Title Consolation after rebuke / Isaiah 29:15-24
“Woe to those who seek to hide their plans deep from the LORD, who do their work in darkness, saying, Who sees us, and who knows us? Your rebellion is great. How can you count a potter like clay? How can this be said of the one who formed it, He has not made me, and the object of being molded, saying of the one who formed it, “He has no understanding?” It will not be long before Lebanon will not be turned into a fertile field, or a fertile field into a forest. Will it not be considered…” (Isaiah 29:15-24)
The message of this text is that God beats and binds him, rebukes him, and then brings him back into his arms.
1. Woe to those who do not trust in God.
God's wrath will come upon those who try to hide their plans from God (verse 15). God continued to tell the Israelites through the prophet Isaiah that they should not rely on Assyria or Egypt, but only depend on God and ask God for help. But the Israelites made a secret pact with Egypt. And he tried to hide that fact deeply from God. The Jerusalem leaders would rebuke Isaiah if they knew this, so they kept it a secret from Isaiah and secretly pursued a pact with Egypt. They thought that if they avoided the eyes of Isaiah, they would neither see nor know God.
We should live a life of waiting and praying to God for everything. This is godliness.
Mud cannot discuss the potter's intelligence. As creatures, we only need to appreciate our position. Otherwise, if he complains about his position, he is denying that God is a wise Creator (v. 16). If God made us, then He surely knows us (Psalm 139:1-16). Wherever we go, God is already there.
“Does the one who made the ear not hear, and the one who made the eye does not see” (Psalm 94:9). Those who avoid God and do not rely on God will be greatly rebuked by God, and woe will come to such people.
2. God's comfort through promises
It prophesies that the people of Judah will be taken captive for their sins (Isaiah 29:1-8). They stumbled like spiritual drunkards and made a secret pact with Egypt. Isaiah, the servant of God, warned them sternly about this, saying that God's wrath would come. But Isaiah did not want God's wrath to come upon the people of Judah. So, after severely reprimanding them for their sins, we proclaim the word of God's covenant to save Judah.
The Lebanon Mountains are alpine, so cedars grew well. But this mountain will be lowered and become a fertile field. This is a parable that a high power, proud like Assyria, will fall and become a low plain. In verse 17, the prophet gives comfort to the people of Israel, that although they are being beaten by God now, God will exalt them as if they were raising up a valley in the future.
To be spiritually ignorant is to hear the word of God but not understand it or see it. These people are abandoned. But when Jesus comes, our eyes and ears will be opened to hear and see the word of God (verse 18).
The Messiah's blessing was given as a promise to the poor and humble, not the rich and the strong (verse 19). God also promised to destroy the enemy (verses 20-21). The violent, the arrogant, and their sins must be taken away from the church and from the people of God.
3. God's People's Promise of Salvation
The people to be saved must be those chosen by God. The chosen people refers to God's people and the New Testament church that God has rescued from idolatry. God rescued us from sin and death. We are happy in the sight of God.
Then, what kind of happiness will the church and members enjoy?
First, those whom God rescues will not be put to shame (verse 22). Since God is our protector and our guide, we have nothing to be ashamed of. All our sins have already been forgiven. God has promised by His Word that we will no longer be put to shame.
Second, those who have seen the salvation that God has accomplished will call God holy (verse 23). To call God holy is to fear God. The church should fear God.
Third, we come to understand the gospel (verse 24). Without the gospel there is no salvation. If you do not understand the Word, your heart will become hardened and you will only complain and complain. However, those who were spiritually deaf and blind will gain understanding through God's grace and restore their spiritual discernment.
Let me conclude.
God grants salvation to His chosen people.
Also, those who see the salvation that God has accomplished will fear God. And those who have lost their mind will realize and believe the truth through the grace of the Lord. Salvation is accomplished only by God alone.
Without the Word there is no salvation, and without the Word there is no understanding.
In the name of the Lord, I earnestly pray that you will become a saint who boasts and rejoices only in the Word of God and overcomes in the Word.