Isaiah 29: The Altar on Fire: Jerusalem's Wake-Up Call

Let's take our Bible and go over to the book of Isaiah, chapter 29, chapter 29.

Isaiah 29 · chapter mention

This week has been an interesting week for me, as I'm preparing messages for our adult Bible fellowship class on wisdom literature and going through another chapter of the book of Isaiah.

It's kind of converged some thinking in my mind about the necessity of wisdom, but also wisdom as it relates to the character of God, and it brought me back to my earlier days as a dad, where I often prayed to be the kind of dad I should be to my two sons.

Now my two sons are both mature and married now and I still need wisdom dealing with them at that age.

But when they were younger, that was really something on the front of my thinking.

I knew that as their father, I was the chief person responsible for helping them understand who God was, and I wanted everything that I said about him to also be reflective in what they saw in me.

And so I wanted God's character to be developing, my character.

I wanted to be sensitive to who he was so that they might be more aware of who God is.

And, of course, in those times when I didn't do that, I wanted them to recognize that I, very quickly was going to bring myself to the Lord and to them, even as small children, and ask for forgiveness and talk to them about how I wanted to relate to the Lord.

So verses that talked about God's character meant a lot to me, and still do Like Exodus 34,.

The Lord is compassionate and a gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving sin, rebellion and iniquity.

Psalm 103.

He revealed his ways to Moses.

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love.

He will not always accuse us or be angry forever.

He's not dealt with us as our sins deserve or repaid us according to our iniquities.

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.

I wanted that the Lord's character to shape my character.

I wanted his character to shape my character.

I wanted his character to shape my conduct, and I wanted to be the kind of dad who was, like the Lord, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, committed to faithful love.

And so when I dealt with the boys as they were, I wanted to be merciful when they were childish, I wanted to be patient when they were foolish, and I wanted to be just and equitable when they were wrong and did wrong.

I wanted them to know that I took their behavior seriously, but they didn't have to perform to be loved, and that's a delicate balance.

I wanted to be able to bring into them an understanding of who God is and, as we've been going through the book of Isaiah, that has been something I've thought about time and time and time again.

We're often faced with chapters and episodes of judgment and mercy juxtaposed against each other back and forth many, many times here, and I've had to stop and think about those moments as they relate to who God is and the people that he was writing originally to.

And behind all of those acts of judgment that are prescribed and prophesied, I have to remember that they're not just God's rashful actions against immediately coming down on a people, but they're based upon years, decades, centuries of unbelief and wrong behavior and ignoring God's will and word, and that for not only moments, but for years and years and years, god has patiently withheld his judgment.

He's continued to show his mercy and his patience and his long suffering, but also behind the promises that are laid out in the book of Isaiah that he gives, where he talks about exalting folks and giving them rest and peace, that behind all of that are people that don't deserve any of that.

Behind that are people who are ornery and wicked and deceitful, who are worshiping other gods and not him, and yet he holds out promises of hope and life to them.

And when we come to Isaiah, chapter 29, we're going to find another one of these episodes.

Isaiah 29 · chapter mention

It's a blend of judgment and hope, and behind it all is the character of God.

He's speaking out of his mercies and out of his grace and out of his long suffering and out of his patience when he issues the judgment, and he's speaking out of his holiness and out of his perfections of character when he offers hope to the sinful.

It's a remarkable chapter, and so as we move through this chapter, I don't want us to just understand it and to know it better, but to understand God better as we go through it.

So the first eight verses we're going to break it down into three sections.

The first eight verses talk about the affliction of Ariel.

And you take a look at verse one and two, you'll see this word which we're not accustomed to seeing.

We'll talk about it in just a moment.

Woe to Ariel, ariel, the city where David encamped so obviously Jerusalem Continue year after year in the festivals.

Let the festivals recur.

I will oppress Ariel and there will be mourning and crying and she will be like to me, like an Ariel.

And here Isaiah is called to prophesy a time of great distress for the city of Jerusalem.

He offers a lament again, just like he did last week and we talked about that.

