A translation and sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, 27 April 2008
14. Justice is forced back, and righteousness stands from afar,
for truth has stumbled in the open squares,
and straightforwardness is not able to come.
15. And it has come to pass that the truth is lacking,
and he who turns away from the evil makes himself a prey.
And Jehovah saw and it was bad in His eyes,
for there was no justice.
16. And He saw that there was no man,
and He was astonished that there was no intercessor,
and His arm caused to save for Him,
and His righteousness upheld Him,
17. and He put on righteousness as the breastplate and a helmet of salvation on His head,
and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing,
and He wrapped Himself in zeal like the cloak.
18. As it is with paybacks, so He will bring closure:
wrath to His adversaries – payback to His enemies;
He will bring closure to the payback for the coastlands.
19. and those from the West will fear the name of Jehovah –
and from the rising of the sun – His glory.
For distress will come like the torrent, the Spirit of Jehovah driving it on.
20. And a Redeemer will come for Zion
and to those who turn from rebellion in Jacob declares Jehovah.
21. “And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says Jehovah,
“My Spirit which is upon you,
and my words which I placed in your mouth
will not depart from your mouth
or from the mouth of your seed,
or from the mouth of the seed of your seed,” says Jehovah,
“from now until forever!”
As we saw last week, the three great blessings of Righteousness, Truth, and Justice are turned away from us because of our sin – our universal rebellious attitude toward God.
1. Righteousness stands far off. It can’t come near.
a. Righteousness is defined in Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary of American English as “Purity of heart and rectitude of life; conformity of heart and life to the divine law. Righteousness, as used in Scripture and theology, in which it is chiefly used, is nearly equivalent to holiness, comprehending holy principles and affections of heart, and conformity of life to the divine law...”
b. In Webster’s New World Dictionary of 1953, the definition of “righteousness” is: “what is virtuous, morally right or justifiable,” “rectitude,” “justice.” Do you notice something missing? Righteousness must be defined by a divine code of right and wrong, otherwise the word “right” is meaningless.
c. It
reminds me of the phone conversation I read about in James Herriot’s book, All
Things Bright And Beautiful (pp. 261-262), where the veterinarian was
trying to diagnose what was wrong with a farmer’s pig:
Now then, one of me sows is bad.
Oh right, what's the trouble?
A throaty chuckle. Ah, that's what ah want YOU to tell ME!…
Yes, I understand that, but I'd like some details. What do you mean when
you say she's bad?
Well, she's just a bit off it.
Quite, but could you tell me a little more?
A pause. She's dowly, like.
Anything else?
No... no... she's a right poorly pig, though.…
I tried again. It would help if I knew what to bring with me. What are her
symptoms?
Symptoms? Well, she's just off colour, like.
Yes, but what is she doing?
She's doin' nowt. That's what bothers me.
Let's see. I scratched my head. Is she very ill?
I reckon she's in bad fettle.
But would you say it was an urgent matter?
Another long pause. Well, she's nobbut middlin. She's not framin' at all.
Yes . . . yes . . . and how long has she been like this?
Oh, for a bit
But how long exactly?
For a good bit.
You see, without an objective standard “bad” is meaningless. Same with “good.”
d. The removal of postings of the 10 commandments from our courtrooms is an extremely significant religious act because it indicates a shift from judging right and wrong by the summary of God’s code to judging right and wrong by some other god’s standard – yes only a god can define right from wrong and if people think they can decide right from wrong, then they think they can replace God as god.
e. When we step away from God’s definition of right and wrong detailed in the Bible, righteousness stands far off. There’s no telling what’s right and what’s wrong anymore. And there’s no telling true from false either.
2. Truth gets left in the dust; it becomes missing.
a. v.14 says that truth has stumbled/fallen in the street/public square/broad place – describing the clearing near the city gate where people in Isaiah’s day would gather after work to share news, play games, hear speeches, judge community disputes, etc.
b. One modern-day equivalent of this gathering place where truth has fallen on its face is the Internet. About ¾ of North America uses the Internet for news, games, research, and conversation (www.internetworldstats.com). How much can you believe of what gets published there? It’s easy to tell lies there and get away with it. At least once a week, I get an email from some African claiming to be a widow with millions of dollars that she wants to transfer INTO my bank account, when in reality it’s a poor man who wants to steal money OUT of my bank account. And it happens all too frequently that girls get suckered into a rendezvous with a dangerous man who has been posing in an Internet chatroom as another teenage girl.
c. And it’s not much better in the newspapers. I was talking with one prominent attorney a couple of weeks ago who said that there is not a single major newspaper in the USA with an accurate representation of what’s really going on in the world, so he subscribes to a select few foreign news sources.
d. It’s not just the big boys that lie, either, it’s everybody around us. When I moved here from Denver, I was surprised at how much more trusting people are here. In the big city they know better than to trust anybody’s word.
e. How many times have you run into someone who agreed to do something and then never did it? They will tell you a lie just to get you off their back.
f. Example
of man in Ogden who asked me to pick him up for church 3 Sundays in a row just
to get some money from me… and stood me up all three times.
