Inspiration in Isaiah: Woe!

I had to chuckle as I wrote the title of this morning’s sermon: “Woe!” It occurred to me that this is a little different from the philosophy of ministry that says we should speak to people’s felt needs, and show them how the Bible and a relationship with God can help them with the practical aspects of their lives. Who feels the need to have the word “woe!” pronounced over them? But this is what happens when you take your cues from Scripture, rather than from the culture. If God sets the agenda, rather than the immediate and felt needs of the congregation, then we will sometimes have to hear the words of woe. I have always been impressed by Paul’s statement to the elders in Ephesus, when he told them that he had preached the “whole will of God” to them (Acts 20:27). That’s my desire, too, even when it gets us into some pretty heavy stuff like this.

I also hesitated to preach this passage on Fathers’ Day, because it sounded pretty negative, and I generally do not want to pound fathers any farther down in the mud than the culture already puts them. (Have you noticed that the portrayals of fathers in the popular culture are not very positive? Father Knows Best has been replaced by Homer Simpson). But I decided to go ahead and tackle this passage today because I think fathers have an inordinate amount of influence on the direction the society goes, and we as dads need to pay attention to the blinking yellow warning lights God has put up for us here in Isaiah. God is our loving heavenly Father, and like any good father, He cares enough about us to tell us where we are going astray.

So let’s look at God’s warnings to His people 2,700 years ago in ancient Israel and Judah, and see what they might have to say to us.

A. The sin Isaiah 5:8; Leviticus 25:23; Micah 2:2; Proverbs 30:8-9; Heb 13:5; Col 3:5

Isaiah spoke to the people in a time of prosperity, much like we enjoy here in the U.S. today. Adding house to house was the practice of building on to an original smaller house to make a mansion. Plus, they kept buying up adjacent fields until their house was alone in the middle of a huge plot. The Old Testament Law said, Leviticus 25:23, “The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine (God’s) and you are but aliens and my tenants.” God’s intention was that the land would remain in each family, as an inheritance for succeeding generations, as a way to sustain them. But in Isaiah’s day, land speculation was rampant, and it was being sold permanently. Micah, a contemporary of Isaiah, said, Micah 2:2, “They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud a man of his home, a fellowman of his inheritance.” It sounds a lot like today, with developers and cities fighting over farmland, and legislative battles over eminent domain.

The root sin here is greed: wanting more than we have, and more specifically, wanting more than we need. Proverbs 30:8-9 reflects the biblical value of contentment: “… give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. [9] Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.”

How many of us would pray that prayer? “God, please don’t make me rich.” I think we in America have lost our ability to say, “Enough”. How big a house do you need? How many cars do you need? How many pairs of shoes is enough? How many dresses? How many pairs of earrings? How many guns? How many tools? How many fishing rods? I know many of the younger people who are interested in outdoor sports are “gear-poor”; they spend all their money on very expensive gear to really enjoy the outdoors. How much is enough? If you can’t answer that question, or if the answer is always, “A little more than I have now,” you have a problem. As a culture, we do not understand people who can be content with what they have, who choose to have less when they could have more. But this is exactly what the Scripture teaches: Hebrews 13:5, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have…”

Why is it so much easier to see those who have more than we do than it is to see those who have less? I look at the really expensive homes around town, and I think, boy, that’s beautiful. It’s impressive how much beauty money can buy. I feel the tug, just like anyone else. Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a place like that? I don’t even see the really small, modest homes in downtown Loveland, or the squalid apartment complexes scattered around town. Why is it so much easier to feel covetousness than contentment?

Col. 3:5 says, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” Here is the root problem with greed: it amounts to idolatry. We have made the things we want into idols; we have put them first in our affections, and concluded that God is not enough for us. We want Him, sure, but we also want more stuff. And that stuff has become our god. Ask yourself this question: God plus what would make me happy?” If you have to have something in addition to God to be happy, you have a problem of idolatry.[1]

[10] A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath of wine, (that’s not much wine for that large a vineyard)

a homer of seed only an ephah of grain." (homer = 10 ephahs; so the yield is only 10% of what was planted.)

This was a prophecy of the coming Babylonian captivity, when the big houses would be abandoned, and the untended fields would become unproductive. I’m not going to speculate on what God’s judgment on America might be, but we are every bit as greedy as the ancient Israelites, even though we have a great deal more than they did. We have a huge and prosperous middle class, and very few of us are content with the abundance we have. If God judged Judah for their greed, why shouldn’t He judge us?

You know you have a drinking problem if you get up in the morning and need a drink. If you drink to overcome a hangover, you are in trouble. In the same way, people who habitually stay up late drinking until they are drunk have a problem as well.

The Bible does not require abstinence from alcohol, though that is not a bad plan for anyone. But the Bible is quite clear that drunkenness is wrong. Let’s just look at one Old Testament and one New Testament passage:

· Proverbs 20:1, “ Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise.”

