Dr. John Oswalt, Isaiah, Session 28 -- Isaiah 58-59

[Music] [Applause] this is dr. John Oswalt and his teaching on the book of Isaiah this is session number 28 Isaiah chapter 58 and 59 let's pray together father we thank you for this evening we thank you again for your word we thank you again for your spirit we thank you that you have given us your light to shine upon our paths and we pray that you will help us to recognize what that light is pointing out of good and evil and that you'll help us to learn to receive to apply and to live in your name we pray amen we're looking at chapters 58 and 59 tonight and they are part of this section that I have called righteousness the character of servanthood by the way there are some former study guide sheets back on the little counter back there and in particular there are several of the first lesson with an outline and background and so forth so if you need to fill out your collection check it out there otherwise they go in the trash so be aware to that so that's chapters 56 to 66 last week I pointed out to you that it appears that these chapters are arranged as a chiasm a chiasm is parallel structure so you have a b c d e d prime c prime B Prime and a prime so this last section parallels this first section the second section is parallel each other the third each other the fourth each other and the fifth stands alone by itself at the apex of the triangle the top of the ladder a reason for doing this is if you didn't have this section you might miss the point why is God doing what he is doing as we'll see tonight in chapter 59 verses 16 to 21 and 63 1 to 6 why is the light shining as a result of the Messiah's work ah it is in order that the world might know so we don't lose focus on what this is all about what this is in aid of we also don't lose focus on the problem how can God's light shine out to a lost world given the fact that in and of ourselves we are incapable of being righteous and again that point is made again don't believe that you in yourself can be a righteous person it's a gift a gift from God but it's a necessary gift don't believe that simply because you can't it doesn't matter no God has in fact done his work on our behalf in order that his light can shine out of us and can shine to the world so we're looking we looked last week at chapters 56 and 57 this opening section on righteous foreigners and then the first statement about the unrighteous Judeans we're continuing tonight then to talk about 58 and 59 the rest of Part B and Part C next week we're going to cover all of this 63 through 66 because in many ways it's repetitive of what we've already talked about then on our last night we'll come back and talk about chapters 60 through 62 the climax of the process okay so tonight chapters 58 and 59 cry aloud do not hold back lift up your voice like a trumpet declare to my people their transgression to the house of Jacob their sins yet they seek me daily they delight to know my ways as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God they ask of me righteous judgments they delight to draw near to God now what's the problem here hypocrisy Mel says their heart condition so what are they doing outwardly all right they're talking the talk but they're not walking the walk mm-hmm the forms of religion they seek me daily they delight to know my ways they ask of me righteous judgment they delight to draw near to God well what pastor wouldn't want to have a church full of those people all right all right okay they're not really worshiping God they're not really seeking him for himself mm-hmm I think that's all right but I see those words and they they concern me I seek the Lord daily I'd like to know his ways as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the mish pot of their God we've talked about this many times said again the word mish pot can be translated as order carried off the marker often translated justice or judgment or judgments and all of those are correct there's nothing wrong with them but it's just not big enough God's divine order for life God's divine order for existence and that involves legal justice but it involves more than that so in order to I think to answer the question how are they forsaking the mish pot of God we have to go on to the next verses why have we fasted and you see it not why have we afflicted ourselves and you take no knowledge of it why are they fasting according to those two sentences they want to get God's attention don't they we want you to see that we have fasted we want you to take knowledge of the fact that we've afflicted ourselves they are doing to get exactly I mentioned in the background that the Bible is kind of ambivalent about fasting there's only one place that it is commanded and that is on the Day of Atonement when you are supposed to afflict yourself and interesting that that's the word that's used it's not they don't have a there's no Hebrew word that means fast its afflict yourself they are supposed to afflict themselves in repentance for all of the unintentional sins they've committed during the previous year so it is an act of sorrow it's an act of repentance it's an act of regret in Joel 1:13 it's not commanded but it's urged again as an expression of national repentance a locust plague has come down upon them and they're urged to repent and to fast excuse me to repent and fast Nehemiah fasted and prayed when he heard the horrible news that the walls of Jerusalem