Isaiah, Chapter 14
Isaiah 14:24-27 · Vern Peterman · Apr 23, 2006
Isaiah, No. 17
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262349596149

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

anniversary of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. And I wanted to bring it up, not just to be odd, but that actually is a day of special happy memories for me. Now, first of all, I'm not that old, so you can, but it's a day of happy memories for this reason.

It was on that day in the middle of that earthquake that a Bible study leader put her armor on my grandmother and said, Eva, today, are you ready to take Jesus as your Savior? And as the waves were rolling and the land outside looked like the ocean waves, she said, yes. Anyway, that was one thing.

The other thing is two weeks from today, we'll be having kind of something special. And I wanted to let you know there are a couple of conditions that are necessary for your attendance at that service. two weeks from today, okay? Now, this is unusual. We usually don't have this sort of thing, but just so you know, those in attendance must be either male or female, okay?

So just, that's one of the requirements. So anyway, we'll hope to see you then, and we can talk more about what's included. All right, now, back to our Isaiah passage. That requirement is not necessary right now, however, so nobody need leave. This is not Isaiah for dummies, just so you know. We are indeed taking an in-depth look at the passage, so we're not doing that. What we'll be doing is, as we typically do, starting off with a summary of the chapter and then delving into the specific passage. Alright, so we're pulling our way through.

Isaiah 14 is from part of the book of Isaiah, chapter 13 on through another substantial section. that addresses the Gentile nations that are in the vicinity around the people of Israel, the land that the Lord had given to the Jews. God had used these nations to deal with His people Israel and then was also turning around and dealing with each of the Gentile nations in turn. So it's, okay, pagan Gentile nation, I'm going to use you to deal with My people Israel But I'm also going to hold you responsible for your own decisions and your own acts. The Lord would hold them in direct accountability for their spiritual state, for their moral state. There were times when the Lord directly sent message to them. An example of that would be the prophet Jonah prior to the time of Isaiah.

Now, just so you have, and you have this on page one of your chart, if you're visiting with us here, here's the page number. that is on your hand out there. We're here. We're right after chapter 13 in this section. So it's God's warnings to Judah's neighbors. I realize that the printing is sideways. So just turn your head 90 degrees and then go get a neck massage.

OK, now pulling through the chapter again here, the first 28 verses tells about the ultimate restoration of the Jews to their land, that they ultimately would be restored to their own land and the downfall of Babylon from its prideful position. So both of those themes carry through that passage.

Verses 12 through 14 particularly seem to focus upon and describe an overlay of satanic influence with the king of Babylon. This is the modern site of Babylon. You see some partial reconstruction that was done under Saddam Hussein. Aside from that reconstruction, which really didn't put any people there, but just rebuilt some of the buildings, the place looks otherwise fairly deserted and desolate.

Now, in verses 24 through 27, that'll be our focal point passage today, it speaks about an overthrow of the power of Assyria. but in doing so reveals a number of things about the character of God and the way that God deals with us. We'll obviously take a look at that in more detail.

The prophecies in verses 28 through 32, the last four verses, deal with the Philistine people, the people of Philistia. Here are the Philistines, if you look at a map of Israel here. The Philistines were a group of people that were among a number of people that Joshua and during the period of the judges they dealt with and last mentioned in the scripture in the Zechariah 9 5 through 17 this is the valley where David slew Goliath and Goliath of Gath was a Philistine just so you get some sense of the fall not only would it be the end of Goliath, but this prophecy shows the end of the Philistine people. They're actually absorbed into the Jews, became non-existent as a separately identifiable people.

All right, now, and for those of you who are visiting, I realize we have some visitors who may need a little description. Feel free to see me afterwards or ask somebody next to you, what is this? Okay? This is all telling people that what we see next is a Hebrew poetry pattern, okay? Hebrew poetry pattern, that's the HPP there.