Truth is missing.
3. And finally, justice is forced back… there is no justice:
a. The person who tries to do what is right becomes a prey/is plundered. (v.15)
b. I’ve had at least a half dozen friends in the last decade who conscientiously tried to do what is right, but they were thrown in jail because someone else hated them, not because they had done anything wrong by God’s law. I’m afraid this will increase if our nation continues to reject God’s truth and righteousness.
c. The justice system itself will make unjust decisions when it no longer refers to God’s laws as the standard of right and wrong. We’ve already seen it in:
i. Roe vs. Wade which ruled that the murder of children before birth is not against the law,
ii. Pro-homosexual judges which have encouraged civil unions contrary to God’s law,
iii. The recent California court ruling which stated that it was illegal for parents to educate their children without special permission from the state,
iv. and the many sentences against criminals which allow for a few years in jail to atone for the murder of another human being.
d. Justice is turned back by rebellion against God’s word.
Does God care about the mess we’ve made? Does He hate our guts for our rebellion and perversion? Or does He stand aloof and ignore it all?
1. He sees and judges:
a. Einstein was quoted to say, 'I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates & actions of human beings'?
b. Richard Dawkins, in his book, The God Delusion, has the cheek to call God a string of blasphemous names because he doesn’t believe there is a God who will be personally offended by his insults.
c. But
God has always been here watching
Psalm 14:1-5 The fool said in his heart, ‘There is no God’... 2 Jehovah looked
down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that
did understand, that did seek after God. 3 They are all gone aside; they are
together become filthy; there is none that does good, no, not one. 4 Have all
the workers of iniquity no knowledge… For God is in the generation of the
righteous.
d. God
saw the sin of mankind in Noah’s day and acted in judgment, & He’ll do it
again:
Gen. 6:5-8 And Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was great in the
earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually… and it grieved Him at His heart. 7 And Jehovah said, ‘I will
destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth...’
2 Peter 3:3-7 …in the last days mockers shall come with mockery, walking
after their own lusts, 4 and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming?
for, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they
were from the beginning of the creation.’ 5 For this they willfully forget,
that there were heavens from of old, and an earth compacted out of water and
amidst water, by the word of God; 6 by which means the world that then was,
being overflowed with water, perished: 7 but the heavens that now are,
and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being
reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
e. Here
in v. 15, God’s word says that Jehovah saw the sin of the Jews and judged
it to be bad: literally, “It was bad in His eyes.”
“That which is displeasing to God” is the Biblical definition of “bad.”
2. v. 16 says, “He saw that there was no man.”
a. Of course there were lots of men walking around. What does this mean that there was no man? In Biblical use, “being a man” means remembering God’s truth and obeying God’s law of righteousness:
b. Isaiah 46:6 Those who pour out gold from a bag and silver in weight will weigh it and hire one who refines, and he will make it a god, and then they will bow down… he will call out to his god, but it will not make a sound nor will it cause him to be saved from his distress. 8. Remember this and be a man. Turn [it] over [in your] heart, sinners. 9. Remember the first things from the ancient times, for I am God and there is no other God and none besides me… Isaiah has defined being a man as remembering that idols are powerless and remembering that Jehovah is the only true God.
c. King David defined manliness to his son in terms of keeping God’s law:1 Kings 2:1-4 Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying, 2 I am going the way of all the earth: be strong therefore, and be a man; 3 and keep the charge of Jehovah your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, and His commandments, and His ordinances, and His testimonies, according to that which is written in the law of Moses, [now he gives two reasons why] that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn yourself, 4 that Jehovah may establish His word which He spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail you a man on the throne of Israel.’ Having a king on the throne who uses God’s standard to define true from false is equated with having a real man on the throne of Israel.
d. Jeremiah 5:1 God said, “Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that makes justice, that seeks truth...” There it is again: justice and truth define manliness!
e. Is it any wonder then, that, when Paul speaks of “being a man” in the N.T., it is in the context of using the scriptures as the standard (15:3) of determining truth from falsehood to watch out for false teachers and stand firm in the faith?! 1 Cor. 16:13 “Be watchful, stand in the faith, be men, become strong.” But it goes beyond that:
f.