were still in ruins after a hundred years so when fasting is done it is always intended to be an expression of repentance but I think much of the time fasting is practiced in order to get something out of God in the demon-possessed man after they came down from the mountain the mountain of Transfiguration the disciples are trying to cast out the demon and they can't do it Jesus does and afterwards they say why couldn't we cast him out interestingly there is a textual problem the King James says this kind only comes out by fasting and prayer the oldest manuscripts say this kind only comes out by prayer now I think I know why fasting got into later manuscripts because clearly Jesus is not talking about a one-time prayer meeting maybe the disciples didn't pray the first time they tried to cast the demon out I guarantee you they prayed the second time they tried to cast him out I think what Jesus is saying is this kind only comes out as a result of an enduring spiritual life spiritual strength and I think fasting then comes into later manuscripts to make that point clear that this is something that has to be over time and so I think that's what's going on in that passage but it's an interesting one so we get a key about their fasting in the next verses in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure and depress all your workers behold you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high now my question is do you think that's really why they fasted in order to quarrel and fight and hit with a wicked fist what what's going on here what's he talking about conflict within the church possibly but but notice he says in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure and oppress all your workers okay okay because I have been super religious therefore I can do with my workers whatever I want oh I think it does I think they do feel they're close to God and Isaiah's saying no you're not well I think I think one possibility is that we've got Semitic hyperbole here that in fact you're being unkind to your workers and Isaiah says that's like having a fistfight with him again he's I think maybe going to extremes to try to make his point you're fasting in order that you can mistreat your workers and feel okay about it in fact what you're fasting for is to fight with people I think that's I think that's what's going on here that that he is expressing the true outcome of their fasting in very extreme kinds of language yes I gave up more chocolate than you did exactly exactly I think that's I think that's exactly the point and he's using this strong language to try to make that point clear and I think that goes back then to verse two as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the mishpokhe of their God well the divine order of God is we live our whole lives as a reflection of him not just our religious life but our whole life and I think that's that's the point then that's being made in those first two verses is oh yes they are seeking God they want to have a wonderful religious experience what's the matter with you why can't you clean the house better than this you don't see the connection [Music] some people were partying yeah yeah yeah yes to show that in doing that real fasting allows God's love to do the work to others and therefore fasting really is an act of God's love it allows you to come out you are not involved in it at all your nature is suppressed with fasting and therefore your acts become really acts of love yes yes yes I think I think there's there's some truth in that I think that the key point is this thing fasting is an expression of repentance and you folks are clearly not repenting of anything you're just trying to get God to bless you and because you're trying to manipulate God it's okay to manipulate the people who work for you yes yes I'm a good Jew and God has delivered us from captivity because we're Jews not for any other reason and I'm gonna practice my Jewish religion and and God says you've missed the whole point haven't you sure sure yep well we don't know for sure you know we've got we've got this four hundred years between Malachi and Matthew and more than that Matthew is probably about 65 or 70 AD but between the old and new Testament between Malachi and the coming of Christ we know a little bit about the political situation which was pretty horrendous the the last hundred years or 150 years they had a kingdom but it was an incredibly corrupt kingdom and the priesthood was equally corrupt assassinations buying and selling the priesthood the whole everything during this time and it's probably during the last hundred and fifty years from 150 BC until the time of Christ we're told that there were as many as 80 different sects of Judaism sort of like how many political parties are there in France and it's sort of the same deal every ten people have their own sect well the dominant sect well maybe shouldn't say that the the the three dominant sects were the Sadducees who were basically the elite they were the ones who were running the show the priests the high priests were part of the Sadducees and the Pharisees I'll say more about that in a minute and the zealots the zealots are a political group who are determined to wipe out the Romans and restore the kingdom that they had had which Kingdom was such a mess that both parties invited the Romans to come in and help them out which the Romans were happy to do but you know here we are you don't