And what that means is in Hebrew poetry, they don't rhyme the sounds. When we sing the songs this morning, and as we will sing afterwards, we rhyme the sounds in our particular culture. Among the Jews, they didn't care if the sounds rhymed, they wanted the meanings to rhyme. They would restate things in such a way that the meanings rhymed. So, for example, this one, just to make it a little easier to see, Surely, just as I have intended, so it will happen, and just as I have planned, so it will stand. That's Hebrew poetry. Don't rhyme the sounds, rhyme the meaning. So you see a similar pattern carrying through to the rest of the passage. Basically, the entire passage is this Hebrew poetry pattern. Okay? All right. Pulling our way through. Now, I want to just make it clear. We always like to clarify here. I want to know what let you know what we don't mean by a Hebrew poetry pattern. Roses are red, violets are bluish. Since these verses rhyme, you know I'm not Jewish. That's not a Hebrew poetry pattern. What we're going to do is take this passage and divide it up. Hey, no laughing, that's against the rules. We'll take the passage and divide it up, the first two verses and then the second two verses. First two verses, verses 24 and 25.

First comes this phrase, the Lord of Hosts. It's one we've looked at before. The phrase could actually be translated, Lord of Armies, because that's the way that the word was often used. It is the Lord who is the head of a vast array of forces. The phrase was used commonly by Isaiah. He is one of the prophets who uses it frequently. And one of the things it conveys is the Lord is not one who comes by Himself, but by His own creation and by His authority. He has this vast army with Him as witness, and a vast army with massive forces. And just to get an idea, remember we studied Isaiah 6, 3, and 4, and I bring this to your attention for this point.

There was one seraph The multiple of that is seraphim, or plural, seraphim. There was one seraph who, in saying, holy, holy, holy, which we sang just this morning, in saying holy, holy, holy, said it in such a way that one seraph made the gates and the gate foundations rock. The whole place shook.

That's one. And does the Lord have a few of those? No. He's got a host. Massive armies. And notice, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. This pattern again we see. All right. This phrase, the Lord of hosts, wasn't used in the earliest parts of the Old Testament. Very interesting.

It was one that developed later. It developed after Joshua invaded the Canaanites. That's when the term showed up, the Lord of armies. It was most frequently hosts referred to vast numbers of angelic creatures. That's his intent here. Creatures that God made from the very beginning of creation.

Job 38.7 there refers to the angels singing in praise to the Lord's creation. God's ability to do whatever he has promised is not limited or ever in question. God is fully capable. He is the head of a vast array of his own creation, one of which would draw us in awe.

Remember that as we went through the book of Revelation several years back, at two points the angels had to stop John from worshipping them because John saw the angels and thought he was seeing God. And they said, no, wait a minute. You've got this out of proportion. God is the one you should be worshipping. I'm just a created being. And John was so in awe. by this created being, just one of them, that he was ready to worship.

That's how powerful a God we're talking about here. The Lord of Hosts, notice that the term is used again to kind of bookend the passage we're looking at here this morning. He has sworn in over a dozen places, this word pair occurs in scripture, Every case it is God is the one who has sworn. God is the one who has sworn, and it matters. When God says something, it matters. He holds to it. It makes a difference. God is shown in Scripture to be the promise maker and the promise keeper. He does not call on us to make the promises. He makes the promises. We're the ones who are to depend upon His promises. Big difference there. Okay. Now, this word saying, you could easily just pass over it. It might be just a word you sort of, you know, saying, okay, fine, let's go on to the next word. But it's important we take a look at it.

God is a God that communicates. God is a God who communicates to us. God is one who makes the effort and takes the initiative to communicate with us. And so, it's important that we look at this from the standpoint of recognizing it is a part of God's character. God isn't someone who creates everything, creates us, and then says, okay, you guess. No. This is a God, it's said, who communicates with us deliberately. All right.

