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The Decision before Every Person
Isaiah 56:9 – 57:21
Introduction: In chapter 55, the Lord gave an invitation to the greatest feast ever, an invitation to eat and drink wine, milk, and rich food that would forever satisfy and cause one’s soul to live. In 56:1-8, the Lord those who would come to “keep justice, do righteousness, and wait for the blessings of his salvation to be revealed. When these blessings came, even the eunuch would have a family tree, foreigners would keep his covenantal Sabbaths, and his house would be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
From 56:9 through 57 two oracles are brought together: a condemnation of Israel’s prophets and shepherds and then contrasting pictures of idolator and Yahweh worshipers in which the Lord lays before us a decision that must be made by every person.
A Feast for Wild Beasts, 56:9 – 57:2
The Lord has offered a soul-satisfying feast for all nations, but in this section he calls for the beasts of the forest to come and feast on the leaders of Israel because of their failure.
You can see the anger in the Lord’s words even in the English, but the Hebrew gives an even more intense picture of anger. God had high expectations of his prophets and shepherds to care for the people. Their failure would be similar to us paying a babysitter to care for our children for a few hours only to come back and find the babysitter drunk and gluttonness, having fallen asleep while our children played in the street. We truly would be livid.
Sometimes we forget God’s emotions when it comes to his relationship with us. He is deeply hurt when we sin and angry with a jealous anger when we are neglected or mistreated by those who are to be our guardians. Of course, we should remember that we also are guardians of one another (Heb. 3:12)!
Verses 10-12 detail the failure of those who were to watch, warn, and care for the people.
A watchman on a wall was to warn against a coming attack by an enemy. However these watchman were blind, and as NET translates, completely unaware. They have no knowledge of their job or how to be a person who would save the city.
How foolish to have a watchdog that won’t bark. But that is what these prophets are like. They are to warn to the people of their sins and correct them when they come into danger, but they are so lazy that they just go to sleep. But they do not just sleep, they fall into a deep sleep and dream. Instead of loving God’s people, they love their sleep.
However, there are other things they love and that is to fulfill their fleshly desires. While the sheep are starving and in danger they are filling themselves with extravagance, eating, drinking, and yet never having enough. Notice in verse 12 that their desire for wine and strong drink (beer) is not for sustenance. You see the words “fill ourselves” indicating extreme drunkenness. (Eccl. 10:16-17, “Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child, and your princes feast in the morning! Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of the nobility, and your princes feast at the proper time, for strength, and not for drunkenness!”).
Further, they believe tomorrow will be more of the same, but even more extravagant. They are living the life and have no concern for God’s cause or God’s people. Note: the worthlessness of this kind of immoral living is evident in the fact that more is never enough. Verse 10 says it all: “they never have enough.” “Filled” is never really full.
Did you also notice the monotony of what they are doing and that they are so foolish as to not be able to figure it out: “tomorrow will be like today!” That is the problem with sin; it is more of the same result, and more and more of the sin just gives less and less satisfaction. This is a critical principle to teach our children!
Isn’t it interesting that God has never changed his definition of what he desires in those who are preach the word and those who are to shepherd his people. A preacher is of no value who will not faithfully impart every part of God’s word. In the same way a shepherd is of no value who does not warn, correct, and encourage. According to Titus 1, this is why he is to be able to teach. It is through his teaching that he able to correct and rebuke those who would harm God’s flock. They always must be vigilant and watchful because the danger comes from people, who as Paul said, “fierce wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock.” They do not look like wolves, but you know they are because it doesn’t bother them to destroy a church in order to carry off their own disciples.
57:1-2 The effect on the righteous
Because of these wicked leaders, the righteous are actually disappearing, going to their graves, and no one really cares or understands how damaging their disappearance will be on the land. It seems that there comes a tipping point, like in Sodom and Gomorrah, where if there were just 10 righteous, maybe the city could be saved. For the righteous, when they die they finally come to peace, indicating that while they were on the earth it was just like “righteous Lot whose soul was vexed day by day.” This is also a grave warning. When the righteous disappear, judgment is near. God will not allow this treatment of his people to go on. The glory of his name depends on him acting.
