Isaiah 58-59

Introduction

I want to do a quick review of the uh previous lessons, chapters, simply because it puts our lesson today in context. And so as we went through chapters 55 through 57, uh, chapter 55, we saw an invitation to abundant life, which is really a great chapter. He talks about everyone who thirst come to the waters. Robert talked about the New Testament application of the waters of life. Just as Jesus took, uh spoke to the woman at the well about the water which a person might drink and never be thirsty again. God calls us to him. He says, I will make an everlasting covenant with you. Sure mercies of David. Return to the Lord. Why? For he will abundantly pardon. For his ways are different and higher than our ways.

And you will be delivered with joy and peace. So there’s lots of reasons to return to the Lord. And so he tells the people to keep justice and to do righteousness. Take part in God’s holy mountain because it’s going to be a house for all nations. You want to bring where the good things are? They’re here in God’s house. Idolatry is futile, and there is no peace for the wicked. And so we see that that kind of uh idea repeated fairly often here. There is no peace for the wicked. Look in your lesson book on page 132. I’d like to just review real quickly some of the questions. On page 132, the first question. Who was Israel’s husband? The Lord of Hosts. The Maker. Okay, the Lord of Hosts, the Maker.

Um, and so the idea of God being a husband to his people, being married to His people, is one we see fairly frequently in the scriptures. What shall children who are taught about the Lord have? Freedom. Peace. Yeah, peace. You don’t love peace, you don’t appreciate that. But if you look around, there is an absence of peace in many aspects of the world. Those that are opposed to God and rebel against God often do not have peace because their ways are destructive. And it’s a blessing when we see God’s ways, which are different than ours, which are higher than ours. We follow them, and it brings peace. Upon whom will God have mercy and pardon? Those who return to the Lord. Okay. You know, you might think that, well, God has mercy on those that are good people, the people that love him, you know, the people that do things perfectly.

No, he has mercy on those who turn and follow him. So what’s in the past is not the measure of the mercy of God. It’s what are you doing? Turn to God. He will have mercy and pardon. How much higher are God’s thoughts than man’s and his ways and above ours? As the heavens are higher than the earth. Heavens are higher than the earth. Big difference. Why are they to keep judgment judgment and do justice?

From verse uh chapter 56, verse 4. Your salvation. Yeah, my salvation is about to come.

What was God’s house to be called? A house of prayer for all nations. When a righteous man dies, what should be considered? He’s taken from the evil world to enter his peace. Interesting, isn’t it? It’s a very different perspective. Kind of like what Josh was talking about this morning in Psalm 23. This life is uh going to be pictured as a walk through the valley of the shadow of death. A place of danger, and those that die are taken away from the evil that is in this life. And so if that’s our perspective truly, and we really believe that, death is not the great tragedy that it is in the world. Yes, we mourn, and death is not pleasant for us, but it’s not a tragedy like it is for those who have nothing after death.

Very quickly, if if you look at um the research question, where in the New Testament are the sure mercies of David mentioned, and at what point in time does the verse say that these were given? That’s Acts verse 13. Acts 13, 34. And what was the occasion? Christ was raised. Okay, the results raised.

1. The Sure Mercies of David

He says, Incline your ear and come to me here, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you. The sure mercies of David. Who’s the you in the context there?

We’re used to thinking of the you as being Christ. It’s his people. He says in the next verse, indeed, I have given him as a witness. And it seems to be the you is talking about the people. Yes, the sure mercies of David is given to Christ, because as a commander, the kingdom will not be torn from him like it was with Saul. In fact, that’s the context in 2 Samuel 7 15. My mercy shall not depart from him as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And so in Isaiah 54 10, nor shall my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord who has mercy on you. So if you go back to 54 previous chapters, and look in verse 10, who is the covenant of peace with?

He’s not.

Who says the Lord who has mercy on you? I think the context is the nation. Now it’s under the rule of Messiah. And so the sure mercies of David are not just for Messiah, it’s for his people as well. Now think about the concept here. We look at the Old Testament, and we talk about one of the things we can learn from the Old Testament is what is the nature of God? How does God deal with his people? Knowing that what his nature is helps us understand how we relate to him. Now think about the context of this. If we look at how God dealt with his people, he said, Well, God’s people didn’t obey him, and he dissolved them as a nation. They went into captivity.

