#991 Isaiah 29 Ariel

 

Ah, Ariel, Ariel,

the city where David encamped!

Add year to year;

let the feasts run their round.

2 Yet I will distress Ariel,

and there shall be moaning and lamentation,

and she shall be to me like an Ariel.

3 And I will encamp against you all around,

and will besiege you with towers

and I will raise siegeworks against you.

4 And you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak,

and from the dust your speech will be bowed down;

your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost,

and from the dust your speech shall whisper.

5 But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like small dust,

and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff.

And in an instant, suddenly,

6 you will be visited by the Lord of hosts

with thunder and with earthquake and great noise,

with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.

7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel,

all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her,

shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.

8 As when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he is eating,

and awakes with his hunger not satisfied,

or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he is drinking,

and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched,

so shall the multitude of all the nations be

that fight against Mount Zion.

9 Astonish yourselves and be astonished;

blind yourselves and be blind!

Be drunk, but not with wine;

stagger, but not with strong drink!

10 For the Lord has poured out upon you

a spirit of deep sleep,

and has closed your eyes (the prophets),

and covered your heads (the seers).

11 And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” 12 And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”

13 And the Lord said:

“Because this people draw near with their mouth

and honor me with their lips,

while their hearts are far from me,

and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,

14 therefore, behold, I will again

do wonderful things with this people,

with wonder upon wonder;

and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,

and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”

15 Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel,

whose deeds are in the dark,

and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”

16 You turn things upside down!

Shall the potter be regarded as the clay,

that the thing made should say of its maker,

“He did not make me”;

or the thing formed say of him who formed it,

“He has no understanding”?

17 Is it not yet a very little while

until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,

and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest?

18 In that day the deaf shall hear

the words of a book,

and out of their gloom and darkness

the eyes of the blind shall see.

19 The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord,

and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.

20 For the ruthless shall come to nothing

and the scoffer cease,

and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off,

21 who by a word make a man out to be an offender,

and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,

and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right.

22 Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:

“Jacob shall no more be ashamed,

no more shall his face grow pale.

23 For when he sees his children,

the work of my hands, in his midst,

they will sanctify my name;

they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob

and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

24 And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding,

and those who murmur will accept instruction.” Isaiah 29 ESV

Isaiah 29 Humbling of Jerusalem

Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped - David was in Jerusalem as king, and it is also called the City of David. The most direct translation for Ariel is "Lion of God", and Jesus is called the Lion of Judah, the true power rest in Him. The ancestral name of Judah comes from the name of one of Jacob's (Israel's) sons, and Jerusalem is a city in the region allocated to that tribe. It is the center of Jewish worship, the temple mount was the threshing floor purchased by David.

4And I began to weep bitterly, because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or look inside it. 5Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed to open the scroll and its seven seals.  Revelation 5: 4-5

…8Judah, your brothers shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the necks of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down to you. 9Judah is a young lion— my son, you return from the prey. Like a lion he crouches and lies down; like a lioness, who dares to rouse him?10The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes and the allegiance of the nations is his.… Genesis 49: 8-10

Let the feast run their round - Some commentators wisely, in my opinion, add a note of sarcasm to this passage. Ariel sees itself as a strong lion, rich with feasts and festivals, and the context of this chapter will continue to dismantle this false sense of strength. Ritual by itself is not reality, and pride leads to destruction. The Pharisees of Jesus day put much on being able to trace their lineage back to Abraham, but this was a false sense of security, to which Jesus replied, "out of these stones, God can raise up children to Abraham", from Matthew 3:9. He doesn't need us, we need Him. 

…20Will not the Day of the LORD be darkness and not light, even gloom with no brightness in it? 21“I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.22Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; for your peace offerings of fattened cattle I will have no regard.… Amos 5: 20-22

And she shall be  to me like an Ariel - You think you are a strong lion then I will come at you like that. He will bring Assyria to the lion's den, and they will encamp around her, causing her to tremble like a cub, and eventually Babylon, who will tear down their walls and take her people captive. 

And from the dust your speech shall whisper - Where is your pride now, where is your loud boasting? 

…18Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground— because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”20And Adam named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all the living.… Genesis 3: 18-20

…19For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” 20Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.… 1 Corinthians 1: 19-21

5-8. Shall be like small dust - Fine dust, like chaff, Judah's enemies will blow away. Judah is humbled in the dust but her enemies will be like a dream, eating and drinking, only to awake empty and thirsty. Their kingdoms will come and go, look marvelous and powerful for moments, but then they wake up. God will not forget His covenant with His people. Assyria is destroyed, Babylon, and Rome; they all come to an end.

9-11. Astonish yourselves and be astonished - Some translate pause and wonder, why are you spiritually proud when you are actually spiritually blind? 

 Be drunk, but not with wine - We have the temple, have the Word of God, have the prophets, and we are Abraham's children. Everyone who calls themselves a Christian should pause here. So what if I have access to all those things, but I have not obeyed God, so I have not loved Him. What good is it to be "spiritual" if it is in arrogance, misguided, in error? 

