Return To Him – Part 3
Isaiah 31-32 (32:9-13)
November 19, 2023
If you have been with us the past few weeks
You know that we are in the middle of a segment
That really can be described as AN INVITATION.
It started in chapter 30 with the ANNOUNCEMENT of God’s displeasure
• Over the fact that when Assyria threatened Judah,
• Instead of turning to God, they ran to Egypt.
Isaiah 30:1-2 “Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “Who execute a plan, but not Mine, And make an alliance, but not of My Spirit, In order to add sin to sin; Who proceed down to Egypt Without consulting Me, To take refuge in the safety of Pharaoh And to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!”
When God confronted them for this sinful decision through Isaiah,
The prophet was immediately told to put a sock in it.
Isaiah 30:10-11 “Who say to the seers, “You must not see visions”; And to the prophets, “You must not prophesy to us what is right, Speak to us pleasant words, Prophesy illusions. “Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
Ultimately God announced that because of their rebellion and rejection of His word JUDAH WOULD SUFFER GREATLY at the hands of Assyria.
And yet, despite their rebellion and despite God’s anger,
God has continued to hold out an invitation for His people
To repent and return to Him.
Isaiah 30:18 “Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.”
It is a remarkable truth about the God of the universe
That He prefers to be gracious and merciful to sinners.
We have likened this account to Luke’s parable of THE PRODIGAL SON
• In which a son abandons his father,
• Runs to a foreign land and falls headfirst into immorality
• And the consequences that come with it.
• However, when he comes to his senses and repents and returns
• His father is there to welcome him back with open arms.
THIS IS THE GOD WE SERVE.
And most recently in Isaiah
We have been reading His invitation to that prodigal son to come home.
In chapters 31-32 that INVITATION CONTINUES.
That is clearly seen in:
Isaiah 31:6 “Return to Him from whom you have deeply defected, O sons of Israel.”
God is calling his wayward people home.
Also coming to light in chapters 31 and 32 is THE SPECIFIC SIN that Judah has committed which has so greatly offended God.
You might say in these two chapters we see specifically
What Judah needed to repent of and return from.
And the answer is: DEFECTION
As we read in verse 6, they have “deeply defected” from God.
WE THEN WONDERED,
• What is defection?
• What does it look like when a person defects?
Certainly an account of full blown apostasy would be considered defection, but it is not always that drastic.
We want to know what God considers to be defection
So we can evaluate our lives
And see if we need to repent and return as well.
LAST SUNDAY MORNING we took our first look at defection.
#1 FAILURE TO TRUST”
Isaiah 31:1-32:8
(1) “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help And rely on horses, And trust in chariots because they are many And in horsemen because they are very strong, But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD!”
There we learned that the DEFECTION OF JUDAH WAS NOT seen in an abandonment of worship services or even in a stopping of sacrifices.
Judah did all of those things as chapter 1 one makes clear.
The defection of Judah was seen in the fact that
When things got difficult instead of seeking God
They sought worldly deliverers.
They chose to trust Egypt instead of God.
That is a form of defection.
It was a foolish decision on Judah’s part and therefore
God called those prodigals home to Him in repentance.
He even gave them promises
That if they would return to Him then He would send them a righteous King who would
• Remove their idols,
• Rout their enemy,
• Reign in righteousness,
• And restore discernment.
They needed to stop trusting men whom they could see
And start trusting the God they couldn’t see.
Their failure to trust God was a form of deep defection.
This morning we want to look at the second description of their defection.
#2 FAILURE TO TREMBLE
Isaiah 32:9-20
The first description could be seen as an outward defection,
For Israel outwardly approached Egypt instead of God.
This one is seen as an INWARD DEFECTION.
It runs similar to what Isaiah said earlier:
Isaiah 29:13 “Then the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,”
• We see here a defection of the heart.
• We see a defection of spirit.
LET’S EXAMINE IT.