Cf. Psalm 12:1-2 “Save, O Lord, for the godly one is gone; for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man. Everyone utters lies to his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.”
57:3-13c Make Your Choice: First the offspring of the adulterer and loose woman
57:3-13 The Futility of idols, the idolator, and rampant sexuality.
- 3-5 uses masculine verbs in examining the prostitute’s family: “sons of the sorceress; offspring of the adulterer and the loose woman” (vs. 3).
- 6-13d uses singular feminine verbs to introduce us to the prostitute herself
In both sets of texts there are pictures of indecency, violence, and destruction. Beginning in verse 14 there will be a picture of the family of God who have been cleansed, purified, and live holy lives. These live by the mercy of God in peace, healing, and comfort.
3-5: The offspring of the prostitute
Notice first how they mock and laugh at God. Please understand how that actually is played out. It is not so much that they directly mock God, but they mock his word and his ways and teaching. Their mocking suggests the foolishness of suggesting that giving free reign to their desires would have any negative consequences or that there could be anything wrong with throwing off any restraint of one’s fleshly impulses.
Notice the contrast in the activities of these verses. First there is the fertility cult. In this Canaanite cult, sexual acts stimulated Baal to cause animals and the land to become more fertile. At the same time, there was the cult of death in which human sacrifices of children were offered to Molech, which supposedly appeased the god of the underworld to prolong their life. So what has changed in the last 2700 years? Nothing! The gods of Baal and Molech are still passionately served. Sexuality is given as the answer to happiness and solving one’s identity crisis. They insist on being accepted and encouraged to live as they please. But when all goes wrong and a child is conceived, they insist on murdering the child so they can still live as they please. Sixty-one and a half million babies have been sacrificed on the altar of America’s Molech-god since Roe vs. Wade in 1973. There is no question that God’s wrath has been kindled toward us.
6-13: The prostitute
The word “bed” is used three times in verses 7-8 indicating the sexual nature of their idolatrous devotion. The scene is presented in lascivious and lurid terms. 8b is translated by the CSB as: “You stripped, went up, and made your bed wide.” Again in 8d, “You loved their bed; you have gazed on their genitals.” NET adds, “gazed longingly.”
Verses 6-7 reference their widespread sexual idolatry. The “smooth stones of the valley” refer to them discovering idols even in the shapes of the smooth stones in a river bed. On every high mountain and under every green tree they practiced their immoral sexual practices.
Again, we are impressed and shocked with the same widespread sexual immorality among us. The clothing industry makes billions of dollars by inventing new ways to reveal a woman’s sexuality. Indeed she “makes her bed wide.” Sex is embedded in a majority of movies and television programs. Pornography reaps more money than all professional sports combined. Verse 8a mentions, “You have set up your memorial.” NET translates, “symbols” as in idolatrous symbols. We need to more accurately think of the immodesty and the sexual immorality in our country as idolatrous symbols in order to get the seriousness of the sin.
Just to show the relationship between what they were doing to what happens in our society, notice the terminology:
- “Uncovered your bed” refers to bringing sexuality out of the privacy of the bedroom into public view.
- “Gone up to it” or “climbed into it” means that they made themselves available.
- “Made the bed wide” indicates that they were inviting anyone who desired to come into the bed with them.
- “You have loved their bed” or “whose beds you love” (NIV) exposes the degradation of their minds and addictive nature of their sexual sins. This has now become their identity. It is not just a sin they commit, it defines every part of their being. This is the nature of sexual immorality and why it is so dangerous. Paul describes this downward progression of defilement in Romans 1. Once a person crosses the line of sexual impurity, there are no limits.
Verses 9-10 transitions to another type of idolatry which has commonly been exposed in the early chapters of Isaiah. They committed adultery with the nations, paying them to protect them from enemy invasions. Instead of turning to God as their husband/protector, they went to other lovers with great expense and effort when all they needed was to turn to God. Keep your money and exhausting journey, God has already promised his protection in the covenant relationship he initiated with you.
“Sent down even to Sheol” expresses their pursuit of death when they trust in human power and resources to save them. Everything we see in this world is doomed to death and destruction. None of it has any preserving power. Making a covenant with the world’s power and wealth will lead us to Sheol.