A lament because of the dire consequences of Judah's unwillingness to believe and trust God.

Whoa, whoa to Ariel, ariel.

And in verses 7 and 8, we understand what that impending judgment looks like.

And twice we have a phrase repeated the many nations who go to battle against Mount Zion.

You can see that in verse 7.

You can see that in verse 8.

So here is Jerusalem, a walled city, and despite all of its fortifications, jerusalem is going to be humbled to the dust and despair and its voice is going to be so cut down that it'll be nothing more than a whisper among all the sounds of the earth.

And verse three details for us that it will come by way of a siege.

They'll be surrounded by this enemy who will cut off their supply lines and hold up against them so much that their resources inside the walls drain away and they either starve, die of thirst or surrender.

Now, this would have been very, very puzzling news to the people of Jerusalem.

This Ariel, very, very puzzling news to the people of Jerusalem.

This Ariel, and that word that's repeated here in verse one twice of course verse two is there.

It's also in verse seven gives us a clue as to why they would have thought this would have been quite puzzling to hear a pronouncement of judgment against Jerusalem.

Now, the word Ariel can mean one of two things it can mean lion of God or it can mean an altar hearth.

You know, when you start a fire, you put coals in the hearth or a log on the fire, you put it into a place where the fire sits, that's the hearth.

And this phrase, even though it's a little ambiguous in Hebrew, a lot of scholars look at it and say this is the altar hearth and it's pointing to that place where the sacrifices were burned in the temple complex.

In fact, it's even used that way in Ezekiel 43.

The altar hearth is seven feet high.

Four horns project upward from the hearth.

The hearth is square, 21 feet long by 21 feet wide.

And here it is.

God is reducing the whole of the city of Jerusalem down to this one spot inside the temple where the fire burns the sacrifices.

And God is saying he will bring distress, he will bring mourning, he will bring lamenting to Jerusalem and he will make the city like the altar hearth, like the place where God's wrath is satisfied in the burning.

So no wonder this is a lamenting woe.

It's quite a dramatic picture, right?

God's place where he meets sinful people is going to be burned up in judgment, that the very hearth will be itself on fire.

And the people of Jerusalem, hearing this message, their immediate response would have been something like this how could this happen?

How in the world would God allow such a thing to happen here?

You see, the people at the time thought that the temple kept them safe, that because God's worship was in Jerusalem, god would protect Jerusalem.

They thought of the temple and they thought of the sacrificial system.

And they thought of the sacrificial system and they thought of the city, a lot like we might think of home.

When we played the game of tag when we were little, you know how somebody who was it had to run around and chase you and if they tagged you, you became it.

But there was a place you could run to called home, and once you got there you could yell out safe.

And the person who was it had to go find somebody else to tag.

Well, this is exactly how they thought about Jerusalem and living in Jerusalem.

They believe that God would not allow this place to be destroyed.

He wouldn't allow it to be destroyed because the temple was there, because the altar was there, because that's where worship happened, and if they were in Jerusalem, they were safe.

But here's Isaiah saying something completely different.

He's predicting, instead of Zion being protected, god is going to besiege Zion, and God wants this to be very, very clear of what's happening.

Take a look at verse three.

I will encamp in a circle around you.

I will besiege you with earth ramps.

I will set up my siege tower against you.

Now, if they were to look out their windows in Jerusalem, they were going to see the Assyrians and they were going to see the army and they were going to see a mass of soldiers there.

But God wants them to know who's actually behind it all.

But God wants them to know who's actually behind it all.

I will encamp against you, I will besiege you, I will raise siege works against you.

Isaiah doesn't even bother mentioning the Assyrians, because he wants them to know that God is the one bringing this.

This isn't just about Assyria thinking well, they're the big bully on the block and they can go around to these smaller nations and just take what they want from them.

God himself is immediately involved in this.

Now just think about that.

What a shock to the soul it must have been for the people of Jerusalem to think about the temple and the altar and Jerusalem as their safe zone and then to find out God is actually going to come against that, that he's actually going to destroy that.