A mouthful is said in verse 9:
“Rise up, you women who are at ease, And hear my voice; Give ear to my word, You complacent daughters.”
This sin was certainly not limited just to the women of Judah,
But they became the analogy.
In Isaiah’s day women were not tasked with the decisions of the nation.
• No one was asking their opinion.
• No one was looking to them.
As such, they could be seen almost oblivious to the danger at hand
And just continued on with life as though nothing was happening.
Isaiah is merely using them to describe people
Who are uninformed and unconcerned.
These women represent the entire nation.
And TWO WORDS here in verse 9 tell the tale for us.
1. “Rise up you women who are AT EASE”
2. “Give ear to my word, you COMPLACENT daughters.”
We’re going to learn = about defection as we examine those two words.
First “at ease”
It is the Hebrew word SHA – A – NON
It means “to secure”
• It is sometimes translated “undisturbed” (Isaiah 33:20)
• Or translated “arrogance” (Isaiah 37:29)
It is used in Scripture to describe
• A person who should be concerned,
• Even trembling over what they have done,
• But who has managed to convince themselves not to care.
For example: In the days of Zechariah,
• God’s people were heavily afflicted,
• But none of their surrounding nations seemed to care.
Zechariah 1:12-15 “Then the angel of the LORD said, “O LORD of hosts, how long will You have no compassion for Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which You have been indignant these seventy years?” The LORD answered the angel who was speaking with me with gracious words, comforting words. So the angel who was speaking with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and Zion. “But I am very angry with the nations who are at ease; for while I was only a little angry, they furthered the disaster.”
There you have God speaking about how much He cared for Zion
And how angry He was that none of the other nations did.
His people were being afflicted and everyone was just “at ease” with it.
• Did it not bother them that God was upset?
• Did it not concern them that God was offended?
• And the answer is: NO
Amos speaks of this mindset among the people of his day.
Amos 6:1-7 “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion And to those who feel secure in the mountain of Samaria, The distinguished men of the foremost of nations, To whom the house of Israel comes. Go over to Calneh and look, And go from there to Hamath the great, Then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are they better than these kingdoms, Or is their territory greater than yours? Do you put off the day of calamity, And would you bring near the seat of violence? Those who recline on beds of ivory And sprawl on their couches, And eat lambs from the flock And calves from the midst of the stall, Who improvise to the sound of the harp, And like David have composed songs for themselves, Who drink wine from sacrificial bowls While they anoint themselves with the finest of oils, Yet they have not grieved over the ruin of Joseph. Therefore, they will now go into exile at the head of the exiles, And the sprawlers’ banqueting will pass away.”
• The children of Israel who have greatly offended God.
• God has pronounced judgment,
• And they seem totally unbothered by it.
Job 12:5 “He who is at ease holds calamity in contempt, As prepared for those whose feet slip.”
In Isaiah’s day we have seen this same attitude.
Isaiah 22:12-14 “Therefore in that day the Lord GOD of hosts called you to weeping, to wailing, To shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth. Instead, there is gaiety and gladness, Killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, Eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.” But the LORD of hosts revealed Himself to me, “Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you Until you die,” says the Lord GOD of hosts.”
You should have been mourning, but instead you were partying.
Isaiah 28:14-15 “Therefore, hear the word of the LORD, O scoffers, Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem, Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, And with Sheol we have made a pact. The overwhelming scourge will not reach us when it passes by, For we have made falsehood our refuge and we have concealed ourselves with deception.”
People who have confidence that they have a plan
Which will allow them to escape the coming judgment of God.
YOU SEE THEN WHAT THE WORD IMPLIES.
It is people who have offended God by their behavior
Yet aren’t concerned in the least regarding what God might do about it.
• They don’t care that they have offended God.
• They don’t care that God is angry.
• They aren’t disturbed that God might retaliate.
• They are just living their lives “at ease”
AND THIS IS A FORM OF DEFECTION.
