23/07/17 Isaiah 9:13-10:4 “If
you refuse God’s counsel, who else can you run to?”
Note the wording at the end of Isaiah 5:25 – Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his
people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten
them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases [were] torn in the
midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his
hand [is] stretched out still.
(This follows the same pattern as today’s passage.)
One commentary calls them “strophes”
which are associated with ancient Greek choral odes where the lines in each
strophe are of varying quantities.
Isaiah 9:13 – For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth
them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts.
The first five verses of this
“strophe” focused upon Israel (Ephraim and Samaria), and it is clear that the
rest of this “strophe” continues to focus upon Israel (which will cease to
exist as a viable nation in just over ten years’ time from this point in time).
turneth (not) unto – turn back; return; turn away from
evil; repent; convert. (translated “convert” in Isaiah 6:10)
For the people (nation) do not turn
back (convert; repent) to Him that smites (sends
judgment upon; punishes; destroys) them, nor
do they seek (enquire of; consult; care for) the Lord of hosts (Lord
Sabaoth).
God has brought judgment upon them
because of their evil, yet they do not repent and convert (turn back) to Him,
nor do they acknowledge that God is the supreme authority who is all-wise,
all-knowing (omniscient) because He is the Creator of all things in the
universe (and thus can rightfully claim the title of Lord over all, or Lord of
hosts – Lord of all things).
These are the people who have refused
to acknowledge that God has any right to bring judgment upon them. If He causes
their house to be broken down, they’ll just replace them bigger and better than
before. They just won’t be told what to do; they already “know” in their minds
exactly what they must do!
Isaiah 8:19 – And when they shall
say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that
peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living
to the dead?
Also note where they preferred
their counsel to come from.
2 Kings 17:13-18 – 13 Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah,
by all the prophets, [and by] all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your
evil ways, and keep my commandments [and] my statutes, according to all
the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants
the prophets. 14 Notwithstanding they would not hear, but
hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe
in the Lord their God. 15 And they rejected his statutes, and
his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he
testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went
after the heathen that [were] round about them, [concerning] whom
the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them. 16 And
they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten
images, [even] two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host
of heaven, and served Baal. 17 And they caused their sons and
their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments,
and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to
anger. 18 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and
removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.
Isaiah 9:14 – Therefore the Lord
will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.
Therefore, God will cut off (cut down; cause to fail; destroy) from Israel both head (rulers;
leaders) and tail (the lesser classes of society), branch (palm branch;
the top of the tree) and rush (bulrushes; that which grows around the bottom of the
tree) in one day. That is, not one class of
society will be exempt; all will be caught up in God’s judgment in that one
day.
It was the picture of the palm
tree with fronds at the top (branch) and bulrushes around the bottom which was
often in or near water.
Isaiah 9:15 – The ancient and
honourable, he [is] the head; and the prophet that teacheth
lies, he [is] the tail.
This appears to be a sarcastic
explanation of the head and tail of the previous verse. Those who belong to
ancient and “honourable” families are the head; an apt description of those who
were considered leaders in English society for many hundreds of years! They
ruled by right of ancestry, rather than ability!
And as for the prophet who merely
speaks the word of God as if he knows everything, well, he is contemptible! He
was the tail of society, the bottom level of the social ladder! Note Isaiah 6:9 – And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed,
but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
Of course, there was no shortage
of false prophets to tell the people what they wanted to hear, such as was said
when Ahab went to the battle where he lost his life (see 1 Kings 22).
However, Isaiah may have been
casting contempt on false prophets (and priests) – the religious leaders
of the day – for speaking of false visions and judgments.
Isaiah 28:7-8 – 7 But they also have erred through wine, and through strong
drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong
drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong
drink; they err in vision, they stumble [in] judgment. 8 For
all tables are full of vomit [and] filthiness, [so that there is] no
place [clean].
Isaiah 9:16 – For the leaders of
this people cause [them] to err; and [they that are] led of them [are]
destroyed.
