Go Forth From Babylon – Part 1
Isaiah 48:1-22 (1-2)
April 28, 2024
You know the backdrop of the story.
• Israel sinned against God by seeking out other gods and by shedding much innocent blood.
• As a punishment for this sin and as a means to purify them from it, God exiled them to Babylon for 70 years.
• That time is now up and God is arranging the means by which He will save them and send them home.
That plan of salvation is Cyrus of Persia.
He is A PROPHETIC TYPE OF JESUS because
He has been appointed by God to release the captives without cost.
But Cyrus is also a prophetic type of Christ’s second coming
Because Cyrus will deliver God’s people by crushing their enemies
Cyrus is being sent to reign judgment on Babylon.
As we saw last Sunday night:
Isaiah 47:5-7 “Sit silently, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans, For you will no longer be called The queen of kingdoms. “I was angry with My people, I profaned My heritage And gave them into your hand. You did not show mercy to them, On the aged you made your yoke very heavy. “Yet you said, ‘I will be a queen forever.’ These things you did not consider Nor remember the outcome of them.”
God is judging Babylon for the cruelty inflicted upon His people.
And He is using Cyrus to do it.
So we have in Cyrus a picture of both of Christ’s comings.
• His first coming in the rescue of prisoners.
• His second coming in the destruction of their enemy.
He is coming to save and he is coming to destroy.
BUT WE HAVE A PROBLEM
Many Jews in Babylon don’t want to go.
• As I have told you, for most of them Babylon is all they know.
• And they have grown comfortable there.
• For many of them, the thought of uprooting and heading out to the land of Israel seems like a hard, dangerous, and unworthy journey.
• They like Babylon and though they might not appreciate the slave status, they are willing to endure it just to stay there.
And chapter 48 addresses them.
The point is not hard to see.
(20) “Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! Declare with the sound of joyful shouting, proclaim this, Send it out to the end of the earth; Say, “The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob.”
God’s will in the matter is clear.
• LEAVE!
• GO HOME!
You should embrace redemption,
You should leave Babylon and return to the land of promise.
THAT IS THE COMMAND.
FOR US THE APPLICATION IS OBVIOUS.
• Babylon is representative of the world and it’s evil system.
• Babylon represents the current evil generation which we must be saved from.
And we are told not to love it or cling to it or store it or trust it.
1 John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”
James 4:4 “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
Even in the book of Revelation
we hear those same words from John the apostle:
Revelation 18:4-5 “I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”
The very call of Jesus was that you and I would leave this world, Deny ourselves, and choose His kingdom over any worldly one.
• He called us to leave father and mother.
• He called us to leave houses and farms.
• He called us to leave treasures and security.
He called us to follow Him.
Matthew 10:39 “He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”
And yet, we know that this calling has proven too great a cost for many.
We actually see this tension throughout the New Testament.
Paul lamented Demas:
2 Timothy 4:10 “for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica;”
Jesus warned us with 3 staggering words regarding the second coming:
Luke 17:32 “Remember Lot’s wife.”
We saw people who wouldn’t follow Jesus out of fear of losing this world:
John 9:20-22 “His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.”
John 12:42 “Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue;”
Perhaps the most famous example is the Rich Young Ruler
Matthew 19:22 “But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.”
We have seen it over and over.
ON THE OTHER HAND the genuinely redeemed
Have often times been marked by their willingness
To leave or forsake this world in order to follow Christ.
Philippians 3:7-8 “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,”
Commenting again:
Galatians 6:14 “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
After the Rich Young Ruler left Jesus, Peter asked:
Matthew 19:27 “Then Peter said to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?”
And of course we remember that famous epitaph of the saints of old.
Hebrews 11:13-16 “All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.”
WE ARE WELL ACQUAINTED WITH THIS SUBJECT.
The very crisis of salvation is often seen
In whether a person is willing to forsake this life for the sake of the next.
That is the crisis that is here represented in this call of God.
These Jews live in Babylon and God is seeking to save them from it.
But when the rubber meets the road
We find out that they don’t really want to leave.
Jesus spoke of this type of people in John 3 when He said:
John 3:19 “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”
It is a tragic mindset.
God is confronting that mindset morning.
So we take a look at Isaiah 48 an the call to “go forth from Babylon”
And we seek to challenge our hearts
To do what these men and women didn’t want to do.
