Caution: Timely Judgment Will Affect You Eventually (Isaiah 22-28)
Have you ever found yourself in a position with one foot out the door? Maybe you have been placed in a job that your heart isn’t in, you’ve accepted the reality that you’re in a transition season, and will be happy moving on to your next venture?
Learning about God’s judgment often gives a sense of the same. This world is not our home, and we are to live in it as though one foot is already out the door… looking forward to our next life.
In time, we will all be affected by the results of Judgment Day. Are you preparing now for it?
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Prophecies and Woes...
The prior couple of chapters held catastrophic prophecies against the surrounding nations. Chapters 22 and 23 have prophecies about Jerusalem and Tyre. Woah, now two Israelite cities have been included… it would have been a striking blow to hear about their own cities being prophesied about coming on the tail end of all the foreign nations that had just been foretold destruction.
When Israel split as a nation, 10 tribes joined forces to create the Northern Kingdom (“Israel”) and two tribes (Judah and Simeon) stayed together to make up the Southern Kingdom (“Judah”).
Jerusalem was near the northern border of Judah, and Tyre was near the northernmost portion of Israel (in the territory of Asher).
Isaiah 13-21
Babylon, Moab, Damascus, Cush, Egypt, Egypt & Cush, Babylon, Edom, Arabia
Isaiah 22
Jerusalem
Isaiah 23
Tyre
What comes next?
After the more rather immediate threats that all of Israel and Judah would face in the near-ish future came a foretelling of a time that has yet to be known by man.
The day when God enacts His judgment on the world.
The earth will also face it’s own form of judgment. Remember back in Leviticus 18 when God confirms that everything He created is to be treated as holy?
Chapter 18 of Leviticus draws us to this view of God in everything. God instructs Moses to not follow the pagan culture regarding the unlawful sexual relations practiced. He lists them out in detail.
Six times in that one chapter alone, we see the phrase "I am the Lord your God". This statement usually surrounds instructions for holy living. These were serious offenses!
So much so, that we read that the land vomited out the Canaanites for these practices.
Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.
But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.
For everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people. So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 18:24-30
Let that sink in, the choices of the people, the sins they committed, rendered the land unclean. That is a detail not often talked about. But again, this compels us to look back at Creation itself and forward to the Creator Himself.
The Judgment on the Earth...
Why was the earth going to face a form of judgment?
The Earth continues to face judgment, just like in Leviticus, by the actions of its inhabitants.
Consider now the value God places on human life all throughout the Bible… then think about the United States and the ease at which babies are aborted in wombs.
Last year abortions killed over 12 TIMES more people than COVID.
— LifeNews.com (@LifeNewsHQ) January 4, 2022
We must speak up for those 42.6 million babies killed by abortion.
One Judgment...
God’s judgment is looked at in two different ways and has two different results.
Isaiah was the brunt of mockery and jest by most who heard what he proclaimed. They mocked him as nonsensical, aptly fitting their matching viewpoint of God’s words. Remember though, Isaiah understood God’s sovereignty.
In light of that, it makes sense that Isaiah was passing on Godly wisdom with boldness.
The result for them was an everlasting (and fair) judgment on their lives for their eternity.
The other Judgment...
The righteous, the remnant, the few… makes up those on the receiving end of the other judgment. All of the Israelites (northern and southern kingdoms) were overtaken by the surrounding nations. But God promised the return of a remnant.
It was their fate on earth of judgment that reflected the bigger picture of the final judgment to come.
They were stripped of all earthly belongings and pride in order that they might turn to Him in their distress. Those who did were recognized.
One foot out the door...
Isaiah played a part in teaching the Israelites to live with one foot out the door. He taught them about God’s judgment on earth and His ultimate judgment to come. We get to simply read about their exile, but they lived it and the words of Isaiah came true before their very eyes.
They were given first-hand experience of God’s faithfulness in that manner, and we get to read about it. Evaluating our own lives, we can also pinpoint out the very same type of ways that God’s faithfulness has carried us. It is with that mindset that we can utilize in our own walks.
- God is faithful.
- His Word proves true.
- Judgment will come.
- We can live with Heaven as our aim.
Do you live for HIS glory?
A motto that should fast to every area in our lives… why not grab a daily reminder to boast for Whom we live to please?
Soli deo Gloria!
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Isaiah so faithfully delivered his message — and it was not an easy job…