God’s wrath is not a hot topic in the church today. It does not trend on twitter or and talking about the wrath of God won’t get a lot of likes. We minimize it and we ignore it. We stick our hands in the sand. This is what Isreal did – they tried to ignore it rather than respond to it! And so, Gods hand was outstretched against them still... But it was about to fall on them
God has a holy hatred for all that is wrong in this world, in the church, and in us. And he will not rest till all wickedness and sin is eradicated. And praise God that he has a far greater capacity to overcome our sin, then we have to resist him. It is an understanding of the wrath of God which has led many to repentance.
It was the sermon by a famous preacher called Edwards who preached “sinners in the hands of an angry God” that awakened many in the 18th century to their need of a Savior! If you don’t believe in Gods wrath, the need for mission of evangelism is gone!
Without Gods holiness, and his wrath, the cross is senseless, and all becomes some nice feel-good story. God’s wrath is terrible for his love is perfect and holy. He is naturally love. It is who he is – and his anger is a result of his love! He was not wrathful from eternity in himself. It was sin that awakened his wrath – and as long has that sin in not punished his hand is stretched out still.
There are a few reasons we do not like the wrath – and part of it is that the relativism of culture as seeped into the church. It is hard for us to call things evil, ugly, and false. We have bought into this soft empty, mushy bland niceness that’s wishy, washy. This niceness means that you shouldn’t have an opinion on anything except which the world has an opinion on. It fears man and not God. We forget to proclaim the truth boldly, to exhibit beauty in all of life, and to pursue the goodness of God in our relationships, and in creation.
But we dare not hide Gods wrath – because if we do – we also don’t see him as good. We don’t see truly what Christ as done! And we cannot know the depth of his love to save us. It is good that God that hates evil, and all that is wrong with the world.
The Wrath of God
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Why is God’s wrath coming?
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God’s wrath delivers from evil!
Why Gods wrath?
Four times we read in this section “For all this his anger is not turned away, and his hand is outstretched still (9:12, 9:17, 9:21, 10:4).”
9:7-11: is about national disaster
9:12-16: Political collapse
9:18-21: Social Anarchy
10:1-4: Moral perversion
This becomes the refrain for an unrepentant person, unwilling to receive the Lord’s discipline. And what a terrible refrain it is! To be fighting against God. It is the height of pride – and that pride brings about an ultimate blindness.
We see that in the first section of verse 8-12. Israel had just been judged by a foreign nation, but instead of turning to the Lord what do they do? They rely on their own strength, on their own ingenuity. They are full of pride and arrogance! Jesus says, “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted (Matthew 23:12).”
Instead of responding to discipline they say in 9:10, “The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.” Rather than say “Lord, save us!” They think – “great now we can rebuild even better,” without taking even one second to think why it was all destroyed in the first place.
You see sometimes we just want to get out of suffering, pain, or struggle in life so badly that we just keep going, without taking a moment to consider why the Lord is doing it in the first place. They wanted to meet the future with their own judgement, own responses, own resources, own policies, and own strength without stopping to read the lessons of the past.
Don’t we do this sometimes? Looking forward thinking about all that is happening – without considering what God wants, what God is teaching. What lessons does this church need to learn from the past. It is important that we don’t simply think – we will rebuild – we will keep going – without learning the lessons of God’s discipline. What foundation are we building on? Ours or the cross?
O if only they could have listened to the words of James years later 4:8-10, “Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”
They raised themselves up against the Lord, so the Lord raised armies up against them. Syria on the east and the philistines on the west (2 kings 16:6; 2 Chronicles 28:18). On every side they are surround, and devoured. And you wonder – will they listen? If we do not return – his hand is stretched out still.
Isaiah 9:13, “The people did not turn to him who struck them, not inquire of the LORD of hosts.” Do you see? The LORD OF HOSTs strikes us, so that we might find refuge in Him! So that we might seek out his salvation in Christ. Repentance causes wrath to melt and mercy to triumph. And This is the people of God – the people par excellence. They ought to have seen whose hand it was that was outstretched. The church must be the first to react to the Lords loving discipline and find refuge in the shadow of his wings.
But instead of asking the LORD they depend on human leaders, and the prophets of the time. They somehow think their political leaders will change everything. It is the human hope of every generation. If only my political party will gain power, then all will be ok. They listen to their favorite influencer, their favorite podcaster, or whoever they are following. Rather than turning off all the noise, and listening to the word, opening scripture and prayer and finding peace and rest in the God of salvation. He has done it! Not political leaders, or people that tell us what our itching ears want to hear.
So, God brings further judgement, “The people who have be leading them astray, and the ones guiding them are swallowed up. (Is 9:16)” He takes away the crutches of the people so that they might lean on him. His hand is stretched out still. And he shows no compassion to the fatherless and widow.WOW! This is the only place where this is said. Why? Well, it explains in 9:17b: “For everyone is godless and an evil doer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, his hand is stretched out still.”
One thing that sin does, is that it consumes. Everything. Till there is nothing left in land. Or it consumes the person so that the person becomes an empty shell. This is part of the punishment of God.
We read in the next section in 9:18 it is wickedness that burns like fire, and in verse 19 it is the wrath of the LORD of hosts. How so – sin and pride cause people to turn on each other. Sin and pride so inflame people that they are blind to the hurt, pain and destruction that is caused. Look at the world we live in. The world is consuming and devouring itself. People devour each other for a slice of the oie, they destroy creation and despise God. God’s wrath in a sense completes what sin is already busy doing causing devastation.