Wonder if that’ll happen to us today. You know, we as a church, if we depart from God, will God just dissolve the church? No. So that was the context. He said, This is like the waters of Noah to me. Just as I swore that I would never destroy the earth with water, so I have sworn the sure mercies of David is my covenant I make with you.

So we have a confidence in God in our relationship that is tremendous. Isaiah 54, 17, no weapon formed against you shall prosper. Another pattern you see in the text here is that Isaiah makes some fairly rapid transitions, and sometimes it’s hard to follow. And the rapid transitions in this last half are predominantly between looking at times of Messiah and times of the return from captivity in Babylon. And you see in chapter 40, uh, where he kind of started these transitions where he said, Comfort, yes, comfort my people, speak comfort of Jerusalem, her warfare is ended. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, which we so often associate with Messiah, he applied immediately in the context of the return from Babylon. The very next chapter, he immediately went to times of Messiah.

And he’s gone back and forth between these two great times of deliverance over and over again. But when you get to chapter 54, you notice that same transition, and as you started the chapter, you wondered which one he was really talking about. Well, when he got down to this, no weapon formed against you shall prosper. I believe you know for a certainty that he’s talking about the church. What happened to the Jewish nation? Weapons did prosper against them. In 70 AD, they were, you know, their temple was destroyed and they were eventually banned from Palestine. As a nation, they were dissolved, they were dispersed to the nations. You would have to say, well, weapons did prosper against them. But that’s this statement, I believe, is talking about the church.

The church has never been destroyed. The time when it would have been easiest to be destroyed under the Romans, the church was protected. And so this covenant of peace, I think, is tremendous, and I think it’s applicable to us. As he said, this is like the waters of Noah to me. I’ve sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so have I sworn that my kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall my covenant of peace be removed, said the Lord who has mercy. Tremendous aspect of our relationship. As part of that, no weapon formed against you shall prosper. We see words like, in heavenly armor, we’ll enter the land. No weapons fashioned against us will stand. 59, 17, we’re going to see in our lesson this morning.

2. The Battle Belongs to the Lord

That God puts on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head. Interesting. When we get to Ephesians, we talk about putting on the whole armor of God. We talk about putting on the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation. You ever thought about why we got the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation? When you go. Pardon? Those are God’s armor. That’s what He placed them. Okay. Those belong to God. They’re not just armor supplied by God. They are armor. Oh, God. He wears them. When you go and you see an army array, do the leaders have different uniforms than the fighters? There’s some decorations that are different. But the coloration, they’re similar because they’re designed to show a uniformity.

That these all belong to the same group. And so our armor, when we put on the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation, that identifies us as with our commander. Part of our uniform, right? And when the power of darkness comes in like a flood, he’s raised up a standard, the power of his blood. Isaiah 59 again in our lesson this morning. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him. It’s easy for us to get the uh Elijah mentality that Lord, I’m fighting the battle, and you know it’s all up to me, and I’m losing, and you know, woe is woe is me. No, no, no. Soldiers fight in the battle, but who does the battle belong to?

It belongs to the commander. Belongs to the commander. And so it is in previous chapter, God says, My word will go forth and it will not return void. And Robert talked about how that we feel like, well, that what that’s saying is that when we preach God’s word, it will bear fruit. While I believe that’s true, it’s not true in every case, is it? Parable of the sword, we saw that the seed that fell on the rocky ground did not develop. It will accomplish his purpose. If it was his purpose at every one turn and follow him. When I say purpose, I just I’m making a distinction between what he chooses to cause to happen versus what he desires to happen. He desires that all men come.

But is that his purpose? Because what we see in the Bible is when God chooses to do something and makes that his purpose, it happens. And nothing of man can stop it. But he has given man free will. He has not chosen to purpose to force all men to turn. So the word will accomplish his purpose. It will not return void. And his purpose is to make that available to all men. And the Lord is really the one that lifts up the standard against evil. He is the one in charge. And when your enemy presses in hard, do not fear to take courage, for your redemption is near. We see that in Isaiah 54, 14, and righteousness you shall be established. You shall be far from oppression, you shall not fear, and from cherit shall not come near you.

Why? Because we see the standard, and God is leading the charge, and we are following him. Now you recognize this is a song we sing, right?

