Is 30, 31
Isaiah • Sermon • Submitted
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Now on to Chapter 30. Here Isaiah is warning Judah and King Hezekiah, to not go to Egypt for help against the Assyrians.
1 “Woe to the rebellious children,” says the LORD,“Who take counsel, but not of Me,And who devise plans, but not of My Spirit,That they may add sin to sin;
2 Who walk to go down to Egypt,And have not asked My advice,To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh,And to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
3 Therefore the strength of Pharaoh Shall be your shame,And trust in the shadow of Egypt Shall be your humiliation.
4 For his princes were at Zoan,And his ambassadors came to Hanes.
5 They were all ashamed of a people who could not benefit them, Or be help or benefit, But a shame and also a reproach.”
This is a lesson we all must learn and take to heart. God is our help in times of trouble. David would remind himself in the Psalms over and over that God is his refuge.
Ps 46
1 God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear,
Even though the earth be removed,
And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
3 Though its waters roar and be troubled,
Though the mountains shake with its swelling.
Selah
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. A Song For Alamoth.
1 God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear,
Even though the earth be removed,
And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
3 Though its waters roar and be troubled,
Though the mountains shake with its swelling.
Selah
4 There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God,
The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved;
God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.
6 The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved;
He uttered His voice, the earth melted.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our refuge.
Selah
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord,
Who has made desolations in the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two;
He burns the chariot in the fire.
10 Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our refuge.
Selah
We want to seek our own way, our own devices, but God is crying out to us, trust in Me! Run to me first. It really is a matter of trust isn’t it. Isaiah says your faith in Pharaoh will end up being your shame.
Verse 6 - 7
6 The burden against the beasts of the South.Through a land of trouble and anguish,From which came the lioness and lion,The viper and fiery flying serpent, They will carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys, And their treasures on the humps of camels, To a people who shall not profit;
7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose. Therefore I have called her Rahab-Hem-Shebeth.
Meaning Rahab (an idiom for Egypt) sits idle. Egypt is symbolic of the world and the world system.
a. The burden against the beasts of the South: Isaiah proclaims a burden against the pack animals of Judah, which will carry the riches of Judah down to Egypt, through the wilderness, in a foolish attempt to purchase protection against the Assyrians.b. It will be wasted money, because the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose. No wonder Isaiah feels sorry for the donkeys that will carry the treasure of Judah down to Egypt! Despite the riches that the pack animals bring across the desert, Egypt will not help Judah at all, so one could call Egypt Rahab-Hem-Shebeth, which means "Rahab Sits Idle" of "Rahab the Do-Nothing." Rahab is a name, but it is also the Hebrew word for pride, and is sometimes used as a title for Egypt (). Egypt will sit idly by as the Assyrians trouble Judah.
Now vs 8 - 11
8 Now go, write it before them on a tablet, And note it on a scroll, That it may be for time to come, Forever and ever:
9 That this is a rebellious people, Lying children, Children who will not hear the law of the LORD;
10 Who say to the seers, “Do not see, ”And to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things; Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits.
11 Get out of the way, Turn aside from the path, Cause the Holy One of Israel To cease from before us.”
God wants Isaiah to carefully record these prophesies so that when they are fulfilled they can see that God told them ahead of time and so they would learn to trust Him. Did you realize that prophesy is one of the best ways to show that God is real.
Isaiah and Amos
The New King James Version Chapter 42
9 Behold, the former things have come to pass,
And new things I declare;
Before they spring forth I tell you of them.”
The New King James Version Chapter 3
7 Surely the Lord GOD does nothing,
Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.
The people are saying, just like today, "Do not prophesy to us right things; speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits. Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us."
Paul describes the same kind of heart in : For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
Verse 12
12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel: “Because you despise this word, And trust in oppression and perversity, And rely on them,
13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you Like a breach ready to fall, A bulge in a high wall, Whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant.
14 And He shall break it like the breaking of the potter’s vessel, Which is broken in pieces; He shall not spare. So there shall not be found among its fragments a shard to take fire from the hearth, Or to take water from the cistern.”