And this imagery here is meant to sort of wipe away this false sense of security that they had, this misplaced confidence that they were undefeatable because God had a temple complex in the middle of their city, and how important it is for us to know where our security actually lies and not to think falsely or wrongly about what keeps us safe.

You see, the only refuge that they could find was in god himself, not in these things.

It wasn't about going to the temple and grabbing a lamb and offering a sacrifice and having making sure that the priest maintained the sacrificial worship system and that they were a part of that.

And if they just kept performing and performing, and performing, god would put this sort of barrier or shield of judgment so they wouldn't be ever attacked.

And then they could just forget God and keep on doing what was something they did the week before no God, and keep on doing what was something they did the week before no.

The only refuge from God's holy wrath is actually by going to God himself.

And boy, that is exactly the opposite of how we think.

Ever since Adam and Eve ate in disobedience and ran and hid themselves and covered themselves with fig leaves, we've been running from God every time we sin and we think boy, I'm safe now, I've denied he's existed.

I'm safe now, I'm a very worshiping person.

I'm safe now, I take care of my family better than my neighbor.

None of those things are going to be safeguards in the presence of Almighty God.

Not a one of them.

The only place you can find security is to listen to the voice of God, like Adam and Eve should have listened to God once they sinned and said what have we done wrong?

Why are we hiding?

Why don't we run to the place where only mercy can be found?

The scriptures tell us that if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The answer is not to ignore God.

The answer is to go to God.

Now, here this passage moves on.

Not only does it speak about this announcement against Ariel and the affliction that they're going to have, but it also begins to move into another section, in verses 9 to 16, of a pronouncement against the arrogant.

The pronouncement against the arrogant.

Now, verses 5 and 8, 5 to 8, give us a little interesting insight of what's going to happen later in the chapter Talking about the scattering of the enemies.

And we'll talk about that more when we get to chapters 36 and 37 of the book of Isaiah, because the Assyrians who besieged the people are actually struck down in a moment, but we'll save that for a later moment.

But look at verses 9 to 16, this announcement to the arrogant.

Isaiah was told when he started his ministry in Isaiah, chapter 6, that he was going to have a difficult time, that he was going to have a ministry that wasn't going to be flourishing.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

He was not going to be the Charles Spurgeon of his day and have the largest church in the world.

He was actually going to preach and empty it out.

What a fun thing that must have been.

And so Isaiah, hearing this, says how long do I have to do this?

In Isaiah, chapter six, and the Lord said go, say to these people keep listening but do not understand, keep looking but do not perceive.

And he realized that his ministry was going to be up against a people who refused to hear it.

But he had to keep on speaking God's revelation, god's truth, no matter what, whether they listened to it, whether they liked it, whether they endured it or not.

And as he ministered, he came more and more to realize that this was true People were not going to listen to him.

In the crisis of 701 bc, king hezekiah was surrounded by people that were telling him look, just make an alliance with egypt, we'll be safe from the assyrians.

And isaiah is saying stop, stop your political maneuvering and just get on your knees and pray to Almighty God and he will take care of you.

But they wouldn't listen to that and they kept on going and they kept on refusing Him.

And so in verse 9, it says this Stop and be astonished, blind yourselves and be blind.

They're drunk, but not with wine.

They stagger, but not with beer, for the Lord has poured out on you an overwhelming urge to sleep.

He has shut your eyes, the prophets, and covered your heads, the seers, and what we're given here in these first few verses of this section, are just symptoms of a deeper problem.

Instead of having the insight of God's revelation given to them, they're blind to spiritual truth.

Instead of living a life of integrity and focus in the middle of difficult times, they stagger around with instability, as though they were drunk, instead of being alert and able to discern life precisely with an insight that comes from above.

Well, it was like they were sleeping, inattentive and unaware of what's around them, not really fully appreciating the danger that they're in.

But these are just symptoms and they're not symptoms that came upon them.

Like we might go to the doctor one day and be told with a shock that we have a disease.

These are self-inflicted wounds and the scriptures here tell us exactly where all of that comes from.

Let's keep reading.

