JOY "Pride" September 29

September 29, 2010
Pride  
Isaiah--- 2:1-4:6
    •    Joy--- 2:1-5    (Temple of the Lord)
    •    Wrath ---2:6-4:1   (Day of the Lord)
    •    Joy---4:2-6   (Branch of the Lord)

I love to read. In our home there are bookshelves in every room, except maybe the dining room. I like all kinds of books; fiction and non-fiction; spiritual and non-spiritual; biographical and historical; children’s’ books, teen-age books and classic literature. I love them all and I am seldom without one in my possession-------so, when I sat down to write this lesson this week I was struck by the number of books that were in my line of vision and it made me think about how talented and gifted and creative human beings are. It is no wonder that we look at everything we’ve accomplished, down through the centuries, and pat each other on the back and say to ourselves, “wow, we are good, we are really good!”
It’s so easy to go to work and church and even to spend time with friends and become a mutual admiration society, where we tell each other how wonderful we are and how blessed we are that we have each other and how smart and kind and benevolent and special we are. Especially at church, we self congratulate ourselves for our giving and our presence in the community and our numbers and our missions endeavors and our children’s programs and our music and our Bible Studies. Basically, everywhere we go, temptation reaches out, in such an insidious, pervasive way, to tell us what good girls we are.
Then we pick up the scripture and turn to Isaiah, and hear the Lord speaking through him, telling us, that our hope rests in God and what He has already done and what He’s going to do, not in us and what we try to do. It makes us realize that all the effort that we expend on human endeavor, often brings with it, huge amounts of angst, fretting, worry, frustration, stress and long hours of hard work. Way too often, we focus on our human inventions and our incredible technology, and our knowledge, and our children, and our ability to love and forgive and to discern and to control, and our husbands (even if it is just looking for one), and our wants, and our feelings, and our belief and trust in the Lord and our service to others, in His name----but its’ all pride, because it all centers around us, and it leaves us empty. It makes us wonder if that is really what life is all about and if that’s what we really want out of it (life)? It makes us ask the question “is there  something better that we should be seeking or expecting?”
Isaiah used one, Jewish word to describe what we want, what we really, really want----and that word, is shalom, which means peace, wholeness and fulfillment. We want it, but we don’t know how to achieve it. The truth is, we can’t do anything to achieve it in our own strength; we just have to accept it as God’s free gift to us; rest in it and praise Him for such a marvelous present. Devotion to the Lord and worship of Him brings us shalom, which is what we want, and most importantly, it’s what we need, even if we don’t even realize it. Devotion to human work and achievement, in the end, will bring us nothing. There is a chorus from a hymn that I love, that seems to be a fitting introduction to this week’s lesson of Joy, Wrath, Joy-------it is “turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face and the things of this world will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.

    •    Joy----- 2:1-5     Temple of the Lord
We have to look at Chapters 2-5 of Isaiah as one long prophecy, although we aren’t going to include chapter 5 in today’s lesson----that will be next week.
One thing we need to remind ourselves of, is that time is irrelevant to God; but He knows that humans have to have some sort of context to frame their lives around, so He gave us 24 hour days----which have beginnings and endings. And, He has given us the scripture, so that we would have some idea of the timeline that He has laid out, to span the history of mankind.  Isaiah’s words look beyond the day he was living in; and they look beyond the days of the church, to a day in the future, that only God is sure of.  But, we need to remember that even though Isaiah was speaking prophecy about the future, there was a lot that the people of his generation could apply to their lives and there is a lot that we can glean from it and apply to ours.
We have to take what Isaiah says here, and line it up with the Book of Revelation, which explains to us, that there will come a day when God’s present work of grace will come to an end and that the church, as the bride of Christ, will be raptured--------the church will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and will spend 7 years at the marriage feast of the Lamb, with Him. This will be a reward to the Gentiles, for having accepted the call of Christ, to take His Gospel to the world. Meanwhile, during those 7 years, there will be The Great Tribulation happening on the earth----Satan will be unleashed and will roam the earth---------it will be a time of terrible judgment, for Judah in particular, because of the special privilege that they have been given by God, as His chosen people and their rejection of It and Him, and for the unbelieving world, in general. But God will end those terrible days and He will bind Satan and his minions for a time-------- and there will be a remnant of Jews and Gentiles who will survive---------- and when God establishes the Millennial Kingdom they and the raptured church, will rule with Him, as His viceroys, for 1000 years.
Isaiah’s message is a soul-stirring one that is addressed to Judah and Jerusalem/Zion and he begins it with a description of the millennial kingdom, in a language, that is too plain to be misunderstood; then He gives them a little insight into the specifics of why the Great Tribulation will be necessary and a description of what it’s going to be like----and then He takes his readers back--- to a further description of the glories of the Millennial kingdom.