WE WOULD SEE IT TODAY in people who willfully do the things which God has forbidden without any care that God might be offended.
WE WOULD SEE IT TODAY in people who give hearty approval to people who do that which God has forbidden without care that God is offended.
Romans 1:32 “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.”
It is people who continually offend God and it doesn’t even bother them.
• They are “at ease”
• They are undisturbed
• They are arrogant
• This is to defect from God.
THE QUESTION IS:
How can a person say that they are walking in faithfulness to God
When you don’t hate what He hates or love what He loves?
Perhaps it will help you to see AN OPPOSITE EXAMPLE of being “at ease” with sin.
TURN TO: NUMBERS 25:1-13
• That is not a man who is “at ease” with sin.
• That is not a man who takes little concern whether God is offended.
• He was “jealous for his God”
And by the way, God loved him for that!
Psalms 106:28-31 “They joined themselves also to Baal-peor, And ate sacrifices offered to the dead. Thus they provoked Him to anger with their deeds, And the plague broke out among them. Then Phinehas stood up and interposed, And so the plague was stayed. And it was reckoned to him for righteousness, To all generations forever.”
God saved Phinehas for that act of faith!
OR HOW ABOUT THIS STORY?
• Remember when God told Saul to completely annihilate the Amalekites?
• Saul kept some animals alive and king Agag.
• Samuel confronted him for his failure to obey
• Saul argued…
1 Samuel 15:20-23 “Then Saul said to Samuel, “I did obey the voice of the LORD, and went on the mission on which the LORD sent me, and have brought back Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. “But the people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the choicest of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God at Gilgal.” Samuel said, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king.”
Saul didn’t care about what God cared about.
And he was totally unconcerned that he had disobeyed God.
Samuel then showed Saul what zeal for God looked like:
1 Samuel 15:32-33 “Then Samuel said, “Bring me Agag, the king of the Amalekites.” And Agag came to him cheerfully. And Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.” But Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel hewed Agag to pieces before the LORD at Gilgal.”
DO YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE?
WE LIVE IN A DAY WHERE
• Men sin and don’t even tremble about it anymore.
• God’s displeasure is preached a people aren’t even concerned.
• Men live in sin and people in the church give their approval to it.
Where is the fear of God?
Where is the trembling before the Holy One?
How can we be so “at ease” before God?
DO YOU SEE IT?
THAT IS DEFECTION!
It is a horrible apathy before Him.
We depart from His convictions, He is angry and brings judgment,
And we just keep going through life like there’s nothing wrong.
ISAIAH CONFRONTS THAT.
“Rise up you women who are at ease, and hear my voice;”
If they knew what they had done, they wouldn’t be sitting,
they’d be up and running!
But as it is, there is NO TREMBLING before God.
Isaiah is not finished.
“Give ear to my word, you complacent daughters.”
Here we look at the word “complacent”
It translates (BA-TACK) and it means “to trust; to feel safe; even to be careless”
YOU’VE SEEN THIS WORD A LOT.
Some of the most famous:
Psalms 118:9 “It is better to take refuge in the LORD Than to trust in princes.”
Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.”
It is used over and over in the Old Testament as it refers to
How we should respond to God.
• We should trust Him.
• We should feel safe in His care.
• We should be careless when we know our Good Shepherd is on the job.
It can be a word of TREMENDOUS ASSURANCE
When it is rightly focused on God.
HOWEVER:
It can also be a word USED OF FALSE ASSURANCE.
Isaiah 47:10 “You felt secure in your wickedness and said, ‘No one sees me,’ Your wisdom and your knowledge, they have deluded you; For you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one besides me.’”
Or as we read a moment ago:
Amos 6:1 “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion And to those who feel secure in the mountain of Samaria, The distinguished men of the foremost of nations, To whom the house of Israel comes.”
• We saw “at ease” a moment ago.