The entire vision will be like the words of a sealed document, verse 11.

It is given to one who can read and he asks to read it and he'll say I can't read it because it's sealed.

And if the document is given to one who cannot read, he's asked to read it and he'll say I can't read.

One of the reasons why they're in such a place of spiritual blindness and inattentiveness and instability is because they're completely spiritually indifferent and willfully ignorant to the things of God.

Their lack of spiritual perception is because they've repeatedly refused to hear God's word and there's an effect of that.

It's left them with the inability to understand what they're actually dealing with and they go plundering along in the darkness with the kind of confidence that they should never have had.

You see, they refused time and time again to hear what Isaiah preached.

They refused time and time and again to hear what any of the prophets said In chapter 28,.

We looked at that and what they said about Isaiah that he spoke, baby, talk to them.

He gave them simplistic things when they were sophisticated people and should have been sort of honored to be the kind of cultured people that they were and not listening to some plain spoken prophet, just talk to them, matter-of-factly.

And that he was just a talking head just going wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah and they tuned him out.

Head just going wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah and they tuned him out.

Jeremiah later talked about the same people in his day and he was upset about it.

Jeremiah was very clear about how discouraged this made him.

He said you've deceived me, lord.

You seized me and prevailed, and I've become a laughingstock in my time.

Jeremiah 20.

Everyone ridicules me, for whenever I speak, whenever I cry out, whenever I proclaim violence and destruction, the word of God has become my disgrace and my derision.

Wow, now, as discouraged as Jeremiah was.

What discouraged him was not that he had to speak God's word, but that he had to stand alone in his generation when he did.

And nobody, nobody said great message, jeremiah.

Nobody said I'm taking that one home and spending more time with it.

Everybody said get this guy out of here.

And this is the picture of these people.

In verses 11 and 12, we're introduced to two folks a person who can read and a person who can't, and not trying to say anything about their intelligence, but everything about their indifference.

The literate man, the man who can read, is given a scroll and he says well, I can't read that.

It's sealed.

Well, break the seal and read it, couldn't be bothered.

And then takes the scroll to someone who doesn't read and he says I can't read it.

Well, could you take it to somebody who does and have them read it to you Doesn't care.

No effort in spiritual dimension whatsoever.

Isaiah was to them just a person in the way.

Every time he spoke God's word, they mocked his message, they belittled all of his reproofs, they scorned his advice, they ignored him.

They wanted to shut him down and shut him out.

The reality was is Isaiah was that guy in the middle of the road, in front of a bridge that's been washed out, and he's waving at the cars coming 60 miles an hour straight at him and saying stop, stop, stop.

The bridge is out.

And they just keep buzzing by him, saying what was that guy's problem as they plunge into the rushing river of God's judgment.

Not only that, but in verse 13, they're full of hypocritical, self-made worship.

They're full of hypocritical, self-made worship.

The people said.

These people approach me with their speeches to honor me with lip service, yet their hearts are far from me and human rules direct their worship of me.

The people in Jerusalem are mimicking all the pagan religions around them where certain human activities have to be performed.

And if those activities are performed in a certain way, then it connects you with the unseen world and God will respond as expected.

And we saw this a lot when Micah and I were on the island with Kevin and when we went there there were witch doctors there telling people to do certain things, like you had to eat the blood of a turtle, or you had to hang this thing on your porch, or even you had to put a bush in your yard.

And we would go around the village and there were all these bushes that had variegated leaves of red and green and they looked pretty.

I thought they were there for decoration and I found out later that the witch doctor was selling them and that the witch doctor was telling them if you put this bush in your yard, it'll scare the spirits away and you won't have any problem.

I thought that's a pretty weak spirit if he's scared of a bush.

They also talked about not building your house at the very front point of a road, so you had to sort of put it to the side.

Now there's a little bit of safety there.

If a person's not driving correctly, they'll just keep on going through your yard instead of your front living room, but they would talk about that, or they would talk about keeping your doors open front and back.

So if the Spirit wanted to come in your front door, he'd just keep on moving and go right out the back door.