What's He saying? God tells us in His Word who He is, who we were in Adam, and who we are in Christ. He tells us how all of us got here in the past and where we're headed in the future. We have all that told to us in Scripture. Those are things He's communicated. God tells us what's important and what's not important. God tells us the things that we couldn't know if He didn't take the initiative, make the effort on His own part to see to it that is revealed to us. He tells us what we need to know for hope and life and peace and everything else that the Lord has given to us out of His love.

Now, let's look at this word, surely, okay? And not that surely, a different surely. Yeah, okay. One thing that we have with what God says is certainty, and that's what this word underscores. God is a God of certainty. He's not a God who just throws some things out there and says, you figure it out. Or, how do you feel about it? No. God is a God of certainty.

He revealed truth to us with certainty. He did so with the intent that we really can understand what He has said with certainty. Here's some points. Here's the Gospel of John. Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Now, do you think He meant that truly or just a little bit? Or did He mean it truly, truly? Here's another one.

John 8.58, Jesus said to them, "'Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.'" When He says, "'Truly, truly,' I think He means truly, truly.

Now, Ephesians 5.5, which we studied not too many moons ago, "'For this you know with certainty.'" Those who are going through the first John elective are repeatedly running into this theme. John wants very much to have the people who are reading what he has written No, to know with certainty. You know, you know, you know.

He keeps harping on that theme. Knowing with certainty is not a small thing with God. It's a big thing. It's a very big thing. God's word revealed to us gives us certainty and a certain hope. Not an I hope so kind of hope, but a certain hope. Now we've got this word just as, which shows up a couple of times.

God's plans, God's intents, are not just something that sort of approximately turn out. You ever have somebody do something and you know it really didn't turn out exactly like they were intending, and they said, I meant to do that? That's not the way God does things. God doesn't do the, I meant to do that thing. Things turn out exactly just as, just as. As He intends, that's how it happens. He's not an approximate God. He's not a God of approximations. God is not saying that's close enough. They come to pass just as He intended and planned, exactly.

There's something, I think, in the way of a cultural insight that might be helpful as we look at this passage. In the ancient pagan cultures that were all around Judah, and this section of Isaiah addresses those cultures. It was believed that the pagan gods gathered around New Year's to make plans for the next year. And yeah, isn't that funny? Besides of which, that's also one of the reasons for some of our New Year's celebrations is supposed to make the gods happy with us or something. And so they'll make good plans for us. That's how a lot of the, in like the, for example, the Chinese New Year is based on that idea.

Although it's certainly gotten carried away into other things. But that was a common ancient pagan belief that the gods would gather together at New Year's to make those plans. They were viewed as gathering in the heavens, making these plans, and then carrying out the powers through these astrological emanations and powers, the powers of the sun, the moon, the stars, and all those beings, serving the god's purpose. That's lowercase g with a multiple plural on there.

But none of these gods really was enough by themselves to control everything. None of these gods could really dictate everything that was about to come to pass. None of the gods had control over the entire earth. They tended to have some domain or realm that they were in charge of.

So what we see here in Isaiah is unique. The people that Isaiah is talking to were not hearing just another one of the pagan religions that were out there. It was instead an almighty God who stood above all else. A God who knew and could determine everything that was going to happen, even, not just a year in advance, but centuries in advance. A God who could tell you what was going to take place. A God who could control things. A God who never says, oops. And that's really important. Beyond this, this was a God who could make a promise and keep it.

This was a God uniquely and different from the pagan gods that loved, loved the people. The pagan gods would only be interested if you did something that got their attention. Something that said, okay, you do something for me and I'll do something for you. You had to do something first in order to get their favor. This God loved you. while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

God is the one in Scripture who takes the initiative, not us trying to get His attention. The God of Scripture would love humans and even care about being faithful to a promise He made to one person. Let me show the picture of Abraham and Isaac. The Lord has held to His promises to Abraham even now, and is even now fulfilling them, and still will yet fulfill some more. The sun and the moon and the stars, the planets, don't control our lives.

