Dwell in the Word: Isaiah 30:18-33
Contemplate these questions as you dwell in Isaiah 30:18-33:
1. How does the passage emphasize the inseparable connection between the judgment of God and His grace, and what does this reveal about the nature of God's relationship with His people?
2. What are the consequences for the people when they turn away from their idolatry and return to God, as described in the passage? How does this demonstrate God's willingness to forgive and show mercy?
3. How does the imagery of a descending blow of God's arm and His wrath contrast with the earlier depiction of joy, gladness, and turning towards the Lord? What message does this send about the importance of repentance and God's response to it?
Transcript:
We might come to this and see the heading that the ESV puts on this, The Lord is gracious, and think that maybe we wouldn't have very much judgment language here. But we have been reading the Book of Isaiah, have we not? And we have seen this connection between the judgment of God and the grace of God. Now, this only makes sense to us, but it's easy for us to often separate the two right? That we see the judgment of God is something that He is going to do, that He is going to judge, He is going to maybe banish the evil or punish the evil. We also see the grace of God. We talk about that. We think about the judgment of God, of course, that we could have had that, but we know that we have been forgiven in Christ, that God is gracious. But we talk about grace apart from the judgment often, don't we? But we can't divorce those two. They are eternally wed together. We can't understand the grace of God without understanding the justice of God, the judgment of God. We see that in this passage that even though it talks about how God is gracious, it doesn't forget this judgment.
In fact, we have some of the most severe judgment language maybe that we've read here in these few verses that we've just taken in. We see at the beginning, verse 18, Therefore, the Lord waits to be gracious to you. God is a God who is gracious. He is sitting there and He wants to show favor and grace to His people. And what does it say? Therefore, he exalted Himself to show mercy to you. God is glorified. He is exalted in this this mercy that He shows. Why? Because the people deserve judgment, and instead, He shows them mercy. But we also read, For the Lord is a God of justice. He is going to judge sin. He's going to judge rebellion and iniquity. But what do we see in this? Blessed are all those who wait for Him. Blessed are those who, in the world around them, is doing iniquity and sinful things. Those who wait for God are blessed. We see here a description of this, a description of how this will take place. For a people shall dwell on Zion and Jerusalem. You shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry.
As soon as he hears it, he answers you. He's waiting for his people to repent, for his people to turn from their sin. It was God who was causing all this to happen. We see this clearest day here. He's using this judgment. We've been saying that all through Isaiah, and we see it spelled out here. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see the teacher. In other words, they're going to see that the one who is doing this to them is God because He's calling them back to Himself. And then what happens? Not only are they going to see, but their ears shall hear a word behind you saying, This is the way, walk in it. And you'll like this description here because we can easily understand it. When you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, they are facing these difficulties. It's easy for them to go either way, but God is calling them to walk straight towards Him. But then what happens? They turn away from their idolatry. It says, Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold plated metal images.
You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, Be gone. ' In other words, you'll get rid of the idolatry in your life. You'll get rid of the idol. You'll stop turning away from God. You're looking straight. You have the path in front of you. You could turn towards God, but you're distracted by the idol to your left and the idol to your right. No, you need to scatter those things. You need to get them out of your lives and God will turn to you. God is looking to be gracious to his people when they repent, when they turn from their sins. Then we see that this language of judgment is really harsh. Again, God uses this judgment for His people. Look at verse 29, You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart is when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the Lord, to the rock of Israel. These people are going there. But then the Lord will cause his majestic voice to be heard in an ascending blow of his arm to be seen.
All that other stuff sounded good, right? Flutes and going to the mountain of the Lord. But now we have a descending blow in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire with a cloud burst and a storm of hellstones, the Assyrian will be tear-stricken at the voice of the Lord when he strikes with his rod. In other words, God is calling his people to return to him, and he is going to take those who are afflicting them, and he is going to break his judgment. Why? Because they are up against the people of God. They have returned to Him. God used them as an instrument of judgment when they were in idolatry. But when they return, God will say to them, You are in idolatry, Assyrian. You have rejected me. You are in rebellion against me. And his descending blow, I love that term, descending blow of his arm is going to be seen. God's grace and his judgment are deeply connected. We get that idea through this passage. I think that's something that we have seen here, I've mentioned it many times, but it's something that is so valuable for us to understand. We can't truly find joy and happiness in the grace that the Lord blesses us with.
If we don't understand what we've been rescued from, if we think that God just gives us a little bit better path to follow than what we would have done on our own, the grace of God doesn't seem like much. It doesn't seem like much to others. But if we understand we deserve that descending blow of God's arm in His wrath, and instead that wrath was turned aside by the work of Jesus on our behalf, then we are going to sing. We are going to go with sounds of joy to the Lord. That will shape how we live day in and day out. The grace of God shapes who we are as Christians. Again, we can't understand that grace without understanding our need to be saved. If we think that we're okay, we just need some advice, we're in trouble. But when we understand that we deserve punishment and that this brings glory to God because we have turned away from those things that He hates, and instead we've turned towards the things that He loves, then we're going to understand that we have been forgiven for all of our rebellion, and we will turn towards Him in faith, and we will bring glory to His name.
So may we deeply think upon this as we're walking around today and tomorrow, and when we come to worship on Sunday, may we be reminded that we have been saved from the judgment of God. And so may we then relish in God's amazing grace.
