Isaiah chapter 15 this evening. Isaiah 15. The Burden of Moab. Because in
the night R of Moab is laid waste. That's one of the cities of great
cities of Moab. R is laid waste and brought to
silence. Because in the night Kerr of
Moab is laid waste. Another city and brought to silence. He has gone up to Bajeth and
to Dibon, the high places to weep. Now that's those who were
mourning and in fear, instead of turning to God, they went
to the high places, their idolaters. Moab shall howl over Nebo and
over Mediba. On all their heads shall
be baldness and every beard cut off. These were apparently like
the The Israelites would tear their clothes and get in ashes
and things. These were apparently ways to
express grief. In their streets, they shall
gird themselves with sackcloth on the tops of their houses and
in their streets. Every one shall howl, weeping
abundantly, and Heshbon shall cry, and Eliath, their voice
shall be heard, even unto Jahaz. The armed soldiers of Moab shall
cry out. This is usually a distinction
made as opposed to everyone else. The soldiers are pointed out
because they're the ones, if you'd expect anybody to be brave
and courageous and not cry out, it would be them, but they're
crying too. His life shall be grievous unto
him. Verse five, my heart shall cry out for Moab. His fugitives
shall flee unto Zoar. and heifer of three years old,
for by the mounting up of Luteth with weeping shall they go it
up. Now that heifer of three years old, they're describing
the crying, the helplessness and the crying that they're doing.
For in the way of Haronah, they shall raise up a cry of destruction.
For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate. For the hay is withered
away, the grass faileth, there is no green thing. Therefore
the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid
up, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows. For
the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab, the howling
thereof unto Eglium, and the howling thereof unto Bir Elam. For the waters of diamond shall
be full of blood, for I will bring more upon Diamond, lions
upon him that escapeth of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land."
Now, this is a chapter that you might think, what in the world
can we see here? And that's kind of what I was
thinking when I sat down to study this the first time. And then
it goes right along with chapter 16, which we'll also read. It's
only 14 verses. We'll read most of that at least.
And the book of Isaiah, in these chapters especially, is completely
different. This is not 1 John. This is not
Romans. You have to find out what's happening
and why, who it's happening to, and who's doing it. And I think
the main teaching in this chapter as far as it being separate from
chapter 16, is the ways in which God brought judgment upon Moab.
We saw how that he has, we've seen all through the book of
Isaiah that God brought these calamities upon Israel, his own
people, and also the Assyrians, though he used them to afflict
Israel, then he turned around and punished them for what they
did to Israel. And here, the Assyrians are involved
in this also, and Nebuchadnezzar is involved in this as far as
the ones that are and or, and there's disagreement on that.
It doesn't really matter who it is that's attacking Moab here.
But we see three different ways that destruction is brought upon
Moab. And we see the reason for it
in verse two, where we read, they went up to the high places.
They're idolaters. And then we see in chapter 16
in verse six, look at this. We have heard of the pride of
Moab. He is very proud, even in of
his haughtiness. He's proud, even of his pride. You see, did you notice that
he's proud, even of his haughtiness, he's proud. and his pride and
his wrath, but his lies shall not be so.
So they're idolatrous and proud. Why did God afflict Israel? Read
chapter one again. Idolatrous and proud. Why did
God do what he did to Assyria and the king of Assyria? He was
boasting, wasn't he, about how he was going to destroy Israel
They couldn't do anything about it. And of course he was an idolater
as well. And so we see this theme throughout
many of these chapters as the reasons why God afflicted not
only his own people at times, but destroyed many other nations
for these abominations in his sight. And sometimes God allows
people in places to go on in their wicked pride. and rebellion
against him for some time, and sometimes he doesn't. And it
came time for Moab, the day of reckoning came for them. And
so we have this prophecy of their destruction. And then, you know,
this worries me a little bit. I don't see how it cannot, because
America, my country, that I love, I hope in the right sense, I
love my country. But America is idolatrous and
proud. I don't see how anybody can argue
against that. We have an abundance of churches and religious organizations
in this country, but honestly, how many would you say tonight
are worshiping the true God? We're idolaters on a grand scale. And we're blatant in our rejection
of God for idols. We shake our fist, proud fist
in his face, and we say unto God as a nation, we will marry
who we want, we will be whatever we want. God doesn't get to decide
whether we're even a man or a woman or not. We'll make that decision.
