Good to see you all tonight. Some of you I've maybe never seen before. Some of you it's a long time since I've seen you.
But it's my task to dive into the Sea of Isaiah.
I'm not a regular here at Brunsfield, so I don't know what you've done so far in your seat in Isaiah.
But I guess as Esther read chapter 34 and 35 tonight, you're probably glad that it's you that's not preaching.
You may be glad or you may wish there wasn't me that was preaching as well if I don't do a great job on it.
But this is tough for us. We need to work our way through.
Let me say what my goal tonight is. My goal tonight is to walk you through the passage, the two passages that we've got tonight.
I think Isaiah does give us some literary aids.
One of the key things that Isaiah seems to do and the commentators suggest is that he's quite good on structure.
So we'll need to say something about both the structure of the section that the verses are in as well as the chapters themselves.
Isaiah is quite clear often in his themes.
And I don't think we miss much tonight.
We shouldn't have missed it.
The theme of judgment in there is chapter 34 and blessing in chapter 35.
And so Isaiah gives us some good structural things.
So we'll say something about that.
And then we'll have a couple of very clear applications that I'm indebted to Alec Mateer for.
I don't know if any of you have read his daily walk through the book of Isaiah, but it's very helpful.
And he's helped me with some two very clear applications.
I've also been helped by my principal at Bible College back in the 80s.
Jeffrey Grogan was the principal at the Bible Training Institute in Glasgow.
Some of you may know of Jeffrey.
He wrote a commentary on Isaiah and he had some helpful things to say as well that I've pinched as we walk our way through it tonight.
I was only given Isaiah 34 and 35.
I wasn't given Matthew 11.
But I'm glad you read Matthew 11 because obviously there's a reference in Isaiah 35 that was read where Jesus said, go back.
This is Matthew 11, 4.
Jesus replied, go back, report to John what you see and hear.
The blind will receive their sight.
The lame will walk.
Those who have leprosy are cured.
The deaf will hear and the dead are raised.
And the good news is preached to the poor.
I think Allerysus once wrote, Jesus is God's righteousness revealed.
The answer to the judgment problem of Isaiah 34 is Jesus.
And the one who gives the blessing that will be ours who are saved people in future glory is all because of Jesus.
The one who reveals God's righteousness as he lived and walked in Matthew.
As Matthew records in Matthew 11.
Let me pray and then let's work our way through Isaiah 34 and 35.
Lord, thank you for your word read to us and open before us.
We pray, Lord, that you would just help us as we make our way through this tonight and as we seek to apply your word.
We thank you, Lord, that your word is your word and it has power to work in our hearts and minds this evening.
And so, Lord, help us as we turn to it now.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
So if you have Isaiah 34 and Isaiah 35 open, let's go to the first thing.
Isaiah's literary structure helps us, I think.
So I want to just say something briefly about the structure of this part of the book, chapter 28 to chapter 37.
And I want to say something especially about the structure of verses of chapter 34 and 35.
And so first of all, about this big section, chapter 28 to chapter 37.
You see at the beginning of chapter 33, woe to you.
That is the beginning of the sixth woe or the sixth summons that Isaiah gives from chapter 28 through in this section to chapter 37.
And so we're in the section of the sixth woe.
So it's divided up into two lots of woes, the first three and the second three.
And so we're obviously at the last of the second three.
What's really interesting about these woes and particularly the latter three is that Isaiah Earth's roots in reality,
something that the people really knew was going on.
The first three woes were almost just talking in general terms.
But when we get to these last three, he focuses on the nation of Assyria that is there and then going to attack Judah.
He focuses on Egypt and the alliance that Judah want to have with Egypt.
And he, if you like, their interim fulfillments.
He says, look, what I'm talking about in general terms, you can actually see what out before you earthed, rooted.
In other words, I will do to Assyria what I say I'll do.
And I will do to Egypt what I say I'll do.
And I will do to you, Zion, Judah, what I've said I will do.
Somebody put it this way, that Isaiah chooses to use historical narrative as a rock of certainty.