You'd be like what was that?

Well, yeah, good thing I had the doors open.

And in all of that there's a common thing the attitude of the worshiper doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter a bit.

So long as you do the prescribed thing, the prescribed way, then everything's okay.

There was a man this is three years ago in the paper in Phoenix a priest who, when he was baptizing the children, said I, or we rather, instead of I, and he should have been representing the Lord, so it was said, instead of representing the community.

And the paper said that they disavowed thousands of this priest's baptism because he misused one personal pronoun.

It's that idea that you have to do the right things, the right way, in order to get the right response from God.

Otherwise there's no effect.

Let me just say this God cannot be manipulated, god cannot be used like that.

God forgives by his grace alone.

Not because we said the formula right, not because we did the right things in the prescribed manner.

In fact, psalm 51 says you do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it.

You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart that, oh God, you will not despise.

You see, the heart matters for everything.

You see the heart matters for everything.

And after the resurrection, when the gospel went out, and the gospel went to Jew and Gentile, that whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, it fell upon deaf ears because people were trying to establish their own righteousness by their deeds.

And the Apostle Paul, looking at folks who are trying to establish a right reckoning with God simply by their external behavior, in Romans, chapter 11 said to them he said well, if it's by works, then it ceases to be by grace.

Romans 11 · chapter mention

And he said, as it is written, god gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear to this day.

And he quotes this section of scripture.

You see, this passage is important and yes, it speaks about pagans who are thinking that sort of.

In some heartless, programmatic way they might be able to manipulate the spirit world.

But it also speaks to those who think that by some deeds that they might obtain righteousness.

But let's bring a little bit home here so that we're not just happy and glad that other people are getting targeted by this passage.

How often are we tempted to fall into that same idea?

I prayed and I prayed and I prayed and I prayed and I prayed.

Why didn't God heal my child?

What did you think?

That God was counting how many prayers you did?

And once you hit the threshold, then boom, he was going to heal your child.

Well, I've gone to church every Sunday for months.

Why didn't I get that good job that I wanted?

I've read the Bible every day for weeks.

I've prayed for weeks.

Why am I still depressed?

Is it really just a matter of transactional working?

You do this, god does that.

Worship is not to be some mechanism for manipulating God, because it's not like it shows us.

We don't want God in our life, we want God to do something for us, and that's why they kept on doing the things that they thought was best Self-made worship, not only hypocritical and empty and heartless, but contrived.

And Jesus applies this passage directly to the Pharisees in Mark, chapter 7.

Mark 7 · chapter mention

When they looked at Jesus and they were saying why do they eat their food with unwashing hands?

You know they didn't go through the prescribed ceremonial cleansings before they ate.

And Jesus looks at these very religious people and boy were they very exact.

They were very technical, you know.

They had this thing that needed to be done the ceremonial washing and they understood it very, very well and they were very particular in how it ought to be done.

And they were discerning and critical and watching to see if people were following the prescribed efforts.

And they even had some sense of courageousness about them to actually confront the issue and not just walk away from it.

And they would speak with great reverence about the traditions of the fathers Very religious, very exacting, very precise, very, very committed to what they considered to be the way it should be done.

What was Jesus' reply to them?

Well, well, I'll talk to the guys.

Maybe they'll wash hands a little better.

Why do you transgress the commandment of God by your traditions?

And then he followed it with these words Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites.

As it is written, the people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

They worship me in vain, teaching his doctrines, human commands, abandoning the command of God because you hold on to human traditions.

You see, we understand something about the character of God here.

We would be offended if somebody thought that relating to us was simply performative, wouldn't we?

How much more a holy God who's made us in his own image, would do so, using the worship of God as a mechanism, having no sense of understanding about the heat of God's anger or even the warmth of his love.

Don't tremble or rejoice in his presence, just going through the motions, because that's what has to be done.

The Bible tells us to be careful because there is a form of godliness that doesn't have the power of God attached to it.

It even tells us that people will look at us narrowly and they will put demands upon us and they'll say don't handle, don't taste, don't touch.