They take and take and take and are never satisfied as we read in verse 20, “They slice meat on the right, but are still hungry, and they devour on the left but are not satisfied; each devours the flesh of his own arm.” Sin devours. And the more it devours the less satisfied you feel.. O it may give you momentary joy and pleasure – but it will leave you empty in the long run and leave you wanting more. This insatiable desire will destroy your relationships surely but slowly. Everyone turns on everyone. They start to destroy themselves. Of the last six kings of Samaria, five came to the throne through assassination.
It is heart breaking, here are brothers and sisters who shared the rich covenant history, who shared the promises of God, who had been giving his word through the prophets. Devouring each other. The only thing that united them was enmity. Church if there is division in the church – God will be gracious and stretch out his hand to discipline. I don’t know who you like and don’t like. But don’t wait another day to find unity in Christ. Do not give Satan the foothold.
Galatians 5:15-16 says, “But if you keep on biting and devouring one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another. So, I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” O that the spirit of the Living God would bind more and more together. In the body of Christ, we are made to belong to each other and to depend on each other as a body, to devour my brother or sister is to devour myself.
And because this continues, the Lord’s hand is not turned back! He continues to pursue us in discipline. It would be a terrible horrible thing if he left them to their own devices! But what do they do. In 10:1. Laws are made to make sure that the oppression can continue. And they do it so that they “Turn aside the needy from justice, and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey.”
Laws are written in the self-interest of elite politicians. Laws are not written for the sake of the people, but for the sake of the lawmakers! We have seen this corruption in our land. We know what it looks like! And it destroys a country! O beloved - This is not the way of the kingdom of Heaven. These laws are written to protect the weak – the lift up the broken hearted! This is not the way our King! This is a long way from Solomons justice! This is not the kingdom of Jesus Christ – who did not look to his own interest! But laid them aside for us!
But Gods warnings are real, “To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth? Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoner or fall among the slain.”
Judgement
Nothing will remain but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. God will use all means to bring about his will for his people. He rules over all things for the sake of his church. And he will use all things either for judgement or blessings to show that he is the covenant God.
The universe is at its disposal – so that the church might be refined, built up and made beautiful unto that great day! Kingdoms are but tools in his hand. We see that also here. Assyria was Gods tool to bring judgement. Isreal refused to listen – again, and again, and again and again. Four times. So, God brings Assyria against them!
Here is the problem. The nation God chose to be rod in his hand to afflict his people was evil. They were the Nazis of the ancient people. Horrible in how they treated others.
The people of Isaiah time would have said, “Now wait! Israel is not a godless nation – they are! How can you say God is sending them against us!” Dear church God does not show favoritism, and judgement begins with the household of God. Being in covenant does not protect us from discipline but motivates obedience.
Assyria never acknowledge God. The Lords motive was punishment of his people, but Assyria’s motive was world dominion as v. 7-11 make clear. They thought, “what is stopping us from getting Judah too.” That tool in Gods hand was thinking he was a big deal.
Their pride got the best of them, and they saw the God of Isreal as just some other god of the nations which they had defeated. verse 10:13, “by the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding! I remove the boundaries of peoples, and plunder their treasures, like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones.”
God will never make peace with human pride! V. 15 says, “shall the Ax boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it, as if the rod should wield him who lifts, or as the if the staff should lift him who is not wood?” Do you hear the rich irony. Almost laughable. They had forgotten who God was. They were just a tool. An ax in the hand.
And they had gone too far This was still the Covenant God they were dealing with! A consuming fire! In verse 17 we read, “The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns in one day.” He will not let his people disappear from the earth – and the seed to be destroyed! Satan would love nothing more!
From a worldly perspective Isreal and Judah was nothing before the might of the Assyrian empire – but God would fight for his people, so that all their glory would be destroyed! We know what happened in one day when this army boasted against the holy one of Israel and surrounded Jerusalem. The Lord broke out against and 185,000 of their warriors died. Never would Assyria rise again. They were at the height of their power, and Judah was at her weakest when God acted. Why because it was not by might or power, but by the hand of God!
And through this Isreal would learn the lesson. Finally. Just look at the beauty of verse 20 – you see Gods patient love in disciplining his children? His wrath against sin and sinners is real, because his love for them is perfect. Do you believe that?
Through faith in Christ this wrath is gone – but not his discipline. he has bore the judgement so that it would not fall on Jerusalem, so that it would not
Dear church to conclude: The God we have to deal is no cardboard cutout. He is a real person. With real convictions. And real desires. And he has things to talk about with you and his people if they listen. Holiness on this side of heaven is a beautiful but painful process for sinners. But thank God that he – the living God - is pursing us with a love that will not let us go. And if we force him to, he is prepared to break down angrily the barriers we have set up against his love. In fact, he has broken down the barrier that stood between him and his people. Sin. By nailing it to the cross. In Jesus we have the answer. Sin was our biggest problem – he smashed it! And now he lives in us to make us holy.
His grace will triumph! God would continue to discipline his children, for the ultimate judgement would fall upon his Son the true Israelite! And that judgement would come from his own people. He was rejected. So that we could be accepted. O that we would hear his voice. That we would heed his discipline!
Amen