• There we also see the word BA-TACK – “feel secure”
And you see then the correlation between the two words.
People who fail to concern themselves with the judgment of God. Therefore, they feel secure, but it is a false assurance.
Proverbs 14:16 “A wise man is cautious and turns away from evil, But a fool is arrogant and careless.”
It can be a word that is used of a person who is most certainly not safe, though they feel like they are.
The King of Assyria warned Hezekiah against it:
2 Kings 18:9-20 “Then Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What is this confidence that you have? “You say (but they are only empty words), ‘I have counsel and strength for the war.’ Now on whom do you rely, that you have rebelled against me?”
You understand the problem here in Judah then.
• They had offended God.
• They were living in sin.
• God was angry.
• God had promised to judge them.
• But these people had somehow managed to put their head in the sand.
They didn’t tremble at the fact that they had offended God
And had deceived themselves into thinking that they were secure.
“I just sinned, but God won’t do anything about it.”
THIS IS FALSE ASSURANCE.
How often is false assurance addressed in the New Testament.
Do we remember John the Baptist?
Luke 3:7-9 “So he began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? “Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. “Indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
• You think you’re fine but you aren’t!
• You are in grave danger before God.
• The axe is at the root of the tree.
But because you are Abraham’s descendants you don’t think you have anything to worry about. Wrong!
Or do you remember this guy?
Luke 18:11-12 “The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’”
Jesus specifically said that that man was not justified before God,
But because he was religious he had convinced himself that he was safe.
Listen to Jesus confront this group:
John 8:21-24 “Then He said again to them, “I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.” So the Jews were saying, “Surely He will not kill Himself, will He, since He says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” And He was saying to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”
• Jesus emphatically told this group that they would die in their sins.
• That should have horrified them.
• But they didn’t hear a word of it.
• Instead they had a discussion about whether or not Jesus was going to commit suicide.
It never occurred to them that
The place He was going that they couldn’t come would be heaven.
TOTALLY OBLIVIOUS.
Certainly we all remember:
Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”
It’s a little more alarming for this group
Because they are on the other side of judgment.
Their false assurance is seen in how shocked they are at the verdict.
They can’t believe they aren’t acceptable.
They just knew they had done enough to warrant eternal life.
And how many even TODAY live under this same delusion?
• Our nation runs headfirst into sin.
• Our nation celebrates sin.
• We do those things which God has promised will bring His wrath.
But I can’t see that our nation trembles at all.
They are totally at ease in their celebration of immorality.
What is of much greater concern to me is that I can’t see that the church seems too concerned about it either.
• When did sexual immorality quit being an offense to God?
• When did greed and coveting quit being an offense to God?
• When did idolatry quit being an offense to God?
Paul wrote:
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.”
When did God change His mind about that?
HE HASN’T
But it would sure appear that the American church has.
OR CONSIDER:
Colossians 3:5-6 “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience,”
When did that verse become irrelevant?
All throughout Scripture God has promised wrath and judgment
For the very sins we see celebrated in our land.
And now we have reached the point
Where the church isn’t even concerned about it.
Even the church is “at ease”
Even the church is “complacent”
WHERE IS THE TREMBLING?
WHERE IS THE HORROR?
THIS IS DEFECTION FROM THE HEART OF GOD!
• It is defection in spirit
• It is defection in principle
Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
Romans 12:9 “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.”
Zechariah 8:16-17 “These are the things which you should do: speak the truth to one another; judge with truth and judgment for peace in your gates. ‘Also let none of you devise evil in your heart against another, and do not love perjury; for all these are what I hate,’ declares the LORD.”
You see listed throughout the Bible the things that God hates.
To be at ease or complacent about those things is a defection from God.
Imagine having a child that you raised in your home.
• You taught them principles and values.
• You taught them about integrity and what matters.
And then they go off to college and sit under some liberal professor and the next thing you know they go down a completely different path?
• They no longer believe in your principles.