Paul said to them.

He said these are just human commands and teachings.

Now they may have a reputation of wisdom by promoting self-made religion, false humility, severe treatment of the body, but they're of no value for curbing self-indulgence.

Why?

Because it doesn't touch the heart.

Be careful of people who are very religious because their religion is orthodox, beautiful and empty.

Isaiah later says one person slaughters an ox, another kills a person.

One person sacrifices a lamb, another one breaks a dog's neck.

One person offers a grain offering, another one offers pig's blood.

One person offers incense, another praises an idol, another one offers pig's blood, one person offers incense, another praises an idol.

All these have chosen their ways and delight in doing them.

He said they do what I do not delight in, and he's equating the actions of worship with murder, with animal cruelty.

That's how God looks at self-righteousness.

It's no different than murder itself.

Again, the blindness, the deafness, the instability, the deadness of heart, these are all symptoms of what we see in these verses.

And there's one more where he talks about, in verses 15 to 16.

Woe to those who go to great lengths to hide their plans from the Lord.

They do their works in the dark and say who sees us, who knows us?

You've turned things around as if the potter were the same as the clay.

How can that which is made say to its maker well, he didn't make me.

How can that which is formed say about the one who formed it?

He doesn't understand what he's doing.

Hezekiah and his counselors were wondering if perhaps an alliance with Egypt might be the best way to go, and they were keeping that sort of table talk quiet for a while.

The nation may not have understood it, but God saw them doing it.

He saw what they were after he saw what they really trusted and those plans that they were preparing in secret.

God knew every one of them and these people had forgotten that they're really just creatures and God is the creator.

And he warns us that we can't hide ourselves from God, we can't run away from him.

It was like my little boys when they were young, thinking by simply putting their hands over their eyes and they couldn't see me, that somehow I couldn't see them.

Right, and it's so cute then.

But, boy, when you're a grown man, putting your hands over your eyes and saying God can't see me, it's really kind of silly the arrogance behind that.

And boy, have we been doing that, adam and Eve hiding from God, acting as though, if they hid behind the fig leaves, that God wouldn't see what they had done.

He saw what they did, he finds us, he knows us.

He knows when we're disobedient, he knows when we're proud and, wonderfully, also knows when we're fearful.

He knows us.

Now, foolish for us not to go to him, who sees it all anyway.

Why not come to him?

Why not run to him in the middle of those moments?

What's keeping you from going back to God In the Garden of Eden?

Eden, the Lord came to see Adam and Eve after they had sinned, and you know what?

The first words that he said to them was Adam, where are you?

Well, it wasn't that.

They found the best hiding place in the garden, and God was like boy, I just can't, where are they?

I can't find them.

God was saying boy, I just can't, where are they?

I can't find them.

God was saying that for them Because they were hiding and he wanted it to speak to their heart, to their conscience.

Where am I?

Yeah, where am I?

Why did I get myself here?

Let me go back to the one who's asking about me.

God is making that same call to us today.

Where are you in relationship to God?

Are you still trying to hide?

Are you still trying to ignore him?

Are you still trying to think you're smarter than he is?

Are you still trying to say he doesn't understand what he's doing?

Where are you?

Now?

Let's go to the last passage, verses 17 to 24.

These assurances of redemption Isn't it true that in just a little while, lebanon will become an orchard, and an orchard will seem like a forest?

On that day, the deaf will hear the words of a document and, out of a deep darkness.

The eyes of the blind will see, the humble will have joy, joy after joy in the Lord, and the poor people will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

For the ruthless one will vanish, the scorner disappear and all who lie in wait with evil intent will be killed.

And those who, with their speech, accuse a person of wrongdoing, who set a trap for the one mediating at the city gate and without cause, deprive the righteous of justice.

Therefore, the Lord who redeemed Abraham says this about the righteous of justice.

Therefore, the Lord who redeemed Abraham says this about the house of Jacob.

Jacob will no longer be ashamed and his face will no longer be pale, for when he sees his children, the work of his hands within his nation, they will honor my name, they will honor the Holy One of Jacob and stand in awe of the God of Israel.

