation of Judah. Last week we looked at the first part of chapter 2 where God lays out this beautiful future for Judah. It's a future where the Messiah is going to rule the whole earth from Jerusalem, where there's going to be worldwide peace, and where all of the world will come to Jerusalem to hear the word of God taught.
That future has not happened yet. It's something that is coming. So in our text tonight, Isaiah is going to lay out what is going to happen between their current time, which is a time of rebellion, and this glorious future. That thing between the now and the glorious future is something called "the day of the Lord".
Now, as we read this, we're going to read about things that were going to happen in the short term and things that would happen in the long term. It's much like the Olivet discourse that I preached on from Luke a couple months ago. I told you that there were parts of that that were fulfilled in 70 AD and there are parts of it that won't be fulfilled until the tribulation. It's the same thing with this chapter. There are parts that would be fulfilled in the short term with the judgment of Judah and then there are parts that won't be fulfilled until the tribulation period.
So let's pick up right where we left off, and we're going to read verses 10 to 22 of chapter 2.
10 Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty.
11 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
12 For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:
13 And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
14 And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up,
15 And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall,
16 And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures. pleasant...: Heb. pictures of desire
17 And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
18 And the idols he shall utterly abolish. he...: or, shall utterly pass away
19 And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. of the earth: Heb. of the dust
20 In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; his idols of silver...: Heb. the idols of his silver, etc each...: or, for him
21 To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
22 Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?
Isaiah 2:10-22
If I were to summarize this chapter in a sentence, it would be this.
1. The Day of the Lord is coming, and it is going to be brutal and humiliating.
Humiliating is really the key word in this chapter. God wants to humble haughty Judah.
Verse 11, he says "The lofty looks of man will be humbled." Then in verse 17 he says "The loftiness of man shall be bowed down. The haughtiness of men shall be made low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day."
All that talk about the cedars of Lebanon and the ships of Tarshish and the mountains, these are all things that were tall. And they're used poetically as a picture of Judah. Judah thinks they're awesome. They think they're great. They're haughty. They're lofty. And God is going to bring them low.
The church has studied the history of Judah and the history of Israel. It's been a history of disappointment. It's been a history of idolatry. Time and again, for hundreds, if not thousands of years, God faithfully showed Himself strong for His people. And they turned around and abandoned Him for idols.
It didn't matter what was going on. It didn't matter if they had a bad king or a great king. They turned to idols. And the only thing that turned them around, that purged them of their idolatry, was utter and complete humiliation. It was the humiliation of being completely defeated and taken away captive to Babylon. The humiliation of being outcasts, strangers in a foreign land, and knowing that all of it was because of their disobedience and idolatry.
And here's the lesson for us. Often before God can change somebody, he must humble him. Before God can show His grace and His glorious future for somebody, that person has to come to the end of themselves, that person has to come to the end of their pride, and they have to be humbled.
The rest of this chapter, Isaiah talks about what the day of the Lord is going to be like. It's going to be so bad that people are going to be running for the hills, hiding in the clefts of the rock. And I think this is an instance where Isaiah is looking past the coming little tribulation to the big-T Tribulation that's going to come at the end of the world before Jesus comes to reign. Isaiah says that, at that time, people are going to throw away their gold and throw away their idols and hide in the clefts of the rock. They're going to hide in caves because of the calamity that's come upon them.
So you see in this chapter already there is near judgment and there is far judgment. There are short-term things that God is going to do to humble Judah and long-term things God is going to do to humble Judah. And both of these are described as the Day of the Lord.
Let's turn the page to the next chapter and consider chapter 3. I'm going to read all of chapter 3 and the first verse of chapter 4, which I think kind of goes with chapter 3 more than the rest of chapter 4.
1 For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,
2 The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient,
3 The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator. the honourable...: Heb. a man eminent in countenance eloquent...: or, skilful of speech
4 And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.
5 And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.
6 When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand:
7 In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be an healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people. swear: Heb. lift up the hand healer: Heb. binder up
8 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.
9 The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.
10 Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
11 Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him. given...: Heb. done to him
12 As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths. lead...: or, call thee blessed destroy: Heb. swallow up
13 The LORD standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people.
14 The LORD will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. eaten: or, burnt
15 What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord GOD of hosts.
16 Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: wanton...: Heb. deceiving with their eyes mincing: or, tripping nicely
17 Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will discover their secret parts. discover: Heb. make naked
18 In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, cauls: or, networks
19 The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, chains: or, sweet balls mufflers: or, spangled ornaments
20 The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings, tablets: Heb. houses of the soul
21 The rings, and nose jewels,
22 The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins,
23 The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails.
24 And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty.
25 Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. mighty: Heb. might
26 And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground. desolate: or, emptied: Heb. cleansed
Isaiah 3
1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach. let...: Heb. let thy name be called upon us to take...: or, take thou away
Isaiah 4:1
The second point tonight is...
2. God's judgment is going to take away the things you trust in.
In this chapter, Isaiah is continuing to describe the judgment that God is going to bring on the nation of Judah. And the way that God is going to bring judgment on Judah here is interesting.
Judah has been in a period of economic boom. Things are going really well financially for Judah. At the time Isaiah starts ministering, chapter 3 talks about how God is going to take all of that away.
The first thing Isaiah says is going to happen is that God is going to remove all of the leaders. Every capable leader is going to be taken out of Judah.