In 2 Kings 15 to 17 we read of a
number of royal assassinations in Israel:
(a) Zachariah (after a reign of 6
months) was slain by Shallum (who reigned a “full month in Samaria”);
(b) Shallum was slain in turn by Menahem (who started off his 10 year reign by slaughtering
all the pregnant women, by ripping them open, in one area because they opposed
him);
(c) Pekahiah
(the son of Menahem) who reigned 2 years, was slain
by Pekah;
(d) Pekah
(after a reign of 20 years) was slain by Hoshea;
(e) Hoshea then died from reasons
unknown around the time of the mass deportation of Israel in 722 BC.
It was clearly a risky business to
be king of Israel in those days!
The leaders of the nation of
Israel were causing them to stray from God’s word, thus causing the destruction
of those who followed. In particular these false leaders would have included
the priests and other prophets (many of whom were falsely proclaiming the word
of God), thus causing the destruction of the nation by their false counsel.
Even the kings were bad examples through the worship of false gods.
Isaiah 9:17 – Therefore the Lord
shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their
fatherless and widows: for every one [is] an hypocrite and an evildoer,
and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his
anger is not turned away, but his hand [is] stretched out still.
As a result of this wicked
leadership, God cannot find any joy in the next generation of leaders to come, for
they don’t fear Him nor hope in His mercy.
Psalm 147:11 – The Lord taketh
pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.
Nor will He have mercy on the
orphans and widows, special classes of society that the law expressly required
their society to support.
Isaiah 1:17 – Learn to do well;
seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the
widow.
For all the young men, orphans and
widows are hypocrites (irreligious; godless; profane; blasphemers; impious) and evildoers (wicked;
cause injury or hurt), and all their mouths
speak folly (immorality; profanity;
blasphemy; villainy; lewdness). That is, they
are those who should be most thankful for the assistance that society gives
them, yet they are ungrateful, biting the hand that feeds them. Give an inch
and they’ll take a mile. They are unappreciative, and repay (in this case)
God’s goodness with profanity, impiety, blasphemy, immorality, and wickedness.
Isaiah 1:2 – Hear, O heavens, and
give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up
children, and they have rebelled against me.
And this judgment is not yet
sufficient to turn away God’s anger; His hand is still stretched out to send
yet more judgment (punishment) upon them.
Isaiah 9:18 – For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns,
and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up [like]
the lifting up of smoke.
For wickedness consumes people as
a fire consumes its fuel; wickedness is like a fire that devours the briers and
thorns (a picture of their sin – note the parable of the sower where the thorns
represent the cares of this world that choke the seed). Wickedness is like a wildfire
that kindles in the midst of the forest where it is very difficult to overcome.
Once wickedness takes hold of a person, it is very difficult, sometimes
impossible, to stop, and the same applies not just to individuals but to whole
nations, from head to toe, or from head to tail as seen in Vs 14 & 15.
Once the fire gets out of control,
the fire and smoke will roll up (billow upwards) as was noted well by myself on
Ash Wednesday, the smoke and fire pumping upward as if out of a huge steam
engine funnel.
Barnes – And they shall
mount up - The Hebrew word used here - יתאבכוּ
yit'abekû from אבך
'âbak - occurs nowhere else. The image is that
of a far-spreading, raging fire, sending columns of smoke to heaven. So, says
the prophet, is the rolling, raging, consuming fire of the sins of the nation
spreading over all classes of people in the land, and involving all in
widespread desolation.
Isaiah 9:19 – Through the wrath of
the Lord of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of
the fire: no man shall spare his brother.
darkened – burned up; scorched (although the exact meaning is
uncertain; Cambridge – “made to glow”; Pulpit – “burst up”) This Hebrew term is
used only once in the Bible. The idea seems to be that because of the extreme
anger of God, the land is “scorched earth”, levelled by fire, which probably
leads to being translated as “darkened” – a reasonable description of land
scorched black by fire.