But what I want you to see that is virtually every line is taken from our text in these chapters right here, 54 through 59. So I’d like us to sing it. Would you join me in doing so? Because uh I think the words mean a whole lot more as you study through the context and you see where they come from. So me. In heavenly armor will enter the land. The battle belongs to the Lord. No weapon that spar shall not used against us will stand. The battle belongs to the Lord. And we sing glory. Honor, power and strength to the Lord. We sing glory.

When the power of darkness comes in like a flood, the battle belongs to the Lord. He’s raised up a standard, the power of his blood. The battle belongs to the Lord. And we sing glory. Honor, power and strength to the Lord. We sing glory.

Power and strength to the Lord. When your enemy presses and hard, do not fear.

Take courage, my friend, your redemption is near. The battle belongs to the Lord. And we sing glory. Honor, power and strength to the Lord. We sing glory. Honor, power and strength to the Lord.

It’s a good song. We don’t sing it very often. Well, I hope you’ll see when we sing it again and remember the context of where those words come from. 57.

3. Is This a Fast That I’ve Chosen?

This is our context as we lead into chapter 58. Very end of 57, he says, there is no rest for the wicked. There is no peace for the wicked. And so he says in 58:1, cry aloud, spare not. Lift up your voice like a trumpet and tell my people their transition, transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. He had been doing that, hadn’t he? In fact, he starts off in verse chapter of Isaiah with that very thing, a charge against the people. Yet they seek me daily. That’s not a new thought either, is it? If you flip back very quickly to Isaiah chapter 1, this is kind of how we started. Chapter 1. As he gets to verse 10, he says, Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom.

Ouch. That’s a charge. Verse 11, to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? says the Lord. I’ve had enough of burnt offerings of rams, the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or goats or lambs. When you come to appear before me, who has required this from your hand to trample my courts? Yet they seek me daily.

And here’s that’s odd. Must be storming.

Fortunately, I’m battery powered, so there’s always powered up here. Open the door to get a little bit more light.

There we go.

God’s complaint. Yet they seek me daily, verse two, and delight to know my ways. Isn’t that interesting? They delight to know my ways. As a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. That is, they delight as if this was their desire. And they did not, they ask of me the ordinances of justice. They take delight in approaching God. So you notice the delight in two things. One, to know my ways and to approach God. And they take this delight as if a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance. And they have a claim. We’ve noticed claims in previous chapters where Israel said, Why, why do we do this? And why why is my just claim passed over?

We saw that in a previous chapter. Well, here’s a claim. Why have we fasted, they say, and you’ve not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls and you take no notice?

First of all, how many times how many different kinds of fasts were commanded in the old law?

See a lot of puzzle looks. It wasn’t. I don’t think you wasn’t. It’s a trick question. Um fasting wasn’t a requirement. But they said, Why have we fasted and you’ve not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls and you take no notice? You see, fasting and afflicting of souls are tied together. How many times was afflicting of souls commanded the Old Testament? Every Sabbath. Look with me over in Leviticus chapter 23.

When he talks about the Sabbath in verse 31, it says, You shall do no manner of work. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations and all your dwellings. Verse 32, it shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls. On the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your Sabbath. Now that’s associated with the day of atonement. But it was kind of implied that every Sabbath they were to afflict their souls. What does it mean to afflict your soul? Be humble. Okay, to humble yourselves before God. That’s right. We think of affliction as a you know an onerous burden to bear, or something bad happened.

But in this context here, the affliction of the soul is to humble oneself. So in other words, why have we fasted? We’ve denied ourselves, and we’ve humbled ourselves, and you take no notice. Okay, well, here’s the answer. On the day of your fast, you find pleasure. Is God against pleasure? That’s the view of some, isn’t it? God just doesn’t like things. If you if you enjoy yourself, it must be sinful. And so you see ads about chocolate and people enjoy chocolate. Oh, sinfully delicious, right?

Is God against pleasure? No. What kind of pleasure is he against? It would be pleasures in his name, and still doing his will. We all can have pleasure without sinning. This pleasure is specifically pleasure in doing the will of man, which is that it stands opposed to God. If we took delight in doing God’s word and pleasured in following his example, and we came together for a fast and had pleasure in doing God’s will, that wouldn’t be wrong, would it? But look at this pleasure. And the fact in the day of your fast you find pleasure. What kind of pleasure? You exploit all your laborers, you fast for strife and debate and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day to make your voice heard on high.