What is the real problem here? Both of these passages hint at the fact that alcohol puts us under the control of something other than the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit increases our ability to control ourselves, to live disciplined lives, within the guidelines that are good for us. This is the point of Ephes. 5:18, which goes on, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.” Alcohol impairs our ability to control our own lives, and if we let it, it will completely control us, causing us to do and say things that we would never do or say when we were sober. It leads to debauchery, a generally depraved, corrupt, partying lifestyle. They drink too much, they party with music and food, and in the course of it all, they lose sight of God.

It’s easy to condemn the “party-hardy” crowd, but the larger issue here is self-indulgence. It’s an attitude that always yields to the cravings of the sinful nature, and of our bodies, whether those cravings are good for us or not. I found self-indulgence ads online for spas, resorts, gourmet food, jewelry, aromatherapy, perfume, massage, etc. All of these encourage you to indulge yourself with their product or service. And there are all sorts of rationalizations and justifications: it’s a good investment to buy expensive things that will last; you’ll feel better about yourself; you deserve it; you should reward yourself for dealing with the hard things in your life, or just for being you; it shows your good taste; etc. In my own life, it is absolutely amazing to me how my mind can come up with reasons to indulge my sweet tooth. I say I’m going to cut back, to restrict my desserts to something reasonable, but then there is this reason, and that excuse, and the other special occasion, and the next thing you know I’m just living from one dessert to the next.

Why is this wrong? Our culture raises the question seriously: what is wrong with indulging ourselves? The first thing I would say is that there is nothing wrong with it –at times. An occasional indulgence can be a wonderful treat, refreshing for body and soul. The problem comes when we make indulgence our lifestyle. In that case, I can think of at least two reasons why it’s a bad idea.

One is, over-indulgence typically isn’t good for us. Too much alcohol or rich food tends to have negative consequences. It destroys our liver, or our families, or our health, or our jobs, etc. A constant lifestyle of physical indulgence also makes us soft; it convinces us life ought to be this way, so we are not emotionally prepared for the difficulties and hardships that inevitably come to us all. Proverbs 25:28, “Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.” We become defenseless against the challenges and tough things in life, we are at the mercy of temptations, because we have not strengthened our will to say No to our appetites.

The second reason why we ought not constantly yield to the desire for indulgence is that it tends to draw our attention away from God. That was the point in Is 5:12, “they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord, no respect for the work of his hands.” Self-indulgence puts us at the center of our attention, and leaves no room for God. You can either be self-centered or God-centered, but not both. Self-indulgence is self-worship, and that leaves God out. How can we be fully available to God if we are so busy pampering ourselves, giving in to our every craving? We can’t even hear God call us to a different lifestyle, or a difficult place, because that would mean giving up the pleasures we have come to expect as our rights.

The Christians in Corinth were living in the midst of a very self-indulgent society, much like ours. In 1 Cor. 6:12 Paul quotes the current saying in Corinth, and then rebuts it: "’Everything is permissible for me’—but not everything is beneficial. ‘Everything is permissible for me,’—but I will not be mastered by anything.” So here we have two responses to the self-indulgent philosophy: on the one hand, not everything we may want to indulge in is good for us. Some of it is actually bad for us in excess. And the other thing is that Jesus should be our only Master. We don’t want to be under the control of our appetites; we want to be in control of them. So that we will be free to do the things God wants us to do. So we say no to our appetites in order to say yes to God.

for lack of understanding; ---part of this lack of understanding no doubt came from the fact that they got drunk a lot, and dulled their minds.

and their masses will be parched with thirst. –they were indulging themselves, but they will be impoverished and die of starvation. God’s justice is always precisely designed to fit the sin.

and opens its mouth without limit; --They gave in to their appetites, but they would feed the appetite of the grave.

God is the Judge of all the earth. He will not let sin go unpunished. His judgment highlights His righteousness and justice .

These people take sin with them wherever they go, like a little child with a pull toy. Moreover, they boast in their sin; they revel in it, daring God to punish them. Perhaps you’ve heard people express this same attitude when they said, “If there’s a God, let Him strike me with lightning right now.”

I had an incident in our neighborhood some time ago in which I think I encountered some people with this brazen attitude. I was heading west on 22^nd St., and wanted to turn south on our street, Dotsero. Some teenagers were walking west across the intersection, and when they saw me wanting to turn there, they deliberately slowed down to a crawl, just to make me wait. It really seemed to me that they were flaunting their sins of selfishness and insensitivity and rudeness. When I said something to them, they mocked me with vulgarities and the universal sign of displeasure. I think God may feel toward brazen sinners some of what I felt toward those teens, and I pity anyone who has to face His judgment. Isaiah says, “woe to them.”

