When Jon and I first talked about this series, I offered to preach from this text since this week’s message covers 15 chapters in the book of Isaiah. I usually blame him for giving me the hard texts but my thought was “Surely, I can find something to talk about in such a large section of Scripture. If not, I can just read the 15 chapters and that will suffice.” The reality is, this portion of Isaiah’s prophecy is as current as yesterday’s news and as urgent as tomorrow’s opportunities. It illustrates what Jon described in his introductory message to this series as Plan C–what happens when people refuse to repent and their rebellion leads to destruction.
From our human perspective it seems that we are living in a world where injustice and evil continue to grow and often go unchecked. Jon reminded us last week that we often view what happens from a very limited perspective and miss long-term consequences. We don’t face it every day or hear it in every news cycle but around the world thousands of Christians are being persecuted and martyred for their faith. The notion that there will ever be a reckoning on evil or judgment on injustice is cruelly mocked while morality goes from bad to worse. These chapters in Isaiah are an important reminder that God will not be mocked. In the end, He will have the final word. Isaiah’s promise is that not only will God deal justly with the nations of the earth and his wayward people (Israel and Judah) but also the ultimate enemy (the Serpent) himself. In other words, God's purpose will prevail as He displays that He is awesome in power.
At the outset, I want to establish a critical point. I remember the wise preacher who observed that when you preach on the theme of judgment and destruction, there is a vast difference between preaching about the judgment to come with a gleam in your eye and a tear in your eye. Please hear me, no matter my tone or demeanor, it is with tears that I think about and talk about judgment upon the evil of this world. Let’s get started.
Sermon in a sentence: As our dread-filled world grows more hostile, we need a hope-filled, Kingdom mindset of complete and certain victory. In other words, we can find hope in a dread-filled world where we face imminent danger and evil. But where? How?
Dread is defined as an intense emotional experience of fear and anxiety about something bad that is anticipated to happen in the future. It is often accompanied by a sense of impending doom, helplessness, or reluctance to face the situation.
An obvious question is, What is it about our world that you dread? What do you anticipate could happen with great apprehension or overwhelming fear? What is behind this idea of a dread-filled world?
• Is it a sense of impending doom or destruction?
• Is it a threat of nuclear war or invasion from perceived enemies or aliens from outer space?
• Is it an economic crisis that would wipe out our savings and retirement accounts leading to a depression where the dollar is devalued to dimes on the dollar?
• Is it a cataclysmic earthquake, fire or flood?
• Maybe it is something as innocent as sending your children to school or taking a walk in the park or a bus ride or train ride home after work or attending a public event and you fear who may be there to shoot or slash, to attack or assault.
• Perhaps it is a pervasive fear that evil will prevail and will win out in the end.
To be more specific and bring it closer to home we may fear a dread-filled world with an axis of evil, an unholy alliance of powerful nations looming on the horizon of history threatening global destruction. You may be thinking of Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran or you may be thinking of Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Isis Jihadists joining forces to threaten another terrorist attack. Maybe it is a genocidal dictator on another rampage sending soldiers to rape, pillage, and destroy instilling a sense of dread.
Those are not just 21st century fears. They describe what the people of God were facing in Isaiah’s day. They were facing enemies from the north, south, east and west threatening to overtake their cities and destroy them. That was also what the surrounding nations were facing as they stood in opposition to God and His people and nations would rise against nations to overtake them.