He says, starting in verse 5, is this a fast that I’ve chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul, is it to bow down his head like a bulrush? Well, he did kind of command them, put your soul to humble yourself, but he says, Is this kind of the humility that I wanted to bow down your head like a bulrush? In other words, the outward act, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes. Would you call this a fast? So when you give the appearance of humbling yourself, is that what God’s after?

Luke 11 42, where he said to the Pharisees, Jesus came and he spoke to the Pharisees and said, You tithe mint and rue and every herb, and you neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. Now, these things were commanded, so they’re doing the right thing. But he says, You’re doing the right thing, but you’re neglecting things. One of those is the love of God. In fact, in the Matthew, when he says a similar encounter is given, Jesus says, You’ve neglected the weightier matters. In other words, these commandments of tithing were not the weightier matters, the weightier matters involved, justice and the love of God.

The love of God is loving doing the right thing. Reminds me of the Sermon on the Mount when he was pointing out their giving of alms and prayer and fasting, that they were doing the right things, but for with along attitude for the praise of men rather than because they love the Lord. There’s a significant danger, I think, here to parents is that we often can focus on behavior and focus on telling our children to do the right thing, be obedient. And if you do the right thing, God will bless you. But if we contain our advice to that and don’t talk about the love of God, we can send the wrong message to our children. The religion is like a recipe. If I do these outward acts, God will bless me and things will be good.

No? Doesn’t always work that way, does it? We see examples of people that do the right thing, but they don’t love God. And even if we come to church every Sunday, give of our means. We even give to the poor. We don’t like doing it. Is that going to be acceptable to God?

Remember the charge of Jesus? You’ve neglected the love of God. That’s the weightier matter. I think we need to be very careful and take um take a look at what God says against Israel, and the very thing can be happening today. This is not what God chooses, the outward action. Listen to what he says as he goes on. Verse 6 Is this not the fast that I have chosen to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy oppressed, heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry? And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out, and when you see the naked, that you cover him and you hide yourself and not hide yourself from your own flesh.

Boy, I don’t rather recall seeing in the Old Testament any fast that involved these things. Where is he coming from? First ask yourself, why did people fast? If it wasn’t commanded unto the old law, why did they fast?

Morning sometimes. Morning? Yeah. They wouldn’t. They wouldn’t need.

It’s a it’s a singular decision to focus on the spiritual connection, real relationship, God’s will to the neglect of the physical. Okay, and it’s an it’s an easy thing to by extension go from humbling yourself, affliction of the soul, to a fast. Because when we humble ourselves before God and we focus on serving God, we deny ourselves in order to do so. The outward uh fasting is a means of preparation for doing that. We see that uh most often in the Old Testament. Um places like Chronicles, Jehoshaphat was afraid, and he set his face to seek the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast. These two go together. The primary reason for fasting is to seek the Lord. We deny the physical in order to focus on and the spiritual and to seek God.

So if that’s the purpose of a fast is to seek God, it’s totally incompatible to fast and do our own thing, which stands counter to God’s ways. If we’re going to prepare ourselves to seek God, we need to prepare ourselves to do his ways. All these things that are left here are things that God has talked about. Um doing the bonds of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens of oppression. Let the oppressed go free. To break every yoke. One of the proverbs says, He that gives to the poor lends to the Lord. Right? For us to take care of the poor is an act of following God. We’re lending to the Lord. Another proverb says, He that oppresses the poor reproaches his maker. Wow. Think about that.

You want to thumb your nose in God’s face? Oppress the poor. That’ll do it. That’s what the proverb says. Oppress the poor. You reproach the Maker. So to relieve the poor from oppression is just the opposite. Part of God’s will. So all these things listed are things which God is for. And if we fast and prepare ourselves to do his will, these are the things we’ll do. Because these are the things that are in accordance with God’s will. He says, then your light shall break forth like the morning. Your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you, and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer. Contrast that with verse 4, where he says, When you act like this, you proclaim a fast and reject the Lord’s ways, your voice will not be heard on high.