That's what scripture spells out. And it says that God had made those to mark time and to give light. Genesis 1. That's why they were given. Not to control us. Not so we can read the horoscope page on the newspaper and figure out how we're supposed to live our life the next day and hope they didn't have a typo. Okay. Now, here is an example. For instance, here's Psalm 89, 5 through 8.

The heavens will praise your wonders, O Lord, not control us. Your faithfulness also in the assembly of the holy ones, the angels. For who in the skies is comparable to the Lord? It isn't a gathering of gods and they're all at the same level. The Lord is incomparable. There is no match for Him. Finishing it off again with your faithfulness also surrounds you.

God is eternally unequaled and ever Now, this Assyria, to break Assyria, Assyria was both the people God would use to discipline Israel and the people God would hold accountable for their own actions, the Assyrian people for their own actions. Assyria's leaders had a crazy sense of their own importance. They were insanely proud of how cruel they were. We showed pictures a week or two ago, they would peel skin off people and put that on the walls inside their palaces as if that was something to be proud of and to show your children. They would do awful and cruel and horrible things and be very proud of what they had done. But look at here, the Lord says, I will break Assyria, this proud and cruel nation, in my land and on my mountains.

My land and my mountains is an interesting pattern. The Lord says, My land, My mountains, My people, My statutes, anything that has to do with His people who are chosen, He says that's Mine, but He gives it to them. The land of Israel, He says, is My land. Statutes, those are My statutes, but they're for you. Whatever the Lord has given to Israel, He calls My. The land and the mountains were elsewhere seen as Israel's, but here he says they're mine. The land and the mountains here were what the Lord had promised to Abraham and to Israel, more specifically. God repeatedly said, my, about the things he promised and gave to Israel. Now, how would God go about breaking and trampling, because that's what he says here, the Assyrians? These are the ones who are insanely proud of their cruelty. in the land and the mountains of Israel.

Guess what? We're going to have to wait until Isaiah 37 and 38 for the answer to that. Sorry. Okay. Now, but the Assyrians actually did confirm this and we'll take a look at this in more detail too. King Ahaz died about 715 BC and Isaiah 1428 says that the middle of this passage, the timing marker that says 715 BC is about this time this passage was written. In 701 BC, about 14 years later, the Lord fulfilled this prophecy miraculously, and we have here the Assyrian version of that fulfillment some 14 years later. So it was within Isaiah's lifetime and the lifetime of many of the people who heard Isaiah.

Okay, we'll see more of that in some weeks from now. Now, we've got this word yoke and broken here. We want to take a look at a pair of yokes here. So now, in biblical times, the idea of a yoke or a burden, they were both used as pictures of something that was oppressive. It doesn't matter whether you're talking about taxation, slavery, or rule of one people over another. Those were looked upon as a yoke and a burden repeatedly, old and even into the New Testament. Scripture repeatedly also pictures God as the one removing the yoke, removing the burden. God is the one who repeatedly takes it off. unloads it from us. Now, here's an example, Leviticus 26.

He told the Jews, I got you out of Egypt where you were slaves. I broke the bars of your yoke. That's what he spelled out to them. He broke the bars of the yoke when he took them out of Egypt. Here's Jeremiah. Thus says the Lord, even so I break within two full years the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. So this is after the time of Isaiah. He tells them again, I'm going to break the yoke of this nation who has you under enslavement.

The apostles called the Law of Moses a yoke. Here's the Law of Moses, and it's a yoke. And then they say, what's our consequence? We're going to put no greater burden. And it says, do not put God to the test. That's from Deuteronomy 6.16. So what are they saying? In Acts 15, they said, Putting the law on the Gentiles is breaking the law, because putting God to the test was against the law. So, the law was called a yoke, a yoke to be removed. God was the one who removed it.

Alright, now, the next part, the whole earth, all the nations. There are many nations who have at various times opposed Israel, and don't we see that happening right now, in our very day? All the nations around Israel today, They don't want to recognize Israel. They will take an oath to the death and the end of Israel.