And I think the best way that I can put that for you tonight in application terms is to think that what Isaiah wants to do here by rooting what he's saying in the reality of the real situation that the Israelites, those in Judah, were facing as they faced Assyria and as they had alliance with Egypt to try and get rescued,
was that God was saying, listen, you cannot rest in the armies of people.
And you cannot rest in your own wisdom.
If you do, you'll fall flat on your face.
And actually, when we read God's word when it's hard sometimes, having interim fulfillments or having this rock of certainty that this word is true is really important for our lives.
What Isaiah does here is to use this technique to fully assure us that what God plans to do, he is able to do because he's working out before them.
Or if you like, what he said he will do can be trusted.
And so for you and I tonight, although we hope that as the Lord sees the earthly reality of our lives, hopefully we're not like the Assyrians.
Hopefully we're not like the Egyptians.
And hopefully we're not actually like the Israelites.
Hopefully we're like those who are not ready to trust in the armies and political systems or in our own wisdom.
But they'll be ready to trust in his wisdom and in his strength and in his power.
And so these are three woes followed by three other woes of interim fulfillment.
I won't bore you with this, but they're also paired.
One and three, two and five, and three and six.
And our summons in our section tonight is part of the longest summons from chapter 33, verse 1 to 35, verse 10.
And actually like summons 3 that you find in chapter 29, it's actually wholly visionary and eschatological.
It's not earthed.
It's heaven bound.
That's what we've got to see as we look at both these chapters.
Heaven bound as far as future judgment is concerned and heaven bound as far as future blessing is concerned as well.
Or as somebody put it this way, here we can read historical events only between the lines.
But our eyes should be held throughout.
Not on the near future, but on the far eschatological future.
So there's a word in terms of the structure of chapter 28 to 37.
And then briefly, just something on the word of structure there in chapter 34 and chapter 35.
One of the things that you should note just in terms of, I guess, Isaiah preaching his sermon, as it were, from chapter 33 to chapter 35.
He begins with the woe in verse 1 of chapter 33.
But then he has his first proclamation, his first bit of preaching, which begins in verse 13 of chapter 33.
You who are far away, hear what I've done.
And you who are near, acknowledge my power.
And so chapter 34 then moves in verse 1 to his second proclamation.
Another, come near.
And this time it's, come near you nations and listen.
Pay attention you peoples.
And it's his proclamation of this final overthrow of the world in all its hostility to God's rule.
It's horrible.
And we'll say something about that more when we come to the theme of the chapter.
As far as the structure of chapter 35 is concerned, then what we get here is this,
at the end of this summons, it moves from this final overthrow of the world in all its hostility to God's rule,
to the glorious picture of the final exodus, so the final pilgrimage of the Lord's people
to their eternal and blissful destination of Zion.
So there you go.
It's important to get Isaiah's structure, both of chapter 28 to 37 and 34 and 35.
You might not have taken all that in.
I had a number of hours and a week to think about it,
but it might be worth going away, reading those chapters and thinking about that yourselves.
And so the second thing I want to do is just say something that Isaiah is really clear on,
his second literary tool or aid.
If his first was structure, then his second is actually to be absolutely crystal clear
in chapter 34 and chapter 35 exactly what they're all about.
Judgment and blessing or judgment on the world.
And you'll see why I've hashtagged Edom and blessing for God's people.
And you'll see why I've hashtagged Israel on that as we look at it briefly.
And so let's take chapter 34 in terms of its theme, first of all.
Judgment on the world, hashtag Edom.
Well, here is Isaiah's articulating the final overthrow of all the world
in all its hostility to God's rule.
And the fact that Edom comes up as the chapter goes on
is a really interesting wee technique that the prophets began to use.
Edom was a way in shorthand of basically saying,
this is the highest form of ultimate rebellion and to God's rule.
So that's how extreme it is.
How extreme it is in terms of rebellion against God.
That's really, really important as Isaiah moves from judging the nations
to focusing in this tiny wee nation of Edom.
Actually, that tiny wee nation is to highlight
that that was a way the prophets helped us to see really clearly
that this is radical, highlighted, magnified rebellion
against the rule of God.