But when you proclaim a fast to seek the Lord and you follow his will, God will hear. Want God to hear? Follow his ways. He says in verse 9, if you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of wickedness, if you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness. Your darkness shall be as the noonday. Okay, and this metaphor of light and darkness is a metaphor that’s common to the scriptures. God is light. Without God there is darkness. Men love the darkness for their deeds of evil. Darkness is where God’s light does not shine. They’ve hidden themselves from God. And so when it says, your darkness, your time of lesser light, he says, will be like noonday.

4. Like a Watered Garden

Why? Because God is there and he is the light. The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones, and you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. When you read that, what are you picturing your mind? Satisfy your soul in drought, strengthen your bones, you shall be like a watered garden.

The water just continues to bubble. The stream just continues, continues on. Okay, it there is no drought when there’s a watered garden, right? There’s no lack. I think I think most often of back in Jeremiah 17, because there’s a contrast here. It’s not just that we have water, it’s this contrast. Look with me over Jeremiah 17.

Starting in verse 5. Thus says the Lord, cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his drink, whose heart departs from the Lord, for he shall be like a shrub in the desert. He shall not see when good comes, and shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness in a salt land which is not inhabited. Those that depart from God are separated from the nourishment of God. And I believe that’s really what the water symbolizes, just like in the New Testament when Jesus talked about the living waters, nourishment from God. And without the nourishment of God, you’re like a shrub in the desert, small, stunted in growth, shriveled. You can’t even see when good things happen. They just don’t come your way. But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is in the Lord, for he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when he comes.

No fear when the drop comes. Why? Got the roots planted great in the water, and the water’s not going to go away. Will not fear when he comes, and her leaf will be green. She will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. I think it’s easy for people to say, well, you know, I could do all these things, you know, if if things were just better with me. Sometimes we think that way. But this tree planted by the waters, even in times of drought, bears fruit. Why? Because our nourishment is not based upon what’s going on around us. Our nourishment is based upon God. Peace flies the water. And we’re in a watered garden. That means no matter what’s going on outside, our roots are deep in God.

That’s a beautiful picture. And so when we talk about bearing fruit, we shouldn’t be saying, well, you know, I just don’t have a great job right now. And we start listening to all these excuses for us not to bearing fruit? No. Where are the roots at? That’s the real question. Okay. So he gets down in verse 12, and he says, Those among you shall build up the old waste places. You shall raise up the foundations of many generations. You shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in. In other words, if you follow God, God will bless you. This is a general statement. And you will grow because of this. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight.

Call my Sabbath a delight. In other words, you’re not just doing it to be seen by men. You’re not just being doing it for reasons which depart from God. You truly delight in God’s will. Then the holy day of the Lord is honorable. You shall honor him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord. And I will cause you to rise on the high hills of the earth and feed with the heritage of the Jacob your father, and the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things. So, tremendous statement. If you will come to God and do his will, he will bless you. But there is no peace for those who reject him.

5. Your Iniquities Have Separated You From Your God

And then we get to chapter 59. Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor is ear heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity, your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perversity. You’ll see often a statement in churches, some church signs that says something like this. If you’re not as close to God as you used to be, who moved? And that’s the question here. God’s hand’s not shortened. He’s not deaf that he can’t hear. Something is separated between you and God. What is it? He says it’s your sins.

Robert asked in his questions on this particular lesson, or the uh thought question. He says, use Isaiah 59, 1 and 2 and refute Calvinism. Well, that’s a pretty good question there. But I think his focus here is what has separated us from God? He says it’s our sins, not Adam’s sins. And I think that’s the point he’s trying to make here. It’s our sins that separate us from God. And so if God is not near us, who’s moved? God doesn’t move. With him there is no shadow of turning. You do you bring to mind any New Testament passage that talks about drawing near to God? I was thinking draw near to him, and he will draw nearer to you. Yeah. I forget exactly what it is.

James 4:8. And it’s a good passage to remember. Even if you don’t remember the chapter and verse, remember the thought. When we sin, we draw away from God, and there’s separation. When we draw nearer to God, he will draw near to us.

So a pretty significant uh charge here.

There are many people that say, I’ve heard it said, um, you know, I just don’t feel God in my life right now. You know, I I don’t know why He’s abandoned me. Who’s abandoned who? Is a good question to ask. I know we want to sympathize with people, but we need to challenge them. And use verses like this in James 4 8. Talk about when you don’t feel close to God, who’s moved. There’s some things we can do to feel closer to God. And one of them is to turn to Him. It says in verse 4 No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies. They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity, they hatch viper’s eggs.

