you must look, you must listen

Posted on March 19, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

March 2015 (19)

Isaiah 18:1-7

1 Oy! land of whirring of wings, who sits beyond the rivers of Cush, 2 who sends messengers by the sea and in vessels of papyrus on the water’s surface! Go, swift messengers, to a stretched out and smooth-skinned nation, to a people feared from this and beyond — a mighty, mighty and trampling nation, whose land rivers divide. 3 All world inhabitants and land dwellers, when a signal flag is raised on the mountains, you must look, and when a trumpet is blown you must listen! 4 Because Yahveh said this to me: “I will be quiet, and I will look from my dwelling place like clear heat because of light — like a cloud of dew in harvest heat.” 5 Because before harvest, when the blossom is complete and a blossom becomes ripening fruit, and one cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks, and one removes, tears away the tendrils. 6 They will be left together for a mountain bird of prey and for the land animal. And the bird of prey will pass the summer on it, and every animal of the land will winter on it. 7 At that time, a gift will be brought to Yahveh of armies — a stretched out and smooth-skinned people, and from a people feared near and far, a mighty, mighty and trampling nation, whose land rivers divide, to the place of the name of Yahveh of armies, the mountain of Zion.

you must look, you must listen

In the midst of this prophecy about Ethiopia, Isaiah pauses and addresses all the nations and peoples of the world, telling them to pay attention to what is happening. I sense the frustration of a servant of God who has been called upon to tell a dying world that there is hope of eternal life, if they would only look and listen to what God is doing and saying. But the world is looking elsewhere, and listening to itself, and not its creator.

God is doing something today, and we can discern it. But his acts and words are wrapped up in the revealed word. We cannot hope to discern subjectively the plan of the LORD if we refuse to study and meditate on his objectively revealed truth. All of the prophets, the apostles, historians and poets of scripture call on us to stop looking elsewhere and pay attention to what he has said. The signal flag has been raised, and the trumpet has blown.

LORD, give us the wisdom to pay attention to your written word. Discipline us if we stray from it, and keep us from being distracted by other things – even “good” things.

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chased like chaff off mountains

Posted on March 18, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

March 2015 (18)

Isaiah 17:7-14

7 On that day, the man will look upon his maker, and his eyes will look to the holy one of Israel; 8 he will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not see what his fingers made and the poles of Asherah worship and the incense altars. 9 On that day, the cities he trusted in will be like the abandoned high woods of the Amorites which they deserted because of the children of Israel; and they will be desolate. 10 Because you have forgotten the God who saved you, and you have not remembered the rock you took refuge in; therefore you plant plants to please yourself, and you plant it like a vine of a foreigner. 11 On your planting day you make it grow, and in the morning, by your sowing you bring it into bloom, but the harvest will flee in a day — sickness and incurable pain. 12 Oy! a noise of many peoples, they make a noise like a noise of seas! And a roar of nations, they roar like strong water roars! 13 People may roar like much water roars, but he will rebuke him, and he will flee far away. And they will be chased like chaff off mountains in the face of a wind and like tumbleweed in the face of a storm. 14 Towards evening time, and see, terror! Before morning he is no more. This is the fate of those who plunder us and the destiny of those who plunder us.

chased like chaff off mountains

Confession time. I have an irrational quirk, a preference that I cannot explain. I like the sound of rushing water, but I dislike the sound of rushing wind. Don’t ask me to explain the difference, because to me they sound similar, but I enjoy waterfalls and crashing waves, but I cannot stand it when a car window is opened while I’m riding in the car.

Both sounds are mentioned in today’s text. The LORD tells humanity that no matter how much of a roar we make, he will have the last say. He will sweep the arrogant and noisy oppressors away from the mountain like he blows the chaff off the mountain with his rushing wind. It is amazing how efficient the wind is at clearing a mountain of everything, leaving the bare trees until springtime.

Isaiah’s point is that those who are being plundered can rest assured that God will deal with their plunderers. No matter how loud their waterfall roars, God’s rushing wind can sweep them away in judgment.