And we know that's exactly what happened. Babylon came in and in three waves of captivity took away all of the leaders, the whole leadership class out of Judah. If you were capable, if you were well trained, if you were experienced, you weren't getting to stay. They pulled them all out.
And what this leaves behind is a nation of leaderless children. And so who becomes the leaders? People who were utterly unqualified to lead.
God removes all of the competent leadership out of Judah. And the people are left unprotected. They are left to their own devices. They're left with terrible, unqualified leaders.
Isaiah said it's going to be so bad that they're going to say to somebody, hey, you have nice clothes, you be our leader. Like that's the only qualification. Absent of men to lead, women would have to step up and lead.
Can I say one of the worst things that can happen to a people is for them to be leaderless? For God to take all of the competent, qualified leadership away. What happens very quickly is corruption takes over, real corruption, and people are terribly oppressed.
There are many nations in the world that are like this. There are neighborhoods that are like this, where there are no stable men. There are no men that are working solid jobs that are competent, that are providers, that are protectors. What you have is basically children running the show, and you have oppressors having a field day on poor people.
One interesting feature in this chapter is Isaiah's treatment of the women of Judah. Typically, when we think about idolatry and national problems, all the heat goes to the men. But Isaiah lays out very clearly how and why God is going to judge the women.
The women were haughty and proud just like the men, and they showed their pride with their extreme attention to how they looked. Just look at verses 16-24. Isaiah lists 26 different forms of clothing, jewelry, and accessories that the women of Judah were obsessed with. (Apparently they had some pretty good malls in Judah.)
But that obsession with their appearance, that obsession with fashion, displeased the Lord, and He promised to humble them and expose them. Instead of pretty clothes they'd be naked, instead of fancy hair they would be bald, instead of smelling like fine perfume they would stink.
At the end of chapter 3 and the beginning of chapter 4, Isaiah describes the situation with men in Judah when God judges her. God was going to make it so that for these ladies, there was slim pickins when it came to men. The men would die in war and there would be no men left to marry these women.
That leads us to chapter 4:1, which is many a young man's life verse. Isaiah says it would get so bad that seven women would want to marry one man and they wouldn't even expect him to provide for them. They were just that desperate to be married.
So the picture here is pretty clear: God is going to humble Judah, and He's going to do it by taking away all of the things that Judah is trusting in.
Now, that brings us to chapter 4. And in chapter 4 we see where God is bringing Judah.
So this is our third point.
- The day of the Lord is coming and God is going to humble Judah.
- God is going to humble Judah by taking away the things they trust in.
3. Where God is bringing Judah after He humbles them.
Let's read chapter 4 verses 2-6.
2 In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. beautiful...: Heb. beauty and glory them...: Heb. the escaping
3 And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: among...: or, to life
4 When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.
5 And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence. upon all: or, above all defence: Heb. covering
6 And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.
Isaiah 4:2-6
God allows Isaiah to look forward to His plans for Judah. You see, after the pain of judgment, God would be able to do what He was hoping to do with Judah.
There are three things Isaiah talks about here.
First, the wonderful and glorious Branch of the Lord.
Anyone want to guess what that is talking about? It's talking about Jesus. Because of the humbling and the discipline God brought on Judah, Judah would be able to have Jesus, the Messiah, come to them and rule them. We know that hasn't been fully fulfilled yet.
The second thing God was going to do with Judah after their punishment was to make them holy. Verses 3-4 say that the people of Zion would be called holy and that the filth would be washed away.
The third promise God had for Judah was that He would put His glory back on them. Just like in the days of Exodus, when the pillar of fire followed His people by night and the pillar of cloud by day, God would do it again.
Applications
What can we learn from this? Let me pull this together.
God resists the proud, and He gives grace to the humble. That is the first movement of this whole text. Judah was haughty. They looked like cedars. They looked like ships of Tarshish. They looked like they would never come down. And God said, I will bring you low. The lofty looks of man will be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.
Church, that is not just Judah's problem. That is our problem. Often before God can change somebody, He must humble him. Before God can show you His grace and that glorious future, you have to come to the end of yourself. You have to come to the end of your pride. You can humble yourself, or God will do it for you. One of those is a lot less brutal than the other.
And when God disciplines His people, He is doing it for their good. He is not taking away the things you trust in because He is cruel. He is taking them away so you will cease from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, and start trusting in Him.
That is why He pulled the leaders out of Judah. That is why He stripped the daughters of Zion of their jewelry. That is why the men fell by the sword. God was collapsing what they leaned on so He could do what He wanted to do with them all along.
And look where He was bringing them. After the pain, the Branch. After the humiliation, a people called holy. After the stink and the empty gates, the cloud and the fire again — God covering His people, a tabernacle from the storm.
If the Lord has been stripping something out of your hands — a pride, a person, a thing you were leaning on — that may not be Him being done with you. That may be Him getting you ready for the Branch.
So here is what I want you to walk out of here with. God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. And when He disciplines His people, it is for their good. He humbles so He can restore. He takes away what you trust in so He can put His glory back on you.
If you are proud tonight, come down before He brings you down.
If you are under His hand, do not waste the humiliation. He is after something better on the other side of it.
And if you have never trusted Christ at all, you do not need a better idol. You need the Branch. Come to Jesus. He is the one who washes, who makes holy, and who covers His people.