They want it gone. The Lord says that there will come a time when He will put an end to all that. He will finish it off. He will end it all. Nations, by the way, here in the Greek Old Testament is ethnos, where we get our word, you know, ethnic and related words. Okay, for the Lord of hosts is plan, and who can frustrate it? And as for his outstretched hand, who can turn it back?

Scripture commonly makes a point about absolute or singular truth, that is, where there's one single answer, by asking questions of the reader. It's one of the things you'll notice both the Old and New Testament do that. The idea is to involve the reader in the thinking. Instead of just giving you the answers all the time, involve the reader in the thinking and arriving at the conclusion by asking a question instead. It makes things more personal. I think about it. It makes them more memorable because the thought processes have been initiated by each of us and it makes them more clear.

Remember this psalm passage here. What do we see right in the middle of it? Questions for a couple of verses there. Questions from the Lord. Why? to involve the reader, to make us think, to cause us to be involved, to make it more personal, to make it clear.

Now, here's a question from Romans 8.35. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? So what does he do? He doesn't just tell them the answer, he asks a question. And what's his reason for asking the question? He wants them to think. He wants them to be personally involved.

Now, to make the point here, I need to tell you something. Among us here at Holly Hills, we have a secret ninja. That's right. There's somebody here this morning who is a secret ninja. Are you ready? I found this out several decades ago, okay? And it's been kept a secret, but let me tell you how this got found out, okay? I found out that the whole ninja identity comes out if you try to tickle, okay?

There gets to be this kind of nuclear nunchucks with the elbows, you know, and this elbow karate thing going, and let me tell you, it'll tear your limb from limb. It'll cause parts to separate. And that's the reason, of course, for telling you about it.

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Nothing. Not even if you tickle Nancy. Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or swerve? Boy, am I going to get it. Answer. Nobody and nothing. Nobody or nothing will separate us from the love of God. Can't happen.

He asked the question not because He doesn't know the answer, but because He wants us to answer it in our own mind. Is there any answer to that question? Can anything separate us from the love of God? Can any circumstance, can any person? No. Revelation, the question is asked, who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?

The question is not asked because of ignorance. It isn't because they don't know what the answer is. The question is asked because the answer is emphatic, and it's absolute, and it's singular. That's why Scripture asks questions. So that's why we see in verse 27 the questions coming forth. Why? We need to think through that answer. It's absolute. It is singular. He wants us personally involved in the answer. He wants it to be clear.

As for His outstretched hand, who can turn it back? Scripture uses a figure of speech here about God's hand and the pattern is this. When God acts in the physical realm, even though he's a spiritual being, the figure is with, you know, with a hand and it speaks of God's hands. It doesn't mean that God's got this thing with, you know, five digits, but it means that God acts out of the spiritual realm into the physical realm.

That's what it's talking about. We went through this when we went through a passage in the Ephesians and Colossians study that talked about this. Things are made to reference to things made with hands or made without hands. And so there are examples of that. The work of God in the physical realm, such as creation, often spoken of as being done by God's hands, are called the work of his hands. And so as we go through these passages, and there are a number of them here, You have them also on page 5 of your handout. That figure of speech especially fits well here, because here is God's hand.

Who is He dealing with? Israel and the Gentiles. These are people who are blessed physically, earthly. They are people who are blessed in the earthly realm. Therefore, it is appropriate that God's hand is extended. We are blessed as believers in the church with every spiritual blessing, so we are blessed in things made without hands. That's the way scripture states it.

One thing that is clear here, God's determinations will stand. As human beings, we can do all kinds of things, make and plan all sorts of wonderful devices, but in the end, it's what God says and does that will come to pass. So what good does that do us right now? We could, of course, avoid planning something we know that isn't going to happen because God's told us it's not going to. But beyond that, the Lord has told us for the sake of comfort, and for the sake of peace, and for finding every confidence in Him.