Let’s break this chapter down into 5 points.
#1 HYPOCRISY EXPOSED
Isaiah 48:1-2
We already know that we are dealing with people who aren’t really interested in leaving Babylon and returning to the land of promise.
Can we just address the obvious fallacy in that?
We have read Genesis,
• We remember God sending Joseph into Egypt.
• We remember the famine.
• We remember Jacob eventually following Joseph into Egypt.
• And we remember that Egypt had a purpose for that nation.
But even when Jacob arrived and things were glorious and great for Jacob’s family, JACOB NEVER WAIVERED.
Genesis 47:29-31 “When the time for Israel to die drew near, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “Please, if I have found favor in your sight, place now your hand under my thigh and deal with me in kindness and faithfulness. Please do not bury me in Egypt, but when I lie down with my fathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.” And he said, “I will do as you have said.” He said, “Swear to me.” So he swore to him. Then Israel bowed in worship at the head of the bed.”
Later we have Israel divvying up his sons inheritance
By portioning out to them the land of Canaan; a land they didn’t even own.
Over and over Jacob was making the point,
“I don’t care how good Egypt is right now, this is not our inheritance!”
God has promised us the land beyond the Jordan.
That is our land.
This was actually the great sin of Esau on the day he came in famished from hunting and wanted some of Jacob’s lentil stew.
• Jacob told Esau he’d trade it for the birthright (which was Esau’s land inheritance) and Esau did so.
Moses, who wrote Genesis, summed up the transaction like this:
Genesis 25:34 “Thus Esau despised his birthright.”
And the writer of Hebrews highlighted this great sin of Esau in his letter:
Hebrews 12:15-17 “See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.”
The writer of Hebrews called Esau godless and immoral and
Was totally dumfounded that Esau would
Sell “his own birthright for a single meal.”
Esau was a graphic picture of a man
Who forsook the promise for instant gratification.
And that was absolutely horrendous!
BUT THAT SAME PROBLEM IS WHAT WE ARE UP AGAINST HERE.
These people are willing to trade the promise
For the passing comforts of Babylon.
And they really aren’t comforts at all,
• For on one hand they are mere slaves in Babylon
• And on the other hand Babylon is about to be destroyed.
What kind of person gives up their promised inheritance from God to try and hold on to a rotten inheritance that they can’t keep?
DO YOU SEE THE PROBLEM?
THEY ARE CHOOSING THE WRONG THING.
But here is what is EVEN MORE SHOCKING about this scenario.
(1-2) “Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are named Israel And who came forth from the loins of Judah, Who swear by the name of the LORD And invoke the God of Israel, But not in truth nor in righteousness. “For they call themselves after the holy city And lean on the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is His name.”
Did you catch how these people who are living in Babylon and clinging to Babylon describe themselves?
Isaiah says in verse 2, “they call themselves after the holy city”
What does that mean?
• What is the name of the holy city? Jerusalem.
• What do they call themselves? Jews
Not only that, but Isaiah says they “lean on the God of Israel”
That is their confession.
So all the while as they walk around Babylon
They are very pious about who they are.
• They live in Babylon but they call themselves Jews.
• They participate fully in Babylonian culture, but they claim to be followers of “the God of Israel.”
That’s all well and good, but on this day GOD CALLS THEIR BLUFF
And He asks them to put their money where their mouth is.
• So you are citizens of the holy city huh? That’s right!
• So you are followers of the God of Israel huh? You know it!
Great! So leave Babylon
And follow God back to the holy city that you claim to love!
And with a gulp and a gasp these bold talkers shrink back and refuse.
In just a matter of seconds we found out that
Their confession was an empty one.
We’d say that they are “full of hot air”.
Paul knew the type:
Philippians 3:17-21 “Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”
Paul spoke of people who really just love this world.
• They may claim to be Christians.
• They may say they are citizens of heaven.
• But their attraction and devotion to the world tells a different story.
They are the type of people who will actually be disappointed
When Christ comes back and they see this world destroyed.
They will be among those in the world
Who are weeping and sobbing uncontrollably as Babylon falls.
Revelation 18:19 “And they threw dust on their heads and were crying out, weeping and mourning, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had ships at sea became rich by her wealth, for in one hour she has been laid waste!’”
DO YOU SEE WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT?