understand how the Romans got here do you but we're gonna get rid of them so you got those three are probably the largest three groups and interestingly that you've got at least one of them in the disciples Simon the zealot but the Pharisees are saying and again I'm confident that Jesus was all over them because they were so close to the kingdom Jesus has very little to say to the Sadducees these are the power elite who are using religion for their own purposes never mind them but the Pharisees Jesus is all over them and you remember that 3,000 Pharisees were converted in the early days of Acts so these are people who are saying we understand why we went into captivity we went into captivity because we broke the law well we're not going to do that anymore we are gonna keep God's law we're gonna keep it perfectly even down to tithing the in our cupboards there's a sense in which Jesus says that's all well and good but you're simply using that to puff yourselves remember Jesus story about the Pharisee and the tax collector in the temple I thank God that I am not as this tax collector so yes what what's going on with the Pharisees is this same sort of thing 400 years later so what kind of a fast does God want verse 5 well and then verse 6 he basically says what he doesn't want in verse 5 he wants it to be about others yes yeah Matthew 25 yes yes if you want to stop eating fine give your food to the hungry what why would I do that if you want to stop doing something stop beating up your workers yes the the whole purpose is others fasting tends to focus on me and you remember Jesus talked about fasting and when he said you know you you fast and you put flat black on your cheeks so they look Hollow and you really look hungry and people say oh my isn't he righteous Jesus says if your gonna fast go into a closet and don't let anybody know what you're doing this isn't about you but again I would want to say genuine fasting in the Bible is about repentance so it hasn't rained for three months well let's call a fast so God we're not gonna eat for four for two days so you've got to send us rain God says why well we're afflicting ourselves well that's nice why are you doing that what to get you to send rain is it possible that God is not sending rain because we are so oppressive of the poor around us no no no no no no no God we're afflicting ourselves to make you do what we want God says if you want to afflict yourself afflict yourself for the sake of others not in order to get something out of me so loose the bonds of wickedness undo the straps of the yoke let the oppressed go free break every yoke share your bread with the hungry bring the homeless poor into your house when you see the net could cover him do not hide yourself from your own flesh now you get the feeling that Jesus has been reading Isaiah when did we see you naked when did we see you in prison when did we see you hungry now why is right treatment of others especially those weaker than we so important to Yahweh and why is this such a big deal the reason why he came for all of us okay the downtrodden are an expression of our sin okay I agree with you 100% I'd like to push it though why is love for others so important to God why is it inseparable we're made in His image relationships pardon the first commandment yes yes and I want to know why why is my treating somebody kindly doing something for Jesus all right he loved us first I'm still gonna push you why does he identify himself with the poorest yes yes I think that's it they can't pay you back this is free this is Grace and God is all about grace if I do something for you you can and will pay me back and God says where's the merit in that but when we do things for those who cannot pass back we are demonstrating the grace of God and God is all about grace so when we do that according to verse 8 what will happen let's list them what happens number 1 light yes light will shine out of us healing all right what else righteousness you will be right he'll hear you'll hear well that's what we do what he does for us is and he picks this up again in 10 B 11 and 12 he will guide you he'll make your bones strong you'll be like a watered garden the ruins will be rebuilt you'll be called a repairer of the breach restorer of the streets yes precisely precisely when you try to manipulate God to get him to meet your needs it's not gonna work he will not be manipulated but when you lay aside your needs and seek to meet the needs of others God says here Kat so all these things that they are longing for they're crying out for and we're going to see next week in in 63 through 64 especially they're really they're really on God God why aren't you you know here we are we're back in the land and the prophets have made all these promises where are you what are you doing why aren't you blessing us and God says you don't get it do you it is when you live out my righteous life that you receive as a gift all these things you've been trying to manipulate God to get but God seek first the kingdom yeah yeah Dale yeah and I think I think God sir grins at that if you'll do what I want you to do even for less than the best motives I'm for you and I think probably all of us have experienced that in our life when we have when we have indeed been faithful maybe not for the best motives but nevertheless we were really going out for others God's willing to meet us halfway uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh Jean is saying that there comes a time when we really have to ask am i doing this for others or am i doing it for myself and that's that's a test and God brings that time yeah yeah so I think that's that's still a vitally important question am I really doing this for love of God and and this goes back to something that again I hope might sound vaguely familiar to you Genesis chapter 2 and Genesis chapter 3 I need wisdom I need beauty I need pleasure my friend the snake says God doesn't want to give him to me and in many ways the great crisis of life is to surrender my needs into God's hands and to say the best things in life that I get for myself are deadly and the least things that I get from Yahweh are endless blessings this is where they the battle has to be fought for every one of us Lord Jesus I surrender my needs into your hands and I allow you to meet them your way now again much of the time he's going to use our abilities he's going to use our gifts but everything has changed when we say Lord Jesus let's do it your way and I won't run ahead of you I'll and again maybe this is marginally familiar to you I'll wait for your way and that's what Genesis chapter 12 is all about there is nothing spiritual about a piece of land especially under your fingernails there is nothing spiritual about a baby especially with a full diaper at 2:00 in the morning and reputation we're supposed to give that up aren't we but God comes to Abraham and says Abraham I know what you want would you let me give you those things and all the angels held their breath all of time and eternity hung on a pinpoint at that moment will he say yes will he allow God to meet his needs or will he say no no I can meet my needs better than you can I'm afraid of you I don't trust you you're not for me my friend the snake has told me all this and Abraham said okay and all the Angels went he pitied there's hope there's hope so a long long answer but critically important to the whole biblical message who supplies my needs yes that's right oh no no and if if I'm implying that I don't want to I want to say God you determine what my needs are and you fulfill them your way and if you determine that all I need is nothing and to die that's better than my saying no I'm going to take care of it myself thank you thank you yes yes yes I'm I do not want to say yes we obey God in order for him to meet our needs no I'm saying we surrender our needs into God's hands allow him to decide what our real needs are and to fulfill them in his way yes thank you thank you so all of that coming out of your question Dale yes I think I think that if indeed in the end I am simply seeing the poor as it means to the end of my blessing I'm not seeing them as God sees them God sees people as ends not means and you and I have to see them that way too but God is as I've said it in various ways God has very little pride he'll often take us on the on the most questionable of Macy's he doesn't plan to leave us there but you know I think the classic example of that is Jacob good grief this guy's a crook double-dyed crook lays his head on a rock out in the middle of the wilderness and God shows up and says Jacob I want to bless you it's a good thing I wasn't God at that moment Jacob wouldn't wake up the next morning but God says Jacob I'm willing to take you on any basis to start with to start with those who go to the Nicholasville church may hear more of this in a couple of weeks okay oh yeah now look at look at verses 13 and 14 he says quit fasting let's start doing what keeping the Sabbath wait a minute why would they be more likely to fast than to keep the Sabbath okay I think that's the right answer she thinks they were making money on the Sabbath yes sabbath-keeping was real deprivation if you quit working on the Sabbath that's one seventh of your income down the drain so it's very interesting throughout the profits you find them attacking sacrifices ritual worship and demanding Sabbath keeping because to keep the Sabbath is genuinely costly and I think it's very interesting that these two which one would think are quite similar are in fact treated very oppositely all right let's push on chapter 59 verses 1 through 15 a some of the bleakest bleakest passages in the whole Bible the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save nor his ear dull that it cannot hear but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God your sins have hidden his face from you so that he doesn't hear your hands are defiled with blood your fingers with iniquity your lips have spoken lies your tongue utters wickedness no one heir to suit justly no one goes to law honestly they rely on empty pleas they speak lies they can see mischief and give birth to iniquity Wow but we're God's people so it doesn't matter how we live we're the elect they hatch adders eggs they weave the spider's web he who eats their eggs dies from one that has crushed a Viper is hatched their webs will not serve as clothing men will not cover themselves with what they make their works are works of iniquity and deeds of violence are in their hands that's an ugly list yes yes now again some of you know how I feel about television how many billions are spent in TV production and what is produced they hatch adders eggs they weave the spider's web he who eats their eggs dies from one that his crushed a Viper is hatched their webs will not serve as clothing men will not cover themselves with what