Isaiah 9: 8-21
8 The Lord has sent a message against Jacob;
it will fall on Israel.
9 All the people will know it—
Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria—
who say with pride
and arrogance of heart,
10 “The bricks have fallen down,
but we will rebuild with dressed stone;
the fig trees have been felled,
but we will replace them with cedars.”
11 But the LORD has strengthened Rezin’s foes against them
and has spurred their enemies on.
12 Arameans from the east and Philistines from the west
have devoured Israel with open mouth.
Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
his hand is still upraised.
13 But the people have not returned to him who struck them,
nor have they sought the LORD Almighty.
14 So the LORD will cut off from Israel both head and tail,
both palm branch and reed in a single day;
15 the elders and dignitaries are the head,
the prophets who teach lies are the tail.
16 Those who guide this people mislead them,
and those who are guided are led astray.
17 Therefore the Lord will take no pleasure in the young men,
nor will he pity the fatherless and widows,
for everyone is ungodly and wicked,
every mouth speaks folly.
Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
his hand is still upraised.
18 Surely wickedness burns like a fire;
it consumes briers and thorns,
it sets the forest thickets ablaze,
so that it rolls upward in a column of smoke.
19 By the wrath of the LORD Almighty
the land will be scorched
and the people will be fuel for the fire;
they will not spare one another.
20 On the right they will devour,
but still be hungry;
on the left they will eat,
but not be satisfied.
Each will feed on the flesh of their own offspring:
21 Manasseh will feed on Ephraim, and Ephraim on Manasseh;
together they will turn against Judah.
Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
his hand is still upraised.
Click through to hear some thoughts about these ominous passages.
This text is all about people seeing messages before their eyes but failing to learn from them. The examples used are the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh...descendants of two sons of Joseph from the book of Genesis. The peoples of these tribes were, in effect, the northern cousins of the inhabitants of Judah, Isaiah's audience.
These northern cousins strayed from God...forgot him, really. Their way of life started to fall apart. The world started to crumble around them. Instead of asking why and turning around to repent, they simply said, "We'll just build it up again, bigger and better than before!" They thought they could compensate for any disaster which befell them--any "Act of God", so to speak--with the work of their own hands. When their brick houses fell they said, "We'll rebuild with dressed stone." When their fig trees fell they claimed they could replace them with even more majestic cedars. In the end it came to nothing. Their society crumbled and their enemies overran them.
What danger we face when we turn a blind eye to God and get stubborn about our own ways! The problem with being convinced that your lifestyle and opinions are right is that no outside evidence can turn you aside from your foolishness. When things go right you take it as confirmation that you're on the correct path. When things go wrong it just strengthens your resolve to have it your way, to make it right, to set your mind even stronger, build even higher, and show everybody. Both good and bad breed the same stubbornness.
How many times have we found ourselves in just this situation, say, with a spouse? Have you ever been angry at your spouse, just knowing that you're going to be angry no matter what? "He didn't bring me flowers! What a jerk!" Or..."He brought me flowers. Something must be up! What a jerk!"
How about politics? Have you ever known people that can twist any stimulus into something bad about the other side? If a bill passes the other guy is wrong because of X. If that same bill doesn't pass the other guy is wrong because of Y. I've just described half of the political discourse in our country nowadays.
When things fall apart because of our tone-deaf stubbornness we shrug and vow to build them anew. They didn't fall apart because of us, right? We were correct in our view! We'll just keep being correct everything and someday the world will vindicate us!
The second section of this passage talks about leaders, both secular and religious, falling prey to this same disease and being cut off in a day. One can't help but think of politicians, radio hosts, and clergy members out to promote their own agendas at any cost. How about the television news producer only concerned about ratings or the newspaper editor whose main goal is to sell as many copies as possible, regardless of which news is true or helpful to know. What about young actors and actresses, athletes and artists who will do anything to get noticed no matter what effect it has on the people who look up to them or their craft?
What about us? We appoint leaders in our communities, you know. I'm not talking about mayors and elected officials. What kind of talk do we listen to in small communities like this? Which word spreads fastest and gets repeated most often? Is it good news, beneficial and healthy, or is it gossip and slander? We elect leaders with our ears, give them credence by repeating their words. How many times can we fill our atmosphere with the wrong things before it becomes polluted and everyone around, innocent or not, has to breathe it? How many times can we mislead people before they can't find their way out?
The third section talks about people devouring each other, brother turning against brother. This happened literally through civil war in ancient Israel. But all of this stubbornness and blindness and misleading inevitably leads us to consume each other as well. We blame; we fight; we wound; we abandon. Rich live at the expense of the poor as the poor steal from each other. Smart kids in class give thanks that they're not the "dumb one". Children mock each other's looks so they won't be considered the ugly one. A businessman gets promoted at the expense of his co-worker whom he's stabbed in the back. An athlete wins a contest only because somebody else lost it. We not only consider these things normal, in many cases we call them good. Not a one of us has gotten through life without being glad from time to time that we're not "That Guy". Whatever that guy's circumstance was, we left him to it, feeling fortunate that it was him and not us. We consume each other and call it right.
Yet for all of this, we still do not acknowledge God's anger at our practices nor turn to him. Instead we'll just try to make the world better, not realizing that the very definition means, in our parlance, "better for us and probably not them" which is not the same as truly better, nor better for the world.
Having considered all of this we properly flee back to the earlier verses of Isaiah 9:
1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan—
2 The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.
3 You have enlarged the nation
and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
as people rejoice at the harvest,
as warriors rejoice
when dividing the plunder.
4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,
you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor.
5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle
and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
will be fuel for the fire.
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.
How much we need the promised Messiah to save us! How we long for a Wonderful Counselor, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace to trample down the mistakes we have made and raise up a new world of justice and righteousness, to lead us when we could not lead ourselves.
Every day we should turn to that Wonderful Counselor and ask him to guide us instead of our usual practice of deciding all on our own what would be best for our lives and the world. We need to be humbled by the second half of Isaiah 9 before we can understand the glory of the first. A little less stubbornness and a little more humility before God and each other would go a long way towards making our lives more holy.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
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