He says that in the last days, of the history of this world, God will take up the remnant of his ancient people, Israel, and restore them to their land. And He will make Jerusalem/Zion (which will, at long last, be forever perfect) His throne-city; it will be the capitol of the world, and God’s laws will go forth, from it, to the ends of the earth. Christ will rule the nations from the throne of David and there will be a universal acknowledgement of Jerusalem/Zion as the center, of all of earth’s religious, political and social activities. Jesus will rule the nations in perfect righteousness. He will walk among the nations and hand out judgment to everyone. 1st Corinthians 3:12 says “that even believers will be judged for our works, that we have done in the name of the Lord and our works will either be hay, wood and stubble, which will be burned up, or they will be precious jewels and gold and silver, which we will lay at Jesus’ feet.”  One of the primary concerns of all the people during this time will be to discover and do the will of God. They will seek to learn His ways and walk in His paths. Weapons of war, will be melted down into tools of commerce and blessing--------- and war will be a thing of the past---until, (as it says the book of Revelation) the final great battle of Armageddon, between God and His army and Satan and his----where Satan will be destroyed and thrown into a lake of fire and God will establish the new heaven and the new earth for all eternity.
During His Millennial reign, Jesus will compel the nations to practice justice and fairness with each other. For the 1st time in the history of the world, countries will dwell together in peace. Even though it may be well-intentioned and a wonderful thought, it’s really a futile idea, for any man or any nation to promise world peace. People aren’t capable of establishing peace, because of the sin in their hearts and their overwhelming ambition to rule over other people. That is why we can rest assured, that there will never be world peace until Jesus comes back to earth, the 2nd time, and establishes that peace, Himself. Isaiah is able to see that peace will only become a reality when the nations are willing to submit to the Word that goes forth from Zion, where the one true God will reveal Himself. Peace, on any other terms is a cruel delusion----this is a truth that we need to remember constantly, as we seek to be faithful to God’s word in our own modern world, when we get bombarded with religious propaganda from very good but very spiritually, misguided people-------(Baccalaureate----Christian or ecumenical-the decision had to be made…) 
Isaiah called Jerusalem/Zion, the Mountain of the Lord and even though it was not the highest physical mountain in the area, it was the mountain that the temple had originally been built on and was still standing on, in Isaiah’s day, and would be the mountain that it would be built on again, in the Millennial Kingdom. This elevated it to a status in the eyes of the Jews, which made it higher than any mountain they could conceive of. Mountains played an important part in the various religions of Judah’s neighbors. Mountains were considered to be the points where heaven and earth meet each other, so they were the favorite sites for altars and temples. (Back a few years ago---------we went to Seattle, Washington and I can honestly tell you that it is one of the most spectacular places I have ever seen----where the mountains meet the sea----------the magnificent grandeur of it is breath-taking--------I can understand why they thought a mountain was a sacred place to meet God.) But, the Canaanites worshiped their gods in “high places” too and this had become a snare for God’s people because there was a mystique about the mountains that made them just seem more spiritual and more holy and they thought that they were places where they could worship better. Isaiah explained that the day was coming when 1 holy mountain would stand supreme, reducing all the others into insignificance. It reminds me of how we think we can worship in certain places today better than in others--------it might be a cathedral that is beautiful and huge with a spire that looks like it can reach the sky, furnished with beautiful paintings and rich tapestries and velvet curtains or it might be a little white church, nestled in a valley with a small little belfry and simple wooden pews and clear windows or it might be a big-city seeker church that meets in a school or auditorium with folding metal seats and a stage that has to double as an altar. The point is that we can worship anywhere, if God is there. He is the Mountain of Zion.
The Mountain of the Lord/Zion is a symbol of the very real coming, of the Kingdom of God, that already exists in our hearts but will one day exist in a tangible, physical reality. In that day, Jerusalem and God’s children, Jews and Gentiles---will have been purified and made perfect. Isaiah called the people of his day and the people of ours, “to live now, as if it‘s already a reality.” Isaiah wasn’t blind to the sin and apostasy that was happening in his day, just like we aren’t blind to what is happening now. He spoke out against injustice and faithless politics and hypocritical religion, with a passion, that should make us ashamed that each one of us, is not doing the same thing.
But, it was the vision of the future, the hope of heaven, the assurance of the presence of God and the promise of the coming Savior, which inspired Isaiah. Faith, for him, was never an escape from reality, it was the source that he clung to and drew from and found the strength that he needed--- to face whatever came, head-on. And we are called to live our lives with that same certainty of that faith.

