Dwell in the Word: Isaiah 15:1-16:14

Think on these questions as you dwell in Isaiah 15:1-16:14:

1. What are the key indicators in the passage that reveal God's judgment upon Moab and their idolatrous practices? How does this relate to the broader theme of God's righteous judgment?

2. In what ways do the expressions of mourning, such as shaving heads, sackcloth, and wailing, illustrate the severity of God's judgment on Moab? What is the significance of these cultural practices in the context of judgment?

3. How does the passage convey the importance of seeking refuge in God and turning away from idolatry as a means to escape God's judgment? What lessons can we draw from this message about the nature of God's justice and mercy?

Transcript:

As we come to this passage, we again see another word judgment. These can be difficult. Because we just read a lot of text, I'm probably going to have limited commentary to keep this relatively short. But there's a few things that I wanted to speak about here. First thing that we see is this idea that he's gone up to the temple. The idea here is not that this the temple of the Lord, but this is pagan worship. Let's see here, as you probably know, a reference to the high places is a reference to pagan worship, male and actual worship, or whatever the God of the Moabites was, the false God of the Moabites was, they are filled with idolatry. We see here that there is also this idea of mourning. There is knowledge of the judgment that they are going to be feeling the pain of this because we see in verse two and verse three, typical expressions of grieving, mourning, mourning. And every head is baldness, and every beard is shorn. Shaving your head, shaving your faith is something that is connected to mourning. Also, we see this very common one in the Bible, the streets, they were sackcloth.

Then it even gets even more obvious as everyone, whales and melts and tears. They are feeling the difficulty that comes from the judgment of God. We see all these different statements here that you want to avoid judgment, if you want to come out of this, where does it lie? We see in verse 5 of chapter 16 that Steadfax's love will be expressed in the tent of David, in the people of God and the promises to the people of God through the family of David. That's where relief comes, right? That's where the hope is found. But we see here as we come to the end of this, there's these many statements of judgment, things like, There's going to be no song sung in the vineyards. There's going to be anyone in the wine presses. There's all this grieving. There's a difficulty that people of Moab are experiencing. This is the pain of judgment of God. We see in verse 12 that I have highlighted here, if you're watching on video, that when Moab presents himself, when he worries himself on the high places, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail. Notice again, we've come to the idea of this.

He is going to pray. He is doing it in the high places. He's doing it to be a false God. He worships. Once again, this punishment comes not only because of what they've done, because they're on dollar-challenging people starting at the top. He is the one who is doing this as well. And so we see here, Isaiah giving a more clear warning. This is the word that the Lord spoke concerning Moab in the past. Here's Isaiah saying, Hey, we've heard this story before. Then we see, but now the Lord has spoke. And so the idea here is that he's not a word of judgment towards Moab in the past, but now God is being clear in three years. Isaiah is saying, The time is at hand. Be ready. Prepare yourself. That's the idea of the Spirit of the Spirit. I'll probably bring this up over the coming, continuing oracles and statements of judgment that are coming. Perhaps again, and I know I've seen it before, these passages of judgment are difficult for us to read. It feels awesome, right? This is quite a few times where I've had to speak about the judgment that I say God is delivering.

It's a good reminder for us. God is a God who judges sin. Now, that's painful, right? But do we want a God who simply turns a blind eye, a God who is not holy, a God who does not punish evil? No, we don't want that either. It's nice as that might sound to our rebellious ears. Nobody truly wants that because we all know of some evil that we have seen or historical evil that we trust that God has punished or will punish. And so there is good news in this. God is righteous, that God is holy, and that he does, in fact, punish them. That, once again, must always drive us to the good news of the Gospel, that we know when we are in Christ, our rebellion, the punishment that we deserve, the wrath we deserve for our rebellion, has been poured out in Christ. God does not look the other way at our sin. Instead, he poured out his wrath for our sin, for our rebellion on the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that is the true game, is. May we read these oracles judgment and understand that we are idolaters. We are sinful people ourselves.

And so may we hear these judgments and say, By God's grace, He has delivered me from this wrath because he has given, he has poured that out on His grace. So may we not only rejoice in that, may that good news of his redemption be on our lips.