LORD, when we are being wrongly treated by your enemies, remind us of the power of your mighty wind to chase the chaff off the mountains.

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God takes left-overs

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

March 2015 (17)

Isaiah 17:1-6

1 An oracle of Damascus: “See! Damascus stops being a city and becomes a pile of ruins. 2 The cities of Aroer will be deserted; they will be for the flocks,[1] and they will lie down and there is not one who disturbs them. 3 And any fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, and kingdom from Damascus; and the left over of Aram will be like the glory of the children of Israel,” — a declaration of Yahveh of armies. 4 “And this is going to happen: On that day, the glory of Jacob will be brought low, and the fat of his flesh will become lean. 5 And it will be like a reaper’s gathering of standing grain and he reaps grain by his arm, and it will be like one who gathers ears of grain in the valley of Rephaim. 6 And gleanings will be left over in it, like after beating an olive tree: two or three ripe olive berries atop a branch, four or five on its productive branches,” — a declaration of Yahveh, the God of Israel.

God takes left-overs

The northern kingdom had formed an alliance with Syria, whose capital was Damascus. Isaiah predicts that the alliance would not save them from judgment. The coming army would swoop down, destroy Damascus, and decimate Israel as well. Damascus will be left so wiped out that shepherds can let their flocks graze there, with no fear of them (that is, the flocks) being disturbed by the presence of any people. Israel will be so wiped out it will be like a crop that has been harvested, with only a very few left-overs remaining.

When I was a child, my family raised chickens – 30,000 at a time. After the harvesters came and took the mature chickens to the plant to be processed, there were always about five or six birds per house that were left behind. We took those left-over birds and put them in a separate pen. We raised them to produce eggs for our household. As a boy, I can remember being happy for those left-overs, because it meant more eggs.

God’s promise of left-overs for Israel meant that he still had a plan for the nation – beyond judgment. The judgment would be real, and most would be lost, but a few would be saved. Jesus said that the final judgment would be similar. While destruction is coming, a few will be saved by grace. God takes left-overs.

LORD, we cling to Christ, and trust that we will be among your left-overs, saved from judgment by faith in him.

[1] The first four words of this verse begin with the Hebrew letter ayin.

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years of a hired worker

Posted on March 16, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

March 2015 (16)

Isaiah 16:12-14

12 And this is going to happen: when Moab appears, when he is tired at the high place and he comes to his temple to pray, he will not prevail. 13 This was the former word that Yahveh spoke to Moab. 14 But now Yahveh speaks, saying, “In three years, like years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will become shameful, with all of the large crowd, and whoever is left will be few, small, not strong.

years of a hired worker

As it happens, I am contemplating the last three (or so) years of my life today. On one hand, I have accomplished a great deal, and I am grateful for that. On the other hand, those years seem to have flown by, and I am left wondering how eternally significant they have been. I wonder if I will think that of my entire life some day. I do not want that to happen.

Moab was at the height of its greatness, but its days were numbered. Isaiah had previously warned them that when the LORD came in judgment, their prayers at their temple would avail for nothing. Now, he says that this coming judgment will happen within three years. That was the typical amount of time a temporary worker was hired for. That is not much time to affect a change.

Time has a way of deceiving us. We get bored so easily, and we entertain the illusion that our days and years are long. They are not. All our lives are like a breath. Breathe in, breathe out. That is it. We really do not know how much time we have until the wages of Adam’s sin have to be paid up. It is in our best interest to make good use of this fleeting gift.

LORD, teach us to number our days, and years. Help us to renounce the sin of wasting our lives on the frivolous and useless things that preoccupy. Make our lives count for you.