In the prophecies of judgment recorded in Isaiah 13-27 certain doom and destruction will come upon Assyria to the north (modern Iran). Then there is judgment pronounced upon Babylon in the east (modern Iraq). Judgment is also coming upon Philistia (south), Moab (east), and Damascus (northeast). Tucked away in the midst of these prophetic announcements, Isaiah gives this graphic description of what is taking place. Look at Isaiah 17:12–14:
12 Ah! The roar of many peoples— they roar like the roaring of the seas. The raging of the nations— they rage like the rumble of rushing water. 13 The nations rage like the rumble of a huge torrent. He rebukes them, and they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills and like tumbleweeds before a gale. 14 In the evening—sudden terror! Before morning—it is gone! This is the fate of those who plunder us and the lot of those who ravage us. (Isaiah 17:12–14, CSB)
Then the prophet’s judgments continue in rapid-fire fashion—Egypt in the west, Cush (modern Ethiopia) in the south, Babylon, Edom and Arabia, the northern cities of Tyre, Sidon, and Tarshish, and even the city of Jerusalem. All of this culminates in a declaration of judgment upon on the whole earth that no one escapes (word “earth” appears 24 times in chapters 24-27)—
1 Look, the Lord is stripping the earth bare and making it desolate. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants: 2 people and priest alike, servant and master, female servant and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor. 3 The earth will be stripped completely bare and will be totally plundered, for the Lord has spoken this message. (Isaiah 24:1–3, CSB)
In the midst of all this doom and gloom where is the word of hope? It is found in some of several songs in Isaiah. Two of the songs are the bookends of this lengthy passage pronouncing judgment. The first word of hope is found in Isaiah 14:3–15:
3 When the LORD gives you rest from your pain, torment, and the hard labor you were forced to do, 4 you will sing this song of contempt about the king of Babylon and say: How the oppressor has quieted down, and how the raging has become quiet! 5 The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers. 6 It struck the peoples in anger with unceasing blows. It subdued the nations in rage with relentless persecution. 7 The whole earth is calm and at rest; people shout with a ringing cry. 8 Even the cypresses and the cedars of Lebanon rejoice over you: “Since you have been laid low, no lumberjack has come against us.” 9 Sheol below is eager to greet your coming, stirring up the spirits of the departed for you— all the rulers of the earth— making all the kings of the nations rise from their thrones. 10 They all respond to you, saying, “You too have become as weak as we are; you have become like us! 11 Your splendor has been brought down to Sheol, along with the music of your harps. Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you.” 12 Shining morning star, how you have fallen from the heavens! You destroyer of nations, you have been cut down to the ground. 13 You said to yourself, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will set up my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of the gods’ assembly, in the remotest parts of the North. 14 I will ascend above the highest clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” 15 But you will be brought down to Sheol into the deepest regions of the Pit. (Isaiah 14:3–15, CSB)
There is much debate concerning who this king of Babylon is, much like who has the number 666 in the book of Revelation. Some interpreters (myself included) see this referring not only to a historical king of Babylon and judgment declared against Babylon as an empire but also a symbolic description of the embodiment of evil, the fall of Satan.
One author cautioned: “But if this reads too much into the text, it is equally misguided to reduce it to a description of the fall of a particular earthly monarch. The king of Babylon here, like Babylon itself in chapter 13, is a representative figure, the embodiment of that worldly arrogance that defies God and tramples on others in its lust for power. It is this which lies at the heart of every evil for which particular nations will be indicted in the following chapters. It also lies at the heart of all the horrendous acts of inhumanity which human beings and nations still commit against one another today. . . . This is no cheap gloating over the downfall of an enemy, but the satisfaction and delight which God’s people rightly feel at his final victory over evil. The same note of celebration is heard at the very end of the Bible where, again, Babylon is [a code name] for all that opposes God and his purposes (Revelation 18).”
This song brings together two of the recurring hope-filled themes in the book of Isaiah:
The name for God “The Lord Almighty” (Lord Sabbaoth, Lord of Hosts, Lord of Armies) appears about 285 times in Scripture (74 in Isaiah, 25 of them in these 15 chapters). This is Isaiah’s depiction of our Awesome God. He is awesome in power. He is a Warrior God Who will win the victory! He is the basis for our hope.
The phrase “On that day” appears 37 times in Isaiah (24 times in these 15 chapters). The unmistakable message is there will be a day of reckoning. For the wicked it will be a day of wrath and retribution. For the righteous it will be a day of reward. Throughout Isaiah there is a prophetic word with imminent action coming on the scene as well as a far into the future fulfillment. We saw it in Isaiah with birth of a child and birth of Jesus.