For the Lord has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep - I have heard "preachers", "bishops", so called, speak of being drunk in the spirit, that "there is no high like the most high." Get as far away from them as you can; this is judgment from God, being turned over to such a state that hearing you cannot hear and seeing you cannot see. This is not the sleep he gives to His blessed ones; this is being turned over to your own will and pride, spiritual darkness.

And has closed your eyes (the prophets) - From the end of the prophets, the writing of Malachi, till the voice of one crying in the wilderness (John the Baptist), their is a period of some 400 to 500 years. The  Christian Church will go through a long period called the Dark Ages, due to the apostasy of Roman Catholicism. Everyone will think themselves safe for the words of priest, but not be able to read the Bible on their own. They will cling to rituals like indulgences, and defile the Lord's Supper with false doctrines. Rather than submitting themselves to the authority of Scripture, they will instead have popes, sons of perdition, that pretend they are Christ here on earth and lead people to pray to a goddess. They will forbid marriage contrary to Scripture, and teach another gospel, full of legalism and empty ritual. Everyone associated with her will think themselves spiritually awake when they are really sleeping. 

ii. The prophet Amos spoke of the same idea: “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord GOD, “That I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD, but shall not find it.” (Amos 8:11-12)

13-16. Honor me with their lips while their hearts are far from me - God is not as impressed with their rituals as they are. So many think that church attendance, dropping something in the plate, taking the Lord's supper, or in their cases the holidays, feasts and sacrifices are good substitutes for actual repentance, brokenness, and these are the self righteous. All outward religion with no change of heart, yet being warned of such they still prefer the praise of men over the glory of God. They are thieves in giving, thieves in praise, and thieves teaching, for it is all to themselves, and they would have a god that honors the rituals while ignoring their wickedness.

…23But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth. 25The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”… John 4: 23-25

…16For You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You take no pleasure in burnt offerings. 17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.18In Your good pleasure, cause Zion to prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem.… Psalm 51: 16-18

…7You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you: 8‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. 9They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’ ”… Matthew 15: 7-9

Who sees us - Everything is based on what men can see and know about them. They think that darkness covers their deeds and silence of the mouth conceals the depravity of their hearts. As long as they have their greetings in the market place, titles, esteem, called brother and sister by their fellow congregants, in their mind their religion is complete. Like I told my step mother when she asked me if she was saved, "would you rather hear the answer to that from me or from God?"

He did not make me - God takes credit for Creation, but men today think it is more intelligent and "scientific" to claim there is no Designer. Men and women argue many moral standards from this and human autonomy as well. No one makes themselves though and if there is no supreme law giver then what is their argument, what is all their talk of right and wrong?

People who are otherwise intelligent often fall into this delusion. Jacques Monod, a biochemist, wrote: “Chance alone is at the source of every innovation, of all creation in the biosphere. Pure chance, absolutely free but blind, at the very root of the stupendous edifice of evolution.”

ii. But assigning such power to “chance” is crazy. Chance has no power. For example, when a coin is flipped, the chance it will land “heads” is 50%; however, “chance” does not make it land heads. Whether or not it lands heads or tails is due to the strength with which the coin is flipped, the strength of air currents and air pressure as it flies through the air, where it is caught, and if it is flipped over once it is caught. Chance doesn’t “do” anything but describe a probability.

iii. When Carl Sagan petitioned the federal government for a grant to search for intelligent life in outer space, how did he hope to find it? By using a super sensitive instrument to pick up radio signals from distant space. When he received those radio signals, he looked for order and pattern, which would demonstrate the signals were transmitted by intelligent life. In the same way, the order and pattern of the whole universe demonstrates that it was fashioned by intelligent life, not by “chance.” Scientists detect “chance” in the radio signals constantly (in the form of unpatterned static), but it tells them nothing.

iv. Therefore, when someone says the universe or anything else came about by chance, they are extremely ignorant, superstitious, or just repeating a line they have heard before and have unthinkingly accepted.

h. He did not make me: We need to remember the context of the whole chapter – the pride and blindness of Jerusalem. It is perhaps the height of man’s pride and blindness to reject the LORD as our creator. - Enduring Word

17-24. The words of a book - What a sweet promise of deliverance, and from the worse sort of persecution, that of our own pride and delusion. It is the reversal of the curse above, for now they hear, are convicted of their true state, are brought low by this, but then receive joy. 

9To some who trusted in their own righteousness and viewed others with contempt, He also told this parable: 10“Two men went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like the other men—swindlers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.…

…12I fast twice a week and pay tithes of all that I acquire.’ 13But the tax collector stood at a distance, unwilling even to lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner! 14I tell you, this man, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”… Luke 18: 9-14

This chapter says a great deal about spiritual blindness:

· Spiritual blindness is caused by pride.

· Spiritual blindness will bring us low.

· Spiritual blindness leads to spiritual drunkenness.

· Spiritual blindness leads to spiritual sleep.

· Spiritual blindness leads to spiritual illiteracy.

· Spiritual blindness causes hypocrisy.

· Spiritual blindness makes men believe God cannot know what they think or see what they do.

· Spiritual blindness makes men deny God as Creator.

· Spiritual blindness is cured through humility.

· Spiritual blindness can only be healed through the LORD’s restoration. - Enduring Word