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gut moaning like a harp

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

March 2015 (15)

Isaiah 16:6-11

6 We have heard how exalted Moab is –very proud that his majesty is exalted– and his arrogance. What he boasts is not so. 7 For this reason Moab will howl; everyone belonging to Moab will howl, for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth you will moan, surely destroyed. 8 Because Heshbon withers the fields, the vine of Sibmah; rulers of nations have broken down her tendrils, they reached up to Jazer, they reached desert; her shoots spread abroad, they crossed over a sea. 9 Therefore I am weeping along with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah. I drench you with my tear, Heshbon and Elealeh, because a triumphant shout has fallen over your summer fruit and harvest. 10 And joy and gladness is taken away from the fruitful land, and in the vineyards no one exults, no one shouts for joy; no treader treads wine in the presses; I have put to an end to the joyful shout. 11 Therefore my gut moans like a harp for Moab and my inner parts for Kir-heres.

gut moaning like a harp

We do not all see things the way God sees them. The prophets do. Isaiah challenged his people to look beyond the prideful boasting of their northern neighbors, the Moabites. He invited them to travel in time just enough to see all that prosperity and arrogance destroyed and replaced by the howling of a ruined state. The joyful shouts of triumph and prosperity have all been replaced by grief and shame. God is there, and he feels it with them. He challenges his people to be there too.

There is coming a time when all who have exalted themselves against God and oppressed their fellow men will be judged for their sin. God is not happy for this, and neither should we be. The purpose of anticipating this judgment is to help us find ways of rescuing people from it. To do that, we need to see things as they will be. Such vision will naturally get our guts churning and moaning. Our insides will play a dirge like a harp. But that is the price we pay for choosing to be compassionate instead of indifferent.

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be a hiding place for them

Posted on March 14, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

March 2015 (14)

Isaiah 16:1-5

1 Send a ram to the ruler of the land, from Sela desert to the mountain of daughter Zion. 2 And this will happen: the daughters of Moab at the fords of Arnon will be like a bird fleeing from a thrown away nest. 3 “Bring counsel, make a judgment; make your shade like the night in the middle of noonday. Hide outcasts; you must not betray the fugitive. 4 Let my Moabite outcasts dwell as aliens among you; be a hiding place for them from the destroyer’s face.” When the oppressor is no more, destruction has stopped, the trampler has disappeared from the land, 5 then a throne will be established by steadfast love, and someone will sit on it who is faithful, in the tent of David, judging and seeking justice and zealous for righteousness.

be a hiding place for them

There is a challenge here for Moabites – a challenge to overcome their old animosities and prejudices and reach out to Judah for help. But the major challenge is for Judah. The LORD challenges them to open their gates and take in the Moabites who are fleeing from the destroyer. There are to be a hiding place for them. The LORD promises that once the trampler has finished, these Moabites would welcome the rule of the a Davidic Messiah whose people had rescued them from that trampler.

When our enemies are going through difficult times, we easily see the judgment factor. We think it only right. But the LORD challenges us to look for opportunities to love those who have not loved us. Imagine what would happen if we started acting as a hiding place for our enemies.

LORD, give us the courage to love those who have harmed us – to be a hiding place for those who are suffering.

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my heart cries out for Moab

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

March 2015 (13)

Isaiah 15:1-9

1 An oracle about Moab: Because Ar has been devastated in a night, Moab is destroyed; because Kir of Moab has been devastated in a night, it is destroyed. 2 It has gone up to the temple and Dibon to the high places for expressing grief over Nebo, and Moab weeps over Medeba. On all its heads baldness, every beard shaved. 3 They gird themselves with sackcloth in its streets; on its roofs and public squares everyone wails, going down in weeping. 4 And Heshbon and Elealeh, he cries out, their voice is heard as far as Jahaz; therefore the armed ones of Moab cry out; its soul quivers[1] for him. 5 My heart cries out for Moab; its fugitives escape to Zoar, to Eglath-shelishiyah. Because on the ascent of Luhith it goes up it with weeping; because on the road of Horonaim they raise up a cry of destruction. 6 Because the waters of Nimrim are wastelands; because its grass has withered, its vegetation has vanished, no more greenness. 7 Therefore they carry the abundance it has made and their store of goods over the river of the poplars. 8 Because a cry for help has encircled the territory of Moab, we hear her wailing as far as Eglaim, and her wailing as far as Beer Elim. 9 Because the waters of Dimon are full of blood; but I will add more things to Dimon: a lion for the survivor of Moab and for the remnant of the land.

