Isaiah 31-32 "Woe to Those Who Go Down to Egypt"

We have come to the fifth out of six woes in Isaiah 28-35.

These woes have warned against trusting in Egypt for help.

Each woe has built upon those before in convicting Judah of their folly.

Egypt failed to help Israel when the northern kingdom fell 20 years ago.

God has promised that he will judge Jerusalem for entering a covenant with death,

but he has also promised that he will annul that covenant,

and will restore his kingdom.

Why should we care about this?

Why are you sitting there listening to yet a third sermon about

this one political alliance of the eighth century B. C.?

And you know that a fourth one is coming next week!

Why should we care about whether an ancient city entered into an alliance with Egypt?

And it really doesn't answer the question to say "this is the Word of God."

Why would God give us 8 chapters of commentary on this one measly political alliance?

There were lots of prophets who didn't write everything down.

And most of the prophets seem to have written down only one or two of their prophecies.

Why must we hear the six woes against those who trust in Egypt?

Who is Isaiah speaking to?

Judah-the people of God.

But more precisely, the rulers of Judah-especially the house of David.

In the morning service we are going to be looking at the passion of Christ for the next few weeks.

Jesus, the Son of David, was facing that enemy of which Assyria was only a shadow.

What would he do?

His fathers had trusted in the chariots and horses of Egypt.

But Jesus trusted in Yahweh of Hosts.

This one little alliance at the end of the eighth century B.C.

is symptomatic of the human condition.

Whom do you trust?

Where is your heart set?

This fifth woe reveals the sovereignty of God over the affairs of human history.

He is the one who will accomplish his purposes

There is a Trinitarian structure to Isaiah 31-32.

the work of Yahweh in delivering Mount Zion (31:1-9)

the reign of the King (32:1-8)

the coming of the Spirit produces a bountiful harvest (32:9-20)

There is a certain connection here between the work of Yahweh in delivering Jerusalem,

the reign of the King in bringing justice,

and the outpouring of the Spirit in producing a harvest.

Isaiah probably did not understand the doctrine of the Trinity,

but he did understand that the rule of God was intimately bound up

with the rule of the Davidic king-

and that the Davidic king was rightly seen as a divine person in some sense.

He also understood that the reign of this king was connected

with the outpouring of God's Spirit.

In other words, we can see in Isaiah a glimpse of the Trinitarian structure of redemption,

even before the doctrine of the Trinity was clearly revealed.

First we look at the work of the Holy One of Israel in delivering Zion.

As we have seen repeatedly,

those who trust in Egypt will be cast down.

It is remarkable that Judah does not trust in the LORD.

He has chastened them with adversity-and they will not listen.

Now he is going to deliver them from Assyria-in spite of their sin-

and still they will not listen.

He is going to strike down 185,000 Assyrians,

and yet Judah will remain stonehearted.

But after all, those who would go down to Egypt for help-

those who would enter a covenant with death-

do not have any spiritual discernment to begin with!

They do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or consult Yahweh.

But he is wise and brings disaster upon them.

He does not call back his words.

He is faithful to his covenant.

He will arise against the house of the evildoers

and against the helpers of those who work iniquity.

Who is the house of the evildoers?

The house of David-who dared to enter a covenant with Egypt.

And Egypt is their helper.

Yahweh is supposed to be the help of the righteous.

The Psalms regularly speak of Yahweh as the helper of his people,

and especially the helper of his anointed King-or of Zion.

Therefore he will bring disaster upon the house of evildoers.

The beth-mrey'im (the house of evildoers) and their helper, Mitzraim.

But the Egyptians are man, and not God,

and their horses are flesh and not spirit.

Seven hundred years before Saul of Tarsus was born,

Isaiah the prophet clearly understood the difference between flesh and spirit.

The flesh is weak and unable to accomplish the salvation of God's people.

It is only by the power of the Spirit that deliverance will come!

And when the LORD stretches out his hand, the helper-Egypt-will stumble,

and he who is helped (Judah) will fall and they will all perish together.

Isaiah explains this with two images:

a lion growling over his prey-defending his prize from the shepherds.

Yahweh is like a lion who will come upon the sheep

without fear of the puny shepherds who challenge him.

Who are the shepherds who will challenge Yahweh?

Again-the house of David-the shepherd king.

But the LORD will accomplish his purposes.

He will come down to fight on Mount Zion.

And therefore Isaiah also speaks of Yahweh as a hovering bird,

who protects Jerusalem and spares it.

Yahweh will come against his people.

Egypt and Judah alike will fall before the Assyrians.

But Jerusalem will stand.

I have not yet made a sufficient distinction for you between Zion and the people of Judah.