Certainly there were some men in Isaiah’s day (including
Isaiah) who were using God’s standards to determine right from wrong and good
from bad, who were trying to follow God’s ways. Why did God say there was NO
man?
Because no man was perfectly obeying all of God’s laws, and no man could
meet God’s standard of righteousness and justice – that’s what the
middle of v.16 says. There was no one who could “meet” God or “intervene/intercede”
on behalf of mankind in God’s presence. Nobody is perfect enough to do that.
g. That’s why God had to make His own man, His own righteousness, His own intercessor.
3. Illustration: Camelot
a. Kenneth
Gire, in his book, Wonders of the Soul (pages
123-127 –as interpreted by Frank Barker Jr. in his sermon on Isaiah 59),
illustrates our situation from the story of King Arthur. Here is a good
king, in a sense, who loves his wife Guinevere, but his wife commits adultery
with his key knight, Lancelot. She is caught in a clandestine encounter with
Lancelot by the king's enemy Mordred. He told the king, "King, you have to
do something about this. Your wife is guilty of adultery. You know the law,
King. Your law is that anyone who commits adultery will be burned at the stake.
She must go to trial."
On a day, dark and drear, Came to trial Guinevere.
Ruled the jury for her shame She be sentenced to the flame.
Would the King let her die? Would the King let her die?
There was wonder far and near: Would the King burn Guinevere?
Mordred enters the scene:
Arthur! What a magnificent dilemma!
Let her die, your life is over;
Let her live, your life's a fraud.
Which will it be Arthur?
Do you kill the Queen or kill the law?
b. That was the situation our King was in, but He had a solution to the problem. He took off his crown. He stripped off His robes, and He clad Himself with human flesh and came into this world and put Himself on the stake. God sent His Son to take our guilt, to burn for His Guinevere – the church. Without even waiting for her to look up in repentance, King Jesus stepped down from His throne, took off His crown… and paid for the broken Law. On that basis He offers forgiveness. Here is the promise of a Redeemer.
c. And
can it be that I should gain An interest in the Savior's blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain? For me, who Him to death pursued?
He left His Father's throne above, So free, so infinite His grace,
Emptied Himself of all but love and bled for Adam's helpless race.
Amazing love! How can it be That thou, my God, should die for me?
4. Verse 16 says that God’s own arm wrought salvation for Him. What/Who is this ARM?
a. Isaiah 40:10 “Look, the Lord Jehovah will come in might, and His arm rules for Him. Look, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before His face. (11) Like a shepherd He will shepherd His flock: With His arm He will gather lambs…”
b. 51:5 “My righteousness is near, my salvation has gone out, and my arm will judge peoples. For me the coastlands eagerly wait, and for my arm they hope.”
c. 52:10 “Jehovah has bared the arm of His holiness before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God!”
d. 53:1 “Who has believed in what we caused to be heard? And the arm of Jehovah, upon whom was it revealed? 2. So He went up like the sucker before His face and like the root from dry ground, there was no stately form to Him, and no majesty. And there was not [much of] an appearance that we would desire Him. 3. He was despised and was the One rejected of men - a sorrowing man also known by grief. And like one from whom there is hiding of faces, He was despised and we did not give Him consideration. 4. Surely our griefs He Himself carried, and our sorrows, He bore them... But Jehovah interposed in Him the iniquity of us all.”
e. If
there’s any question remaining as to who this arm is, hear this:
11:1 “There will come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a
branch from his roots will bear fruit. (2) And the Spirit of the LORD will
rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel
and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of Jehovah… (4) And He will
judge the poor with righteousness, and He will reprove with equity for
the lowly of the earth; and He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
and with the breath of His lips He shall kill the wicked. (5) Righteousness
will be the belt of His waist…”
For Isaiah, the arm of the Lord is Jesus! The Arm of the Lord brought
salvation.