Again, this exposes us. Where do we seek protection and security? We easily allow our minds to go to our need to amass enough money that we will be protected from calamity. Instead of working to live, we can fall into the trap of living to work. Hebrews 13:5-6 warns us to be content with what we have and keep our lives free from covetousness because God has promised he will never leave us or forsake us. Just as in the days of Hezekiah, we can easily confess our trust in God right up until we undergo a threat to our security, and then we become like Peter walking on the water to Jesus; we begin to sink in lack of faith.
In 11-13, the Lord exposes their foolishness and vanity in pursuing their many idols instead of him.
The Lord’s initial question is essentially, “What could possibly have happened that turned you away from me, caused you to lie (break covenant), and not take this to heart?”
God presents the reason for their unfaithfulness. It is because he had been “silent” for a long time. Of course, God had not been silent when he used the prophets to expose their sins. But he had been silent in acting in judgment against them. As in 2 Peter 3:9, God is not slow concerning his promise, but longsuffering not willing that any should perish. Ecclesiastes 8:11, “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.”
Verse 12-13 announces a time when God would act. He would expose their “righteousness” and their deeds and find them wanting. Their idols will have no power to deliver them in that day. Oh how quickly the worldly person magically appeals to God in the midst of life and death calamity. But the Lord proclaims, “Let your collection of idols deliver you!” In that day, those idols will be nothing. A breath will take them away. Their only hope was to take refuge in God.
57:13d-21 Make Your Choice: Those Who Take Refuge in Him
“And it shall be said…” indicates the result of rejecting their idols and trusting in the Lord. We have seen the household of idolatry and its character. Now we see the character of the Lord and his household.
15-16: In contrast to those who tried to save their lives by going down to Sheol, the Lord “inhabits eternity,” and “dwells in the high and holy place.” Though he is in this high place, he will dwell with him who is of a “contrite and lowly spirit.” These are the people he will lift up and revive. These will share in his holiness. His anger will cease toward them lest their spirit grow faint and they give up.
This is such an important statement by the Lord. He knows how easily we can get discouraged with ourselves and our sins and faults. Instead of continuing to berate us, he looks for the contrite heart and then revives us and gives us hope.
Have you noticed how Isaiah has delivered his message? He never goes too long into condemnation of sin before he switches to giving hope in God. This certainly speaks to how well God knows us and his compassion toward us. But it also shows how we should approach one another and others with the gospel message. If we do not follow this pattern, we will break each other’s spirit and break the spirit of those who need the good news of Jesus.
Possibly the unexpected revelation of this text is that the Lord does not tell us that the people he will revive are any more holy than the people in the previous section. These also deserved God’s judgment. Verses 17-18 shows that we also were backsliding in the way of our own heart and going after unjust gain. The only way we can now stand before the Lord is because of his mercy, which allows us to find hope if we will approach him with a “contrite and lowly spirit.”
Vs. 19, “Peace, peace” both to Israel (the near) and to the world (the far). These are wonderful words: peace with God. And then the words, “I will heal him.” We are diseased. Our disease is repeatedly pictured in the gospel accounts of Jesus healing the maimed, the disfigured, the leprous, and the blind. Those are pictures of our spiritual condition, and God has healed us. This should give us all the more motivation to not return to those diseases that come about through sin.
Verses 20-21 Final declaration concerning the wicked
The wicked are in contrast to those who have been declared righteous because they have mourned over their sins and appealed to God through a contrite heart. The wicked have refused the Lord’s invitation (chapter 55), and therefore will lose the blessings the Lord has offered.
Their condition while alive is sad and the end has no comfort. Their sins keep them restless like the tossing sea. They can never find quietness, but instead their lives continue to toss up mire and dirt. As Motyer states, “The wicked do not have peace with God nor enter into peace at death.”
Conclusion: This sermon by the Lord through Isaiah challenges us and all mankind to make a choice. The first choice is to take the path of sin, which never satisfies, leads us to utter defilement, and in the end without peace. The path of life is to mourn for our sins and come to God with a lowly heart so he will heal us and give us peace. There is not a third choice; it is either one or the other. The right choice is obvious, but to keep us from getting there, Satan and our own fleshly lusts will battle us every step of the way.