Isaiah 29c – Right-Side-Up – What God Dreams About

A translation and sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 25 Mar 2007

Translation

17 Will it not be in just a little time from now,

and He will turn Lebanon into Carmel?

and Carmel will be considered a forest?

18 And the deaf will hear, in that day, words of a book?

and from gloom and from darkness, eyes of blind men will see?

19 And in Jehovah, humble men will compound joy?

and poor mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel?

20 For a ruthless man will come to nothing

and a scoffer will come to an end,

and all who stay awake for sin will be cut off.

21 Causing a man to sin by a word,

they trap the one who pleads by the gate

and entice the righteous with vanity.

22 Therefore, thus says Jehovah to the house of Jacob, who redeemed Abraham,

“No longer will Jacob be ashamed,

and no longer will his face pale.

23 For when he sees his children, the work of My hand, in his vicinity,

he will sanctify My name

and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,

and he will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

24 Then those who stray in spirit will know understanding,

and grumblers will learn instruction.

Opening

· Cue helpers to get box and dump it upside down on podium.

· When I close my eyes and dream, I dream of finally being home. It’s a place where no one lies or defrauds each other; I don’t have to fight with all the in-your-face sin that I see around me whenever I go to town. It’s a country where the government is unabashedly Christian, so I feel secure that my representatives are upholding ALL of the values I believe in, and they go to the Bible whenever they need wisdom for decisions. I dream of being able to dwell in a beautiful, spacious place where I can never lose my job and have to move, there is no landlord to tell me to move out because he wants to sell the house, and the bank can never foreclose on me. It will be mine and mine for good, and I will be able to rest in it and enjoy it.

· But then I open my eyes and see things as they are, and I am dismayed to see how far things are from the ideal. everything seems upside down – like this box. When will people get it right?

· I just want to put a big “This Side up” label on everything to tell everybody how it should be. God did that. He did it right here in Isaiah 29. He tells us which side should be up. Here God is telling us how things should be… and because He is GOD, this is also a picture of what WILL be.

God’s Plan to Instigate a Monumental Change

17 Will it not be in just a little time from now, and He will turn Lebanon into Carmel, and Carmel will be considered a forest?

“Proverbial expression… announc[ing]… a deep-seated change” (Young)
Change from a mountainous wilderness to a fertile field.

See satellite map of green fields around Mt. Carmel vs. grey mountains just north in Lebanon.
Lebanon=mountainous, wild country Lebanon was a wasteland: 2:13; 10:34; 33:9; 37:24.
Carmel=fruitful field, 32:14-16 prophecied “the Spirit [will be] poured out upon us from on high, and… justice will dwell in the wilderness and righteousness will abide in the fertile field.”

This is a prophecy that Judah (the people God will turn into a wilderness through conquering and exiling them) will be cultivated again (Carmel).
This change would happen in a relatively short space of time. 10:24-25 uses the same phrase, "O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you… for in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction.”

What will this change look like in God’s people? God’s first “This side up” sign:

A. People will listen to the Bible and perceive the truth

18 And the deaf will hear, in that day, words of a book, and from gloom and from darkness, eyes of blind men will see.

HISTORY:

28:12 – “they would not hear..”,
so God’s judgment was blindness and deafness: 6:10; 8:22; 58:10; 59:9,
but God’s truth was recorded in a book for them for the future: 30:7-9 “go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever. For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD.”
God has a gracious plan for restoration: The sinful people who are deaf and blind will hear and see again. What will they see?

“words of the book” this phrase us used throughout the Bible to refer to Scripture itself: (2Ki. 22:11&16; 23:2; 2Chr. 34:21, 30; Jer. 36:32; Dan 9:2; Rev. 22:19)
A great light (9:2),
The Holy One (17:7);
A renewed Jerusalem (33:17&20),
Glory of Jehovah (35:2; 40:5; 66:18-19)
The salvation of God (52:10)

Fulfillment in Jesus:

Healed deaf (Mat. 11:5; Mark 7:32ff; 9:25; Lk 7:22) and blind (Mat. 9:27, 28; 11:5; 12:22; 15:30; 20:30; 21:14; John 9). This was an outward physical sign of the inward change God would work to make people able to receive God’s word and be saved.
Promised: "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life." (John 8:12)
Unsealed Isaiah as He taught disciples (Matt. 13:14; 15:7, Mar. 7:6; Luke 4:17ff)
According to J. Green, over 10% of Jesus’ words quoted in the Gospels are from O.T. texts!

Then His disciples unsealed Isaiah for others:

Phillip & Ethiopian (Acts 8:28ff);
Matthew (3:3; 4:14; 8:17; 12:17),
Mark 1:23, Luke 3:4, John 12:38-39,
Paul (Acts 28:25; Rom 9:27-29, 10:16-20; 15:12)

This side UP! God dreams and schemes to make a people that read and understand the Bible!

B. God is restored as the proper object of joy

19 And in Jehovah, humble men will compound joy, and poor mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

The change God creates will be deep-seated, influencing attitudes and motivations of His people. (Young)

WHO will rejoice?

