THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Isaiah: Jahweh Is Salvation

Part XVIII. Learning To Repent From God's Intense Discipline Of Others

(Isaiah 9:8-10:4)

I. Introduction

A. We learned in past lessons of Judah's people and king handling their dread of an Aram-Israel invasion by turning away from canonical Scripture and God to trust in false spiritual mediums to their own demise.

B. However, the coming fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel that was allied with Aram was supposed to act as a warning to the Southern Kingdom of Judah to repent instead of being relentlessly sinful like Israel.

C. Isaiah 9:8-10:4 provides a great lesson on learning from God's relentless judgment on relentlessly sinful parties to repent before experiencing His discipline (as follows):

II. Learning To Repent From God's Intense Discipline Of Others, Isaiah 9:8-10:4.

A. After God gave Isaiah a glimpse of the coming deliverance of Judah by the Messiah in Isaiah 9:1-7, the prophet's attention was turned back to the sinful state of the nation in his era in Isaiah 9:8-10:4.

B. This passage gives four segments of God's future judgments on the Northern Kingdom of Israel, a foe in the enemy Aram-Israel union that terrified Judah, and it warns Judah to repent lest she like Israel also be judged:

1. God would judge Israel for her arrogant pride, but His anger would still burn, Isaiah 9:8-12:

a. Announcing God's judgment on the Northern Kingdom of Israel (Isaiah 9:8), Isaiah said that her people would know that God's judgment was falling upon them, Isaiah 9:9a.

b. That judgment would occur because of the stubborn pride of the city of Samaria in the predominant Northern Kingdom's tribe of Ephraim who said that though mere bricks had fallen in the first round of judgment by an invading foe, they would simply rebuild better edifices, Isaiah 9:9b-10.

c. However, God would raise up Rezin of Syria to Israel's east and the Philistines to her west to attack and trouble her, but, even then, the anger of the Lord would still burn against her, Isaiah 9:11-12!

2. God would judge Israel for her refusal to repent, but His anger would still burn, Isaiah 9:13-17:

a. God planned to judge all individuals, rich and poor, old and young, both head and tail, i. e., elders (head) and prophets (tail), guides and the guided, young men, orphans, widows, all the ungodly, Isaiah 9:13-17a.

b. This individual judgment would come because the leaders in the elders and prophets misled the people, and the people were swallowed up in sinful acts and words, Isaiah 9:17b.

c. Yet, even then, the anger of the Lord would still burn against Israel, Isaiah 9:17c!

3. God would judge Israel for her sins against her own people, but His anger would still burn, Isaiah 9:18-21:

a. Isaiah observed that the very sins of Israel's own people burned themselves up like a huge fire, that their own evils from within would destroy them in judgment, Isaiah 9:18-19; Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 1054.

b. Everyone was wronging his neighbor for selfish gain, and even whole tribes like Ephraim and Manasseh, descendants of Joseph as close brother tribes, would struggle against each other, Isa. 9:20-21a.

c. Yet, even then, the anger of the Lord would still burn against Israel, Isaiah 9:21b!

4. God would judge Israel for her leaders' abuses, but His anger would still burn, Isaiah 10:1-4:

a. Isaiah pronounced God's woe to Israel's leaders who perverted justice with oppressive decrees to take advantage of vulnerable subjects such as the poor, the widows and the orphan, Isaiah 10:1-2.

b. The prophet asked them what would they do when God who defended the weak (Deut. 10:18), lowered His judgment on them via invaders -- what would they do, to whom would they flee for help and where would they leave their wealth in just vengeance for similarly having oppressed the weak, Isaiah 10:3. Indeed, the only options for such rulers in that day would be either to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain, themselves the vulnerable parties before their oppressors, Isaiah 10:4a.

c. However, even then, the anger of the Lord would still burn against Israel, Isaiah 10:4b!

Lesson: (1) God informed Judah's people that His intense anger would be leveled against their relative nation, the Northern Kingdom of Israel, for pride, for stubborn refusal to repent after an initial round of God's discipline, for sins against one another as individuals and for their leaders' oppression of the vulnerable. Thus, (2) Judah was to LEARN from that judgment on ANOTHER to REPENT HERSELF lest SHE LIKEWISE be JUDGED!

Application: (1) If we see someone else face God's intense discipline, He wants us to examine ourselves and repent as needed to avoid His discipline, Gal. 6:1b. (2) May we then meekly try to help those overtaken in a sin, Gal. 6:1a.