There’s another common transition that I see in Isaiah, and you’re seeing it right here. He will go directly from a view of here’s what God has in mind for you. If you will turn to me, your darkness shall be his noonday. And turn right around and transition to, here’s where you are. Here’s what I want for you, here’s where you are. No one calls for justice. They hatch viper’s eggs, and we eat the spider’s web. He who eats of their eggs dies, and from that which is crushed a viper breaks out. In other words, there’s danger, danger, danger everywhere because of the iniquity. Spiders spin webs. Can you make a garment out of webs? He says, Their webs will not become garments, nor will they cover themselves with their works.

In contrast, we’re going to see in a future chapter that God clothes us in salvation. Turning to God provides clothing. Turning to wickedness provides nakedness. Their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hand. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood. In other words, their running to it shows their desire. This is what they want. They run to it. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, wasting, and destruction are in their path. The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their way, and they have made themselves crooked paths, and whoever takes that way shall not know peace.

No peace for the wicked. Here’s a consequence. Verses 9 through 15. Therefore, justice is far from us, nor does righteousness overtake us. We look for light, but there’s darkness for brightness, but we walk in blackness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes. We stumble at noonday as at twilight. In other words, the picture is you cannot see a way to go, because the iniquity just brings darkness and destruction. We are as dead men in desolate places. Hopeless. We all growl like bears and moan sadly like doves. We look for justice, but there’s none. For salvation, but it’s far from us. For our transgressions that are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them.

In transgressing and lying against the Lord and departing from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. Okay. He’s given you their position. And he’s going to tell you in the next verse a consequence. But you notice that position is departing from God and essentially revolting against him. When that happens, when you speak against God and revolt against him, and you depart from him, what happens? Verse 14. Justice is turned back, righteousness stands afar off, truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Now these are obviously personified. Truth is fallen in the street. People will not stand for the truth. So when Isaiah stands and calls for a return to the God, and their ways are destructive, they won’t hear it.

6. This Is My Covenant With Them

Justice is turned back. Justice is not allowed in the streets. Like they got a guard planted around the city forever said, Justice wants to come in. No, not allowed. Name’s not on the list. Righteousness stands afar off. Can’t enter either. Truth tried to enter, was killed in the street. Equity, judgment. Cannot enter. So truth fails. And he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. But there’s hope. The next few verses transition instantly from here’s where we are to here’s what God plans. Here’s what God plans for you. And the Lord saw it and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man and wondered why there was no intercessor. And therefore his own arm brought salvation for him. His own righteousness it sustained him.

For he put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on the garments of vengeance or clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay. Fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies. The coastlands he will fully repay. So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him. Now if you see this picture of God saying, Where’s the judgment? God says, Well, let me put on my breastplate, my helmet, my garments of zeal. I’m coming. Yes, I’m I’m going to judge.

I’m going to repay. And here’s a nation pictured as I stand in a revolt against God. I’ve departed from you, God, and I have revolted against you. The nation is now an enemy of God. The nation will now see the same judgment that others would. But there’s a tremendous promise.

Yes, a nation will fall, but there will be a remnant. The Redeemer will still honor Zion. But it will be limited to those who turn from transgression in Jacob. And so there’s a promise here. The promises in Isaiah 59 and 21. He says, As for me, says the Lord, this is my covenant with them. My spirit who is upon you, and my words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants, says the Lord from this time forevermore. If God is clothed with zeal and with the garments of vengeance, and facing a nation which is departed from him, and there is going to be destruction because of their turning.

Where does the faithful remnant stand? Well, to those who will turn from transgression, here’s the promise.

Yet it’s not limited to the New Testament. It’s spoken about in the old. But think about this. The promise is the promise just to them. And they’re asking, well, Lord, what about our descendants? What about our nation? What about our children? And God says, No, this promise is a promise that will endure. This is the sure mercies of David that will endure forever. It’s to you and to your children. From this time. And we see that echo in Acts chapter 2 and verse 38. Where Peter stood up and said, Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit. And what does he say then?

For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are far off. Sure mercies of David. This is an enduring promise. Those that turn to the Lord have a promise of assurance forever.

I thank you for those who turn. I think keep your time. Look ahead for uh for