The “poor” and “humble” the same as the “deaf” and “blind” of vs. 18
It is the humble / meek-KJV / afflicted-NAS / needy-NIV / poor-LXX … poorest of the poor-Young / hopeless-LXX that God blesses, as we saw last week.

61:1 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted”
Mat. 5:3 – “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth”

HOW will they get joy?

He started by removing Joy (Just as He removed sight & hearing mentioned earlier.)

16:10 “gladness is taken away & joy out of t. plentiful field [Carmel]”
24:11 “all joy is darkened”

Now He promises joy in Him (29:19 is the change point! All passages in Isaiah before this that mentioned joy talked about God taking joy away, but from here on out, when Isaiah talks of joy, it is of restoring that joy.)

30:29 “You shall have a song… and gladness of heart, as when one goes … to the mountain of the LORD…” – speaking of worship
35:10 “the ransomed of the LORD shall return… with songs …they shall obtain joy & gladness…” (cf. 51:11;55:12; 61:7)
51:3 “…He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy & gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving & the voice of melody.”
66:5b “He shall appear to YOUR joy, and THEY shall be ashamed.”
49:13 “Sing, O heavens; and be joyful O earth… for the LORD has comforted His people, and will have mercy upon His afflicted.”
61:10 “my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He covered me with a robe of righteousness”
65:18 “be glad & rejoice forever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.”

Note the source of their joy: It is not found in their wealth or their family or from themselves, but rather IN THE LORD. “In the Lord” is the only place to find joy!

This side UP! God is going to create a people who find their joy in Him rather than in anything else!

C. God gets rid of all the bad guys.

20 For a ruthless man will come to nothing and a scoffer will come to an end, and all who stay awake for sin will be cut off.

* The “poor” rejoice because God put an end to their oppressors.

* Three types of oppressors mentioned here: those who are violent, those who are mockers, and those who are always watching for a way to take advantage of others.

The ruthless and terrible people will be brought to nought-KJ / come to end-NAS / come to nothing-ES / vanish-NIV

Most of Isaiah’s use of the word “terrible/ruthless” have to do with the Assyrians

i. 29:5 “multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passes away”

ii. 49:25 “prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contends w/ you, and I will save your children.”

Many of these prophecies fulfilled at least in part by God’s destruction of the Assyrian army when they threatened Jerusalem,
but it also expresses universal principles of God’s work throughout history.

and the scoffer-Owens, ESV / scorner-KJV, NAS / mockers-NIV will be finished-NAS / cease-ESV / be consumed-KJV / disappear-NIV

28:22 – “Don’t you mock, because I have heard an end”

* Isaiah takes some time to talk about what it is that these bad guys do:

Stay awake- Del / watch-KJV,ESV / intent on doing-NAS / have an eye for-NIV

a. Evil often done at night. (Delitzsch). It is good to sleep at night and do God’s work during the day! Late nights can often be a time for being idle and tempted to sin.

b. Intentional sin rather than unintentional. “stay awake in order to sin”

v. 21 Causing a man to sin by a word, they trap the one who pleads by the gate

“in the gate” The gate of the town is where the people gathered to hold court cases – so this is describing people seeking to overturn justice.
ILLUSTRATIONS:

The Pharisees tried to trip Jesus up with words in Mt. 22:15
Like modern-day court cases where sin gets off on a technicality and innocent people are defrauded.

and entice the righteous with vanity.
ESV with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right.
KJV turn aside the just for a thing of naught.
NASB defraud the one in the right with meaningless arguments.
NIV deprive the innocent with false testimony

Literally “stretch out, incline, move away” thus “entice with vanity”
Parallel to v.20 “stay awake to sin”
Romans 1:28-32 “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”
Hollywood and Madison Ave. entice us constantly with vanities. Movies and games and entertainment and fashions and things – none of that is not going to satisfy us. Only Jesus will satisfy us!

It is WICKED to stay up to do evil.
It is WICKED to play games with words and subvert truth and justice.
It is WICKED to try to attract people to things which are not going to satisfy them.
All who do this will come to an end and be ashamed.

This side DOWN. God dreams and schemes to get rid of the scoffers and oppressors and wicked people currently on top and in power.

D. Fear & Shame replaced by the confidence of redemption

22 Therefore, thus says Jehovah to the house of Jacob, who redeemed Abraham, “No longer will Jacob be ashamed, and no longer will his face pale.”

WHAT does this redemption mean?

There is a Jewish legend that Abraham was persecuted in Ur and delivered by God,
however, Abraham’s removal from that pagan land and placement in the promised land is more likely the redemption in view here.
Likewise, those exiled in Babylon (near Ur) would be redeemed and reinstated to that promised land.

1:27 “Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.”
50:2 “…Is my hand shortened at all,, that it cannot redeem?”
51:11 “Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return & come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness & joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.” (cf. 35:10)

The ultimate redemption of God is to buy us back from our bondage to sin

Zecheriah is the first in the New Testament to tell us that the redeemer is Jesus. Luke 1:68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people”
Then Paul tells us in Gal. 3:13 “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us--for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’”
Heb. 9:15 “those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed”
Titus 2:14 “[Jesus] gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”

WHEN will this occur?
Literally “not now” / no longer-NIV / no more-ESV

Indicates they were shamed earlier but not “in that day” (v.18)
The God who lives outside time uses a time-oriented word. “Now” is used throughout Isaiah to designate lots of different times in history, but the common denominator is that it describes A time of God’s action in history.