they make their works our works of iniquity and deeds of violence are in their hands Wow what is being produced with this huge huge expenditure of time and energy and money I'll leave that there feet run to evil their Swift to shed innocent blood their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity desolation and destruction are in their highways the way of Shalom they do not know there is no mish pot justice in their paths they have made their roads crooked no one who treads on them knows Shalom therefore mishpokhe justice is far from us righteousness doesn't overtake us we hope for light and behold darkness for brightness but we walk in gloom we grope for the wall like the blind we grope like those who have no eyes we stumble at noon as in Twilight among those in full vigor we're like dead men we all growl like bears we moan and moan like doves we hope for mishpokhe justice but there is none for salvation but it's far from us for our transgressions are multiplied before you our sins testify against us our transgressions are with us we know our iniquities transgressing and denying the Lord turning back from following our God speaking oppression and revolt conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words justices turned back righteousness stands afar off truth has stumbled in the public squares uprightness cannot enter truth is lacking he who departs from evil makes himself a prey woe inability to do righteousness here's what we are called to be here's what we are required to be here's what the world needs and we're not doing it now I think God did this on purpose right in the middle of the verse verse 15 you shift gears the Lord saw it and it displeased him that there was no justice he saw that there was no man wondered that there was no one to intercede then his own arm brought him salvation and his righteousness upheld him he put on righteousness as a breastplate a helmet of salvation on his head paul was reading isaiah wasn't he he put on garments of vengeance for clothing he wrapped himself in a zeal as a cloak according to their deeds so will he repay wrath to his adversaries repayment to his enemies to the coastlands he'll render repayment so they'll fear the name of the Lord from the West his glory from the rising of the Sun he'll come like a rushing stream which the wind of the Lord drives a redeemer will come to Zion to those in Jacob who do what repent of their rebellion their transgression so we are unable to be righteous there is no light in us there is no healing in us there is no righteousness in us there's no justice in us God doesn't hear our cries what's to be done now what's the answer here the Redeemer the Messiah the warrior righteousness as his breastplate helmet of salvation on his head garments of vengeance for clothing in other words righteousness is required somebody read chapter 56 verse 1 nice and loud okay do righteousness keep justice no ifs no ands no buts why because I'm coming and I'm going to display my righteousness righteousness is required so that the world may know we speak as the Judeans can't produce righteousness the warrior comes now who's he fighting they're back from captivity they're back from battling who's he fighting what's the enemy of these people their sins yes yes the warrior comes to defeat their sins and enable them to be righteous they've got a repent of their own attempts to be righteous in themselves and allow him to do it in them and it's no accident that chapter 60 begins arise shine for your light has come and the glory of the lord has risen upon you there is no one who can do this for them no one who can do this by themselves but he comes to do it now one last thing and I'll let you go here look at verse 16 what is it that brings salvation his own arm alright now let's go back to chapter 53 verse 1 yeah and you're ahead of me who has believed what they heard from us to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed yes there in 53 it's a spindly little thing seems helpless now here in 59 it is a 27 inch bicep now it's the warrior who's come there in 53 God in his weakness takes the sin of the world into himself and gives back love now as he comes to attack sin in us he comes as the warrior to enable us to be these things that he expects this is where unfortunately evangelical theology has gotten off the track in much of North America and that is no we can't be righteous and we're never expected to be righteous because God looks at us through Jesus coloured glasses and thinks we're righteous even when we aren't and I want to say that's not biblical does God declare us innocent on the basis of Jesus sacrifice yes he does bless His Holy Name and does he expect us to continue in sin so that grace may abound it's it's fun to see all the different ways that translators try to get Paul's point is there in Romans chapter 6 god forbid may it never be let it not be so I think a really contemporary version would say no way man of course not yes he declares us innocent on the basis of the cross all the soup [Music] [Applause] this is dr. John Oswalt and his teaching on the book of Isaiah this is session number 28 Isaiah chapter 58 and 59 [Music]

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Keywords: Isaiah, Isaiah 58-59, John Oswalt, Francis Asbury Society, biblicalelearning.org, Ted Hildebrandt

Id: ciI5NjL_ZYU

Length: 62min 22sec (3742 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 25 2018