Those who are confused will gain understanding.

Those who grumble will accept instruction.

We've got affliction upon Ariel, we got the announcements of judgment upon the arrogant, and here we got assurances of redemption.

And this goes right back to the character of God.

Think in all, in light of all that we've just looked at in the front part of this passage, that this chapter would end this way.

It just doesn't make sense in the way we do math.

Evil plus evil plus evil plus evil plus evil equals judgment.

And here we got mercy flying in it.

Just where did that come from?

That's not in the front half of the equation.

How could it be in the second half of the equation?

Well, because it was all over the front half of the equation, actually In forbearance, in patience, in long-suffering, in warnings, in pleadings.

But here is something greater yet God acting to redeem, to actually save.

To take the grumbler and make them willing to listen.

To take those who are confused and give them understanding.

To take the vain, empty-hearted worshiper and make him delight in the Lord, to make the one who is ashamed of God rejoicing God.

There's a time when the land will be fruitful.

And he talks about the leaders, the cedars of Lebanon, those tall, massive trees which were emblematic of their pride.

And he said they're going to get cut down.

He's going to turn that forest into an empty space.

But that empty space will then produce an orchard, and that orchard will be so plenteous it'll be as if it were a forest.

The work of redemption isn't just to knock you down, it's to make you flourish, and that's what this passage talks about.

That God will work a work of full deliverance to the undeserving person who comes to him, that the people who were spiritually blind and deaf, and staggering and dull, who were filled with self-willed worship and hypocritical hearts, the ones who scorned his messages, to those he's going to work such a work that their life will be characteristic of everything opposite of what it once was.

There'll be a fruitful garden, There'll be a mighty forest, they'll rejoice in God, everything opposite of what it once was.

There'll be a fruitful garden, there'll be a mighty forest, they'll rejoice in God, they will hear and listen and they will love God and not just use him.

This is all covenantal language and Abraham's brought in here.

And if you read the prophets Abraham showing up, that's a ding.

You read the prophets Abraham showing up, that's a ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding moment, because Abraham doesn't get used very often in the prophets.

And here he is.

This is covenant language.

God is going to be faithful to his promises, to be gracious to the undeserving.

And, yes, he's talking here to the nation of Israel and saying there's a hope for you, there's a hope for you in me.

But he's extending beyond that, because the promise to Abraham wasn't just for his physical generation, it was for all peoples, and that this promise of hope extends to those of us who had never been in the physical lineage of Abraham, where we too were filled with hypocritical worship and dullness of mind and heart, that we too might be able to enter into these moments when we have turned life upside down and made God stand in the box of our own self-derived judgments.

God's going to make everything right.

He's going to put the world back in its place, where it belongs.

He's going to fix every wrong and make every right flourish.

Instead of stubbornness and willfulness and hardheadednessness, there's going to be, for us, understanding and teachability.

This is why paul, in ephesians 5, he said you were once darkness, but now you are light in the lord.

That's how different you are.

That's how different you are.

That's how different God has made you.

Will you continue on in the way you're going or will you heed the words and listen and come to the one whose character is, yes, merciful and generous and kind and long-suffering and patient?

But he will by no means excuse the guilty, unless you come to him.

Unless you come to him, and if you call upon the name of the Lord.

The scriptures say you shall be saved.

Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for this message, written so many years ago and yet as if it was in today's paper, that speak to the condition of our human hearts.

The Lord, we find that the things that were addressed there reside too much within us, but we thank you.

That's what said about you, and these things is also not just a historical document, but you're a God who is alive and you can make those who are dead in trespasses and sins alive too, and that you can change our lives in a moment.

We who were once ruthless and oppressors can now become true sons and daughters of you.

We who were once filled with the joy of hypocritical and empty hearted worship could now find genuine spiritual life and joy and vitality.

We who carried on in spiritual blindness, you can make to see your purposes and plans, because you can change who we are and you can change everything about us.

So, father, may we hear and listen and come, and we ask this in Christ's name, amen.