HOW will they not be ashamed anymore?
We will not be shamed if we are redeemed by God and if we honor God.

26:11 – the wicked will be ashamed
45:17 “Israel has been saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation; You will not be shamed or humiliated to all eternity.
49:23B “..Those who hopefully wait for Me will not be shamed.”
Romans 5:5 “and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us…. (9:33) as it is written, ‘Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion… and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’”

This side UP means no more shame for those who believe in Jesus!

E. God dreams of a time when Hope replaces Confusion and results in worship

23 For when he sees his children, the work of My hand, in his vicinity, he will sanctify My name and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and he will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

The Subject “He” = Jacob, the remnant of God’s people considered together as one man.
The sight of children nearby is the reason that Jacob is not ashamed

Last instance of ילד was describing Israel as barren (26:18 cf 37:3, 49:21, 51:18),
but God promises children to the barren (54:1, 65:23, 66:9), and Messiah child is part of that fulfillment: 53:10 “…when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.”
When the Jews came back from exile in Babylon and saw that their children would again live in the promised land, they worshipped God, as the book of Nehemiah describes.
When Jesus was on the cross, He saw believers like Mary and like the Apostle John who had believed on Him and were saved and would spread that salvation to others.

These “children” are the same as the deaf, blind, meek & poor mentioned earlier – “a spiritual Israel rather than strictly the physical descendents – the remnant & the church that would be gathered in.” (Young)
The result is that this new person will worship: sanctify/ keep holy, stand in awe of, acknowledge the holiness of

When we see deliverance coming from the one in whom we trusted, our shame goes away and we have hope for the future,
we praise God for what He has done and for what He promises also for the future.

This side UP,” God says, “Worshipping me is the purpose of your life!”

F. Learning from God Changes Confused Wandering to Understanding

24 Then those who stray in spirit will know understanding, and grumblers will learn instruction.

wander-LXX / erred in-KJV,NAS / go astray in-ESV / are wayward in-NIV

Last use of this word in Isaiah is 28:7 – priests and prophets who were drunk and staggering around.
3:12 & 9:16 – the leaders were causing the people of Israel to stray
53:6 “all we like sheep have gone astray”
These wanderers and murmerers are the same deaf and blind poor and humiliated who have been redeemed and begun honoring God’s name.

those who murmur-ESV / murmured-KJV / criticize-NAS / complain-NIV

“Murmurers” parallels “scoffers” in v.20.
The first time it is used in the Bible (Deut. 1:27), refers to the Israelites frightened by the 12 spies’ report of giants in the promised land. They “grumbled” and were “instructed” through 40 more years in the wilderness!

will know understanding and will learn instruction

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Ps. 111:10; Prov. 1:7; 9:10)
“instruction” is centered on what you get out of what you heard – what you “take” home.
First used by Moses to summarize the law that He had written. (Deut 32:2)
When they sanctify God, they are suddenly able to understand wisdom!

This side UP,” says God, “I am going to make a people that have knowledge and understanding!”

APPLICATION: How do we sanctify God?

All instances in Isaiah & all human action of sanctification in NT:

A. By judging and acting righteously: “But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and the God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.” (5:16) cf. 2 Tim. 2:21

B. By being afraid of God rather than man: “Sanctify the LORD of hosts, and let Him be your fear, and let him be your dread.” (8:13)

C. By doing His will: “I have commanded my sanctified ones…for the purpose of my anger…” (13:3)

D. By singing and playing worship music in church: “Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept… as when one goes with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD...” (30:29)

E. By directing men’s honor toward God rather than self: “Those who say, ‘Do not come near me for I am holier than you,’ God says, “These are a smoke in my nose…” (65:5 cf .66:17-other gods)

F. Through Prayer: Mat. 6 “Hallowed be Thy name”

G. By reading the Bible: "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” (John 17:17 cf. 1 Tim 4:5-“word of God and prayer”)

H. By believing in Jesus, who told Paul on the road to Damascus that the gentiles are “sanctified by faith in Me.' (Act 26:18 cf. 1 Cor 1:2, Heb. 10:10)

I. By defending the faith and not fearing persecution: “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord, being ready to give an answer…” (1 Pet 3:15)

CONCLUSION: This is what God dreams about:

· Getting rid of the scoffers and oppressors and wicked people currently on top and in power and turning things right-side UP!

· Making a people that reads and understands the Bible and who find their joy in Him rather than in anything else!

· There will be no more shame for those who believe in Jesus, Worshipping God will be the purpose of their life!

· God is going to make a people that have knowledge and understanding!

When we start living out these things on earth, we are showing the world the fulfillment of what God dreams about, we are living out God’s kingdom on earth in the here and now, and we see a foretaste of the coming kingdom of heaven!