my heart cries out for Moab

There is a picture of the nation of Moab weeping and wailing over its destruction in a night attack, the survivors fleeing to their temple to mourn their loss and plea for help from their gods. But there is someone else crying, too. The prophet Isaiah, a relative of the Moabites (descendants of Lot), tells this message of judgment with tears in his eyes. Although God is just in bringing this devastation upon the Moabites, the message cannot be expressed except with tears and heartache. Perhaps that is why Isaiah chose the word for oracle here that can be translated burden.

Oh, non-Christian, when I speak to you of hell, of destruction from the presence of God and loss of life for eternity, please know that I do so with an aching heart. I want you to know life, and experience the blessing of God, not his curse. And the LORD also wants that. So, he has made a way for you to avoid hell with its fire and loss. That way is the same for everyone: believing and trusting Christ. But my burden for you is that if you refuse that way, God will be compelled by his own justice to destroy you. Fleeing to your temple and wailing will not help you on that day. The fire of hell is unquenchable: you cannot put it out. Flee to the LORD today, and seek him while he may be found!

LORD, draw my friend to you today. His impending destruction burdens me, and breaks my heart.

[1] The Hebrew words for “cry out” and “quiver” sound the same.

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the swing of the pendulum

Posted on March 12, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

March 2015 (12)

Isaiah 14:28-32

28 In the year of the death of king Ahaz there was this oracle: 29 You should not rejoice, all you Philistines, that the rod that struck you is broken, because a viper will come forth from the corpse of that snake, and its fruit is a striking serpent. 30 And a firstborn of a poor man might eat comfortably, and a needy one might lie down in security; but I will cause your parent to die in famine, and it will kill your remnant. 31 Wail, gate! Cry, city! Melt, Philistia, all of you! Because smoke is coming from the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks. 32 And how will one respond to those spreading bad news about this nation? That Yahveh has founded Zion, and the needy of his people will take refuge in him.

the swing of the pendulum

Ahaz was not a righteous man. He repeatedly caused trouble for Isaiah, and refused to heed his warnings. But he was a king of Judah, and the LORD would not look kindly upon the Philistines when they rejoiced over his death. The armies coming will be so much worse.

The Philistines took the death of Ahaz to be a sign of the weakness of Yahveh. They took the opportunity to spread bad news about Judah, saying that the end of the nation was near, and plotting how they might take over. Isaiah concluded that they had gotten their prediction wrong. The future would not go their way, in spite of the present victory. Philistia would suffer for their sins.

Sometimes the pendulum swings back in our favor for a while. We should not allow those times to lull us into a false sense of security and forget our sins or our ultimate needs. The problem with Ahaz was that he had gotten just enough victories to cause him to disregard Isaiah and his words, so he felt he did not need God. His enemies, the Philistines, took his death as a sign of his God’s weakness. But, in fact, the death of Ahaz would hasten the coming of the next step in God’s plan, and that would show how strong God is.

LORD, when fortune favors us, help us to seek your favor first, and not to be blinded by the swing of the pendulum.

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a broom of destruction

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

March 2015 (11)

Isaiah 14:22-27

22 “And I will rise up against them,” a declaration of Yahveh of armies, “and I will cut off name and a remnant from Babylon, and offspring and posterity,” – a declaration of Yahveh. 23 “And I will make her a hedgehog’s possession, and pools of water, and I will sweep her away with a broom of destruction,” – a declaration of Yahveh of armies. 24 Yahveh of armies has sworn, saying, “If this has not happened just as I have intended, so it will, and just as I have planned, the oath will stand: 25 to break Assyria in my land, and I will trample him down on my mountains; and he will remove his yoke from them, and he will remove his burden from his shoulder. 26 This, the plan that is planned concerning all of the land; and this, the hand that is stretched out over all of the nations. 27 Because Yahveh of armies has planned, and who will frustrate him? And his hand stretched out, and who will turn it back?

