S70E1 | GOD In Distress | When the world shakes | Rev. Bella Mburu

So we're shifting gears. We've been going through the book of Ecclesiastes, and we were asking why, why meaningless, meaningless. But we took so much from that. And last week I gave you homework. Did you guys read the book of Isaiah? Chapters one to six. I see some people scratching themselves for, oh hell, what happened was I turned and I saw that the book of songs of songs was before the book of Isaiah. And I got stuck there. I decided to just give myself a refresher. So if you didn't, we're going through the book of Isaiah. And we're celebrating Bible literacy in this church, amen. So as we go through this book, don't just depend on what we are going to teach or speak from this book up from this pulpit. Read it for yourself. Read it and ask yourself what is God teaching you. And yes, as I was with Carol last week, and she was like, yeah, it's just God, yeah, it is a bit of a complex book. But if you read it and read it carefully and read it slowly, then you will be able to see what is just popping out from this book. It is a beautiful book, some random facts, I hope just buckle up guys, because we have a lot to go through today. And because I'm sensing that a good chunk of us actually didn't read it. I'm gonna try go through a summary of chapters one to five and then we'll pack at chapter six. But homework for next Sunday is please read chapters seven to 12 deal. If you read a chapter a day starting tomorrow, by the time it's Sunday, you'll be all caught up and you'll be ready to engage in this book. But some random facts about the book of Isaiah, you know, he is considered the prophet's prophet, you know? He's the first major prophet and, you know, some say that he possibly was royalty because he had access to the palace. And if he wasn't royalty, then maybe he was from an aristocratic family. His name in Hebrew is Ishiahu. And I'm not even gonna floss for you guys. I didn't study Hebrew, I studied Greek. So that's all the Hebrew I shall be speaking today. But it translates to salvation is of the Lord. Interestingly enough, because the word salvation is mentioned 31 times throughout the 66 chapters of the book of Isaiah. And 66 chapters, did that click for anybody? What is that? The books of the Bible, we have 66 books in the Bible and Isaiah has 66 chapters. And it actually structures itself in the same way the Bible does. The first 39 chapters in the book of Isaiah really are prophecies of condemnation. So I don't come to bring you good news just yet. After Ecclesiastes, this first half is gonna be a whole lot of prophecies of condemnation and confronting their sin and judgment and the law. But the last 27 chapters of the book of Isaiah, chapters 40 to 66, it shifts dramatically to hope and prophecies of redemption and love. So gear up, it's gonna be an excellent book to go through together. Isaiah is considered just the messianic prophet par excellence because he's the only prophet who explicitly predicted the virgin birth of Emmanuel. And you'll see that in Isaiah 714 next week. So for those people, how many Christmas peeps are around here? I've seen some of your social media pages. You're threatening to start your decorations already. If that is you, as you begin to decorate your house, I ask and urge you that you also read through this book diligently because if you want to fully understand why Christmas, who is Jesus, what did he come to do, then it's prudent that you actually read the book of Isaiah. And Isaiah is often called the Romans of the Old Testament. Why? Because it just comprehensively lays out God's narrative of redemption and his redemptive purpose for his people and for the world. And so Isaiah is such a fantastic book and I'm hoping for those random facts, you're excited to jump into it. He's actually the most quoted prophet in the New Testament and the second most quoted book in the New Testament. Second only to the book of Psalms. Interestingly enough, Isaiah is quoted tere tere n 66 times in the New Testament. And the book of Psalms is quoted 69 times. Nakohayo yote, please open your Bibles to the book of Isaiah chapter one and let's jump into this. I said buckle up because we're going to just glimpse through what is happening in chapters one to chapter five and then let's see how that builds into chapter six and what God wants to teach us this morning. So Isaiah one, one, the vision concerning Judah and this is not Judah the tribe but Judah the southern kingdom, which is the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. So this is the vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem and Jerusalem was the capital of the southern kingdom that Isaiah son of Amos, not Amos. Amos was also a prophet concurrent to the prophet Isaiah but a prophet in the northern kingdom, the 10 other tribes of Israel. And so he was the son of Amos, we're told and he saw this vision during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Basically in stating and in noting that he was prophet during the reigns of these four kings we're basically being told this guy was in ministry a long time. He said to have been a prophet for about 40 to 50 years. Can you believe that? Being put to death ultimately by the evil king Manasseh in the very worst of ways. Apparently he was put into a holologue and he was sought in half a practice that you can read about in Hebrews 11 but it wasn't just the disciples who went through terrible deaths, so did he, so did the prophets as well. And so if we keep reading Isaiah two to four this is what it says, here O heavens listen O earth for the Lord has spoken. I read children and brought them up but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows his master, the donkeys his owner's manger but Israel does not know my people do not understand. Ah, and this is an exclamation of pain. Ah, sinful nature, sinful nation. A people loaded with guilt, a brood of evil doers children given to corruption. They have forsaken the Lord. They have spurned the holy one of Israel and turned their backs on him. First four verses already and we're already seeing that these were a disobedient people. Verse two, they have rebelled against me. These were an ignorant people but Israel does not know my people do not understand. And ignorance by the way is no defense for innocence. Just because you don't know something is wrong or right that is no defense for innocence. And lastly these were a defiant people. Verse four, they have turned their backs on him. And then you read on and it