So therefore, for God to overthrow the world
in all its hostility against his rule is his right.
Even although as Isaiah describes it here,
it's not a pleasant scene.
In fact, it's a fearful description, isn't it, in verse 3.
The slain will be thrown out
and their dead bodies will send up a stench
and the mountains will be soaked by their blood.
Fearful.
It's meant to be.
Driving home the point that God's wrath
will lead to the death of his enemies.
It's horrible, isn't it?
I mean, I don't know if you just even stop at that wee phrase.
The mountains will be soaked by their blood
or the mountains of this world will be dissolved
in the blood of those that God has slain.
It's horrible.
It's almost like an anathema.
It's a fearful description
that God is saying that he has the right
to have a final overthrow of the world
in all its hostility to his rule
because he's God.
And because, like the Edomites,
there was this radical, multiplied, intense
arrogance against him.
You see it in verse 5.
My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens.
See it descends in judgment upon Edom.
The sword of judgment.
Has fallen in judgment on Edom
and the people.
They are the people that I have totally destroyed already
because of their anathema,
their antagonistic rebellion
against God.
I think Geoffrey Grogan,
what does he say in his commentary here?
I've got it.
He says,
The inhabitants of Edom
were clearly under divine judgment,
just like sacrificial animals.
Maybe that's why there's so much blood highlighted here.
Like them, the Edomites' fate was death.
Yet in one way,
it's hardly appropriate
to liken the antagonistic Edomites
to the comparatively docile domestic animals
employed in sacrificial ritual.
But God had the right
to respond to them
and the right to respond
those who take the stand
that the Edomites took.
Verse 2, of course,
raises the whole issue before us
of what right does God have
to have wrath and judgment?
The Lord is angry with all the nations.
His wrath is upon all the armies.
He will totally destroy them
and give them over to slaughter.
What right?
Geoffrey Grogan again,
as he comments on the word judgment,
says this.
Verse 5, it says,
The slaughter of Edom is,
in its moral context,
because of their rebellion.
And he wants to say
that divine vengeance here
is not mingled with the malice and evil
as in the case of human vengeance.
But it's a quality that in God is divine
and praiseworthy.
And in the execution of what God does
is honoured and glorified.
Let me say that again
because it's really important
when you read a verse like verse 2
and when you see what happens in verse 5
and when you get the sense
of these mountains being dissolved
in the blood in verse 3,
we have to remind ourselves
that God's divine vengeance,
God's wrath on all that is evil
and all that is in holy rebellion to him
is not mingled with the malice and evil
in the case of human vengeance.
It is a quality that in God
is divine and praiseworthy.
It's a fearful description.
We meet the antagonistic Edomites
and we see God in his right judgment
and wrath.
And actually verse 10
is a really interesting verse as well
in the chapter.
I don't know if you saw the reiteration
of the sort of complete
and permanent destruction phrases.
Do you see that they are
from generation to generation?
Forever and ever.
There's a permanence about the whole thing.
Look at it, verse 10.
It will not be quenched day and night.
It is from generation to generation.
It will never happen.
It will ever pass through again and again.
There's this sense of ongoing,
permanent, complete destruction.
It's horrible, isn't it?
But Isaiah doesn't want us to miss it.
Equally, Isaiah doesn't want us
to miss chapter 35.
The joy of the redeemed,
as the NIV puts it.
Or the eternal blessings
for God's people.
Hashtag Israel.
There's a blessing.
There's a new exodus for them.
They had been through the wilderness.
They had been through
leaving Egypt,
through the wilderness
for all those years.
They had faced dry and broken
and barren lands
that seemed to be referred to again here
in chapter 35.
You probably spotted it
with the idea of streams in the desert
and bubbling springs
and desert lands.
But let me say something briefly
about this sixth summons
of this glorious picture
of God's final exodus
and pilgrimage for the Lord's people.
The eternal, blissful destination of Zion.
The summons began in chapter 33
by a message directly to Zion
and their king.
That's what you get
at the end of chapter 33.