We will murder our babies if they're not convenient for us,
and we won't call it murder. We'll call it a woman's right
to choose. That sounds so much better, doesn't it? But God doesn't get to decide
any of that anymore. We will. So we just fit the bill, don't
we? And it's just a question of when, isn't it? Just a question
of when. Just a question of when. When will God destroy this nation? Will he do it soon? or will he tarry? The way that God destroys Moab
is interesting. He doesn't only send an army
of enemies, that was often in the case of Israel, God would
bring his enemies upon them and that's a terrible, that was the
one thing David said, I don't want that. Send a plague, don't
let us fall into the hands of men. But God often did that,
bring a country's enemies against them, We know from scripture
that he can and does do that. And verse one is said by some,
it says in the night, in one night, destruction's coming on
this city. And in one night, destruction's coming on that
city. And some said that that's brought by Nebuchadnezzar, which
is prophesied in Jeremiah 48. If you read that chapter, it
talks about that. Some say this is the fulfillment of that prophecy.
Some say this is before that happened. And it was Assyria
at another time that came upon them. But either way, it seems
some terrible enemy fell upon him in a night and just laid
him waste, just annihilated him, or was going to. This is what's
going to happen. And he who holds the hearts of
kings in his hand, and he turns those hearts to do his will,
has used this many times, brought enemies upon a nation that he
judges. But he also ends Moab by not
doing something. He just withholds his water,
verses six and seven. The waters of Nimrim shall be
desolate. The hay is withered away. The grass faded. There
is no green thing. Therefore, the abundance they
have gotten, that which they had stored up in years before
this, that which they have laid up, they shall carry away either
When the enemy comes and they have to flee from the enemy,
they'll take what little they have left from years previous
with them and try to hoard it up so they won't starve to death.
But apparently a drought comes upon them also. God withholds his water for a
little while. Doesn't have to do it for long,
does he? Just a little while. Dries up the rivers and the lakes
and cuts them off. God is our protection from all
of our enemies. And he also is our provider.
We must live every moment of our lives, acknowledging that
we are utterly dependent upon him for everything. We have many
enemies, whoever this was, Nebuchadnezzar or the Assyrians or whoever that
came upon Moab. What will our enemies do to us
unless God protects us? And all he has, he doesn't have
to do anything to kill us, does he? Just stop doing what he's
already doing and we're goners. And then those who escaped and
somehow survived maybe these first two things we read about
in the last verse, verse nine. I will bring more upon Diamond. Whines upon him that escapeth
of my way. Some say these lions are, you
know, kings of other nations that would come and destroy them
to follow up, you know, on what these others did. But I think
they're lions. It says lions, doesn't it? And
many, many say this is literal. Let's think about these three
judgments for a minute, because we learn in the judgments of
God, we learn something about what we are. You remember in
Egypt, when the Lord brought the plagues upon Egypt, In those
plagues that he brought, we saw something of our sin and what
we are before God, the flies, stinking, nasty fly. And they
came and they just ruined everything. That's us. We're parasites in
God's world. And he brought the blood and
the death and destruction. That's what we are, and it's
what we deserve. Vile corruption. Well, we see
some things in these judgments, too. First of all, war. Man is
self-destructive. Man destroys man. And you say, well, it's not self-destruction
because it's somebody else doing it. It's man killing man. It
doesn't matter who it is, does it? They're just us. It's just
us. To them, we're us. And to us,
we're them. It's man killing man. Man is
self-destructive. If God took his restraining hand
off of us For one day, can you imagine? You see it break through
every once in a while. Our self-destructive tendencies. God will take his hand away just
a little bit. You know, that's the picture
that God's just letting. And we just, we just turn into animals,
absolute animals. Worse than animals. If he took his hand off of us
for a whole day, we'd all kill each other. We're that stupid
as a race. We're that fallen, that vile. Instead of helping each other
for our mutual benefit, which happens at times and in places
by God's providence, and good things are done for a while here
and there, ultimately we don't want to cooperate. We want to
take. That's ultimately what we want,
is what everybody else has. And that's just clear in the
world, isn't it? What we want to do, and not cooperate, we
want to dominate. Dominate. Even little children,
you see this of course in little children, if you leave them to
themselves for a little while, every one of them is going to
want all of the toys. And they're teachable. Children
there that learn better than that and they can learn to share
But if not taught their nature will prevail and when those children
get older the stakes get higher And the tactics more sophisticated
they would get better at getting what they want from everybody
else that's not theirs And that's what we see in this
world that's why it's so important it begins and When they're that
long, then maybe a little bit longer. There's no authority. There's
no accountability. There's no godly training and
upbringing and teaching. And so it's just rampant evil,
selfishness, greed, pride, idolatry. And then secondly, the second
thing, the drying up of the heavens. Man in his own mind now, and
you know this is right, man in his own mind and his pride is
self-sufficient and self-sustaining. We don't need anybody. Look at
all we've got. Look at what we've done. Look
at what we've accomplished. Nebuchadnezzar, look at the great
empire that I've built, and look at all of my riches. Nobody can
ever touch me. I can never come to nothing.