Zion is the city-Jerusalem-who is the bride of Yahweh.

Zion has lots of children-the people of Judah-the children of Yahweh.

Isaiah is saying that God is coming against his people.

Zion will stand.

He will protect Jerusalem.

He will protect and deliver it; he will spare and rescue it.

The city is safe.

But what about the people?

"Turn to him from whom they have deeply revolted, O children of Israel.

For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold,

which your hands have sinfully made for you." (31:6-7)

Remember God's first words in Isaiah 1:2

"Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me."

The Father here calls his children to repentance.

Turn away from your idolatry.

Return to me and live.

They are given evidence of God's favor.

"For the Assyrian shall fall by the sword, not of man;

and a sword, not of man, shall devour him."

God will strike down the Assyrian army with his own hand.

They will be scattered and dispersed by the LORD "whose fire is in Zion,

and whose furnace is in Jerusalem."

The Father will judge his people-but he will yet deliver his city.

And when he does, he will establish a true king.

For there is a day coming when "a King will reign in righteousness,

and princes will rule in justice." (32:1)

The house of David is a house of evildoers-

but a day will come when that will change.

There will be a day when the king and his princes will be "like a hiding place from the wind."

They will be like Yahweh, "a shelter from the storm,

like streams of water in a dry place,

like the shade of a great rock in a weary land."

There will come a day when we will have a king who is truly like God.

In that day, we will finally see repentance!

"Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed,

and the ears of those who hear will give attention.

The heart of the hasty will understand and know,

and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly."

In that day!

Isaiah's day is full of those whose eyes cannot see and whose ears cannot hear.

His calling was to shut the eyes and close the ears,

so that God's judgment could come against the house of David.

He lives in a day when the fool is called noble,

and the scoundrel is said to honorable.

The fools of Isaiah's day spoke folly concerning the LORD,

and deprived the hungry and thirsty of food and drink.

But there will come a day when a truly noble king shall arise,

and he will stand on noble things.

So chapter 31 speaks of how the Father judges his children, but rescues his city.

And in the first half of chapter 32, we hear of the coming king,

who sounds an awful lot like Yahweh in how he is a shelter and a shade to his people.

But that will only happen when the Spirit of God is poured out upon the land.

This is the message of the last part of chapter 32.

Having heard the news that a king will reign in righteousness,

the people become complacent.

They forget what is coming.

(Read 32:9-13)

Isaiah calls for the women of Judah to mourn for what is about to happen.

The people of God-my people-are going to grow up in a devastated land.

The city will be deserted.

Yes, that's Jerusalem.

Zion-the city of the living God-will be made desolate,

the hill and the watchtower of Jerusalem will become dens forever

"a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks."

Yes, God will protect his city-but he makes no promises for its inhabitants,

"Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high."

The Exile lasted longer than 70 years.

Wednesday evening we are looking at the post-exilic prophets.

Haggai promises that the glory of the second temple

will be greater than the glory of Solomon's temple.

Why does he have to say that?

Because there is no glory in the second temple.

The glory of the LORD does NOT come down and fill the temple.

The people of God are living in Jerusalem,

but there is no king reigning in righteousness.

Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,

Jerusalem is a wilderness.

Only when the Spirit comes will the wilderness become a fruitful field.

Only then will justice dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field

Only then will the vineyard of the LORD stop producing stinkfruit!

Read 17-18.

The coming of the King and the coming of the Spirit together will produce righteousness.

Do you see now why the baptism of Jesus is such an important event in all four gospels?

There are many reasons for that,

but not least is the Holy Spirit being poured out upon the anointed king.

How do you know the king has come?

Because the Spirit has been poured upon him-and now upon us.

There is now a king reigning in righteousness.

A king who will give to us his peace.

The last two verses are rather cryptic,

but they bring us back to Isaiah's present.

"It will hail when the forest falls down, and the city will be utterly laid low"?

Armies have been compared to forests before (ch 14).

God's judgment will fall from the sky with the Assyrian armies are cut down,

At the same time, the city of Jerusalem will be laid low.

But "happy are you who sow beside all waters,

who let the feet of the ox and the donkey range free."

If you're a nomadic farmer, you've got it made!

Jerusalem will be laid low,

the Assyrians destroyed.

Everything will be a wilderness-

just right for those who like to spread out and live off the land!

How should we hear this?

Certainly with gratitude!

The king has come!

The Spirit has been poured out!

Never again will the city of God be emptied of its inhabitants.

We are citizens of the heavenly Mt Zion.

Because Jesus is the righteous King,

we have a helper who is faithful to his covenant!

We have a covenant with life-not a covenant with death!