And then it's contrasted
towards the end of chapter 33
and into 34
with the eternal destiny
of the saved and the unsaved.
And then it seems to,
in chapter 35,
bring itself back to where it began
with a pilgrim people.
You see them referred to as them
in verses 1 to 8.
You see them referred to as they
in verses 2 and 10.
You see them defined gloriously
in verses 9 and 10
as the redeemed and the ransomed.
And one commentator says,
we met the redeemed
and the ransomed before
in chapter 24.
And in this matching third summons
in chapter 29,
here it only contained
an understated reference
to redemption.
But here at the end
of chapter 35,
we read the story in full.
A protected path,
an assured arrival,
a safe homecoming,
and unbroken happiness.
Isaiah doesn't want us to miss it.
God's just judgment
on a rebellious world.
And God's incredible blessing
for those who are his people.
Well done.
That was heavy, wasn't it?
You think it's heavy to listen to?
It's heavy to preach.
But here are two applications
that Alec Mateer,
I think, has helped me with
as we bring these two chapters
into a conclusion tonight.
And the first from his book,
Isaiah by Day,
is this thought,
serious passages about divine wrath
and judgment are hard to take.
And this is one of them.
But then listen to what he says.
They're hard to take.
Isaiah doesn't try to spare our feelings.
And we are for the most part,
we for the most part,
don't feel as he did.
If you read Isaiah chapter 21
in verse 4,
as Isaiah gets the sense
of all this that's going on him,
the way the NIV puts it is,
he said his heart staggered
and the horror appalled him.
Mateer says,
I wonder,
are our hearts broken
for our lostness
and the lostness of people?
Especially those who feel
the blow
of the divine hand.
He says,
it will come.
He says,
for the wages of sin is death
and death it will be.
The outpouring of divine exasperation
was once divine patience,
but now has reached its terminus.
Isaiah's picture
of the mountains eroded
by the colossal flow
of blood of the slain,
as we see,
is only a picture,
but it will be matched
by the reality
when that sad day comes.
Mateer says,
praise God,
that the company of the saved
will be innumerable,
but that does not take away
from the multitudes
who stand unready,
unfit,
hopeless
in the valley
of that eternal decision.
He then goes on to say,
Jesus didn't hide his face
or ours from it
in Matthew 25
and 46.
Nor did John make
any attempts
to camouflage
the grim
procession
to the lake of fire
in Revelation 20.
And then he says this,
and these are people
we know,
sometimes people
we love,
always people
for whom we have
a responsibility
in the gospel.
And then he says,
today is the day
to ponder these things,
but it's also the day
in the light
of God's word
to look at ourselves,
to determine
to flee from sin,
for though in Christ
the wrath
of the sin-hating God
with me
can do nothing.
Our eternity
is as secure
as if we were already
on
before the throne.
Ephesians 2.
Yet,
as long as
he leaves us
tarrying
here on earth,
our sin
will then
bring us death.
Like our ancestors
in Deuteronomy,
we face
the daily choice
of life
or death.
To choose good
and not evil.
To refuse
disobedience
and cultivate
obedience,
for it is
the Lord's word,
his commands,
which bring life,
which bring progress,
which bring blessing
and inheritance.
The Holy Spirit,
he says,
is given
to those
who will be him.
Well,
that's the application
on judgment.
He is a slightly
brighter
application
on blessing.
Mateo says this,
but if the beauty
of Isaiah's words
and thoughts
thrill us,
how great
is our excitement
when we realize
that he is
actually writing
about us.
And here's what
Mateo says.
Sometimes even
Isaiah
excels himself.
He was a
master wordsmith
and poet.
In chapter 35,
he is at his
highest
and best.
But then,
as Mateo says,
but if the beauty
of Isaiah's words
and thoughts
thrill us,
how great
is our excitement
when we realize
that he is
writing
about us.
We
are the
enigmatic
thee
and
them.
Chapter 1,
verse 1,
verse 2
and
verse
8.
Let me just
read it again
to you,
those verses.
verse 1.
The desert
and the parched
land will be
glad.
The wilderness
will rejoice
and blossom.
