Over the last few years, I have started to enjoy board games more and more. I have found that playing a game is a much better way to interact with people than sitting down and watching a movie or a TV show together. Now, I can get a little competitive when I play board games because I love the thrill of making a plan and following it to victory. On the other hand, I can get pretty frustrated when I form a plan that I think is fool-proof, and then someone else makes a move that ruins my entire strategy. Is that frustrating to you, too—to see your best-laid plans fall apart? Its even worse when it happens in real life, isn’t it?
Did you know that God has never had that experience? He has never had the experience of making a plan and seeing it fail to happen. That is truly amazing, even if you only think about it for a moment. It becomes even more amazing when you realize that His plan for creation has somehow taken into account billions and billions of choices made by human beings and even by angels!
In our study of Isaiah today, we’re going to get a glimpse of God’s plan for history. We’re going to take a panoramic view of chapters 13-24, which reveal to us how God’s plan for this stage of human history has been foreshadowed by His actions in the Middle Eastern nations of Old Testament times. These chapters do not progress chronologically through time; rather, they are united by geography, as Isaiah systematically delivers messages from God concerning all of the power players of the ancient Near East.
We are going to trace the major themes of God’s plan as they appear in these chapters, and as we do, we will be repeatedly reminded of the lesson that is stated very simply in Isaiah 14:24—“The Lord of hosts has sworn: ‘As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand.”
The Overall Goal of God’s Plan—The Messiah (Jesus) reigning from Jerusalem over a righteous kingdom
We’re going to begin our study this morning by looking at the end—in this case, the end of God’s plan, or the point toward which history is moving. If we take the prophecies in these chapters at face value, as I believe we should, then we discover that the overall goal of God’s plan is to have the Messiah—the Lord Jesus Christ—reigning from Jerusalem over a righteous kingdom. We have already read several prophecies about this kingdom in the book of Isaiah, so it should be no surprise that we read about it again.
In Isaiah 16, we read about this kingdom being a time in which oppression will cease [READ 16:4b-5]. We read again in these verses that this ruler will have a connection to King David of Israel, and in chapter 24, we read that this ruler—who will be the Lord of hosts Himself—will reign from Jerusalem, the city that King David had established as the capital of his own kingdom. Verses 21-23 tell us that Lord will establish justice as He takes His throne [READ 24:21-23].
Perhaps what is most amazing is that during His reign, the Lord will even embrace nations who were idolaters and some of the greatest enemies of His people Israel [READ 19:19-25]. Now, the Egypt we read about here is the same country of Egypt as we know today, and Assyria had its capital in modern-day Iraq. Can you imagine Egypt and modern-day Iraq embracing a Jewish Messiah? Talk about peace in the Middle East! Leaders all over the world today are trying to broker some kind of peace in the Middle East, but only one will finally achieve it, and that is the Lord Jesus Himself!
Transition: What a day that will be, to see historic enemies become friends, united under King Jesus in His kingdom! But why don’t we see this kingdom yet? Why has its inauguration been delayed? These 12 chapters of Isaiah also give us answers to that question.
Why Don’t We See This Kingdom Yet?
1. The sinful rebellion of Israel
Now, we really can’t single out Israel for criticism, for as we will see in a moment, all nations have rebelled and all people are sinful. But since Israel is the centerpiece of this kingdom, the inauguration of this kingdom is bound up with the history of Israel. God chose to bring the blessing of this kingdom into the world through the nation of Israel, but these chapters remind us how the people of that nation had rebelled against God.
The Lord told them in Isaiah 17:10 why they were suffering at the hands of invaders: “for you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge.” Israel had been chosen to be a special people by the living and true God, but throughout their Old Testament history, idolatry was a constant temptation to which they frequently gave in. God repeatedly called them to repent, but Isaiah 22:12-13 tells us that His call fell on deaf ears [READ 22:12-13].
Thus, the people as a whole did not meet the spiritual qualifications for the kingdom, because as we have seen, the Lord’s kingdom is to be one of righteousness and justice. That’s why Jesus’ message when He first came into this world was “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus was offering to establish His kingdom if the people would only repent. But our Lord was rejected by the leaders of Israel in particular, which ultimately led to His crucifixion. Yet as we know, even that was part of God’s plan, because Jesus’ sacrificial death made a way for people to become righteous in God’s sight and thus to be fit for the kingdom.