I can never suffer. But God did bring him to nothing,
and he did suffer. He became the beast that he was.
But he became that beast in his own eyes. That was the key. He was already a beast. He was
just a rich beast. But then the Lord showed him
what he was. And the Lord has a way of doing that now. God
just stops one thing here. Just one thing that he does for
us. Just one of the things that he does for us. To sustain us
and to provide for us. And man dies. And doesn't just
die, but dies horribly. Can you imagine if God dried
up his water for just a little while? I've said it before, we
would kill one another for a glass of water that big. And you know
we would, apart from his grace. A man digs a well and has water
for himself and says, look what I did. He fancies himself to
have provided for his own needs, never acknowledging that he could
dig himself dead and never find a drop of water if God didn't
give it to him. And that's how we go about our
business now. We don't have to dig and we don't have to get
our hands dirty anymore. We can sit at a desk. And we
come home and we get our paycheck and say, look what we did. Here's
what I provided for myself. Everything we have is from God,
and he don't owe us any of it. And every once in a while, he'll
dry things up for a little while to remind us of that. But even
when and where God does this, when he does dry things up, when
he does withhold his goodness for a little while, or just sends
a little wave and kills 3,000 people, or just shakes his earth
a little bit, Man still will not bow. Without
a miracle of grace, he will just rebel more and more. And instead
of acknowledging his dependence upon God and asking God for what
he needs and thanking God for what he has, he will curse God
all the way to the grave, feeling sorry for himself and complaining
about how unfair it is. And then number three, lions. And this one to me highlights
how that man is responsible for sin and all
of its consequences. This is our own sin coming back
to us. Why do lions eat people? Why can't you just be friends
with a lion? Lions eat people because this
whole earth is cursed because of my sin and your sin And when a lion eats a man it is
the consequence of that man's own sin coming back on his own
head What a picture What a picture And you can train him you can
try to be his friend Sooner or later he's gonna eat you. Now
look at chapter 16. Send ye the lamb to the ruler
of the land from Sela to the wilderness unto the mount of
the daughter of Zion. You remember Zion is the city
of God. Send a lamb to the city of God.
Now this chapter 15 is a warning. This is coming. Here's what's
coming. All right for it shall be verse
two that as a wandering bird cast out of the nest So the daughters
of moab shall be at the fords of arnon There's the warning
again send the lamb Or you're going to be like birds cast out
of a nest helpless and just homeless destroyed nowhere to go Take
counsel Execute judgment Stop and think. Think this through
before this comes upon you. Make thy shadow as the night
in the midst of the noonday. This is interesting here. I'm
reading this and I'm going, what in the world? What in the world?
It's noonday. It's bright sunlight. But he's
saying, make your shadow broad and cover as though it was night.
Make your shadow so broad and so generous that it blocks out
the heat of the sun. What do you mean? Hide the outcasts. Bere not him that wandereth.
Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab. Now this is Zion
talking. This is saying sin. This is Israel
talking. It's God talking on behalf of
his people Israel. Be thou a covert to them from
the face of the spoiler. For the extortioner is at an
end. The spoiler ceases. The oppressors are consumed out
of the land. Now, this is where it gets, you know, there's commentators
who say this and that, that Moab will be attacked and then they'll
leave Moab and they'll attack Israel. And that's when there'll
be refugees from Israel that need to go to Moab for protection
there. And some have it the reverse
way. That Israel is attacked and Moab hadn't been attacked
yet. But here's what's being advised. You be our ally. And when we
need to come and take refuge with you, don't you turn us away.
Don't you turn us away. When we have need. All right. And verse five, and in mercy
shall the throne be established. Our throne will be your throne.
We'll rule over you, but you'll have the protection and the advantage
of us ruling over you. He shall sit upon it in truth
in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking judgment and hasting
righteousness. That's the benefit now. There'll
be a throne established. by God and everybody knew who
Israel's true king was. Everybody knew that God fought
for Israel, God protected Israel, God was with Israel and God blessed
Israel. And they're saying the throne
will be established. You join alliance with us, you protect
our refugees, you become one with us, you become under the
same throne we are, under the same rule that we are and there'll
be mercy There'll be judgment, there'll be righteousness, and
it'll be established. Now what's being said here? In
the first part of this chapter here, and we won't read so much
the rest of it, because the rest of it now, and I can tell you
right now what it all says. You remember verse six we read
a while ago, we've heard of the pride now. The advice is given,
take counsel, he's saying. Make a careful judgment here.
And here's what you need to do. You need to make friends with
us. You need to come in with us. You need to pay tribute to
us. You need to help us and we'll help you. And we'll rule over
you. And as I said, we'll rule in
mercy, the mercy and mercy shall be thrown, be established and
righteousness and judgment. All right. But he said in verse
six, we've heard of your pride now. And the rest of this, therefore
Moab shall howl for Moab. Every one shall howl for the
foundations of Horuseth. Shall you mourn? Surely they
are stricken for the fields of Heshbon languish in the vat of
Sidma. And the lords of the heathen
have broken down the principal plants thereof. And there come,
and this is a prophecy That Moab is not going to listen
to the advice Therefore will I bewail thee
again verse 9 that there's a corresponding verse in chapter 15 like that
in there And it shall come to pass verse
12 when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place that
he shall come to his sanctuary to pray Moab is used to just
going up to their high places and their idols and praying to
their idols and trying to get released from this judgment,
from their idols, and they're weary of doing it. No answer. No help. He shall not prevail. This is the word that the Lord
hath spoken concerning Moab since that time, verse 13. But now
the Lord hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years
of an hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be contend. With all that great multitude
and the remnant shall be very small and feeble." There won't
be many left. It's going to be a disaster. It's going to be
an absolute disaster. So they're called upon to pay
tribute to the King of Judah, which at the time apparently
was Hezekiah. They're called upon to be in
allegiance with the people of God. And this is where you have
to understand a little bit of history, or it helps to. They're
called upon to take counsel, to make a careful judgment about
this. And this is the counsel of God to sinners. You see, before
this time, if you know a little bit about the history of the
Israelites, and I learned a little bit of it looking into this,
under King David, the Israelites had already conquered the Moabites,
but had allowed them to live as their own country. But only
they were to send tribute to the King of Israel as a token
of their allegiance to David at the time and Israel. But Moab
had grown independent and proud in themselves and self-sufficient.
And they stopped sending that tribute. They said, we're our
own country, we'll do what we want to do. But now they're in
trouble. They're fixing to be in trouble.