5. Notice the Redeemer’s equipment (v.17):
a. “breastplate of righteousness” and “helmet of salvation”
i. The “head” of what He’s doing is saving
ii. so that He can put this same helmet of salvation and breastplate of righteousness upon us - Ephesians 6:14-17
b. The inner righteousness is “clothed” for a time w/ outer presentation of “vengeance” & “zeal:”
i. Isa. 9:6 “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government is on His shoulder...7. Of His empire’s increase and of peace there will be no end. On David’s throne and over his kingdom to cause it to be established and to uphold it in justice and righteousness, from now until eternity. Jehovah of Hosts’ zeal will do this.”
ii. Isa. 47:1 “Get down and sit upon the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon… your disgrace will be seen. I will take vengeance, and I will not interpose a man. 4. Our Redeemer, Jehovah of Hosts is His name, the Holy One of Israel.”
iii. 2 Thess 1:6-10 “…it is righteous thing with God to recompense affliction to them that afflict you, 7 and to you that are afflicted rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, 8 rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus: 9 who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of His might, 10 when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be marveled at in all them that believed (because our testimony unto you was believed) in that day.”
iv. Isa. 42:13 “Jehovah went abroad like a hero, like a man of war He stirred up His zeal; He shrieks, He even lets out a whoop, He makes Himself heroic over His foes.”
v. As we saw back in Isaiah 42: God is always implementing one single plan, and that is to get glory for Himself from every people He created. But that 1 plan has 2 prongs:
1. He makes for Himself a people, nurtures and protects them, saving them with mighty deeds in order that they may praise Him.
2. He also punishes all who dishonor Him and rebel against Him. This brings glory to the One who deserves glory and isn’t getting it. Justice brings glory to God.
Thus (v.20) a Redeemer will come to Zion – the true Israel, the church. As we saw last week, He will save those who will repent of their sins. What will be the result of the Redeemer’s coming?
1. Payment in full for sin (v.18)
a. v.18 starts with a very poetic phrase in Hebrew that is difficult to translate into English. It is a comparison of two things, first is payment due/recompense (translated “deeds” in most English Bibles) and the thing that this remuneration is compared to is the Hebrew verb “shalom” = to “make whole/complete/at peace.”
b. The way I read it is that the Redeemer (remember that “redeem” means “purchase”) will come and make a payment that will bring closure to whatever remains outstanding in terms of the sin that has been described throughout this chapter. (Repeat for emphasis.)
c. The way v.18 is translated in most English Bibles, the main sense of this comes out as being the second coming of Christ where He will come with power and judge everyone and throw all who are rebellious to Him into the lake of fire.
i. That is certainly in the Hebrew text of v.18. God will rain “wrath” and “fury” upon His “adversaries” and make His “enemies” “pay” for their sin.
ii. I also see this in v.19, although this is another difficult one to translate. (I’m inclined to side with the way the NIV, NAS, and ESV translate it instead of the way the KJV does.) The modern versions paint a picture of God blowing with His breath a torrent of punishment down upon hapless victims.
1. This reminds me of one of my favorite songs by Terry Scott Taylor, called “Near-Sighted Girl With Approaching Tidal Wave”
2. Perhaps a better illustration is what God did with the Red Sea in Ex. 14:13ff. He caused a mighty wind (by the way, in Hebrew, the one word “ruach” can mean “spirit,” “breath,” or “wind”) to blow upon the Red Sea so that a way was opened for Israel to be saved from Pharaoh’s army, and then that same sea water came crashing down upon the Egyptians to destroy them.
iii. This is one of the ways God deals with sin – through destruction of rebellious sinners.
d. However, the Hebrew wording of v.18 supports another way that God deals with sin, and that is through graciously paying the penalty for sin on the cross. Jesus came first, bringing payment for sin through His own death on the cross and brought “shalom/closure/wholeness/ completion-of-outstanding-payment-due/peace” to all who would trust in Him to take away their sin and reconcile them to God.
i. This same verb “shalom” is the verb describing what He will do for the coastlands/is-lands. Why is that significant? In Isaiah, the coastlands/islands are not portrayed as the incorrigible wicked who must be destroyed but rather as the ignorant masses who learn of God’s grace.
ii. The last time Isaiah mentioned the coastlands, he quotes God saying, (51:5) “My righteousness is near, my salvation has gone out, and my arm will judge peoples. For me the coastlands eagerly wait, and for my arm they hope.”
iii. The next time Isaiah mentions the coastlands, he quotes God saying, (60:9) “Surely the coastlands will wait for me… for the name of Jehovah thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel...” This is describing the grace-way that God deals with sin, which comes by faith/waiting/hoping in God’s arm (which is Jesus).
iv. The KJV picks up on this gracious aspect of God’s dealing with sin in its translation of v.19, which reads that the “Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard” for those who fear His name, picturing the lifting up of Jesus upon the cross. (The Hebrew word having to do with “raising a signal/flag,” is spelled very similarly to the Hebrew word which means to “drive” or “cause to flee” thus the different translations.)
e. Sin will be paid for one way or the other: by your destruction if you remain in rebellion against God, or by Jesus’ death on the cross if your faith/hope is in Him.