Like the crocus,
it will burst
into bloom.
It will rejoice
and sing for joy.
The glory of
Lebanon will be
given to it.
The splendor
of Carmel
and Sharon.
They will see
the glory
and splendor
of God.
Lebanon
commentators
tell us
stands for
natural abundance
and fertility,
Carmel for
order,
Sharon for
beauty.
We're told
here that
these things
can be
ours.
Verse
8
puts it
this way,
and the
highway will
be there.
It will be
called the
way of
holiness.
The unclean
will not
journey on
it.
It will
be for
those who
walk in
that way.
Wicked
fools will
not go
there.
The lion
will not
be there
and so
on and
so on.
And then
they,
verse 9,
they will
not be
found there,
but the
redeemed
will walk
there and
the ransom
will turn
and they
will enter
Zion with
singing and
everlasting joy
will crown
their heads.
Gladness and
joy will
overtake them
and sorrow
and sighing
will flee
away.
What thrill,
says
Mathieu,
should be
ours to
know that
we are
the enigmatic
they and
them.
The anonymous
ones around
whom the
poem
moves
because we
are the
redeemed.
We are
the ransomed
of verses
9 and
10.
The
ransomed
are those
whom the
price has
been paid
for.
The
redeemed
are those
whom the
Lord,
the divine
next of
kin,
identified
himself,
saying to
us this.
This is
brilliant.
It's not
minus material.
That's why
it's
brilliant.
The
redeemed
and the
ransomed
are those
who the
goel,
the kinsman
redeemer,
the Lord,
the divine,
your divine
next of
kin,
has identified
himself with,
saying this.
So,
what's your
problem?
Give it
to me.
What's
your need?
I will
meet it.
What's
your burden?
Lay it
on my
shoulders.
That is
the way of
the goel,
the
kingsman
redeemer.
He
bears it
all,
pays it
all,
does it
all.
He is
the doer.
We are
the
recipients.
But now
that we
know who
the them
and the
they are,
follow through
what Isaiah
says about
them.
First,
whatever our
circumstances
appear,
you see,
verse 1,
the desert
and the
parched
place,
we can be
confident
that we
will be
provided for.
Yeah,
we might
need the
eye of
faith to
see beyond
what's
there.
but this
imagery
drawn from
Exodus,
where this
menacing
wilderness
was
habitual
in
hindering
the
Israelites
until he
produces
the miraculous
manna
to feed
them,
produces
the water
from the
rock
to
quench
our
thirst.
And so
that desert
and parched
place,
we need to
give to
him,
knowing that
he can
give us
his manna
and that
he can
quench
our thirst
from the
rock.
Every
situation,
every
place,
the glory
of God
is present.
You see it
there?
The glory
of God
ultimately
will be
present as
our great
blessing on
that day.
And then
look at
this
highway
that he
provides.
It's this
glorious picture
of a road
above the
wilderness,
so it's just
higher than
everything else
that we walk
on,
and it's
our great
blessing.
For you
and I,
it's possible
to run a
straight line,
says Matia,
from conversion
to glory.
That's why
the highway
exists.
And
finally,
says Matia,
the end
is guaranteed.
The redeemed
shall come.
Everything
that made
the journey
a sad
experience
will take
legs.
Every
unalloyed
delight
that slipped
like soap
out of the
pilgrim's
grasp
will finally
be possessed.
For Zion
admits
no
disappointment.
It's a
glorious picture,
isn't it?
I've done
a poor
unfolding
of it
for you.
But there
you go.
A structure
in Isaiah,
the clear
message of
34,
the clear
message of
35,
a challenge
to us
about the
blessing that
can be
ours and
others,
and the
challenge for
us as we
daily face
the thought
that Isaiah
34 is
true and
that God
has the
right to
judge a
fallen world.
We began
and I'll
finish with
Matthew 11.
Jesus is
God's
righteousness
revealed.
He is the
champion to
mean that we
don't need to
face that
judgment.
And he is
the giver
so that we
can receive
that blessing.
That's our
Jesus.
I hope
he's yours.
Keep on
trusting.
Thank you.