Day #199

Sermon - Audio
Isaiah 18-22 - Audio
Isaiah 18-22 - Reading

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Daily Reading: Isaiah 18-22

Isaiah 18

18.2 “Isaiah overhears the world's response to emergency—securing its position, or trying to, through political alliance with formidable human power. (ESV)”

18.7 These same people who are punished for their sin are now bringing their gifts to the LORD almighty. The whole of human history looks toward this end and the glorification of God.

Isaiah 19

19.18 The reference to the “City of the Sun” is significant. Ra (the sun God of Egypt) was considered their high god. This city built for a pagan god is now swearing allegiance to the LORD Almighty.

19.21 Here again, the Egyptians (which had been the object of wrath) are now worship the Lord. God's promises to Israel were not meant for a single people group, but for all peoples nations and tribes.

19.22 Notice how judgment and grace are combined here. It seems that Egypt needed “plagues” in order to turn to the LORD.

19.25 Emphasis that the LORD calls Egypt “my people.” This doesn't come to a surprise to us since we know that the LORD is the father of all. But it still might strike our ears oddly to hear God saying to the people of Iraq or Afghanistan “Blessed be Iraq my people, Afghanistan my handiwork...”

Isaiah 20

20.1-2 Not uncommon for a prophet, Isaiah first acts out something to increase the effect of the prophesy. He tears off his outer garments and walks around barefoot. This was to show how Egypt and Cush would be treated by the conquering Assyrians. The people of Judah thought that alliances with these countries would save them. They were wrong. Isaiah asks, “How then shall we escape?”

Isaiah 21

21.9 These verses would have great rhetorical effect. Babylon is a world superpower. It might read like this, “America has fallen, has fallen! The white house and the monuments lie shattered on the ground!” It acts as a sobering reminder to people who put faith in the world's superpowers. Military or economic strength do not ultimately have control in the fate of the world. The LORD is king and far more permanent than any nation, no matter how strong.

Isaiah 22

22.1 Before this point, the people of Judah may have been feeling safe. They like the idea of their God beating up on all the foreign nations. But then suddenly the prophet says essentially, “from the very land I stand in now and see these vissions.” In fact, you might notice the longest chapter of judgment is reserved for Judah...and also the harshest language.

22.11 This verse is the crux of the chapter. The saddest moment. The people of Judah looked in the wrong place for their salvation. They tried to save themselves by their own means, not cry out to God for their deliverance.

22.12-13 These verses point forward to “The Great Day of the LORD” which will come up again and again. According to Zephaniah 1.15-16 it will be a “day will be a day of wrath—a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness—a day of trumpet and battle cry.” In other words: not a happy day. The same sort of language gets applied to the final judgment in the book of Revelation (and of Jesus talk of the Day of the Lord in Luke 17). These words apply to both. A profess described the Final Judgment in terms of a mountain range. As you drive toward a mountain range, the only mountain you can see is the “big one.” But as you get closer, you realize that there are smaller mountains leading up to the big mountain. The fall/judgment of Israel is one of the smaller mountains that anticipates the final judgment.

22.13 This scene shows up (in all places) in the 90s movie Independence Day. You recall that the alien ships come, and perhaps with them the end of the world. And what do some people do? They party, getting drunk on rooftops despite the seriousness of their situation. “It's the end of the world as we know it....and I feel fine.” The LORD does not seem to be impressed. More appropriate would have been weeping, wailing, and repentance (symbolic of putting on sackcloth). Even now, the passage hints, the LORD would show mercy to Judah if there were only repentant.