And the people (the nation) will
be added as fuel to the conflagration. The population shall be consumed as if
by fire; no man shall take pity on even his brother; all others are competition
for what small amount of survival provisions are now left. It’s dog eat dog,
and even family and friends become enemies when there’s only enough food for a
fraction of the nation. No man will spare (have compassion on) his brother if
it might cost him his own life!
Isaiah 9:20 – And he shall snatch
on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they
shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:
And he shall snatch (cut off; divide; cut in two) on the right hand (or
right-hand side), and (yet) be hungry (fail in strength). He
shall eat (used for “devour” in Isaiah 9:18) on the left hand (or left-hand side) and not be satisfied (not be sated, that is, he will still feel hungry). Every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm. This could
be a spiritual or symbolic picture of destroying your own people around you, or
it could mean the actual gnawing on one’s own flesh to satisfy hunger.
Jeremiah spoke similar words to
Judah perhaps 100 years later.
Jeremiah 19:9 – And I will cause them
to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall
eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness,
wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.
Isaiah 9:21 – Manasseh, Ephraim;
and Ephraim, Manasseh: [and] they together [shall be] against
Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand [is] stretched
out still.
Manasseh and Ephraim were the two
sons of Joseph. The line of kings of Israel came from Ephraim. It is
interesting to note that Ephraim is not mentioned as a tribe in Revelation
7:5-8, with both Joseph and Manasseh being listed. Dan is also not mentioned in
the list in Revelation 7. Both Dan and Ephraim were considered to be apostate
tribes, Dan because of their idolatrous worship, and Ephraim because of their
wicked leadership of Israel.
In this verse, the two tribes of
Ephraim and Manasseh seem to have been fighting a kind of civil war, yet were
evidently united against a common foe: Judah. Similar happened in the last days
of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 AD when the two or three factions within the
walls would fight each other tooth and nail, yet combine at times when the
Romans got a bit too close to getting in. In Israel, the civil war is burning
well, yet they still had a common foe, Judah, who had to be defeated during
lulls in their infighting with each other.
And in spite of all this
destruction of their nation they just cannot bear to admit to God that they
need Him to help them sort out their problems. That would mean listening to and
being obedient to His counsel, and that just was not on the agenda!
Isaiah 10:1 – Woe unto them that
decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness [which] they have
prescribed;
which they have prescribed – continue to write; continually. That is, those who write
(and continue to write) grievousness.
The fourth of the 4 poem stanzas
(“strophes”). Woe to them that decree (draw up) unrighteous (wicked;
evil; idolatrous) decrees and who continue to
write (or decree) mischief (oppression). That is, woe to those who legislate
unrighteous laws and woe to them who continue to use those laws to oppress the
most vulnerable (the poor, the widows, the
fatherless – note the parable of the unjust judge).
The legal system of Israel (and
probably Judah as well) was being used to control the people and to generally
assist the upper classes to gain more at the expense of the lower classes. Isaiah
has already spoken of this injustice in the following:
Isaiah 1:23 – Thy princes [are] rebellious,
and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth
after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the
widow come unto them.
Isaiah 10:2 – To turn aside the
needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people,
that widows may be their prey, and [that] they may rob the fatherless!
turn aside – spread out; thrust away; thrust aside.
take away – tear away (usually with violence); rob; seize; plunder.
Thus, “To thrust to one side (with some energy or violence) the needy from judgment (who
plea for justice) and to take away (with violence; plunder)
the right from the poor, such that widows are their prey (shalal
– prey; spoils; booty) and that they might rob
(bazaz – plunder; seize with violence) the fatherless.” Note the sign: Maher–shalal–hash–baz
It’s so often the most vulnerable
who need the most protection from the law, and this should be the mandate
accepted by those who make and enact the laws of the nation. But, as already
noted as per Isaiah 1:23, it was these very people (the poor, in particular the
fatherless and the widows) who were being exploited for the sake of those who
already had enough but wanted more all the time.