a broom of destruction

It sounds almost comical – like a weapon devised for a third rate video game. But the broom of destruction that Isaiah spoke of was nothing to laugh at. Once the armies of Media and Persia were finished with the land that had once been the home of the Assyrians, and was presently under the control of Babylon – nothing was left. They swept it clean, and made it a desolate place. The ultimate defeat made all the previous victories nothing. One by one, all the nations who had carried the burden – the yoke – on their shoulder, would be relieved of that yoke. That is the plan of Yahveh of armies, and what he plans, no one can frustrate. It is going to happen.

Do we dare to believe that God can still do the same thing today? He will do it collectively and ultimately when Christ returns, and he sets up his kingdom of righteousness. All the oppression and evil of past victors will be removed from the victims. Peace and righteousness will reign through judgment.

But this God of armies also wants to sweep through our lives and remove the burdens that we are bearing now. He tells us “Come to me, all who work hard and carry a heavy load, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Because my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”[1] His broom of destruction can destroy all the things that are keeping us from the peace and rest he wants us to enjoy. His yoke can make life worth living again, and we need not wait for eternity to experience it. It is only a prayer away.

LORD, we invite you to destroy all the things in our life which are keeping us from the peace and rest you intend us to enjoy. Sweep through our lives with your broom of destruction.

[1] Matthew 11:28-30.

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thrown away from your grave

Posted on March 10, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

March 2015 (10)

Isaiah 14:16-21

16 Those who see you will gawk at you, they will gaze closely at you: ‘this is the man who made the land tremble, who caused kingdoms to shake, 17 who made a world like the desert and destroyed its cities, who would not let his prisoners return home?’ 18 All kings of nations, all of them, lie in glory, each one in his house. 19 But you, you are thrown away from your grave, like a repugnant shoot, clothed with slain, those pierced by the sword, those who go down to the stones of the pit, like a corpse that is trampled. 20 You will not be united with them in a decent burial because you have destroyed your land, you have killed your people. A descendant of evildoers will not be celebrated for eternity! 21 Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons because of the sin of their fathers. Let them not rise and take possession of a land or fill up the face of a world with cities.”

thrown away from your grave

On my many trips to Cebu, Philippines, I often visited and walked about in a Chinese cemetery. In stark contrast to the poverty and disorder that one could see everywhere else, this cemetery was ornate, immaculate and orderly. It was the only place that I have ever seen air conditioning and a Christmas tree – in someone’s grave. At the root of this kind of practice is the idea that the dead should be treated well, and that doing so will ensure that the living will fare well in life. Babylon had similar ideas in its culture. That is why Isaiah’s words bit so hard. He predicted that the kings of Babylon would not be treated well in death. Their corpses would be thrown away from their graves. Their soldiers would not be able to protect them, because they will be slaughtered, and thrown into a mass grave. Their sons would be killed as well, so the dynasty would not continue. What a fate to anticipate for the rulers of the world’s superpower!

Isaiah was telling the well-off that they will not experience their grandeur and fame forever. Death will show those wealthy tyrants who ruled the world by their oppression and violence that their power was a sham. They were in reality no better off than the slaves they mistreated.

Isaiah is also telling us something here. He’s asking us who we are stepping on in our race to the top. He is encouraging us to look beyond the power and fame of the present and seek a relationship with God now. He reminds us that nothing is more important than a relationship with the LORD, because only that will outlast our mortality. Jesus promised to raise those who believe and trust him on the last day. That commodity (faith in Christ) is the most precious of all things. It is worth surrendering all the wealth and fame the world has to offer, because those things will not survive. God’s kingdom will.

LORD, when we are tempted to put wealth or fame ahead of your kingdom, remind us of the fate of the Babylonian kings.

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