    •    Wrath       2:6-4:1            Day of the Lord
The day of the Lord is another name for the time of tribulation and judgment that God is going to allow during the 7 years after the church is raptured-----------Isaiah was very clear in his explanation about why the tribulation has to happen and also about what, will happen during the time. Isaiah was in the grip of strong emotions as he delivered his message. He knew that what he was saying was the truth and he desperately wanted the people to hear and to understand the Lord through his words and to turn from their wicked ways and to turn to the Lord, before it was too late.
Isaiah lamented that God had abandoned His people and that they deserved it. They had once been full of justice and righteousness but now they were full of other things; unresponsiveness, divination and witchcraft, unholy partnerships and idolatry. The people trusted in their wealth and their education and in their military might, rather than in the Living God. Isaiah said that people who don’t trust in God alone, who have been given the truth, but turn their backs on it, don’t deserve forgiveness. This is pretty strong language-----but He wanted the people to understand the seriousness of their behavior and to understand that God will judge and He will punish sin.  Privilege creates great responsibility. To whom much is given, much is required (1st Corinthians 4:2). God’s judgment against Judah and Israel is going to be more severe and intense than against any other nation because they knew better--------they had a special relationship with God and they had chosen to walk away from Him.
Numbers 26, gives us some insight into why these things that Judah was participating in, were so bad. And unfortunately, way too often, we wind up doing the exact same things. They were pleasing themselves instead of God; they tried to fashion God into an image to worship, that was created by human hands, they wound up worshiping the created instead of the Creator; the leaders were corrupt and the people followed the leaders instead of God; they spent their time with people who didn’t love God—------we need to be very intentional about who we spend our time and emotion and energy with and how we spend it-so that our identity as Christians won’t be diminished or polluted. We’re supposed to go into the highways and byways to be a witness for the Lord Jesus and  we’re supposed to be to be kind and loving to all people—but we’re not supposed to get so close, that the world’s values become incorporated into our own. (Did you know that statistics have proven that it takes 3 Christians to resist the pull of 1 non-Christian?)
Isaiah says that the bottom line of the problem is PRIDE and it isn’t just Judah’s problem--------it is the universal disease of all mankind. It can manifest itself in 1000s of ways. It was the problem of Adam and Eve in the garden and it is our problem today and it will be the problem in the last days. None of us are immune to the disease of pride and there is no vaccine that we can take to inoculate us from it. When we least expect it, it rears its ugly head and we become so sick that we can’t do anything to help ourselves. Only God can cure it and unfortunately, the cure can sometimes be the worst thing that could ever happen to us. That kind of pride can only have one outcome, eventually---a confrontation with God that brings us to our knees.
(This weekend we were in NYC visiting Ashley and Griff and we went down to Ground Zero. I was thinking about this lesson while we were standing there. I wouldn’t presume to put words in God’s mouth and say that 9/11 was justified and that it was a wake-up call for America as some people have said.) But what I did think about was about how those twin towers had risen higher in the sky than any of the other buildings around them and how they had been totally leveled in a matter of minutes! I was reminded of all that we think that we have accomplished as human beings, created in God’s image, and how far we have strayed from that image and how quickly things can come crashing down.  We think we are so smart, and so accomplished and so benevolent and so athletic and so creative. It made me realize that the truth is-----we are all of those things, because a great, wondrous God allows us to be. We should marvel that we can even walk and talk, much less accomplish extraordinary things. There is so much more that the Lord would like us to understand and experience and create and embrace, but we settle for so much less, because we are blinded by our own pride and our own sense of self-worth. With God, our potential is unable to be measured, it is so great---------in our own strength and wisdom and ability, our potential still can’t be measured, because it is so little, it is nothing.  God is the only sure truth that we can believe and He and He alone is worthy to be praised.
Many of Isaiah’s contemporaries looked forward to the Day of the Lord, as the day that The Lord would step in and destroy Judah’s enemies just like He had done in the days of Moses and Joshua. But Isaiah realized that their confident expectation was grounded in arrogance, not faith. Their arrogance, was even further proof, that Judah had taken on the ways of the surrounding nations and was just as guilty of punishment, as they were. (This is a very sobering thought to me and it should make us all think. If we are going to be excited about the comeuppance or punishment that can happen to other people for their wicked behavior, we better be ready to put our money where our mouth is-------------we need to examine ourselves and make sure that our behavior isn’t lacking---that we aren’t acting just like the people we’re standing in judgment of. We might just find ourselves experiencing some of the very same penalties of God’s wrath.  We need to take the plank out of our own eye before we try to take the splinter out of someone else’s.) We need to fear God’s wrath, but we also need to understand it. Webster’s says that “wrath is a firmness to exclude evil” It is a willingness to do what has to be done, in order to make things right. God isn’t a tyrant; He is a God of order; He’s in control all the time; He’s like a parent who tells a child what the consequences will be if they disobey (our 8 rules and the consequences when the children were little…)----God tells us what will happen and why-we have no one to blame but ourselves-----God warns us first, then He acts when He has to and then He forgives and restores. That is His pattern---it has always been His pattern and it will always be His pattern.