• It is one thing to walk around in this world and call yourself a Christian and say you are citizen of heaven,
• But what you do on the day God calls you to forsake this world and cling to Him is a much more telling story.
Luke 17:26-33 “And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. “It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. “It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. “On that day, the one who is on the housetop and whose goods are in the house must not go down to take them out; and likewise the one who is in the field must not turn back. “Remember Lot’s wife. “Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.”
There will be so many, even who claimed to be citizens of heaven,
Who will prove otherwise when the Lord comes to save His own.
THAT IS THE PROBLEM WE SEE HERE.
• They glory in the name “Jew” as though they love that city Jerusalem
• And they love to wear t-shirts that say, “Trust God!”
But when God tells them to leave and go to that city, they say, “No.”
The description God gives of them in verse 1 is totally fitting.
(1) “Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are named Israel And who came forth from the loins of Judah, Who swear by the name of the LORD And invoke the God of Israel, But not in truth nor in righteousness.”
I want to flesh this one out a little bit,
Because the way God names them is totally revealing.
He starts by saying, “Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are named Israel”
Now let’s pause there for a moment.
THIS IS A TELLING TITLE.
We have studied Genesis, you are familiar with Jacob.
You know that God changed his name to Israel.
You know the story of Jacob is one of salvation and sanctification.
Jacob’s name meant “heel holder” or “supplanter”
• It spoke of his birth in which he held Esau’s heal.
• It spoke of his corruption and scheming in which he secured the birthright and the blessing.
“Jacob” is a name that speaks of one who fights for himself
And uses his wits and schemes to get what he wants,
And we saw that out of Jacob in his youth.
But you’ll remember that God sent Jacob to Laban university where Jacob was taken down a notch or two.
• Deceived about his wife
• Constantly having his wages changed
• He got out-foxed by Laban at every turn
• Until finally Jacob had to tuck tale and run
The problem was that as Jacob ran from Laban he ran right into Esau
And he wasn’t sure how to win that battle.
That is the night that God approached Jacob
God wanted Jacob to trust in Him and surrender
And to let God fight for him.
Jacob didn’t want to give up that control so God crippled Jacob
So that he could not fight and Jacob had to submit to God.
He starts out wrestling and he ends up begging.
That day God started calling him “Israel” which means “God prevails”
So God, in a sense, changed his name
From “I prevail” to “God prevails”.
We learned of a man who was worldly and self-sufficient,
Whom God broke down and changed into a man of faith.
So it is interesting here how God addresses these people.
He says, “Here this, O house of Jacob, who are named Israel.”
That is to say, “I know what you are called, I know what name you are going by, but I can tell you who you are acting like.”
You call yourself Israel, but right now, you are a Jacob.
God could confidently say, “I’ve seen this attitude before.”
AND THAT’S NOT ALL.
God continues by saying, “And who came forth form the loins of Judah”
Well there is another great reminder!
Having studied Genesis, you know who the uncontested worst son of Jacob was; it was Judah.
• It was Judah who had the idea to sell Joseph.
• It was Judah who raised sons so corrupt that God killed them.
• It was Judah who wronged his son’s widow by refusing her a husband.
• It was Judah who slept with his daughter-in-law thinking she was a harlot.
JUDAH WAS A THUG.
But, like Jacob, God did a work in Judah’s heart
To save him and even to make him the family patriarch
And from his line would come Jesus, the Messiah.
But to be called “Judah” is not a flattering title.
It is a reminder of rebellion and deceit and corruption.
And God has now dropped that title too.
You call yourself Jews.
You call yourself Israel.
You are Jacob and Judah if I’ve ever seen it before.
AND WE COULD ASK:
What do you mean we are Jacob and Judah?
(1b) You are those “who swear by the name of the LORD And invoke the God of Israel, but not in truth nor in righteousness.”
That is to say:
• You are corrupt liars, phonies, fakes, and frauds.
• You are hypocrites.
You take the name.
You swear by My name.
You claim to be Mine.
BUT YOU AREN’T!
That is a harsh indictment from God.
He is confronting these people who claim to be God’s people,
But when the day of deliverance came
And the opportunity to leave Babylon presented itself,
They rejected and proved their true colors.
Your confession and your commitment is
“not in truth nor in righteousness”
In fact, down in verse 4 God will say about them:
• “Because I know that you are obstinate, And your neck is an iron sinew
And your forehead bronze”
Down in verse 8 God will say,
• “Because I knew that you would deal very treacherously; And you have
been called a rebel from birth.”
