Isaiah 2-6: God and His People

God’s judgment and redemption are always tied up together. Even our four chapters tonight go back and forth. It’s like he can’t talk too long about punishing them without his Love bursting out in a glorious “but…”

Chapter 2: The Coming Kingdom brings perspective – thinking about what it will be like “in that day” – when God’s purposes are finally and fully realized – should change the way we live and what we value.

• The Kingdom comes in blessing – image of Jewish feasts
  
• People will know and recognize the Truth (2)
  
• People will be hungry for righteousness and knowledge of God (3)
  
• People will be happy for justice and not fight or oppress one another (4)
  
• The Kingdom comes in judgment (universal)
  
• We will see idols for what they are (6,8,18,20)
  
• anything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God
  
• We will see money, possessions, etc. for what they are (7,12-16)
  
• fashion, success, comfort?
  
• things that might not be idols still need to be seen correctly
  
• We will be humbled and hide in fear (9-11,17,19,21)
  
• The Kingdom should touch our lives
  
• Live in the light of that day--live as if it’s real (5)
  
• Don’t put hope or fear in men, including churches and leaders (22)

Chapter 3: The Coming Judgment brings discipline – this judgment is not some far off thing, but is coming specifically and immanently to you (7th century Israel), not for your destruction but your discipline. Key verses: 8-9

• Remove supply and support (1-3)
  
• Food and water
  
• “pillars of the community”
  
• Weaken government (4-7)
  
• Anyone with even an outward symbol of nobility is made king (6)
  
• Give oppressive leadership (12-26 and 4:1)
  
• God never wants to see people oppressed, however he will sometimes give them leaders with the same character as the people. These leaders are corrupted by their power and end up oppressing the people, which is still a sin and God still holds them accountable for it.
  
• The “women of Zion” are obviously upper class and probably are representative of the nobility as a whole who are flaunting their wealth and greed (as in 5:8)
  
• Both a rebuke and an explanation
  
• God still takes care of individuals (10,11)
  
• Ruth in the midst of Judges
  
• Esther in the midst of Babylonian/Persian exile
  
• His promises to individuals are not negated
  

Chapter 4: The Coming Redemption brings hope

• The Branch (2,4)
  
• Will come “in that day” – like a shoot from the stump of an olive tree (to be expanded in ch. 11), see links below
  
• Will restore dignity, wash filth, and cleanse bloodstains
  
• Will partially fulfilled physically with the return from exile in Ezra/Nehemiah (branch/fruit would be botanical terms)
  
• Will be absolutely fulfilled in the Messiah
  
• The Remnant (3)
  
• Will be called “holy”
  
• All those “recorded among the living” – ref Rev 20:11-15?
  
• The Glory (5-6)
  
• The Lord will be with you as He was after the Exodus (pillar of smoke & fire)
  
• The glory (manifestation of his holiness) will be a canopy – wedding terminology
  
• Shelter and a hiding place
  

Chapter 5: The Complaints of the Coming King

• Against the nation (1-7)
  
• The Lord’s care in planting
  
• The Lord’s deep disappointment in harvesting
  
• The Lord’s method of discipline – remove protection
  
• Jesus' references: Matthew 20:1-16 and John 15
  
• Against individuals (8-23)
  
• Finances – God owned the land (Lev 25:23b), but they were coveting other’s plots and oppressing the poor
  
• a bad investment – will be destroyed
  
• a bad return - crops are cursed – 90% loss (see Hag. 1)
  
• Recreation – making an idol out of fun and pleasure
  
• bondage–drinking early and all day; “strong drink” implies drunkenness— leads to destruction
  
• flippancy—don’t regard the works of the Lord—leads to humbling, loss
  
• Religion – relating to God, either open defiance or taking his name “in vain” (Heb. Shav = ‘deceit’)
  
• burdened by sin (as in 1:4)
  
• some in this state are defiant (“Bring it on!”)
  
• some are hypocrites (“We want to see God…” in vain)
  
• Morality – we are to accept God’s definitions of things
  
• renaming – calling bad things names that sound good (aka marketing and political correctness)
  
• explaining away
  
• Intellect – trusting what they “know”; thinking they don’t need Isaiah’s message; can’t see our own sin
  
• Justice – apparently aimed at judges and officials
  
• should be real heroes and champions of the poor
  
• instead they oppress others to pay for their own pleasures
  
• The Consequences (24-30)
  
• Complete destruction (root and blossom) – for individuals (24)
  
• Calls to mind earthquake during Uzziah’s reign, roughly 750BC, see Amos 1:1, Zech. 14:5 (25)
  
• Predicts the coming of the Assyrians (26-30)
  

What “woes” would God have for me? What would I throw to the “rodents and bats” if I saw the truth about God and my future? How would I live differently if I understood God’s present-yet-coming kingdom operating in my life and if I let God alone be exalted in me? These are the questions this text asks of me.

Links:

• Significance of Olive Trees - from Ray Vander Laan, a well known expert on Jewish history and one of Rob Bell's mentors
  
• Olive Trees - info and pictures from the same site