Isaiah said that everything that the people had trusted instead of the Lord would be brought down in the last days------trees===pride of man; mountains and hills===government and society; ships, pleasure and pictures===commerce and art; and idols===all false religion. False or man-made religion is the supreme expression of human arrogance because it is an attempt to bend God to our will by remaking Him in, into our image, instead of us into His. (Last week-end, when we were walking down the street, I saw a sign that was advertizing for a meeting of people to come and hear about Kabala and discover the secret of life; and I saw a Buddhist monk hurrying to get to some destination; and I listened to midday prayers on the radio with our Muslim cab driver. I was so saddened by the futility of the fervency of their worship. The people that these 3 examples represent are so lost and they don’t even know it.)But are we any different---sometimes we are so secure in the arrogance of what we think is righteous living? We need to make sure that we are worshiping our Creator and not what we’ve created. 
The Day of the Lord is pictured as a great earthquake, a mighty shaking that will leave nothing standing and will send people running in terror to caves and crevices, in a vain attempt to save themselves. It is an image that would have been understood, all too well, by the people of Isaiah’s day, because a massive earthquake had taken place in the days of Uzziah and it was still within living memory. (I think about 9/11 or Haiti. I can still remember where I was and what I did that day when those airplanes crashed into our country. I will never forget the fear and horror.)  Well Isaiah says that the terror that the people of his day felt over the earthquake and that we felt over 9/11 is nothing compared to what the world will feel, when the Lord allows judgment to come.
Isaiah singles out corrupt leaders and haughty women, as the reason why so many of the people would fail to turn back to the Lord, during that time. God used the lack of worthy leaders, as part of the judgment, against Judah. It has been proven in history that all great nations have fallen because of internal corruption. Without good leaders, there will always be a complete breakdown of social order.
We know, all these many hundreds of years later that Judah’s rulers were removed by either death or deportation.  Their demise started with Assyria; then Babylon captured them, then the Persians, then the Romans and it has continued down through the centuries, even till today---they are still scattered all over the world and are in a constant battle for their homeland. Isaiah faults the leaders and cites them for their treatment of oppressed people, as the main reason. And when the Day of the Lord comes, the Lord will act even further against them. Food and water supplies will be taken away and military, political and religious leaders will be brought down and replaced by immature and incompetent leaders. The elite of their society will be punished for exploiting the poor.
The women of Zion were also singled out and accused of leading other astray. They were married. Their husbands must have been rich to deck them out so extravagantly. The women were probably dressed so well, at the expense of poor people being exploited. The male leaders were probably the husbands of these women. The women were partners in the crimes of their husbands either by turning a blind eye to their wickedness or by encouraging the wickedness, because they were so high-maintenance. Women are notorious for pushing their husband for vain things. We have to be so careful.
The women, as a result of the siege and fall of Zion in the days of the Babylonians and ever oppressor since then and during the Tribulation, will suffer disfiguring disease, sexual abuse, captivity and bereavement. In desperation, the once proud women will be reduced to throwing themselves at any surviving male who will have them.
There is nothing wrong with style and fashion and making the most of yourself, as long as it isn’t immodest. There is nothing wrong with make-up and pretty jewelry and high-lighted hair and pretty shoes. God didn’t condemn those women because of their style; He condemned them because of their hearts. Their hearts were haughty and brazen. They didn’t care about anyone but themselves. We ought to be able to see a woman’s beauty in the way that she lives her life with a gentle and quiet spirit; with loveliness and a winsomeness that comes from walking and talking with the Lord Jesus. As women, we represent our nation morally; and we represent our families socially and we represent the Lord, spiritually----our lives need to identify with God’s character.  (Mary Kathryn’s 2 friends in high school….) (Mary Kathryn called me and said, “I don’t want to be a woman of Zion…”) None of us want to be, so we have to examine our hearts and see where our motives are--------we want our character and our demeanor to be pleasing to the Lord-------and everything else should fall into place under that.