New Testament prophecies reveal that one day, the Jewish people will embrace Jesus, which will prepare the way for Jesus’ kingdom to be inaugurated at that time. Those New Testament prophecies only build on what we read in passages like Isaiah 14:1-2 [READ 14:1-2].
Transition: In these verses, we read of a day of exaltation for the people of Israel, which should have given them hope in Isaiah’s day, because at that time they were suffering under…
2. The prideful ambition of the nations
As we have already seen in the book of Isaiah, God was bringing discipline to Israel and Judah by allowing neighboring nations to oppress them. These nations were ultimately carrying out God’s plan, but they did so with their own motivations. They didn’t see themselves as servants of the God of Israel; instead, they saw themselves as victorious over the God of Israel and His people. Just recently, in chapter 10, we read how the king of Assyria considered the God of Israel to be just like the idols of all the other nations whom he had already conquered.
The prideful ambition of the nations is captured most clearly by the words of the king of Babylon in Isaiah 14:12-14. These verses describe the king’s downfall because of his pride. Many commentators think that Satan’s original rebellion against God is also being referred to in these verses, and that could be the case [READ 14:12-14].
In those days, kings had virtually absolute power over their kingdoms, and when no one around you can check your power, it must be tempting to think that no one at all can check your power. So the kings and their nations that are mentioned in these chapters are almost universally rebuked for their pride, particularly as it was displayed in their aggression toward Israel.
But the nations would not be given free reign against Israel, for Isaiah says that the nations will be rebuked for their prideful aggression [READ 17:12-14]. The enemies of Israel—whether past, present, or future—will not have the final say, but they will be subdued by the Lord—at least partially subdued for the time being, and ultimately humbled and subdued when Jesus inaugurates His kingdom in this world. But as we have already learned, these nations will worship Him during His reign, and He will accept them as His own people.
3. The general sinfulness of mankind
In chapter 24, the final chapter of our section today, Isaiah describes how the general sinfulness of mankind requires a thorough cleansing of the earth before the Lord’s kingdom is established. Its similar to the way that you would thoroughly clean a house before you move in, although we are obviously talking about a much more serious situation. Notice Isaiah’s words in vv. 1-6 [READ 24:1-6].
The ultimate fulfillment of these words will come during the time period commonly called the Tribulation, which will happen, according to the book of Revelation, just prior to the inauguration of the Lord’s kingdom on earth. That time will be one of intense anguish on the earth as the Lord humbles the kingdoms of this world to deal with humanity’s general rebellion against Him. But it will also be a time of tremendous revival, particularly for the Jewish nation, as they finally embrace the Lord Jesus and thus pave the way for His kingdom to be established.
So throughout this entire section of Isaiah, from chapters 13-24, we read of rebellion against the Lord from the people of Israel, from their neighbors in the nations surrounding them, and from all of mankind. Yet all of this rebellion will not thwart God’s plan to bless the world by setting up a kingdom of peace through the Jewish people. As Isaiah wrote in 14:26-27, “This is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?”
The questions, of course, are rhetorical, because the obvious answer is—no one! No one will thwart His plan, and no one can turn His hand away! He is the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords, the blessed and only Sovereign. He is the potter, and we are the clay. The only question that remains for us is this—will we embrace His plan and thus receive the blessings of it, or will we reject His plan and thus face His wrath for doing so? God’s plan will be carried out, and we can choose to receive the blessings of His love, or the brunt of His wrath.
According to the Bible, a great rebellion has taken place in God’s universe, and we were all born into the side of the rebels. We have all received a desire in our hearts to rebel against God, and that desire has reveled itself in the way we think and speak and act. This is what the Bible calls sin.
But God, the king of the universe, has done the unthinkable. Because He loves even His rebellious subjects, He has allowed His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die to pay for our treason. But then He raised Him from the dead to declare to us that the sentence for our treason had been paid in full, and a way of forgiveness was now available. So now, if we will confess our rebellion against God and accept by faith the payment that Jesus made for us, we will be forgiven of our treason and actually accepted into the royal family as God’s children!
If we want to enjoy the blessings of this future kingdom, we must embrace the King! If we do not embrace Jesus by faith, we will be shut out of His kingdom and shut out of eternal fellowship with Him. But if we accept Him as the one who provides forgiveness for our rebellion, we will enjoy not only the time of His earthly reign, but eternal fellowship with Him as well as His kingdom is transformed by God into the New Heaven and the New Earth where we will live with Him forevermore.
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