just goes on speaking of how punishment has come upon them. It speaks of the daughters of Zion is left. The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard like a hut in a field of melons. Imagery here to indicate that when you're planting melons you'll build a little hut just to ensure that you're taking care of the harvest and of your crop. But after you've harvested that hut is left abandoned and that is what these people were like. They were like a city and a siege. And unless the Lord Almighty had left us some survivors we would have become like Sodom. We would have been like Gomorrah. A little glimpse of hope but yet at the same time it points to the fact that so grim was their sin that they would have become like Sodom and Gomorrah. And so you jump a little down to verses 13 to 15 and it says, so stop, stop bringing me meaningless offerings. Your incense is detestable to me. New moon, sabbaths and convocations. I bear your evil, I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts. My soul hates. They have become a burden to me. I am wary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer I will hide my eyes from you. Even if you offer many prayers I will not listen, your hands are full of blood. So we see a divided heart. They have abandoned God's ways for power, for wealth, for other things. They have abandoned God and they're being diagnosed right here on how rebellious they are. So much so that God says, you know what? I do not want your sacrifices. The same sacrifices that God had asked for. He's like, I'm away with it. I cannot stand it. Stop bringing me those meaningless offerings. Because God does not separate the worship from the worshipper. So when you come before him and you bring your worship God is looking at the worshipper in as much as he's looking at the worship that you're bringing him. These people practiced religion without a heart for God. They compartmentalized who they were out there in the real world and who they were when they came to church. And God is saying, I see you all the time. I know how you're living. I know your social media. I see you in private. And then you come into my house and you give me offerings and you close your eyes and you bow and you kneel down and all of those things, no. I detest it. And I pray that even as we read through this passage because that's what prophecy did. It wasn't just for then, what's going to come in the future. It was also for now. And even for us today, that we would not be those people who separate who we are and what are in the worship that we bring that we would be a people who live out a true and authentic faith. And so chapter two, you see how there's a divided heart. It begins with an amazing vision of how people are streaming into the mountain of the Lord's temple and they are learning God's ways and it's fantastic. And then you come to verses 69 and it says, you have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob. You are full of superstitions from the East. So syncretism is creeping in. They're practicing a little bit of this and a little bit of that. A little bit of African traditional religions. They are practicing divination like the Philistines and clasp hands with pagans. Their land is full of silver and gold. There is no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses. There is no end to their chariots. Their land is full of idols. They bow down to the work of their hands to what their fingers have made. And basically we're being told that they've trusted in their wealth, in their silver and their gold and their endless treasures. But guess what? Wealth cannot save them. We're being told that they've trusted in their military power, in their horses and their chariots that no, no end. But guess what? Your military power cannot save you. We're being told that they have made idols and they are worshiping them. But guess what? The idols cannot save them. And then the final verse in this chapter is quite sobering. 22, chapter two, it says, stop trusting in man who has but a breath in his nostrils of what account is he. When we begin to trust in things as opposed to trusting in the one who made us, this sobers us that guess what? You're trusting in mad made things as opposed to trusting in the one who made man. And as I read this, I remember being rebuked a little bit as a parent because to the parents out here, sometimes we as parents build these very comfortable lives for our children. We have accumulated wealth so that we can give them a comfortable future and a comfortable life. You know, we have connections to the powers that be in military might, if you may. And we don't realize that we're making little idols of ourselves. That our children are putting their trust in us and our wealth as opposed to putting their trust in God and in God alone. Stop trusting in man who has but breath in his nostrils of what account is he. And then we jump into chapter three and we see the social consequences of all of this, you know, rebellion and all of this abandoning of God's ways and putting their trust in other things. And we read in verses eight to nine, it says Jerusalem staggers and Judah is falling. Their words and deeds are against the Lord defying his glorious presence. The look on their faces testifies against them. They parade their sin like Sodom, they do not hide it. Woe to them. You jump down a little bit to verses 16 and it tells us that the Lord says, the women of Zion are haughty, walking along with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes, tripping along with mincing steps with ornaments jiggling on their ankles. Therefore the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the women of Zion. The Lord will make their scalps bowled and no women. This is not a passage to pray over that man and that woman who's looking at your man a certain type of way. What God is basically, what the prophet Isaiah was saying here is basically these women who are proud and look down on others and think themselves better than other people. Woe to them. Woe to them because shame has disappeared from this society and the look on their faces testifies against them that they parade their sin like Sodom and they do not even hide it. They're plundering from the poor who God calls my people because he says in verse 15, what do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor declares the Lord God almighty. And so God is calling them out that you have forgotten justice but instead you are oppressors. You are oppressing the poor. And so he's exposing them. He's exposing