2. Renewal of the people of God (v.19-21)
a. v.19 “those from the west will fear the name of Jehovah and from the rising of the sun His glory.”
i. This is a transformation of the “they” in vs. 5-8! They were “hatching snake’s eggs, weaving spider webs, doing deeds of iniquity and violence, running to evil, hurrying to shed innocent blood, thinking thoughts of iniquity… and purposefully making their paths crooked.” Now they are “fearing” the Lord!
ii. There is also a transformation of the “lips” and “mouth” from v. 3, which were “speaking falsehood” and “muttering wrong” and now are putting “glory” & praise toward God!
iii. Another aspect of this renewal of the people of God is that it’s no longer just people in Judah who are the people of God but now it is people from all over the world – from east (where the “sun rises”) “to the west!” Jesus threw “open the life-gates that all may go in! Praise the Lord!”
b. v.21 The renewal of God’s covenant with His people:
i. God introduces a renewal of relationship with His people using the same words of introduction He used in the covenant with Noah (Gen 9:16) & with Abraham (Gen. 17:4)
ii. This includes God’s Spirit being upon each individual. This is personal and individual; the pronoun “you” here is singular in Hebrew.
iii. It also includes a condition where God’s words will be placed in the mouths of those who fear Him and will not depart from their mouths.
1. This is the same phrase used in Exodus 13:9, Deut. 30:4, and Joshua 1:8, when God gave Israel the law through Moses – He “placed His word in the mouth” and told them “not to let it depart” from their mouth.
2. However, they forgot. They did not “act like men” and guard that trust of truth with obedience to God’s standard of righteousness.
3. In
the renewal of this covenant, we will be enabled to keep it:
Jer 31:31-34 “Behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 not
according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took
them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which covenant of mine
they broke, although I was a husband unto them, says Jehovah. 33 But
this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those
days, says Jehovah: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in
their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my
people: 34 and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man
his brother, saying, ‘Know Jehovah;’ for they shall all know me, from the least
of them unto the greatest of them, says Jehovah: for I will forgive their
iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.” (quoted in Heb. 8:10)
4. Isa. 54:10 For the mountains may recede and the hills may slip away, but my lovingkindness will not recede from you and the covenant of my peace will not slip away, says Jehovah, your Compassionate One.
c. The church will cross generations and carry the Gospel into all the world
i. It is anticipated in v.21 that God’s word will remain and be carried on by our children and their children.
ii. The word is in the mouth because it is to be spoken. As God’s people we are to speak His truth and His righteousness from the Bible to others so that not only our children will hear it and carry it forward, but also the coastlands will hear it – people from east to west will fear the name of Jehovah!
1. Don’t dumbfound God by refusing His gracious provision in Christ to pay for your sin:
a. Isaiah 59:16 says that “God was stunned/astonished/appalled/wondered that there was no man”
b. Mark 6:2-6 “When Jesus and His disciples went home to Nazareth, “He began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing Him were astonished, saying, ‘Where did this man get these things?’ … 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, and Joseph, and Judas, and Simon? and are not His sisters here with us?’ And they were offended with Him… 5 And He could do no mighty work there, save that He laid His hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. 6 And He marveled because of their unbelief. And He went around to the villages...”
c. You
who have Bibles and know where to look to discover God’s standard of
right and wrong and instead refuse to follow God’s standard in favor of making
up your own relatively easier standard make God shake His head in
disbelief.
You who know the truth of the Gospel, yet instead of believing in
Jesus you trust in your own abilities make God sit back in stunned
silence.
Don’t do that! Now is the time to become reconciled to God before Jesus
comes again with wrath and vengeance to His adversaries. “Believe in the Name
of the Lord Jesus Christ [even now] and you will be saved.”
2. Put your trust in the Redeemer whom God has provided to graciously deal with your sin.
3. Fear the Lord and His glory.
4. Look forward to His second coming.
5. Be a man: don’t let the word of God depart from your mouth, remember it and pass it on!
Nate Wilson’s website – Isaiah Sermon Expositions
Christ the Redeemer Church website - Sermons