With all the hard truth about the Day of the Lord, we need to hold onto the fact that the most wonderful thing that could ever happen, will also happen on that Day. The very day of Zion’s desolation will also be the day of her restoration. The Lord God Almighty will be exalted above all things and will finally be seen in all of His spender and glory. That’s why we should long for the day and make sure that we’re ready for it and that the people that we love are ready for it. God’s purposes will finally reach their full perfection. The Day of the Lord is the Ultimate threat and it is the Ultimate promise. Isaiah issued an urgent call to the people of his day, because of the joy set before them and because of the horror set before them, to take action before the Day came. We should pay attention to that same call. I don’t believe that believers will go through the Tribulation, but I do know that we want to be ready when the Lord comes to rapture His church and that we want to lay jewels at His feet not wood, hay and stubble.

    •    JOY    4:2-6  The Branch of the Lord
God will not forsake His children. A remnant will be preserved and joy will come in the morning!  Isaiah ended his discourse on the tribulation and judgment------------ and turned his focus back to the joy that God desires and will provide for His children. God’s ultimate purpose for His chosen people and for all mankind is salvation, not destruction.  Paul says in 1Thessilonians 5:9 “God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And Peter says in 1Peter 1:5 “Through faith, we are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”
Isaiah discribed this salvation that will be fully realized when the Lord Jesus comes back again, to set up the Millennial Kingdom, with 4 images that God uses numerous times, in the scripture, to reveal Himself:
    •    The Branch of the Lord:   This is an image of The Messiah----Jesus Christ---the Son of God-----the Savior of the world ---- as He brings God’s purpose of salvation, to fruition.  Jesus and those He has redeemed will be on display for all to see. Every gardener knows how a healthy plant in full bloom, reflects credit on the one who planted and cultivated it.  In a similar way, the salvation that the Lord will achieve for His people will reflect great credit on Him. The Branch will be beautiful and glorious!
    •    A Fruitful Land: This is an image of abundant provision and deep contentment. Canaan was a land that was flowing with milk and honey and had been God’s gift to the Israelites in the days of Joshua, in fulfillment of the promises that had been made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It was a precious, visible sign to them, and still is, of God’s grace, in choosing them to be His people. In Isaiah’s day their relationship was strained almost to the breaking point and the land lay desolate and ravaged by Israel’s enemies, right up to the gates of Jerusalem, itself. But Isaiah was confident, that in the last days, God would keep His ancient promise and Israel would be given back her promised land, in its entirety. That is why, as a nation, and as individual people, we need to be a friend to the nation of Israel, because she is still God’s chosen people------God tells us in Revelation that God will bless the nations who befriend Israel and will curse the ones who don’t. Woe to the nations who don’t. Jew and Gentile is what God meant for the church to be ( Laura and Gordon’s wedding ---Jew and Gentile----it was  precious)-----the Jews just had to learn the hard way-but God still loves them-------He will never take His hand off of them----so after the judgment, they will go back to their land—and it will be glorious!
    •    A Holy City: Jerusalem/Zion had acquired its special status and significance under King David.  It was a holy city then, because God had decided that it would be the place where David and his descendants, which down the line would include Jesus, would rule over His people forever. And it was the place where God’s people would assemble to meet with Him in His Temple. The Zion of Isaiah’s day had become a corrupt, harlot city, but Isaiah never doubted that it was still chosen to play a key role in the Lord’s purpose and plan. The Zion in the Millennial Kingdom will be inhabited by the redeemed of God and it will be purged of all moral corruption and it will be holy and faithful forever.
    •    A Canopy of Glory: in the Millennial Kingdom, God’s people will be secure in His presence forever. During the Exodus, God’s presence was with them in a pillar of fire in the nighttime and in a cloud of smoke in the daytime. Israel was protected by it and guided by it. If it moved the people folded up their tents and went with it. It was the manifested presence of the Lord and it covered the tabernacle in their encampments. But, the children of Israel had never achieved perfect rest in their Promised Land-not even under King David-----------and definitely not during Isaiah’s time. Isaiah believed and promised his listeners that the final encampment would be in the new Zion/Jerusalem.  Their journey and ours will end there. In the final encampment, the glory of the Lord’s presence will fill the whole camp. The canopy of the Lord’s presence will not just be over the tabernacle, it will be over everyone that is assembled there and it will be so vast that we cannot even imagine it and God will dwell with His children, in perfect peace and it will be forever.
Our Heavenly Father, Thank you that you are a God of hope. Thank you that you have a plan to bring peace and protection to your people. Please forgive our arrogance and our pride. Please take away the temptation to concentrate on what we have accomplished or what we own. Teach us your ways and your law and give us the strength and the courage to walk in them. Help us to have the heart to follow you wherever you lead…..