One of God’s attributes is
justice, which basically means that all are treated equitably according to the
law. It is that justice that cannot allow sin to be made to disappear, for if
it exists and if it is an abomination to a holy God, then it must be dealt with
according to the law. Because the penalty is death, without distinction, for
all who sin, then only the payment of death may satisfy the law. Which is why
God (in the form of His Son) had to die to pay for the sins of the world,
because not one man was capable of satisfying the requirements of the law for
sin even for himself, except by his own death (which would be
counter-productive!).
But Israel and Judah were making
laws that unfairly discriminated against those who were the least able to
defend their rights to equitable justice, and the magistrates were enforcing
those same laws to the best advantage of those who already had more than
sufficient but always desired more than they had; they were never satisfied
with what they had, no matter how much they had. So, the system was unjust to
the extreme, and that was why God could not accept them like that.
Isaiah 10:3 – And what will ye do
in the day of visitation, and in the desolation [which] shall come from
far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?
visitation – oversight; custody; punishment. When accounts are called
in for perusal and settlement. A time of assessment and consequences. The day
of judgment.
desolation – devastation; ruin; waste.
glory – honour; abundance; riches; treasures; dignity;
splendour.
And what will you (the legislators and judges) do when it’s your turn for judgment? What will you
do when it’s your turn to face devastation and ruin? Who will be your
judge then? Who will you run to for help? Where will you hide all
your ill-gotten treasures, your abundance that was once your
glory?
What will you do when God comes to
judge you? Who can you turn to when God sits in judgment over you? Who else can
you blame for the devastation and ruin that will be yours when God passes
judgment upon you? Who can you run to for help; who will be your advocate, when
it is God who accuses you? And what will God do with all those things that you
once called your treasure and your glory? Where can you hide such riches such
that God cannot find them, nor touch them?
Basically, this is a statement of
having to sleep in the bed that you have made for yourself, as the saying goes.
You will reap what you sow (Galatians 6:7). Be aware that the so-called Golden
Rule – Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (see Luke 6:31) – is
not just a nice platitude, but a statement of fact: that the way you treat
others will be the way you will end up being treated by others!
Hosea 9:7 – The days of
visitation are come, the days of recompence are come;
Israel shall know [it]: the prophet [is] a fool, the spiritual
man [is] mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred. (Also see Isaiah 9:13)
Isaiah 10:4 – Without me they shall
bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all
this his anger is not turned away, but his hand [is] stretched out
still.
under the prisoners – probably under the condition of being prisoners.
“For without Me,” says God, “they will
be bowed down (subdued) as prisoners, and they will be those who fall as slain
persons.” That is, without God they will be either among the prisoners or among
the slain. They’ll be captives or they’ll be dead! Note the Edomites (Idumeans)
who were conquered by Judas Maccabeus around 163 BC, and then defeated again by
John Hyrcanus in around 125 BC and forced to either convert to Judaism or be
executed (according to Josephus). In spite of the pharisees opposing this, they
were eventually incorporated into the Jewish nation. (Note the problems this
caused, keeping in mind that Herod was an Idumean!)
If they choose to ignore or refuse
the counsel of God, then there are only these two options on offer: captivity
or death. And for Israel this happened in 722 BC where these were the only two
choices (except perhaps for those few who weren’t caught yet). Israel as a
nation went into captivity or died instead at this time. For Judah it would be
over a hundred years later, with their captivity commencing in 597 BC.
Yet, this still isn’t sufficient
to turn God’s anger away from them. Israel has never come back as a nation, and
Judah (with Benjamin) came back from Babylon only to become worse than before
such that by 70 AD God permitted Jerusalem and the temple to be destroyed and
the Jews scattered among the nations until now. It appears that God’s anger
will only be laid to rest when God’s people look upon Him who they have
pierced, and mourn.
Zechariah 12:10 – And I will pour upon
the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace
and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and
they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for [his]
only [son], and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in
bitterness for [his] firstborn.
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