• They no longer share your values.
• The things you believe are wrong, they believe are right.
• The things you believe are right, they believe are wrong.
Would you consider that a defection?
SO DOES GOD!
God calls His people to love what He loves and hate what He hates.
Listen to David, the man after God’s own heart.
Psalms 119:104 “From Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way.”
Psalms 119:113 “I hate those who are double-minded, But I love Your law.”
Psalms 119:128 “Therefore I esteem right all Your precepts concerning everything, I hate every false way.”
Psalms 119:163 “I hate and despise falsehood, But I love Your law.”
Psalms 139:21-24 “Do I not hate those who hate You, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with the utmost hatred; They have become my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.”
SURELY YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE.
To be “at ease” over sin and “complacent” regarding judgment
Is a defection from God and it won’t end well.
Well, Isaiah says that IT MAY NOT CONCERN YOU NOW,
But there is COMING A DAY IN WHICH IT WILL.
(10) “Within a year and a few days You will be troubled, O complacent daughters; For the vintage is ended, And the fruit gathering will not come.”
In a little less over a year, “You will be troubled”
“troubled” translates (RAW-GAZ)
It means “to quake” or “to quiver”
When God showed Habakkuk what was coming, he wrote:
Habakkuk 3:16 “I heard and my inward parts trembled, At the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, And in my place I tremble. Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, For the people to arise who will invade us.”
This is what God is promising here to break the apathy of His people.
We read about it earlier.
Isaiah 8:7-8 “Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the strong and abundant waters of the Euphrates, Even the king of Assyria and all his glory; And it will rise up over all its channels and go over all its banks. “Then it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through, It will reach even to the neck; And the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.”
God is going to send the Assyrians all the way through Judah.
They are going to sack town after town and village after village.
They are going to surround Jerusalem
And threaten the very existence of the people of God.
IT IS THE PUNISHMENT FOR DEFECTION.
AND WE SEE HOW AWFUL DEFECTION FROM GOD IS.
WE SEE HOW SERIOUS GOD TAKES IT.
HOWEVER…
GOD IS STILL MERCIFUL.
IT IS TRUE THAT His people have defected
They are prodigals in every sense of the word.
• They love what He hates…
• They ignore His warnings…
• They look for other saviors…
• And God must bring discipline.
But God still longs to save.
He is a merciful and gracious savior.
We read it again:
Isaiah 30:18 “Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.”
God is waiting for His people to turn from their sin and long for Him.
EARLIER when we saw that their defection was in their turning to Egypt
WE SAW THE INVITATION.
Isaiah 31:6 “Return to Him from whom you have deeply defected, O sons of Israel.”
Very simply, God told the prodigal to come home.
“Return to Him”
WELL NOW we see the other side of their defection and it is in regard to their sinful apathy toward sin.
So what is the invitation here?
(11-13) “Tremble, you women who are at ease; Be troubled, you complacent daughters; Strip, undress and put sackcloth on your waist, Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine, For the land of my people in which thorns and briars shall come up; Yea, for all the joyful houses and for the jubilant city.”
Do you see the words?
• “Tremble”
• “Be troubled”
• “put on sackcloth”
• “Beat your breasts”
WHAT DO WE CALL THAT?
REPENTANCE
Remember the tax collector in the temple?
Luke 18:13 “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’”
Remember the king of Nineveh after Jonah’s warning?
Jonah 3:6-9 “When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. He issued a proclamation and it said, “In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. “But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. “Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.”
This is what Isaiah is talking about.
It is time to repent and return.
It is time to confess your defection to God.
It is time to be motivated by the fear of judgment.
It is time to abandon your phony saviors and once again seek God.
It is time to abandon your sin and seek the mercy of God.
And the promise from God is that He will pardon.
• He will be gracious.
• He will show compassion.
• He will welcome home the prodigal.
BUT REPENTANCE AND RETURNING ARE REQUIRED.