I heard a news report a few weeks ago after the school shooting in Minneapolis that when the Annunciation Catholic Church held its first mass after the shooting, they sang songs of defiance. How appropriate—a much needed reminder that evil will not win! That is what the prophet calls upon the people of God to do—sing a song of contempt about God’s certain victory in hope-filled defiance of the dread-filled world around them.
Look at Isaiah 25:1—Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you. I will praise your name, for you have accomplished wonders, plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness. (Isaiah 25:1, CSB)
We read the earlier depiction of the enemy’s fall from his place in arrogance and defiance in Isaiah 14:12-15. Here is the bookend in Isaiah 27:1:
On that day the Lord with his relentless, large, strong sword will bring judgment on Leviathan, the fleeing serpent—Leviathan, the twisting serpent. He will slay the monster that is in the sea. (Isaiah 27:1, CSB)
Leviathan the Serpent was well-known in ancient mythology as a sea monster, representing chaos and evil. One commentator said that Isaiah used this image to proclaim that God “will destroy not only historical forms of evil, but strike against its cosmic source once and for all.” Again a probable reference to Satan, the Serpent.
This parallels John’s vision in Revelation 20:10 as in the end the enemy of God and humanity will be destroyed—
The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. (Revelation 20:10, CSB)
Future judgment is not merely overcoming evil but the restoration of God’s people. Do you remember the parable of the vineyard in Isaiah 5—a vineyard that the Lord tended and took care of so lovingly but a vineyard that yielded worthless fruit. These are the prophet’s words in Isaiah 5:7:
For the vineyard of the Lord of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah, the plant he delighted in. He expected justice but saw injustice; he expected righteousness but heard cries of despair. (Isaiah 5:7, CSB)
Look at how that indictment will be reversed as God’s people sing in Isaiah 27:2–3, 6:
2 On that day sing about a desirable vineyard: 3 I am the Lord, who watches over it to water it regularly. So that no one disturbs it, I watch over it night and day. . . . 6 In days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will blossom and bloom and fill the whole world with fruit.( Isaiah 27:2–3, 6, CSB) That future fruitful vineyard is the people of God restored.
And finally, there is hope for a restored Holy mountain (image for this Awesome God series) in Isaiah 25:6–10:
6 On this mountain, the Lord of Armies will prepare for all the peoples a feast of choice meat, a feast with aged wine, prime cuts of choice meat, fine vintage wine. 7 On this mountain he will swallow up the burial shroud, the shroud over all the peoples, the sheet covering all the nations. 8 When he has swallowed up death once and for all, the Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face and remove his people’s disgrace from the whole earth, for the Lord has spoken. 9 On that day it will be said, “Look, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he has saved us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him. Let’s rejoice and be glad in his salvation.” 10 For the Lord’s power will rest on this mountain. But Moab will be trampled in his place as straw is trampled in a dung pile. (Isaiah 25:6–10, CSB) Doesn’t that sound like God with His people in Revelation 21-22?
In two of the more than 400 New Testament quotations from Isaiah, the New Testament writers connect Isaiah’s prophecies to hope and they point us to Jesus. In Matthew 12:18-21 Matthew quotes from Isaiah 42:1-4 referring to Jesus:
18 Here is my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. 19 He will not argue or shout, and no one will hear his voice in the streets. 20 He will not break a bruised reed, and he will not put out a smoldering wick, until he has led justice to victory. 21 The nations will put their hope in his name. (Matthew 12:18–21, CSB) Just judgment is part of the gospel. It is good news that a just and merciful God will bring victory to His people.
In Romans 15:12 Paul quotes Isaiah 11:10 pointing to Jesus as our hope and adds one of my favorite benedictions that I will leave with you:
12 And again, Isaiah says, The root of Jesse will appear, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; the Gentiles [the nations] will hope in him. 13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:12–13, CSB) Jesus is our hope in a dread-filled world!