It’s a play on words here as we are all basically clay pots. God is saying soon you will be a bunch of cracked pots when the hammer falls. The devastation will be so bad that there wouldn't be a fragment left big enough to draw water.
Verse 15 - 17 God’s counsel to these escaping to Egypt.
15 For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel:“In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength. ”But you would not,
16 And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses”—Therefore you shall flee! And, “We will ride on swift horses”—Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift!
17 One thousand shall flee at the threat of one, At the threat of five you shall flee, Till you are left as a pole on top of a mountain and as a banner on a hill.
Here God is telling them that the safe place, no matter how it looks, is to wait on the Lord and to rest in Him. “In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”Isaiah wrote:
The New King James Version Chapter 40
31 But those who wait on the LORD
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.
We move on Vs 18 - 26 here he outlines the benefits of waiting on the Lord and looks again at the Millennial reign.
18 Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you;
In a sense God is waiting for His people to wait on Him.
And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; Blessed are all those who wait for Him.
Blessed means happy. If you want to be happy wait on the Lord!
19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; You shall weep no more.He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; When He hears it, He will answer you.
20 And though the Lord gives you The bread of adversity and the water of affliction, Yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, But your eyes shall see your teachers.
21 Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left.
22 You will also defile the covering of your images of silver, And the ornament of your molded images of gold. You will throw them away as an unclean thing; You will say to them, “Get away!”
What a great day it is when one wakes up to the things that are destroying them and they discarded, like an unclean thing.
23 Then He will give the rain for your seed With which you sow the ground, And bread of the increase of the earth; It will be fat and plentiful. In that day your cattle will feed In large pastures.
24 Likewise the oxen and the young donkeys that work the ground Will eat cured fodder, Which has been winnowed with the shovel and fan.
25 There will be on every high mountain And on every high hill Rivers and streams of waters, In the day of the great slaughter, When the towers fall.
Gods blessing of streams and rivers, especially in a dry land, will follow their leaving their idols and fully following the Lord.
26 Moreover the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, And the light of the sun will be sevenfold, As the light of seven days, In the day that the LORD binds up the bruise of His people and heals the stroke of their wound.
Verse 26 is a mystery. To some it sounds like a supernova or perhaps the Forth Bowl judgment of
The New King James Version Chapter 16
8 Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire. 9 And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory.
Now Isaiah will pronounce judgment on Assyria in the near and Armageddon in the far, v 27 - 33
27 Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar, Burning with His anger, And His burden is heavy; His lips are full of indignation, And His tongue like a devouring fire.
28 His breath is like an overflowing stream, Which reaches up to the neck, To sift the nations with the sieve of futility; And there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, Causing them to err.
29 You shall have a song As in the night when a holy festival is kept,And gladness of heart as when one goes with a flute, To come into the mountain of the LORD, To the Mighty One of Israel.
30 The LORD will cause His glorious voice to be heard, And show the descent of His arm, With the indignation of His anger And the flame of a devouring fire, With scattering, tempest, and hailstones.
31 For through the voice of the LORD Assyria will be beaten down, As He strikes with the rod.
The Assyrian and Assyria are also an idioms for the Antichrist.
32 And in every place where the staff of punishment passes,Which the LORD lays on him, It will be with tambourines and harps; And in battles of brandishing He will fight with it.
33 For Tophet was established of old, Yes, for the king it is prepared. He has made it deep and large; Its pyre is fire with much wood; The breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, Kindles it.
What is Tophet?. This opens up the topic of hell. We often have misunderstandings of what hell is and regarding what happens to unbelievers when they die.
First, hell or hades, was the place where all souls went in OT time. It is the unseen place of the dead or the grave. Jesus describes it as a place with 2 compartments, one for the faithful and the other for the unbeliever. Jesus describes it in Luke 16
The New King James Version Chapter 16
19 “There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. 20 But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, 21 desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. 26 And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’
27 “Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, 28 for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ 29 Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ ”
After the Resurrection Jesus released those in AB but the unbelieving remained there in torment. But this is just a holding place.
Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
Idea of Tophet in verse 33 is the equivalent to what we call Gehenna or the Lake of Fire. The place of everlasting punishment and separation from God. For Tophet was established of old, yes for the king it is prepared: Tophet was a place in the Valley of Hinnom, just outside of Jerusalem's walls (). The Valley of Hinnom served as Jerusalem's garbage dump, and the combination of disgusting rubbish and smoldering fires made it a picture of hell. The Hebrew word for hell (gehenna) comes from the word for the Valley of Hinnom. Therefore, God says He has a special place in hell for the Assyrian king!
One last question we need to deal with and that is the second death eternal or does God just annihilate the immortal soul of the unbeliever?
You might be surprised by how many do not believe that hell is forever. Aaron Rogers (QB of the packers) quoted in an article from Relevant Magazine:
Rodgers was once heavily involved in the Christian ministry Young Life, but later started to question some fundamental teachings, including the idea of eternal punishment. “I don’t know how you can believe in a God who wants to condemn most of the planet to a fiery hell,” .
But what does scripture teach? Matthew
The New King James Version Chapter 10
28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.
Daniel
2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,
Some to everlasting life,
Some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Matthew
The New King James Version Chapter 25
45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Here Jesus uses the same word for “everlasting” and “eternal”. The Greek word aiōnios which means
without beginning and end, that which always has been and always will be
without beginning
without end, never to cease, everlasting
Remember God has done all to keep people eternal separation from God but everyone must choose to accept Gods terms or step over the body of Jesus into hell.
Now on to Chapter 31
Here Isaiah continues his judgment against those who would run to Egypt for help.
1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,
And rely on horses,
Who trust in chariots because they are many,
And in horsemen because they are very strong,
But who do not look to the Holy One of Israel,
Nor seek the LORD!
It is easy to say we trust in the Lord when we are not under pressure. It’s when the stress gets heavy do we trust in the Lord? Remember Egypt is a type of the world and the flesh.
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble;
May the name of the God of Jacob defend you;
2 May He send you help from the sanctuary,
And strengthen you out of Zion;
3 May He remember all your offerings,
And accept your burnt sacrifice.
Selah
4 May He grant you according to your heart’s desire,
And fulfill all your purpose.
5 We will rejoice in your salvation,
And in the name of our God we will set up our banners!
May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.
6 Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed;
He will answer him from His holy heaven
With the saving strength of His right hand.
7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
8 They have bowed down and fallen;
But we have risen and stand upright.
9 Save, Lord!
May the King answer us when we call.
Ps 20:7
7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the LORD our God
Now Isaiah delivers a stern warning from God:
The New King James Version. (1982). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
2 Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster,
And will not call back His words,
But will arise against the house of evildoers,
And against the help of those who work iniquity.
3 Now the Egyptians are men, and not God;
And their horses are flesh, and not spirit.
When the LORD stretches out His hand,
Both he who helps will fall,
And he who is helped will fall down;
They all will perish together.
Scary!!
Verse 4 - 9, Gods promise to deliver Jerusalem
4 For thus the LORD has spoken to me:
“As a lion roars,
And a young lion over his prey
(When a multitude of shepherds is summoned against him,
He will not be afraid of their voice
Nor be disturbed by their noise),
So the LORD of hosts will come down
To fight for Mount Zion and for its hill.
5 Like birds flying about,
So will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem.
Defending, He will also deliver it;
Passing over, He will preserve it.”
6 Return to Him against whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted. 7 For in that day every man shall throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold—sin, which your own hands have made for yourselves.
When we know Jesus all the other idols just seem silly.
8 “Then Assyria shall fall by a sword not of man,
And a sword not of mankind shall devour him.
But he shall flee from the sword,
And his young men shall become forced labor.
9 He shall cross over to his stronghold for fear,
And his princes shall be afraid of the banner,”
Says the LORD,
Whose fire is in Zion
And whose furnace is in Jerusalem.
Here Isaiah prophesies the defeat of Assyria at the hands of God.
35 And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead. 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh.
:
The mighty king Sennacherib would soon after returning be assassinated in Nineveh.