And so this word goes to them, you send the lamb. And that lamb
is representative of the tribute that they would send. It probably
wasn't just a single lamb. It may have been a great train
of goods and animals and things. But they're saying, you better
send it now. Now you're going to need us. You're going to need
us now. And they're calling them to think
carefully about this now. You can stay independent and
stay on your own and fight these enemies on your own. Or you can
send tribute to us, and there's a throne established here, not
by men, by God. Swallow your pride. Send the
tribute. Pledge allegiance to the King
of God's people. You see the gospel now in this? Bow to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's God's King. This is a picture of the authority
of God over us. And our tendency to be independent
of that So we don't need Christ came down here, you know, but
to set us free. We don't need to be free. We've
never been in bondage to any man. That's what we said. But there's trouble coming. The
advice is to bow, pledge allegiance to God. And what tribute does
God require? In the spiritual sin. Not a lamb,
the lamb. You see that in the text? Send
the lamb. In verse 2 they're reminded that
they have no other hope You're gonna be it's gonna be like somebody
hitting a bird's nest And that's gonna be you In verse 3 and 4
they're advised again to carefully consider their position And to
prove their allegiance with Israel by harboring fugitives from Israel
make my enemy your enemy Make my enemy your enemy And this
is real good advice. Because as we've already acknowledged,
and everybody knew God fought for Israel, God protected Israel,
God's hand was on Israel. It'd be real good to join forces
with Israel, wouldn't it? Good advice. In verse five, again, they are
assured that to ally with Israel, Is a good move now because God
had promised he said the thrones are going to be established Whoever's
speaking here It's obviously God because whoever humanly speaking
is speaking here. How can they say? The throne
will be established in mercy because God said that it would
The throne of Israel is not going to be shaken Israel's throne
would be long established even back when Jacob blessed his children
if you remember back in in Genesis chapter 49 when old Dying Jacob
bedridden Jacob blessed all of his children And you remember
in verse 10 of Genesis 49. He said the scepter shall not
depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh
come and Israel is not going to be like a bird's nest turned
over. No, you will be unless you're in with us, but not Israel
because the scepter is not going to depart from Judah nor a lawgiver
from between his feet. Not ultimately, there were times
now when they were in bondage too and there was trouble, but
ultimately until Shiloh comes. The throne of David, the throne
of Israel is established from the very beginning. And God said,
it's not going to depart until Shiloh come. And we know who
that is. That's the Prince of Peace. That's
the Lord Jesus Christ. And his throne is forever. And unto him shall the gathering
of the people be. Moab may not gather. But the people are going to.
The people, God's people, are going to say our king is God's
king. That's the spiritual lesson here
now. There's trouble coming. And we deserve it. We're idolatrous
and we're proud and we deserve it. But there's a king on a throne
that says. Pay tribute. Pay tribute. In spiritual terms, What's being
said here is this, trust your soul to God's king. And trust
in his ability to vanquish all of the enemies of your soul.
The throne of Christ is established. It's not going away. If he's
your king, he'll always be your king. And he protects his people. He fights for his people. He
provides for his people. God said in Psalm chapter 2,
I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. And let's look
at the advice there again in Psalm 2. Moab, you know, they had said,
oh, we don't need the king of Israel. Well, yeah, you do. And
this is a spiritual lesson. There are a whole lot of people
saying that now concerning Christ. may not come out and say it with
their mouth, but they're saying it with their actions. We don't
need the Christ of the Bible. We have our own Jesus that's
doing the best he can and doing all he can do. And you know,
he's an idol. And in proud rebellion, you're
worshiping your idol and rejecting the Christ of God. And listen,
Psalm 2, why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain
thing? That's what an idol is. It's just your imagination. And
it's vanity. It's empty. No help. He said
in our text, you're going to pray to him, but they're not
going to get an answer. The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
his anointed saying, that's the Moabites to a T, isn't it? We
ain't paying tribute to David. He shouldn't have conquered us
to begin with. We're our own country. We'll do what we want
to do. You don't need David now. You
don't need Hezekiah. You don't need God's king. And
him ruling over you is not a bad thing. It's a good thing. You
may not see it that way, but the kings, they're setting themselves
against God's king. We don't need him. Verse three,
let us break their bands of sundry and cast away their courts from
us. They're controlling us. They've bound us. They're trying
to tell us how it's going to be. No, we'll cast All of their
restraints away from us. His restraint, talking about
it's God and his king. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision.
Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in
his sword as pleasure. And he did them all of us. He
said, three years, get ready. Yet I have set my king upon my
holy hill of Zion. And when your nest is turned
over and you're gone, My king will still be sitting
on his holy hill. So you think about this, what are you going
to do? Isn't that what they said? Take counsel now. Take counsel. Be careful what you decide. God said, verse seven, I will
declare the decree. The Lord hath said unto me, thou
art my son. This day have I begotten thee.
There's God's King right there. Ask of me and I shall give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a
rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's
vessel. Be wise now therefore, O you kings. That sounds like
our text, doesn't it? Take counsel. Be careful. Be instructed you judges of the
earth. Verse 11, serve the Lord with
fear, be in awe, reverence him, bow to him, pledge your allegiance
to him and rejoice that he's your king with trembling because
he's the king. Kiss the son, lest he be angry. Kiss the one that has conquered
us. Kiss the one that has vanquished us. Kiss the one that violated
our free will and our sovereignty. Oh yes, kiss that one. That's
the one you want to kiss. God's king. Lest he be angry. You perish from the way when
his wrath is kindled but a little Ah, but let's end on a bright
note here blessed are they Blessed are they in every way? That a man can be blessed Blessed
are they that put their trust in him Isn't that what our text? is advising these mobiles to
do. Put your trust in the King of Zion. That's the message tonight. Simple, isn't it? Simple. In
all of that language of chapter 15 and 16, that's the message. Trust the King of Zion with all
of your needs, with your protection from all your enemies, for everything
that your soul requires. And the rest, as I said, the
rest of the chapter there, we read some of it, is a foreseeing
of the fact that Moab would not bow, would not reestablish relations
with Judah, would not trust in God's King. But this is the message
of all scripture, and it's very simple. Destruction is coming. You deserve it. Because you're
proud and idolatrous. You have destroyed yourself with
your own sin. That's the war. It's a picture
of man destroying man. We are self-destructive. That's
what happened in the garden. Self-destruction. You think you're
self-sufficient, which in spiritual terms means this. You think that
by your own works, you can provide what you need before God. You
can't get it done. That's the message of all of
this book. Everything you do is corrupt and God will not accept
it. And it won't provide for you
in the day of judgment. You're pulling a blanket over
yourself that won't cover you. And your sin is about to come
back to you and devour you. And here it is, now take counsel. Come. Let us reason together, saith
the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
and the consequences of them will be great, but come and they'll be as white
as snow. That's the message of this book
now. And I say it to you, and I don't know whether you can
hear me tonight or not. I don't know whether you're even interested
in it or not. But this is the crossroads of
everything right here. Take counsel. You can trust yourself or you
can trust God. Come to the throne of God and
bring the lamb. Come in Christ. Bringing the
lamb is symbolic of owning and believing on and embracing the
lamb of God who offered himself for sinners. They offered lambs
back then, but that was a picture of him offering. We're not offering,
but we come with him and in him who offered himself for sinners.
who appeared in the holy place not made with hands, with some
what to offer. He went himself to God for his
people with his own precious blood. And you must make nice
with God. You must do business with the
God that you've hated and rejected all of your life. And the only
thing he will accept is the lamb, the lamb. And the promise is
that if you own God's king as your king, you're protected by
him who sits upon the eternal throne of heaven. No enemy can
ever touch you. No more sinful man. No more self-destruction. No more sinful man, including
yourself, can harm you. No more drought. Because there's
a river that flows from the very throne of God, clear as crystal. And when you are a subject to
that throne, that river is yours. No more lions, no more sin, no
more curse. You remember in Revelation, no
more curse. No more curse. God's servant
shall serve him. There should be no thing in or
in there that defileth. And we will praise him forever
and sing of his worthiness. Safe. Completely and eternally blessed. And instead of crying as these
do, can you hear their cries? Can you hear the cries of those
under the judgment of God? Can you hear the cries of those
trying to find high ground when the flood came and the door of
the ark was shut? With their babies in their arms
and crying. But you'll be crying something
else when you're around His throne. And it's less of a cry than it
is a song. Worthy is the lamb that was slain
to receive honor and power and glory and dominion. For thou was slain and has redeemed
us to God by your precious blood out of every kindred, tribe,
nation, and tongue under heaven. Take counsel. Let's pray.