Very similar to the brazen sinners are the re-namers. These people do not apologize for their sin; they just rename it and call it something good.

The most flagrant example of this that I can think of is the homosexual lobby that insists their perversion is not sin, but a good thing. The Scripture calls homosexual behavior a detestable perversion (Lev 20:13; Rom 1:27), but somehow, people have managed to twist that into saying that God approves of it.

· we admit our selfishness, but we don’t call it that – we say it’s the self-love Jesus approved when He said we were to love our neighbor as ourselves.

On the other hand, qualities that God approves are said to be bad, such as being able to discriminate between good and evil, or between truth and falsehood; our society tells us all discrimination is bad. An appreciation for absolute truth is said to be intolerance of people with other views. A desire to share the good news of God’s salvation with Jews is seen as anti-Semitism. Sexual purity before marriage is thought of as unhealthy sexual inhibition.

We are a society of renamers. Because we are so arrogant as to believe that we are wiser than God.

What needs to be said about this? We know people like this, don’t we? Are we ever like that? Are we so pleased with ourselves that we can’t see the truth about ourselves? Do we get a bigger kick out of our jokes than anyone else? Do we ever look down on others because they are not as smart as we are, or as attractive, or as rich, or as athletic? We make jokes about people who begin to believe their own press releases, but do we do that in our minds? Woe to those who cannot see the validity of another point of view, who always think they are right.

The Bible everywhere exhorts us to be humble, because this is the proper attitude for one who lives in a relationship with Almighty God. God is God, and we are not. God is all wise; God is all knowing; God is so wise that His foolishness is wiser than the wisdom of man. So we should humble ourselves under His mighty hand, and shut our mouths.[2]

The first part of this woe seems to echo verse 11 about those who drink too much. But the second part focuses in on a particular sin that may be common among those who drink too much: injustice. Few of us are actually in a position to acquit people, or to deny them justice in a court of law, but I wonder if the sin here doesn’t extend to our dealings with people in other realms of life. How eager are we for justice if it means the other person comes out ahead? If we are stopped for speeding, do we plead with the officer to write us a ticket, because we know we were guilty, and we want to see the laws of the land upheld?

We read of the New York police officers who carried out murderous hits for the mob, and the influence peddling that goes on in Washington, corrupting both political parties. We see high-profile criminals getting off scot-free while black men are incarcerated at a much higher rate than their proportion of the population. I think that the U.S. has a pretty decent justice system, especially compared to the rest of the world, but it is not perfect. The point here is that God is just, and He loves justice, and when we do not see justice done throughout our land, He is displeased. Woe to those who promote injustice.

God’s judgment is not random, it is not arbitrary; it is a direct response of His righteousness and holiness to the sin of man. The root problem in all sin is in the end of v.24: “they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.” Sin is an insult to God. That’s the bottom line. And God’s response is in v.25: Therefore the Lord's anger burns against his people; his hand is raised and he strikes them down.

The Jews were inclined to say that because they were the chosen people of God, no evil would befall them. No matter how bad they were, no matter how far they strayed from God, they would always be His chosen people, and He would protect and provide for them. We hear people today saying that since they cannot lose their salvation, it doesn’t matter how they live. This totally misses the point that God’s judgment is inevitable and just on every sin. You may be saved, but that doesn’t mean you are immune to God’s judgment through the natural consequences of your actions. If we, like the Israelites, “reject the law of the Lord Almighty, and spurn the word of the Holy One,” we can be sure that, as Isaiah said, His “anger will burn against us, His hand will be raised and He will strike us down.” This kind of justice is built into the very fabric of the world.

In response to their sin, God destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C., and the southern kingdom of Judah in 586 B.C. What is to prevent this from happening to the U.S.? Why should God spare the United States a similar fate when we are guilty of so many of the same sins that ancient Israel and Judah were guilty of?

Surely we should repent and return to the Lord. Isaiah says elsewhere, Isaiah 55:6-7

This is the wonderfully merciful and gracious God we have: He holds us responsible for our actions, but He is eager to forgive when we call on Him in sincere repentance. Oh that God would break our hearts over our sin, and bring us as His people, and us as a nation, to that point of humility before Him. Here are the sins God condemned in His people through Isaiah. Let’s come to Him and repent of any of these that He finds in us.

[1]Both abundance and poverty can be challenging, but many of us have to deal with abundance more than the lack of necessities. Certainly it is more fun, more comfortable, to have plenty, but it can also be dangerous to our souls, because we begin to take that for granted, we trust in our wealth to get us out of difficult situations and pave the way for us in life, and we don’t have to trust in God nearly as much as those who are struggling financially. This verse in Isaiah is a warning to us: beware the spiritual dangers of wealth. Having more seldom makes us content—it often just feeds the greed that wants still more.

[2] Eccles. 5:2, “God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.”