them for flourishing and using their power to advance their own wealth and their own agendas as opposed to looking out for the poor, for the widowed. But then you notice something in verse 10 if I could take you back a little bit and it says, tell the righteous, it will be well with them for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds. Isn't it nice that at least being called out for all the sin and judgment is coming and punishment has come somewhere in there our gracious and merciful God through the prophet Isaiah doesn't collapse everybody into one category because God sees the individual who remains faithful even when the wider culture is corrupt and that might be you that you find yourself amidst a brood of vipers, amidst people who do not know him, who have abandoned his ways but then God states it here that the righteous it will be well with them. They will enjoy the fruit of their deeds. I wanted to just make a quick note over here up over verse one in chapter four. It says that in that day, seven women will take hold of one man and say we will eat our own food and provide our own clothes only let us be called by your name, take away our disgrace men. This is not a case for polygamy. So don't take the Bible out of context, okay? But that is really a picture of the desperate state that the nation was in, that they had been punished they had died out in war, that women don't even have men to marry but as we continue in chapter four and verse two we read that in that day the branch, capital B the branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors of Israel. This is one of Isaiah's most important messianic images. This is a picture of new life emerging after apparent destruction. We've been told of how they've sinned against the Lord how they've been punished much like Sodom and Gomorrah but there's a bit of a remnant. We've been told how their women, you know they're going to go bald and, you know get sores on their heads but there is a remnant. Verse three, it says those who are left in Zion who remain in Jerusalem will be called holy. All who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem. And so there is a remnant. There is a remnant of survivors that the Lord has left. Equally we're told in verse four if we keep reading together that the Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion he will cleanse the blood stains from Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire. So there is a remnant but this remnant will be cleansed through judgment and then something beautiful that sort of contrasts what we read about the hut and the melons. In verse five it says then the Lord will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night. Does this sound familiar? Over all the glory will be a canopy. It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and the rain. So we'd been painted for that picture of an abandoned deserted hut amongst the melon fields. And here we are, there's a remnant, they will be cleansed and then God's presence will be amongst them. God's presence will be like a shelter. That they will no longer be a lonely and vulnerable people but God will dwell amongst them. And then comes chapter five. And I like to, when I read this I was like, sounds like a country song. It says, I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard. My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a wine press as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes but it yielded only bad fruit. I wish the guitar was here. You could almost sing this to the genre of country. You know, it sounds like I had this beautiful girl who I loved and asked her to marry me and then she left with a farmer hand and went to, I don't know where. This is the Lord basically painting a picture and saying, what say? Let me tell you exactly what went wrong. It's a vivid picture that is being painted of how this farmer lovingly cultivated his vineyard and gave it everything he had, everything. But the vineyard in return has given it bad fruit. And Jesus told a similar parable of the vine dresser in Matthew 21. Read that too as well. But the branch that we read of in chapter four and verse two, if you remember, will produce what this vineyard failed to produce. We're told what God expected in verses, where is this? We're told what God expected, chapter five and verse seven. It says that he looked for justice and so bloodshed. He looked for righteousness but had cries of distress. This is what God was expecting of his vineyard, that goodness may there be justice amongst you, may you take care of the poor, may you take care of the wicked, but instead, what did he find? He found bloodshed and oppression that you're taking from the poor to enrich yourselves. He expected that there would be righteousness, but instead there's just cries of distress. And then the prophet Isaiah calls out a couple of woes and judgments. And the first one is in verses 89, war to you who add house to house and join field to field. This is the war against greed and accumulation of wealth. You don't have enough, you just need more and more and more. War to you, number two, verses 11 to 17, it says, war to those who rise early in the morning and run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine. No judgment if it is this, if this is describing you last night. It's not me, it's God. War to you, if you're simply seeking out pleasures from this world, because it is not pleasure if it is not without God. War to you if you're seeking pleasure without God. Verses 18 to 19, war to you and to those who draw sin along the cords of deceit and wickedness as with cut ropes. To those who say, let God hurry, let him hasten his work, where sin has become so normal that you know, you know those friends and those people who are just like you Christians, ah, whatever, see if he's gonna kill me, he kills me now. Where sin has become normal that you, you're just like whatever, doesn't care, war to that person. Verse 20, the fourth war, war to those who call evil good and good evil, there's moral confusion and aren't we living in those times where people can't even define who a woman is and then there's certain agendas that are thought to be right and those of us who have a biblical stand against it are told that you are the ones who are homophobic. What is wrong with you? Why are you so judgmental? War to you for this moral relativism and this moral confusion. The fifth war, verse 21, war to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. They know better than God, isn't it? W