So, you ask this question. Well, Vern, this is great. This has been nice to hear about Israel, you know, 2,700 years ago. They're a long ways away, you know, a long time ago. But we're in the church. How does this fit now? We're in Denver. What does this message have to do with us?

One of the things we presented in the Ephesians and Colossians study, and we have it repeated here for perhaps your benefit, is that there is, and we show it here with rings, there is God's sovereign and fixed will. There are things that God has put in place that are not going to change. That includes your position in Him. There is God's moral will in which we indeed have daily choices. There is an act, a living out from the life of Christ that the Lord desires in our lives. And finally, there are individual choices that we make that the Lord has not spelled out specifically, but the Lord desires that we make with wisdom. This passage primarily addresses this first one. What is God's sovereign will? What has God determined is going to be? What has God determined is going to be and nobody is going to thwart it? In Romans 8, 28, 29, God causes all things to work together for good. That's God's sovereignty.

We can make this choice or that. We can order the lobster or we can order the crab or something else if you're not fond of seafood, but regardless, of what choice we make, God makes His choices. Those whom He foreknew, He also predestined. God's predestination is not a scary thing, it's not a dreadful thing, to be conformed to the image of His Son. That's a good thing. That's something in which we can take comfort. Similar message in Ephesians chapter 1 here. In love He predestined us. We talked about what adoption of sons meant, and we won't have time to go into it, other than that it's a good thing.

Romans 12, 1 and 2, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is God's will, not sovereign will that He's already determined, but the will of God, what God desires for you. Or here's another one for Thessalonians, for this is the will of God, your sanctification. That is what God has ultimately set in place.

Now, the Lord is ever faithful. We can count on the Lord to remain faithful to what he has promised. Whatever he has said is going to come to pass, will happen. It will come to pass. God doesn't put any time limitations. The Lord doesn't say, yeah, but I promised that a few hundred years ago and time's up. No, the Lord continues to be faithful. The things that He has promised and predestined are things that will indeed come to pass, things that will happen.

It won't depend on the circumstances that we're in. It won't depend on the way things look. It will depend on things that He has determined. He's not only faithful about things in the future, but He's also faithful about things in the present. He's faithful right now.

Remember back when we studied, well, some of you might remember, Revelation? Here's what it said in Revelation 1.5. By the way, we studied that, I think it was about September or October of 2001, right after 9-11.

So, Revelation 1.5, and from Jesus Christ, this letter was written, the faithful witness, he is indeed faithful, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth, to him who loves us, God's faithfulness, His character, and one of the things we said about that, to Him who constantly is loving us. He is faithful in character because of who He is.

That's not going to change. And released us from our sins by His blood. So this is no yoke, okay? We do have yokes and burdens in this life. We do have things that we wrestle with. in the physical realm. There's no denying that. But, one of the things that we can take comfort in as Christians is they are not without purpose.

God has a purpose in what He did. Just as we look back at Isaiah describing what Assyria and Babylon would come and do to Judah, He did it for a reason. He didn't just say, I think I'll give them a hassle today just for fun, just to see what they do. He did it with purpose in mind, to correct them and bring them back. The things that we are going through have eternal purpose. They are not without end either.

Romans 8.18, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Revelation 21.4, right near the end of the New Testament, And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will no longer be any death, no longer be any mourning or crying or pain. What we go through, the hassles from big to small, all have purpose, and they're not forever. But they have a purpose forever.

1 Peter 5, 7 says, Casting all your care upon Him, no matter how big or strange it may seem, for He cares for you. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ here this morning, we can count on being with the Lord forever. When things are done here, we will always be with the Lord. He says, therefore, comfort one another with these words. Let's pray.

Lord, as we look at this passage, you are ever faithful to what you have promised to do. In a short period of time, you were faithful in Isaiah's day to fulfill what you said would happen to Assyria. And ultimately, you will be faithful to every single person to whom you've made a promise. Thank you, Lord, that you are the promise keeper, the promise maker, and we count and depend upon that. In Jesus' name.