THESE PEOPLE AREN’T WHAT THEY CLAIMED.
AND WE KNOW IT BECAUSE
When God asked them to forsake the world and to grab hold of salvation,
THEY REFUSED.
Do you see the hypocrisy in that?
Do you see the phoniness there?
CHURCH, we can’t help but do a little SELF-EVALUATION here.
We can’t help but do a little personal testing.
I really think that the church in America
Should be more diligent in testing this
Than perhaps any other church in the world.
Because unlike most of our brethren around the world
We actually possess the things of this world.
When Jesus warned the disciples that
“it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven”
I think every citizen of America should pay attention here.
There are so many things here that we are prone to love.
And so many things that we are prone to protect.
And look, I’M NOT trying to insinuate that you should have nothing.
But what is IMPORTANT TO TEST
Is where you think your real inheritance is.
We are bombarded in this country with that prosperity gospel
• Which will continually tell you to have your “best life now”
• And that God wants you to be wealthy, healthy, and happy.
But that is NOT at all what Jesus taught.
• He told us NOT to get too attached to our stuff here.
• He told us NOT to hold too tightly to worldly wealth.
• He told us NOT to put our trust in what we own.
TURN TO: Psalms 49:10-20
Do you see that all of this worldly security is nothing but a mirage?
• Just because a man gets rich and buys up a bunch of land, so what.
• What a horrible trade for eternity.
Should we revisit the rich man who used to live in luxury as compared to the poor beggar Lazarus who used to sit at his gate?
• Should we remember that in a moment that man left comfort for an eternal inheritance of torture and pain?
Should we remember the farmer who tore down his barns to build bigger ones so he could hoard all his wealth and live in ease and comfort?
• Should we remember that that very night his life was required and he never enjoyed a second of it?
Should we talk about Achan?
• Who forfeited the inheritance of the land of Promise so that he could obtain a few trinkets of treasure which God had forbidden for him to have and in the process lost his life and cost his family their lives as well?
Or let’s talk about Asaph,
• Who was momentarily carried away and captivated by the wealth of the world
• He nearly even renounced his faith in order to obtain it.
TURN TO: Psalms 73
YOU SEE THE POINT DON’T YOU.
We must to make sure that our confession is not an empty one
And that even though we like to call ourselves “Christians”
That our hearts are not secretly in love with Babylon.
Paul told Timothy:
1 Timothy 6:17-19 “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.”
THAT IS CERTAINLY SOLID COUNSEL.
You may be “rich in this present world” and if you live in America,
I’m going to tell you the odds are good.
If so, the warning is clear.
• Do “not be conceited”
• Do not “fix your hope on the uncertainty of riches”
• “do good”
• “be rich in good works”
• “be generous”
• “be ready to share”
Quit focusing on your earthly treasure
And set your mind on your eternal treasure.
Do you know why none of the Jews in Babylon wanted to go to Jerusalem?
• Because all of their treasure was in Babylon.
• It would cost them greatly to leave it all behind in order to go to Jerusalem.
Jesus told us:
Luke 12:33-34 “Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
THAT IS THE ENCOURAGEMENT.
We’ve certainly got more to say in regard to these Jews in Babylon,
But it is fitting for us to take the example of their failure
And learn from it this morning.
What is your treasure?
Where is your heart?
On the day when God calls you to leave Babylon
Will your heart rejoice, or will it resist?
That is what we are dealing with.
But let me also leave you with a message of hope.
Even these Jews, whom God is frustrated with for their hypocrisy,
I want you to know that His invitation still stands.
We’ll get there tonight, but I want you to see this morning
That He has not written them off.
Look down at verses 17-22
“Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, Who leads you in the way you should go. “If only you had paid attention to My commandments! Then your well-being would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea. “Your descendants would have been like the sand, And your offspring like its grains; Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from My presence.” Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! Declare with the sound of joyful shouting, proclaim this, Send it out to the end of the earth; Say, “The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob.” They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts. He made the water flow out of the rock for them; He split the rock and the water gushed forth. “There is no peace for the wicked,” says the LORD.”
God still promises that
If they will leave this world behind and follow Him home,
That they will not thirst and they will have peace.
Church, you can trust Him.
Hebrews 13:12-14 “So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.”
